MicrostockGroup

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2009-03-10-online-stock-photos_N.htm

Does no one read USATODAY?
In today's tech section they feature IS exclusive nico_blue aka Nick Monu, touting his six figure income from this part-time job!
Oh boy, I can smell the throngs of new applicants to IS as we speak 

"Brown University medical student Nick Monu supplements his income by selling photographs online.
He uses the "stock" photography service iStockphoto.com, offering generic photos of people and places that can be used in brochures, magazines, websites and billboards.
Monu — known as "nico_blue" on iStockphoto — pulls in a six-figure income from his part-time gig. One photo even earned him $5,000. It's a feel-good image of two senior women, one African American and one white, smiling for the camera"

Lee's been quoted in USA Today!  Very Cool for our bloggin friend.

What I want to know is, how does a university medical student find time to put thousands of shots on line and still get his studies done?

My hats off to him. This guy must really have energy to burn!

I'll be willing to bet that he slows down on his IS activities when he starts his residency though.

You can tell the truth and give advise on this one Sean, it will take someone new, until 2014 before they could have 3000 photos up on IS, as a non-exclusive. If every photo is accepted and they submit the Max. 15 per week, for 3.8 years.  

An exclusive would take less time, but first one must qualify by having 250 downloads, which should take about half a year, to reach that level at 15 photos a week. Then only another year and a half, 100% acceptance, and there's your easy money for 3000 photos. It only takes two years for an exclusive.

Nico_Blue started in Oct 2004 which is about 4 1/2 years. That's 12 accepted photos a week...

Six figure in what currency? We're back to those inflated or inaccurate claims that some people toss around loosely. Not that I'd turn down $30,000 to $40,000 a year selling stock photos. But that's not six figures! That's also assuming that it's the Brown University in the USA, and we're talking dollars not yen or something else. 

I see any kind of promotion valuable even if it's aimed on potential new contributors. As you all mention, it's not easy to make decent money, so those with less talent or less patience will give up eventually. But they will all know iStockphoto, microstock in general and the idea that just grabbing an image from the internet is not the right way to go.

So I guess all of those articles that I've seen recently will do some good for the whole market in the long term, even if we will have to deal with a lot of new contributors.

I wonder if they get new buyers from stories like this?  Likely not many, but maybe the ratio is similar once all the MWC's are rejected.

That's exactly why I am not trying to hard to upload there. They made it too ridiculous to even bother with them.  I stick to my top 5 performers, earning something is better than feeling hopeless all the time with IS.

That's actually excellent point. I have been seeing more ads like that recently, nothing is required and you get thousands of dollars just because you sign in. It's scam