Wow, they sure picked two low-ballers to profile in that article - makes me think that someone with an anti-microstock bias pitched the story to them.
But are these not the typical Micro and Macro Photographers, and that this is the reality of shooting stock and the normal experiences of the masses?
You Guys the dedicated and keen posters here, likely are not a true representative section of microstock photographers, as has been reported before 76% never make a payout, so those two guys are not really typical but would represent the experiences of a lot of others that make payout, the guys that upload a dozen images, find that the pennies do not fall out of the sky and leave are the typical microstockers.
It's is like US football and UK Soccer, you read about the Yuri's, 'Super Stars' ones that make it big on a daily basis, these are the stories that draw people as they try to aspire to be the same or better, rarely you get the stories about the part timers 'like me and the two low-ballers ' that aspire for better things and often spend more than thier part time income taking part in thier aspiration/hobby/sport, and then there are the real hobby players that do it just for fun.
I would settle for a download for every post I have read, where a first post by a new forum member was asking when they could expect the first payment or how many images to upload so they can retire on thier portfolio.
David