Quote from: ClaridgeJ on November 15, 2012, 16:08

Never any bugs
never any glitches.
never any search-changes.
never any lowering of commissions/ percentages.
never any selling out or take overs.
never any subs sales
never any problems at all
never any contributors / buyers leaving.

I.m sure you talking about IS; not all the stock agencies( i meant the ones that matters).

Well you know. Look around. I am being a bit funny here but really you find a bit of these ingredients in most of them, some more some less.
Typical of short term business, strategies and profits.

OTOH. We havent heard a word from this OP?  does he really exist? or a figment of our imagination?

LOL, what a funny thread. If someone raised his income during the last two years from 3.5K to 8k by sparetime image production i would say:
if the agencys continue to cut rates like in the last two years he will be the last man standing in 2020 and will serve all pictures for all agencys all around the world. What a joke.

Exactly! and a very weird thread. See I am sure the OP is under the impression that only because he is earning 8K now, he will also do this in the future? not so. I strongly believe that he is not too aware of all these lowering of commissions, cut-rates, killer search-changes and all that or perhaps has had the fortune of not being effected by is, YET!  but it will come.
Take Lisa! one of our most professional and prolific suppliers of the industry. Her earnings been cut in half! if that isnt a sign of the times, I dont know what is? and myself!  two years back I was earning well above his 8K,  today Im trailling by at least 30% less, however I am lucky in the sense that my 20 years of supplying the RM industry is ofcourse paying off a hell of a lot more.

Its not going forward, as the OP tends to think, its going backwards.

However whatever he decides, good luck to him and his decisions.

I have to agree with you on this.  I'm earning just over half of what I was at my peak and have gone from 5 sites to 11 since then.

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on November 16, 2012, 04:15

Take Lisa! one of our most professional and prolific suppliers of the industry. Her earnings been cut in half! if that isnt a sign of the times, I dont know what is? and myself!  two years back I was earning well above his 8K,  today Im trailling by at least 30% less, however I am lucky in the sense that my 20 years of supplying the RM industry is ofcourse paying off a hell of a lot more.

Its not going forward, as the OP tends to think, its going backwards.

However whatever he decides, good luck to him and his decisions.

I have to agree with you on this.  I'm earning just over half of what I was at my peak and have gone from 5 sites to 11 since then.

I haven't found that. My microstock earnings peaked in 2009 but only slipped back just over 2% in each of 2010 and 2011. This year however I'm up about 4% over last year so hopefully I should be almost back to my peak earnings. The only additional 'agency' I've added was when my portfolio was forced into the PP by IS.

Essentially earnings from IS and FT have plummetted, DT has remained static but fortunately the slack has been taken up by a massive increase at SS and the additional income from the PP. I've only been uploading about 500-600 images per year too. I'm quite sure if I'd have been treating microstock like a full-time job I could comfortably have doubled my output and my earnings would probably have risen.

I think one of the differences between me and some others is that I delayed joining FT for many months and, as a result, never 'caught the wave' that so many seemed to enjoy there. It also meant that I just missed out on getting to Emerald before they upped the requirements so again I missed out on the boost to income that that could have provided. It took me over 2 years longer to get to Emerald after that.

In my experience (eight years now) microstock has stabilised into a remarkably stable source of income, seasonal variations aside, and I just hope it can keep going for as long as possible.

Well done to the OP for taking the plunge and going full-time. Good luck and I'm sure you won't regret it. The biggest danger in my view is getting lazy (like me!) and not putting in the hours. If you're disciplined and work hard then you should do well __ unless there's a drastic game-changer around the corner but then that can happen to any job.

Microstock stable or not?
It seems that there is a strong assumption in this thread that
those "other" jobs are stable and secure.
Really?

+ 1.000.000.000 

Microstock is "stable" to me in terms of keeping an income day to day. In a salaried job, you could get the boot tomorrow, for any reason at all, even if you're a phenomenal worker. In microstock, unless you're exclusive, you don't have that same risk. So one site shuts down or does something stupid to ruin their business. There are plenty more around.

Any unplanned departure from microstock for me would be a long process, not an overnight surprise. During which time I could look for other work or figure out my next move. I wouldn't get that luxury from any job where you work for someone else.

Dang right.  He could have been making Twinkies; but, who could hate that?   

First of all ignore all the people asking for your port. That's the last thing you should be doing at the moment.

I did go full time and it took me only a year to make up for the loss of income from my 'day job'. Since you are already making much more from stock it's not that important I guess. The change in life's quality is so great that it's worth it even if you would be earning less.

I'm still around and have been around all this time.

I would like to thank everyone who give their honest thoughts about this. even though now I have read from both sides, it doesn't make my decision any easier. but I've decide to go full time and will be approaching microstock on a business level.

thanks again and take care.

Thanks for checking back in.  I wish you all the best in your new job as a FT microstocker. 

Hope you will keep us posted on how it works out for you. 

Yes, I surely will come back to this thread to let you guys know how do I do, let's say in 6 months or 1 year's time.

Perfect, thanks. Make it 2 years just to be safe.

Hi SIFD,

I don't know your business plan, but you said, you make $8000 a month as a part time microstocker. You didn't say wether it's the operating profit or the operating revenue. I think it's the revenue. So let's try to make a (very simplified) business plan by estemation:

  Tax (-20%)
  Health insurance (-15%)
  Pension insurance (-20%)
  Other insurances (-5%)
  Investments (-5%)
  Office, car and such things (-5%)
  Reserves for bad months (-5%)

So you see: the running costs will be about 75%. Thus you will have $2000 for the private expenses of the family.

... as a part time microstocker i'm making more than $8000 a month, 3 times more than my full time job pay check!

You didn't say, how much your full time job pay check is:

• If $8000 is really 3 times more than your fulltime job pay check ($2000), you would have no more money for the private expenses, but you would have higher risks.
  
• But if $8000 is only 3 times of your fulltime job pay check ($2667), you would have less money for the private expenses.
  

That doesn't seem to be a big deal.

My experience is, that you need a revenue of about �8000 ($10000) as a full time independent.

My suggestions:
Stay part time in your job. Double your portfolio once more. Decide in one or two years.

Oh, I just saw, you decided already. I'm too late.

Good luck.

ingwio

Back in the mid 80s when I embarked on freelance commercial photography, I had a Vet-surgeon degree, education and over 100K in my pocket. Was a lot of dosh in them days. It was a very easy transition.

What have you got? yes, wife and kids, a costly asset. Any savings?   cause you gonna need it.

3 years ago in micro I would have encouraged your decision 100%. Today, its one hell of a gamble. There is not one single site that one can call secure.

anyway, best of luck and I really hope you make it. Seen too many broken homes and marriages I guess.

Hi SIFD,

I don't know your business plan, but you said, you make $8000 a month as a part time microstocker. You didn't say wether it's the operating profit or the operating revenue. I think it's the revenue. So let's try to make a (very simplified) business plan by estemation:

  Tax (-20%)
  Health insurance (-15%)
  Pension insurance (-20%)
  Other insurances (-5%)
  Investments (-5%)
  Office, car and such things (-5%)
  Reserves for bad months (-5%)

ingwio,

Your comparison and conclusions are somewhat biased ...

Taxes, health insurance, retirement, investments need also be paid from a job salary even if employer covers something here, so you are not comparing the same incomes.

I think that "Office, car and such things" are already included in expenses, so you may count them twice.

OP can expect growth of earnings after switching to full time.

He is not limited to microstock. He can expand as a photographer or artist.

Quote from: ingwio on November 17, 2012, 12:27

Quote from: Poncke on November 17, 2012, 12:11

lol

Thank you for your intelligent post.

I plussed your comment because I thought it was a good post and I had to giggle at your last line. I apologise for not being so intelligent as you today on this saturday with this massive hangover from yesterdays crazy party.

Hey! just lay off the booze will ya, its brginning to cloud your judgements, if you must drink, how about some Scotch instead of that moonshine your gulping.