I wonder what people's rough guess of their net return per $ for each hour of work is? Say over a 18 month period. Be it on all the sites or as istock exclusive. I wonder if this might be the equalizer between someone who shoots fruits on white background versus someone who does extensive and highly technical composites. I picked 18 months because that is what I've read previously some where that some have speculated that is the typical life of each image in the search engine before it is mostly forgotten by the search engine.

Stock is mostly my only income. It was more difficult to work out what my hourly earn might be because there were so many variables.

I spent a lot of time doing prep work that is used across multiple shoots. I spend a lot of time doing R&D. I spent a lot of time building sets. I've spent a lot of money on studio lighting. I spend money on models. I have an assistant who helps me. I spend a lot of time working out how to do more with less time.

At this point, most of the heavy one time spending for my photographic needs are done. Most of the set building are done. So the cost of doing each shoot drops when I don't count all these costs anymore. I do cash based accounting. So I only count it when the money enters or leaves my pocket and not when they are actually earned, nor do I spread out costs over it's expected life time. Though when averaged over 18 months, I don't think it matters what type of accounting one does.

My net income before taxes is probably between $25-$40 for each hour that I work over a 18 month period. This is a very rough guess. And could be possibly wildly inaccurate.

EDIT: I do out source keywording, so that saves time. And since I have an assistant who helps me during shoots, the shoots moves much faster and smoother than if it was just me alone. So some of these variables complicate the calculation of what 1 hour of work actually really means.