So I was looking at a thread on SS earlier about someone having a great (un-quantified) day, and folks chiming in about their various levels of double digit daily sales.  From where I sit, high double digit looks pretty good but, in hard cash, it's peanuts, probably a nice "extra" but no way could it be considered a living. 

Over here there is probably a fair percentage of actual pro submitters but I suspect a lot of us are what Lagereek would call weekend shooters.  I reckon MS accounts to about 2% compared to income from the day job and wonder, with all talk of BMEs on the one hand and angst about best match on the other, what the pattern of actual reliance on MS income is across the folks who post here.

According to the poll results the average contributor who contributes to 22 sites makes 1387 per month and the average Istock exclusive contributor makes 1695 a month.

I must be reading this wrong -- does the average contributor contribute to 22 sites?

Quote from: WarrenPrice on June 19, 2013, 17:41

Quote from: tickstock on June 19, 2013, 17:39

According to the poll results the average contributor who contributes to 22 sites makes 1387 per month and the average Istock exclusive contributor makes 1695 a month.

I must be reading this wrong -- does the average contributor contribute to 22 sites?

No probably not so the average nonexclusive makes less than that.

So, if you make 10,000 per month and I make 100, the average is 5,050 - doesn't really reflect the real world.  I don't doubt that there are a few that make serious bucks, some that make a living and a whole lot that make peanuts.  If the average worked, what do they live on for the other 3 weeks?

... I reckon MS accounts to about 2% compared to income from the day job and wonder, with all talk of BMEs on the one hand and angst about best match on the other, what the pattern of actual reliance on MS income is across the folks who post here.

The trick with this business is that the higher up the ladder you get, the more reluctant people are to talk about earnings. And for good reason. If you do make a living at this, no need to paint a target on yourself for the copy-cats.

One thing I've learned is that there are a lot of people doing very well in this business and not talking about it, and probably an equal number of people doing pretty poorly and talking about it like they just won the lottery. Success in microstock is a very relative term.

Long-story-short, I think you're going to find that this is a question that is almost impossible to get an answer to.

The trick with this business is that the higher up the ladder you get, the more reluctant people are to talk about earnings. And for good reason. If you do make a living at this, no need to paint a target on yourself for the copy-cats.

believe you just had a black out moment, haven't you said you made 100k $ at SS on the forum?

Quote from: luissantos84 on June 19, 2013, 19:46

Quote from: EmberMike on June 19, 2013, 18:25

The trick with this business is that the higher up the ladder you get, the more reluctant people are to talk about earnings. And for good reason. If you do make a living at this, no need to paint a target on yourself for the copy-cats.

believe you just had a black out moment, haven't you said you made 100k $ at SS on the forum?

Yeah, and it took 7 years. Not exactly rolling in the dough here.

not that bad, I have got enough for a kitchen roll, if you ever need it let me know

thanks for sharing Mike

One thing I've learned is that there are a lot of people doing very well in this business and not talking about it, and probably an equal number of people doing pretty poorly and talking about it like they just won the lottery. Success in microstock is a very relative term.

Long-story-short, I think you're going to find that this is a question that is almost impossible to get an answer to.

I used to work in the IT department of a large gambling company that had an online forum.  I could see the accounts of the people posting in the forums, their betting patterns, money they'd made etc.  The most vocal people usually hadn't placed a bet in months, and mostly losing bets at that.  Yet if there was a single problem with the betting website, they'd whinge that they'd lost thousands of dollars as a result, even though they didn't even have any bets on at the time.  I found this behaviour truly baffling, reading what was said in the forum and knowing that the individual was outright lying... for what purpose?  Why get so worked up if you never bet?  And there were SO MANY of those people.  Just bizarre.

The people who earnt a living off betting, and a small number made a million or more a year (yes it's possible, no I wouldn't recommend it unless you're particularly savvy and can afford to lose) never said a peep in the forum.

MS forums where you can see portfolios and downloads provide a bit of a check on individuals (even moreso where you can see downloads), but I've no doubt the same happens on all MS forums.

I'm a small fish at this moment but I do hope to make a complete income from this in a few years. I am at about 20% of my income at this moment. I hope to grow with 20% every 3-4 months. But thats just 'hopes'. Until now I've invested in camera's, lenses and a complete studio. So the rest is just extra money now which is very nice. Since I have the studio my sales are increasing allot since it's much easier to shoot when I have time. The idea that if I don't shoot I still get $$$ coming in for doing nothing is the thing I like most in Microstock.

Quote from: fotografer on June 20, 2013, 02:44

Here if people's identity is known then it's easy to check if they are exaggerating or not.  If their identity isn't known then what is the point of exaggerating if nobody knows who you are anyway.

People do it anyway, even when they're known. There was a very vocal forum member over at SS who bragged for years about all the money he was making, paying his bills and mortgage and blowing the rest on lots of new gear. Then he installed the SS twitter app which reports your daily DLs and he was blown. Even kept up the charade afterwards saying that the twitter feed was reporting wrong numbers.

People are strange. There's no limit to the lies people will tell for any (or no) reason at all.

go and look at his latest pictures, does he have automatic approval? just unbelievable!

"The idea that if I don't shoot I still get $$$ coming in for doing nothing is the thing I like most in Microstock."

I don't agree with the part of doing nothing. You took the photos, processed them (professionally), uploaded (key worded) them, and they passed the high standards of the editors to get into their library. If that is 'Nothing' than I hate to see what you call 'Something' 

T

Off topic - I tend to take stories of SS sales with a shovel of salt as well.

On Topic, Mactrunk & Jonathan gave the sort of feedback I was looking for (I've no interested in peoples $ amounts).  Fair enough, sales & revenues are a way of keeping score but I don't believe that, for most people, it make that much difference to their lifestyle and that doom and gloom or nirvana reached threads are just a tad exaggerated 

Microstock provides about 70% of my earnings.  I have never earnt as much in a month at a day job as I do with mickrostock.