Quote from: leaf on September 12, 2011, 00:14

I would say MonkeyBusiness is extremely high up.. perhaps #2 in gross profits.  Net is a total different story and much harder to 'guess'

I believe leaf must have some stats to support his point, then Yuri is No.1 and monkeybusiness is No.2 in terms of revenue.

But according to the feedback in this thread, neither of them have top net profit.

Why No.1 and No.2 enjoy high revenue rather than high net profit?  Is it just because they are reluctant to be exclusive?

Yuri and MonkeyBusiness run their businesses with a number of employees and have what appears to be, considerable expenses. They have more expenses than most microstock photographers and they also have more income.  They aren't alone though, there is a good number of people running their microstock business like this. Someone like Sean on the other hand has no employees and only sometimes hires an assistant for a shoot.

I think you should just come to the Microstock Expo and hear people like Monkey Business, AndresR, CandyBox etc..talk first hand on how they run their business.

Quote from: lisafx on September 11, 2011, 19:48

But I agree with the praise for Sean.  I've always liked the look of his work best.  And as a one-man show he's without peer. 

Absolutely. Plus he's uniquely helpful and approachable too. Geniuses aren't supposed to be like that. Top man!

I guess everyone has their opinions, but for me sjlocke has proven himself as a bully who likes to bait newbies on this forum. He also has a inferiority complex to Yuri that is plainfully obvious. To each his own own I guess.

Quote from: williamju on September 12, 2011, 00:32

Quote from: leaf on September 12, 2011, 00:14

I would say MonkeyBusiness is extremely high up.. perhaps #2 in gross profits.  Net is a total different story and much harder to 'guess'

I believe leaf must have some stats to support his point, then Yuri is No.1 and monkeybusiness is No.2 in terms of revenue.

But according to the feedback in this thread, neither of them have top net profit.

Why No.1 and No.2 enjoy high revenue rather than high net profit?  Is it just because they are reluctant to be exclusive?

Yuri and MonkeyBusiness run their businesses with a number of employees and have what appears to be, considerable expenses. They have more expenses than most microstock photographers and they also have more income.  They aren't alone though, there is a good number of people running their microstock business like this. Someone like Sean on the other hand has no employees and only sometimes hires an assistant for a shoot.

I think you should just come to the Microstock Expo and hear people like Monkey Business, AndresR, CandyBox etc..talk first hand on how they run their business.

Thank you leaf for the reply, although it doesn't answer the exclusivity question.  The fact is photographers with a team will not go exclusivity, right?  Do you know any successful exception?

A successful photographer with a number of employees and high revenue controls more resources than others don't, if they all eventually choose to be non-exclusive with low profit, I will guess there are other factors like safety or freedom under their consideration compare to more money?  No, it's too hard for me to understand   

The Expo is surely acctractive but I can't justfy the cost for going there.  I believe there will only be a few Chinese businessman from local stock agency in the Expo, none Chinese photographers at all.

Quote from: leaf on September 12, 2011, 01:00

Quote from: williamju on September 12, 2011, 00:32

Quote from: leaf on September 12, 2011, 00:14

I would say MonkeyBusiness is extremely high up.. perhaps #2 in gross profits.  Net is a total different story and much harder to 'guess'

I believe leaf must have some stats to support his point, then Yuri is No.1 and monkeybusiness is No.2 in terms of revenue.

But according to the feedback in this thread, neither of them have top net profit.

Why No.1 and No.2 enjoy high revenue rather than high net profit?  Is it just because they are reluctant to be exclusive?

Yuri and MonkeyBusiness run their businesses with a number of employees and have what appears to be, considerable expenses. They have more expenses than most microstock photographers and they also have more income.  They aren't alone though, there is a good number of people running their microstock business like this. Someone like Sean on the other hand has no employees and only sometimes hires an assistant for a shoot.

I think you should just come to the Microstock Expo and hear people like Monkey Business, AndresR, CandyBox etc..talk first hand on how they run their business.

Thank you leaf for the reply, although it doesn't answer the exclusivity question.  The fact is photographers with a team will not go exclusivity, right?  Do you know any successful exception?

A successful photographer with a number of employees and high revenue controls more resources than others don't, if they all eventually choose to be non-exclusive with low profit, I will guess there are other factors like safety or freedom under their consideration compare to more money?  No, it's too hard for me to understand   

The Expo is surely acctractive but I can't justfy the cost for going there.  I believe there will only be a few Chinese businessman from local stock agency in the Expo, none Chinese photographers at all.

Daniel Laflor has a very similar business strategy to Yuri and is exclusive (to name one example)..
http://blog.microstockgroup.com/earning-a-living-in-stock-photography/

I would think that IS would want to block true teams from being exclusive - as a way to game the system. Both the old canister system but especially the RC one. Imagine if say 30 good exclusives teamed together - they would have lower upload limits each, but they would also probably hit the top tier for RC, something that IS can't really allow (it is "unsustainable" remember).

It's so obvious, I'd be astonished if people haven't already moved that way. You'd need to draw up a cast iron contract.

Quote from: nruboc on September 12, 2011, 01:33

Quote from: gostwyck on September 11, 2011, 19:59

Quote from: lisafx on September 11, 2011, 19:48

But I agree with the praise for Sean.  I've always liked the look of his work best.  And as a one-man show he's without peer. 

Absolutely. Plus he's uniquely helpful and approachable too. Geniuses aren't supposed to be like that. Top man!

I guess everyone has their opinions, but for me sjlocke has proven himself as a bully who likes to bait newbies on this forum. He also has a inferiority complex to Yuri that is plainfully obvious. To each his own own I guess.

Why on earth would Sean have an inferiority complex with Yuri?  Sean is a one man show and might well be making more profit than Yuri. 
As for the bullying I think he just gets tired of newbies coming in and expecting us to do their homework for them.  I often feel the same but just ignore them, Sean is more vocal about it.  It took us years to find the information that a lot of newbies want to come and get from us without putting the minimum of effort in themselves.  The competiition is getting stiff enough without making it too easy for others.

Well, I've only seen sjlocke express negative things about Yuri, maybe you could point me to a posititve thing he has had to say. To me it just comes across as an inferiority complex or jealousy. I much prefer posters such as jsnover or lisafx, they seem to be helpful while not trying to call people out. sjlocke appears to be just out for himself, is helpful when it benefits or affects himself, or trying to pimp his blog. He was top in Google search for 'istockphoto pricing filter' you know....lol

Sorry, I don't post in here often but don't like what's being said about sjlocke. Just met Sean and he is not "clearly to keep it all to himself" or many of the other negative things being inferred by a couple people here. He was a pleasure to be around and a very likeable person. It's shallow to confine your perception of a person based on what they post on message boards, and then rag on them.

Hi all - just back from the IS event in Utah. Thanks for the complimentary words!

To address the last comments, Yuri's company is no different than any other competing contributor.  Actions and words are commented on, same as any other.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... we know you do it all yourself, and Yuri needs "Yuri's company", right. Give some credit where credit is due, the guy is a genius with brilliant work.

I have to agree with nruboc on this specific point, I have noticed that Yuri does receive negative side shots from sijlocke in the forums, on ISP as well as here. I do not recall one single positive comment from him in relation to what Yuri has achieved or contributed to the microstock industry. He does have a tendency to criticise the way Yuri supports fellow stockers with tips, tricks and technique etc, Yuri obviously does not see this help as a threat to his business whereas sijlocke obviously does. The former position, even in a fierce competitive market, is the most admirable of the two. It seems to me Yuri's mind-set is more to 'share the wealth' whereas sijlocke is clearly to keep it all to himself - he even admits he does not even employee anyone apart from a temp when presumably he cannot do a shoot without an extra pair of hands, I bet he tries hard too though.

At the end of the day you have to do what works best for yourself and your family, just because Yuri and sijlocke do things differently is not a problem. I just know which one I'd rather have a beer with and talk about microstock.

So do I. To be honest I think Nruboc's accusation of 'envy' against Sean is mainly a reflection of Nruboc's own position!

IMHO the difference Sean/Yuri business model is a classic example of the old adage "Sales are vanity; profit is sanity". I get the impression Yuri wanted to be known as "#1 Microstocker" so desperately that he didn't care too much about the profit. Sean on the other hand is totally focused on microstock as a business and making that business as profitable as possible.

The truth is that microstock does not scale particularly well compared to most businesses. The proof of that is that there are so few 'image factories', maybe 3 or 4, out of thousands of individual contributors. The main advantages of microstock, as a means of earning a living, is working from home, hours to choose, vacations whenever, etc ... all of which is lost when you employ full-timers and open a 'factory'.

I'll wager that Sean's model will still be going strong long after the image factories have closed down. As microstock becomes ever more competitive the huge overhead of the factories and their employees will not be sustainable. I believe that five years from now all of them will have scaled back their operations, probably to become one-man businesses again with maybe the odd part-time assistant or partner.

Quote from: Cogent Marketing on September 12, 2011, 12:03

I have to agree with nruboc on this specific point, I have noticed that Yuri does receive negative side shots from sijlocke in the forums, on ISP as well as here. I do not recall one single positive comment from him in relation to what Yuri has achieved or contributed to the microstock industry. He does have a tendency to criticise the way Yuri supports fellow stockers with tips, tricks and technique etc, Yuri obviously does not see this help as a threat to his business whereas sijlocke obviously does. The former position, even in a fierce competitive market, is the most admirable of the two. It seems to me Yuri's mind-set is more to 'share the wealth' whereas sijlocke is clearly to keep it all to himself - he even admits he does not even employee anyone apart from a temp when presumably he cannot do a shoot without an extra pair of hands, I bet he tries hard too though.

At the end of the day you have to do what works best for yourself and your family, just because Yuri and sijlocke do things differently is not a problem. I just know which one I'd rather have a beer with and talk about microstock.

So do I. To be honest I think Nruboc's accusation of 'envy' against Sean is mainly a reflection of Nruboc's own position!
IMHO the difference Sean/Yuri business model is a classic example of the old adage "Sales are vanity; profit is sanity". I get the impression Yuri wanted to be known as "#1 Microstocker" so desperately that he didn't care too much about the profit. Sean on the other hand is totally focused on microstock as a business and making that business as profitable as possible.

The truth is that microstock does not scale particularly well compared to most businesses. The proof of that is that there are so few 'image factories', maybe 3 or 4, out of thousands of individual contributors. The main advantages of microstock, as a means of earning a living, is working from home, hours to choose, vacations whenever, etc ... all of which is lost when you employ full-timers and open a 'factory'.

I'll wager that Sean's model will still be going strong long after the image factories have closed down. As microstock becomes ever more competitive the huge overhead of the factories and their employees will not be sustainable. I believe that five years from now all of them will have scaled back their operations, probably to become one-man businesses again with maybe the odd part-time assistant or partner.

My own position? LOL, my own position is no where near either and if I was so concerned with my own position I should probably be submitting more.

Results prove you wrong my friend, Yuri is blowing away everybody, even in sjlocke's own backyard, iStock, where he is severely disadvantaged. Five years from now that won't change.

I find these discussions about how people work or how people have set up their business quite interesting, however they also quickly turn into personal attacks on different peoples chosen business strategy.

So... as the original question isn't being discussed any more and the posts are getting more personal, this discussion will be closed before it 'takes off'