Seriously?

Lise Gagne is the top earner at IS.

In my previous interview to Yuri, he said Andres Rodriguez was No.1 stock photographer and now No.2.

I did not doubt it until yesterday I visit a pro photographer in Beijing, China.

Now I know two photographers can earn millions per year, are there more?

anybody know?

Yuri might of thought you meant microstock only.  I think there's several people earning more in the traditional market.  It isn't as easy to get in to but I think the top Getty stock photographers that have been doing stock for decades are probably making more than anyone doing just microstock.  Doesn't Yuri just claim he licenses the most images?  Its not the same as making the most money.

Quote from: sjlocke on May 03, 2012, 22:22

Seriously?

Yeah don't forget Sean.

Quote from: sjlocke on May 03, 2012, 22:22

Seriously?

I agree!  seriously?  kindergarden level.

are you chinese?why dont chinese just pay for buying our files? then there will be more millionaires, lol
dont just selling your stuffs,just imforming your friends or colleagues , never use images for free.lol

At IS, last I knew, by dls, it was Yuri, Lise, DNY59 and then me.  You can see my number on my profile.

Quote from: Wim on May 04, 2012, 01:27

Quote from: traveler1116 on May 03, 2012, 22:32

Quote from: sjlocke on May 03, 2012, 22:22

Seriously?

Yeah don't forget Sean.

Who's Sean?  

Hello wim...? I give you a clue.. Google his name and you will find  lol  (sjlocke)

"Exactly - how do you judge any of this? Most downloads? Most income? Highest profit? Most downloads or income per "team" member? "

This was what my 'seriously' comment was about, as well as 'what difference does it make'.

At IS, last I knew, by dls, it was Yuri, Lise, DNY59 and then me.  You can see my number on my profile.

Quote from: tab62 on May 04, 2012, 23:28

Sean only made 750K last year thus missed the millionaire club...

Then who's the one reporting 900k income? Probably aeonf

Quote from: qwerty on May 05, 2012, 19:20

I'm lost to what this thread it about, but it seems that everybody is posting in this thread.

Seeing I missed the million club I better get in on this one.

this is by far the greatest topic regarding speculation in MSG, so pop in and raise the bar!

this is by far the greatest topic regarding speculation in MSG, so pop in and raise the bar!

Quote from: Sion on May 06, 2012, 01:07

Quote from: luissantos84 on May 05, 2012, 19:23

this is by far the greatest topic regarding speculation in MSG, so pop in and raise the bar!

Just in case someone is wondering what is MSG, it's Microstock Shouting Game.

It has a lot of umami - but some people claim it gives them headaches.

"The taste of MSG by itself does not in any sense represent deliciousness. Instead, it is often described as unpleasant, and as bitter, salty or soapy..." 

http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/9/845.full

...Now I know two photographers can earn millions per year, are there more? ...

Also the big money has always been in business and lifestyle images and that is undoubtedly the most competitive field. It has to be getting extremely difficult to ensure a reasonable payback for an expensive shoot.

Quite frankly, what does Yuri know about who the top folks are in this business anymore? Does he know everyone and how much they earn? Like I said, there are people who go under the community radar. Yuri doesn't know all of them. The ones he does know I'd bet are photographers. Is he in the know about how the top vector folks are doing? Top video guys?

Sorry but you're wrong __ there simply aren't tons of high-rollers quietly slipping under the radar. It's not the forums where we'd see them but on the best-selling lists, the rankings, the actual sales and ... most significantly by far ... the best match placement on searches. Microstock has always been incredibly transparent and it remains so. There is nowhere for a highly successful individual to hide without being spotted __ let alone hordes of them.

There's a lot less money, being distributed to remarkably fewer contributors, than you seem to think. A lot less. Only Yuri is grossing over $1M. There's maybe 4-5 in the $400-700 bracket and after that there's a real quick drop off in the earnings league. That's gross sales btw, not profits. That's what the sales numbers we can both see tell me.

Quote from: cthoman on May 07, 2012, 18:06

I don't think it would be too hard to fly under the radar. My sales are spread over a large number of images and over a variety of sites. Not many best sellers or one overly dominant agency. You could mix in POD, RM, direct sales, unknown or exclusive sites, and you would never know somebody is doing so well.

I don't know if there are people like that, but it seems feasible.

Probably there are a lot of mid and maybe even mid-high level folks doing that.  But if you are talking about people netting six figures, I doubt there are (m)any of those "flying under the radar", for the reasons Gostwyck laid out.  The best selling images and default searches would be a dead giveaway. 

Quote from: lisafx on May 07, 2012, 18:14

Quote from: cthoman on May 07, 2012, 18:06

I don't think it would be too hard to fly under the radar. My sales are spread over a large number of images and over a variety of sites. Not many best sellers or one overly dominant agency. You could mix in POD, RM, direct sales, unknown or exclusive sites, and you would never know somebody is doing so well.

I don't know if there are people like that, but it seems feasible.

Probably there are a lot of mid and maybe even mid-high level folks doing that.  But if you are talking about people netting six figures, I doubt there are (m)any of those "flying under the radar", for the reasons Gostwyck laid out.  The best selling images and default searches would be a dead giveaway. 

What about those that are working on quantity, not quality? I've seen a lot of ppl with big ports, 5-10k, that are diamonds, but have very few flames and not a single blue flame and just 2 or 3 red ones. For someone with over 50k DLs, that almost sounds incredible to me. These ppl wouldn't stand out in the searches let alone in the trends (best images in the last 3 months/ 1 month / 1 week). Their stuff is mostly average, so the can only get flames during long periods of time, but OTOH they're consistent enough, to get dozens of sales on a nice, above average part of their port. And even those photos with less than 10 DLs add to to the sum, since there's thousands of them to contribute their part

Quote from: rubyroo on May 06, 2012, 10:21

I always thought it stood for Mass Speculation Group.

All of the above, but it adds flavor either way?

Here's the last I did from IS Charts before they pulled the plug. People can debate sales, imaginary dollars, or whatever else, just listing the last top ten on IS before the charts went away. Make of it what you wish. (and the wayback machine is also blank for all fields now) If I looked right, two of those are not exclusive. That means they can be selling on 50 sites if they wanted.



Number One? All I want to know is, "Who is Number Two?" 

And for the MSG'ers, I'm not sure which side runs this Village.  




Yes I miss looking myself up on the charts, I wanted to see when I passed the middle point for total downloads.

Quote from: wut on May 07, 2012, 18:26

Quote from: lisafx on May 07, 2012, 18:14

Quote from: cthoman on May 07, 2012, 18:06

I don't think it would be too hard to fly under the radar. My sales are spread over a large number of images and over a variety of sites. Not many best sellers or one overly dominant agency. You could mix in POD, RM, direct sales, unknown or exclusive sites, and you would never know somebody is doing so well.

I don't know if there are people like that, but it seems feasible.

Probably there are a lot of mid and maybe even mid-high level folks doing that.  But if you are talking about people netting six figures, I doubt there are (m)any of those "flying under the radar", for the reasons Gostwyck laid out.  The best selling images and default searches would be a dead giveaway. 

What about those that are working on quantity, not quality? I've seen a lot of ppl with big ports, 5-10k, that are diamonds, but have very few flames and not a single blue flame and just 2 or 3 red ones. For someone with over 50k DLs, that almost sounds incredible to me. These ppl wouldn't stand out in the searches let alone in the trends (best images in the last 3 months/ 1 month / 1 week). Their stuff is mostly average, so the can only get flames during long periods of time, but OTOH they're consistent enough, to get dozens of sales on a nice, above average part of their port. And even those photos with less than 10 DLs add to to the sum, since there's thousands of them to contribute their part

If you'll read up the thread a bit, you will see that I was responding to the idea that there are people making six figures (over 100k) and flying under the radar.  I don't think there are many of those, if any. 

The type of ports you are talking about above may very well have escaped notice, but they aren't bringing in that kind of money either. 

Quote from: wut on May 08, 2012, 08:46

And what about exclusively TAC ports at IS, that have reached gold canisters in less than 2 years? Meaning they're selling at Getty for years and they have a lot bigger ports over there. They're getting way over 5k/year TAC DLs on IS alone. Lets say the average DL brings them only 100cr, that is way over 50k cr and they're getting 20% out of it (I believe they get the same deal as exclusives for GI sales). So if I do some quick math: 50.000x1,5$x0,2=37,5$. That is the worst case scenario for their earnings, I believe they're way over 50k at IS alone, but probably more since sales are rising progressively (they sold a lot more in the last 9 months, then in their first). Than add the sales at Getty which are without a doubt bigger, since the size of their port is a few times larger (almost 4x for that particular photographer I based my calculations on). So they're surely earning way over 100k and most ppl in the MS world doesn't know them.

First off, this is some really wild speculation. Not much in the way of hard evidence.  

Secondly, I was responding to people making over 100k IN MICROSTOCK.  If you are talking trads, where RPD is exponentially higher, or a combination of the two, that's a whole different ballgame.  

Clearly it's important to you to believe that there is this large underground network of people making six figures and totally undiscovered.  How they are undetectable to other microstock contributors, but somehow readily visible and available to large numbers of buyers is beyond me.  But hey, don't let me burst your bubble.  You believe whatever you need to that gets you through the day.