Congratulations!  I wish you many more successful years, fun shoots and at least one big raise per year!

Congratulations, Lisa!!
We've always admired your port, and there is no wonder why you made black diamond.
We wish you many more sales!!

Thanks again for all the nice words

Luis, I wish I could tell you when it was 160k.  I don't keep close track, but I do know I have been eagerly awaiting the black diamond for the last couple of months. 

@Rob, thanks for BOTH congrats.  Brings twice the smiles to my face

Congratulation Lisa! Your achievement is an inspiration to many of us.

Congrats! That's a great achievement! I hope someday I can reach that milestone too.

congrats,Lisafx...I never thought that your are on the level of black diamond of IS because i often saw you like to complain at it, LOL...so what if you turn into the exclusive,the pay would be double or triple...??I dont know,do you have any idea of that?

Thanks for the congrats

As I have said many, many times, the reason slow sales at Istock concern me so much is because they are a very large part of my income. 

And I have also made no secret of the fact that I have considered exclusivity a lot over the years, but in the volatile microstock industry I feel safer keeping my options open for the moment.  FWIW there is no bump in commission from Diamond to Black Diamond anyway. 

Well done!

I was going to say, "This is very inspiring and motivating to me" ... then again maybe you would rather hear that your competition has become discouraged and quit.   

Allow me to add my sincere congratulations. It's a great achievement, especially for a non-exclusive.

As I have said many, many times, the reason slow sales at Istock concern me so much is because they are a very large part of my income. 

And I have also made no secret of the fact that I have considered exclusivity a lot over the years, but in the volatile microstock industry I feel safer keeping my options open for the moment.  FWIW there is no bump in commission from Diamond to Black Diamond anyway. 

I can't blame you for feeling that way.  The bottom line is the vast majority of contributors can make substantially higher income staying independent.  I took a noticeable earnings hit when I went exclusive at iStock, and I am taking another temporary hit right now due to the slow sales there.  If I were doing this for a living, I would almost certainly want to spread my earnings over multiple sites and reduce my risk.  That said I have no regrets for choosing exclusivity.  The income is solid, and the work flow is much simpler.

Keep up the great work Lisa.  We're going to need a new diamond level for some of you!

There is no "mostly" about it Chia.  Pay increases are for exclusives only.  As a non-exclusive, you get a fixed 20% commission regardless of canister level and XS images cost 1 credit for any non-exclusive image.

Right, just keep in mind the increase is not as dramatic for larger sizes.  Gostwyck, in a thread a few pages back, did an analysis of the expected pay increase for those considering exclusivity:

http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/evaluating-exclusivity-at-istock-crunching-the-numbers/

It's darn close to dead-on in my opinion, and well thought out. There are other positive considerations too, such as Vetta and E+.  But there also negative risks such as only being able to get your image accepted at one site...and if they don't like it, you'll never see it online.  When I was independent, I had separate "winners" at Shutterstock, Dreamstime, iStock, etc.  It's a lot to consider.

And now back to our regular programming...LisaFX rules!