MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => New Sites - General => Topic started by: andrewhoward on January 20, 2007, 02:12

Title: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: andrewhoward on January 20, 2007, 02:12: Hi all just joined up!! I started with microstock a few months ago and have 106 pics with 123rf, 50 with bigstock and a couple with istock and fotolia (more to go up soon!!!!). My question is having only earn $20 so far (all with 123rf) is it possible to earn a living doing this? is there any one out there earning a decent amount ($400 a month or more?) and if so how many sites are you on and with how many shots? I really just want to know is it worth in the long term all the time spent uploading and keywording? or should i just view this as a fun hobby for a little extra cash now and then?
thanks for taking the time to view this,
Andrew ;D
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: leaf on January 20, 2007, 04:25: I think you could view it as either one. A hobby on the weekend (like my sister does) or a full time job like I do (i also do other photographic things, but microstock is a big part of my income)

To make $400 a month is pretty easy across the major sites. If you have good-great stock images you can plan on $10.00/image/year , if you have just snaps or holiday pics, plan on more like $5.00/image/year and a lot of rejections.

it is definitely not a get rich quick scheme, but as I see it a great long term investment that starts to really pay off 1-2 years after you start seriously submitting.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: Freezingpictures on January 20, 2007, 05:11: Well, I have about 400 @ DT, 300 @SS, 75@IS, and about 315 @ FT, and 380 @ StockXpert. Those are the sites with the main income for me. I am doing this while I am studying. I started at the end of 2005.
And I am just about to get over 400$ a month.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: andrewhoward on January 20, 2007, 06:38: Thanks guys for the info, I was a cruise line photographer for 10 years and worked as a photographic studio manager for a few years too, but having moved to Finland from the UK im finding it really hard to get photographic work as i dont speak finnish!!! I was hoping microstock could be the answer (no need to speak another language!!!)
Sounds like it could take a few years to make a good return though... so im off to break out my elinchrome lights and get shootin some more stock!!!!!
Andrew
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: Freezingpictures on January 20, 2007, 06:43: Andrew, i believe you can be much more successful than I am. You have much more experience, for me it is just a hobby. If you do it fulltime you will do much better than me I believe. Try to get on Shutterstock. Thats is my best earning site.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: andrewhoward on January 20, 2007, 07:08: Thank you very much for the kind words freezingpictures ;D Ive been a bit down recently since i moved to finland i have not been able to get any photographic work
and its very disheartening!!! Ive worked as a photographer all my life and im really hoping that this microstock business could be the answer!!!
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: GeoPappas on January 20, 2007, 07:56: Quote from: andrewhoward on January 20, 2007, 02:12
...is it possible to earn a living doing this? is there any one out there earning a decent amount ($400 a month or more?)

What I want to know is where can you earn $400/mth and consider that "earning a living"?

Here in the U.S., you need to earn a few thousand a month MINIMUM to live.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: andrewhoward on January 20, 2007, 08:13: lol I take your point Geopapas!!!
I am thinking of moving to southern spain next year, and the rent on a small apartment is about $300 a month, thats why i was looking to earn a minimum of 400 so i could pay the rent and have a bit of grub money!!! If youve ever been a student in the UK you would be amazed how little you can live on!! ( ok a diet of pasta and tuna does get VERY boreing!!!!)
I also dont have anyone else to support which helps, and food in spain is cheap....
Besides who needs to be rich when the sun is shining and the winters are warm lol
Ps im living in Finland at the mo which is FREEZING!!!!!!!
And expensive!!!!
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: HIMIKO on January 20, 2007, 08:24: It seems to me that the question is not $400 or $4000 per month. More importantly is how good a library you can build quickly (6 to 10 months?) and get to the point where you can have regular payouts from all your listed sites. Stock photography is an annuity business so the faster and better quality a library can be put together, the more a steady income stream can be realised.

I wish I had started way back since I have been in photography for more than 3 decades but only saw the light a few months ago.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: perkmeup on January 20, 2007, 09:45: Amen to that!!!!!!!

If I had started doing this 2 years ago....i'm sure I'd be at several thousand a month.......pretty easily... It just takes time to build up a large portfolio of quality pictures. I'm a full time Engineer and I have been using all my spare time (between 2 kids and a wife) and have managed to build up to 700 - 800 images on all the site with exception to IS which is around 300 now.....and I started on August 24th of 2006...so only 4 1/2 months.......and I've made over a thousand a month the last two months....and this month will be even more.

In all the forums you hear it.........but it is sooooooooo true.....you get what you put into it. I wish I had time to put more into it, but I have another job that is more important. But for example today I have been taking pictures and editing and uploading.....so far today only 9 images uploaded....I hope to get a couple more later today ...but my girls are up from their nap...so it's hard.

I love this stuff!!!!!!!! I love creating the photos..........and I love getting paid to do it.

You can make a lot of money from this if you dedicate yourself to it....but I'm glad I am not relying on it....because there is the old.......EBB and Flow and boy....somedays....it really EBBs........

Tom
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: leaf on January 20, 2007, 11:56: it will really be clear how profitable microstock are in about 4 more years. But as people have mentioned here, it will sure be nice to have 4 years of submitting in by then.

Perkmeup: you are doing pretty well to get that many images up in that short of time. Well done.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: Peiling on January 21, 2007, 03:31: Hi.

I heard from an old hand that you can only expect regular payout every month when you have at least 800 photos. So aim for that within a year an d I am sure you can make at least $400 a month or more. I just joined 6 months ago and am still learning and aiming for 800 within a year.

There is another forum but you can link to my microstock website and look for Supe87. He did a survey on how much people earn. There are people who earn between $100 - $500 and $1000 - $3000. So you can definitely earn that but it takes time to build up. You need to be patient in Micro Stock and need to work hard too for it. If you expect to earn within a short period, you will be disappointed. Just be consistent and upload and upload was the advise the more experienced microstockers gave me.

My first month, i earn a grand total of a few cents, the next month a few dollars, the third month more than $20 and every month it has increased. You can see my statistics in my website. It can give you a rough idea about what to expect ;-)

Cheers
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: mjp on January 21, 2007, 09:33: Hello Andrew and welcome to Finland :) Ok, it's bit cold here (-18celisius at the moment), but just get enough clothes and you can manage. What part of Finland you are living on?

I started shooting microstock last spring and I do it mainly on weekends and I have little bit over 500 images on each major microstock sites (except istock, over 100 there). My focus in this year is past over 500euros / a month barrier on microstocks. I'm just a hobbyist, so my image concepts and techniques needs lot of work, but I think it is quite possible. I found out that Istock, ShutterStock and fotolia are the best revenue sources for me.

regards: Mikko P.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: ptlee on January 21, 2007, 09:39: Hi Andrew,

Based on your experience as mentioned, you should be able to reach your target. I believe, ShutterStock, iStockPhoto, Fotolia and DreamsTime are the top earners for most (and myself).

Take a look around for the best sellers in the various sites, and you should have a feel of what niche you can target, and work on the numbers.

Like Mikko, I'm also doing this as a hobby, and I think your target is achievable.

cheers.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: madelaide on January 21, 2007, 11:22: Quote from: perkmeup on January 20, 2007, 09:45
I'm a full time Engineer and I have been using all my spare time (between 2 kids and a wife) and have managed to build up to 700 - 800 images on all the site with exception to IS which is around 300 now.....and I started on August 24th of 2006...
Hi Tom, I'm an engineer also (Mechanical). It's nice to find a colleague here. :)

I have only about 130-200 images in each microstock site and this is giving me about US$90 a month in the past months. On a good week I can shoot, edit and keyword about 5 images, so I don't know how you guys who have a full time job manage to get no many images on so quickly. :)

I don't expect to make a living on microstock nor macrostock, but it's good to see the money coming and making the next equipment upgrade closer without depending on my regular income.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: perkmeup on January 21, 2007, 12:31: Hi Adelaide....

Well.........it took a lot of dedication to get them done....and now I am beginning to slowing down. I really wanted to get enough photos to realize some real income so I just buckled down and spent every extra minute taking photos. I took at least........one photo every night after the girls were sleeping...of something....anything.....as long as it was a good photo. Then on the weekends, I tried to take as many as possible...and a few with the girls. .........2 here....1 there........15 here.......3 .......it adds up pretty fast....but I have to admit I'm ready to slow down now....it's getting harder to come up with good ideas to shot. ...but I would like to get 1000 images up first....we'll see....

The best advise I can give to somebody is write down ideas when you think of them.....sometimes I will be at work and an idea for a neat concept photo comes to mind.......I write it down....otherwise you will forget it.

Micro stock has definitely made me a better photographer and also much better at Photoshop.....this along with the money ......is why I love this!!!!!!!

Tom
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: leaf on January 21, 2007, 13:15: yep. I have my 'stock shots to shoot' list sitting by the computer :)
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: madelaide on January 21, 2007, 16:37: Well, I can shoot more than I can edit. I still have many unedited images from Africa I took in October, some I want to put in microstock, some at macrostock. I also have one hundred of images from a hotel in November and many from my rose on satin series (and I shot some more today!).

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: epixx on January 22, 2007, 01:30: Making a living from micro depends on where you live. If you look at some of the top contributors who claim to make a living from this, you will see that many of them are based in countries with relatively low cost, such as Eastern Europe, but not nearly all.

I live in Thailand, and I wouldn't have any problems living on $500 per month, but more money means more fun ;-)

The nice thing about low costs is that it gives you the chance to start without losing too much every month.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: andrewhoward on January 23, 2007, 10:25: Terve mikko!!!!
Im living in Helsinki in Hertoniemi, I love suomi!!!! Yes its cold at the moment but this is finally a real winter!!! And when its - 18 a sauna and some mintu really help!!!! Seriously its so beautiful at the moment the trees covered in ice is my next photo mission!! just got to wait for the right light!! I got a bit disheartened as most of my pictures (108) are on 123rf and the downloads per month have remained about the same from when i had 20 there!!! about 3 euros a month!!! and i have almost 60 on bigstock now and not one download!! Ive just started uploading to istock and fotolia so hope i get more downloads there!!!
And i have to get on shutterstock as everyone is saying its one of the best.. just need more hours in the day ( i work on a truck 12 hours per day!!!) still a big thanks to everyone for there help and comments its really great to get feedback!

Kippis Andrew ( cheers!!)
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: CJPhoto on January 23, 2007, 10:56: Quote from: andrewhoward on January 23, 2007, 10:25
And i have to get on shutterstock as everyone is saying its one of the best.. just need more hours in the day ( i work on a truck 12 hours per day!!!) still a big thanks to everyone for there help and comments its really great to get feedback!

If you want to make money out of microstock get onto Shutterstock (http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=60535). Stop submitting to the other agencies and pick your ten best and apply for your approval to submit photos. Shutterstock (http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=60535) is not a site to add to when you get time, IT IS THE SITE to upload to first - for most people it is 20-50% of income. Note they are strict so make sure they have no noise. Then start submitting to the others again. Once you get approved, forget about the others so that you can catch up and get all your shots up on SS. You will be surprised how quickly the Dl start coming.

Once you are on all the sites. get yourself a good process. Use ITPC so that you dont have to retype every thing for each site. Use FTP so you can set it to upload to all the sites while you are driving your truck. If you dont know the software to do this, IM me - it is all freeware so it is free.

If you want to retire to a life of microstock on the spanish coast (or was it Italy you were going to move to?), get on Shutterstock (http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=60535) , get yourself a simple process and make it happen.

You will be suprised and will hit yourself that you haven't signed up earlier.

Link: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=60535
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: leaf on January 23, 2007, 11:01: so let me get this straight.
You think he should submit to shutterstock (http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=102)??
or
Shutterstock: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=102 (http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=102)
:P
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: CJPhoto on January 23, 2007, 11:10: sorry - was meant to be a motivational speach but I guess it came accoss as a spam.

Use Leafs links to support the site. Were you really the 102nd member of shutterstock and me the 60 odd thousandth?

Note I was also thinking of putting one in this funky moving thing too!

Basic message - submit to shutterstock and you wont regret it.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: leaf on January 23, 2007, 11:16: haha.. i just needed to give you hard time CJ.

it was motivational allright :) and you did get your point accros, and I DO agree with you. He should upload to shutterstock ASAP. Their referal program is one of the best as well (if you haven't happened to notice that allready, andrew) ;)

Cjphoto: yeah, I was on shutterstock fairly early. I found out about it on dpchallenge when someone posted a link right after they started accepting outside photographers. I think they were selling their own photos for some time before that, which was nice, because they had a decent customer base from day one.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: andrewhoward on January 23, 2007, 13:27: I think i get it, i should concentrate on shutterstock? lol ;D Ok slight problem.... bit embarasing.... I use to use a digital compact... i was a die hard film user but ended up using the digital compact more and more and a lot of my landscapes were on my compact (olympus c5050 with full manual control) only problem it generates a lot of noise..... which i didnt realize untill i tried submiting to shutterstock....doh!!!!
So i now have about 10 days left till i can resubmit... this time only pics from my d70!!!!! ;D
Thanks guys..... i will concentrate on shutterstock as soon as i can resubmit :-\
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: leaf on January 23, 2007, 14:35: don't think that regular images can be submitted to shutterstock though. Even at iso 100 they will find noise in the dark areas or in areas with blue.

it is basically ALWAYS necesary to use noise reduction in at least some areas of the photo.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: leaf on January 23, 2007, 14:36: Quote from: andrewhoward on January 23, 2007, 13:27

So i now have about 10 days left till i can resubmit... this time only pics from my d70!!!!! ;D
Thanks guys..... i will concentrate on shutterstock as soon as i can resubmit :-\

are you trying to say we fought like children over your referral for nothing???
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: Peiling on January 25, 2007, 10:59: hahahaha.....but i am impressed leaf that u r 102 at shutterstock!!!

I am 69852 at Shutterstock and i got my approval in nov 06....fairly young. I just got to know about microstock in july 2006 ....so i started to upload in the places here and there before finally landing on Shutterstock. Yes, it took me 6months to get 100 downloads in istock and 1 month in Shutterstock. I heard so much that i just had to join. Shutterstock and istock are the two best performers for me and i have only about 100 to 150 photos there. The rest of the sites i wish they will be better soon.... ;D

(you can find out all about the Micro Stock Sites from my link below.)
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: scarlettholly on January 25, 2007, 13:35: I think CJ mentioned that there is IPTC freeware out there. I work on a mac, and would love something nifty that will take out the pain of keywording. Does anyone know of anything?
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: pixelbrat on January 25, 2007, 16:37: Quote from: andrewhoward on January 20, 2007, 02:12
Hi all just joined up!! I started with microstock a few months ago and have 106 pics with 123rf, 50 with bigstock and a couple with istock and fotolia (more to go up soon!!!!). My question is having only earn $20 so far (all with 123rf) is it possible to earn a living doing this? is there any one out there earning a decent amount ($400 a month or more?) and if so how many sites are you on and with how many shots? I really just want to know is it worth in the long term all the time spent uploading and keywording? or should i just view this as a fun hobby for a little extra cash now and then?
thanks for taking the time to view this,
Andrew ;D

Hi there,
I'm definitely not "making a living" from stock but i do make between $500-$600 a month from 4 sites. This is just a hobby for me for now. Below I have a breakdown of where I submit and how many photos I have there. This is also in order by earnings. Istock is by far my highest earning site, making twice as much there as I do at Shutterstock. That might be because I don't upload very often.

iStock - 217 photos
Stutterstock - 302 photos
Dreamstime - 223 photos
Fotolia - 238 photos
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: leaf on January 25, 2007, 18:06: Quote from: scarlettholly on January 25, 2007, 13:35
I think CJ mentioned that there is IPTC freeware out there. I work on a mac, and would love something nifty that will take out the pain of keywording. Does anyone know of anything?

i think he mentioned infraview
LINK (http://www.irfanview.com/)

an allright simple editor where you can edit keywords.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: hymowitzer on January 25, 2007, 21:23: Seems you can just about make enough to go out to dinner a few times a month anyway
http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_6664
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: leaf on January 26, 2007, 01:54: are you being sarcastic or serious? I assume your post was an anit-micro post, and respond accordingly.

Rjmiz has only just over 600 images in his portfolio. At $10/pic/year that would be $6000/year or $500/month. This looks about right if he is making $100 on dreamstime, leaving $400 to be earned from istock, fotolia, shutterstock, bigstock... In fact he probably earns a little more than $400 on the other sites combines each month.

If he is making $100/month on dreamstime that isn't bad. Nobody said you could make a living off 600 images. If you could make a living off so few images, microstock would be a jackpot as if you worked hard, you could easily get 600 images in one month.

People who are serious about stock and want to live off stock, have 3000+ images.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: CJPhoto on January 26, 2007, 02:54: Quote from: scarlettholly on January 25, 2007, 13:35
I think CJ mentioned that there is IPTC freeware out there. I work on a mac, and would love something nifty that will take out the pain of keywording. Does anyone know of anything?

Microsoft just released a new one (oops you are on apple).

Dont know any for apple. Does iphoto do it. Appeture should if you can afford that?

I have used pixvue but am going to try the new microsoft one.
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: scarlettholly on January 26, 2007, 17:45: iPhoto doesn't do it. aperture does, but (a) I can't afford it, and (b), my wee ibook would fall over if I actually tried to load it up! Thanks for the help, and if anyone has any other suggestions, would love to hear them!
Title: Re: is it possible to make a living?
Post by: phildate on January 26, 2007, 20:10: To make a living at this I think you will need to grow your portfolio to 4000 images pretty quickly and shoot a lot of people or create some quality illustrations. At the moment I do the former and when I have some time (which is probably never) I will learn how to use Illustrator. My combined portfolios are reaching 3500+ and the income is probably getting to the point where it is stable and almost enough that I could not do any other work in month if I really wanted to take a break. However, there is a big difference between an income you can live on and an income you can REALLY live on (i.e one that will pay the mortgage, pay the car, pay the bills, upgrade equipment etc...)