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 The commissions are going to drop lower and lower as stock sites are going to continue to fight to recruit buyers to purchase the exact same images available at every single site willing to accept their photographs. 

I believe if you (yes YOU!) choose a site and commit some form of loyalty to them the ultimate result will be competition to recruit photographers instead of the status quo which is to recruit buyers. 

Mat

Very valid point and well said Mat..thank you

Denis

It took 16 days for me to get paid. I don't think they are in financial trouble. The way the commission structure is setup and the volume of sales they are getting,  this must be highly profitable for the the owner(s). Denis

Quote

However worldwide... my guess is that there is no more then 100 making more then 50K a year.

I make a good living. I live in Western Europe and although I'm reluctant to divulge my income, which is all earned from microstock, I was not a million miles from a 6 figure dollar income last year. There are plenty of microstockers pulling in good money, and I'm nearer the bottom of the top 150 sellers at my agency of choice.

 In my case, if it is the agency I think you are talking about,  I am at the bottom of the top 440 sellers. Thank you for your insight.

Count me in as making a fulltime income from microstock all be it on the video side. I have put a ton of effort and put  alot of money into equipment to handle HD at the bulk level. I still hold my current fulltime job in the medical field but it sure is nice to have stock income to fall back on if anything goes wrong. The article is dead on as far as work practices go. Nothing has come easy to me, I do have a niche in the medical field but I shoot all kinds of stuff every week. Between both jobs I work 60 plus hours a week. I might one day pull the plug on the day job and just work 40hrs a week on the stock job. Going fulltime is not for the faint of heart but working for one's self has a whole positive side to itself!

  

We have lots of financial information about the number one seller, however not too many of the top 200 sellers that will come forward like yourselves to divulge such information. Your little bits of information certainly give us a better perspective of what can be accomplished. Thank you vlad_the_imp  and jjneff. Denis

I thought Arena Creative had a realistic view of the microstock industry in this blog post - so thought I would give it a link from here.

http://www.arenacreative.com/blog/microstock-related/can-you-really-make-a-living-selling-microstock-photography/

My opinion is that for dabblers and hobbyists - I still think they can make a few bucks a month and have fun, if that's all they want.  For those who want to have it as a profession - it is an uphill battle.  Yes, I do think it is possible as there is never enough of the best of anything in any field - but even then it won't be easy.

Thanks for the link Leaf....excellent reading. I totally agree.  500 microstockers making it full time is about what I though too.  I am not there yet, although I made $19,000 in 2009 it is my best year yet with 1200 images. Maybe if I had quitted my full time job I would have made much more but I did not like the risk.  Denis 

Quote from: cybernesco on March 01, 2010, 07:03

Despite the earnings rating poll being all down, several BMEs and 2nd BMEs have been reported at SS and within this forum which put in doubt the accuracy of the poll rating. Denis

 Is Fifi driving any of these BME's.  It is wise to consider who is reporting these sales figures, the recently stated RPI is dismal at best and there is no where to go but up. A 0.071 RPI may satisfy and inspire some.

There are of course shooters who will produce niche images that drive real sales volume no matter what the market conditions are. However they are not representative of the whole.

No not just Fifi...I compted 11 reported BMEs and 2nd BMEs at SS. Two reported BMEs in this forum. I had my 2nd BME last month. Most of them are not niche. My RPI is $1.60

If the poll is right...so far 14% (14 out of 101) are making over $2000.00 a month which is more then I expected. Despite Yuri's thread gloomy outlook, microstock still look healthy. Who knows, maybe his port are loosing to the smaller ones. Denis

This place owns the crown for having the biggest "real info / pure BS" ratio in all microstock boards. A smart newbie can find lots of good info if he or she can spot the ones who don't talk cr@p and start paying attention.

I agree. Internet is a matter of knowing how to filter information for your own benefit. Everything I know from photography, I have learned it from internet. I have learned a great deal from the SS forum and god knows how much bs you had to filter out from their forum, not so much now. I have learned a lot from this forum too. In addition, where else can you freely compare micro sites and get to know the new emerging ones. Thank you Leaf for all your effort.

Denis

In comparison to the differential in FT's strange floating 'credit value' in the various currencies and the numerous reductions in commissions, either directly or by stealth, it absolutely pales into insignificance.

I totally agree. Denis

Quote from: cybernesco on February 19, 2010, 14:59

As an example from a France site a package of 20 credits will average 1.14 euro which is equal to about $1.57 US at today's rate. And if a buyer buy an image of mine from this package then I get 31/157 and not 31/100.  But I am sure that you can explain this.

Out of curiosity, what do the credit packages cost on the non US sites? I can only see the credit prices when I log in and when I log in, it gives me the prices in dollars.

Look at the bottom right,


http://fr.fotolia.com/Member/BuyCreditsChooseAmount 


Denis

The following is the latest from Chad regarding Purchase incentives and commission structure:

Hi everyone,

We have been carefully monitoring sales since the new bundle pricing was implemented earlier this month. We're very pleased with the results and would like to provide you with the following update.

As a backgrounder, all of you know that Fotolia's previous credit pricing ranged from $0.75 to $1, depending on the amount of credits purchased. On average, customers purchased credits at a rate of $0.94 each. Fotolia paid contributors as if those credits were purchased at $1, regardless.

In February, the new credit bundles were created to incentivize customers towards buying larger bundles. If we succeeded, that would mean a larger number of credits in the system, benefiting contributors by way of increased downloads.

Even though we're only several weeks into the change, we're proud to report some initial success. On average, we're awarding 20% in bonus credits. Thus, we will continue to pay contributors commissions based on $1 credits.

We also saw a dramatic increase in the number of credits awarded. In fact, it jumped from 6% in January to 20% in February to date. Without calculating the effects of Fotolia's natural growth rate, that means we introduced an additional 14% in credits into Fotolia's ecosystem.

This additional growth in the system, along with our natural viral growth and our aggressive sales and marketing program will translate into continued success for all contributors in Fotolia's family.

We thank you for your continued support. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and report back to you with any changes.

Fotolia management

http://www.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=25258&p=5

Denis

We should always encourage new emerging microstock sites that have good prospect and fair policies for everyone involved as this is one of the few methods we have to go against sites that could or have grown to be greedy and unfair to their contributors. Lets put some balance to this industry, click on my referral link below and signed-up. Thank you

Denis

http://submit.depositphotos.com?ref=1005507