Microstock Simplified

This was my first blog. There are lots of articles and books on Microstock. I still felt that something was missing, remembering when I started a couple of years ago.....ego I wrote this.....

http://www.bobkeenanph​oto.com/microstock-simplified/

bobkeenan wrote in post #11691893
This was my first blog. There are lots of articles and books on Microstock. I still felt that something was missing, remembering when I started a couple of years ago.....ego I wrote this.....

http://www.bobkeenanph​oto.com/microstock-simplified/

nice, but is microstock mostly micro pay? e.g. pennies for your pics

watt100 wrote in post #11692938
nice, but is microstock mostly micro pay? e.g. pennies for your pics

Micropay is right, a vast majority make peanuts with microstock. It's rare to find anyone making a living, especially in the United States. I've seen guys in other countries who do it, make 8K a year and cost of living is 5K. The guy who was featured in the USA Today they seemed to of magically left out the fact he hires models, has a vast knowledge of photography, hires makeup artists, knows lighting, etc. However, they tried to make it sound like anyone and everyone who is doing it can get a six figure salary. The top guy in microstock employs a team of 20!

I would LOVE to see a list of anyone making a good living off microstock, average person that is. The only list I've ever seen was a survey and it had 76 people who made more than 50% of their income with microstock, not thousands or even hundreds, 76 out of millions who submit. Sure that's not all of them, but it included those who live in poor countries where 5-10K is good enough to live off of. I can see it working much better for them than someone in the U.S., I can see it working as a hobby because the math doesn't add up to live off of.

Seriously, $3,000/year at 15 hours a week is $3.86 an hour, guess that's "OK" for a hobby earning anything at all, but to live as a photographer if that's the goal is just not going to cut it (and I know what the goal was in the blog, just saying for those who have higher expectations). Right now the sum is $1.92/hour for the last two years.

So all in all, 99.8% of micro people are not making a good living, read one article that says the average salary is less than $1,000/year according to the data collected.