Hi, all - I'm new to microstock, but have a decent enough background in general photography.

I'm curious as to what kind of earnings levels are typical in microstock. I understand that your earnings level will vary according to your dedication and skill. But, if we assume a skilled and capable photographer working at it full time - what kind of earning levels are typical?

What would the high end be? I've seen several postings that indicate earnings in the $300 - $500 a month range (and several posts that indicate much less). Are there ANY microstock photographers earning $4,000 or more per month from their images? Or does the income model sorta limit everyone to the mid to high hundreds?

Once an image has been accepted, do you find that it continues to sell on a regular basis - or does it sell for a while, and then 'fall off' and cease to be popular?

I'm trying to determine whether microstock photography can be - eventually - a full time career with a full time earnings profile, or whether it should best be viewed as a way to earn a small amount of additional income.

Thanks for any clarification you can provide! Best, Charlie

Hi Charlie,

I know of several people who do stock photography for a living. They have been at it for a long time. It takes time, dedication, and patience to start earning decent sales. Someone once told me it takes about 6 months to make your first sale at any site, and a couple of years to start earning a decent payout. I don't know how true that is as I'm still fairly new at. I've been doing stock photography for about a year on a hobby basis so I haven't really put a lot of time into it. Still, after about 6 months I did make my first sale.

Marburg

Hi, marburg - thanks for your feedback. I have the impression that many, like yourself, are working at micro stock on a casual, part time basis. I wonder if there's anyone doing microstock full time? Perhaps they're not posting because no one is doing it full time, because you cannot make a decent living by doing so. Or, maybe they're not replying because they're too busy shooting.

I went over to the shutterstock website and looked at the 'critique' section of their forum - where photogs could post rejected images, and get some clarification as to why. That was pretty daunting; images that I felt would win best of show awards, were being rejected. Sheesh. There was some garbage there, but some excellent stuff was also being tossed.

Is there any kind of a ratio between the number of accepted images, and the average income? Like, "1,000 images on file, average earnings $100 a month" or something like that?

And do people find that images tend to continue to sell pretty consistently over time, or does the popularity of the image fall off as time goes on? Will stuff that is selling today, still be selling 1, 2, or 5 years from now? What's been the experience of shooters?

If images tend to yield a consistent income over time, then you can consistently add images and eventually wind up at a decent income. But if images fall off in popularity as time goes on, then you'll reach a point where you're working full time just to replace the stuff that no longer sells.

Best, Charlie

Found some information at the following site:

www.microstockdiaries.com/

The author is posting his experiences as a microstock photographer. There's about a years worth of detailed financial information listed. Over that time, his income has risen about 42 percent, from an average of $476 to an average of $677 per month (those are 3 month moving average numbers, to even out the fluctuations). Over the same period of time, his image portfolio has risen about 54 percent in size, from 2624 images to 4054 images now (again, 3 month moving averages). The average earnings per image is about 17 cents per month.

To achieve these numbers, he's listed with between 8 and 10 agencies. Istockphoto, shutterstock, dreamstime and fotolia account for the majority of his income.

So once again, we find an income in the mid to upper 3 figures per month. Over the last year he's grown his portfolio by roughly 1400 images, or roughly 4 finished images per day, working 7 days a week. That seems like a fairly high level of dedication to me.

I must admit, I feel a bit discouraged. I see photogs like the guy above working their butts off to average less income per month than your average hamburger flipper; then I go to shutterstock, look in the critique forums, and see rejected work that I think is actually awfully good.

As near as I can tell, if you're amazingly talented AND work like a madman on Crack, you can earn about 20% of a decent income. Or less.

Am I reading this business wrong?

Best, Charlie

Hi,

Yes, for the majority of us that payment amount seems about right. However, I do know of about 6 folks who are earning much, much higher than that ($4,500 and up) each month. They are also the folks who were doing stock photography before the internet came along and so had built up a personal client base.

For me, it's a fun hobby. I learn with each acceptance, rejection, and sale.
Marburg