You have to price your pictures reasonably. You will never make a living off selling images for a $1 each. But if you are able to make timeless images that will continue to be sold for a decent price, then I have no doubt that as you increase your portfolio, you will begin to make some serious money!

You have to price your pictures reasonably. You will never make a living off selling images for a $1 each. But if you are able to make timeless images that will continue to be sold for a decent price, then I have no doubt that as you increase your portfolio, you will begin to make some serious money!

I would have to say this there is two sides to this statement. There are many photographer whose work I would not call "timeless" its just "there" and in massive quantities. I recently talked with another photographer who has a library of about 2500 images and each agency carries about 1700 of them. She sells 500 images a day and makes $.50 or something on average. $250 would be fine with me.

That is true. You may make a hell of a lot more sales, but in the long run, why would hundreds of people want the same image? If you can find a balance between pricing, and sales, then it should form a peak (back to my high school maths)...

Hess, congratulations on crossing over. Can you provide an update on how it's going?

I microstock as part of my small online media business, so my revenues go into the pot with the rest of my business earnings. It's not enough to support us yet, but it's growing well.

I've come across many people who microstock as a job. I've seen them in forums, their blogs and in the general media. Microstock is arguably passive income and your income is cumulative as your portfolio grows. Therefore you just need to be able to sustain yourself for a few months of full time shooting and uploading (assuming you already have the necessary skills) to create for yourself a livable income. After that you'll need to do at least some work shooting and uploading to sustain your income level, but if you worked full time you'd be constantly increasing your income level.

With the current state of the indusry microstocking is easily a job. You just need to be able to get over the hump of building your initial portfolio. Doing so part time will take a while, and who knows what will happen to the industry during that time.