you say:
” Yes, I‚Äôve written about profitability too: Shoot profitability. As you can read there, I‚Äôve earned over $3,000 from a 2-hour shoot in the past, but other shoots have been much less successful”

ok, that’s is make business. Agree with you. good one.

you say:
“Yes, I‚Äôm a hobbyist and I don‚Äôt pay models and rarely go out of my way to shoot stock. For me it‚Äôs fun and I could not survive on just my income from my photos”

ok, that’s is have fun.

can you see that? it’s very easy to understand diference between business and have fun.

may be I consider to post pictures in microstocks to have fun, but not to make business. I like to name things with it’s right names.

you say:
“II don‚Äôt understand your business logic. You say I need two more years creating two photos a day to recover my investment?”

I meant, that may be and just may be you take the 800 pictures in 2 or more years.

you say:
“(your English is much better than my Spanish!) but what you‚Äôve written doesn‚Äôt make sense..”

My english is not good, but have sense, because you are understanding me.

Lee, I am sure you are very smart guy, I do not want to be against you, I am just trying to clarify the concept of the microstocks because I am trying to understand more about photography business.

Thank you very much

Yes, I’m a hobbyist and I don’t pay models and rarely go out of my way to shoot stock. For me it’s fun and I could not survive on just my income from my photos.

Also, I haven’t created any new stock for 12 months. The $750 a month doesn’t need to pay for models or travel. For me it’s wildly profitable as a hobby, but I would need to do things very differently if it were to be a business. You can’t use a hobbyist like me as an example to say that the business model doesn’t work for professional photographers. It’s true that it doesn’t work for many, but it can work.

Yuri is indeed the top earner. The income of other photographers drops very quickly after him. I’ve written about that too: Microstock and the long tail.

I don’t understand your business logic. You say I need two more years creating two photos a day to recover my investment? How do you know how much I invested? I haven’t told you my costs. And by your logic, wouldn’t another two years increase my investment making me even less profitable? Maybe it’s a language issue (your English is much better than my Spanish!) but what you’ve written doesn’t make sense.

Thank you very much for answer me,

I won’t try to polemize too much, so, time will talk for us.

You can not pay models with 750 dolars per month, and you can not pay for transportation, if you make landscapes pictures or nature pictures.

800 pictures meant about 2 per day, whole 365 day of the year, so, I think you need 2 years or more to take pictures and to recover the invest you did in make the pictures, so, you are not winning, you are losing, may be you are working in something else that give you the money to take the pictures that you will undersell.

If this is for fun, it’s ok, but, business are business. If you cost are equal or greater than your sales, you are losing, there are not magic here,

If I take sunsets pictures, I need wait for good day and I need to trip to the place and take few pictures.

If I take models pictures I need to pay for models and expend 1 day to take pictures,

Can you see that? this is big business for microstoks who win billions and pay pennies or pay wiht the “have fun” to the photographers.

Yuri Arcurs?
I dont know about him, but he is an idol, like and luminaria in show business. but how many can be an artist ?

All my data is above in my earnings reports, and there are links to my portfolios on my About page, so you can get all the data you like. This comment isn’t giving you any new information – you just have to look for it.

Whether this is “good business for photographers” will be different for everyone. Yuri Arcurs earns over US$1million a year in microstock (information he has made public) and at the time of that statement he had around 12,000 photos. But, there are thousands of people who have submitted photos and not even earned enough to make the minimum payout.

Microstock is a business for some and just fun for others. If you’re good enough at creating the types of photos that work in microstock and can create them in volume and in a cost effective manner, then you can make a business out of it. If you’re not good enough, then I hope you find it fun.

Regarding your “if you dare” comment, my earning reports are not promoting anything other than a statistical data point. Microstock is not magic and I’m not creating unrealistic expectations. The fact is that most people who try microstock fail to achieve their aims. A large portion of my blog posts are designed to help people understand whether microstock as a business model is a good fit for them. See microstock isn’t for everybody as a good start discovering whether it will work for you. Statistically, it’s unlikely.

just numbers pleas, how much you win per year and for how many pictures?

…And make calculations and will see if this is good business for photographers

if you dare