Gagne has sold 500,000 images at iStock!!

Lise Gagne, recently sold her 500,000 image at istock. I was going to post on this anyway but found this article celebrating her achievement (as always extracts are below and a link to the full article at the bottom).

iStock is no doubt the most successful microstock site at the moment. It treats its exlusives really well and it puts money into advertising which drives sales (I have my least amount of photos on line there but they are one of the top 3 earners).

Bruce Livingstone comment that she may be the most prolific stock photographer on the planet appears to be a bit of the mark however, based on the comments of Yuri (see here).

Anyway, an interesting article to celebrate an amazing achievement.

Extract:

World's Most Successful ''Crowdsourcing'' Stock Photographer Reaches Half a Million Images Sold on iStockphoto
CALGARY, ALBERTA,
June 5 2007
CNW

Lise Gagne, a freelance photographer who sells stock images online, just sold her 500,000th image on iStockphoto.

Gagne, from Quebec City, Quebec, was the first to become a full-time iStock photographer and has almost 5,000 files on the site, which have been downloaded an average 100 times each. She has quickly risen to become iStockphoto's most in-demand artist, making a six-figure income.

iStockphoto pioneered the concept of micropayment stock imagery and was one of the first social networks in the world to actually pay contributors for the sale of their work. It remains the world leader in micropayment stock and is now the global volume leader in all stock photography sales, whether user-generated or traditional. iStock has more than 1.8 million members and an image or video is downloaded from the site every 2.5 seconds.

"Lise is a great friend, a true artist, and has really set the bar high for the members of our community," said Bruce Livingstone, CEO of iStockphoto. "We work very hard to promote our artists, providing training, business cards, partnerships, and advertising that give all our exclusive contributors maximum worldwide exposure. I believe Lise is the first of many who will achieve this milestone, as we have just barely scratched the surface of the worldwide appetite for imagery. What may be her most astounding accomplishment is that by our calculations, she just may be the most prolific stock photographer on the planet."

iStock artists are paid instantly every time one of their images is downloaded. Exclusive photographers can make 40 percent royalties on each image sold, and 50 percent on extended license agreements. iStock promotes its collection and photographers through aggressive marketing and advertising campaigns worldwide, and has many partnerships internationally that increase channel sales potential for its artists.

"I fell in love with iStock right away, but never would have dreamt that someday it would be my career. But things have a way of working out: I got fired from my old design agency for spending too much time on iStock, and suddenly found myself with all the time in the world to give to photography”. said Lise Gagne. “Now I hope to hit a million downloads in half the time it took to reach 500,000."

Link