Zoom-in Online

I just hit another milestone, when another one of my photos hit 100 sales. Even though it's by no means a life altering event, it still makes me go woohoo! It drives me to want to do more, and that, I think, is really one of the major reasons why, a site like iStockphoto has become so successful. It's like a videogame, where you can earn points (money from sales) and bonuses along the way, in the form of nifty little icons on your profile page. 100 sales gives my photo a little flame-icon for instance.

I often wonder why we humans crave little things like stupid icons, though I suppose they are really just tiny status symbols. iStockphoto has icons representing all sorts of things, from the film canister icons that show how many total photos a photographer has sold to little shields that show, that this particular member is also an image inspector. Or little wrestling masks marking the number of victories in the Steel Cage. The list goes on and people go crazy for the icons, some actively pursuing as many as they can. I find it quite fascinating.

Small victories along the way are motivating, more than anything else. It's like automated encouragement, when an icon is assigned to an image, simply because it has sold a certain number of times. But it works. It tells me: This is a good shot. Do more like this, if you want to make more money. And who doesn't?

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.