MicrostockGroup

never opted in.  I did not like it from the beginning so have not bothered with it nor do I plan to. 

I'm not interested in $0.25 subs with thinkstock.  I don't upload to istock any more.  Such a shame what has happened with microstock, I was optimistic 18 months ago, now I've lost all motivation and I'm looking at other ways to make money.

I didn't opt in for the partner program for all the reasons listed above.  

But aside from those reasons - undermining Istock and accepting the lowest rates in the industry - consider that nobody has gotten paid for PP sales in several months.  People are still waiting for NOVEMBER royalties.

And the final reason not to opt in to the PP, is that all transfers of files between Istock and TS are suspended indefinitely and have been for quite some months.  So even if you do opt in, your images will not be transferred over and put for sale.

ETA:  JoAnn typed faster and made a more coherent case

November royalties were payed.

Oh, hooray.  When did that finally happen?

FALSE! (only PP were payed, no sales from Hemera (XP))

I can tell sweetgirll that 30% of my income from IS is made there, don´t think it is disturbing my regular IS (growing slowly, not this month..).. actually I am with 4 XS for less than 0.25$..

Sorry, I am confused Luis.  Did you get paid for November partner program sales yet?

I don't know if royalties have been paid or not. but I have been opted out since the second month. the ROI versus the risk (or perceived risk) just wasn't worth it. Now seeing the PP on steroids in the form of mirroring Agency and Vetta at Getty. Best case scenario=sales start happening elsewhere without a drop at iStock. worst case scenario=sales start splintering all over the place and Getty really pushes sales at sites (PP, Getty etc.) where contributors get paid far less.

it seems TPTB want profits at almost any cost; in the form of any download from any of their sites...and my fear is it will be at the expense of sales at iStock where contributors are more expensive....if that's the case (since I'm purely speculating based on communications and flubs of late), it's a sad and short-sighted business model for all of us. I'm hoping it isn't the case, of course ;-)

lol don´t know why but I called it XP but yeh StockXpert fits better

November PP sales were payed on the third week of December like usual (next month and the end..) Like they will this month, perhaps next week (for Dec sales)..

Good post.

Getty does appear determined to destroy their chunk of the microstock market as quickly as possible. I don't even see any significant short-term gain to explain their actions. They spent all that time and money marketing Istock as the premier microstock site and then, for the last year, they've been tunneling underneath Istock's foundations promoting their feeble subscription offerings. I doubt that potential customers fork out the sort of money required for a subscription without doing at least some research and, if they do, they they're unlikely to be buying from TS, etc. I reckon they are accidentally promoting SS instead. I'm expecting a really bad year at Istock during 2011 __ and entirely of their own making too.

Back to the OP's question. The PP is rubbish and I'd recommend you avoid it at all costs. You will come to regret it if you participate. It started off really badly and it is now descending into farce.

I see Nov. PP on IS paid until December. Maybe some people are looking at StockXpert which has not been paid.

And yes, they did screw up and used peoples real names on Thinkstock, which I would assume is offensive to those who would rather stay anonymous and not be outted for being microstock sellers. Some people have friends who would frown on their participation in Micro. Some people would just rather have their artists name and keep their real name private. Whatever the reason, IS never asked when they moved files from StockXpert and used real names. Mark one more for their incompetent programming crew.

I wouldn't know if anything is being ported over, I stopped uploading to IS in May.

No I wouldn't say the partner program pays and it seems all cocked up. Next thing we'll hear they are changing it again and dropping the IS files. Who the heck knows what they will do next, it's like some random acts of an insane person.

This is my experience:

November 2010
Regular downloads -> 134 -> 785$
PP downloads -> 290 -> 98$

which means i had more then twice downloads in PP which resulted in 8 times less earnings compared to regular sales. I had a feeling that I am comepteing against myself. I just didn't like those numbers so i quit PP.