I'm very pleased with Getty.

Direct through Flickr. 

I don't believe you have to have a pro account but your images need to be set to public and it's a good idea to tag them because the editors are still trolling the Flickr archives for photos they need.

Yup, I've been with Getty through the flickr collection for about 6 months now also and the RPI is very very good.  I find the stuff I choose is selling better than the stuff their editors picked from my stream.

Photoshelter is expensive.  I don't trust that Photoshelter is going to stay in business.  Smugmug is excellent.  Been with them for a couple years.  No complaints. $150/year.  I made a few great editorial sales there.   They keep getting better.  Very well run.  Soon they will be launching a stock photo collection. 

Wow not the response I expected .. I didn't realize there was such a fear of competition. Which when you think about it is really silly. For example, when you look at the size of my portfolio as a part of the entire microstock industry it is a tiny tiny tiny fraction of a fraction of a percent. Yet, over the years it has paid for my house, my studio and the equipment in it. Not to mention we are talking about photographing patterns and textures, a fundamental form of composition. To be afraid of creating competition in this area is just complete paranoia. If I were to actually claim that as "my niche" that would also be incredibly egotistical. I'm mean come on, should I discourage photographers from taking a picture of bark on a tree because that's "my niche"?
Trust me there is plenty of room for competition.

totony --- now he actually read the post and obviously thought about it because he picked right up on the lesson that was being expressed. He also made a really good point ... this forum is about sharing knowledge. He said he never thought about selling textures and I'm glad I was able to point out something he was missing on. I hope now that he's aware of it he sells a buttload of them.

AVAVA -- I'd just like to compliment you on your portfolio. I've personally approved a lot of your images and they are always a pleasure to look at. After seeing so many of your images at 100% it's obvious why you didn't join in on the anti-sharing of knowledge. You definitely don't have to worry about competition. .. oh by the way Im an administrator for one of the big 6

You're an adminisitrator and you actively recruit submitters to multiple other sites?  

D

I back up all my photos on Smugmug.com which is similiar to Flickr.   It cost me about $150/year for a pro account.    I can sell prints, coffemugs, photobooks, and even digital downloads on the site.  I actually made a $350 editorial sale a few weeks ago.  My galleries that I have keyworded come up very nicely with google searches.  They are suppose to be launching a stock photo service sometime in the near future where I believe they will start being more aggressive with recruiting photo buyers.   I disable the ability for people to purchase digital downloads from me on Smugmug.  I prefer the potential buyer to contact me first and we can discuss a price.  That also prevents any hassle I have because I files I have listed exclusive at Fotolia or Alamy.  Smugmug, Flickr, PSA, or whatever I think is a good idea because you can back up your files online and get them safely out of your house.  Hopefully, try and pick a company that is safe from going bankrupt.  Probably wasn't much fun for the people who had photos on Digital Railroad.

Here's my smugmug page if you want to check it out.  www.cappi.smugmug.com

I'd go with the Canon G10.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001G5ZTPY?ie=UTF8&tag=cappismyspacp-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001G5ZTPY

http://www.alamy.com/forums/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=3065

Don Farrall's post on page 4 of the thread.

Quote from: nativelight on September 10, 2008, 16:02

Excellent!  More and more I'm thinking of dropping microstock and putting everything I have on Alamy and whatever I can get approved at PSC.  I'm pretty fed up with inconsistent reviewing on the micros.  However, I do like the instant gratification of seeing sales everyday even though they're minute compared to Alamy sales. 

Stunning image or not, it was worth a fair amount in the buyer's eyes!

Not so sure I'd be dumping micros for Alamy. I saw quite a few posts over there that $1 per image per year is a good rule of thumb for earnings. I'm sure a lot of people make more but that's not real promising if that's accurate. It's also probably why submitters over there say you need a few thousand images to start seeing decent results. Micros seem to average about $1 per image per month.

A pro at Alamy posted a few days ago that he earned over $24,000 with a port of 500 photos on ALamy during the last 12 months. One sale was for $8000 He said they weren't his best pics.  Getty gets those.  I'd like to know what he made on Getty.

Wal-Mart stock is at a 52 week high.  Are things really that bad?

5 dollar/gallon heating oil this winter is gonna hurt though.    Buy gold.