Anyone was able to get payment sucessfully by now?

I received my payment today. Slower than usual but Depositphotos has never been a serious problem. I've been with them since 2012 and now receive 3-4 payments a year.

"Businessman" wearing nail polish and jeans?

It would really help if those small fish agencies would lower their payout threshold. It's 100$ at Dreamstime, it's 50$ for 123RF and DepositPhoto's.

I totally agree but in my particular case, DP reaches payout now before the SS. They are also a great starting point when submitting to multiple agencies.

If anyone is interested in reading a more pragmatic look at the facts surrounding JC there is a full edition in National Geographic entitled The Story of JC. The edition bases its findings on archaeological artifacts and written documentation from that era.

IMO, everyone in this forum are special people who document, in one form or another, the important era we live in when our little blue planet is in decline. Peace. 

Got an e-mail notification from PayPal that they received payment from Adobe.

Good to hear, Dragonblade! I hope that will be the last time you have to deal with PP problems! Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for answers despite getting a PP email that I received payment that never arrived....Still showing $0.

Quote from: SuperPhoto on October 24, 2023, 09:22

or whether it would just be a time consuming task for a few dollars, etc...

DP would never be a time consuming task, as they are the agency with the easiest submitting process. Just hit upload and click submit. No stupid keyword sorting or highlighting, not even categories to select. Takes literally one second for a whole batch of content.

I couldn't agree more. DP is the easiest starting point for submitting to online agencies. Copy and paste your description and keywords when you're submitting to other agencies and streamline the ridiculous submission process. Personally, I've also found that DP sales increase when you're approaching pay-out.

There is no relationship with any agency. All agencies provide a platform to distribute your content and in exchange the platform gives you a small royalty and it's always on their terms. All agencies have a unilateral contract. We are all expendable. Those are the facts.

And the only way we can enjoy fair compensation for our work is to unionize. Period. Otherwise, online agencies will always be in control. Either you accept their terms and continue providing them with your images or you don't. That's the world we currently live in. We set-up our own agency and agree to providing OUR agency with images, clips and illustrations and no one else.

....and I'm back to September payout total only. This is after two days of August sales included. I'm also noticing "recaptcha" making it almost impossible to enter the site.

It is certain that as soon as I have my $100, I close my account.

You do your thing, I do mine. I've been with DT for more than a decade. The first agency I started submitting images to. Never slashing commissions. Always consistent sales and always part of the top MS agencies. And you're going to close your account because the payout is $100? Do you think somehow that's going to punish Dreamstime? At least they didn't try to manipulate you like the SS by lowering their payout and then lowering the commission.

     123RF is now offering me "free gifts" if I start resubmitting. Sounds like desperation to me....

People contribute to SS from all over the world, and in some low-wage countries, the revenue from SS is still enough to feed their families. So good luck convincing them to join your union.

Wow! A statement I can image the Boardroom Boys making when justifying cutting commissions by 80%: "Sure, we've got contributors who used their commissions to feed their families. They bought rice, vegetables and maybe even took their families out for dinner once in a while when sales were good...but they can still buy them rice."

     The SS and their treatment of contributors is a prime example of how unions are born. It's no different than the "boardroom boys" of a company mulling over how they can squeeze their employees out of more money before the employees finally are fed up and unionize.
     From my perspective that would entail contributors creating their own microstock site and contributors signing an agreement that this site would be the only one that they will contribute to.
     It's a complicated scenario. How can the microstock group ensure that contributors are adhering to the agreement they signed and not continuing to feed the SS and other agencies with their images and clips using another erroneous name? And how can contributors initiate the site? Can enough money be raised to create and maintain the exclusive site? Will enough contributors sign up and build an agency that reaches the top 5?
     50% for the contributor's exclusive agency and 50% of the buyer's money for the photographer/Videographer would be incentive to get things moving.
     The SS boardroom boys and their trained monkeys. How can we, as photographers and videographers, change the current industry standards? Unionization. IMO.
     I am not someone who has ever depended on commissions. I'm concerned about the contributors who used their earnings to
feed their families. In the pre-SS days when commissions were a
lot higher, the money was a part of the essential need for those of
us who really depended on commissions to move forward. Those are the people I think most about and why I feel the SS and other agencies are immoral and corrupt.