Have been trying to spread my income base the last year grafix04, have been uploading to 23 sites since I started (added 3 new ones over the past 4 months and dropped about 5 over the last year). Unfortunately, could not find a good replacement or steady income equal to 123RF between one of them yet. So its not due to a lack of trying.

Well, we will just now have to see how things are going to pan out, as we both mentioned now, the chances are they are just going to dwindle down to the bottom of the list any way.  Wherever their buyers are going to land, I at least have a good chance of being waiting for them there already  . 

(PS Thank you for the advice and concern - it is refreshing and appreciated)

Have been trying to spread my income base the last year grafix04, have been uploading to 23 sites since I started (added 3 new ones over the past 4 months and dropped about 5 over the last year). Unfortunately, could not find a good replacement or steady income equal to 123RF between one of them yet. So its not due to a lack of trying.

Well, we will just now have to see how things are going to pan out, as we both mentioned now, the chances are they are just going to dwindle down to the bottom of the list any way.  Wherever their buyers are going to land, I at least have a good chance of being waiting for them there already  . 

(PS Thank you for the advice and concern - it is refreshing and appreciated)

That's probably your problem right there.  If I were you, I would focus less on uploading to as many sites as possible, choose a few of the best ones and focus on those.  The time you save uploading to the other many sites, you could use to promote the few you prefer.  If you Google your images, you'll find that 123rf comes up frist.  I just Googled your lion (nice by the way) and got two images from 123 up the top and one from SS a little further.  What I would do is pick your best sites and promote them.  Get on G+ and post it there and on Twitter.  Blog about it and post on FB.  Everytime you sell it from one of your other sites, post about it again.  Of course don't do it for 123rf.  The extra traffic you get will help the other sites rank higher.  Get Hootsuite or TweetDeck and set up auto posts to tweet the image once a week.  You schedule the tweets so you only need to do the work once. Just work on that one image to see if you can get your preferred site to beat 123 in Google and other search engines.  If you have luck with that image, do another and do your entire portfolio (the gallery page) as well.  If you have your own site, do it for that instead of the others.  It's a bit of work but so is uploading to a lot of sites who don't sell anything.

Thank you for the advise grafix04. Will definitely start focusing on the marketing part (actually never knew how to go about it in this industry, as no one I know is involved, so Facebook does not help me any). Have a lot of quiet time behind the computer due to my medical condition (actually more than capturing the images), so I can market more and keep uploading to the broad spectrum (where justified).

Guess that is enough of what I will do (thank you for the help), so conversation back to the other bereaved 

No worries, hope you have some luck with it.

I just sold my lowest EL so far for only $3. Is this normal? Only $3 for an EEL?

You are not the only one - check out this thread:  http://www.microstockgroup.com/123royaltyfree-com/got-$3-00-for-a-eel-sale-really/

I love 123Rf! I enjoy the upload bumps which are rare on other sites now days. I've been with them for 6 years and have grown each year.

"I liked them too until the Big cut. But now it's become not acceptable for me"


Strictly speaking for myself once a site becomes "Unacceptable" I dump them. Panthermedia was my most recent dump. Not worth the effort...

tab62
� on: Today at 11:18 �

"I liked them too until the Big cut. But now it's become not acceptable for me"


Strictly speaking for myself once a site becomes "Unacceptable" I dump them. Panthermedia was my most recent dump. Not worth the effort...

Hi tab62,
I absolutely agree with you. But I've decided to do it in a 2 step process. First of all I deactivated more than a half of my portfolio. Than I'll wait for a month, and if nothing change I'll delete my port completely.

tab62
� on: Today at 12:49 �
Just curios was the half you deactivated your best sellers there?

Yes it was the best sellers.   

Quote from: mayaartist on Today at 11:26
Quote
tab62
� on: Today at 11:18 �

"I liked them too until the Big cut. But now it's become not acceptable for me"


Strictly speaking for myself once a site becomes "Unacceptable" I dump them. Panthermedia was my most recent dump. Not worth the effort...

Hi tab62,
I absolutely agree with you. But I've decided to do it in a 2 step process. First of all I deactivated more than a half of my portfolio. Than I'll wait for a month, and if nothing change I'll delete my port completely.

CD123
� on: Today at 14:09 �
Not sure I follow your reasoning. Do you think after deleting your best sellers that there will be any chance of things changing for the positive for you?

The reason for me was if they might decide to change a bit commission for the contributors in a near future(for a bit better of course). I would reconsider my decision. I'll keep my account and some images on 123rf for a month and than if nothing changes I'll close my account.

And here is an official reply from 123rf (for my question about why my deactivated images are still available for sale):

Hi there,

Thank you for your email.

It may have been a technical glitch on our website that may have caused the image to be available again after you removed them.
However before we can conclude that, may we know how did you have them removed? Did you removed them from your upload history?

We understand that this might be troublesome for you, but if it is possible for you to have them removed again? It may actually take about
3 to 5 days for the images to be completely removed from your portfolio but they will be no longer be available for download immediately when you have them removed.

Looking forward for your reply. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Frank
Best regards, always!
Submissions & Review Team
for 123RF.com

And here is again "a technical glitch" unbelievable, I have no words.

CD123
� on: Today at 16:01 �
Don't think you should be holding your breath. 

Honestly speaking it's a difficult time for all contributors wright now I think. 123rf cut commission for the contributors, IS+Getty+Google Drive deal. I'm trying not to make a mistake which could cost me a loss of income for the future.   

Quote from: mayaartist on Today at 16:27
Quote
CD123
� on: Today at 16:01 �
Don't think you should be holding your breath.

Honestly speaking it's a difficult time for all contributors wright now I think. 123rf cut commission for the contributors, IS+Getty+Google Drive deal. I'm trying not to make a mistake which could cost me a loss of income for the future.   

CD123
� on: Today at 16:37 �
Totally with you on that, but 123RF will not back out of this move easily.

To be honest, I didn't expect this behavior from 123rf. WOW....

Here is they answer for my request that my images are still available in 123rf search and I even can download them, and possibly not only me.

Hi there,

Thank you for your email.

Since you mentioned that the images you removed are not in your upload history anymore, it means that the images are technically not available for download anymore.
However, if the images you removed from your upload history are still showing in your portfolio, kindly provide us with the image filenames and we will have our technical team
to have them removed from our end.

And here is my answer:

Dear Frank,

I'm sorry but I have no information in my "history uploads" now (about my deactivated images). All of my deactivated images should be deleted if they are not in my portfolio. Am I right?

But here are some examples of my images still available in search and even I can download them (but they are not in my portfolio)

 http://www.123rf.com/photo_14220351_ptsd-symbol-design-isolated-on-white-background-anxiety-disorder-symbol-design.html

http://www.123rf.com/photo_14403909_mental-health-symbol-conceptual-design-isolated-on-white-background-psychological-trauma-symbol-desi.html

http://www.123rf.com/photo_14459632_anxiety-disorder-symbol-message-conceptual-design.html

http://www.123rf.com/photo_14220382_ptsd-symbol-conceptual-design-isolated-on-white-background-anxiety-disorder-symbol-abstract-conceptu.html

http://www.123rf.com/photo_15174092_disorder-symbol-isolated-on-white.html

http://www.123rf.com/photo_14220364_ptsd-symbol-conceptual-design-isolated-on-white-background-anxiety-disorder-symbol.html

and many more.

And if I understand you correctly. Should I need to provide you all of those images numbers which I deactivated recently  by using 123rf built-in an official option for deactivation images? 

I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Hi CD123,

I think you are right. After all problems with royalty cuts and images deactivation issue. I've decided to close my 123rf account.

Bold move. Hope you find an agency where you can make up your loss fast.