Many of us contribute to the up and coming sites. Which would rate as the best one and one that has potential to bump one of teh big six?

Lucky Oliver.  The site looks great and works better than any other site I have used.  It is so easy to upload and there is a real community spirit.  The reviewers give feedback and are very useful for beginners.  They are building slowly, unlike other sites.  If this strategy works (and it is still a big if), they might well become one of the top 5 sites.

with a fairly good portfolio on 8 micros, I have to say that 123RF income is higher than BS by almost double and this month it'll beat SX. I would bump BS down.   

I recently began uploading to BigStock and am not pleased with the results.
It may be time for me to get busy with 123RF ...

FWIW I don't intend uploading to any of them.  What I ask myself is this:

Is it better to drink from a river than to try to get blood out of a stone?

My experience so far with BigStock is that it is like trying to get blood out of a stone; I can upload and upload, but they simply don't seem to be investing and marketing to grow their buying customer base.  My returns there are uneconomic.  I see no evidence that the situation would be markedly different at LO or 123.

On the other hand I know that IS have 2 million buying customers, and I also know that they can sell in volume.  Instead of wasting my time with new agencies, what I should be doing is working out ways to maximise exposure to the 2 million customers at IS; that means doing some of the things others have done like making sure I have banners and lightboxes and 'similar images' links, and also of course maximising the upload facility with quality and commercially viable images.

The same thing applies at SS - I know they can sell in high volume so I am better off spending my time maximising that potential.  For instance there is a way to have five similar images displayed underneath each of my pictures.  I haven't worked it out yet, but I simply ask myself 'do I want to spend time showing every customer a further five images of mine whenever they download?'.  The answer of course is a resounding 'yes'.

So I wish everyone success with their new agency stuff, but I believe my time is better invested elsewhere.

Well I think it's a mug's game to be honest.  No disrespect to anyone here.

Five years ago no-one had heard of microstock; istock entered the market and had a new concept to sell to millions of potential design and image buying customers.  They now have 2 million of them on their books.  SS, DT and FT followed closely on their heels and have around another million customers perhaps.

These customers have access to a huge number of images at good prices and with good service.

So the game has changed; the 'new' market no longer exists; 3 million of the customers are now captive.  Why would an existing or potential customer sign up with a new agency who might have less than 200,000 images when they can go to istock or DT or even SS?  Answer: very few.

So a new agency has hard work to do; it's going to require a huge investment, attendence at trade shows, marketing, advertising, and all to a diminished potential customer base.  StockXpert and LO are doing well by attending the trade shows but even so it's going to be a long hard slog for them.

So what is the logic of you giving your image library to these new agencies?  You've spent thousands of hours creating those images, and now you are freely handing them to new agencies many of which do not stand a hope in hell of ever creating an economic return on your investment.

But great for the new agency owner: he collects over time a nice image library of say 1 million pictures; he now has a valuable asset that he can sell - YOUR asset of course.  So in a year's time Albumo go along to Snapvillage and say "hey guys, don't waste your time collecting images one by one - you can buy our library for 2 or three million dollars; all the pictures nicely keyworded and categorised by our mug contributors who have made no money because we couldn't get any customers".

Please, people, don't be mugs; you've got a very valuable asset there; you should protect it, not just hand it out to all comers.

hatman12-
I think we can agree on something- I wouldn't get into a relationship with a business that I didn't know anything about.  It's important to trust that partnership.

On the size of the market...potentially 100 million plus.  We're just getting started.  Relationships with ad agencies are nice, but the longtail of this market is huge.  Until everyone has a digital camera, consumers are not going to understand why they need a great digital image.

Money drives business, but new artists getting into the market will not have the same experience or opportunity you have at company X.  That's what capitalism is all about.  I love it. Exposure, education and opportunity are all elements of the business relationship.

On collecting money as an owner?  Hmmm...you've got to be able to burn through some money to get a site going.  I'll let you know when I receive my first penny in compensation.   This is a business relationship , we're out there everyday creating more opportunity for our artists.  I started giving away my photos in 2000- this isn't something new for LuckyOliver.  As an artist and a designer I make it a priority to respect the work of our contributors. Not everyone will agree with our decisions, but we try to communicate the thoughts behind our ideas.

I think every artist needs to look at what they want out of a business relationship. LuckyOliver understands the importance of keeping that dialog open.

Five years ago no-one had heard of microstock; istock entered the market and had a new concept to sell to millions of potential design and image buying customers.  They now have 2 million of them on their books.  SS, DT and FT followed closely on their heels and have around another million customers perhaps.

Sorry - disagree totally

there are millions upon millions of customers that don't even know about the opportunity yet.

sort of like telling new car companies not to try - heck there are already 6-7 huge names out there in the biz, why start up? Yet they do it all the time.

sorry but your logic is all wrong. Like others have said, i'm not giving my assets away... i'm selling them and i'm trying to sell them to as many people as possible.