imo if your looking to stay independant I'd add 123, BigStock, Canstock, and maybe deposit, cutcaster and/or yay

123RF is my worst earning agency. I'm really considering pulling out of there. After listening to all the chatter about them on here I personally would not include them in the Big 6, but that just my opinion

YMMV, but I've had good results at 123RF.  Right now they're close to Fotolia and way ahead of Dreamstime and BigStock, with CanStock barely registering.  Deposit's a question mark; sure, you can get a first payout from uploads, but will there be anything after that?

I'd go for BS !!  Sold nothing at Canstock and DP are unknown !

Having said that, sign up for DP and cash in while u can, it makes sense !  

Quote

Right now DepositPhotos is your biggest chance for some payout out these 3 ;-)

If you have a larger portfolio, like say 500 good quality images, then sign up with Deposit Photos and be a part of the .20/ accepted upload deal they still have on there.  They're not all that picky with submitted images and you can make 100.00 with 500 accepted images.  Trying to make 100.00 in royalties at any of the other sites you're thinking of would take a really long time.  The only catch is that you have to leave your images on with DP for a minimum of 6 months.

I'm pretty sure BigStock has a 90 day commitment policy before allowing you to delete anything...

Quote from: disorderly on February 04, 2010, 20:37

YMMV, but I've had good results at 123RF.  Right now they're close to Fotolia and way ahead of Dreamstime and BigStock, with CanStock barely registering.  Deposit's a question mark; sure, you can get a first payout from uploads, but will there be anything after that?

Remember Albumo?

There I've said it all. 

What exactly have you said?  Yeah, Albumo vanished one day and left unpaid balances behind.  But I made a few hundred dollars there, which is an order of magnitude better than I did with Lucky Oliver.  Was it worth the time and effort?  I don't particularly regret it, and I won't regret whatever happens with Deposit.  Or Crestock for that matter, which owes me almost a hundred dollars that I'm not sure I'll see.

Intrigued about Deposit, but I'm not hearing much from the community in terms of real results.

3 subs sales in a week after uploading over 1,000. That's an RPD till now of 33.6$  .
I want to play honest with them, that's why I didn't stop at 500. They are conquering the market with brute force = $$$. Most of the new sites went because they were undercapitalized. DP is clearly overcapitalized (and we know why). Much will depend now on how their contributor relations evolve, and their marketing. Money can't buy you love. They have at least 6 months to prove it.

Quote from: RacePhoto on February 05, 2010, 14:07

Quote from: disorderly on February 04, 2010, 20:37

YMMV, but I've had good results at 123RF.  Right now they're close to Fotolia and way ahead of Dreamstime and BigStock, with CanStock barely registering.  Deposit's a question mark; sure, you can get a first payout from uploads, but will there be anything after that?

Remember Albumo?

There I've said it all. 

What exactly have you said?  Yeah, Albumo vanished one day and left unpaid balances behind.  But I made a few hundred dollars there, which is an order of magnitude better than I did with Lucky Oliver.  Was it worth the time and effort?  I don't particularly regret it, and I won't regret whatever happens with Deposit.  Or Crestock for that matter, which owes me almost a hundred dollars that I'm not sure I'll see.

They are wonderful, I'm impressed, they are the best new site in 2010, people will retire on the earnings from this fantastic site. OK is that better?

Within six months people will be complaining, no sale, no sales, reviewers will be "rejecting too many" photos. By the end of the year people will be asking why they get no response from the Admins. when they try to close their account. Reviews will start to take a month and by 2013 deposit photos will be gone. That's what I'm saying.

Of course by then we will see another dozen splash in the pan sites come and go as well.

Until someone comes up with something innovative and different, the big four, what's left of them, will dominate the industry.

Yours, "Mr. Negative"

I don't know why.  Care to elaborate? 

You've got mail.

Quote from: FD-amateur on February 05, 2010, 19:42

Quote from: lisafx on February 05, 2010, 18:48

I don't know why.  Care to elaborate? 

You've got mail.

I'm sure a lot of us don't know why.

Indeed - mind to share your knowledge? Thank you!

DepositPhotos definitely! They pay you 20 cents per accepted image. You may have $100 in almost no time with 500 uploaded and accepted there. If you have some luck maybe you get some sub sales on 30c also ;-)

Nevertheless, after uploading there you should add CanstockPhoto because they sell also on Fotosearch and occasionally you may have great single sales there.

Good Luck!

Quote from: FD-amateur on February 05, 2010, 19:42

Quote from: lisafx on February 05, 2010, 18:48

I don't know why.  Care to elaborate? 

You've got mail.

I'm sure a lot of us don't know why.

I have no idea either. Funny when he said "we all know why" I thought I was the only one who didn't know!

Why can't we all know?

me too me too ..i wanna know why also!

FD-amateur, I'd like to know too!

Google is yer friend. (thanks Keith/Zymm for the research)

The points have been made. They do have deep pockets since they took the submitter market by shock, awe, and $$$. They have a marvelous collection by now, posing a real threat to thinkstock and perhaps shutterstock. The bad English issues have been solved. The reviewers know their job since it's the first site I know of that rejects for bad isolations or isolations on other backgrounds than black and white.

It remains to be seen how they will take the buyers market. But having deep pockets, they can outsource the marketing to a US company very well.
Comparing with under-capitalized ventures like FP, LO, CC, they have a leading edge. If they fail, it won't be because of money and that was my point.

Since for now, they just have a virtual address in a Florida mailbox-suite, there is still the risk they will fall back in the Albumo scenario after 6 months. The longer they exist, the more big names that join them, the more trust they will generate.

Their stock images business model doesn't show connection to depositfiles business model.

I am pretty sure that they won't upload images to depositfiles and kill depositphotos content because that content needs to earn money.

Also, since related to depositphotos they can faster close any copyright infringement related to illegal uploads on depositfiles. And, that way looking on this matters I see depositphotos as one plus source which can fight against piratized electronic-form items.

So, it looks pretty safe to have some (maybe not total) confidence in depositphotos.

Regarding they are Cyprus incorporated that only says they are very smart and that they mean to do real business. That with Cyprus equals on some way companies incorporated in Northern Ireland which also has low tax climate and that also gives many operational advantages against competition which can't legally tweak it's own or it's content suppliers earnings with lowering tax rates when available as options.

Anyway they have earned respect for what they've done until now. I am sure that confidence will grow as well as sales in the future.

I like to see serious players competing with Getty's satellites in any time and on any place - even if that comes from east or far east!

Get going full speed and smash them DepositPhotos!

I had excatly this question in mind just week ago - BigStock + CS by published stats do earn together usually less then 10% of total microstock income, even those with larger portfolios do earn there few bucks per month. I have average portfolio about 300 pics on SS and DT and 130 at IS - it took me two years to get first $100 from DT. With sales 3-5x higher then BigStock+CS, how long till first paycheck? Deposit have great bonus program and its a chance to be there amongst msall start group of contributors and build a good search rank, unlike BigStock or CS (where all those old-timers have search rank 1000% above newbee). Chance to get first $100 from Deposit very fast was the main reason to join them - even if they fail, at least it will show some money - you couldnt say that about BigStock or CS. One is owned by SS (high chance to be closed exactly like StockXpert by Getty), second owes money to contributors and both show weak results. 

And about personal info - remember you did post passport to SS? Remember all those nearly criminal or criminal treatment of contributors there? I mean all those accounts deleted without any chance to defend, all money claimed etc. - this is not exactly the proper way. And all agencies more or less behave that way, so I would say too loud Deposit is bad...

Can't tell anything about safety, but by traffic DP is already ahead of CanStockPhoto. BS is next . #8!

http://statsmicro.com/graphs

Well... You can't really count that Canstockphoto has so low rate because it shows it's content on Fotosearch also. You must find right curve for that too... So, it is the fact that Canstockphoto has more traffic and exposure than depositphotos for now despite curve you see in that stats!

Why wasting time with third rate agencies ?

They're not even agencies in fact, DepositPhotos is an offshoot of a well known
warez site.

It looks like they paid people to upload 1 million of photos already