I'd like to know if somebody here has already given up on the iStockphoto Exclusivity, tried another sites, and gave up on all them and have returned to iStock exclusivity again.

Some questions if so,

1) Why did you gave up the exclusivity?
2) How long did you stay out?
3) What microstock sites have you joined?
4) Why did you give up and returned to iStock Exclusivity?

I know a couple of people who have done it but I don't think they participate in this forum.  

Would definitely be interesting to get that perspective, though.

Are we in the inverted side of the fence Lisa? Heheheh.
Yup, and I'm not sure if they want to talk about it in the forums too.

I haven't re-exclusified yet, but I am planning to do so as soon as I can.  I primarily used the big 6, but Shuterstock and iStock have always been my best moneymakers.  I've been independent for several years now, but the changes for next year at iStock look like it will be financially advisable to go exclusive again since a large chunk of my income comes from iStock and Stockxpert is basically going away.  123rf and Fotolia have never done well for me, plus Fotolia is cutting commissions and I seem to mostly get subscription downloads there.  It just all points to exclusivity being my best option for increasing my income this next year.

It was a long time ago and before BM2.0, so I don't know if anything I can say would apply.  Shutterstock will get a huge bump when all your files are first uploaded.  Other than that, it really depends on how long it takes you to get images on the other sites.  It should be fairly easy to get your images on Shutterstock, Dreamstime has an upload limit that is tied to your overall historic approved images percentage.  I don't think Fotolia has any kinds of upload limits.  You should probably also be aware that DT won't accept some of the iStock releases.  So if you have a ton of people photos, that may be a bit limiting for you. 

I was exclusive when it first came out and then went independent.  While I was independent I only uploaded to IStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, StockXpert, Fotolia & Canstock.  (Independent 2007-2009)

Canstock- I stopped uploading almost right away because I just didn't feel they were very professionally run and they never made money for me.

Fotolia- Started off good but then they changed the search engines and locked key words.  Between the rejections and the fact that my images got lost in the shuffle a couple years back I lost my interest in them but kept uploading sporadically.

StockXpert, Shutterstock and Dreamstime were good to me but because I'm not a volume uploader I found that IStock consistently accounted for over 50% of my earnings.  Factor in the loss of StockXpert, the hassle of dealing with multiple sites, subs on sites that didn't have them when I went independent, tracking rules that change across multiple venues, the potential of Vetta, my desire to do more portrait work and regaining the crown just made sense.