I uploaded about 250 a few months ago and have only had 2 blog size sales.  Looks like a waste of time so far.

They were going well for me last year (pre recession) but sales have slowed way down this year. They have, however, just launched a new (much lower) pricing structure. Hi res sales that were �75 are now �15 and so on. They are also now offering E.L.'s. Commission remains at 40% so still represents a good premium over most micro sites. Basically, they have acknowledged the competition from Microstock and are moving to be more competitive. There is a newsletter on their site about this if you log in, giving more detail. On the plus side they have now been going for around four years so are not an untried start up. Clients include Sky news and BBC Television (PN is run by an ex BBC news director so she has the contacts!). Most of my sales have been editorial, but I cannot speak for anyone else. It's really a question of how much upload time you have available. I'll continue to upload to them in the hope that the new pricing and marketing they are doing will lift sales. But, yes get 250 images on at Istock and expect regular sales. With a newer, smaller site that would be unrealistic. Regards, David 

Re; Has Picture Nation gone bust?

Maybe/maybe not!
Meassages posted by PN on Twitter:-

We will be back online in the next few days - apologies to our members but the site will be faster very soon.....no pain, no gain :-(
Posted Oct 12th

Then:-

It never rains..... what do you do with IT when they won't go?
4:06 AM Oct 15th from web

So perhaps it's just an IT problem after all. 

I didn't get any sales there before this problem.  I can understand the big sites having IT problems with their huge traffic but they sort them out fast, PN shouldn't be down for this long.  Will the few buyers they have stay loyal if they can't even access the site?  I would love to see a UK site doing well but they need a miracle now.

I agree with sophie6. How anyone could take this long to move servers is beyond me, unless they have somehow managed to lose all our images in the process!!

The other question is why they would want to move. Their existing site seemed responsive enough so why go to the trouble and expense unless they were being forced to?

It certainly seems as if they have gone to the wall. Pity really because it was a brave, if somewhat foolish, move to try and break into an already overcrowded market. Nevertheless I'm clinging to a faint hope that they will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes if only so that we can get our commissions!

Hi fellow Picturenation contributors. Firstly I should say I do not have any inside or first hand information on the situation at PN. For those that haven't seen it go to their Facebook page and click on "Just Fans". There is a posting there from a PN member who has spoken to Jane Louise. He says he was told that there is an ongoing legal dispute which resulted in PN effectively being "locked out" of their own data base. As I cannot verify this I won't go into further details here (it's still there to read on Facebook). I know from personal experience that anything involving legal matters can often take longer than you expect to sort out.  Secondly, PN are a Limited Company and subject to Company Law. If they had "gone bust" as some are speculating, a liquidator would have been appointed and in these circumstances I think there is no way there would still be that "sorry we are offline but back soon" web page online as it would be a misrepresentation  of the legal situation. Equally PN wouldn't be allowed to keep posting on Twitter that they will be back soon if this wasn't the case. Indeed, what would be the point anyway? I have dealt with a number of newspapers and magazines over the years that have gone bust and you usually get a letter from the liquidator within days asking you to make your claim against the failed business. We haven't received anything, so again I suggest they are still in business. My guess? A whole package of legal and technical issues keeping them offline (and if it's legal, they probaly cannot say much either). I'm not a lawyer, so don't take any of my comments as gospel, but they do represent my personal experience of the scenario when a business goes down. None of this matches that, so I say keep checking the site and lets hope they are back online very soon. I echo the previous poster who said it was good to see a British company breaking into the market and I am wishing them well. Regards, David.

I understand what you are saying Sharpshot. I guess I am just hoping that they have some loyal customers as well as contributors. I am still surprised they haven't updated on Twitter as they must realise what people are starting to think. I know they look at this forum sometimes, so can see for themselves. Regards, David.

Try it now - looks like it might be coming back.

+ I can't log in.

Very true David. I logged in very early this morning and found a familiar website with login screen. This morning its back to the notice we have had for the last couple of months which suggests that they make have been testing IT changes they have made, late at night. But I suppose most testing would be done on a non-live server. Perhaps PN's departure is a good thing (for me) as it always seemed too easy to get images accepted, and I never had 1 sale after a few months contributing. I'm learning the hard way now by uploading to iStockPhoto.

After several years of selling images online, my commission from PN still exceeds anything I have made on the micro sites

Can we please get real? PN is dead, certainly after this disaster. No need to pamper the dead. They are as dead ad the Norvegian parrot from Monty Python. They ceased to be, they are no more, they're gone. The dog ate the backup of their images or they didn't grasp the concept of backups at all.

Lies lies lies!