Last November was my best month ever (and 2010 I earned more than I had in any prior year). I don't think I'm going to beat that this year, so you could say that things are going poorly.

On the other hand, my sales are generally rising month by month at the other sites (Stocckfresh appears to have died completely though, in terms of sales, and I may die before Veer reviews my last several batches of images!). With iStock sales being so poor - for a month that has been the biggest in every prior year going back to 2005 - it certainly doesn't help. So far this month, SS is 37% higher than IS (and on track for a BME at SS). DT is doing well, but the volume just isn't as high. It's on track for a BME for November and I still don't have my whole portfolio up (their upload limits and severe restrictions on how many from a series they'll take have cut things a bit; and except for the last couple of weeks I've been maxing out the full weekly quota of 140)

I viewed switching back to being independent as an investment in my portfolio's future, so although it cost me in the short run to do this, (a) I think I'd have had a hard time this year even as an exclusive given how the majority of other diamonds in the October thread have reported their drops and (b) watching growth in income on other sites is a positive sign - I'd rather be at a slightly lower income level on a growing site than a slightly higher one on the way down.

I'm happy with how things are going, given the circumstances, but if you would judge the situation by 2011 income alone, then you wouldn't view this as a win.

Not a short answer, but it's the best overview I can manage given that I'm not going to put my lifetime stock earnings on a public forum