Thought it might be fun to start a thread of the most ridiculous options that iStock gives us for disambiguating keywords.  Maybe they'll take note and try to figure out a way to do things that actually works...  And maybe they'll pay us a decent commission at some point.  Not likely.

"family photos" - pets
"family pictures" - shock tactics
"joy" - jane seymour actress
"walk" - personal stereo

Looking for a way to easily calculate my net earnings for Alamy.  The info in "my alamy" is gross and I really want to only see net earnings, without having to go into the balance report that shows credits and debits.

I just went from 150 images on Alamy to 3000+ and I'm looking to hit 10,000 by the end of the year (now that I'm uploading my RF collection there as well).  Thanks for the help!

I've been reading this forum for quite a while but never really got involved, however, with the recent istock partner program sales and sale reversals I had to say something!  Istock just emailed me a spreadsheet showing the royalties I was paid and how they are reducing every single amount to $0.28.  So, they paid me a pretty good chunk of change during September and October and now they are reducing every sale to $0.28.  This also includes a RFIMGPCKEXT1 sale for $39.84 that they are reducing to $0.28!  That is clearly not what the partner program royalty rate describes on iStock's website!  This is the first time I've seen details for partner program sales and it's appalling.  Here is a copy of the email I sent to them in reply:

For #26404734/RFIMGPCKEXT1 why in the world would a royalty of $39.84 be reduced to only $0.28?  Isn�t that Royalty Free Image Pack Extended 1?  So, I only get $0.28 per download no matter what happens through the partner program, even extended or product licenses?  That is clearly not what the iStock royalty rate schedule explains.  Here is my source: http://www.istockphoto.com/help/sell-stock/rate-schedule.  As I can see based on the spreadsheet you sent me you are taking away money from my royalties because I was paid more than $0.28 per sale through the partner program.  That is not right and is clearly not what the iStock royalty rates state.  Please correct this issue and deposit this money back into my account.  If not, that�s a huge slap in the face and definitely encourages me to no longer contribute and possibly pull the rest of my images from iStock, not to mention the legal implications of what is happening here.  If this is what is happening (I could be confused or mistaken here, but it's not looking that way) I�m sure I will end up being part of a class action suit at some point to recover royalty rates.  I also would like to quote an admin from the forum post announcing the partner program with iStock in 2009 �We want to sell more pictures without compromising things here. We want to do it in a way that's fair and sustainable for all of us.�  The way things are being done is neither fair or sustainable to photographer contributors.  Thank you for fixing this issue!  Feel free to contact me via email or phone to get this issue resolved.  I have seen many reports and forum posts about upset contributors never getting reply emails.  I'm sure this will not be the case.  Thank you!

Joshua