Although trade mark laws haven't changed much, practices certainly have. I've just had a number of train photos removed because of this, and it makes me wonder what on earth the owners of the trains will gain by that. They design and paint their trains in a certain way to get exposure, but they only want exposure that they can control, which reduces the same exposure tremendously. There are obviously two sides of this, but I'm afraid the corporate world is shooting themselves in the foot, if we look at the long term consequences.

There was btw. a case a few years ago about a Ford Mustang club who had printed a calendar with their classic Mustangs. Ford made them destroy the entire print run. And then people wonder why they go bankrupt?

I don't understand this discussion. Instead of putting a lot of effort, money and risk into making something that may or may not fail, why not give our full support to agencies like FP? FP was my number five earner last month, with 70% of prices that I decide myself. You won't do much better than that whatever you do.

Very interesting month. All figures compared to April 2008:

DT 24%, up 116% BME
SS 21%, down 35%
IS 20%, up 34% BME
FT 9%, up 58%
FP 7%, up 338% BME
BS 6%, up 68%
CS 5%, up 584% BME
123 2%, up 15%
StockXpert 2%, down 70%
Scan 1%, up 14%

Total, up 17% from April 2008, up 6% from March 2009, BME

SS continues to sink, StockXpert even more so. BME for the third consecutive month at DT and second at IS. FP and CS both surprised with much better than average results this month. Shows that a little patience pays off, doesn't it? Very happy with the results, particularly considering the fact that Easter came in in the middle of all this.

Now the the 24MP D3X is a different story. Most of the review sites including http://www.dxomark.com/ show it outperforms all other DSLRs. If I could justify $8K today I'd buy it. A $3K 5DII will do everything I need for $5K less.

Why don't you consider the Sony A900? The Zeiss lenses are fabulous, and I've seen some really great images. It's important to use the right RAW converter though. Have a look at this:

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alpha-numerique.fr%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26view%3Darticle%26id%3D264%3Aalpha-900-comparatif-de-9-logiciels-de-developpement-de-fichiers-raw%26catid%3D70%3Adeveloppement-des-raws%26Itemid%3D321&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=

News related editorial photos usually don't sell well as microstock, at least not yet. Other forms of editorials sometimes sell, but you don't know until you've tried.

Guess I should lower all orices!  After one year I have 2 sales - one brought me a $10 commission, and the other brought me $1.45.  I only have 140 images up there.

I'll stick it out a little longer.

Roadrunner

Why lower the prices? If customers find what they want, they are not going to look elsewhere to save a couple of dollars. Their time costs money too, and the chances that they find a better price elsewhere are very slim indeed. All my images at FP are priced at $7 and higher (Microstock images at $7 to 15 and macrostock RF at $50 to 100). Yesterday, I sold an image that was priced at $100. It sold at reduced resolution, so the price was just $52.75, but my cut is still $36.93   

I'm still uploading, and although sales are slow, they are very steady. They are also virtually maintenance free, with automatic payouts and all. With the bad performance of StockXpert, they are actually moving up my ranking. If successful microstock agencies continue to be bought up by morons, some of the mediocre ones may end at the top of the pile faster than we thought possible  

OD and EL combined were more than 50% of my income on SS in March. I see that as a very positive development. It was also a BME for me at SS.

All figures compared to March 2008:

SS 40%, 31% up, BME
IS 21%, 72% up, BME
DT 18%, 21% up, BME
FT 10%, 23% up
BS 4%, 7% down
StockXpert 3%, 42% down
123 2%, 24% down
FP 2%, no sales last year
Scanstock 1%, 50% up

Total: 25% up from March 2008, 12% up from February 2009

Very nice month, and close to total BME. A strong shift towards the bigger agencies, the top four representing 89% of the revenue. Interestingly, more than half of the $$ on SS was PPD and EL. A very positive development in my eyes.

I really like the new stats page....it is so much better then the old one.

I don't know if I like it or not. Still too dizzy after looking at all those coloured graphs....

It's a conspiracy for sure. All microstock sales have to be approved by a committee that meets at midnight every second weekday in Elbonia. Only the Pope, former American presidents and senior Elbonian citizens are allowed in the committee.

You don't believe me? Send a bottle of fermented goat milk to Elbonia (or to Texas), and see what happens to your sales   

Since feb. 21 my account suddenly was disabled. Just like that. No notice. No warnings or anything.

My uploading has been disabled. My gallery is empty. Banned from forum. No reaction from helpdesk.

I am waiting for three days now for an answer. I searched several sites and forums for information about what I can do. But it seems that photographers have not many rights or voice at Shutterstock.

Does anyone have a clue or have the same experience about what's happening at Shutterstock? Please let me know.

Thank you!
Mark

Not the first time this has happened, and probably not the last. It's difficult for a bystander to know who's at fault for the lockout, but SS' lack of communication in cases like this leaves me speechless every time. It's as if they are unable to understand that people are sometimes not guilty, in spite of what they think they've found. But since they are both police, judge and jury, they have the right to be right, every time, and whatever the truth may be.