A lot of very good points all around... nice discussion, guys.  I can't say I disagree with any of it.  The guy who founded Shutterstock originally stumbled upon it, because of his own need.  That's his story, at least.  The fact that it grew, and the fact that he was able to turn it into a billion dollar company, came from his own business ingenuity and ability to hire the right team along the way.  This happens all the time, in all sorts of fields worldwide.  It's just business. 

Someone in any company is always getting a shorter end of the stick... but everyone benefits.  It's all how you look at it, and what your priorities are in life.  You could say that the cashiers and baggers at all of the grocery stores are the real ones doing all the hard work, and yet they make minimum wage.  So do the burger flippers at the billion dollar McDonald's corp.  But yet, these folks are thankful to be able to earn money to make a living, and to provide for their families; however small or meager.  None of us posting on this forum are any better than those kind and honest folks.  It's just a different field.  Different buttons to push.  Some eventually decide to move on to find a better paying job, because they're tired of slaving for small wages, or because they feel that their skills have improved much past their pay grade.  Others know how to manage their finances and lifestyle enough to be able to make a career working retail, or at a restaurant.  I guess really none of us are much better than burger flippers, in the stock world. 

I'm very thankful.  Even if this microstock wave finally crashes for us independents;  I will still be appreciative for the past 8 years of stress-free working from home in my pajamas.  It's been a lot longer of a run than I ever thought it would, thus far. 

Who do YOU want to be in the grand scheme of microstock?  Someone who wants to strive to "be like Mike"?  Or someone who is okay picking up the crumbs?  I've been a successful crumb picker for a very long time now, and would love to continue the arrangement I have with all of my "middlemen".  With greater responsibility comes greater stress.  We all need to find our own place and preferences. 

Performance rewards, and seniority; they are pretty standard in the corporate world.  I don't see why they shouldn't happen for us, as we are still providing content for the corporation.  Even better quality images than when we first started.  You pay your dues, do your due diligence and should get rewarded; not screwed.  That's usually how it goes, but unfortunately life isn't always that fair.  I'm not saying we are being screwed, but it's not easy competing with all the content from other photographers and illustrators that is steadily flowing in.  That's why I think those who have been backing the company the longest should get "a little something sweeter" for their loyalty and hard work.  It's the least we could get... it's not like we don't have to pay for our own overpriced healthcare plans now, as independent contractors (or face a 2% yearly penalty on our income, by the govt.)

I would definitely be a lot more motivated to create more images, if there was a raise.  When you sell thousands of licenses per month, those 3 to 5 cents extra per subscription sale really do help. 

Quark... a program you can basically remove from your resume listing, as a graphic designer.  InDesign was so much easier to use, I boycotted Quark as soon as it came out.  Hated it ever since day one.  I would only work with printers who would accept InDesign files, and they learned fast that they needed to do what their customers wanted.  The company I worked for would put commercial printers out of business just by pulling our jobs from them, after price hikes or general stupidity. 

What do you guys thinks this means for us, with Fotolia?  I honestly am not sure.  I guess we will have to wait and see.  I hope they improve our sales, and no more undercutting or fleecing happens.

Everyone's situation is different.  We all know what we need to do in order to get by. 

Let's say (for example) you are a successful stock artist earning $100k a year (gross) off of your images (on a large portfolio, after many years of hard work, submitting to many agencies).  This is a passive income, and totally unreliable.  It could rise, but more than likely it will fall from this point forward.  You notice that by year 2 your income has dropped to $85k.  Year 3, you're at $70k.  Year 4 comes in around $58k, and so on, and so forth.  If you know that you need at least an income of $50k a year to get by, pay all of your bills... then you'd better start looking for another source of income. 

At the same time, let's say you now go out to work for corporate America once again, for the benefits, the 401k, and the lack of certain stresses.  Now you could still be earning $45-50k that year off of your passive, residual stock imagery income, and adding that to your new dayjob salary of $50k+.  So now you're making 6 figures again, and the only you're working a 40 hour work week for "the man".  Heck, you just got a raise, especially if you were working an average of 40 hours a week for yourself.  Only difference, is the commute, and maybe the stress level.

The "worse case scenario" I see for the industry, as a private contractor, really isn't not that bad.  If you don't have the cajones to be able to adapt to changing market conditions in business, then you probably shouldn't be working for yourself in the first place.  It takes a lot of hunger drive and determination to venture out as a freelancer in the first place.  For those of us that did, we need to remember the original fire that we had which motivated us in the beginning.

What do you guys think?  I think I might wait until I can only afford to eat ramen and canned beans for dinner, then I'll go start looking for another job anything is better than working for corporate America again.

I think I automatically got the update when I started it up this morning... but then again I just reinstalled StockSubmitter last week, after uninstalling the older versions on my computer.

free version of stocksubmitter does this also...
http://stocksubmitter.com

as does http://microstockgroup.com/tools/keyword.php then copy/paste

What Sean said.  ktools photostore, photoshelter, etc... choose a service. 

I thought you were talking about finding a wonder magical dream site with amazing commission levels, who also had amazing sales.  Such a place is difficult to find.  You can find agencies with generous commissions, but usually this is just a tactic to get content.  Later on its jacked back down to piddly peanuts.  All I meant was, that if you find a place to host your work with amazing commissions, there's probably a really good chance your images will just sit and rot... if you're driving the traffic yourself, then just self-host your own photo site. 

But what is 70% of nothing?   Even 25% commissions with tons of sales trumps 75% with zero sales, all day every day.  Work smarter, not harder.

Mostphotos, for most of those things (except the pricing/subs). 

Pond5. 

GraphicLeftovers.  (although not accepting new images at the moment)

I'm sure there are a few more.

Thanks arttracer... reminds me of my days over on "the other side"   I don't miss the stress and the deadlines... but I do miss the health insurance benefits and the easier tax returns!

Arena... what a stupid name

Another reason why I like YAYmicro - they spread out our images to anywhere and everywhere via API.  As long as the reporting is being done honestly, I'm fine with it.  I don't personally have the time in the day to pimp out my own images to all of these hundreds of different online agencies worldwide... but $2 for Enhanced license?  That's a little stupid.

*sigh* you gotta pick your battles, in this business.

Many images say "too long file name" which is supposed to be 21 characters.  That seems kind of pointless, because I have always been able to ftp upload images to DepositPhotos with long filenames.  If I rename the files, and refresh, sometimes it still flags them.   That is the only problem I've had with the program - DP submissions.  I have even checked off the "ignore stock size limits" option.  I need to exit the program, and then restart it... then the red dot goes to yellow.