When I joined iStock I had a more or less similar experience. I submitted three photos, and got a message that my application was not accepted because the photos are or similar jubject matter, although none of the three photos was rejected. I was asked to send three other photos with different subjects, no waiting period. I send three other photos immediately and my application was accepted within 15 minutes.

I had low prices at FP, between $0.50 and $1.00
I then marked up everything to at least $10.00. My no. of sales remained the same, except no I make 10 times more when I manage to sell something -

I've had 6 sales on Dreamstime so far today - my best day ever, and I have only 135 photos in my portfolio with them.

I just had a look at what they have to sell at YAY - what a lot of crap. The reviewers will have to do some sort of quality control if they want to sell photos.

There are probably some decent photos, but who wants to go though thousands of worthless photos to look for something they can buy?

Does anyone here know what a reviewer earn for a 10 hour shift?

Overall rank: 12354
7 days rank: 6712

It used to be much better, but for the past two months I've sold almost nothing.

This is a terrible month for me- I'm at less than 10% of where I was last month this time.

IS:         27.6%
SS:        19.6%
DT:        15.5%
StockXpert:      14.8%
FP:        12.8%
123RF:   5.5%
FT:        2.4%
BS:       1.8%

First MSG, now I can't get into DT or SS!

When I check statistics I see that I still get the same number of views that I used to, but no downloads. I think that point to buyers not getting what they are looking for.

I also had a $5 sale this week. My biggest sale ever. Anywhere. I like $5 sales, with the exchange rate I multiply my $ income by 8X.

I notice exactly the same trend as Justice, except for iS where I have  a little more downloads than usual.

iS:  37.8%
SS:  30.2%
123RF:  15% (Best mont ever)
StockXpert:  13.7% (Best month ever)
DT:  3.2% (Worst month ever, 10% of March - I've already doubled my April earnings this month)
FT:  1% (Worst month ever)

A very slow month at SS for me. IS is ahead by more than 30% for the month, with a much smaller portfolio.

I saw one of my photos in a magazine 3 weeks ago, stating that the photo was bought from iStockphoto. I got something like $2 for the sale and immediately checked the iStock conditions of sale - the way I understand it, its legal as long as they don't distribute more than 250,000 copies of the magazine.

Quote from: Velvia on April 17, 2008, 04:31
So sad to see LO leaving us


So who`s next in line that will soon leave us?

I predict Canstockphoto...

Are you only referring to Microstock sites? If not, my sales are so bad this month, I think I may the next one to go bancrupt!

My bank refused to accept the cocconuts I tried to deposit.

Quote from: fotoKmyst on April 16, 2008, 02:36
and what do you do if like SnapVillage they only pay via Paypal?

you don't join them?
just wondering... as i am looking to join SV

I don't join them, because Paypal doesn't pay in my country. First thing I check is if a stock agency will pay me through Moneybookers.

No sales, that is zero Euros, converted to $ is easy, $0.00. (Talking about their crazy rating system and zeros, I have a photo that kicked of with a zero rating right after upload while at zero views and zero comments. You can't get crazier than that! No hope of sales on that one.)

My sales at FT just stopped about 10 days ago.

This has been a terrible month for me at FT. I dropped more than 2,000 places on the 7 day ranking, so I guess others are doing OK.

I'm not a member of Canstock, and I'm not sure if I ever visited their website, but here is my view:
What makes an agency good, from a contributing photographer's point of view?  Good sales figures, is the answer, and nothing else. To have good sales figures an agency needs buyers, and photos to sell. The most important is good photos, and only good photos for sale. No professional buyer will want to browse through pages of crap looking for a decent photo. The agency will need to advertise, but that will be a futile exercise if those reading the add doesn't get decent photos to buy. An agency needs this to get decent sales, and will only be able to pay decent commission once they get good sales. I've never considered joining Canstock because they have a reputation for slow sales, but with this changes I may reconsider.

One thing that I find disturbing: I still remember his warning on the CanStockPhoto forum that the accounts of critical forum posters would vanish suddenly. I don't know the true context of this remark, but no photographer can afford to contribute to an agency that is not absolutely trustworthy. What do I do if I have an account with $50 or $100 that suddenly vanishes? I can't litigate in another continent for that amount. Duncan will have to give a very clear explanation to clear up this one.

I don't have any problems with the reviewers at CS. I have more than 80% accepted compared to 70% at iS. I have on a number of occasions received an e-mail from a reviewer complementing a submission, and I really appreciate that. Sales are very slow, commissions low, but I like the people there, so I will stay.

I'm glad it works. I've got two photos in iStockphoto lightboxes. One was added yesterday, to the Initial Rating 5 and the Concentrated! lightboxes, no sales yet.  I've got another that was places in two other lightboxes by the start of January, giving me 17 downloads so far for this year.

Remember that iStock is not the end user - the buyer will do the post processing he needs. The adjustments you make before uploading is irreversible, and therefore makes the photo less attractive to prospective buyers. I never do any post processing whatsoever, except for minor adjustments in levels where necessary and selective noise reduction where necessary.