IS is up and down like a slow elevator. I've never understood what makes it move. April, which was bad on all other sites, was a record month for me at IS, but now it's down again, while most of the others are going up.

After a weak April, I'm back on schedule with SS. May will be a new record month (like all previous ones except April), and I end up almost 20% above March.

This is in spite of very modest uploads in May, but I did upload photos of higher quality than before.

was going like that then all of a sudden May came along and turned everything on its head, better sales at SS and IS has more than halved compared to April.

Same here. Strange thing with IS is that I sell the same photos over and over again, while on all other sites, my sales come from a much broader selection. That may of course have something  to do with the upload limitations on IS, which means that many of the top-sellers from other sites haven't been uploaded at IS, and some have been rejected (for all kind of funny reasons).

Although IS is still the third best for me, it's very up and down, as sites like StockXpert, FT and even 123RF are closing in. SS seems to be unbeatable. Increased sales and increased payment per sale. What more could one wish for?

An important question is if you need an optical viewfinder or not. Not many of the small ones have one, the excellent Fuji F31 being one of those. Canon G7 and A640 are both good, and I recently tried the Nikon P5000 which impressed me a lot. Almost DSLR ergonomics in a pocket sized camera (much smaller than the Canons). The review of the Nikon was somewhat mediocre at dpreview, but if you can live with the slow focus, it's absolutely something to consider. It also has VR (IS in Canon-speak) and a hot-shoe.

You're grouping them all together in one big mess.

Of course he is. It is one big mess. The teddy-bear thing is mostly well known now, but still, nobody have been able to explain to me why a generic teddy-bear, which by nature is a traditional, generic design, should have a stronger protection than a mobile phone, which has recently been designed by an artist or designer, and which is currently being marketed by some corporation.

This is a tasteless power-play by some of the industrial giants that is often approaching mind-control. They allow themselves to push their designs, logos and marketing up our noses through advertising and TV commercials 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, making themselves a prominent part of our lives. But the moment we take photos of that life and try selling it, it's suddenly their private property again.

While they are apparently in the clear from a legal point of view, it makes me wonder who owns my life.

While I like the layout and concept of LO a lot, after six months, my commissions there are lower than those at stockphotomedia ant featurepics, the other bottom-feeders among those I upload to. I suspect that even Crestock will make me a millionaire before I reach my first payout at LO.

Is it only me, or do others feel the same???

Very good. Just in case something happens, or if I need one of my images while not on my own computer. It's particularly useful with 123rf, since they have a high acceptance rate, which again means that I have one of my largest portfolios there. That can not be said about StockXpert.

I got a reply from MB today, I indeed can not withdraw money if not to a personal bank account.  There must be some logic behind it, although I don't understand what this could be, if money would still be delivered to me personally.

Anyone in UK: is it possible for a non-resident to open a bank account?  I emalied Barclays, but they say they can't give this information by email.  :/
Regards,
Adelaide

Adelaide,
The account could be in any country. As long as there's a card connected to it, you can get the money out wherever you are.

The reason why it has to be a personal bank account, is that they wire transfer to that account, like a traditional bank transaction. For security reasons, they only accept transfers to approved, pre-defined accounts. The approval routine is a bit awkward, but it's very basic, and will work with any bank account, unlike PayPal, who requires a credit card and a higher level of acceptance from the receiving bank.

They could try a new slogan:
"You don't like money? Try Crestock. Low on sales, high on rejects."

Sounds like a success, doesn't it?

You're right. I did receive an approval mail.

This is a funny one: one of the images that I submitted to FT last week, and is still in the approval queue, sold once yesterday and again today, to two different customers. How is that possible? I can't even see the page for the photo, only the small thumbnail.

Now you had me worried, but I can't find the "Instructions" field. How do you see it?