@wut: Yes, they were gaining level, but they were still free, i.e. I didn't see any benefit from that gain.

@kingjon: The quote I gave in my post is from the official e-mail. Though it seems you can change the default behaviour on the page with all the images, which are about to expire. There are a few links in the text above the table.

Well, e-mails with this subject kept rolling in for the last month or so.

Quote
The following action options are available for you to decide:
- donate the image to the free section (default action) which can provide significant portfolio exposure and increase your sales; images can be disabled at any time later.
- re-keyword the image via keymasters ($0.60/image); choose this option only if you strongly believe your image has sale potential.
- disable the image; this is permanent deletion of your image and should be used as a last resort.

I ignored the first couple of batches, effectively donating the images into DT's free section. My intention was to see whether it would increase paid image traffic. The answer is no. There was no visible increase in sales, however the now-free images got downloaded between 2 and 50 times each over the last two weeks. Some of those images sell at other agencies. As I am not comfortable with such an outcome, I've flagged all the pending "old" images for deactivation. Then I had to manually go though my collection and delete those 70+ images already in the free section one-by-one.
Not impressed.

Hi,
I have just discovered my whole portfolio on Pixmac (http://www.pixmac.com/author/nemo1024@rf) without me ever remembering to submit to that agency. The number of images there corresponds to the number of images in my 123RF portfolio. Shouldn't my port at Pixmac have been deleted by them if the partnership with 123rf had been discontinued? And more importantly, how to guard oneself against finding ones entire portfolio at sites, which you have no direct control over? I try to opt out of all API and 3rd party agreements that I can (both at Dreamstime and iStock), but I can't find such an option at 123RF.

I just filled in the second radio box inder the number field (applied for) [edit: seems it's not even necessary - just leave the field blank, though the form does not say so] and then unchecked the box at the bottom of the form, stating that I acknowledge providing ITIN number "if it is applicable". As ITIN is not applicable in this case, that statement is made legally true by unchecking that second pre-checked box.

Quote from: Eco on August 31, 2010, 19:32
I no, not another stock site that got it wrong regarding the requirement of an ITIN for non-US citizens. Wonder how long it will take to convince Dreamtime that the only requirement is the W8-BEN without an ITIN. I still remember how both SS and FT also insisted on the ITIN. It was only after mass hysteria from contributors that they were forced to do their homework properly and acknowledged that an ITIN is not required. Dreamstime is very late to comply with the tax law requirements. I would have thought that by now they should have learned from the mistakes of the other stock sites.

Here is a warning e-mail I received from StockXpert/iStock team prior to accepting final payout. It pretty much says that requesting final payout = closing your account, so you shouldn't be surprised that you can no longer log in there.

Quote
Thank you very much for your email.

StockXpert is not closing to our contributors.

Please note that requesting your final payout will also close your StockXpert account.
Your files are eligible to be featured in the new subscription site - Thinkstock.com. If you choose to keep your contributor account with StockXpert, you will continue to accrue royalties from any sales through Thinkstock.com. The royalties will be added to your balance monthly, and as usual, once you reach 50.00 USD you cash in your earnings.
Of course, if you decide at a later date that you would like to terminate your account, you can do so at any time and all royalties earned will be paid to you.
Please confirm that you want to close your account.

I've requested my final payment after having deleted all my files. Today I got a confirmatory message from [email protected], asking me if I am sure that I want to close my account and if I knew that my files could be hosted on Thinkstock.com. Well, seeing as all my files are now gone from StockXpert (and I wouldn't want to have them on TS anyway), I couldn't answer in any other way than 'yes'

So long and thanks for all the fish, StockXpert...

CanStock was the first site I started uploading to a couple of years ago. It was also a site I was about to quit... Not any more. Fotosearch sales started to tick in and now I got a FS Regular, netting me $29.18 for a medium size! I am just glad that my philosophy of "it's too much trouble to pull out" has started to pay off

Quote from: fotografer on June 16, 2009, 18:38
To me it isn't so much about the 5c it's that I  can't be bothered to go and tick each image individually.  Apparently it's too late to just opt them all in,

And it's even not just ticking off or on each of the images, it's also the need to wait for the stupid confirmation box after each tick!

I've went through the trouble of opting my whole port out and I am no likely to op it in because of the hassle and the principal...

That is a 1000NOK limit from any single employer... That means that I can have a full-time day job, from which I pay my 45% tax and then I can take an occasional assignment or hobby income, which are tax-free.

Quote from: Magnum on May 28, 2009, 17:35

200$ together with your total income is probably over 1000NOK. Am I right.       Else you can earn. 200$ from 200 different companies without paying tax.

Well, I earn well less than $200 year at Shutterstock, which means that I do not have to pay taxes from this income to Norway (a 1000NOK free limit). Paying to the US embassy to get that number and notarisation will probably cancel out a whole year's payment for me. I think I'll just wait for the next pay-out, loose 30% and close the account...

A disturbing option presents itself - if you want to get rid of a competitor, steal someone's card and buy lots of your competitor's shots with it... Hmmm :-/

Pity This info was one of the reasons why I checked out my sales at FL. My all times favourite was Maltese Harbour Authority buying my panorama of Valletta Harbour...

Hi, Shank!

It would be great to see you on SS!

I heard they give 35 cents after you have sold more than 500 files. I've already sold 331 after joining in the end of July this year (compared to 209 sales after 2 years on iStock). Beware, though, that they have a rigorous entry exam...

Here is my ref link, if you still need it

http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=93486

Quote from: litifeta on November 17, 2008, 20:26
More sales? How about ONE sale!

Second that.

Reviews and ratings can be a good thing - if they are not taken into account for purchase decision making (search, buyer influence, etc). iStock is a good example.

I am still at $7.25 there and a complete portfolio - too lazy to delete With the Fotosearch news I am willing to give CanStockPhoto another chance. Say 1/2 a year more....

QuoteSharpshot: I only uploaded a few there.  Will have to think about uploading more now.  Does this get rid of the 25 cents commissions?  I am not interested in that price anymore.

Well, Shutterstock pay you 25 cent per image as well, and i see you are a contributor there

No movement for me at IS for the last 10 days...

Congratulations! I have 4 sales already, netting me €6.5 They are distributed over 1 small, 2 medium and 1 subscription.

I just had my first RAW sale bringing me a whopping $5

I submit to 8 sites (not counting MostPhotos), tracking approvals/rejections of each file at each site in a cumulative sreadsheet. This gives me a nice option to collect some statistics when I feel like it.

I now looked at FL rejections relative to the number of approvals at other sites and here are the numbers!

9 images were approved by 7 sites (only Fotolia rejected them!)
50 images were approved by 6 sites
82 images were approved by 5 sites
131 image was approved by 4 sites

I won't list 3's and 2's as they were probably right to be rejected by FL, but anything, which was approve by 5 sites or more I would consider stock-worthy.

What is also interesting, is that I have images approved by FL, which are rejected by most of the other agencies...

Very sad news indeed. I just joined the forums and started to enjoy rjmiz posts, when they suddenly stopped coming, and now this..... His sarcastic, yet informative posts brought life to many a discussion. My deepest sympathy goes to his family and his close friends...

Quote from: fotorob on September 27, 2008, 11:27
- istock has the highest rejection rates in the microstock-market

Hmm... they had one of the the highest approval ratios for me recently... Sorry, iStock, FotoLia is topping the rejection roster.

Quote from: mjp on September 27, 2008, 13:24
Try deepmeta (http://www.deepmeta.com/), it is free. [snip] If the istock upload limit is full the program will automatically upload files soon as it is possible (new beta version holiday mode).[snip]
br, MjP

Franky finally implemented my Holiday mode suggestion!!! Yesss!!!!

I just had my first ale at StockXpert, and it turns out to be an XL... sub for 30 cents. So I feel both and
I do sell well at SS, so I guess there is no logical reason for me to opt out of subs at StockXpert, unless by doing so I can net more regular sales...

I had newly two newsletters from them - one in Norwegian and one in English. They were both informative and outlined their product offers.