The microstock game has bastardized the creative incentive for any serious photographer.  .25cent images is a absolute insult to ones creativity.  The dog and pony show of the microstock companies is full of empty promises catering to the inexperienced photographer.  As for trademark protection of your prized images, forget it, almost like public domain now.  Why back many many moons ago (10-15 years) the average sale price for a high resolution image was about $190.00 -230.00 US

The photo stock business is a sick joke of a business for serious creative photographers.  In the old days renumeration was rewarding, today  it has been bastardized to the max. Our little pocket guru's (cell phone technology) is the main reason when you do a big think about it. Then focus in on the Stock agencies advertising to entice the multitudes of this world to submit images via their cell phones.

Many years ago I did some stock photography and one was remunerated reasonably well and sometimes exceptionally well.  Today with the advent of billions of images out there on the internet  the stock photography game is a joke.  Thanks mainly to the cell phone camera.