Maybe it's a cruel April Fool's joke. 

Let me translate from iSpeak

thinkstock isn't shafting everyone enough. so we are starting a subs plan for istock that shafts people there too. Since a lot of the content from exclusives isn't available on main, we will move it there to shaft them too. Of course you get no RC for this shafting. We will mix the sales reporting in with the PP reporting so it will be harder for you guys to notice when we short change you, don't worry, if we accidentally overpay you we will claw it back eventually.

we are launching this in April, expect all sorts of things to be messed up as we roll this out.

I got that one too. They can only atone by giving us our money. Whoever is responsible should pay for the loss. Not us. We made art, folks bought it, folks are using it and we deserve every penny.   

Complain, complain, complain. Flood their inbox:

http://www.istockphoto.com/contact_ticket.php

Explanation email from istuck received   


       
Partner Program Recoupment Follow up - February 26, 2014

We hear your concerns over the recent recall of overpayments and we are sincerely sorry for having to inconvenience you in this way. While there will always be reason for adjustments in certain instances we also know that errors and adjustments have been all too common and we take responsibility for that.
Several months ago we took steps to address this, adding additional staff dedicated to managing iStock partner program royalties, and reviewing our systems and processes to improve on-time and accurate payment. To start, we reviewed the process for partner program and Getty Images royalties. This resulted in our notifying you on January 3rd and 9th that we had discovered inaccuracies with the partner program royalties for certain months that resulted in overpayments.
So you know, we also have some transaction corrections that will result in additional amounts being added to contributors� accounts. Clean-up requires some work, but that work is in progress. The amount is not high�but the point is that we are making progress and for those who were asking; yes, our review is producing adjustments and in the contributor�s favor.
How the Partner Program royalty error occurred:
The overpayment issue was caused by a database numbering overlap which caused certain subscription downloads to be labeled as image pack downloads thereby resulting in a higher royalty rate being paid on those transactions. To arrive at our correction we identified the incorrectly labeled downloads and calculated the difference between the erroneous image pack royalty rate and the correct subscription royalty rate.
There was minimal impact with September partner program sales (royalty loaded in October) and a significant impact for October partner program sales (royalties loaded in November) when this issue was identified. The database issue was resolved prior to the reporting of the November partner program sales (royalties loaded in December).
We�ve made a number of changes to how we process our royalty transfers and hope to improve upon them going forward. We appreciate all your patience and understand how frustrating this has been for everyone. We apologize for having to make these adjustments after the fact.

Sincerely,
iStockphoto LP

Pity indeed. Ironically, this cartoon I made recently sold on iStuck...

Received my IS-mail today: They take away a considerable amount of money whereas they suggest to do it on a monthly basis:

"We discovered that there were some irregularities with September 2013 and October 2013 Partner Program royalties payments. There were a number of contributor accounts that were overpaid royalties over these two months. Unfortunately your account was one of the affected accounts.
We have calculated the over payment amount to be $xxx.xx. Rather than take this amount out of your royalty balance in one adjustment we have decided to schedule the removal of these funds over a 6 month period. Starting before the end of February 2014 we will begin removing $xx.xx. Once per month for the next six months we will recoup the balance of the over payment. You will receive a monthly notification as immediately after the funds are removed."

My sales within this period have been quite good but for sure not as good that they take away this sum of money. We don't have any means to control all the monetary scenarios arising from our microstock activity. It is kind of a "game of luck". Quite disappointing. Confidence and faith don't have no meaning. What a pity.

Yeah, they sent me a message with a notice that they're going to take out a handful of money every month to make up for their mistake. What is wrong with them at iStock? We barely make any money and they blow it for us and take money back. Despicable slave drivers. 

Lobo just started a new thread on iStock's PP forum.  Here's the full quote: 

We've established that there were some irregularities with Oct(Sept) and Nov(Oct) Partner Program royalties. We've been investigating these irregularities and hope to have additional information some time next week. What this means is the royalty payments for September and October are being reviewed at this time.  We will have an update on this issue next week.

I've got a bad feeling about this...

 

Canstock is a great earner for me. Go for it.    Envato/Graphic River is a hassle for me to submit (ridiculous rejections). I don't even bother with them. 

I'm thinking of deactivating my account on DP (we all know why) and I'm looking into other options.

I submit to SS, IS (here and there), FT, DT, Alamy, P5 and BS. I stopped uploading to BS because the results from that agency are bs for me, in contrast to what the poll here says. It's not even worth to push images there for me.

Anyway, I'm wondering about canstock and photodune. Are they good earners for you, is there any particular image type that goes well on those agencies, as compared to other agencies? They are all rated lower than BS, but then again, so are DP and P5, and I earn a lot more on those agencies, then on BS. So maybe expanding would be a good idea.

Any tips, stories from your own experience? Where is the upload process the easiest (I don't wish to lose time uploading to an agency which will not give results)?

Thanks

SS was above average for me in January. IS was less than the previous month. However, after doing all my totals for the MSG survey, I found I made twice the amount of money I did the previous year. Not so bad for me. Sorry it wasn't so great for others. 

My sales at IS are down over 40%. For a more detailed analysis you can pay me some money.

Now THAT was funny! 

I do my own illustrations and I submit for a photographer. Some person(s) on SS review team is going nuts with the reject button the past few weeks. Their comments are totally unhelpful�and in some cases totally ridiculous. It's part of the regular ebb and flow of subjective judgements. Make sure your pix are sharp, logos cleaned up and releases are correct. Maybe make some changes and resubmit. Also submit to other agencies. SS is not the only one that will make you money.

The last 2 weeks in SS  I have had ALL images rejected for same reasons-POOR lighting, INCORRECT white balance, POOR composition- and I am utterly at a loss after spending HOURS in RAW Bridge and PS ! What is the problem? I am thinking of not submitting any more.
PS-similar images accepted in recent past.Is it a BOT or WHAT???

I received this good news from iStock (sorry if someone else posted it):

Strangely, I am unable to upload from a web browser. I tried out DeepMeta for 4 submissions and it worked great. Very nice. So glad we don't need to use that antiquated web browser upload.

DeepMeta for Vectors

"Today we are very excited to announce that DeepMeta can now be used to upload your vector illustrations. Just in time for the holidays!

DeepMeta is FREE software for your computer that assists you in uploading and managing your iStock portfolio. If you haven't used Deep Meta before you can download it here.

Any iStock vector contributor will find this software useful. Having a local copy of your portfolio data makes editing/fine tuning your keywords and categories really easy. Powerful search/replace/copy functionality will save you a lot of time.

Come join the discussion on this great new tool for Vector contributors!"

Was wondering how are your sales going.
For me down and weekends very bad. How are you ppl doing??

BME for me. Sorry yours arent' going so well.

So who's coming to the Microstock Expo?   If you are, speak up!  I'm looking forward to meeting everyone in 'real life'

Would love too, but my microstock income does not accommodate travel. Have fun y'all! 

That's good. Sales have been growing there for me too. 

Really pulling a good month at CanStockPhoto, compared to the previous two months.

 $2.00

 $1.50

 $0.35

 $9.80


 $0.25

 $1.00

 $0.50

 $1.00

 $1.50

 $0.75

 $3.80


 $1.00

 $5.00

 $0.25

 $0.25

 $1.00

 $0.25