A bit OT but everybody raves about these AlienBees, I wonder why they don't sell them in Europe.

I'd agree! I read somewhere that they used to sell them in Europe but you needed to use them with a transformer as they were still 110V. Maybe they didn't bother getting the necessary CE certification or fell foul of other regulations (like the correct plug for the country, etc).

Personally I'm very happy with my Elincroms. It's not just about recycling time but also about consistency of light output.

Can anyone recommend microstock sites for a newcomer bearing in mind it is inceasingly difficult to get acceptances in the big established ones like fotolia?
I have got decent photos mainly landscape and travel that are rejected by fotolia.

Fotolia are absolutely the worst for accepting travel/landscapes __ God knows why though. It's as if they just don't believe there's a market for them ... and I know that they're so very wrong in that respect.

To be honest though you are largely pissing in the wind within microstock for such stuff (it's how I and many others started). By nature such images are so area-specific that they are rarely going to sell in the volumes to make it worthwhile. If you want to persevere your best bets are IS, SS and DT. If you can't sell there then you are unlikely to sell anywhere else.

A drop in the bucket? They're going to pay $100+ at IS for an EL, which could have been yours. As far as generating a contract goes, all you need to do is go to any agency and copy/paste their licensing agreement into MS Word, then edit out stuff that specifically refers to them. It'll take you five minutes at most. Maybe you should do it now so that the next time a buyer contacts you, you'll have everything ready.

FWIW, I've found most buyers to be happy that I would, at no extra charge, cutomize an image for them. By 'customize' I mean, make brighter/darker, larger/smaller, add vignetting/copy space, send it directly to their printer/designer, etc. Maybe another five minutes work.

Wise words and great post.

I have to disagree with you on that.  According to my stats the highest i ever reached after almost 4 years is 1.13 average.  I've had an average of more than 1 only twice in this period. This month is already down to 0,83 average, due to too much sub sales and level one images on lowest resolution.  I noticed that once an image reaches a higher level per picture sales become rare and those are downloaded most under subscription.

No, I'd agree with Dan __ my average sale price is continuing to rise as more images reach the higher levels. Here's the last year;

March 2008 412 $414.55 $1.01
April 2008 373 $356.76 $0.96
May 2008 345 $352.95 $1.02
June 2008 369 $334.62 $0.91
July 2008 378 $363.11 $0.96
August 2008 349 $386.44 $1.11
September 2008 338 $409.64 $1.21
October 2008 382 $469.62 $1.23
November 2008 333 $401.41 $1.21
December 2008 254 $286.57 $1.13
January 2009 306 $392.68 $1.28
February 2009 157 $203.69 $1.30

I would suggest that you try searching IS with search terms relevant for your images - and sort the result by downloads...  This will give you a very clear picture of what they want and what the  buyers want.  This search result should be comparable to your own portfolio - Then you can make your own judgement as to weather or not you can produce simular work....

Actually I get the impression that's exactly what the OP has already been doing. I don't see any originality or personal style there at all, just regurgitations of well-worn themes. Mind you, that does seem to apply to the majority of 'vector artists' anyway.

What reasons for rejections are you getting?

No pay, no play is my opinion. Sorry but a credit line isn't worth the paper it's printed on and doesn't help pay your bills. Just getting tired of all the "can we use your image?" stuff with the vendor going under the assumption that the image would be free.

Is the right answer. I think you'll find they charge plenty of money for the magazine itself and also to advertise within it. Imagine Publishing are a substantial commercial outfit.

It should be an EL at least being as they are giving away thousands of copies of the image on a DVD and God knows where they'll end up.

How can a site that goes from being one of everyone's favorite (note that I did not say best selling) to such a mess.  StockXpert sales have virtually stopped which makes me ask if they have stopped marketing, keeping StockXpert only as an umbrella company that funnels content to their more lucrative chanels.  Their many reporting issues in the last few months have left me more than a little shy about trusting their fiduciary ability. 

I'd very much agree with that. Seriously considering opting out and/or exiting completely if the downturn continues.

They've gone from returning the highest royalty per sale to the lowest, but without the volume to justify it, in just 4-5 months. Amazing really, 8 months ago they were doing great.

I'm in a very similar position to you having been submitting over 4 years now.

Yes, IS is doing fantastically well for me this month and SS is very disappointing, but then FT are also maintaining their continual rise and I'm on target for a best match at DT too. (I reckon as of this morning we are roughly 1/3 of the way through the month for projection purposes).

Even so IS are still only 37.4% of my income so by going exclusive, assuming IS maintained the same pace, it is likely that my income would drop by 25% immediately. Even if IS were 50% (which they haven't been for nearly 3 years and I don't ever expect them to get anywhere close again) I'd be unwilling to put 'all my eggs in one basket'. It's just too risky when microstock is your main income.

IS have a history of wild swings of fortune for me whereas SS has been relatively stable overall. Although DL's are well down on SS this month, when compared to Feb 08, thanks to the higher royalties and on-demand sales I'm actually not that far behind on income. I'm not about to make an almost irreversible decision based on the last 2-3 months of results when 4 years of data suggests that what's happening now is likely to be seen as a 'blip' in the longer term.

IMHO this is still a young industry and it has a very long way to go before the winners and losers become clear.

eyes wide open now though.....but it just makes me want to work even harder. regardless, I feel like I have been flogging a dead horse lately...venting is good, but it gets boring and no one wants to be boring.

Honestly! As much as it is not in my interests to advise anyone to go independent, in your case I think it is probably justified on medical grounds.

Trust me, when your sales are spread around half a dozen sites (4 will probably get you 90%+ of potential earnings) you just don't get so hyper-excited/depressed about one particular site fannying around with sort-order, downtime, etc, etc etc. So much better for your blood pressure as well as your income. It is a complete mystery to me why anyone would voluntarily choose the ball and chain.

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I get paid through PayPal and see that there are no charges for receiving money or transferring it to my bank. I use a corporate account. Plus, what really surprises me, is the exchange rate is as good as a charter bank gives. No complaints obviously. Now when I sell something on eBay I get dinged a service charge to receive money. This is a personal account. Is this the same for you people who get paid into a personal account from micros? ie no charges.

Don't forget that PapPal started life as a completely separate company to eBay (although eBay later bought them out). The 'service charge' is simply how they make their money for providing the facility to pay on-line. Nowadays that service charge (paid only by the seller) is also paying for the insurance in the event your goods don't arrive and the seller disappears.

I'd also agree that PayPal's exchange rates are competitive with standard bank commercial rates. In my experience they are a much better company than they usually get credit for.

There's always a cost when providing a service although for a long time many of these charges have been 'absorbed' by the retailer. With the competitive nature of the internet many retailers are now listing these charges, notably credit-card charges, separately.

Maybe you could send all of us a private message.  
It would save a lot of searching to find a few macro/midstock sites.  
Are they hard to find?  If so, why don't the site administrators make them more accessible?  Sales might increase.  

Exactly __ well said. This place is supposed to be about sharing information and any stock agency is more likely to be successful the more good contributors it has. It also means contributors are less likely to prop up the bottom-feeding agencies if they have somewhere better to go __ which ultimately helps all of us.

I believe that you have seen until now on various forums (which you perhaps visited) this action, of letting one know that he / she got a private message. If you go to your account options you have the choice of disabling email notifications. Some people do this - disable notifications, except for some certain topics they create or want to follow up. More clear for you now?

Not entirely as I've not seen this before. What if you haven't sent someone a 'private message' (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), should you also state that as well?

If so __ I haven't sent you a private message (just in case you were looking for it or have/have not disabled these notifications of which you speak).

Isn't it just easier to send someone a private message, err ... privately? If they've disabled their notifications then that basically means that they've deliberately chosen not to be informed of such actions. Surely by informing the entire forum you've then overridden their preference for privacy? Bizarre.