Good news for me, my taxes are already at the accountant and I dropped 123RF years ago. 

Good for you!  Gotta love the art of procrastination... apparently I never learn my lesson LOL

Anyone else in payment limbo with these guys?  It's been 6 months and counting for me.  After I get my final payment I'm out of there.

When the amount of content outweighs the amount you can produce on a regular basis, you will hit a wall. The crowd-sourced business model only benefits the company, not the individual.  It's fun while it lasts, for the individual... but don't bet on retiring from it that way.

I'm VERY happy about this.  But I hope the same thing doesn't happen like last year... that they issue a revised / corrected 1098 after we have all already filed.  I'm still waiting for that to come back to one of us.

Here's my two cents, take it or leave it.  I'm not trying to discourage you, but it's my dead honest opinion after being in this industry for over 10 years on all ends of the spectrum.

The website looks really rough at first glance.  It's going to need a lot of development.  What good is a 75% payout to a contributor, if you have zero traffic; no content... dude you really can't put the cart before the horse.  Many of us here have even had our own agency websites, and shut them down because the costs outweighed the income. 

You will have to also compete with places like StockPhotoSecrets that offer over 5 million images for a $99 yearly subscription, and 200 total downloads.  No, they don't sell single images... because dealing with customer service issues from numbskulls who don't know their mouse from their elbow isn't worth it, when you're making $1.25 gross per image.     

Sell used DVD's on ebay.  That's even a better business model, than this. 

I have just requested through StockXpert as if the site was still alive and i end up getting payment after a few weeks.

So basically this proves that they are lying to me. 

"Unfortunately, we are still experiencing a delay in StockXpert Payments. We are gradually starting to process payments, however, so we hope to have your pending amount of ------ issued shortly.

Your previous delayed payment of ------ was issued through PayPal on July 20th.

Thank you for your patience."

Patience... I've been MORE than patient.  They only got 5 inquiry emails from me in the past 5 months, with which I've had to wait many days for a generic response such as the above.   I just don't get it.

Guys I don't talk here much, but I've earned a full time income on microstock in the US since 2008.  It's very sad for me, but to be totally honest; I'm now viewing microstock royalties and their dwindling returns as a sort of "unemployment" compensation.  It's going to continue, but will also continue shrinking.  There are so many other ways I can use my time during the week to generate income, that I really can't see pissing in the wind or chasing this runaway train any longer.  I believe that the wave has finally crashed for individual contributors who are looking for a full time income from this, regardless of your content or your skill level.  If you want to make enough to pay your cell phone and grocery bill, and don't mind countless hours of work for less than minimum wage; then go for it. 

I had a 1 hour on discussion on the phone a few weeks ago with the contributor relations head of a major agency in the big 4, and explained my feelings.  YES, there are still niches in the image banks that need to be filled with a lot of earning potentional, but to me, earnings also are not guaranteed to be enough to justify their costs (in both production, orchestration, and planning time). 

Like many others here in this thread, I too have never seen a tank in sales on Shutterstock any larger than 2016-2017.  I barely produced anything from 2012-2015 and still was able to generally maintain my royalty levels.  If Shutterstock is trying to punish those who don't frequently upload. 

I have thousands of images left on my backlog that I might eventually submit, but only when I am extremely bored or feel like experimenting.  I heard that review times are crazy fast and extremely easy to pass, lately.  They must have beefed up their reviewer team.

I just logged in using my full email and istock password, thanks to an MSG user who put that info on here in another thread.  All I wanted to do was check my January earnings, but apparently even those aren't showing up just yet in the ESP area.

Have any US-based contributors realized that 123rf has withheld money from us starting in the latter part of 2015, up until the point that we provided our tax information to them?  I'm talking hundreds of dollars.  Elaine with support is basically telling me that the withheld funds have been given to the IRS, and that I need to contract a tax advisor in order to get the withheld monies back. 

No, I never received an email from 123rf saying I needed to provide tax info, back in 2015... or whenever they decided to switch their company from one country to another. 

I don't have time to deal with this crap right now...

I don't have that problem... because I honestly don't want to be bothered with design work.  I price is high, and long, and hope they go away.  Then sometimes they still want to go forward, so I just buck up and do it.  If something isn't as enjoyable or convenient, or I'm just not in the mood, I quote high.  There are many ways to skin a cat.

Who have you guys found to approve the most cell phone pics, the easiest? 

Fotolia for me seems to be easiest to take the few I've submitted.  Keywording on the fly on a mobile is a pain, though.  I can't see this being time effective, or cost effective... but it's fun if you're bored.   Not sure I've ever sold any of my mobile uploads yet.  I remember Shutterstock seeming a bit tougher to get approvals on them. 

Angela, you're very talented... more than you probably feel.  You need to grow some confidence in yourself, after (how many years have you been doing this stuff now?).  Remember that.  It's not like you just bought your first computer or camera and are figuring this crap out as you go along. 

I would recommend that you start charging hourly for your design work.  Give an initial estimate, but let the clients know they will have to pay you hourly.  Flat rate pricing only works if you're charging A LOT and getting it.  Otherwise you'll get dragged into proofing hell/limbo back and forth just because most people like to change things just for the sake of changing them, JUST because they CAN.  Proofing revisions can turn nightmarish.  Or you can give them an option of up to 1 or 2 revisions and then after that, charge additional hourly.  I've been burned oooooh so many times by quoting a flat rate on design work, only to find out that either I underestimated the length of the job, or because the client was a psycho. 

Worried about your clients being offended?  No worries... there are plenty around, and they will pay you what you want if you have the quality to back it up.  Sometimes people will pay more than average for something just because they think it must be more valuable.  There is a ton of psychology behind consumerism.  It's still an incredible value for them if you chose to charge $100 for a half hour shoot or $150-200 for an hour, with 10-20 images delivered.  Try it out, and see how it goes.  When you get so busy that you're turning away clients, jack up the prices.  You'll give yourself a raise, and you'll be able to make the same, but work less.  Enjoy your family time more!