Yes definetley worth it!  but hold on a minute.  Downsizing?  no I wouldnt do that at all! In the entire stockworld, may it be RM, RF, Micro or whatever, the general moto is: the bigger the better.
By downsizing and especially to IS, youre limiting your sales and incomes quite a bit. At IS, the competition is neckbreaking and you should at least be able to produce pictures selling as L, XL even XXL.
Many of us at IS work cameras capable of huge files,
Always supply at best quality and maximum size.

well thats my thoughts anyway.

Yes, you're right Imo.
However, for the initial approval, I was advised to downsize to
Minimum to hide the blemishes or faults to some extent..
That seems logical to me..

Either way, I never downsize my images for sale.
I keep them at 12.2 MP

Done.
Although, can't really crit till I have more confidence

Yes, you are right. I talked to an admin last night and he confirmed that passing the application test is not sufficient to get posting rights in the forums. Apparently some of the applicants have bought some credits before, that's why I had the impression they could post even before being accepted.

Yup, confirmed.
Just a message back from support saying exactly that.
I have another 52 hours before I can apply again.
I'm getting nervous - no clue which images to upload...
Obviously no pets and no flowers.
I don't have too many people shots.
Have a couple of shots of factory workers welding, showing sparks.
Got a few wildlife pics too of Zebra, Giraffe and Lions.

Suggestions (in terms of category at least)?

You can also just link to your images here for critique.

When you get accepted, read this:
http://seanlockedigitalimagery.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/youve-been-accepted/

I've put a nice support ticket forward to the guys at iStockPhoto.
Let's see what they come back with.

I couldn't help but read the article link you posted above.
LOL!
It's hilarious - I love the tongue-in-cheek attitude!

Some good points though, that I'll most certainly take into consideration!

Thanks again.

I was not able to post even after failed applications. Actually, even after my application was approved I wanted to thank the members on the forum for critiques, I was not able to do it until I uploaded the first picture for sale. This was back in November, I am not sure if things have changed since then.

Yup - same for me.
I can't post either

Hi all,

I'm new to the stock game.
I've registered and uploaded a few pics to quite a few agencies already.
I've been into this now for just over 2 weeks.
My portfolios are tiny, yet I've made just under 30 DLs in 2 weeks at SS (which I think is pretty good).
Fotolia have made one DL for me (that's  probably because they keep rejecting the photos that are top-sellers at SS) 

Anyway, this is not a soap-box session.

I was just wondering - I have applied twice now at iStock and they have rejected both my applications.
I used my best (top sellers) photos to apply, both times.

I get the opinion that they don't like me or something because I pressured them into processing my application with a support ticket or two.
There was a whole thing about my ID not being suitable and my names not matching (which was nonsense).
So I uploaded the same file again and then my membership was approved.
Then after uploading photos they rejected it.
Then 3 days later I uploaded again and they rejected those too.

So now I'm wondering - do you guys have any tips for me?
I really would like to get into iStock - I've heard great things about them!

Thanks a ton in advance!