So far this month I've sold 3 extended licenses on IS. Two of them only paid a paltry $6.06! How is that possible?

A warning fable for anyone who might be considering exclusivity:


]A young girl was trudging along a mountain path, trying to reach her grandmother's house. It was bitter cold, and the wind cut like a knife. When she was within sight of her destination, she heard a rustle at her feet.
Looking down, she saw a snake. Before she could move, the snake spoke to her. He said, "I am about to die. It is too cold for me up here, and I am freezing. There is no food in these mountains, and I am starving. Please put me under your coat and take me with you."
"No," replied the girl. "I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite me, and your bite is poisonous."
"No, no," said the snake. "If you help me, you will be my best friend. I will treat you differently."
The little girl sat down on a rock for a moment to rest and think things over. She looked at the beautiful markings on the snake and had to admit that it was the most beautiful snake she had ever seen.
Suddenly, she said, "I believe you. I will save you. All living things deserve to be treated with kindness."
The little girl reached over, put the snake gently under her coat and proceeded toward her grandmother's house.
Within a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her side. The snake had bitten her.
"How could you do this to me?" she cried. "You promised that you would not bite me, and I trusted you!"
"You knew what I was when you picked me up," hissed the snake as he slithered away.

Beware

My beautiful  Samsung SyncMaster244T monitor is dying, and I've been shopping for something comparable. I searched on this forum, found a recent discussion about monitors; and learned that my monitor was discontinued. It's replacement, the  Samsung SyncMaster245T was recommended instead, but it turns out that model has been discontinued, too. There are a gazillion monitors available, at all different prices, and I can't decide. Does anyone have any suggestions?

There's a really interesting article on Bernie Madoff's life in prison in New York magazine, but the reason I'm posting about it here is because of the photos of 'Bernie in prison' that accompany the article. Naturally no photographer is going to be allowed to do a photo shoot of Madoff in prison, so this photographer used a model that resembles Madoff, then somehow they got access to a prison (maybe one not in use?) and shot a series of photos depicting Madoff sitting in a cell, sweeping floors, ect, ect. Here's a link:
http://nymag.com/news/crimelaw/66468/?dbk

I've wondered about doing this sort of thing; I do 3D, and I have a model that looks like Obama. But they'd have to be editorial, and after looking at many of the editorial photos in Dreamstime, and seeing that the vast majority of them get very few if any downloads; there's not much incentive to give it a try. But I did think it was an interesting approach to photo illustration, as well as fascinating article about a psychopath.

I'm seeing Thinkstock being advertised all over the place online, they are really pushing that site!  It's depressing to keep seeing the ads all over the place, and being reminded of what we lost. StockXpert was such a great site, and they replaced it with this travesty. It appears that Getty is spending tons of money to promote it. Greed ruins everything

Whenever I create an illustration that uses NASA resources (usually a photo of the planet earth) and upload it to iStock (giving credit to NASA in the description), iStock rejects it with the following:
It appears that the map you have submitted was derived from a map, or similar source, using distinctive elements that are recognizable from the original. Since the map is the predominant aspect of the file, it may be a prohibited derivative work.

Please include the following information in your description of the file to have this file reconsidered:
- The source of the map you have used for reference (URL or a scan to verify ownership)
- The software you have used to create your file
- The date your file was created
- The layers of data used.

There are many images on iStock using photos of the planet earth, they simply say "courtesy of NASA" in the description field. Do they really require ALL of this information whenever a NASA image is part of the overall illustration? Theses two images (the devil one submitted a while ago, the other just recently) were both rejected with the above message.
Here are links to the images in question:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=45968809
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-21003310/stock-photo--d-render-depicting-the-devil-in-control-of-the-earth.html

So does anyone know how I can possibly get these types of images into my iStock portfolio?

thanks...

Let me start out by saying I regret joining Veer, and wasting so much time on their site. I've decided to stop uploading, and I'm getting close to canceling my account. I wasted several hours uploading a batch of around 40 illustrations to Veer, all different subject matter. Most of them were rejected as "subject matter not suitable for the Veer marketplace". I seriously doubt they spent more that 5 minutes looking over the whole batch of around 40. There was a wide range of subjects, most were rejected. I'm mainly disgusted at the colossal waste of time this was, time that could have been spent creating new illustrations for my portfolio. Even iStock, the most rejecting agency out there, accepts 79% of my work - and they also provide Scout to rescue the images that never should have been rejected.

And that's not all, I can't get the FTP to work, and when I posted about it on this forum, I received no help whatsoever. I had to upload images one at a time, ridiculously time consuming. I'm very busy and don't have time to waste like this. Take some advice that I wished I had received to begin with - don't waste your time on Veer

Linda B

My Fotolia account has been blocked and I need to contact Chad Bridwell as soon as possible. I'm using this forum because I don't have access to the Fotolia forums. This is all because of a misunderstanding that I can clear up. Chad, if you are reading this, I responded to your email, please call me.
Linda Bucklin (AlienCat)

Am I the only one having trouble uploading to iStock? Images often upload without the file info, so I have to cut and paste from Photoshop ...or the thumbnail for the image isn't generated and you get blank white space instead. This has been going on for at least two weeks, but I haven't seen any complaints in their forums. Is anyone else having problems?

Linda B

My portfolio appears to be dying a slow death at iStock. IS used to be my best earning site, but lately the downloads are down to trickle. Is it just me, or are others seeing a big drop in downloads? I'm not exclusive.
Linda B

I have subscription sales enabled at SX, and now I'm wondering if I
should disable it. It seems that the percentage of subscription
downloads is increasing, and I wonder if I'm hurting my earnings
potential by allowing it. What are most contributers doing? If you
disabled subscription downloads, did you do it because you thought it
would increase your overall SX earnings? Or did you do it simply
because you are offended by the idea that someone can download an XL
image for only 30 cents? Is it the money, the principle of the thing
or both? Any recommendations for me...?
thanks
Linda B