When I cashed out at pixmac this week, the payment came from Pond5 - so in that sense they are merged.

In terms of the images or sites merging, they're still separate. Sales (for photos) don't seem to be great at either (although I have only a fraction of my stuff at either site - was sort of waiting for something to happen with the merger before doing more uploading, but...)

Thanks for the update 

I wanted to give them a go and was wondering whether its better to go thru Pixmac or Pond5 (since I have mostly photos).  But I guess that may be a premature question if the merger is still not fully implemented - and maybe hard to predict how exactly it will go.

Got accepted onto Stockbo... now lets see how it goes.

Congratulations - that's first step done and now to see how the sales will go ...

I've applied with a link to my port as well, as they seem to make a good confidence-building start!

My sales are better then ever. Shutterstock has put some nitro in my port. 123 is performing well. Symbiostock is picking up. FAA keeps earning for me.

Great, happy for you!  I dont finding a justifiable increase in line with uploads made since last year.  That suggests a declining trend, good part of which comes from reducing RPDs.  Its like running hard but going nowhere ... or maybe I'm on the 'wall' (as I read on another post).

my 123rf content appears there.

Going back to August sales ... 

SS marginally over august 2012
DT slipped under aug 12 but they got me 2 BMEs in last 4 months so cant complain abt occasional dips
PD gradually growing trend and up in line with uploads
IS fallen off - I have deactivated fair amount of content as well
FT cant find growth compared to uploads done - RPD declines ...
123RF - also slower and I think the rate changes hurt and continues to..
Canstock - saved by one better value sale otherwise a disaster
Veer - very low, almost negligible sales
Bigstock - increased up a little - but the sale volume in no way justifies the very low sub rate
Alamy - nothing

Overall, and in relation to the uploads done during past year (fair comparison basis), august 2013 continued the trend of not producing reasonable returns. 

In good part and in my opinion, the problem lies with most/ many agencies now offering ridiculously low sub rates WITHOUT generating enough sales volume to satisfy contributor efforts in portfolio building (SS is one clear exception for me because they do much better volume). 

Also experiencing pretty low sales this month/ recent weeks - and the ones coming thru mostly sub or XS at miserably low returns!   Funny how the subs even at xl and xxl sizes yield the same low revenue - that should really be changed across the board 

My crystal ball says ...

Short term ( 2- 3 years) - more penny pinching stuff, more of the same we have now with supply running way ahead of demand.  Contributors struggle on / no real returns/ little voice in the business. 

Medium term (5 − 7 years) - Micro rates potentially falling so low that a large, high volume site or two giving away free images to users and making their money from ad revenues.  Alongside that emergence of a new order with high quality concept images and specific theme images (including industrial, etc) at higher, macro type rates.  Sharp drop off in contributor numbers for microstock content.

Longterm (10 + years) - there's no long term in the internet age   Who knows what might happen!

Anyhow, I doubt that microstock is worthwhile for either new contributors or existing contributors without large, well established portfolios  to waste time/ effort in the current environment. Just my take.

Yes, whatever happened to sales?  There used to be those nice $ 35 downloads once in a while that seem to have disappeared lately (at least on my port).. one hopes they come back 

Oh ! I thought payout was at 50, my mistake 

Not that that makes a huge difference..

I believe there site says within 15 days of the request.

Ok thanks.

Lets sits back and appreciate some (at least one) brilliant move in the microstock world.

So lets imagine I'm a stock agency ( its imagination only - and I'M NOT a stock agency) facing
stifling competition.   And then there's new stock agencies arriving in the market pushing rates
down - including at least one that's cash rich and offers lower rates for the same or very
similar content.  My business is pressured more and more.

The contributors are a mass-less, shapeless and generally dispensible commodity - of no account
really because for each one that leaves there's ten more arriving in queue - with same or very similar
content. 

I know that I can drop contributor share or overall rates and there's no significant long-term
repercussion from the Contributors side that I need bother about.

So then I make a brilliant move.

I give away a whole bunch of images for free distribution.

So what happens -

1. Contributors lose money (who cares!).  In fact I reduce their share further while the going is good.

2.  All exisiting stock agencies start to lose market share.  The stronger 3 or 4 will likely ride it out. But
the smaller/ weaker/ newer agencies who are on the threshhold of survival will likely go under or get further
marginalized.  Leaving the marketplace open again for the few bigger/ stronger players - like me.

3.  Then, when all the fallout has taken place two things have happened.  Contributor shares have been
further reduced.  The weaker agencies have become even less significant. Leaving the market open for
strong players like me.

Then I can take profit and rake it in - over months and years - till the marketplace changes again -
and I come up with some other new, smart strategy.

Applaud.

Flat as a pancake despite few hundred uploads to various sites in past year.  The new uploads, and new income effectively countered by drop in royalty rates by so many sites!  SS hung in just about to July last year, ok on FT and PD, lacklustre performances on 123rf, Bigstock, poor on Canstock, DISMAL alamy over past two months - dont feel like uploading there anymore unless smthng changes there quickly - however DT came in with a BME recouping a good deal of the month.  IS low but I have removed a fair bit of content there.  GL continues with non-existent sales.

Lousy month.. sales down almost 8% from June last year with about 800 or so images added in year.  One doesn't need a crystal bowl anymore to see where microstock is headed .. (hoping to be wrong - the perennial optimist!