I can clearly see most of the problems that have already been mentioned. If you can't see them, maybe one of the problems is your monitor.

I was down for me earlier but it's up again.

Subs are at 37% and increasing quickly. Oddly, January was the first month I started getting subs. Overall, my downloads are up but earnings are up and down. I'm not seeing a pattern of growth there.

Viewsonic 19" Widescreen LCD. The difference in between my 20" NEC CRT and the Viewsonic are night and day. The LCD is awesome.

http://viewsonic.com/support/lcddisplays/vx1935wm/index.htm

Waldo, your response implies I'm discrediting or downplaying the skills of new contributors, which I'm not. I'm sure there are a ton of talented new contributors.

I've seen evidence that many new contributors "give it a try". When they find out it can become a second 40 hour full time job that constantly rejects their best work plus earns them next to nothing for the first few months, they give up.

It is what it is. I believe a high percentage of microstock newbies, both new and seasoned photographers, give up after they see the enormous level of effort and initial low return. It's pretty clear the people who have the right skills plus commitment are getting somewhere with this.

I'd love to see some stats from each of the sites what percentage of user accounts that are older than six months and have less than 25 or 50 images.

So Hatman, are you feeling any different about marrying Istock with a potential Getty divorce?

Does it come with a camera as a bonus? 

There's a camera attached. You can't see it?

In last 3 days I had:

154 uploaded, 151 accepted, 3 rejected. Hm...

it is not Fotolia, it is your photos, I guess.

This remark comes across as elitist. Did you intend it to sound this way?

The reason I started this topic is because I've had close to a very high acceptance rate (90-100%?) at Fotolia over the past several months. Fotolia is my third highest earner of 11 sites and I like them.

However, a few weeks ago, I started getting random high rejections (50%+) on certain batches. Mostly for "similar images". While the images may have been similar in subject, they were not just a slight different angle of the same subject. They were two completely different scenes with similar objects.

Since the rejections seemed inconsistent from batch to batch my guess is they have a new reviewer.

I live in Switzerland and have never seen Alien Bees advertised or on sale. Are they a US product?

For a starter lighting kit I bought the Elincrom D-lite 4. Two flash heads adjustable in 1/10 stop increments (who uses it that fine?) with softboxes and all the gear, packing neatly into 2 cases. If you're in Europe I'd recommend this kit.

Yes, a US product http://www.alienbees.com/. I'll check out the Elincroms, thanks.

Denis - you're in a tough spot. You're probably going to have a hard time making money with that Mintolta. I'm not sure what it's worth but could you sell or trade it and take that money to get a used DSLR? Like the others said, a Canon 10D is about $200-$250. Not cheap but it would open the door for you to start making some money. Gotta spend it to make it. 

what?! Is this about making money or your love and ability to create images?

They said this would happen, everything good in my life would soon be capitalized on, and made commercial.
(I just recently found out that the tooth Fairy were my parents. I'm devastated)

Be well, and make a lot of money if that's what floats your boat,
The MIZ

For me it's both. But I applaud you that you're in this purely for the love of it. Which of the sites are you giving all of your work away at?

I must be missing something here. Nikon seems to have played this whole camera release game masterfully with the D300 and D3.

I just saw the official D60 press release. Uhhhhh, it's a freakin D40x with a couple of new features, one of which is the new D60 badge.

I really hope they have something else up their sleeve than this.