iStockPhoto

Do not send photos to iStockphoto. It is no longer the most powerful in terms of sales, indeed Fotolia and Dreamstime can do better. I have been contributor in iStock since November 2007. At the beginning all was at its best, I uploaded lots of photos and my sales increased. Then I became exclusive and my sales kept growing from 80 files per month to 120 in January 2009. But on February 17th, my sales dropped from an average of 5/day to less than 1 per day. Since then I could not sell more than 2 files peer day and last week was dreadful with only 8 files sold. I worked hard to upload 500 files - in fact 1000 because 50% files are rejected - and when I began to earn some money, they threw me by the window. Impossible to know why my sales dropped in one night. The support says that its because the quality of other contributors has increased, but if you look at the database, you don't see a significant quality increase and anyway the quality on the files could not increase 10 fold in one single night, on February 17th. What they did with me. They used my files to draw traffic via Google paying me only 25% of the price and when I could earn some money they pushed my sales down. In iStock there are some happy few who sell 300 files a day or more and earn several thousand Dollars per month. These contributors are protected and most customers are directed to these contributors. The new ones see their best files rejected when the risk to compete with those of the happy few, I was here only to make volume and to attract people from the net. Other contributors took the money and iStock make fantastic profits without any risk.

Didn't receive the correct file all I wanted with a PNG file can't even get it don't bother purchasing your images hear waste of time

Wish I could go lower. Disgusting scammers. Everything below is true and much worse. I set a reminder in my calendar to cancel if I wasn't impressed and I definitely wasn't. The images are very average and daggy.
When I went to the page, there was no option to cancel. I searched every corner of the page. When I went to the payment section, it said there was no payment details to display, so I assumed that I musn't have entered any. It also still offered me the option to sign up for the three different plans and didn't show that I was signed up for anything.

After I received the $90 charge (they charge an $8 processing fee for gods sake), There was suddenly a tab with invoices vissible.

The scammer with the fake name that I spoke to on the chat said that even though they gave no cancelation option, it was somehow my responsibility to email back and forth to discuss cancelling my trial, so it was my fault. She said she would make an exception for me (a strange word given that every other reviewer that got scammed had the same exception made), but it was somehow impossible to return the money they'd stolen from me.

I cancelled the ongoing payments via my PayPal, so I told her to get f%$cked.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS WEBSITE IT'S A SCAM!

If you subscribe for a free trial, after one month they will charge you € 35 even if you CANCEL the automatic renewal!
I downloaded only one photo and never logged into my account again. On the very same day I was billed, I wrote them informing them about the mistake, asking for a refund. But they won't give it to me. They willingly keep things messy and unclear in order to take and keep your money.
Check out their reviews... they're all AWFUL!

ATTENZIONE questo sito è una TRUFFA
Al termine della prova gratuita nonostante si disdica il rinnovo automatico dell'abbonamento viene addebitata una fattura di 35 EURO.

STATE LONTANI DA QUESTO SITO!

They deliberately designed the best way to confuse first-time users with a huge charge which you can't cancel online - WATCH OUT.

They offer a free trial and if you dont cancel before i finishes you enter a one year contract that cannot be canceled! BE CAREFUL

Pro/Amateur photographers turn your images into cash overnight - I have always been a little bit skeptical about giving away "rights" to some of my more precious images, but this is probably one of the best sites to start selling some of your images for cash. It is great for both pro photographers as well as advanced amateur photographers. I have taken photos of some of my rings and sold a few hundred of those photos. Take a look at this:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=*******

It is merely a photo of a girl in front of a laptop... it got sold 7000 times and that photographer made some pretty nice cash. Best of all, you don't really need to be a pro stock photographer. Here are my few tips for this site:

1. You don't really need a pro level DSLR... it helps if you have one, but even if you don't you can still join. I joined when this site first launched and some of my photos which sold a few hundred times were taken on a small pentax optio 4MP camera. You might need to say you have a pro DSLR for them to "approve you". But just edit the EXIF data to hide the camera and upscale your photo if you need a little higher resolution. It is not the camera that makes the photo.

2. If you apply to be a photographer, make sure the sample images that you send them to become approved as a photographer are really really good. Take a look at the shots that sell the most and imitate those types of looks.

3. Sometimes it is best to figure out what photos are "rare" and take those shots. I had a friend who is a doctor and he let me just take photos of his stethoscope and reflex hammer and those have been some of my best sellers. Don't just do what everyone is doing... too much competition.

I have been an image contributor since 2008 and I have to say that over the past 5 years the site has been on a steady decline. Contributor services are the absolute worst. If a contributor has a problem forget it, there isn't a direct phone line to call. Contributors can only open a support ticket online and it may take several weeks to finally get a response. Bottom line, they do not take care of the content suppliers. They do not listen to contributor or buyer concerns. Inspectors are highly inconsistent. If you need a 2nd opinion from "Scout" GOOD LUCK! You will be waiting a very long time to get it. My wait time for one image recently was so long that when they finally responded to my ticket, I was told "I am sorry but the photo is no longer available for us to review". Unsatisfactory!

As an exclusive contributor unfortunately I cannot recommend this site to contributors or to buyers, that's just how bad that it's become. There are other sites that have far better prices and they actually take care of their exclusive contributors and listen to buyer and contributor concerns. If you are thinking of becoming an exclusive contributor, do yourself a huge favor and make sure that you do your research and then research some more. There isn't any incentive to being an exclusive contributor here now. The grass definitely isn't greener. Payouts are becoming less and less and we do not have the ability to get more images to their parent site in order to make more money from our work. It's become impossible to move up in pay level because the redeemed credit targets is broken. They've actually had to grandfather contributors to maintain their current pay level for at least 3 or 4 years consecutively. They'll tell you that they are doing contributors a favor by grandfathering but in reality that way of doing things isn't working and they will not change it. The majority of sales generated now are through subscriptions and partner programs, all of which do not generate credits toward contributor redeemed credit targets because the only way to increase your redeemed credit totals is if a buyer purchases images with credits!

I'm happy that I don't have to rely on the income to survive as it has become very very low... it's a joke actually. Even though I'm still an exclusive contributor who's invested a lot into this company, I'm to the point where I don't even care if this ship finally sinks completely. Call me sick, but I'd actually get some sort of enjoyment from it.

Additional info:

There are also rumors on the discussion boards that some of the Forum Moderators and file inspectors (who are also contributors) have access to individual contributor account pay balance info... I don't have words for this.

Company told me I had until July 27th to cancel my subscription. So I went to cancel it that morning only to find out they'd already renewed it. At a cost of $100 to me.

I canceled my subscription and the last day that I was to have access to it was August 27th. I went to download my remaining 80 pictures but my internet went out, leaving me with not enough time to find and download images.

I contacted iStock chat to ask them to give me one HOUR of additional access to my photo subscription to make up for the hours that my internet was down and iStock wouldn't do it. They said the only way to get an additional HOUR of access was to buy another month's subscription for $100! I'd told iStock that they got an extra $100 out of me last month (because they'd told me I could cancel my subscription on the date that they renewed it on, which is their fault/error, not mine). Yet, they wanted ANOTHER $100 from me to access pictures that I'd already had to pay for last month but didn't even want.

The iStock worker in the chat gave me multiple phone numbers to call to speak to someone...but the phone numbers were disconnected and/or were not open. Because I had the nerve to cancel my subscription on the weekend, apparently I can get no help...

I find it ridiculous that iStock would give a customer fake phone numbers to call for 'help'. What kind of business does that?

So I emailed iStock and very clearly laid out everything that had happened. The person at iStock who responded to my email PURPOSELY misinterpreted my email and offered me a solution of buying another subscription! All I wanted was one additional HOUR of access. ONE HOUR.

The fact that I'd been given fake phone numbers by the iStock chatworker and the fact that iStock was in the wrong for giving me the wrong renewal date (which I'd explained in my email) was not even addressed/responded to.

I've now given iStock 2 chances to do the right thing and both times they decided that screwing a customer because they had the nerve to ask for an extra hour due to an unforeseen circumstance was more important than maintaining me as a long term customer.
If I could rate this a ZERO star, I would. This business is predatory.

You find good information and more beautiful photo.

Great site but it's gotten really expensive compared to when I first started using it.

Shocking customer service, poor packages, overpriced, STAY AWAY, far better providers out there for a fairer price.