Several Microstock startup agencies have offered a compensation for submitting pictures. I have tried several of them and while I have a nice $20-$50 in my "account" I have never actually earned enough to get paid. DepositPhotos.com sent my first payment yesterday.

StockXpert was acquired by Getty Images, the owners of iStockPhoto a while ago. In a rather predictable move they announced that they would be closing direct sales on the site starting February 11th, 2010. What does this mean for photographers? Well consider it a consildation of accoutns and one less place to upload images. Buyers are being directed over to iStockPhoto and they are even allow to transfer their credits. From this post on the forum it appear that photographers can either transfer fund or email StockXpert for a payout.

As for your earnings you can either transfer then to your iStock account by logging back into your account and then follow the guidelines to do so.

If you don't want to transfer to iStock or do not have an account there, email customer support and ask for a complete payout. I suggest you only do so after Feb 10 in case you get more sales until then.

Accounts at StockXpert will still be actiave and the place photographers receive earning for Getty's ThinkStock project. 

If you haven't already setup a iStockphoto account, view iStockphoto reviews or signup.

Have questions? They have a forum topic going about the issue or post you comments and questions here on Microstock Forum.

Last week I recevied the following email from SnapVillage. It seems that we will have to take a little break from sending images there. I have not uploaded much seeing as I get very few downloads (none actually in the last 2 months). Hopefully their new Veer Marketplace will find a little more success.

The next stage requires that we stop accepting new uploads to SnapVillage. We have scheduled this to happen on Friday, May 1. This means you can continue to upload images through April 30th, but after that you’ll have to hold on to your images for a few weeks while we transfer the rest of the SnapVillage content over to Veer Marketplace. While we can’t take new uploads, you’ll still be able to access your SnapVillage account as you always have and during this transition, SnapVillage buyers will continue to be able to license your content.