Back in the Seventies and Eighties I founded and ran several Fleet Street photo agencies specialising in stock images of celebrities from pop stars to politicians. These were syndicated to the National and International press and Television. These days I am active in the Microstock world and this blog charts my journey as well as, hopefully, providing inspiration and ideas to others. Image buyers should also find this blog useful with links to my portfolios and regular updates on new uploads. Unless otherwise stated all images are my copyright and may not be reproduced or copied. Comments are very welcome but will be reviewed before publication. Enjoy your visit. Regards, David.

Sunday 2 August 2009

Shutterstock going well:

July was my first full month on Shutterstock. Downloads totalled a respectable 40 for the month on a portfolio of circa 124 images. I also had one "On Demand" download which paid out a welcome $1.88 in commission. It is certainly exciting to be with a site that gets you daily sales (5 in one day being my best so far) and this is with (in microstock terms) a tiny online portfolio. Acceptance rates on my editorial archive images remain around 99% ( presumably for the simple reason that Shutterstock do not have any, or very few, of these subjects on file already. For example, I have the only images of Margaret Thatcher there). Non editorial images have a lower acceptance rate but I'm pleased to say that those that do get on sell just as well as the others. I didn't realise there was such a demand for pictures of seagulls but having had some accepted last week they have been flying out (so to speak). A word of caution, however, many photographers believe that the Shutterstock search engine favours new contributors and that things slow down after a bit. I am hoping that I can counter balance that by continuing to upload on a regular basis. I'll report back in due course. Regards, David.

2 comments:

Microstock Posts said...

Yeah it's certainly nice to get downloads everyday. In fact I get surprised if I login and don't see new downloads. There is a noticeable increase in downloads for a few days, after I get new images on. You seem to be doing well there also.

David Fowler said...

Hi Komar, yes I know that "surprised" feeling! I had a run of four days last week with zero downloads and then 5 the next day. Two factors here I think. I have been heavily uploading and now have over 500 online at Shutterstock but most would consider that a small portfolio. I think you need to get to several thousand to see constant sales. Also, it is August. The concensus on the forums is that everywhere is slow in August (due to vacations) and that sales kick in again after that. I'm just concentrating on building my numbers for now. Regards, David.