A not unexpected slow down in sales during December due to the Christmas and New Year holiday period. From having sales virtually every day on Shutterstock, I had a whole run of zero days over the holiday. A total for the month of 41 downloads (netting $13.56). Still, sales are starting to pick up this week (with 6 in one day yesterday). Also a slowdown at Dreamtime for a couple of weeks. Total sales to date there have reached 38 (netting just over $25). I uploaded heavily to DT last month, bringing my online portfolio to 619 -so I hope to see the benefits of that in the coming weeks.
A couple of sales on Istock and an amazing 5 on Bigstockphoto. I say amazing because prior to December my all time sales on BSP amounted to 1o downloads and $10 commission. It rapidly went to 15 and 15 in a few days. BSP always puzzle me -they want Editorial images, but then reject my archive images for being "grainy". That's why I only have 200 images on BSP, wheras parent company Shutterstock has approved nearly 700! What would be ideal would be some linking of the two libraries, so that BSP buyers could access SS images.
Nothing to report for Yaymicro and Veer marketplace for December, so no change there then!
Returning to Istock, the November sales figures for their "Partner Program" with Photos.com
came out in December (they had previously intended to merge November and December results). Sadly, nothing for me there but it is still early days. Next results due any day now.
Meanwhile the Picturenation.co.uk saga rolls on. Still not back online after some three months. They have updated the message on their site (today) saying that they hope to be back very soon. At the same time a new UK micro site Workingtitleimages.com is set to launch in February. Other than that they are based in Sheffield nobody seems to know anything about them (I have wondered if this is some sort of Picturenation breakaway). They are a subscription site and will pay photographers 15pence (about 24cents) per download. That sort of payment is one thing from a well established site like Shutterstock, but certainly isn't appealing from a new start up with no customer base. Still, it will be interesting to see how they do (whoever they are). Regards, David.
4 comments:
Hi David! BSP sometimes reject a lot more than SS, which is ridiculous once they are from the same "company"..! They should have accept your editorial photos, try to resubmit them :)
Have you checked DepositPhotos? I have made a post last month about them, made 100$ em 2 days of hard work!
cheers,
Luis
Hi Luis, thanks for your comments! I'll probaly have another good look at BSP in the future. It's hard to be excited by them when they reject so much. It's even worse than that. The ones they accept usually have a note to buyers saying "grainy image -best used at small sizes"!! Will have a look at DepositPhotos as well. Regards, David.
Hey David, we seem to be having similar experiences. Lots of no download days on shutterstock in December, doing ok again in January including a day with 6 downloads. I'm also perplexed by Bigstockphoto rejections, in regards to editorial. It's kind of putting me off from bothering, I'll keep trying though. Anyway, you are doing well.
Regards
Komar
Hi Komar, thanks for your comments. Yes, Shutterstock seems to be picking up again after the holiday (I had 6 in one day too!). Also had some snow images accepted yesterday (rather topical here at the moment!). I'll keep trying with BSP -maybe in time the SS influence will filter through to their reviewers. Regards, David.
Post a Comment