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.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

First Payout At Yaymicro:

Yaymicro.com yesterday posted our "third party" sales for the first quarter of 2010. It always takes a few weeks after the end of the quarter to get all the results collated and payment received by Yay from their re-seller.
This time my share came to just under 10 euros. That, and a co-incidental Editorial sale yesterday (Guinot wing walking display team at the 2009 Eastbourne airshow) took my Yay sales to 39 euros -well above the 30 euro payout level. I'd heard they were fast but after clicking the request payout tab the money was in my Paypal account within two minutes! That's impressive. Yay also announced two new re-seller arrangements (the first of a number of deals they hope to do this year). Best known amongst these is German owned agency Polylooks which has been getting quite a bit of attention lately.
Yay has been a slow site to build but things seem to be starting to move now. In addition, this has got to be one of the easiest and fastest sites to upload to and editing is fast using their bulk edit feature for similar images. I am certainly sticking with them for now. Regards, David.

Sunday 23 May 2010

April Updates (finally):

A rather late update on my stats for April. Blame that on Veer as I have been busy "dashing for cash" (no results on that one yet but 121 pending).
Meanwhile over at Shutterstock (where my portfolio passed the 800 mark) I totalled 53 downloads in April ($14.88). The hoped for General Election boom for my archive political images didn't happen there (or anywhere for that matter). Certainly there were some sales but probaly no more than average. A Conservative party election poster on SS and a polling station sign at Dreamstime being the only specific election related sales. Staying on Dreamstime, April brought 15 sales (netting a healthy $12.04). Istockphoto produced no regular sales but 7 partner program downloads at 25cents each ($1.75). British agency PictureNation produced another 3 web resolution sales at £0.40 each (£1.20). Bringing up the rear in April, Bigstock had one editorial sale at 50cents.
No action last month for Veer, Yaymicro, or Mostphotos. Nothing at 123RF as none of my editorial images were live in April. As for BritishImages -who knows. They do not have a views/download counter and I am still unable to change my contact details for payment on the site.
April also saw a return to my editorial archives as I finally got round to scanning and uploading more of my B/W negatives. Highlights included Ted Heath, former British Prime Minister, and a new (old) one of Gordon Brown (now, of course, also a former Prime Minister). Regards, David.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Veer launch "Dash for Cash" incentive:

Not often I have much to say about Veer Marketplace but there's an interesting announcement today. From May 5 until June 30 they will be paying from 30c to $1.40 for each accepted image uploaded during this period. The amount depends on the quantity you get accepted. Full details via this link http://bit.ly/dflggq. After initially having high hopes for Veer, I soon found the high rejection rate and low views (and sales) off putting and have had them firmly on the back burner in recent months. I was always going to get round to uploading the rest of my portfolio eventually but this is certainly an incentive to do it sooner rather than later! Aside from the cash incentive what is interesting here is that parent company Corbis are clearly showing their committment to building Veer. There had always been a slight feeling that Corbis weren't really that interested in their Microstock side, but with a Veer re-launch coming soon and this new promotion it looks like Veer might start to get interesting. Certainly my views there have risen of late (sadly, not sales as yet). If you are not already a contributor to Veer you need to submit an initial 10 images for review and get 7/10 accepted before you are in. Good luck to anyone taking part in this promotion. Regards, David.