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.

Friday 24 September 2010

August updates:

Well, August was really slow for me (and many others, judging by the forums) so I haven't rushed to post my figures. Vacation time, Summer Slowdown, call it what you will but this is what I scraped in:
Shutterstock produced 46 downloads ($11.50). Dreamstime 10 downloads ($9.85). Istock had 1 regular sale at $ 1.77 and 3 partner sales totalling $0.75.
Bigstock showed some life with 2 downloads ($3). And, finally, a pleasing high res sale at Yaymicro netted 5euros.
Nothing in August from Picturenation, Mostphotos or 123RF.

I have had images live at 123 for nearly five months now and not even a little subscription sale. I really hope they can build the marketing for their Editorial images as I know many (non editorial) contributors get regular sales there. One was kind enough to send me a screen shot of his earnings page recently. It was nice to see something other than a page of zeros.

However, not all bad news - I had the last of my "Dash For Cash" submissions reviewed at Veer and was pleased to find I had earned $74 bonus from them. This was double what I was expecting as I had forgotten that the bonus went up from $0.35 to $0.70 if you got more than 100 images accepted. I'd had 106! Now I just need $26 in actual sales to reach payout.
Regards, David.

2 comments:

Rob Ewen said...

I agree, my August has been tough but not as bad as july. It can only get better in the run up to Christmas. Shutterstock going strong for me too and fast becoming my favourite site to upload to along with iStockphoto. With regards to PictureNation, do you notice a difference in quality compared with more established sites? I think its hard to pull the buyers to a relatively new site but I think its niche is images of the UK which are harder to find on SS and IS. Looking forward to hearing what September holds for you,
Rob

David Fowler said...

Thanks Rob, September is looking better so far. Regarding PN: not so much a difference in quality but more of style. They tend to have more natural looking, editorial style images -which they say their buyers prefer. And, yes, my sales there have been UK subjects or Celebs (from anywhere). Good luck with yours sales. Regards, David.