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 10 September 2014

August Sales Updates:

The Red Arrows at Airbourne
August - hopefully the last month of a slow Summer period - proved unexciting to say the least.
Inevitably, Shutterstock was by far the leader with a good number of On Demand sales and a sprinkling of Single Sales pushing the total up.

Istock were runners up with 9 downloads ($7.23) bolstered by 15 PP sales ($4.20) and 8 subs ($2.24). Follow all that? With their strange multi-stage way of reporting sales it's not always easy. Why they cannot just report all sales in real time like other sites do is beyond me (and beyond them it seems). However, the big Istock news is their forthcoming restructuring of their multiple collections into just two -Essentials and Signature. This should all happen circa September 13, when they will also start to charge the same price for any size of download. This is bad news for some but good for others like me. The smaller size downloads that I often sell will now pay out a higher royalty rate and I expect my Istock income to increase overall. Subscription royalties remain unchanged.


Fire damaged Eastbourne Pier
Dreamstime saw some slow periods but finally clocked up 8 downloads ($12.76). Interestingly, while digging around in my stats there I discovered I had received two $5 bonuses when I had two images of this years Jack In The Green festival put in the In The News section. The problem is that I have no idea if I ever got that $10 -I sort of imagine I would have noticed that at the time but really cannot remember seeing my balance jump that amount. I may have to query that in due course.

123rf trickled on with 7 downloads ($6.44). The low Subs rate here really does pull down the figures.

Bigstock saw 15 downloads ($5.94) -again virtually all Subs sales.

Finally from the sellers I had my third sale at FineArtAmerica with $1.50 for a greetings card sale of Margaret Thatcher.

Jack In The Green festival, Hastings
All the other sites were dead in August with not even a Fotolia sale.

Shooting in August centred on the annual Airbourne airshow at Eastbourne where it was great to see the display by two Lancaster bombers. Our own BBMF one and the visiting one from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum which has come over for the Summer airshow season. Recent uploads included the Red Arrows (from Airbourne), Jack In The Green festival and further images of the fire damage at Eastbourne pier. I'm hoping for an upturn in sales as we come out of the slow period although September so far hasn't proved exceptional. Regards, David.