April Sales Updates:

The medieval Torre del Oro in Seville

A varied month in April with a range of good and less good results.

Back up in first place were a much improved Shutterstock. Only one tiny Single download this month but a good number of On Demand sales - making up over half of my income. Editorial reviews at SS have slowed of late mostly taking 2-3 days. I remember the days when editorials would get approved within minutes of uploading.

Second place went to Redbubble with 5 product sales. These were varied with a pillow, mug, phone case, sticker and baby clothes being purchased. The upload interface at Redbubble has been updated with caption and keyword information now coming first before the individual product templates. I must say I prefer getting these done first before getting into slightly the tedious process of setting up the products.In a less welcome change there no longer seems to be an easy share (to Twitter etc) button next to some products - in particular framed prints. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough yet! I'd ask about that on their forum -if they hadn't scrapped that last year (with no sign yet of the promised return in 2019).

Istock took third place with 34 downloads. In contrast to Shutterstock editorial reviews are flying

Kayaking action on the Guadalquivir river in Seville

through here, usually within an hour or two of upload. Of course, it is sales not review times that are important but I do like see them going through promptly.

In fourth place was a low key return for Alamy with a single figure presentation sale of the Poll Tax Riots of 1991. Good to see these archive images proving popular but a bigger paying sale would have been nice. My zoom activity has gone up of late so, hopefully, there are some more sales in the pipeline.

Bigstock came in fifth place with 8 downloads. Good to see two downloads of my University of Barcelona image. I had hoped that somebody would find that useful.

Dreamstime managed sixth place with just 4 subscription downloads so a far from good result from them.

Debenhams department store In Ashford, Kent

Bringing up the rear were Adobe with 2 downloads but, as I always say, my port there is only just over 300 images. Whether or not editorial submissions will ever be allowed for normal contributors I still don't know. There have been hints that is coming but still nothing has been forthcoming. I may be being simplistic but wouldn't this just require two things? First a bit of code allowing us to mark uploads as Editorial Use Only and, secondly, telling their reviewers not to reject those images for unreleased people/trademarks etc. Could be up and running by tonight if they wanted it!

Recent uploads mainly concentrated on my April images from Seville. The tourist attraction of the medieval Torre del Oro and some "bonus" images of people kayaking on the Guadalquivir river. It's worth looking out for extra shots such as those in addition to the obvious landmarks in the guide books. My port is lacking in sport and action images so those are useful to have. Closer to home the Debenhams department store chain announced 22 store were to be closed next year. One of those is the Ashford store where I used to live and I got an old image of that onto all my sites (not sure why I never uploaded it before, but it's there now). Still only May 1, so everything to play for this month. Regards, David.