Great Move At Dreamstime -Older Images Saved:

Boris Yeltsin, April 1990

As I briefly mentioned in my last sales update, there was excellent news from Dreamstime in May when they announced a change in policy regarding older (over four years) unsold images.
Previously contributors would have got an email offering two choices for the future of such images. Either donate to the free images section at Dreamstime or permanently disable (delete) the files. Donating to the free section could, in some cases, make sense for exclusive contributors as a way of driving traffic to their paid images. But for non exclusives such as myself, with the same images still for sale elsewhere, deletion was the only option.
This was especially relevant to me as I joined Dreamstime in 2009 and recently, four and a half years later, had started to receive a series of emails passing a death sentence on a substantial number of images.

Italian street party, July 1990

After the third email I really felt I had to try and do something to avert this and opened a new thread in the Dreamstime forum stating my case for keeping the images online (Link here: http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_37221 ). I'm not so arrogant as to think my post was wholly responsible for the subsequent change of policy but I hope it helped to move along something they were already looking at. The clearing out of older images was, anyway, looking at odds with the massive increase in upload limits of late (I can currently upload some 3000 or more images per week based on my circa 73% acceptance rate!). Storage space and bandwidth (for them) clearly isn't an issue.

Anyway, they subsequently announced the change (it's described as a test at this stage but I do not expect them to reverse this). Now your commercial images will still get the email -but offering the options of donate or keeping online for sale. Editorial images will not get the email and remain for sale on an ongoing basis. For anyone who might be concerned at the possibility of their images ending up in the free section -you can set your default choice in your account settings at any time. You can still change your mind on an image by image basis when the email arrives.

Poll Tax Riots, March 1990

You can read my full argument for keeping these older images online (especially the editorial ones) in the Dreamstime thread but in essence I suggested these form a part of history as buildings/fashion/signage etc change and, if anything, become more of interest the older they get. Some of my images are around fourty years old and it seemed a shame to give them just a four year life on the internet. I have images online over four years old that that subsequently sold proving that you just never know when a buyer might have need of that image. Once deleted, that sales possibility is gone forever. So from one relieved editorial photographer - Great Move Dreamstime! Regards, David.
(Note: I am using some older editorial images to illustrate this post -but these do all have sales, so wouldn't have been up for deletion).

Creating captions for Editorial images:

For some photographers, especially those unused to editorial, creating captions seems to prove a real problem. This is made much harder by four of the sites (that take editorial) having specific formats that the captions must be in. Posts on the sites own forums (where they have one) and sometimes over at microstockgroup frequently lament a recent rejection for captioning and then go on to give the caption they used -usually incorrect. One poster on MSG recently treated us to a thread where he kept getting the same image rejected at Istock for captioning. Each time his caption was in the wrong format as others were quick to point out. His initial response was Why does it matter if all the correct information is in there? He was, of course, quite right -it doesn't matter at all (providing you don't mind getting the image rejected).

So, I thought I would give a summary here to the three formats you will need (there may be others for sites I do not submit to). This information can also be found on the specific sites as well. To keep things simple I'll use the same image for all three -my recent upload of fishing boats in Folkestone harbour.
Shutterstock and Bigstock: (New guidelines from December 2013)

FOLKESTONE, ENGLAND - JULY 6, 2008: Fishing boats moored in the sheltered harbour. In 2012, major plans were announced for the regeneration of the harbour and seafront.

Notes: The first part (date and location) is in CAPITAL letters. Put a dash between the Country and the date. Put the date in full including the year. Finish with a semi colon (:) then continue -starting with a capital letter. Do NOT repeat date and location later in the caption. Caption must still be within 200 characters including spaces and punctuation.


Shutterstock and Bigstock:  (Pre December 2013 -for reference only)

FOLKESTONE, ENGLAND - JULY 6: Fishing boats moored in the sheltered harbour on July 6, 2008 at Folkestone, Kent. In 2012, major plans were announced for the regeneration of the harbour and seafront.

Notes: The first part is in CAPITAL LETTERS. Put a dash between the Country and the date. Do not put the Year in the date for this bit. Finish with a semi colon (:) then continue -starting with a Capital letter. Describe the image then repeat the date, this time including the year and the location. In my example I haven't repeated the Country (England) but added more information by saying that Folkestone is in the county of Kent. Next, follow up with a second sentence giving the image some "newsworthy" angle. The internet is your friend here unless the subject is something you have specialist knowledge of. Remember, the second sentence isn't aimed at the buyers (they're not usually interested in your caption) it's aimed at the reviewer to convince them to accept this image because it has some relevance. Your caption must not exceed 200 characters (including punctuation and spaces) or you will not be able to submit it (there is a counter provided, so you know where you are).

EDIT: Amazing! Less than a day after I posted this they have revised their caption requirements. Main change is to include the Year in the opening dateline and that you do not have to repeat the date and location later in the description. Full details here: http://www.shutterstock.com/buzz/announcing-shutterstocks-new-editorial-guidelines. I'll update the post properly later. Edit: OK, now updated with the new version (I have left the old version in for reference only).

Istock:

Folkestone, England - July 6, 2008: Fishing boats moored in the sheltered harbour. In 2012, major plans were announced for the regeneration of the harbour and seafront.

Notes: Only use Capital letters as you would in correct writing e.g. to start a sentence and for place names.
Include the year in your initial date and do not repeat this information later. Place a dash after the Country and a semi colon (:) after the date. IMPORTANT -if there people visible anywhere in the image Istock require you to mention them. In this example, if there were people on the boats, your caption would read People stand (etc) on fishing boats moored in the sheltered harbour. Try not to make assumptions about the people if you do not know who they are (i.e. avoid Folkestone fishermen stand on boats.... if you do not know who they are or where they are from).
That's your Istock caption done but you still have the description box to complete. Luckily there are no firm rules about completing this. I would put: Fishing boats moored in the harbour at Folkestone in Kent, England on July 6, 2008. That's it. No rules about the number of characters to use but keep it brief and relevant - do not write a Wikipedia style page as your caption. I once saw an example on the Istock editorial forum where the caption contained the entire history of an airline (including annual profits) on a rejected aircraft image.

123RF:

Folkestone, England - July 6, 2008 - Fishing boats moored in the sheltered harbour. In 2012, major plans were announced for the regeneration of the harbour and seafront.

Notes: Put a dash before and after the date (no semi colon). Use Capital letters for the start of sentences and place names.

The following sites that take editorial images do not (currently) require a specific format: Dreamstime, Yaymicro, Cutcaster, Mostphotos, Picfair. You should, of course, still provide relevant information about the image and always include a date and location.

There you have it then, my summary of how to create editorial captions. The hardest part for some (and I don't always get it right) is that second sentence of information. What facts can you add about the image?
When was that boat built and where? (Tip: if you can see the registration number on the boat/plane etc search on that number). When was this annual festival first held? How tall is that lighthouse? What's the population of that small Greek island? There's always something on the internet to help. Regards, David.

Signed up to PicFair.com:

Today I signed up to a new picture agency - the recently launched  British company PicFair.com. I've been following their progress over the last few weeks and the time now seemed right to take the plunge.
Founded and run by British journalist Benji Lanyado (who writes for The Guardian newspaper amongst others) the agency specialises in licensing images for both Editorial and a variety of commercial uses. (Edited -please see the comment below from Benji on the licensing).
The exciting thing about PicFair is that you get to set your own prices and receive 100% of that amount if they are sold. PicFair make their money by adding a modest percentage on top of your price (as well as a transaction charge to the client for each sale). It's not unlike FineArtAmerica where you also set your price and receive all of it.

Images are licensed for single use each time (unlike the Royalty Free Microstock model where clients pay once only and can keep using your image without further payment). There is only one size available (i.e. the maximum) so that needs to be kept in mind when setting your prices and there are no Extended License options available either. I have initially set my prices at the £10 per license level. All prices are set individually on upload so you can vary the price of your images and also change your pricing at any time in the future. If there is a way of bulk editing your prices across your portfolio I haven't found it yet (but it is only my first day there!).

One thing that takes some getting used to is that you add your title/description/keyword info before uploading the image - the complete reverse of what I am used to.
At present there is only the facility to upload one image at a time -something that will put some off I imagine. That said, images uploaded very quickly so with a bit of determination (and time) you can build up a decent size portfolio.

Downsides? Apart from the one at a time upload there is certainly an issue with the security watermark -it is barely visible and I hope this will be addressed going forward. There was also a strange quirk when after uploading you get a nice "thank you" message pop up and a reminder that you can share news of the upload with social media (the site seems well integrated with Facebook and Twitter). My problem at this stage was that there was no way of losing the message let alone sharing anything. The only way I found to move on was to hit the back button on my mouse to take me back to the upload page. This did throw up one unexpected benefit though -the info entered previously was still there, so where I wanted to upload several images of the same subject I just had to add the next image and click upload again. It may just be my browser though (IE9) causing this. I've sent them an email asking about this issue and will post further when I get a response.

So far I've just put up 11 images to get the feel of things but it is certainly an interesting proposition. It's also nice to be working with a British agency again following the demise of PictureNation. First day images included (of course) Margaret Thatcher and also Phil Lynott. You can see my little (so far) portfolio here PicFair . Feel free to comment by clicking on the comments link below this post. Regards, David.

Picturenation to close:

A very sad day for me yesterday with the news that Picturenation is to close their site on August 17, 2013.
There is a message on their home page (and also on Facebook and Twitter) giving the news and more details.
It seems that a new site was paid for in 2011 but never completed or delivered to them and the costs and effort of trying to keep the current (circa 5 year old) site functioning were too much. Regular contributors will know that the upload hasn't been working properly over the last few weeks - just another problem to resolve.
Just what happened to the new site isn't revealed.

Importantly, the notice states that all outstanding commission will be paid to contributors (regardless of the amount). Contributors should send in their user name with a request for payment. Thereafter, their account will be closed. Buyers can still use outstanding credits up to the shut down date, although PN warns there may be technical difficulties with some images but that they will use every effort to get the image to the buyer.

I joined Picturenation back in October 2007, back when my only other agency was the (badly named and since closed) Snap Village. I soon realised that they were accepting editorial images which paved the way for me to digitise and upload my archive political images. This formed the basis for my Microstock future as I later found the other sites I could upload these to as well.
Over the last six years sales have never been as frequent as I would have liked but the higher (than microstock) commissions helped balance that. My total PN earning are way higher than some of the micro sites I contribute to.

Above all, this has always been a site that I liked and trusted. PictureNation founder Jane-Luise Green has always sent me ultra fast personal responses to any problems or queries I had and we have had many enjoyable email discussions about the stock business over the years.

For any PictureNation contributors reading this, especially if this is the only site you contribute to, do take a look at the microstockgroup.com forum where you can find a wealth of information and views on alternative sites to sell through.

With all best wishes for the future to Jane, her team, and all PictureNation contributors.
Regards, David.

January sales updates:

A strong start to the year in January. After a slow start around the holidays things picked up nicely as the month went on.
Needless to say, Shutterstock came out top with 89 downloads ($41.96).
Dreamstime saw a good performance with 13 downloads ($21.17).
Bigstock also saw a flurry of sales with 9 downloads ($5.50). Five of the sales were of Hastings.
Yaymicro reported 4 partner subscription sales making 0.64 euro. They also continued to annoy with a number of random editorial rejections.
Picturenation produced a web res sale of an old b/w archive image (£0.40).
Fotolia saw 2 downloads (1.20 credits).
123rf produced 7 downloads for a miserly commission of $3.75. They're off my upload list and I am considering deleting certain images. I don't really want good selling images like Margaret Thatcher going for 25cent subs or 69cents large sales.
Finally, with supreme irony given all the drama at Istockphoto, I had my BME there with 16 downloads ($22.96) and a further $1.68 from 6 partner sales. At one point sales, and sometimes multiple sales,were coming in daily -with all but two being editorial images. Editorial certainly seems to be taking off there. For anyone that doesn't know "the drama" involves a recent deal between Getty Images and Google. Here's a (long) thread on Microstockgroup  for all the information. At this stage I intend to keep my images on sale there.
No sales yet at FineArtAmerica but I am getting views and I feel positive about the site. I am now going to upgrade to the paid membership and upload a lot more images.
Uploading in January saw a large number of my old archive images as well as some new ones from the 2012 Jack In The Green festival (pictured). Regards, David.

April sales updates:

April saw another strong month at Shutterstock with 96 downloads ($52.51) and, as usual, a good number of On Demand sales.

Istock pleased with 11 downloads ($16.54) and three PP sales ($0.84). Editorial images were well to the fore here including two downloads of RAF display team The Red Arrows (pictured). The airshow season is approaching here so I expect to see more sales on Red Arrows images in the coming weeks. Also pleased to see that they are scheduled to do a display here in Hastings on July 22nd - the first time in twenty four years they have been here.

123RF produced 16 downloads ($8.24) , again mainly from my editorial images.

Dreamstime managed 6 downloads ($7.67) -a slow month for them.

A dissapointing single sale at Bigstock produced $0.50 (jumping ahead, May has started off much better for them).

Yaymicro saw one editorial sale (0.75 euros). I had hoped to see a jump in sales at Yay as they signed up with a number of new partner sites. Sadly, for various reasons, they are not currently including editorial images in these arrangements - thus excluding most of my portfolio. They tell me that this might change in the future.

Finally, Mostphotos produced one subscription sale (0.20 euros).

Uploading in April saw a continued push on my archive political images with a near 100% acceptance rate bringing my portfolio numbers up substantially.

Regards, David.

Rock and Roll time

Digging back through my negative archives I recently came across these images from May 15, 1976 when music fans held a fun march through the West End of London as part of the Rock and Roll Radio Campaign. The campaign aimed to get more vintage Rock and roll music played on British radio. At that time there were far fewer radio stations available and, of course, the internet didn't exist. Assembling in Hyde Park the march proceeded along Oxford Street ending at BBC Broadcasting House (home to BBC radio). The whole thing was very colourful (if I can use that word for B/W images) with many dressed in fifties "teddy boy" style, a vintage car on hand and Rockabilly band The Flying Saucers playing on the back of a truck.

From three rolls of 35mm negatives I selected 12 images to work with and uploaded these to all my editorial sites over the last couple of weeks. Pleased to report that they all got accepted 100% so far.

Shutterstock came up trumps when 6 of the images were downloaded within a couple of days of going online (along with 20 or so more varied images from the same era -somebody is obviously working on a 1970's related project!).

It was good to see these images which I took 36 years ago getting a whole new lease of life on the internet. Regards, David.

May Updates:

May saw another strong month.

Shutterstock had 88 downloads ($29.08) making it another BME for sales, though not quite there on actual revenue.

Dreamstime produced 12 downloads ($10.56) with the usual mix of Editorial and commercial sales.

123RF continued to please with 10 downloads ($6.27).

Istock produced a further 5 regular downloads ($2.84) with 5 partner program sales making an additional $1.40. The regular sales were, again, mainly Editorial and with ten new images accepted my portfolio rose to 198 there.

Picturenation got one medium res sale netting £4.00 in commission. Better still I received my second payout from them -just under £60.

Bigstock proved dissapointing this month after the recent upsurge in sales. Just 2 downloads ($1.50).

Yaymicro came up with a regular sale netting 0.50 euros. June should see them posting the first quarter Third Party sales report.

Nothing in May on Cutcaster, Veer, Canstock or Mostphotos.

Uploading in May saw some more archive political images going online and some new images of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Comprising a Lancaster bomber flanked by Spitfire and Hurricane fighters the BBMF gave a twenty minute display over the Kent town of Tenterden to tie in with the local steam railway holding a "Fourties" weekend. It was an impressive sight and much enjoyed by the many locals who came out to watch. I went with a monochrome version of one of the images to give a vintage feel. Aircraft images have done well in the past so I have high hopes for these. Regards, David.

April Updates:

April saw a Royal Wedding and continuing Summer like weather here in the UK. Both driving sales of my Westminster Abbey images and the Tentertainment music festival throughout the month.
At Shutterstock it was another BME with 84 downloads ($30.78) of which six were welcome On Demand sales paying $1.88 each. I passed the payout level again in April and continue to progress towards $500 total earings when my commission rate will go up.

Dreamstime also had a good month with 16 downloads ($19.87). This figure was buoyed up by several Level 2 and 3 sales paying a good amount of commission.

123RF produced a BME there with 25 downloads ($10.91) many of which were subscription sales of my archive pop music images. I am experimenting with making a handful of images available for their free (web resolution) download section. The beauty with 123 is that you can donate them for as little as just one day and it is not a permanent arrangement. I took a selection from across my portfolio(e.g. politics, pop music, travel, etc) and am viewing this as an advertisement for all my images. By donating for a day at a time you also ensure that the images rise to the front page as they reach expiry. In a new development, parent company Inmagine.com are now also including Editorial as well as Commercial images from 123 on their site.

Istockphoto, as previously posted, also had a BME with 8 dowloads ($7.26) and three Partner Program sales ($0.84). Editorial images continue to attract interest (and sales) there.

Bigstock looked like being a slow month until right at the last it produced 7 downloads ($4.50). All Editorial this time (mainly of the annual Jack In The Green festival in Hastings).

Yaymicro had no site sales but finally posted the Third Party sales for the last quarter of 2010. At 6.71 euros it was a bit dissapointing compared to previous ones but, netherless, enough to bring me my second payout from Yay.

Uploading in April saw a return to my Editorial archives with a number of negatives being scanned and submitted. These got pretty much 100% acceptance at most sites but I got unlucky at Bigstock when I got the inspector that doesn't like grainy B/W photos. Three batches rejected 100% despite all having been accepted within a few hours at parent company Shutterstock. So it goes... Regards, David.

Istock Editorial Update:

The Editorial collection at Istock has now been live to buyers for some weeks now so time for an update on how it's going for me.
To date I have had 26 images accepted. It could have been more but, to be honest, I rarely use all my 18 upload slots per week -the slow upload process and dis-ambiguation tend to try my patience. Of those rejected most failed on technical reasons (though they were good enough for other sites). Three failed because the date on my camera was set incorrectly causing a conflict between my caption and the (incorrect) Exif data. I have re-submitted those with an explanatory note to the reviewer. My best selling images of the 2009 Tentertainment music festival were rejected because the reviewer felt that photographic permission was required for the event. For the first time I have used the Scout appeal system for those -pointing out that it is a free local event held in a public park (and not a commercial event like Glastonbury) though some weeks later I have yet to hear back from them.

Total Editorial sales so far stand at 8 (netting $9.13 in commission) and in fact April is my BME at Istock because of this with, finally, the prospect of a payout in the not too distant future. Despite the low commission most of the sales have pulled in between $1.50 and $2.00 for me.
Best seller so far is my Estate Agents signs (shown in the previous post) with 4 sales to date.

So, despite all the negativity around towards Istock, it does look like their Editorial collection is attracting buyers and that it is worth my time uploading there (not something I could have really said in the past). Regards, David.

February updates:

February saw a strong month at Shutterstock with a total of 83 downloads ($21.31) helped by one buyer scooping up 17 of my archive b/w images of various celebrities (Anne Bancroft etc). I also had a number of sales of the Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore who, sadly, died in February (likewise on Dreamstime). They also rolled out a Beta version of a great new feature in which you can see the total all time sales and income from each image. No great surprise to find my image of the 2009 Tentertainment local music festival (see earlier posting) at the top position with over 80 downloads. Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister, comes a close second for a single image (or top if you combine the sales of all my images of her).

Dreamtime produced 19 downloads ($7.82). A higher than usual number of subscription sales pulled the income down there but was boosted by a (level three) sale of Margaret Thatcher - paying $3.70 in commission.

Bigstock made 3 downloads ($4.50) including one of my Shell petrol station images which paid a pleasing $3 in commission. The really good news here this month was their announcement that their payout limit has reverted to $30 (from $50). In their announcement they stated that this was so contributors could get more regular payments. What a refreshing attitude compared to the agencies that set high payouts (probaly hoping that many will never make it and they can just keep the money). My balance was already over $40 so I applied for payment and received it a couple of days later. All credit to Bigstock for this move. Now, if only Shutterstock would just include me in the "Bridge to Bigstock" programme I could double my portfolio and hopefully see a good increase in sales.

Also hitting payout was British agency Picturenation with a medium res sale of Anita Roddick (founder of the Body Shop chain of cosmetic stores) which paid £4 in commission, taking me above the magic £50 required. In contrast to Bigstock though PN only payout once every 8 weeks and I just missed the deadline for the next one. That's certainly one area of improvement Picturenation could work on in the future. If Yaymicro can pay within two minutes of request (via Paypal) I don't see why others cannot.

123RF continued its climb with 7 downloads ($3.50) -virtually all Editorial images. Many of my images there now also feature on parent company site Inmagine.com (but, sadly, as yet they are still not taking Editorial images).

Istock produced 1 regular download ($0.20) and 3 partner program sales at the newly improved rate of $0.28 each. On the plus side there the Editorial collection is now live. With ten images accepted so far and more pending I have already had my first Editorial sale. Istock could potentially (finally) prove a worthwhile site for my images.

Nothing at Cutcaster yet but I continued uploading my celebrity archives and now have over 400 images online there. I haven't had time, as yet, to start further uploads to Canstockphoto so nothing there yet either.

February also saw nothing at Veer, Mostphotos or Yaymicro, though at the latter the 4th quarter (2010) third party sales must now be imminent. Wishing you all good sales in March. Regards, David.

Signed up to two new sites:

I recently signed up to two further sites -Cutcaster.com and Canstockphoto.com. I'd been looking at Cutcaster for some time but the recent launch of a new revamped site tipped the balance.
They take Editorial images and one contributor I know of has done well with some of his archive images so they seemed a natural fit for my celebrity archives. Uploading and editing have proved easy and so far I have a good acceptance rate. The really appealing thing about Cutcaster is that you can set your own prices. You decided the price for a medium resolution file and they automatically fill the rates for all the other sizes. I've gone for $5 for now to see how that goes. It may be that this turns out to be too high and that potential buyers seek out cheaper options on my other sites. I well remember my experience at (now closed) Snapvillage where I naively set everything at $25 to start with and just ended up with $.30 subscription sales. I'll see how it goes. Commission (for non exclusive material) is a pleasing 40% (50% for exclusive). My referral link is on the left for anyone interested in signing up.

Canstockphoto isn't a site that I had really considered much but there have been a lot of positive postings about them on http://www.microstockgroup.com so I thought I would give them a try. They don't take Editorial (yet!) though I did see requests for this on their contributors forum so it could happen in the future. A key selling point is their fast review times (you can see the current approximate review time when you upload -which is often just an hour or so). I was a bit surprised to find I had to pass a test to be approved as a new contributor. Not something you normally find outside of the major sites. Anyway, I got approval within a couple of hours or so after uploading my sample images. I haven't uploaded much else there yet but will try and make some time to upload my portfolio in due course.

As ever, I'll update in the future how progress goes with these sites. Regards, David.

January Updates:

Slightly late -but here are my stats for January.

Shutterstock pulled in an impressive 69 downloads ($23.87) with 5 on demand downloads bolsting up the total revenue to reach another payout.
Dreamstime produced 13 downloads ($13.55) with a varied mix of commercial and editorial images.
Bigstock continued to show life with 3 downloads ($4.00) with $3 of that coming from one of my previously mentioned ("not newsworthy") snow pictures! BTW, I did query their complete rejection at Shutterstock and after a very helpful response I re-submitted, with half of them getting accepted.
Istock managed one regular sale ($0.51) and four partner programme sales ($1.00). I'm expecting my sales here to increase once I have Editorial images online.
Over in Norway, Yaymicro finally posted the third party sales for the 3rd quarter of 2010. At Euro 9.22 it was pretty much in line with previous quarters. Hopefully the 4th quarter sales will be quicker in coming and should take me over the Euro 30 payout level.

Once again 123RF showed promise with 9 downloads ($5.65). All editorial images. Editorial reviews there continue to be fast (usually within a couple of hours) but commercial reviews have become backlogged at the moment due to a large number of submissions (according to their post on microstockgroup.com).

Another zero month at Picturenation, Veer and Mostphotos.
Picturenation is still just a pound or so off their £50 payout level so I am just willing someone to buy something soon. Veer is where I have my lowest acceptance rate so I cannot expect much from my 200 or so portfolio. My $74 "Dash For Cash" earnings are sitting there out of reach for now. Mostphotos have revised their pricing with lower rates for small and medium uses and the introduction of subscription packages -so there might be some action to come in the future. Regards, David.

December updates:

December saw a solid month at Shutterstock with 61 downloads ($20.70) with the total figure being helped by 4, higher paying, "On Demand" sales. Dreamstime was going well but stalled as we approached Christmas resulting in a total of 11 downloads ($12.37). However, December did bring a milestone there as I had my 200th sale.

Bigstock had a surprise flurry of 6 (all Editorial) downloads ($3.00).(EDIT: That should have been $4 but I had an adjustment of -$1. It appears my best Margaret Thatcher image was a victim of the fraudulent downloads that took place over Christmas at Istock and BS). While at 123RF the sales continue to grow with a further 6 downloads ($3.15). This brings my total sales there to 11 (8 Editorial) since having my first ever downloads on October 31. This is starting to look like an interesting agency.

Istock, once again, produced no regular sales but managed 6 partner programme sub sales ($1.50). The lack of sales there probaly a result of stopping uploading after their commission cuts announcement. Well, I made my point (not that they would ever have noticed) and have decided to re-start uploads this year. The deciding factor was the forthcoming launch of their Editorial image collection. My whole portfolio is mainly Editorial and I do not feel I can miss out on what could be a good opportunity. The downside is they are not taking Celebrity images which is dissapointing given my archives. I am hoping that might change in the future.

Finally no sales in December at Mostphotos, Veer, Picturenation and Yaymicro (not even the latters long overdue Third Party sales report, which they had hoped to have out by Christmas).

Uploads for December included further Greek island images (Halki) and some snowy uk street images. Dreamstime (and others) approved the latter (minus a few for "similarity") but Shutterstock and Bigstock both declared they were "Not Editorial.Not Newsworthy" (Britain is having the coldest Winter for 100 years by the way!). (EDIT: To be fair to BS I hadn't submitted all of them for review when posting. They have since accepted some of the set -so snow is newsworthy again!). Oh well, that's how Microstock goes......

Wishing all readers, agencies and fellow contributors (and, yes, even reviewers) a happy and prosperous New Year. Regards, David.

First Editorial sale at 123RF:

Having posted a number of times about the lack of Editorial sales as 123RF, I can finally report my first one (Edit: make that two now!). Hot on the heels of my first two sales (ever) there at the end of October I had my first Editorial sale this month. The image was of a steam locomotive on the Bluebell Line here in Sussex, England. I was about 14 when I took that (on a 120 format Kershaw folding camera, for those interested in the technical stuff). Better still, they have now integrated search results for Editorial and Commercial images (see my last post). Now when you search for Margaret Thatcher you get images of Margaret Thatcher right away -you no longer have to second click on the "Editorial" tab. This is a big advance and can only help to boost Editorial sales there.


I'd love to claim credit for pushing this along but I'm sure this is something they were working towards anyway. Now for that home page: it still doesn't mention that they have Editorial images available in their list of categories. Hopefully, that is coming soon but meanwhile a big thumbs up to 123. Regards, David.

October updates:

October saw a good month at Dreamstime with a total of 22 downloads ($21.49). The total earnings there were boosted by two TIFF file sales paying $4.88 each. These were both of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher -whose recent stay in hospital prompted a number of sales in the past few weeks.
Over on Shutterstock I had 55 downloads ($15.94), again including a flurry of Margaret Thatcher images.
Picturenation did well with two medium res sales paying £4 each in commission -both of the recent Hastings pier fire images. This brings me to less than £1.50 away from their £50 payout, so one more med res sale will do it.
Istock managed one regular sale (pebbles on Hastings beach!) netting $2.80 plus a further $2.25 from 9 partner program sales. I haven't felt inclined to upload any new images to Istock since their commission cuts were announced but that's one I am keeping under review.

Bigstock produced 2 Editorial sales ($1.00) in October. The problem there is my small portfolio (less than 400 images). Compare that to nearly 900 images on parent company Shutterstock (which I joined much later). Editorial images get declined for not being "newsworthy" even when images of the same event have previously been accepted. Archive celebrity images get rejected for "grain" (that would be film grain then) even when they do not have any other images of that celeb in their collection. That said, approvals seem to have been a bit better of late there so I'll stick with them. I live in hope that in the future they might link the two collections so that Bigstock buyers get access to my Shutterstock portfolio. I'm sure that must be possible somehow.

Over at 123RF I finally had my first ever sales. Two subscription downloads netting $0.72. It's a start anyway. I no longer have an earnings page full of zeros. Interestingly these sales came from my 48 commercial images (Halki island, Greece) and not my 593 Editorial images. I think two things would help here. Firstly mention Editorial images on their home page. They went live with the collection in May but there is still no mention of it there. Secondly, integrate the search results with the commercial images. By that I mean that if a buyer searches for Margaret Thatcher they get told that there are zero results for that search. Only when (or if) they then click the "Editorial" tab do the images come up. I wonder how many buyers just give up after that "zero results" message? Still, this is only their first year with Editorial so plenty of time for improvements yet.

Nothing in October from Veer, Yay or Mostphotos.
Regards, David

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.

Bagging a Banksy:

I've posted before about picture opportunities on your doorstep. Well there was a good one here this week in St.Leonards-on-Sea when a new mural by cult British street artist "Banksy" appeared overnight on the seafront. I didn't have much trouble finding the location due to the number of people congregating to take photographs of it and photographing their children next to it! It took a bit of patience to get a clear shot of it but the images are now uploaded and awaiting approval (as Editorial images, obviously).

British agency PictureNation got them online within a couple of hours (I emailed them to let them know they were in the approval queue). I have no idea what the sales potential is here, but I do know that, in the art world, Banksy is a big name and new works arouse a lot of interest, so we'll see.

Hastings council have said that despite their zero tolerance policy on graffiti they are regarding this as Art and allowing it to stay. Certainly the interest being shown by the public yesterday would suggest this is the right decision. Edit: Just for clarification -the black lettering at the top isn't part of the mural but everyday graffiti (which I'm sure will be removed by the council).

Regards (from the "centre of the art world" as the local newspaper coined it), David.

June updates:

Another steady month in June. Shutterstock produced 59 downloads ($18.57). Dreamstime netted 11 dls ($10.12). Bigstock had another (little) flurry of 4 sales ($4.50). Istock produced 2 regular sales and 4 partner program sales totalling $3.64. Picturenation brings up the rear with a pleasing £6.00 for one sale. That's why I like PN -they do not yet get me volume sales but the commission is considerably higher than micro sites. That £6 is about the equivalent of around 40 regular 25c downloads on Shutterstock! Nothing in June from Veer, Yay, Mostphotos or 123RF.

The lack of sales at 123RF is dissapointing. I now have over 500 images online (mainly Editorial but I also now have 17 or so non-editorial accepted). The images went live at the start of May so that's a couple of months now with zero sales. I had hoped that some of my good sellers -Margaret Thatcher etc would have picked up some sales. That said, they have only recently started marketing their Editorial collection so I guess it is early days. Indeed their home page categories list still doesn't even mention Editorial. On a more positive note I eventually queried the 40 images I had pending since April/May. Turned out to be a server glitch and they had dropped off the revue radar. Showing very good contributor service they sorted it within a day or so and all were reviewed (and appoved) promptly.

June saw a big drop in uploads from me as I was on holiday (aka photoshoot) in Greece for the first two weeks. Making full use of my new monopod I now have stacks of new images to edit and upload. They are mainly of the tiny Dodecanese island of Halki (population 300!) but also a lot of the volcano crater on nearby Nisyros island. Uploading of these has begun but I still have a long way to go.

Meanwhile the Veer "Dash for Cash" has now closed. I still have 143 pending so I should know in the next few weeks how much I made from this. Views continue to rise at Veer but still only the one sale to date. I am hoping their forthcoming new marketing campaign will change that. Regards, David.

May Updates:

A steady, rather than exciting, month in May. Shutterstock, as ever, led the way with 42 downloads ($12.69). Dreamstime produced 11 dls ($7.87). Istock achieved 2 partner programme sales ($0.50) and 1 regular sale ($1.56). 2 dls on Bigstock ($1.00) and as previously posted 1 regular sale at Yaymicro (1 euro) and a further 9.70 euro from their 3rd party seller. Nothing this month at Picturenation, VeerMarketplace and Mostphotos.

123RF went live with their Editorial collection at the start of May. I have around 470 live there with a further 40 pending review (in fact, some have been pending since April -which seems a bit slow by anyones standards!). Sadly, no sales there yet but they are only now just starting to market and promote the Editorial collection. I am also hoping that some editorial might also be added to their parent company site Inmagine.com in time. A note in the FAQ there says that they are considering taking Editorial. Certainly some 123RF commercial images already appear in the Inmagine "value images" section.

May also saw a new bit of photo kit. A Giottos aluminum monopod (Model: MML 3270B). Light enough to carry around easily it provides a really sturdy shooting platform (after a bit of practise). I did look at some cheaper options but decided the £40 price (from Jessops in the UK) was a worthwhile investment. I can also combine it with the pan & tilt head from my Giottos tripod for greater flexibility -for example shooting portrait format images.

Regular readers will notice a new image of the late footballer George Best on the left. This has had a flurry of sales in the last few weeks. I believe there is some sort of football competition going on which may explain that!

Meanwhile the Veer "Dash For Cash" payment for uploads continues. To date I have about 30 accepted (the same low acceptance rate that I have always had at Veer!). The promotion goes on until the end of June so I'll see where I am then. What is interesting (and encouraging) is that my views there have shot up in the past few weeks. Will update further on that later. Regards, David.