June Sales Updates:

Church of St. Nicholas on Tilos island, Greece

June was an unexciting month in terms of photo sales but personally exciting with a two week stay on the little Greek island of Tilos and the installation of new super fast broadband making my work flow way easier (more on those later).

As usual Shutterstock came well out in front. On Demand sales were considerably down this month -pulling down the total revenue earnings.

Alamy made a pleasing second place with 3 downloads. None of them especially large in money terms but still well above typical microstock rates. All three were from my old archive images confirming that the time spent uploading these was worthwhile. My Alamy portfolio has now passed the 2.5k mark.

Istock continues to pull in the revenue with 36 downloads giving them third place.

In fourth place was Dreamstime with 12 downloads including a worthwhile Extended License.

Solar energy powering Tilos island, Greece

Redbubble made fifth place with a single sale of childrens clothing. Yet again some lucky baby is going to have an outfit adorned with a Margaret Thatcher image! For anyone wondering how to get childrens clothing as a product line here is the answer. Click edit on the first template (T Shirts) then click on the I for information symbol (over on the right of screen). Then tick the childrens clothing box before hitting save. Basically you have to opt in to this for each upload to avoid inappropriate images appearing on kids clothes.

Bigstock did well with 14 downloads and made sixth place. A mixed bunch of images this month.

Breaking their four downloads a month rule 123rf continued their slow goodbye (from me) with 6 downloads pushing me to barely $2 to payout level and giving them seventh place this month. Now at six months since I ceased uploading to them.

In eighth place were Mostphotos with a single subscription sale. I'm never quite sure why I continue to bother with them (other than the free back up service) but I have now opted out of their subscription packages so any future sales should be for a reasonable rate. If there are any, of course. Either way I'm not really losing anything there given how few sales I get.

Framing Livadia harbour on Tilos island, Greece

Two weeks of June were taken up by a trip to the small Greek island of Tilos. I hadn't stayed there since 2006 (when I wasn't doing photography) so my images were limited to those from a couple of day trips from the nearby island of Halki. There was plenty to shoot on Tilos including two main villages, two deserted villages, a monastery and a couple of Crusader Knights castles. Of especial interest was the solar/wind power project Tilos have whereby they hope to become self sufficient in power just from renewable sources. This has attracted a lot of attention so getting images of the wind turbine and the solar panel array were high on my shoot list for the trip.

Back home my uploading was advanced greatly by upgrading to 4g broadband. The difference was astounding. Single images now upload almost instantly and larger batches take a few seconds - not the many minutes they used to take. Ironically, this is costing me less per month than my old slower 3g broadband did. In terms of uploading this is certainly a gamechanger and I look forward to getting many more images uploaded going forward.

July looks set to be firmly in the Summer Slowdown mode judging by my sales so far. More next month. Regards, David.

June Sales Updates:

The Markellos Tower on Aegina island, Greece

Another steady month in June with a number of my smaller agencies making it into my sales report as well as a continuing good run at Istock.
As ever, well out in front were Shutterstock with another strong month and income circa double of my second place site.

Second place went to Istock with another impressive month of 45 downloads -down from May but much higher than I had been seeing in previous years (and that's with limited uploading in 2017). As previously there were some very low paying subscription sales but others paying much higher than the old $0.28 fixed rate. I said I would see how the new percentage rates worked out in practise and I think it is fair to say that while I am seeing results like these I will be sticking with them.

Picfair took third place with another single sale. Looks like things are picking up here.

Fourth place was for Redbubble with a further three product sales (T shirt, Baby clothes, Sticker).

Bigstock saw fifth place with 13 downloads.

In sixth place were Dreamstime with 9 downloads with all being subscription sales.

Tourist rides in Aegina Town, Greece

123rf slipped to seventh place with 13 downloads (no big sales like last month sadly).

Alamy were in eighth place with a further single sale. Good to see no further refunds and my first sales are starting to show as cleared funds.

Ninth place went to Fotolia with 3 downloads.

Canstock had a single download to put them in tenth place.

Finally we have Mostphotos with two small subscription downloads.

Rhodes Cup yacht race, Tilos island, Greece

June saw little uploading due to spending (yet again) two weeks on the little Greek island of Halki. Whilst there I also took a day trip to Tilos island where I concentrated on photographing the abandoned village of Gera. Last years Tilos images have done well so I hope to continue that success with these. June also saw a General Election in Britain and I received a number of sales of Amber Rudd (Home Secretary) and Damien Green (newly promoted to Deputy Prime Minister). Recent uploads have concentrated on my 2016 images of the Rhodes Cup yacht race on Tilos (rejected by Istock as they deemed them "professional sport") and the famous landmark of the Markellos Tower from my April visit to Aegina. This interesting old building was once the seat of the Greek government during their War of Independence (from Turkey) when Aegina itself was the temporary Capital of Greece.

July looks like it will prove, as expected, the start of the Summer Slowdown with fairly low sales on most sites so far. Updates will follow in due course. Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

Panagia Tinou ferry listing in Piraeus harbour, Athens

A late update for my sales in May. I was lucky enough to visit the exciting city of Athens for a few days which has put me behind with other things.

The month saw the usual dominating Shutterstock in first place as ever. A good number of One Demand downloads and a reasonable Single Download pushed things higher. Acceptances remain high at the moment and the days of weird lighting/focus/white balance rejections seem to be fading. This, in turn, has encouraged me to start uploading more with my portfolio now standing at 1941 images. I'm looking forward to passing the 2K mark in the not too distant future.

In second place were Istock with 7 credit sales and a further 38 sub and PP downloads. Editorial reviews remain super fast (a few minutes to a few hours) while commercial image reviews have slowed to nearly a month. Hopefully, they will speed this up going forward.

Redbubble made it to third place in May with 4 sales. Three stickers of Greek island subjects and a T Shirt featuring cult Seventies band The Flamin' Groovies. This Print On Demand site has really paid off for me in the year since I joined. By contrast, Fine Art America (for which I pay $30 a year membership) has produced nothing in sales since last December.

In fourth place were Bigstock with 12 downloads.

Skala beach on Agistri island, Greece

Fifth place went to 123RF with 13 downloads. I'm pleased to say that the problem with long review times seems to have been resolved with all taking place in a timely manner.

Sixth place saw Fotolia produce 7 downloads. Possibly a record month (but given it's only 7, not worth checking back to see!).

Almost at the bottom in seventh place were Dreamstime with 7 downloads (all 35c subs). I've said plenty before about Dreamstime, so won't repeat myself here.

Bringing up the bottom in eighth place were Mostphotos with 2 sub sales paying a few (euro) cents each. As ever, the sales were in their home country of Sweden. They just do not seem to have got any traction around the rest of the world -which given that it is an online business is surprising.

Creating a buzz on Hastings pier

Uploading in May mainly concentrated on my Athens trip images. Piraeus harbour provided some interesting shipping images not least the Panagia Tinou ferry boat which was listing badly after taking on water. Research revealed that this once the Folkestone-Boulogne Sealink ferry Hengist which famously beached near Folkestone during the Great Storm of October 1987. I also spent a day on the little island of Agistri which is just under an hour from Piraeus by hydrofoil. This was the very first Greek island I ever visited back in 2001 and it was really interesting to visit it again -this time with a camera. Little had changed there in all those years. You can read about my first visit there on my Greek Islands blog. Back in the UK, I also continued visiting and photographing the newly re-opened Hastings pier and was lucky enough to get an image of a swarm of bees on a life ring -which made for an unusual picture. I'll try and get my June updates posted more promptly next month :) Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Navy patrol ship Antipliarchos Mykonios departs Halki island

A steady month in November with neither great excitements or big disappointments. Starting in first place we, of course, find Shutterstock (by the usual huge margin). A good flow of On Demand sales and a couple of modest Single downloads contributing to the totals here. Shutterstock recently caused some comment when they changed their entry exam requirements -you now only have to get one image approved out of your initial ten sample images to be accepted (it was previously seven of of the ten). I do not see this move as especially good or bad -individual images uploaded will still get reviewed and either accepted/rejected (rightly or wrongly). The prediction by some that this will lead to a poorer quality collection of images doesn't work for me as Shutterstock have stated that they are not lowering their review standards. What probaly will not change either is the inconsistency in reviewing -where perfectly good stock images (accepted elsewhere) get rejected for spurious focus/lighting/white balance issues. For me, that is the most depressing thing about uploading to SS. It's the top selling agency and to have a good image rejected is just money lost -for me and them.

Nissos Halki ferry in Emborio harbour, Halki island

Climbing to second place were 123rf with a strong month of 15 (mainly editorial) downloads. Also, on a positive note, my backlog of pending images finally got reviewed and accepted. I have posted previously that some of these dated back to August. Once again, it took an email to support to get them reviewed. I really shouldn't have had to do that but there it is.

Istock came in at third place with 2 credit sales but a healthy 28 sub/PP downloads.

Stone pile on Ftenagia beach, Halki

In fourth place were Dreamstime with 13 (mainly sub) downloads. As one of the major agencies, they really should be performing better than this. What I am not seeing much of recently are the big credit sales on higher level images which used to push up the sales at DT.

Bigstock took fifth place with 10 downloads -again pretty much all subs.

Finally in sixth place were Fotolia with 2 downloads.

Recent uploading concentrated on my June trip to the Greek island of Halki. The Nissos Halki is one of several ferries making the crossing between the island and Rhodes. This image was taken on the morning of my departure. The stone piles I found on Ftenagia beach were a great photo opportunity and provided a host of images. This one cried out for a B/W version which, luckily most agencies (even Shutterstock!) accepted.  The Hellenic Navy warship Antipliarchos Mykonios took me by surprise when I opened my shutters one morning to find it moored in Emborio harbour. They later gave tours round the ship for groups of locals. I'm told that last year a submarine turned up and did the same. You never know what you will find in the Greek islands :) Regards, David.

Lipsi, Photography and Me:

Rediscovering photography on Lipsi.
Copyright: Serban Enache/Dreamstime

This post was first published on my Greek island blog but as it is mainly about my photography and how I came to rediscover my interest and enthusiasm, I thought it worth posting on my photography blog as well. Has anything or anyone ever inspired you to return to something you once loved?

Readers of my previous review of the little island of Lipsi (here)will notice that it came without my usual photographs (I licensed two images from photo agency Dreamstime.com). There's a story to that which some might find interesting.

From my biography you will see that I used to be a professional press photographer -mainly concentrating on politicians and other public figures. The advent of (initially) very expensive digital cameras and the founding of the internet led to a situation where my type of photography was no longer viable due to the changes in the way newspapers and television news made use of and paid for images. I changed careers and moved on from photography -even selling my set of film cameras (two Olympus OM1 SLRs and a medium format Mamiyaflex).

Moving forward to the early 2000s saw me start to visit small Greek islands where my photography was just limited to holiday snaps using a one-use disposable film camera. Quite sufficient for record shots for me -with no thoughts of ever offering images for sale. Then came my Lipsi trip in 2004.....

It started with the welcome meeting (the morning after our "peril at sea" transfer from Rhodes). One of my fellow guests was sporting a very substantial professional level camera (a Nikon or Canon). My little disposable suddenly looked very insignificant compared to that and I felt the first twinges of missing out on "proper" photography. In conversation it turned out that he worked for the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and that him and his French partner were both Greek island lovers -recommending Tilos as another small island to check out. Now, when I was photographing, the BBC (News) had been one of my major customers. Again, there was that feeling of missing out and links to my past.

Throughout my two weeks on Lipsi my BBC man became a regular sight (it's a very small island!) lining up, no doubt, stunning professional images of the island. That Greek wedding that I went to check out in the early hours? Of course, there he was already -skilfully capturing the action from every angle (I hadn't even brought my camera). By the time of the Panagia Harou religious procession I didn't just want to take a snap. Oh no, I wanted (needed) to "document" it -the small fact that my camera was rubbish not putting me off. A misjudgement on the route the procession would take found me careering through a building site to regain ground and catch up with the action. That, by the way, is a key to much of Editorial photography -knowing what is going to happen, when and where. This time my BBC friend had excelled himself -not only being in place to capture the procession throughout but (the final triumph) had his partner waiting, positioned at the church, with ANOTHER camera -shooting the event from a whole different viewpoint. I think I ended up with a few blurry images of the band marching and that was it.

Back home in England I had a lot to think about but one thing I knew was that I really wanted to do some serious photography again. My BBC friend had ensured that. By chance, somebody I knew was selling their whole camera outfit. An Olympus OM20 SLR complete with a whole range of lenses and accessories -and at a bargain price. I was back in the zone. Crisp, sharp images. Changing lenses as required. Using different apertures/shutter speeds to get the effect I wanted all started to come back to me.

This also coincided with getting easy access to the internet for the first time and the discovery that there

Blue sea and skies of Lipsi
Copyright: Serban Enache/Dreamstime

actually photo agencies that would take sufficiently good images from anyone, professional or otherwise and market them. I suddenly had an outlet for my creative drive and started submitting to a few. I pretty soon realised that in a digital age the Olympus film camera (no matter how good) wasn't the right camera for this new direction and invested (for me) a small fortune on a Nikon D80 DSLR and eight years later that same camera is still going strong.

Of course, I would still love going to small Greek islands with or without a camera, just as I would enjoy going to airshows without taking photographs but having the camera adds a whole different dimension -it really makes you look properly at things and look for those things other people do not notice -and the satisfaction of having good images to remember experiences by is untold. I owe a big thanks to that BBC photographer for giving me the inspiration to get photographing again. If that's you, or it sounds like someone you know please do leave a comment below. Regards, David.

June sales updates:

Emborio village, Halki island

As ever, by far, Shutterstock came in the number one slot for June. The month saw a good crop of On Demand downloads but only two modest Single downloads.

Second place went to Istock with a strong performance of 12 credit sales (many of the Tentertainment music festival) plus a healthy 37 subscription and PP sales.

Bell tower on Halki island

New agency Redbubble took third place with two product sales (as previously posted). An exciting start to my relationship with this Print On Demand site.

In fourth place Dreamstime showed a bounce back from the dire sales last month with 8 downloads.

Fifth place went to Fotolia with only 1 download but it was my first ever extended license on the site -paying a healthy six credits. Pleasingly the image was from the same set as my avatar picture here. Fotolia also had some exciting news with the launch of Adobe Stock. Adobe (who purchased Fotolia a while back) will now mirror the Fotolia library within Adobe products such as Photoshop allowing designers to choose and purchase images without leaving the programme. This should certainly lead to a boost in sales once it gets established. In addition, at Fotolia, sub sales now count as full sales towards your ranking. This was applied retrospectively so I jumped from the basic white level to the higher paying bronze level.

In sixth place were 123RF with 7 downloads. My images uploaded in May continued to await review throughout the month (and still do at this time). Not sure what's going on there.

Stefanos volcano crater, Nisyros island

Just pushed into seventh place were Bigstock with 13 downloads (virtually all subs).

Finally, a small subscription sale from Mostphotos gave them a rare appearance here and eighth place.

Very little uploading in June but plenty of shooting as I spent two weeks on the lovely small Greek island of Halki. This was my third visit to the island (population just 280!). As before I took a day trip by ferry to the nearby island of Nisyros where the star attraction is the live volcano crater which you can walk around in -this was still as amazing third time round. I'll be working on my new images in due course but the ones here are from my last visit in 2010. Check out my Greek island blog for more info on Halki. Regards, David.

January Sales Updates:

Alonissos -first Extended License on Istock

There were certainly some encouraging signs in January as we came out of the Christmas and New Year holiday slowdown.

Inevitably, Shutterstock came out on top by a long way with a sprinkling of On Demand sales (not the best month for these) and one modest Single sale.

A strong month for Istock putting them in second place with 6 credit sales and 12 sub/PP downloads. What boosted things here was getting my first ever Extended License sale on Istock with my image of the coastline on Alonissos island.

Dreamstime managed third place with a pleasing 23 downloads. Sadly, all but one were 35cent sub sales which pulled the actual income down. Greek island images featured strongly in this months downloads.

Breitling WingWalkers in action

Bigstock was just pipped into fourth place (by only 2cents) with 17 downloads. As I have mentioned before local Hastings images seem to do well here with 9 of the 17 being from my home town. In fact, images downloaded on Bigstock seem to be rather quirky -often being ones that haven't sold much elsewhere (as well as the usual Margaret Thatcher type good sellers).  This suggests that they have a distinctive group of customers -no bad thing in my opinion.

123rf came in at fifth place with 9 downloads. Now, I am quick to express disappointment here with 123rf
and January looked like it was heading the same way with only four sub sales for most of the month. However, things were redeemed by 2 LEL sales and a Large sale on the 31st (a Saturday at that!) which was enough to push me back to Level 2 at the start of February. Hopefully, I can remain at that level for some time now. Further, the backlog of pending Editorial images all got reviewed and accepted right at the end of January after sitting there all month.

Finally, in the sellers list, Canstock pulled in 2 downloads which was a nice surprise given that I do not often see much action with them.

Skiathos Town and harbour, Greece

Nothing from my other sites in January with Cutcaster becoming a casualty when I decided it was no longer worth my time and broadband costs to continue uploading new material. With a current port of 1498 files, I have had just 8 downloads since joining in January 2011. Increasingly picky reviews where images that are accepted and sell on the top tier sites were being rejected didn't help matters. I'll just keep my port there and check in from time to time in the hope of a surprise. If I had to speculate about the problem here I would guess that, though they accept Editorial images, they do not have the Editorial buyers that would be interested in my port. Lifestyle/models/isolation images may do much better here for some.

Uploads in January included new images of the Breitling WingWalkers (an ever popular seller) and some views over Skiathos Town taken during my 2012 trip to Alonissos. February has got off to a slow start but, hopefully, things will pick up as the month goes on. Regards, David.

Making use of Dreamstime blogs:

Selling stock images isn't just about taking and uploading photographs - marketing yourself and your images is the other important part of the story. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook are free and can be effective in promoting your work. Writing blogs, such as this one, also help to get your name out there.

Posts on the site forums (those that have still them) and, of course, the industry leading forum Microstockgroup are another way of getting yourself known - though keep in mind that in these you will be mainly be seen by fellow contributors rather than image buyers (though sometimes they can be both, of course).

Dreamstime offer another useful feature in their Blogs section. Just write about something that interests you and add images to the piece from the Dreamstime library -either your own images or other contributors where appropriate. This is free and all images get properly credited -with a link through to the sales page for that image. Buyers as well as other contributors can see these blogs making it a good marketing tool. I must admit I used to use this feature a lot more but hadn't thought to do so for some time now.
So having just returned from a Greek island what better to blog about than "The Beautiful Small Islands Of Greece" with a selection of six of my various island images. Link here: http://blog.dreamstime.com/2014/07/02/beautiful-small-islands-greece_art40632

Whether or not this results in immediate sales of my images it helps to establish my portfolio as somewhere to seek images of Greek islands (which make up quite a large and growing portion of my work).
And, as I said before, it's free marketing. So if you have a Dreamstime account and haven't made use of the blogs before do give it a try. And if, like me, you haven't used them for a while get on there and get marketing! I'm already planning my next one.
Regards, David.

New Greek Islands blog launched:

Delighted to report that I today launched my Greek Islands blog with my first posting about the island of Alonissos.

My Small Greek Islands will present a personal (and biased) view of the small Greek islands I have visited and photographed.

As well as providing information and ideas on the islands I hope it will also act as a showcase for my stock images.

It is a long time since I set this blog up and I struggled to get the new one looking how I wanted. One problem proved to be the "About Me" section. I found you cannot vary this across different blogs so I had to make it more generic to fit both. More detailed information about my photographic background has moved to a box under the ShootingStock header.

Now I just have to write about the other islands...... Regards, David.

Here's the link: http://mysmallgreekislands.blogspot.co.uk

June sales updates:

Not too much sign of a Summer Slowdown in June as might have been expected.

As always Shutterstock led the way with 153 downloads ($82.88). Greek island images (in particular Halki) proved especially good sellers this month.

Another good month from Dreamstime saw 16 downloads ($28.74). A varied mix of images selling there.


Istock produced 10 downloads (£12.98) but due to technical issues the May partner program sales were not posted during June. In another major move Istock simplified their various collections and price points during June. Short term, the main effect for me was the scrapping of the Photo+ level (a limited percentage of my portfolio which I self-selected to sell at a higher price point). These images are now, for the time being, back in the lower priced "main" collection. Istock say the process is not yet complete and my hope is that these files will move up to the new Signature collection, though there appears to be no certainty of that happening. A wait and see situation.

Bigstock perked up with 11 downloads ($6.28) with a noted increase in subscription sales.

123rf only managed 6 downloads ($1.72) leaving me to start questioning again if they are worth uploading to.

Fotolia produced two downloads (0.50 credits).

Amazingly, Veer suddenly produced a subscription sale ($0.25) - my first sale there since 2011. Payout there still looks as far away as ever but at least there is some sign of life. Their web uploader still remains broken after some 7-8 months and a further email to them produced the response that they were looking to the forthcoming updating of the site to resolve the problem.

Uploads in June saw some new archive images of Mohamed Al Fayed (former owner of Harrods department store) being accepted.
However, uploading was limited due to spending two weeks holiday on the charming Greek island of Alonissos where I encountered some mules (pictured). I was also able to spend a day photographing on the nearby island of Skopelos (location of the film Mamma Mia). I'm looking forward to editing and uploading these images in due course. Regards, David.

Paid account at FineArtAmerica:

As I said on my previous posting about FineArtAmerica I was always pretty sure that I would upgrade to the  paid version. The basic free account allows unlimited uploads but you can only have a maximum of 25 images for sale as prints and posters at any one time.
I finally upgraded a while back and paid the $30 annual fee. In the UK this converted to around £18 so did not represent a huge investment.
The main advantage of the paid account is that there is no limit to the number of images you can offer for sale. They also give you your own artist website to help market your images. If I'm honest I am not sure how useful that is compared to just having your images on the FAA site itself. I assume it may help generate more traffic having the images in two places. There is some scope for customising your artist website and the facility to post blog messages and news items. Thankfully, you only have to upload once to either site and the images automatically get mirrored on the other.
Other perks of the paid version include a $5 referral commission should anyone use your link to sign up for a paid account. Here is my referral link for anyone interested: 4-david-fowler.artistwebsites.com.
You also receive 5% commission on materials and accessories (frames etc) should you sell an image.
So, how it all going? I'm now up to 253 images online and over 5000 views (though these include an unknown number of automated visits from search engines) but, as yet, no sales.
That said, I wouldn't expect many sales on that number of images on regular stock sites, so I will just keep uploading and be patient.
One feature I didn't discover at first is the Limited Time Promotions. This is accessed from your control panel and allows you to have up to three images at a time on a special discounted promotion. You set the duration of the offer (up to a limit) and how many copies are available at that price (up to 25). Most importantly, you still choose how much money you make from each sale (whatever you like). These promotions are available on both the free and paid for version, so are well worth trying.
As I said before, I have no idea what images might be purchased so I am just uploading a whole variety from archive celebrities through to Greek islands ones such as the chapel of Agios Kosmas on Alonissos (pictured). I am looking forward to posting about my first sale there, hopefully fairly soon. Regards, David.

September sales updates:

Overall, September didn't prove to be the big climb out of the Summer Slowdown that I might have hoped but some pleasing results here and there all the same.
Shutterstock fell just short of my BME with 80 downloads bringing in $96.86. This was achieved thanks to two Enhanced Downloads (on the same day) of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher netting $28 each.

Dreamstime didn't match the excellent results of late and just managed 9 downloads ($9.39)

Istock produced 6 downloads ($5.99) plus a further $1.96 from 7 PP sales.

Bigstock saw 6 downloads ($6.40).

123rf perked up slightly with 10 downloads ($5.28). On the plus side, jumping ahead here, October started with two PEL sales on the same day bringing in $22.50 so not all bad news at 123.

Fotolia saw 2 downloads making 0.50credits. Some fresh uploading of my back images saw my portfolio here rise to 60.

Mostphotos produced one subscription sale paying 1.50euros.

Yaymicro also saw one sale achieving 0.75euros. They have a forthcoming partner deal with Alamy which hopefully will produce some sales. Sadly, editorial images are not included in the deal but it will be interesting to see how my images fare on Alamy.

Finally, my very first sale at Canstockphoto produced $0.35. It is always pleasing to get the first sale at a new agency and especially so in this case as it was an image of Herring Gull chicks in their nest on my window ledge. I didn't even have to leave home to get that photograph!

A holiday on the charming Greek island of Alonissos (pictured) produced a lot of new images (awaiting edit). Flights were to the nearby island of Skiathos where I was able to capture the low level approach of a Boeing 757. This is not an airport for nervous fliers due to the very short runway - expect some rapid braking on landing. Return flights can only take off with a limited amount of fuel before touching down again on the Greek mainland for a full re-fuel. There's some good footage on You Tube for anyone interested. Alonissos itself is very unspoilt and full of pine forests and old donkey trails to walk.

October seems to be starting strongly so I hope to have some good results to report next month. Regards, David.

Shutterstock sales!

Well as I just posted earlier I only had a couple of dollars to go before reaching my $500. Sales at Shutterstock have been painfully slow for the first two days of the month (1 download) so I wondered when I would make it. Wonder no more -I just had 4 regular sales and my first ever Enhanced Download (paying $28). The image (pictured) was of a little seafront chapel that I took on my trip to the Greek island of Halki last Summer. Three of the other downloads were from the same trip as well. So a big well done to Shutterstock and thank you to the buyer! Regards, David (now in the 33cent club).

June updates:

Rather late, but here are my results for June 2011. Certainly there were signs of the famed Summer Slowdown with a slight fall in sales in most cases.

Shutterstock produced 73 downloads ($22.07) pushing me ever closer to the $500 sales (all time) required to get an increase in commission rate. I would expect this to happen within the next month or so.

Dreamstime had a respectable 18 downloads ($15.34) with the usual mix of editorial and commercial images.

Istockphoto continued to prove interesting with 8 dowloads ($4.46) and a further 5 partner programme downloads ($1.40). My portfolio there has now passed the 200 mark compared to the miserable 56 I had prior to them accepting editorial images.

123RF also proved worthwhile with 10 downloads ($6.40) again with editorial images to the fore.

Bigstock proved dissapointing again with only 2 downloads ($2.00) though I did have some potentially exciting news from them following various communications (future post!).

Yaymicro pulled in 1 regular sale (0.50 euro) but still not the long awaited 3rd party payment. Yay have recently announced a whole raft of re-seller/API deals -some now live and some to come in due course. This easy to upload to agency could certainly have good potential in the future.

Nothing from my other agencies in June.

Uploads during June were very limited as I spent two weeks on the beautiful little Greek island of Symi (pictured). Needless to say I returned with a mass of images which I'll be editing and uploading in due course. 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.

September updates:

After the dull performance that was August, things started to look up in September. At least at Shutterstock where 69 downloads netted a very precise $20. I passed the $75 payout threshold at the start of September (having failed in August by just 90cents!). A $94 payout is now on its way.

Dreamstime produced 11 downloads ($9.49) and Istock had two regular sales ($1.32) and three partner program sales ($0.75). Bigstock only managed a single sale at $0.50.

Yaymicro posted their second quarter third party re-seller results netting 10.42 euros. Combined with the 5 euro sale last month I am already over half way to the next 30 euro payout threshold. Yay are planning to add a number of other re-sellers in the future, which can only help sales there. Unfourtunately, one of their current partners -German owned Polylooks -has just announced that it is closing at the end of the year.

No sales at Veer but they get the star prize this time as my $74.20 upload bonus from the "Dash For Cash" promotion was added to my account. Views are increasing there as well and they have a lot of marketing going on right now (their ads frequently popping up on the left of this blog). It's starting to look like Corbis are getting their Micro offering right this time (after the dissapointing Snapvillage venture).

Nothing in September from Picturenation or Mostphotos and still zero sales at 123RF (after five months of having my images online there).

Meanwhile, I am continuing to upload images from my Greek island trip in June so any image buyers looking for images of Halki, Nisyros and Tilos check out my various ports on the left. I must admit, as I work with those images, it would be nice to be in the sun again. The weather here on the coast is steadily growing colder and wetter!

Finally, check out a new photo blog by London based Rob Ewen at http://www.photocritical.co.uk/ . He is fairly new to Microstock but already seems to be doing rather well -especially with his images of neon signs. And he was kind enough to give Shootingstock a link there.

Regards, David.

July Updates:

July saw Dreamstime powering up to an excellent 26 downloads ($18.29) making this my BME there. My portfolio there also hit the 800 milestone in July. Best of all, I am only $1.45 short of my first $100 payout so that should happen very soon.

Over at Shutterstock I had 57 downloads ($16.44) and I am on course to hit my third $75 payout in August.

British agency Picturenation did well with two high res sales (archive shots of Margaret Thatcher and Lord Peter Mandelson) netting £6.00 each in commission.

Bigstock produced 1 editorial sale ($2) and bringing up the rear Istock with one regular sale ($0.29) and 3 partner program sales ($0.75).

Nothing in July at Yay, Most, Veer or 123.

On a more positive note at Istock, I had 11 new images accepted (all from my recent Greek trip). That might not sound a lot, but for me very unusual. I've finally managed to produce some images they couldn't find any artifacts in, it seems! Also announced in July, their basic upload limit is raised from 15 a week to 18, giving a better chance of building a reasonable sized portfolio there.

Finally a bit of Summer success. My images of the crowd at the 2009 "Tentertainment" local music festival (in Tenterden, Kent) seem to have become my current best sellers. Almost daily downloads at Shutterstock and a rise to Level 2 on Dreamstime. One buyer at DT searched for "music, festival, grass" . I tried the same search at SS (under Editorial images) and there it was: Page 1, Image 1 in the results. That's why it keeps selling! I only spent a few minutes taking these images but with an excellent payback. I guess you just never know. Regard, 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.