Exciting news -RF Editorial coming to Alamy:

Alamy -getting a heart from me for their license changes

Since first writing about Alamy some while ago I have steadily continued to add a few images to my small portfolio there though, as yet, I have had no sales. That's not a surprise - my port is very small (less than 50 images) and most contributors will point out that it takes a long time to get established there and start gathering sales.

As I wrote before, one of the big limitations of Alamy is that I cannot upload my Editorial images (the majority of my portfolio) because of their licensing system. Editorial on Alamy needs to be set as RM (Rights Managed) whereas the microstock sites use an RF (Royalty Free) license and Alamy will not allow you to upload images that are available under different license types. This has meant that I have been restricted to only uploading my non editorials.

This is changing! New contributor uploading and licensing tools at Alamy are in development and, hopefully, will be available soon. One of these changes will allow for Editorial to be set under a RF license -thus making it possible to upload my whole port including those images on micro sites (with no conflict of license type).

Big news indeed and you might be forgiven for thinking this would have been a major announcement from the agency. Well, not quite. It was mentioned yesterday (in passing) in a post on microstockgroup.com in relation to something totally unrelated. I spotted it and wasn't quite sure I was actually reading and understanding what had been posted. To make sure, I posted back highlighting the comment and asking if this really meant we would be able to upload the same editorials we have on micro using the new RF license. The Alamy rep (thank you James!) replied that yes it did mean just that.

I soon realised that not many members at MSG were noticing this news because of where it was posted so I started a new thread there highlighting this big change. Link here: Microstockgroup (there's a link in that to the original post from Alamy). 

There is certainly a case to be made for having a different port at Alamy than what you put on micro sites and if you are just starting out this should be given careful consideration. However, if like me, you have long established ports on the microstock sites then this will just open up a whole new set of buyers to our images. Won't Alamy buyers just look for your images on cheaper sites? Truthfully, some might but experience suggests that professional image buyers do not have the time or inclination to "shop around" to save a few pounds of somebody else's money. Alamy buyers include National newspapers and other media outlets who are more likely to stick to them. My experience with the much missed agency PictureNation was that I still got higher priced sales through them despite my images being available on cheaper micro sites. That's my opinion but, obviously, everyone has to use their own judgement on what's best for their portfolio.

There's no fixed time yet for the implementation of this change -other than soon. I'll be watching and getting ready to upload my Editorial content. Regards, David.

Dollar Photo Club - Why I opted out and how to do it:

Never heard of the Dollar Photo Club? Well, if you are a contributor at Fotolia and you haven't opted out then your images are part of it.
Started a few months back Dollar Photo Club initially looked like it was a partner site of Fotolia using their API to offer images on a new platform. What became clear quite quickly was that DPC is in fact wholy owned and run by Fotolia.
Though DPC says it it selling subscription packages they are, in fact, much more akin to an "on demand" package. Subscription packages (such as offered by Shutterstock and the other sites)  typically offer buyers a large number of downloads for an upfront substantial fee. These result in a smaller payment (per download) to photographers but make up for that in volume as buyers use up their allowance of downloads within the period of the subscription.
By contrast DPC offer a package of just $10 for 10 downloads (hence $1 per image) for which the photographer receives a subscription rate payment at Fotolia. Low payment and low volume. Worse, the DPC package doesn't expire at the end of a set period so there is no incentive for buyers to use up their allowance and drive sales to the photographers.
Other subscription sites do offer "on demand" packages where buyers only wanting a few images can just pay to download a few images each month. These result in substantially higher commission to the photographers (on Shutterstock I usually make over $2 each time on these, for example).
What DPC will do is to help to kill these valuable On Demand sales and, indeed, regular single credit sales as well. Ironically, credit sales on Fotolia themselves are likely to be hit as well.
Read up about the DPC on this long thread at Microstockgroup.com http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-launches-dollar-photo-club/
Originaly, all Fotolia files were available on DPC but after a lot of protest an opt out has now been added. You'll struggle to spot it but here is where to look:

Log in to your Contributor page.
Under My Account, select My Profile.
Then select Contributor Parameters.
You will now see a little badge saying "Sell my files on DPC".
Click on the Modify word next to it.
It should change to "Don't sell my files on DPC".
Now click on Save Parameters to complete the opt out.
(Warning: be careful not to click the modify button twice or it will revert to the opt in again).

I opted out as soon as the option became available as I believe DPC will be damaging to my sales both at Fotolia and other sites if buyers switch to this bargain basement option. After all, Microstock prices are hardly expensive compared to the traditional stock agencies -let's not help drive these already low rates even lower.

Some photographers have also been deleting files at Fotolia itself or closing their whole account in protest at DPC. For now, at least, I am happy to continue working with Fotolia itself but I am glad to be out of the industry damaging DPC. You must all, of course, make your own decisions. Regards, David.

***EDIT: Fotolia is now owned by Adobe. DPC is no more. No opt outs or boycotts required! 31/3/16

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.

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.

Useful source of information:

In stock photography, like all walks of life, knowledge and information are essential. One source that I frequently mention is the microstock forum site http://www.microstockgroup.com/ , where you can find a wealth of information, views, debate and sometimes just entertainment. If you are serious about stock photography this site is a must read!

A new service which I recently signed up to is http://www.microstock-news.com/ . Founded by stock veterans Roberto Marinello and Amos Struck, this service provides you with regular (usually daily) emails with a digest of all the latest microstock news. Everything from photo blogs to stock agency news/press releases etc. You just get a taster of each one and click on the link to read more. You can also choose only those areas that interest you (e.g. photo tools and software). This valuable and Free service has given me loads of good information over the past few months. The only downside is having to resist the temptation to read everything! Regards, David.

November updates:

November saw a slight drop in sales at Shutterstock. 49 downloads compared to 67 in October. However, thanks to three On Demand sales income remained virtually the same at $16 odd. Considering I have uploaded few new images to them recently I was quite happy with this. More importantly I hit my first payout at the end of the month and now have $82 on its way to me!

Over at Dreamstime (which I have been concentrating on) my portfolio has reached 547 images, netting 23 sales in November and an all time figure of 34 sales. This amounts to nearly $23 in earnings in just a few weeks (nearly as much as I have ever earned on Istock!). I have now started uploading my non editorial images with (as I expected) a lower acceptance rate than my editorial ones. All the same, I am getting plenty accepted and had my first non-ed sale this week (a landscape shot of Hastings beach).

One or two sales at Istock and Bigstockphoto and a pleasing 11 euros from the Yaymicro "third party sales" scheme (basically, selected images are going to a third party seller and contributors get a quarterly payout). Veer marketplace sales remain at just 1, though my portfolio there has now reached 98. Still getting lots of rejections there ("not quite Veer") and very few views.

Istocks "partner program" with Photos.com is now underway and first results/sales should be available on our Istock page at the end of December. They will normally be updated monthly but because it was mid November before the scheme launched they are merging November/December results. I'm pleased to say my images show up well in searches on Photos.com so I am optimistic about getting some sales there.

Meanwhile British site Picturenation.co.uk remains offline in mysterious circumstances (see earlier posting). Their last Twitter update was on November 1 "back next week". Well that didn't happen. On November 24 they updated the apology notice on their site, again saying they would be back up "next week". They have long weeks in Staffordshire it seems. Just don't know what to make of the situation but I am still keeping my fingers crossed for this site.

Finally, much fun to be had at http://microstockgroup.com/ this week, after they moved to a new server. Most of us have been bounced back and forth from the new server to the old one where founder Tyler Olson (Leaf) has set up a "graveyard chat" page. It's been like being in a parellel universe all week and quite weird. I expect Picturenation would be glad to just have one version of their site up, yet alone two. Regards, David.

In at Shutterstock!

An exciting step forward this week when (at second attempt) I got accepted as a contributor at Shutterstock. This New York based image library specialises in subscription sales, paying contributors from 25c per download (the amount goes up once you reach a certain sales level). This may not sound a lot but Shutterstock gets high volume sales. Some new photographers I know have had loads of downloads in just a few weeks with just a few files online. Many Microstock photographers give this as their top earning agency. So my hopes are high. Now I just need to "feed the beast" to borrow a quote from the http://www.microstockgroup.com/ forum. Photographers wanting to sign up to Shutterstock can follow my link on the left hand column of this blog. Picture buyers can use the link below (in both cases I get income under Shutterstocks referral program). Regards, David

http://www.shutterstock.com/?rid=370843

Progress Veers off course:

A very dissapointing set back yesterday. Having waited in anticipation for my Snapvillage portfolio to be moved over to the new Veer Marketplace site I (and many others) got an email saying our portfolio hadn't been selected for Veer. That's 883 photographs uploaded and keyworded over the last couple of years. What a waste of time Snapvillage has now proved. My photos will remain available on SV until they wind it up later in the year so I might get a few more 30c subscription sales but that's it. On a cheery note the Veer email invites me to start uploading direct when their contributors site goes live on June 8th. Right, so I just start uploading my SV portfolio all over again then? Thanks. Needless to say the forum at http://microstockgroup.com is buzzing with both those delighted at being accepted and even more from us who received the "loser email" as one poster amusingly described it. Bitter? Me? Yup! Regards, David P.S. How many days to June 8th?

Sources of information and news:

Here is a list of sites which aspiring stock photographers may find useful. Apart from Microstockgroup, all the others offer a free regular newsletter by email. They all have lots of interesting news, views and help with problems relating to stock photography. Try them out. Regards, David

http://pdnonline.com/

http://epuk.org/

http://microstockdiaries.com/

http://microstockgroup.com/

http://arcurs.com/