November Sales Updates:

Today launch issue from 1986 -new upload

A slow month in November with only one standout performer and nothing at all from my two POD sites -FineArtAmerica and Redbubble (so much for my hoped for Christmas surge).

Way out in first place were Shutterstock. A good Single sale of a Poll Tax Riots image pushed them up here.

Second place went to Alamy. Though I only had two modest downloads a worthwhile sum of DACS payments came in. I always count this in my totals as it is, in effect, secondary income on previous sales - and much appreciated at that.

Istock took third place with 22 downloads. The usual suspects of music festival and travel images did well here.

Fourth place went to Adobe with 10 downloads. My electric vehicle charging point sign continued to feature here. That is one good example of a saleable stock image taken just a few minutes walk from
home.

Dreamstime were in fifth place with 5 downloads. A rare credit sale from them this month.

Finally in sixth place were Bigstock with just a single download. I suspect the lack of new material

M & Co in the old Embassy Cinema building

going into my portfolio (thanks to the ending of the Bridge to Bigstock scheme) doesn't help matters here.

November also saw the ending of my Picfair store subscription (as mentioned in my last post) so I will decide what to do about them going forward. It does mean that I am no longer able to upload any further images as Unlimited Uploads was a feature of the paid store. 

Recent uploading included an image of my local branch of fashion chain Mackays (trading as M & Co) which has just gone into administration. With 170 UK stores this is quite a big business story here and a worrying time for their near two thousand staff. I took a longer shot of the building (rather than just a close up of the store sign) to show the historic Embassy sign as this was once the home of any Embassy Cinema until its closure in the sixties. 

Poll Tax Riots - good sale on Shutterstock

I have also been uploading more historic newspaper mastheads including the launch issue of National daily Today which was first published in 1986. I really liked this newspaper and was sorry to see it close in 1995. Sadly, as a former Fleet Street person, newspapers are becoming a thing of the past with constant news updates available on television news channels and our friend the internet. That said, I cannot remember the last time I actually purchased a newspaper so I am as much a part of the decline as anyone else.

As we near the end of the year I'll take this chance to wish readers  a happy Christmas (should you celebrate it) and every best wish for 2023. Regards, David.

October Sales Updates:

Planet On Sunday- first and last issue

A strong month in October mainly thanks to one agency.

Way out in first place were Alamy with 9 downloads. Most of these were from my archives including three good $$ (net) uses. Seventies rock band Tom Robinson Band sold for an editorial website. Former Chancellor of The Exchequer Denis Healey sold for use as a museum display and my WW2 ration book was used for a book/ebook. 

Second place went to Redbubble with a good value sale of a framed print of my 1980s B/W image of New Scotland Yard. Maybe a Christmas present for somebody that used to work there? That said, I have yet to see a rush of Christmas type sales as in previous years. It's getting a bit late now.

Shutterstock took third place but no large sales this month. Three On Demand and four modest Single sales helped things here.

Fourth place went to Istock with a disappointing 16 downloads and the lowest month I have had from them in a while.

Adobe made fifth place with 6 downloads. My EV charging point sign featuring again.

Denis Healey - museum sale on Alamy

Sixth place went to Dreamstime with 7 downloads. No credit sales again this month.

Bigstock came in seventh place with 3 downloads - all of the vintage cable car in Barcelona. 

Finally in eighth place were Mostphotos with a rare sale. Another Barcelona image of the beach there. I'm not sure what, if any, marketing they do but they seem never to have expanded out of their home country of Sweden. They have also increased the minimum payout to 35 euros so whether I ever see another payout from them is doubtful. 

Shooting highlight in October consisted of covering the annual Tenterden Folk Festival. This is a bigger deal than it might sound as it attracts folk dance groups and musicians from around the World. I covered the main parade down the High Street as well as individual dance performances that were going on all down the street.

WW2 ration book - good sale on Alamy

New uploading saw me continuing with my "historic" newspapers including an image of National Sunday newspaper Planet On Sunday. Launched in June 1996 with an environmental and conservation mission, it ceased publication just days after launching making my image both a first and last edition. I suspect that is some kind of record for a new newspaper.

I haven't mentioned Picfair for a long time - mainly because there was nothing to report. After two years of paying a fee to have a Store there (and allowing continued unlimited uploads) I finally took the decision to cancel my payment. My store finishes in November so I have stopped any further uploads. Not quite sure what happens after this or what to do with the already uploaded images. I'll see in a few weeks time and report back.

So far, a slow start to November so let's see how it goes. Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Leslie Nielsen -print sale on Redbubble

 A strong month in November boosted in part by the upcoming Christmas holidays.

Way out in first place were Redbubble with no less than 12 product sales. Items ranged from framed prints, mugs, t shirts and cushions. I have no doubt that many of these were destined to be Christmas presents (though the rush has come a little later this year). So, if you have always wanted a cushion with Margaret Thatcher on it your luck could in this year.

Istock took second place with 36 downloads and a good RPD (highest commission being just over $6). As is normal for Istock most sales were either travel images or my Tentertainment music festival images (a sure sign of some return to normality ahead despite the new variant).

Third place went to FineArtAmerica with a framed print sale of a vintage Hawker Hunter jet fighter. As a paid up member not only do you get unlimited uploads but also a commission on frames etc which helps push up the earnings.

Alamy came in fourth place with (sadly) no downloads but a worthwhile DACS payment which I always count as "earnings from stock" so they make the rankings.

Fifth place went to Shutterstock but a dearth of On Demand sales and zero Single sales pulled them down the earnings league.

Adobe made sixth place with 7 downloads (not bad given my small portfolio there). None of these were editorials this month.

Moving down to the minnows we had Bigstock in seventh place with 3 downloads and finally one time

Hawker Hunter - print sale on FAA

top tier agency Dreamstime in eighth place with just 2 subscription sales.

As two POD (print on demand) sites did well this month it might be worth mentioning that I did try US print/poster site Image Kind for a while. Hundreds of images uploaded but not a single sale. It may just be that my images just aren't what their buyers want so might be worth a look for others. Their near dead forum doesn't inspire much confidence though. Other sites that some report sales from are Society6 and British site Photos4Me. I might give these a try in the future -maybe.

Music festival -selling well at Istock

Another non selling (for me) site is Picfair. I love the ethos of the site (set your own fee and get 100% of that) but with a grand total of five sales (the last in 2017) and a portfolio of over 2.5k it doesn't seem to work for me. I suspect that sales there come from the photographer having their own buyer contacts and directing them to  Picfair. I also wonder if they are concentrating on selling Stores to photographers rather than images to buyers. I see an awful lot of Google ads for Picfair but they are never about buying from their great collection of images. That said my Store fee came up for renewal this month and I have signed up for another year. I think this be my final year with them unless I start seeing sales.

November saw the thirtieth anniversary of the death of media tycoon Robert Maxwell (see my post on the twentieth anniversary) but I didn't see the big flurry of sales I was hoping for. Perhaps the forthcoming BBC documentary and also a drama series about him will stir up some interest when they eventually air.

Very limited uploading in November (Christmas preps etc) and no new shooting. That said, I have just applied to renew my passport and hope to actually use it in 2022. We will see. Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas. Kind regards, David. 

November Sales Updates:

Tenterden town hall -editorial sale at Adobe

A fairly strong month in November with a nice boost at one agency.

Down to business we had Shutterstock taking a strong first place. A reasonable Single sale and a slew of On Demand sales (making up circa 50% of earnings) pushing things up here.

Second place went to Redbubble with 5 product sales. The usual range from prints to T.shirts here. As last month, I would expect some of these are destined to be Christmas gifts.

Dreamstime gave a pleasant surprise by coming in third place with no less than 31 downloads. This was another of those unusual events where the same buyer bought a whole load of semi related images (Hastings pier fire, Eastbourne pier fire etc). This is not the first time DT has produced something like this.

Istock managed fourth place with 21 downloads. Again, a disappointing RPD this month.

Fifth place went to FineArtAmerica with a single T.Shirt sale. 2020 has certainly seen some steady results at FAA.

Alamy disappointed with just a single Personal Use sale of Professor Stephen Hawking to give them sixth place.

Seventh place was interesting as Adobe produced 3 downloads. Interesting because all three were from

Hastings pier fire - surge at Dreamstime

my newly submitted Illustrative Editorial range. We had a Barclays Bank, Laura Ashley store front and my own local Tenterden town hall. What they seem to like and accept is branded stuff - store fronts, petrol stations, a Boeing airliner. What failed were just travel type shots which had an editorial element in them. These were all rejected. They also stipulate No Recognisable People. People in the distance or people you can't really make out seem to be ok here. Truth is I'm not sure I have that many in my portfolio that will qualify but I've added about forty so far on Adobe. I'll update on how these do in coming posts.

Finishing off in eighth place were Bigstock with just a single download. As previously posted this was my first sale there since August! I still have no idea why they just stopped.

Rt.Hon. John Smith - archives to Pond 5

Also stopped (briefly) were my uploads to Picfair. This is because they now only offer unlimited uploads if you upgrade to their Picfair Plus store. I probaly did well to get to over 2000 images before the upload button grayed out. With a 20% discount code I upgraded for circa £55 (normally £69 p/a). It certainly looks nice though I am yet to make the most of the customising features available. The key thing is will they actually sell anything now that I have forked out my money? I do have a rather uneasy feeling that they are concentrating their efforts on selling nice websites and not on selling images. I'll see in the coming year and then make a decision.

Not much photography shooting since last time but I get out to do a few store fronts and the like (all accepted at Adobe!). I also continued to get my back portfolio up to Pond 5 - well over 1000 images now including some of the late John Smith (former Labour party Leader). We shall see what happens there as well but if they are not uploaded they certainly cannot sell them. More updates next time, Regards, David.

April Sales Updates:

Poll Tax Riots sold on FineArtAmerica

A surprisingly strong month overall given the Coronavirus pandemic with an unexpected number two in the rankings.

Just retaining their first place were Shutterstock with a decent but lower amount of downloads causing me to miss payout by just a few cents. Never mind, it will be a bumper payment next month with May already off to a good start. On Demand sales made up some 40% of my downloads as is so often the case.

A surprise second place (only just behind SS) were Redbubble with 10 product sales. I wrote last month that maybe people weren't buying art products in the current climate but April proved me wrong with T shirts, prints and sticker sales coming in every few days.

Istock took third place with a reduced download tally of 22 but a decent RPD and a bunch of Connect commissions pushing up the total.

In fourth place it was welcome back to FineArtAmerica with 4 coffee mug sales. These featured my

Coronavirus letter sold on Bigstock

images of the 1977 Rock and Roll Radio campaign march and the 1991 Poll Tax Riots. Firstly an order for two small mugs and then for the same images on two large mugs!

Alamy made fifth place with 2 modest paying downloads. Both from my B/W archives - tennis player Annabel Croft and Robert Sheldon MP (the latter I spotted in the obituary page of one of the Daily newspapers).

Adobe took sixth place with 2 downloads (one of which was a decent paying Custom use).

In seventh place were Dreamstime with just 3 downloads.

Finally we had Bigstock with 5 downloads (all sub sales as they tend to be on BS but, on the plus side, I had my first two sales of my coronavirus letter image. This is the information communication sent out by the UK Government to every household which I photographed laying on a door mat. Not especially original as I found out later - just about every stock photographer seems to have photographed that letter - so I was pleased to get some interest in mine).

Stormy seas at Cala San Vicente in Majorca

I haven't mentioned Picfair for a long time for the very good reason that I haven't had any further sales there (not since 2017). However, I did think it time to have another play with my pricing using their excellent bulk pricing change feature. I've previously tried the premium pricing of £49 per image (with no takers). Went down to £31 (the same as Alamy's Stockimo images on the site). Nothing. So I am now back to £10 (my cut) which is the price point I had my previous sales at. Worth mentioning that Picfair are currently waiving their commission which normally adds 20% to your own price. This continues until July 9 so helps make the images even better value. We'll see if anything happens. Essentially, I see Picfair as like having your own photo selling site. You upload what you want, price how you want and you can group images into albums to promote on social media. And it is free (unless you want to upgrade to a customisable store front there). Uploading is easy enough so I'll just keep going with it for now.

New uploads recently included my previously mentioned Coronavirus letter. I also returned to my 2018 trip to Majorca for some more images of a stormy sea at Cala San Vicente. Travel? You remember that? Maybe next year. 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.

April Sales Updates:

Annabel Croft -sold at Alamy

A steady month in April with a couple of highlights in getting my first ever sale at Alamy and another new sale at Picfair.

First place, of course, to Shutterstock with a strong performance for On Demand sales which made up nearly 50% of my monthly income here.

Istock once again came in second place with 32 downloads. As last month there was a spread of payment amounts from very low to well above the old fixed $0.28 for subscription sales. So far, it is looking like the new percentage system is generating higher income overall (though it is still early days).

Third place went to Picfair with a sale of a Jack In The Green festival image. This is my second sale in recent months and it looks like things are starting to happen here with an email newsletter mentioning sales to publishers like The Guardian and Time Inc. They have also just introduced a new (optional) advertising license which pays out at ten times your basic set price. Check the site and opt in to these if you want the chance of making the higher sales.In another move buyers now see the total price of an image. Previously they just saw the price the contributor had set and then had Picfairs percentage and the sale processing charge added on at checkout. It's a good way to be more transparent with buyers.

Fourth place was taken by Redbubble with 3 product sales. T shirts seem to be especially popular on this site.

In fifth place Alamy make their first appearance in my sales updates with first a download of the late actress

Pat Hayes - briefly my first ever sale at Alamy 

Pat Hayes followed closely by another of former tennis player Annabel Croft. Sadly the Pat Hayes sale got refunded a few days later. I don't yet know how common refunds are on Alamy but it was certainly disappointing to see my very first sale taken away! By comparison, I have only ever had a handful of refunds across all my other microstock sites. Certainly Alamy operate in a much more traditional way and with more flexibility to buyers so maybe more refunds are to be expected here.

Sixth place went to steady Bigstock with 10 downloads. They tick over month after month with never any great excitement (such as an extended license). Still, as I am lucky enough to be on the discontinued (for new contributors) Bridge to Bigstock scheme there is no work involved at all for me - Shutterstock acceptances just get mirrored on Bigstock.

123rf managed seventh place with 6 downloads -virtually all subscriptions.

Jack In The Green festival -second recent sale at Picfair

Eighth place was the hugely disappointing Dreamstime with just one single sale all month. I should be grateful that at least it was a (modest) credit sale not a $0.35 sub. I'm at a complete loss to understand what has happened to Dreamstime. With over two thousand images there I really shouldn't be seeing this sort of result. So far, May doesn't look like any improvement with just 2 sub sales to date. A late turnaround is really needed here.

Ninth place went to Fotolia with also one download but as I have frequently mentioned I have less than two hundred images there so do not expect much. For many they are in their top two sites each month. I still hope that eventually they will accept editorial images and I can dramatically increase my portfolio and sales there.

Tenth place went to Canstock with 1 download. Again, another agency where I would benefit if they accepted editorial.

Uploading in April again concentrated on getting my portfolio onto Alamy - a policy which I hope to see pay off in coming months. Shooting this month was centred round my second trip to the vibrant Greek capital of Athens. Lots of images of the massive Zea Marina and a day trip to the little island of Aegina where a prehistoric archeological site proved interesting. They'll be edited and uploaded in due course.
Regards, David.

February Sales Updates:

Sold at Picfair: Anti National Front demonstration in Brixton

A stronger month in February with a lot going on in the Microstock world.

Shutterstock took first place as ever with one of their best performances in months. A good number of On Demand sales and a few modest Single Downloads helped boost things here. Their new redesigned Contributor Dashboard has gone down well with me (though not everyone) and I am especially enjoying seeing exactly where in the world my downloads have taken place

Second place went to Dreamstime with 6 downloads. Two higher value credit sales pushed up the earning here.

In third place were Picfair with (at last) my third sale there. My seventies image of protests at a National Front march in Brixton finding a buyer at well above micro prices. A nice touch at Picfair is that you can request payout as soon as you have a sale which is what I did. For some reason I opted for payment via Paypal (rather than direct to my bank). Be aware that this will carry a fee at Paypal -I forgot that the main agencies pay the fees for you. A lesson learnt for next time.

Fourth place was taken by print site Redbubble with two merchandise sales. Things seem to have slowed recently here but nothing like Fine Art America where it is now some fourteen months since my last sale. Not sure what happened to them but I have, in any case, paid my premium account fee for another year in the hope that things pick up.

Church of Christ The Saviour, Tilos island

Fifth place went to Istock with 16 downloads. February 20 saw the first of their new monthly sales reports. Unless you upload the report into some spreadsheet software you are going to have a hard time deciphering what has sold and for how much. Why they can't just give you a straight forward list of sales and commission I don't know. There's talk of improvements to come so I hope this will be one of them. The big question around the new % based subscription commissions was partially answered, Yes there some paltry $0.02 commissions but also many well above the old fixed 28c per download. I'll have to see how that pans out in the coming months before making decisions on continuing to work with Istock.

Bigstock were in sixth place with 17 downloads. A strong surge of Greek island images here this month.

123rf made seventh place with a poor 5 downloads. There seems to be no consistency with them at all recently.

Dodekanisos Express catamaran powers into Tilos island

Lastly, in at eighth place were Fotolia with 3 downloads. Bring on the editorial is what I would say to them!

Over at Alamy, still no sales as yet but exciting times as their impressive new Image Manager finally reached me (they have been rolling it out across contributors for a while now). Easy to upload and bulk edit it is a pleasure to use and, of course, the new Manager finally allows for editorial images to be set as Royalty Free (RF). For me, this means that I can now upload all the editorial images I have on Microstock (e.g. most of my portfolio). I also applied for and was granted access to the archive/historic uploads so I can also upload all my old celeb/political images. Best of all, these do not have to be approved - just upload and they're in. My portfolio has jumped from under 100 images to over 700 since getting the new Manager - with quite a bit of interest (in terms of views and zooms) from buyers. Feels like Alamy will now finally come good for me going forward.

Recent uploading saw me working on more images of the Greek island of Tilos including the Church of Christ the Saviour in Mikro Chorio and the Dodekanisos Express ferry arriving at Livadia. March has started slowly so far so I'll see what the rest of the month brings. Regards, David.

June Sales Updates:

Soon to go: British Home Stores in Hastings

As promised a prompter posting for my sales updates for June.

In first place, no prizes for guessing that Shutterstock came top with around double the earnings of my second place site. A good crop of On Demand sales in June but only one small Single sale.

A strong second place for Istock with 9 credit sales and a further 27 PP and sub downloads. Interesting to note that of the latter only one was from the PP. Is Thinkstock being run down in favour of promoting sub sales at Istock? Trying to predict what Getty will do next is a near impossible task - so I'll just await developments.

Dragon Lily seed heads on Halki island

Third place went to Redbubble with 6 sales. A good mix of products including mugs,T shirts, stickers. In a new move they have just announced the scrapping of their minimum payout level. Commission on any sales will just be paid out by the 15th of the following month regardless of amount. Good news for those that do not sell much and have been sitting on a balance in their account.

Fourth place went to an improved Dreamstime with 16 downloads. Good to see a bit more action here but a
long way from where they were for me.

Fifth place saw Bigstock also with 16 downloads. My music festival images were the best seller here.

123rf managed sixth place with 18 downloads. Most of these were sub sales which pulled the income down. It's been a while since I saw some large credit sales at 123.

Fotolia were in seventh place with 3 downloads.

At eighth place were MostPhotos which for the second month running saw 2 subscription downloads.

Agioi Anargyroi church on Agistri island

No sales over at Picfair (still stuck on just 2 sales ever). My experiment with their bulk price adjuster came to an end when I reverted all my images back to £10 per license. My test to see if a £5 level would generate more sales suggested to me that pricing isn't the issue. I really want Picfair to work and intend to keep uploading.

Recent uploads included some shots of the Hastings branch of British Home Stores (BHS). Founded in 1928, the Department Store chain of 163 UK shops is now closing down for good -with no viable buyer for the business found. Sad to see a long standing part of the High Street going but, if I'm honest, I cannot remember the last time I even went in the store let alone bought anything. Other uploads included shots of Dragon Lily seed heads taken on the Greek island of Halki last year. These proved hard to ID but I put out requests for help on several forums resulting in several suggestions but Dragon Lily came in as the most credible -based on a lot of research. Google reverse image search didn't help at all -just returning lots of images of green olives! Finally, I continued with my uploads from my May trip to Athens including the church of Agioi Anargyroi on the little island of Agistri. Regards, David.

Picfair.com introduce global price change tool:

Copyright: Duncan Andison/Dreamstime.com

For anyone that's not looked at the Picfair site for a while there is now a new feature that I have been asking for right from the start. A global price change tool that allows you to edit the price of all your images at once.

From the start I have always priced all my images at £10 per licence, however, I have wondered how different price points might influence sales. As I have written before £10 is expensive for, say, a blogger but cheap for a National newspaper.

To be fair, Picfair have previously offered to perform a bulk price change at their end but having the convenience of doing it yourself is much better. You'll find it on the top right of your portfolio page there. Obviously, this only works if you want all your images at the same price. You can still individually edit the price of each image just as you always could.

You will get a warning that any global price change is irreversible but it also says that you can bulk change your prices again. Confused? I assume that what they mean is that if you currently have a range of prices for different images and you bulk change them to a new single price you cannot go back to all different prices again (other than by individual editing).

Anxious to try this new feature I went for a dramatic 50% reduction to £5 per licence. The feature does say it will take a while to populate to all your images but it seemed to be pretty instant in my case. What has happened, however, is the bulk change button is still saying that it is updating my prices a week or so later and does not function  - so I cannot now change my price back even if I wanted to. I'm guessing they don't want people changing pricing on a daily basis -so be warned that once you use this feature it will be a while before you can change things again. I'll keep checking and see when it becomes functional again. Nethertheless, it's good to finally have this feature in place. Regards, David.
ETA - Just heard from Picfair via Twitter: They're looking into that as the button should have updated ready to be used again.

October Sales Updates:

Dodekanisos Express departs Halki island, Greece

No prizes for guessing the number one position for October (and every other month).
Shutterstock (by far) came in first, helped by a good dose of On demand sales and an Extended License for one of my Tentertainment music festival images.

A long way behind were Istock in second place with just 2 credit downloads and a further 27 Sub/PP sales. On the plus side, my portfolio at Istock finally exceeded 1000 images. There is still plenty of room for growth for me here -albeit probaly based on subscription downloads with the odd credit sale thrown in.

123rf climbed to third place with 8 downloads. My portfolio exposure probaly not helped by the fact that I am still awaiting review of images uploaded from August onwards. I suppose, that eventually, I'll have to email support but it really doesn't seem right that I have to do this to get reviewed. I can only suppose that they either changed from reviewing in house to an outside company or, if they already outsourced this maybe they changed to a new service. Either way, the days of editorial reviews within minutes/hours seem long gone.

Redbubble hit fourth place with one sale of a throw pillow (cushion) featuring, yet again, Margaret Thatcher.

Rocky coastline at Lakka on Paxos island, Greece

I am forever grateful that I have images of The Iron Lady in my portfolio. Ironic, when I could not be more opposed to her political policies :)

A rather sad fourth place for Dreamstime with just 4 downloads (boosted slightly by $0.65 in referral income). Hard to say what is going on with Dreamstime but sales have certainly plunged over the last year with many of those remaining being $0.35 subscription sales. I really like this friendly agency and hope that things will improve there. Pleased to say that reviews are still being made on a regular and fairly prompt basis.

Bigstock made fifth place with 6 downloads (mainly subs, mainly Hastings area images again!).

Bringing up sixth place were Fotolia with just one download. As this is considered one of the Big Four stock agencies I still have confidence that sales will grow here in the future as I build up my small portfolio. I am really hoping that they decide to start taking Editorial images in the future -when I would be able to dramatically increase my portfolio. They remain the only top agency to not take Editorial images.

Summer images at the St.Leonards Festival

Nothing at all from the rest in October. I still have hopes for Picfair where I now have some 984 images with over 53k views -but just two sales to date. I hope they eventually introduce their long awaited bulk price editor. I would be very interested to see if pricing is a factor here deterring sales. At my standard £10 per use this is obviously higher than microstock prices and may well be putting some buyers off. I have noticed some (unproven) correlation between uploading to Picfair and subsequent sales (of the same image) on microstock sites but not enough to draw any firm conclusions.

Recent uploading included a set of images of the annual St.Leonards Festival (held right in front of my flat!) which, though not of International importance, provides good generic Summer/Festival/Community/Outdoor event type images. I also revisited my 2014 trip to the Greek island of Paxos for a seascape image of Lakka. Greek islands also featured with an image of the Dodekanisos Express ferry departing from Halki during my trip this June. November is starting to look like a challenging month for sales -but there is still plenty of time for things to turn around. I'll update in December. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

Prevelis ferry docked at Halki island

As with every other month there are no prizes for guessing that Shutterstock took top place in August. Sales were slightly down from recent months and this is one instance in which I would have narrowly missed payout under the old payout limit. Luckily I had changed mine to the new $35 level in my account settings. On Demand sales were good but I only received a couple of small Single Downloads which brought the total down.

Istock came in second with 5 credit sales and 36 sub/PP downloads.

In third place were Picfair with, at last, my second sale there! An image of the Red Arrows was purchased by a design agency to use in a clients project. They had originally gone to Istock but found the editorial restrictions prevented the use they needed. Picfairs license (which allows for some commercial uses) fitted the bill. I know this because the purchaser contacted me directly and, pleasingly, said they would certainly look at Picfair for future projects.

Photogenic pile of stones on Ftenegia beach, Halki

123RF achieved fourth place with 13 downloads. I am still awaiting review of all my editorial images uploaded in August although two commercial images were reviewed and accepted. This is strange as 123
used to have lightning fast reviews for editorial (often within minutes) so I am not sure what has changed.

Dreamstime disappointed with 9 downloads all of which were subs. Especially frustrating as I am only a fraction off payout level :(

Bigstock ranked sixth with 10 downloads (mainly subs). Once again, six of those images were related to my local area of Hastings.

Kent Air Ambulance at St.Leonards-on-Sea

Bringing up the rear in seventh place were Fotolia with 5 downloads. However, the good news there is that all 5 were in the last few days of the month suggesting an uptick in activity on my small portfolio there. This may well be due to parent company Adobe launching their new Adobe Stock site which mirrors Fotolia images. That will certainly be one to watch in coming months.

Shooting and uploading in August included further images from my June trip to Halki island in Greece as well as the awful events at Shoreham detailed in my last post. An unexpected photo opportunity arose when the Kent Air Ambulance landed in the public park in front of my flat. This was the second time this has happened but what made it especially strange was that I had literally just edited and uploaded my image from Shoreham -with the same Kent Air Ambulance pictured landing at the tragedy. Weird or what? Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

The Red Arrows -Extended License at Istock

Somewhat later than I had hoped here are my updates for July. Expect August updates to follow soon to get things back on track :)

In first place (of course) were Shutterstock. A good number of On Demand downloads and a handful of Single Downloads pushed July over the payout limit. In an interesting move SS announced that the minimum payout is to drop to just $35 (from $75). Just go into your account settings at SS and change the figure. This move prompted some cynical speculation that SS anticipate a drop in sales for contributors. I do not buy that theory. Why would they care if contributors had to wait a bit longer for payout? My belief is that as a public company they simply want to clear all that debt (unpaid commissions) off the balance sheet. It doesn't benefit them to have all that money (which isn't theirs) sitting there. In practise, I usually make the existing payout each month but I will now get the certainty of a monthly payment even if I haven't quite made the old limit.

Tentertainment festival - illustrating festivals, summer, events

In second place came Istock with an excellent month consisting of 5 credit sales (including an EL on one of my Red Arrows images) and a remarkable 46 sub and PP downloads. My mainly Editorial portfolio (which now stands at 983 images) seems to be attracting the interest of the sub package buyers.

Third place went to Dreamstime with 8 downloads boosted heavily by a IEL (Increased usage) and a UEL (multi seat) on my image of the Italian street party in Clerkenwell, London.

123RF made fourth place with 5 downloads. They still seem to be having issues getting new uploads reviewed in a timely manner.

Italian street party - EL at Dreamstime

Bigstock made fifth place with 8 downloads -virtually all subs. As noted before, Hastings related images continue to be downloaded here.

In sixth place came FineArtAmerica with a single greeting card sale of my Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast image.

Bringing up the rear in seventh place were Fotolia with just 2 downloads earning 0.72 credits. On the plus
side I contacted them to increase the prices of my Extended License sales. Bronze level contributors can place these sales at 60 credits rather than the default 30. You can change each one manually but much easier to contact Fotolia support and they will do it for you. Whilst I do not expect that many EL sales it is nice to know that I will get a decent amount of commission for them.

Of note amongst the non sellers was the lack of action from Redbubble which had got off to such a promising start in May/June. Maybe I had benefited from a new contributor bounce and things have now settled down? I have continued to upload and hope for better things in the future. Also notable was that is now a full year since my last sale at Cutcaster. A total of just 8 sales ever on a portfolio of circa 1400 confirms my decision to cease uploading new images to them was the correct one (for me).

Octopuses drying on Nisyros - classic Greek image

Shooting in July mainly centered on the annual St.Leonards Festival -a community arts and music event which yielded excellent crowd and festival images. I have yet to edit and upload these but the images from last year continue to sell steadily. I also covered the Tentertainment music festival once again and have already seen sales from these. This local event has proved to be a constant seller over the last few years as an illustration for festivals/summer/outdoor events etc. A Google search finds these images of Kent being used across the world!  

Other uploading in July included my first images from my June trip to the lovely Greek island of Halki. One of my favourites included one from the nearby island of Nisyros of Octopuses drying on a line. In terms of Greek island images it's a real "classic" image which I have seen used many times. Sadly, until now I had never actually seen any drying Octopi in real life to photograph. I was excited, to say the least, when I spotted these on the seafront at Mandraki. As well as several early sales this image recently got chosen by Picfair for their weekly pick of top images -resulting in hundreds of views. I have high hopes for this image :) Regards, David.

Persisting with Picfair:

The Sinceros -my most viewed image on Picfair

When I first posted about British photo agency Picfair back in November 2013 I was certainly full of hope for this new venture and even more so when I got my first sale just a couple of weeks later. So, time for an update.

Well, first the headline fact, I have yet to have had my second sale there despite my portfolio now numbering some 870 images. Am I giving up on them? Not at this stage and here is why.

Founded by former journalist Benji Lanyado in 2013 the site has gradually grown -both in the number of images available and the team itself. Very much a one man band at the start Picfair now has a number of people on its team which you can see on the "About" section of their site. Originally launched in Beta the site is now fully functioning as an image selling agency and received a substantial boost of investment last Summer (read about that here http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/08/picfair-raises-520k-to-take-on-getty-with-an-image-marketplace/ ). Ignore the "taking on Getty" headline -I'm pretty sure that they are not actually claiming that!

So what's great about Picfair? Well the two big attractions to me are firstly that there are no reviews to go through. You get the images online and for sale that you want, not filtered through somebody elses opinion or taste. Just like having your own photo selling site in fact. Secondly, and most importantly, you get to choose your own selling price and receive 100% of that amount (Picfair make their money by adding a percentage on top to the buyer -currently 20%).

This choose your own price feature does has its own set of issues, however. Firstly, some great photographers are setting their prices really low. I have seen some stunning images being offered at little above the minimum allowed pricing of £1. This doesn't make it easy for those of us trying to get a reasonable fee for our images. Which leads to the second (big) issue -just what should you price your images at? All mine are at a standard £10 per image. Now for a small use on a blog that's a high price compared to purchasing from a Micro site. However, the standard Picfair license doesn't offer any variations so that £10 image could just as easily be used on the front page of a National newspaper.

Ideally, I'd like to experiment with different price points to see if that makes a difference to sales, however what Picfair currently lacks is a global price change facility (unlike FineArtAmerica where you can reset your entire portfolio pricing with one click). You can, of course, edit your pricing image by image but there is no way I am doing that 870 times! I could try just changing the pricing on some images but I am really loathe to set up a two tier system suggesting that "these are my best ones at £10 and this is a bit rubbish at £2".

So, for now I am persisting with Picfair. It is still fairly early days for them as a business and I see no reason why the site will not gradually attract more buyers -especially given the fantastic quality of many of the images being submitted. The batch upload is quick and efficient (and they now offer FTP on request to those that want that -I don't) so they do not represent a big demand on my time to keep uploading. Hopefully, I'll have some sales news to report in the not too distant future. Regards, David. EDIT: Click on the comments below for a response from Picfair :)

Pro's: Choose your own pricing/No reviews/Prospects for growth
Con's: No global price change/ Uploading no longer works on IE9 (a minor gripe and maybe just me)

December sales updates:

Catching up with my monthly updates my December report is rather overdue.

As ever, Shutterstock outperformed all other sites with the highlight being a further three Single and Other Downloads (SOD) contributing $27.58 to the total. These are starting to prove rather interesting and for very worthwhile amounts.

Dreamstime followed up with 10 downloads ($8.06) and a further $0.04 in referral income as one of my referred photographers had their first sale.

Bigstock produced 11 downloads ($5.04) with most of these being subs.

Istock ticked over with 6 downloads ($4.52) and a further $1.96 from 7 PP sales. Sales certainly seem to have declined at Istock over recent months.

123rf managed 11 downloads ($4.73). Again, mainly $0.25 sub sales.

Fotolia saw 6 sub downloads ( 1.50 credits).

Yay pleasantly surprised with one editorial sale of Robert Maxwell giving a worthwhile 3.75 euros in commission.

Nothing from my other sites during December. Picfair has proved rather dissapointing after my first sale only days after joining. Several hundred images uploaded since haven't seen any action. Still it is early days and I think the site has lots of potential. Hard not to like setting your own prices and getting 100% of that. Over at Mostphotos I hit the nine month mark without a single sale. I'm guessing that my mainly editorial images just aren't what their buyers are looking for.

Recent uploading included images of the Tilos Sea Star ferry (top) moored on the Greek island of Symi. Greek islands also featured with a set of images of the Express Pegasus ferry visiting Skopelos island. Regards, David.

 

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.

November sales updates:

A mixed result for November with (of course) Shutterstock leading the rest with a BME fuelled by one Enhanced Download and a Single sale netting a very pleasing $56.25 in commission. This was my largest ever sale in Microstock and the image in question of British physicist Professor Stephen Hawking (pictured) is a regular seller for me. Also continuing to do well are my various images of the Tentertainment music festival at Tenterden in Kent.

Dreamstime produced some good results with 9 downloads netting $18.34. A few higher level images helping to push the amount up here.

Bigstock saw 10 downloads ($5.10) with a number of $0.38 subs included. It remains to be seen how much longer Bridge to Bigstock contributors continue to get this premium subs rate.

Istock disappointed with 9 downloads but only $5.10 in commission (plus a further $1.40 from 5 PP sales). Still no news of when/if non exclusive contributors are going to have good
selling files moved into a higher price band. The Photo+ facility is really missed here.

123rf achieved a good 14 downloads but just $6.28 in commission.

Fotolia saw 3 downloads (0.75 credits).

Yaymicro finally saw some Third Party commission added but was only 1.57 euros.

Veer surprised again with just one download but making a respectable $3.50 in commission - now only a couple of dollars short of my long awaited payout.

Finally, as previously posted, I had my first sale at Picfair netting me £10 (my own set rate there of which I get 100%). A bit of a set back, however, when it turned out that they currently have (all time) upload limits imposed on contributors. To be fair, they are still in Beta and are refining and tweaking the site to get the best results. Long term, I would hope these limits won't carry forward but short term it has affected my plans to upload as much of my portfolio as possible, as soon as possible. I am now just uploading a few new images a week to avoid running out of further upload slots.

There are currently a number of stock photographers looking to start their own direct selling sites (many using the free Symbiostock  theme -details at symbiostock.com ). Certainly I am not the only photographer that considered that Picfair could be an viable alternative to this with no reviews (you choose which images are online), setting your own price/s and receiving 100% of that price. All just like having your own site. Image upload limits, however, change things. I'll see how this goes as the site develops.

Uploading (generally) in November was restricted whilst I concentrated on building my Picfair portfolio but among new images online was one of boats at Folkestone harbour in Kent (pictured). Folkestone images seem to do quite well -possibly due to the plans for a major re-development of the harbour and seafront. Regards, David.

First sale at Picfair:

Having only signed up to new British photo agency Picfair just last week, I was delighted to get my very first sale there this week. First sales at a new agency are always exciting as, until then, you have no idea if you are going to get any interest in your images. Certainly there are views (and Picfair marks images clearly with the number of views they have had) but you have no way of knowing if these are serious buyers or just people having a look at your image -often, I am sure,  fellow contributors checking you out.

Anyway, week two of uploading and this image of RAF aerobatic team The Red Arrows performing at the Airbourne airshow in Eastbourne became my first sale. Picfair send you an automated email to let you know when you get a sale, which is always nice to find in your inbox. Better still, Picfair do not have a high payout limit that you have to reach before you can get your money and there is a "cash out" button on your profile page. I'm going to wait until, hopefully, I have a few more sales to claim.

Meanwhile I have been busy uploading and now have approaching 300 images online there. Looking forward to reporting my next sales! Regards, David.