June Sales Updates:

 

Catalonia: In the news

A steady month in June with first signs of the Summer Slowdown balancing with a coming out of pandemic upturn.

First place went to Shutterstock as in the old days. An uptick of On Demand sales making up almost 50% of the dollars earned.

Istock took second place with 24 downloads. An improved RPD brought the figures up here. Interesting that no less than fourteen of these were music festival images (a sure sign that some normality is starting to return).

Third place went to Alamy with 3 downloads. An archival b/w shot of theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn and two images of a Lidl supermarket.

Adobe rose to take fourth place with 8 downloads. Good to see two more of my editorials sell here - Tesco trolleys and a Laura Ashley store.

Fifth place went to Redbubble with 2 product sales ( a T shirt and a greeting card).

Soundwaves community choir: June sales

 Dreamstime took sixth place with 10 downloads. My recently uploaded John Lewis store image got an early sale here.

FineArtAmerica made seventh place with a T Shirt sale.

Finally, in eight place were Bigstock with 5 downloads. My big aviation uplift of the last couple of months seems to have come to an end.

Tentertainment music festival: Picking up sales

Overall in June there was an uplift in music festival images across the board. I also had a number of sales of my community choir images across several agencies. Barcelona protest images also sold as the Catalonian politicians jailed after the 2017 declaration of independence were pardoned.

Still no overseas travel lined up yet. I'm just waiting for things to stabilise a bit more (which will be helped by the proposed lifting of Covid restrictions in the UK on July 19). I'm missing the Greek islands and Spain so hope to be there in the not too distant future. Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Barcelona bicycle sharing rank

A pleasing month in November with some strong results from some and only really one big disappointment.

Shutterstock had a good performance to stay at first place. A large number of On Demand sales and a rare Enhanced License kept them out in front.

Second place went to Redbubble with 3 product sales including a canvas print (products seem to sell better here so it was nice to get an actual art print sale). I have mentioned my lack of sales at Fine Art America many times so decided to go in and reduce my prices across the board there. I'll see if that has any effect.

Istock made a strong third place with 28 downloads and a pleasing amount of revenue. I am finding the batch uploading and editing on their ESP platform vastly quicker and easier than their old one at a time uploader.

A return for Alamy who made fourth place with the sale of another of my 1980s archive shots - this time of

Passeig de Colom, Barcelona

former Conservative MP Michael Latham. I continued to upload my (non archive) back catalogue here and now have a port of circa 2100 images.

In fifth place were 123rf with an outstanding 27 downloads. There was a theme there as nearly all the downloads were of my Greek islands images.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 5 downloads. My images of the Tenterden Food and Drink Festival seem to have taken off here with several downloads turning up each month.

Dreamstime proved to be the disappointment in seventh place with just 3 subscription sales (and 35c sales at that). After last months upturn things just slipped away here.

Local Summer event - Tentertainment music festival

Fotolia, Mostphotos and Canstock took up places eight to ten with 2, 1, 1, downloads respectively.

Recent uploading continued with my Barcelona trip images (ahead of the Catalonian elections on December 21). I'm hoping my parliament building images get some sales in the coming weeks. I also edited and uploaded my images from the 2017 Tentertainment music festival -a subject that has always done well for me. For some reason the Istock reviewer rejected these as an Entertainment event best suited to the Getty newsdesk -despite just being people in a park at a local event that took place nearly six months ago! I'll re-submit those in due course as Istock have never had a problem with this type of image before and previous Tentertainment images are regular sellers on their site. Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

Tentertainment music festival - third sale on Alamy

A much stronger month in May saw some good sales across my main sites and even a surprise re-appearance from a past agency.

As ever Shutterstock were way out in front. Their terms do not allow me to give explicit sales details but just for comparison with the rest I will say this month that downloads were well over the 100 mark. Substantially over half of my earnings came from the higher paying On Demand sales with a few modest Single sales.

Istock took second place with an unprecedented 75 downloads making this, I believe, my BME there. There were, as usual, some paltry $0.02 sub sales but many others paying much more - in one case $9.50 for a sub sale. I'll take that over the previous $0.28 fixed payment.

After a poor run 123rf hit third place with 12 downloads including a $22.50 payout for an image of Votsi harbour on the Greek island of Alonissos. I'm assuming this was some kind of extended license but on their new dashboard I have yet to find out where to see the type of license sold (only that it was XL -Extra Large).

In fourth place were Alamy with my third sale there. My perennial good seller of the Tentertainment music

New upload - Tenterden Food and Drink Festival

festival going for a substantial (compared to microstock) sum. May saw me continuing to pour my back catalogue into Alamy -an investment in time that I consider worthwhile.

Fifth place went to Redbubble with two product sales (another T shirt and a greetings card). My mark up on cards is high (200%) because, as I have posted before, I believe that if someone is choosing an appropriate card for someone price is not a major consideration. I know when I buy a Birthday card I choose the one I think the recipient will like -I don't look at the price.

Bigstock took sixth place with 9 downloads. Mainly subscription sales here.

Seventh place went to Fotolia with 4 credit sales of my images of collecting pine resin (again on the Greek island of Alonissos).  These all occurred over a couple of days so I assume were to the same buyer.

Votsi on Alonissos island - good sale at 123rf

Dreamstime managed  eighth place with just 5 subscription sales. The hoped for turnaround in May never happened there.

Finally a surprise from Yay Images (previously Yay Micro) with 4 small sales reported. These were my first sales there in nearly a year and, as previously posted, I have long stopped uploading there.

Uploading in May, as I said, focused on Alamy but I thought I really ought to show a presence at my other agencies so a set from the first ever Food and Drink Festival at Tenterden in Kent went up. These were Summery images showing people sitting on the grass etc so should prove useful for illustrating outdoor events and the like. Dreamstime excelled here by having them approved almost immediately.   Hopefully June will remain strong before the dreaded Summer Slowdown starts to hit in July. Regards, David.

December Sales Updates:

The Acropolis of Athens

Well that's it then for 2016. Not a spectacular year in terms of microstock sales for me due to a combination of lack of uploading time reducing my output and the continuing influx of new images to all the sites. Redbubble proved the rising star of the year with regular sales of a wide variety of images. A far cry from FineArtAmerica where I had no sales at all in 2016 -I will, however, be renewing my premium membership for 2017 to see if there is a turnaround. Yay was the casualty in 2016 when I finally ceased uploading new images. With over 2000 files uploaded they produced just one sale for 0.68euros.

So to December then there's no need to say that Shutterstock maintained their lead in first place -though I barely scraped past the minimum payout.

Second place went to Redbubble with 5 product sales ranging from clothing to phone covers.

Stefanos volcano crater on Nisyros island

Third place was taken by Dreamstime. Though they only managed 3 downloads one of those was another high paying credit sale of nearly $10.

Fourth place went to 123rf with an astonishing 25 downloads making it my BME in quantity but not income. A lot of Greek island images sold -presumably to the same buyer.

Steady Bigstock produced 10 downloads to make fifth place.

Exceptionally down in sixth place were Istock with 2 credit sales and 10 subs. This was because of their transition to new sales reporting which is due to happen around February. As a consequence reporting in December ended before the month was over and before any Partner sales had been added. From now on sales will be updated monthly in one go so my rankings will be a bit out of line for a while. Not being able to see sales accrue in real time is hardly motivating for anyone and I hope they reconsider this in the future.

Tentertainment music festival at Tenterden, Kent

Finally a single sale from Mostphotos earned them seventh place. I haven't forgotten Fotolia -they just didn't have a single sale for me in December!

Uploading in December saw a big increase with many new files now available. I intend to keep this pace up throughout 2017 as much as possible. New images included my first Acropolis shot from my Athens trip last May as well as my set from the 2016 Tentertainment music festival. Backtracking to 2015, I also uploaded further images of the Stefanos volcano crater on the Greek island of Nisyros.

Wishing all readers a very happy 2017! Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Nissos Halki ferry arriving at Rhodes island

Another unspectacular month in November with one notable highlight and one negative low point.

As always, leading the pack was Shutterstock but a month of just four On demand sales and no Single sales saw me barely making payout. As I posted last month I haven't uploaded much in recent weeks but I am now attempting to make up for that so, hopefully, 2017 will see some increases.

Dreamstime delighted by coming in at second place with 7 downloads. What boosted things here was the return of high paying credit sales ($9.47 and $6.98 commissions). This is much more like the DT of old and very welcome.

Istock took third place with 5 credit sales and 27 sub and partner sales. Reporting here is slightly

Collecting pine resin on Alonissos island. Bring on the Retsina

complicated here because of the current transition to a new reporting system. November saw both PP sales for October credited and (semi) real time sales for November. We are now moving to the new royalty structure which potentially has sub sales paying out a (worse case) $0.02 per download. Obviously, that's an appalling prospect which has seen a number of contributors closing their accounts. That scenario will only apply where a buyer downloads their entire allowance of images. Shutterstock will tell you that the subscriptions model works because most buyers do not do that and only download what they need. It may well be that income from sub sales actually increases after the change but who knows? The option to close my account is always there so I will wait and assess the situation next year.

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 3 product sales. This has really proved a site worth joining for me. The key is in setting a profit margin high enough to make a worthwhile amount but not so high as to deter buyers.

Female music fans at the Tentertainment music festival

Bigstock came in fifth place with 8 downloads. Never a site that produces any great excitement but ticks away in the background. Obviously, being in the (now closed) Bridge to Bigstock programme helps here. My Shutterstock images just get mirrored at BS automatically so there is no effort on my part.

Fotolia made sixth place with just 2 downloads. I still have hopes that at some point they will start accepting editorial images especially now they have a deal for editorial with Reuters (?). Currently this is not an option for ordinary contributors.

And the low point was 123rf in seventh place with just 3 downloads. Echoes of July when I had just two sales there. Not at all sure what is going on at 123 with such variations (by contrast I have already had 17 downloads so far in December!).

Uploading in November saw further images from my 2016 trip to the Greek island of Halki and then backtracking to 2012 for some images of pine resin collecting on Alonissos island and female fans at the Tentertainment music festival. As it is nearly Christmas day I'll end by wishing all readers a great Christmas and brilliant 2017! Regards, David.

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.

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.

March Sales Updates:

Poll Tax Riots, London -top Micro sale

March proved to be not only my Best Month Ever (BME) on my Number One agency Shutterstock but also my BME in Microstock.

So beginning with star performer Shutterstock the start of the month saw not only an Enhanced Download of the Tentertainment music festival (at $28) but on the very same day my highest ever sale with a Single Download of the Poll Tax Riots in London. Shutterstock Terms of Service do not allow me to give the exact amount -let's just say it wasn't a million miles away from $100 in commission. After that great start the rest of the month saw a bumper crop of On Demand downloads and above average subscription downloads. Images sold were a good mix of the usual suspects -Margaret Thatcher (the anniversary of her death is in April), Professor Stephen Hawking (new biopic film winning awards), Tentertainment music festival (the season of outdoor events and festivals approaches) and a host of Greek Island images (time to book that holiday). A few more months like that on SS would be very welcome.

Istock took second place with a strong 10 credit downloads and a further 22 Sub/PP sales.

Margaret Thatcher -a timeless selling image

In third place were Dreamstime with 12 downloads and unusually $0.49 in referral earnings when one of my very few referred photographers got some sales. A diversion here on Referrals -this is when an agency gives you a "thank you" for sending a new contributor (or buyer) their way in the form of a few cents when the contributor makes a sale or a buyer purchases an image. Some of my portfolio links on the right here contain a code that tells the agency the referral came via me. Not all agencies do this and most limit the time for which you receive these. Way back in 2008, when I started this blog, I had hopes that hordes of grateful readers would sign up with my links and generate some additional income. Sadly, I think my grand total amounts to around four contributors and somewhat less than $1.00 in earnings! Oh well.......

Tentertainment - music festivals and Summer image

123rf came in fourth place with a slightly perkier 11 downloads. Mainly subs.

Bigstock were fifth with 12 downloads. These were all subs with not a credit sale to be seen.

Finally, Fotolia produced 3 downloads to come in sixth and final place for my selling agencies this month.

Obviously, March was an exceptional month due to that one big exceptional sale and isn't really an indicator of anything. That said, April looked to be starting well until it all crashed to a near halt for this Easter weekend. I'll see how things pick up after the holidays. Regards, David.

June Sales Updates:

The Red Arrows

A steady month in June reflecting the usual Summer slowdown. As previously posted, I was on the Greek island of Paxos for two weeks and, therefore, new uploading was very limited during the month.

Obviously, Shutterstock came way out on top with a slight drop in download numbers over May but a good number of On Demand sales increasing the total revenue. Just one small Single download this month.

Istock produced 6 regular downloads ($5.72) but then boosted that with a pleasing $5.32 from 19 PP sales (one of my best results ever on the PP -probaly as a result of editorial images now being available) and finally the first of the new subsciption sales netting $0.84 from 3 downloads.

Coco and The Butterfields

Dreamstime saw 15 downloads ($11.82) with a continuing mix of Greek island images and old archive favourites such as Margaret Thatcher.

123rf ticked on with 12 downloads ($6.88). There seems very little variation in sales on 123 each month and at my Level 2 status income remains dissapointingly low -receiving just $0.25 for subscription sales. The days of 50% commission seem a long time ago now.

Fotolia produced just 2 downloads (0.82 credits). Whether or not being opted out of their DPC operation made a difference I don't know. I still only have a very small port there in any case.

Finally, another sale at Mostphotos! OK it was just a subscription sale paying 0.23 Euros but, all the same, still showing some signs of life. The image in question was British band Coco and The Butterfields performing at the annual Tentertainment music festival (pictured).



Al fresco dining, Skiathos

Nothing again from Yaymicro in June making my 0.75Euro sale in February my only sale for 2014 (with over 2k images online there). Not even their many Partner sites seem to be producing any sales -though to be fair most of my port is editorial (which, sadly, they do not send to the Partners). It's a real shame to see how sales have declined there. It was never a top seller but I used to see regular payouts. A check on my uploads for the last year or so just shows zero views on virtually everything to the extent I wondered if the view counter was broken. As an experiment I Tweeted a couple of images and the views count shot up to double fiures on those -so it does work. Shortly after every image suddenly had one view each - I assume Tweeting attracted the attention of a search engine somewhere. Might be worth trying with your own images. Even their Twitter page seems to have vanished -I just got a Page Does Not Exist message. (Edit: The Twitter link on their site doesn't work. However, you can find their account at twitter.com/yayimages ). I really hope they can turn this around.


Recent uploads included a lucky shot of a Gull swallowing a rat in the harbour at Skiathos. I was rather pleased with this image but Shutterstock obviously weren't -Poor Composition/Lighting etc. Luckily it got accepted virtually everywhere else. I also uploaded a couple of new images of The Red Arrows from the 2013 Eastbourne Airshow (Airbourne). Recent news reports that the team might be scrapped as a part of defence spending cuts (though, thankfully, denied) might help get some sales. 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.

April sales update:

Anyone familiar with this blog or my portfolio will realise that April was never going to be a normal month for me following the death of Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Britain. My archive B/W images of her from 1991 were in great demand after the announcement with Shutterstock alone having 72 downloads on the day and many more since.

Starting with Shutterstock then I had a BME with a stunning 278 downloads ($122.79). I'm pleased to say that these weren't all Margaret Thatcher images, with a whole variety of subjects being downloaded. As Summer approaches my other good selling subject, the Tentertainment music festival, saw an uplift in sales.

Dreamstime also produced a superb BME with 26 downloads ($63.22). Much of this income was generated  by the levels system there, with repeat credit sales of Margaret Thatcher producing over $6 in commission each time.

Istockphoto rebounded from its recent slump to produce 12 downloads ($21.01) with a further $1.12 in PP sales. No Thatcher images there yet - though they do now accept "celebrity" images they do require accreditation details (or the images to have been taken in a public place). I'm trying to think of a way round that as, obviously, I don't have accreditation details from 22 years ago.

Yaymicro had a good month with 6 downloads (8.25 euros). Surprisingly, no Thatcher images sold but, on the day, three sales of politicians of the same era -so I presume they were related.

123rf produced 24 downloads ($8.03). I have had a re-think with them. After months of not uploading I was still seeing regular monthly sales and decided that, really, I was just leaving money on the table by not uploading there. The debate, as ever, is do buyers shop around looking for the cheapest sites and are my sales at higher priced sites harmed by having images at 123rf? For now, my personal conclusion is that this isn't the case. Sites have their own sets of buyers that, by and large, stick with that site. Microstock prices are low enough to make shopping around a waste of time (therefore money) for most buyers. Just my view. It took a couple of days of intensive uploading to catch up with the backlog but I'm pleased to say a 100% acceptance on editorials and a surprisingly high acceptance on commercial images as well.

Bigstock did well with 11 downloads ($7.64). The much criticised new subscription plans didn't have much effect with most of my downloads being regular credit sales.

Fotolia saw just 2 downloads (1.65credits).

Mostphotos saw a sub sale of Thatcher (0.28 euros).

Picturenation proved disappointing as despite a number of my Thatcher related images on their home page they got just one web size download (£0.40).

Overall then, an excellent month which demonstrated just how much events can dictate the success of editorial images. Regards, David.

December sales updates:

With a few honourable exceptions it turned out to be a fairly Dismal December overall.
Shutterstock (as ever) led the pack with 101 downloads ($49.38). Old favourites such as Margaret Thatcher, Professor Stephen Hawking and the Tentertainment music festival continued to get regular sales.
Picturenation (as previously posted) pulled in 2 downloads of my archive image of politician Sir Geoffrey Howe making a worthwhile £6.40 GBP in commission.
Istockphoto produced 6 downloads ($5.44) with a further $2.24 from 8 PP sales.
Bigstock perked up with 6 downloads ($5.90).
Dreamstime plunged to just 6 downloads (mainly subs) producing a miserable $3.77 in commission. My worst month there in a long time.
123rf  (what can I say?) managed just 3 downloads producing just $1.66 in commission. This was my worst month there since my first sales back in 2010. When they announced their 2013 commission cuts (now in effect) they talked of a big increase in sales there. I'm certainly not seeing any signs of that. Actually, to my surprise, I scraped into level 2 of the new rates (35% commission and $0.25 for subs). The problem is lack of sales and the low rates they charge customers. Superficially, at least, 35% doesn't sound so bad compared to some agencies but my 15% at Istock generally brings in $1-$2 in commission per sale. Even on 50% at 123rf actual income was lower. I'm just waiting to see how the new rates pan out in income over the month. Meanwhile, I have ceased uploading any new images to them.
New uploads for December included a further image from the Poll Tax Riots (showing the South African embassy on fire) and more images from my September trip to the Greek island of Alonissos (this one is of freight ship Ioanna Chrisoula docked at Patitiri harbour).
Hopefully, as The World gets back to work after the holidays sales will improve. Meanwhile, I'll wish everyone a happy and successful 2013. Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

Not my best seller in July, but certainly deserving to be reported first, was a BME at Dreamstime with 19 downloads pulling in a pleasing $42.43 in commission. I actually had to double check that one with a calculator just to make sure! So, what's going on at DT? Take your pick between changes to their search engine, price increases to buyers, changes to the image level system and a tweaking to the commission levels. Bottom line, for me at least, is increased sales and higher commissions ($) for most downloads. More of that please.

As ever, of course, Shutterstock was my best seller with 86 downloads making $72.58 in commission. Following my two EL sales in June, I got yet another one in July for a 1991 portrait of John Prescott (former Deputy Prime Minister of Britain).

Istock produced 7 downloads ($8.74) with a further $1.12 from four PP sales. My lack of uploading of late seems to be showing there but I'm now putting the tedium aside and making use of my 18 slots per week. Editorial images continue to sell there as my portfolio pushes close to 500 images.

123rf continues to stall with just 7 downloads ($8.29). Without one sale which earned a healthy $5 in commission that would have just left $3.29 for the month. Not sure what happened to all the editorial sales I was getting a few months back.

Bigstock produced just one download for $1.50.

My 39 image port at Fotalia managed 4 downloads earning 2.70 credits.

Finally, Yaymicro credited some third party sales of 2.97 euros. Long gone are the days when their Third Party sales raised any excitement. I am still hoping that all their recent partner deals are going to pay off but, as previously posted, they are still excluding editorial images from these so most of my portfolio is ruled out.

Recent uploading saw me completing my images of the 2012 Tentertainment music festival with a near 100% acceptance rate (DT knocked out a few "similars"). Latest uploads are from the Olympic Torch Relay event at Rye in East Sussex (pictured). Town Crier, Rex Swain, and schoolchildren with flags made for some colourful and, hopefully, saleable images.

August is generally the slowest sales month of the year and certainly the first few days haven't looked too promising. We'll see. Regards, David.

June sales updates:

A mixed set of results in June - but overall pleasing.

Shutterstock excelled with 104 downloads bringing in a BME in earnings of $98.26. This was achieved from two Enhanced Downloads paying $28 each. One was the ever popular Tentertainment music festival (pictured) and the other was an archive B/W image of the 1989 Trades Union Congress in Blackpool. June also saw another milestone as my total earnings at SS crossed the $1000.00 line.

Dreamstime produced 7 downloads ($10.90). Frustratingly their review of editorial images has slowed greatly (I now have three batches going back some 14 days in the queue). According to their forum they have seen a big increase in editorial submissions and are training up extra reviewers to catch up with the backlog.

Bigstock continues to show promise with 5 downloads ($7.70) -all editorial images.

Istock dissapointed in June with just 8 downloads ($4.88) plus a further $3.64 from a BME of 13 Partner Program sales.

123RF also dissapointed with just 7 downloads ($5.04). My worst month there since October 2011. Not sure what's happening there - they were gaining me a growing number of (mainly) editorial sales but that seems to have tailed off in the last few months.

Yaymicro sold one image of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, paying a worthwhile 3.75 euro.

Finally, another nice surprise from Mostphoto when an image of The Red Arrows produced a subscription sale for 5 euros. This took me neatly over the 10 euro payout level so I was able to get my first ever payment from them. Annoyingly I had to pay a 0.70 euro fee to Paypal to get this. An email to Mostphotos received a prompt and friendly reply that this was normal on Paypal. Well, no it's not - not unless you are selling something on Ebay or whatever. This did happen once before with a payment from Yaymicro and they (Yay) promptly apologised and credited my account with the fee amount. Anyone else had this issue with Mostphotos payouts?

Recent shoots saw images of the historic Cinque Port town of Rye in East Sussex (some now online) and coverage of the 2012 Tentertainment music festival (awaiting edit).

July has seen a good start at Shutterstock, so I'll see if this continues before the famous Summer Slowdown kicks in. Regards, David.

September updates:

September saw a climb out of the Summer slowdown, pushed up by a further two Extended Licence sales.

At Shutterstock I had 63 downloads ($62.84) making it my BME there. This was achieved with the help of an EL on my Tentertainment music festival image and a good number of On Demand sales.

Dreamstime achieved 10 downloads ($21.71) including $12.71 for a print EL of a Folkestone harbour image.

Istock saw 9 downloads ($13.52) plus just one partner sale at $0.28. Editorial continues to do well there and a lot of new material has been accepted (including an almost unbelievable 18/18 on one batch). My portfolio there is approaching 300 files now.

123RF saw 9 downloads ($4.50) with my portfolio there now over 1000 images (mainly editorial).

Bigstock had a resurgence with 4 downloads ($4.50). The more exciting news there is that, following correspondence with one of their executives, Bigstock are now accepting my archive celebrity images (the ones previously rejected for "grain") and my portfolio has now moved beyond 600. I should also be joining the "Bridge to Bigstock" program which will see all my additional files accepted at Shutterstock (but not at Bigstock) moved over. Just waiting on the official invite for that.

Yaymicro produced 2 downloads (3euro) and finally posted the third party sales for the second quarter of 2011 (a dissapointing 4.7 euro).

Mostphotos surprised with a second subsciption sale (0.77 euro).

Picturenation had one web resolution sale (£0.40) -my 'pigs head with an apple in its mouth' image.

Over at Canstockphoto my portfolio rose to over 100 (no sales as yet) and I cleared up the keyword rejection issue. Duncan at CSP was most helpful in giving me examples of what they do and don't want in keywords. Best summarised as only keywording what you can Physically see in the image without adding related keywords. They've now been re-submitted and accepted.

Cutcaster continues to build but I must admit some dissapointment in not having any sales yet. All the same, they are easy to upload to and will remain part of my workflow. This could prove a good site in the long term.

Fotolia hasn't had much of my attention yet but I did submit a handful more taking my port to 16 images. A long way to go there.

September saw a big push on uploading -mainly concentrating on my archive celebrity images. For contrast I also uploaded a set of images of a 1928 vintage Hastings trolley bus named Happy Harold (pictured). Well Harold made me happy by getting virtual 100% acceptance and a sale within hours on Shutterstock.

Regards, David.

Istock Editorial Update:

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

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

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

Sales milestone -1000 downloads at Shutterstock:

December 2, 2010 saw a major milestone on Shutterstock when I had my 1000th download with this image of the Tentertainment music festival.

Since being accepted in June 2009, Shutterstock has always delivered strong sales. I still get the odd day with no sales (usually a Sunday) each month but in general I have sales every day.

That is way different to when I started this journey and my only agency was the (now closed) Snapvillage. Days, weeks and even months would go past before I could get excited over a 30cent subscription sale!

So on to the next big milestone at Shutterstock when my earnings hit $500 and I get a raise in my commission per download. I still have a way to go for that one but expect to reach it next year. 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.