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. 

October Sales Updates:

 A steady month in October with no great surprises -good or bad.

WW2 ration book -sold on Dreamstime

A well deserved first place for Alamy with 3 downloads. a high $$ magazine sale of my archive shot of Jimmy Knapp (then General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen) and a couple of small travel image sales to web site The Culture Trip. There are sometimes grumblings on the Alamy forum about low value sales to this travel site but you only have to look at it to see the vast number of Alamy images they download. Hardly a mystery why they have a good (for them) bulk deal in place. I just take the view that the higher value sales elsewhere more than make up for the odd low ones. No different really to how it has always been in stock. Back in the seventies/eighties you could easily be seeing £40 sales from a National Daily newspaper whilst some of the Regional ones thought they were being generous paying £5. It all adds up.

Second place went to Shutterstock with a good sprinkling of On Demand sales pulling up the total.

Istock took third place with 31 downloads. As always here travel and music festival images were well to the fore - a sure sign that some degree of normality is starting to return.

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 2 product sales (both throw pillows featuring the Greek island of

Small boat on Halki island, Greece

Symi). I'm hoping there will be a late Christmas gift rush here as in previous years.

Adobe took fifth place with 5 downloads including two editorial ones - a Shell petrol station and my image of a Government letter giving information on Covid.

In sixth place were Dreamstime with 6 downloads. I was pleased to see that one of them was from my recent set of WW2 ration books/identity cards. These are starting to gain some traction with several downloads of late.

Finally we had Bigstock with just 2 downloads. Still, as I always say, my images just go there automatically after being accepted at Shutterstock so there is zero effort involved. Whether or not they keep that scheme going forever remains to be seen. I doubt that I would bother with Bigstock if I had to upload directly.

Bar sign at Mikro Chorio on Tilos island, Greece

Recent uploading had me firing up my Epsom film scanner again to work on some London buildings from 1991. These archive images have done well on Alamy. They also do well on Shutterstock but in this case they all just got rejected for being grainy. Really? Archive film images with grain? Who would have thought that? Their loss.

In the absence of new travel I also revisited my back catalogue for some new images from my trips to the Greek islands of Halki and Tilos. These included a little fishing boat which always seems to be moored in the same place on Halki and a sign pointing to the late night music bar in the mainly abandoned village of Mikro Chorio on Tilos.

November hasn't got off to a stellar start but we'll see how the rest of the month pans out. Regards, David.

September Sales Updates:

 

Blair and Brown: New Labour, new print sale

A near full house of results in September with only Picfair and Mostphotos (as usual ) failing to make an appearance.

Back in first place were Shutterstock with a good crop of On Demand sales pushing up the results. Two of these  paid way more than under the old structure so more of those please :)

Second place went to FineArtAmerica with two sales including a print of Lech Walesa the former President of Poland.  

Alamy made third place with a record 6 downloads. Sadly, none of these were very high value hence their ranking. 

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 3 product sales. Two prints including an archive shot of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and yet another greeting card. I'm hoping that the Christmas build up will start soon as in previous years.

Fifth place went to Istock with a disappointing 15 downloads. I keep adding to my portfolio there but

Petrol queues: traditional UK panic buying

never seem to see a big growth in sales.

Adobe perked up to make sixth place with 8 downloads (including three editorials).

Seventh place went to Pond 5 with a single download of the Tentertainment music festival. After my super month there a few weeks back it was nice to see another regular sale. I'm still continuing to upload my back catalogue to them so we'll see what they can do going forward. Still, given that you can set your own prices and get 50% royalties there really is nothing to lose by uploading to them.

Bringing up the rear were Bigstock in eighth place with just 2 downloads and, sadly, Dreamstime in ninth place with just one download. A subscription sale at that :(

Lech Walesa: print sale on FineArtAmerica

New shooting included a visit to the postponed Tenterden Food and Drink Festival (back properly for the first time since 2019). I also visited my local petrol station as the UK went into panic buying mode due to fears of shortages caused by lack of delivery drivers. The resultant queues backing up down the road were too good a subject to miss.

New uploading in addition to the events mentioned above included, as I said, pumping more into Pond 5 (as well as filling in some gaps in my Picfair portfolio and POD sites at the same time). I also revisited my 2013 trip to the Greek island of Alonissos for a few additional shots. Luckily, most of the small Greek islands tend to be pretty timeless so even older images are still valid.

October so far has started off fairly slowly but there's time yet. More next month. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

 

Poll tax riots: biggest Alamy sale to date

A slow month in general as you might expect from August (the height of the annual Summer Slowdown). However a couple of bright spots kept things interesting.

Alamy jumped straight into first place with 3 downloads. One of these was my biggest ever ($$$) sale there - a poll tax riots image used for a corporate video. I did have this set for Editorial Use Only but Alamy telephoned me and asked if I was prepared to waive this restriction for this particular usage. The buyer accepted all responsibility for use of the image so I was happy to grant this with a nice payout in return.

Second place went to Istock with 29 downloads. What boosted this was that one of my images of the Greek island of Meganissi was clearly some sort of Extended License judging my the larger amount I got. This, of course, pushed the RPD for the month to a very respectable figure.

Shutterstock could only manage third place this month not least because of only a single On Demand

Meganissi island: extended license on Istock

sale and two tiny Single and Other sales. As I have said before, it is the number and value of these non subscription sales which makes or breaks the month. On a plus note I have now moved up to Level 4 so any of those sales will pay out at a higher rate for the remainder of the year.

Adobe took fourth place but only by a upfront payment for adding some images to their free collection for one year. They actually had zero regular downloads in August which was a bit disappointing.

Fifth place went to Redbubble with 2 product sales (T shirt and poster). Looking forward here to the Christmas boost that I have seen in recent years. 

Dreamstime came in sixth place with 5 downloads. It seems a long time since I saw a big credit sale at DT.

Tom Robinson Band: archives now all on Pond 5

Finally in seventh place we had Bigstock with 4 downloads. My massive aviation inspired boost of a few months back seems like a distance memory now.

Nothing interesting to report in new shooting but in terms of uploading I continued to get my back catalogue onto Pond 5. I have completed uploading all my archival (politics etc) material to them and am now working through modern travel/music festival etc images. Let's see what they can do with them! Meanwhile, they have just launched a new customisable Artist Page. As well as your avatar image you can now add a cover photo (or logo). There is also a 500 character space to write a bio about yourself and your work as well as space to add social media links. I especially liked the Featured items section at the top of the page where you can add six photos/footage clips that you wish to highlight. You can change the sequence of these and change the chosen items as often as you want. For now I've gone with featuring my archive material (Robert Maxwell/Margaret Thatcher/Boris Yeltsin etc) most of which is pretty unique on Pond. Check out the link on the right of the page to see what it looks like. 

September has started slowly so far so we'll see what the rest of the month brings. Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

 

Pond5 sales: Robert Maxwell

A lively month in July in what should have been the height of the usual Summer Slowdown.

Straight in at number one (as they used to say on the music chart shows) was Pond5 making their sales debut here. Four custom license downloads of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell brought me close to $30 each (50% of the total license). For anyone who hasn't sold on Pond5 before you might like to know that they send you a sales email. That was quite an exciting email to receive. Even better, this was their payout day (15th) for balances over $25.00 and within hours I had actually received payment. Can't complain about that.  

Why Robert Maxwell? Hard to believe that it is ten years ago that I posted on this blog about it being the twentieth anniversary of his death at sea. Here we are then coming up to the thirtieth anniversary so I would expect some more activity around that. Not surprisingly I am now pushing the remainder of my back catalogue to Pond5.

Second place went to Shutterstock with a decent month for downloads. On Demand sales made up around 40% of the total along with a couple of modest Single sales.

Istock took third place with 31 downloads. Music festival and travel images again reflecting the gradual

Second World War identity cards

return to normality.

In fourth place FineArtAmerica surprised with no less than three T Shirt sales (all to the same buyer).

Alamy came in fifth place with 3 modest sales. I was especially pleased to see my image of long defunct newspaper Today getting used.

Sixth went to Redbubble with 4 product sales ( 2 greetings cards, a poster, child clothing).

Dreamstime managed seventh place with 4 downloads.

Eighth place went to Adobe with 4 downloads  (two of which were editorial - John Lewis and Laura Ashley store fronts).

Post war ration books

Finally in ninth place we had Bigstock with just 2 downloads (returning to form after the extremes of a few months ago!).

Uploading in July continued with my archive material to Pond5 and also filling in gaps in my Picfair catalogue at the same time. 

New material consisted of a series of post Second World War ration books and identity cards. These all came from my family memorabilia and certainly made for something a bit different to upload. 

Already a few positive things in August, so more next month. Regards, David.