February sales updates:

As ever, another great month at Shutterstock which pulled in 136 downloads ($65.18). Is there anything bad to say about them? Well, their Facebook contributor app doesn't always work and just misses days out. Ironically it always seems to miss when I have a good (for me) day. I recently had 15 downloads in one day and, of course, the app didn't post that one.
Dreamstime produced 18 downloads ($11.99) though, sadly, that included quite a few sub sales bringing down the actual income.
Istock didn't repeat their strong performance from January but managed 7 downloads ($9.71) plus a further $1.12 from four PP sales. Further (mainly) editorial uploading brought my portfolio there up to 670. I also hit   my 250 downloads which means, woohay, that I am now elligible to go exclusive there! I'll pass on that one, thanks, but what was interesting was that my upload limit rose from 18-20. Not sure if that was just for becoming a "bronze" level contributor or not. Couldn't find anything on the site saying you get a rise in upload limits.
Bigstock saw 8 downloads ($5.88). Their new subscription packages are now live and I have had 2 so far at  $0.38 each.
123rf also saw 8 downloads bringing in just $3.86. Still a wait and see on them but I'm into my third month of halting uploads there.
Yaymicro reported 2 partner sales and one direct sale bringing in 1.25 euro.
Fotolia were up with 8 downloads (1.95 credits). These were pretty much all sub sales.
Uploading in February saw me continuing with my Jack In The Green festival images and also re-visiting my seventies music images such as the one above of "power pop" band The Boyfriends, which I took in 1978. March has started well on Shutterstock so we will see how that goes. Regards, David.

January sales updates:

A strong start to the year in January. After a slow start around the holidays things picked up nicely as the month went on.
Needless to say, Shutterstock came out top with 89 downloads ($41.96).
Dreamstime saw a good performance with 13 downloads ($21.17).
Bigstock also saw a flurry of sales with 9 downloads ($5.50). Five of the sales were of Hastings.
Yaymicro reported 4 partner subscription sales making 0.64 euro. They also continued to annoy with a number of random editorial rejections.
Picturenation produced a web res sale of an old b/w archive image (£0.40).
Fotolia saw 2 downloads (1.20 credits).
123rf produced 7 downloads for a miserly commission of $3.75. They're off my upload list and I am considering deleting certain images. I don't really want good selling images like Margaret Thatcher going for 25cent subs or 69cents large sales.
Finally, with supreme irony given all the drama at Istockphoto, I had my BME there with 16 downloads ($22.96) and a further $1.68 from 6 partner sales. At one point sales, and sometimes multiple sales,were coming in daily -with all but two being editorial images. Editorial certainly seems to be taking off there. For anyone that doesn't know "the drama" involves a recent deal between Getty Images and Google. Here's a (long) thread on Microstockgroup  for all the information. At this stage I intend to keep my images on sale there.
No sales yet at FineArtAmerica but I am getting views and I feel positive about the site. I am now going to upgrade to the paid membership and upload a lot more images.
Uploading in January saw a large number of my old archive images as well as some new ones from the 2012 Jack In The Green festival (pictured). Regards, David.

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.

Now selling on Fineartamerica.com

Finally signed up for a free account at Fineartamerica a few days ago. I'd been looking at them for a while but got a fresh prompt when photographer Lissandra mentioned on her blog Microstock Photography that she was selling there.
Put simply, they are a Print On Demand site specialising in prints, posters and postcards. As a photographer all you have to do is upload your images to them and add a description and keywords. You then set your price (whatever you want) for the various print options available. FAA take no commission at all (they make their money from marking up the printing costs) so if you get a sale you receive the full amount -usually the following month. FAA does all the work for you (e.g. arranging printing and despatch world wide).
I found the site very intuitive and easy to navigate. You have to upload a profile picture (anything you want) and there are options for adding biog details and other information about your work. Uploading of images (single or multiple) was quick and easy. The hard part was knowing what you should set as your pricing. I had a look through their forum for ideas and just went with a basic price structure I found there. Don't worry if you change your mind later -you can change your pricing at any time.
Downsides? Well the free account allows you to have 25 images for sale. For unlimited images you need the upgraded account for $30 per year which would soon be covered by a few sales. For the moment I'm just going with the free account to see how it goes but I'm pretty sure I'll want to upgrade soon.
Once you have images there you have the option of joining various groups and adding your images to them to increase exposure. These are, essentially, just like the "managed collections" on Dreamstime and are started and administered by fellow FAA contributors. This does mean that the admin can choose to accept or reject your image to their group. You can, of course, also start your own group/s.
What to upload? Well anything really -whatever you think somebody, somewhere might want on their wall. I went with the obvious things like landscapes and coastal scenes and a few wild card images like steam trains and even Margaret Thatcher (she still has her fans out there!).
Results so far after about a week -over 300 views and no sales but obviously it is very early days. It was certainly a lot of fun trying to pick images people might like and there is certainly a lot of potential to make some decent money there. I'll obviously update on any future sales. Meanwhile, here is a link for my profile page (it's not a referral link, though there is the opportunity to earn referral earnings if you upgrade to the paid membership).
See what you think (and feel free to order a print!). Regards, David.
4-david-fowler.fineartamerica.com

November sales updates:

A reasonable month overall in November despite the Thanksgiving holiday in the US (Shutterstock are the only site that give you an idea of where images were bought courtesy of their animated world map and judging from that most of my sales are outside the US).
So starting with Shutterstock, they produced a very neat 100 downloads ($58.20). Interesting to note that $30.15 of that came from the higher paying On Demand downloads.
Istockphoto pulled in 10 downloads ($15.98) and an additional $1.12 from 4 PP sales. My portfolio there continues to grow and I have now passed the 600 mark with, in the main, editorial images. I expect to reach my next payout in December - a far cry from the pre editorial days when sales were few.
Dreamstime did well with 18 downloads ($12.38) but a high number of sub sales pulled the earning down.
123rf managed 11 downloads ($6.17) again with a high proportion of sub sales. I will have to review 123 in January when (if?) they introduce their new commission rates/cuts. Being primarily editorial my images are not the ones that get massive sales and, consequently, I expect to drop to the minimum rate of 30% and only $0.22 for subs. Compared to the $0.33 I get for sub sales at SS that is very poor. Though not a big seller there, my portfolio currently fills editorial gaps in their library (Margaret Thatcher etc). We'll see.
Yaymicro sold an archive shot of Body Shop founder Anita Roddick paying a healthy 3.75 euros with an additional 2.48 euros coming from their Third Party programme.
Bigstock managed 4 downloads ($2.50) - a dissapointing result from them. On the plus side their wonky Bridge connector from SS got fixed and all images are now moved over.
Fotolia saw 4 sub sales netting 1 credit in commission. Best selling there seem to be my Greek island images though that is more a result of what I have uploaded and had accepted than any great industry insight.
Nothing from the rest in November. Veer continues to sit at $93 dollars in commission with no sign of even a sub sale to push me to payout level. Their upload has now been broken (for me) for two months -just "not processed/unknown error" messages after uploading. I emailed support but never got a reply.
Picturenation, sadly, reached the anniversary of my last sale there on November 30. Over 2k images, loads of views, nice friendly team -but nobody buying my images. I emailed them as well and, as ever, got a prompt reply from founder Jane Louise Green. Without breaking any confidences here suffice to say that sales there (overall) are fine -it's my portfolio that isn't selling. One theory we both explored is that buyers spot my images on PN and then look for them at cheaper prices on the micro sites. That's certainly a possibility. Either way uploading is quick and simple so I'm keeping on submitting there.
Uploading in November was down due to time constraints but one archive image that I added was from the 1991 Poll Tax Riots in London (pictured) That brought back some memories. Regards, David.
Edit: The Download Fairy appears to have paid a visit. Just days after writing about no sales on Picturenation I had two sales within hours. A 1989 image of British politician Sir Geoffrey Howe got first a Web Res sale (£0.40) then a High Res sale paying a pleasing £6 in commission. I'm assuming it was the same buyer. More of those please!