Now at Dreamstime:

Last week I extended my roster of agents by joining http://dreamstime.com. This agency is generally listed in the top two or three earners by most photographers, so it seemed time to check it out. Of most interest to me was that they take Editorial images, so they looked like another possible outlet for my celebrity photo archive. I really didn't know if they would be interested in old B/W shots of Margaret Thatcher etc , but of my first 41 archive shots submitted all have been accepted. They even put three of them on their home page today. Best of all, I have already had six sales in just a few days of being online. I'm sure I will get my fair share of rejections in time but certainly a great start. There is also no application test to endure on this site. Just sign up and upload! Regards, David.

First sale at Veer Marketplace:

Having said just yesterday that I hadn't had any sales at Veer yet I logged in today to find my first sale! A pleasing $1.75 for a shot of two Jack Russell dogs that I had grabbed in the street in Hastings (grabbed the shot, not the dogs, obviously). Suddenly all those pretty little graphs Veer provide on their "dashboard" page looked much more interesting. They'd been flatlining up to now. The first sale on a new site is always the most exciting and this had been a few weeks coming. I am still concerned about their rather erratic review process (see earlier posting) but hopeful this could turn out to be a good earning site. Regards, David

August update:

August was another cracking month on Shutterstock. A total of 64 downloads with my Best Day Ever (BDE) netting six downloads. Grand totals to date are 135 downloads with $35 commission earned. So well on the way to my first $75 payout. A few sales on Istock and two on Bigstockphoto helped boost the month. Over at Veer Marketplace, my very small portfolio of 60 images has had a few views but no sales as yet. I am currently uploading a lot more images to them so (hopefully) might see that first sale soon. Nothing last month at Yaymicro or at British agency Picturenation. Picturenation introduced a new (lower) pricing structure in August with hi resolution sales dropping from £75 to £15. Commission remains at 40% of this amount. My hope (and theirs!) is that their much more competitive prices will now boost sales there. With over 1200 images online with them this could make a real difference to my sales.

Meanwhile, for a very interesting read check out Milan Keser's blog at http://photogress.blogspot.com . This San Diego based photographer is, like me, at the early stages of his stock career and charts his ups and downs along the way. Unlike me, Milan has one big advantage -a very photogenic young daughter who features in a lot of his stock images. I've just got my seagulls on hand to photograph! Regards, David