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.