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.

October Sales Updates:

Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona

October saw no sales at Alamy so they drop right off the list this month. It seems to be that it takes time to build regular sales there so I would expect them to jump on and off my rankings for some time to come. With a portfolio there now just passing the two thousand mark I am continuing to upload my back catalogue (as well as new images) and gradually building a presence.

With Alamy absent that, of course, leaves Shutterstock in top place and a good solid month of sales there. Shutterstock have recently caused some excitement by introducing a new submission editing page. I've only used it a few times but after spending thirty minutes trying to submit my first upload I found things got better once I grasped how the page works and I'm sure it will soon be totally familiar.

Redbubble made a strong second place with two sticker sales and a good print sale. As I approach the second anniversary of my last FineArt America sale I can only wonder at the big difference in performance from these two POD sites.

Istock came in third place with 35 downloads. Not as good as some recent months but subscription sales

Fountain in the Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona

are still averaging well above the old 28 cent flat rate payment.

In fourth place were Dreamstime with 5 downloads. A higher paying credit sale (above $5) and several of the $2 sub sales improved things here a bit.

Bigstock made fifth place with 9 downloads. A variety of sales but I'm still seeing a trend to local Hastings and area images - as I have noted many times before.

Sixth place saw 123rf with 7 downloads. I'm still languishing down at level 1 there and I'll need to see a lot more sales than that to have a hope of returning to level 2.

Catalonian Parliament building in Barcelona

Canstock made an infrequent appearance in seventh place with 2 downloads.

Fotolia brought up the rear in eighth place with just a single download (editorial submissions -please!).

Recent shooting and uploading has concentrated on my last minute trip to Barcelona following the declaration of independence there. Though only a two day trip I managed to get a number of key Barcelona images including, of course, the Catalonian parliament building. Hopefully, these will see some sales as fresh elections approach there. It was a brief but fun introduction to an exciting City and I will certainly be returning for a longer stay in the future. Regards, David.

September Sales Updates:

The road to Sa Calobra in Majorca -a famous cycling challenge

September certainly didn't see the hoped for upturn after the Summer Slowdown months with some highs and lows to report.

Once again Shutterstock retained its first place with a solid month helped by a regular On Demand sales and a pleasing Single sale coming right at the end of the month.

Bouncing back into my charts at second place were Alamy with another good paying sale (a B/W archive image of actor Nigel Havers). I certainly feel my effort in uploading my portfolio to Alamy is proving worthwhile. All my archive stuff (pre 1992) is now up (via their Archive and Reportage portal) and I am continuing uploading my portfolio of digital images from 2007 onwards.

Puerto Pollensa beach in Majorca

Istock took third place with some 40 downloads. Once again I used the excellent Today Is 20 site to make sense of my results.

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 4 product sales varying from stickers to mugs.

Fifth place went to 123RF with 9 downloads. I really feel sales should be much higher here given the size of my portfolio (over 2K images). I have the feeling that whilst they accept editorial images they do not perhaps have the buyers for them. On the plus side, recent reviews of new uploads have all been prompt.

In sixth place were Bigstock with 5 downloads. Hastings images to the fore once again.

In a sad seventh place were Dreamstime with just 3 downloads (all subs). Compounded with (to date) no sales at all in October things are not looking good there. I really like Dreamstime and hope that they can get back to near the top where they used to be (for me, if not everyone).

Tram tracks in Port de Soller in Majorca

Bringing up the rear were Fotolia in eighth place with 3 downloads (though in the absence of editorial images my portfolio is tiny there).



Uploading recently has concentrated on my September trip to Puerto Pollensa in Majorca. Though only there for a week I shot a large range of stock images from Roman ruins at Alcudia through to the beauty of the Tramuntana mountains. A world away from the bars and nightclubs of Magaluf which many associate with Majorca.

A return visit in the future is certain to visit some more of the places I couldn't get to this time, hopefully in 2018. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

Greek marine research vessel Aegaeo at Piraeus

August proved another slow summer month with not even the unexpected leap to top place which I saw from Alamy in July (in fact, nothing at all from them in August -though that is the nature of how Alamy works with various billing cycles meaning I could have had sales which are not reported yet).

So, as in a normal month, Shutterstock moved back to first place. A good crop of On Demand sales and several modest single sales helped stabilise things here.

Istock made second place with 37 downloads. Down on recent months but still maintaining higher sales since the Unification process at the start of 2017. I finally got round to signing up for the free Todayis20 site which helps you make sense of the inscrutable sales reports from Getty. Once signed up just upload your Getty sales file to them to have all revealed -including thumbnails of all the sold images. There is a wealth of information available which you can break down in multiple ways. This site was created by a Getty contributor and, though free, donations are welcomed.

In third place were Redbubble with three product sales (including one order of 10 stickers of a CCTV camera image - I suspect they are going up in someones shop or similar!).

Fourth place saw Dreamstime with 7 downloads. Some higher priced subcription sales here but no big credit

Torrent De Pareis on Majorca

sales this month.

123RF perked up with 18 downloads to make fifth place. As seems frequent here the sales started off slowly before picking up towards the end of the month.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 10 downloads. My images of the Tenterden Food and Drink Festival continued to sell here.

Finally in seventh place were Fotolia with 3 downloads (still waiting for them to accept Editorial images so I can really upscale my portfolio. Who knows if this will ever happen but I keep hoping).

Xara gate at Alcudia on Majorca

Recent uploads included some of Greek marine research vessel Aegaeo in Piraeus port, Athens. Operated by the Institute of Oceanography this ship is involved in all sorts of marine research work so I have hopes for some sales there. I'll be honest -this was just a harbour shot made while heading out to Aegina island. I only found out how high profile the vessel was when I researched it at home. You just never know what you might capture by chance.

Recent shooting revolved round my week long trip to Port Pollenca in Majorca during which I covered a lot of ground and added a lot of new images to my portfolio including the stunning gorge of Torrent De Pareis at Sa Calobra and the picturesque Old Town area of Alcudia. It certainly made a change from Greek islands and I am already considering a return visit as there were many more sights to photograph than I could manage in a week. Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

Margaret Thatcher - now at Alamy

A slowish month as expected in July as the usual Summer Slowdown continues. However, one agency did buck the trend to leap to number one position ahead of Shutterstock (probaly the only time I can remember SS not being at the top).

So, in first place we have Alamy with 3 downloads. One smallish amount, one good double figure amount and finally one mega sale netting me not far short of $100. This was for an archive image of British/Danish broadcaster Sandi Toksvig. British television viewers will know that Sandi is one of the new presenters of The Great British Bake Off which returns to screen shortly - presumably prompting this sale. The other two sales were both of the Greek island of Tilos, so nice to see some diversity of sales going on here.

In second place, of course, were Shutterstock with a slow month in terms of downloads. Only the fact that over 50% of the total income was for On Demand downloads brought the value up. No doubt they will be back to their top place next month.

Phil Lynott - now at Alamy

Istock continued doing well in third place with 53 downloads. Many of my subscription downloads are netting well over the old fixed 28cent flat rate and far outweigh the few that received a pittance rate. Others over on the Microstockgroup forum are also reporting increased sales at Istock.

In fourth place were Dreamstime with 5 downloads. A credit sale netting over $10 pushed them up the rankings this month (more like that please!).

Fifth place was taken by Bigstock with 9 downloads. My images of the first ever Food and Drink Festival in
Tenterden, Kent seem to be doing well here with a number of sales.

Redbubble took sixth place with one good product sale.

Seventh place went to Mostphotos with 2 modest subscription sales.

Finally Canstock came in in eighth place with 1 small download.

Poll Tax Riots - now at Alamy

Sadly nothing at all in July from Fotolia.

Uploading in July saw me, again, concentrating on uploading my portfolio to Alamy. This has been a twin track operation with me uploading regular batches of digital images and awaiting QC (Quality Control) passes before uploading the next batch. At the same time I have been working through my (mainly B/W) archive image scans from the 1980s-1990s. As I have written before you have to be approved for this archival route by submitting link/s to your archive images online somewhere. The great thing is that once given the OK your uploads bypass the QC process and are ready to put on sale as soon as the uploads are processed at Alamys end (usually within an hour or so).  The upshot of this is that I have pretty much had a continuing flow of new images ready to put on sale taking my portfolio now to around 1700 and rising. Not bad considering I had less than a hundred images back in February before they allowed Royalty Free Editorial images. This months post is illustrated by some of those archive images. More updates in September! Regards, David.

June Sales Updates:

The Markellos Tower on Aegina island, Greece

Another steady month in June with a number of my smaller agencies making it into my sales report as well as a continuing good run at Istock.
As ever, well out in front were Shutterstock with another strong month and income circa double of my second place site.

Second place went to Istock with another impressive month of 45 downloads -down from May but much higher than I had been seeing in previous years (and that's with limited uploading in 2017). As previously there were some very low paying subscription sales but others paying much higher than the old $0.28 fixed rate. I said I would see how the new percentage rates worked out in practise and I think it is fair to say that while I am seeing results like these I will be sticking with them.

Picfair took third place with another single sale. Looks like things are picking up here.

Fourth place was for Redbubble with a further three product sales (T shirt, Baby clothes, Sticker).

Bigstock saw fifth place with 13 downloads.

In sixth place were Dreamstime with 9 downloads with all being subscription sales.

Tourist rides in Aegina Town, Greece

123rf slipped to seventh place with 13 downloads (no big sales like last month sadly).

Alamy were in eighth place with a further single sale. Good to see no further refunds and my first sales are starting to show as cleared funds.

Ninth place went to Fotolia with 3 downloads.

Canstock had a single download to put them in tenth place.

Finally we have Mostphotos with two small subscription downloads.

Rhodes Cup yacht race, Tilos island, Greece

June saw little uploading due to spending (yet again) two weeks on the little Greek island of Halki. Whilst there I also took a day trip to Tilos island where I concentrated on photographing the abandoned village of Gera. Last years Tilos images have done well so I hope to continue that success with these. June also saw a General Election in Britain and I received a number of sales of Amber Rudd (Home Secretary) and Damien Green (newly promoted to Deputy Prime Minister). Recent uploads have concentrated on my 2016 images of the Rhodes Cup yacht race on Tilos (rejected by Istock as they deemed them "professional sport") and the famous landmark of the Markellos Tower from my April visit to Aegina. This interesting old building was once the seat of the Greek government during their War of Independence (from Turkey) when Aegina itself was the temporary Capital of Greece.

July looks like it will prove, as expected, the start of the Summer Slowdown with fairly low sales on most sites so far. Updates will follow in due course. 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.

April Sales Updates:

Annabel Croft -sold at Alamy

A steady month in April with a couple of highlights in getting my first ever sale at Alamy and another new sale at Picfair.

First place, of course, to Shutterstock with a strong performance for On Demand sales which made up nearly 50% of my monthly income here.

Istock once again came in second place with 32 downloads. As last month there was a spread of payment amounts from very low to well above the old fixed $0.28 for subscription sales. So far, it is looking like the new percentage system is generating higher income overall (though it is still early days).

Third place went to Picfair with a sale of a Jack In The Green festival image. This is my second sale in recent months and it looks like things are starting to happen here with an email newsletter mentioning sales to publishers like The Guardian and Time Inc. They have also just introduced a new (optional) advertising license which pays out at ten times your basic set price. Check the site and opt in to these if you want the chance of making the higher sales.In another move buyers now see the total price of an image. Previously they just saw the price the contributor had set and then had Picfairs percentage and the sale processing charge added on at checkout. It's a good way to be more transparent with buyers.

Fourth place was taken by Redbubble with 3 product sales. T shirts seem to be especially popular on this site.

In fifth place Alamy make their first appearance in my sales updates with first a download of the late actress

Pat Hayes - briefly my first ever sale at Alamy 

Pat Hayes followed closely by another of former tennis player Annabel Croft. Sadly the Pat Hayes sale got refunded a few days later. I don't yet know how common refunds are on Alamy but it was certainly disappointing to see my very first sale taken away! By comparison, I have only ever had a handful of refunds across all my other microstock sites. Certainly Alamy operate in a much more traditional way and with more flexibility to buyers so maybe more refunds are to be expected here.

Sixth place went to steady Bigstock with 10 downloads. They tick over month after month with never any great excitement (such as an extended license). Still, as I am lucky enough to be on the discontinued (for new contributors) Bridge to Bigstock scheme there is no work involved at all for me - Shutterstock acceptances just get mirrored on Bigstock.

123rf managed seventh place with 6 downloads -virtually all subscriptions.

Jack In The Green festival -second recent sale at Picfair

Eighth place was the hugely disappointing Dreamstime with just one single sale all month. I should be grateful that at least it was a (modest) credit sale not a $0.35 sub. I'm at a complete loss to understand what has happened to Dreamstime. With over two thousand images there I really shouldn't be seeing this sort of result. So far, May doesn't look like any improvement with just 2 sub sales to date. A late turnaround is really needed here.

Ninth place went to Fotolia with also one download but as I have frequently mentioned I have less than two hundred images there so do not expect much. For many they are in their top two sites each month. I still hope that eventually they will accept editorial images and I can dramatically increase my portfolio and sales there.

Tenth place went to Canstock with 1 download. Again, another agency where I would benefit if they accepted editorial.

Uploading in April again concentrated on getting my portfolio onto Alamy - a policy which I hope to see pay off in coming months. Shooting this month was centred round my second trip to the vibrant Greek capital of Athens. Lots of images of the massive Zea Marina and a day trip to the little island of Aegina where a prehistoric archeological site proved interesting. They'll be edited and uploaded in due course.
Regards, David.

March Sales Updates:

Amber Rudd, constantly in the news

A late posting (again!) for my March stats. I have the excuse that I have just returned from a week in the vibrant Greek capital of Athens and everything has been on hold because of that.

In first place a strong performance from Shutterstock with a good crop of On Demand sales and four Single downloads -including a pleasing one for just under $20.

Istock were in second place with 21 downloads. Again their was a spread of earnings from paltry to well above the 28cents previously earned for subscription sales. A few more months and I should have some meaningful figures to go on to decide if Istock are worth continuing with. For clarity, these figures are for downloads from February-March. As they now only report sales once a month my Istock figures are going to lag behind my other real time figures. Not ideal but no way round that at present. ETA This Istock ranking has been revised upwards due to my looking at the wrong report initially (nothing if not confusing!).

Dreamstime were in third place with 8 downloads. Some credit sales helping to push up the total here.

The White Cats, seventies image still selling today

Fourth place went to 123rf with 12 downloads. Better than some months recently but still a poor return on over 2000 images.

Fifth place saw Redbubble have two merchandise sales -a sticker and a poster. There is certainly a slower
rate of sales than I was seeing a while back but good margins on the products make it worthwhile.

Bigstock took sixth place with 7 downloads - pretty much all subs.

At the bottom were Fotolia in eighth place with just one download. Still no news of them opening the doors to editorial images yet.

No sales on Alamy in March but I continued to heavily upload my back catalogue to them and, in fact, didn't upload to any other sites in March. I'm alternating batches of my regular (mainly travel) images with batches of my old archive politicians/celebrities. My portfolio there has grown rapidly from below 100 images in February to approaching 1400 images now. Trust me that's a lot of work and time invested but I believe it is worth it (or will be long term).  

Livadia onTilos island, selling well recently

Normally I would highlight some recent uploads but as there haven't been any (other than back catalogue to Alamy) I thought I'd pick out some recent good sellers. Livadia harbour on the Greek island of Tilos has been doing well recently across a number of sites. It's a very small island with not that many stock images available. Also doing well is the British Home Secretary Amber Rudd (my local Member of Parliament). With the forthcoming General Election I would expect sales of her to continue. Finally New Wave rock group The White Cats from back around 1978. Sales of them keep coming even though they never had any real commercial success. Whether they sell as pictures of the band specifically or as generic images of seventies bands I do not know but long may they continue. More on my Athens trip next month :) Regards, David.

February Sales Updates:

Sold at Picfair: Anti National Front demonstration in Brixton

A stronger month in February with a lot going on in the Microstock world.

Shutterstock took first place as ever with one of their best performances in months. A good number of On Demand sales and a few modest Single Downloads helped boost things here. Their new redesigned Contributor Dashboard has gone down well with me (though not everyone) and I am especially enjoying seeing exactly where in the world my downloads have taken place

Second place went to Dreamstime with 6 downloads. Two higher value credit sales pushed up the earning here.

In third place were Picfair with (at last) my third sale there. My seventies image of protests at a National Front march in Brixton finding a buyer at well above micro prices. A nice touch at Picfair is that you can request payout as soon as you have a sale which is what I did. For some reason I opted for payment via Paypal (rather than direct to my bank). Be aware that this will carry a fee at Paypal -I forgot that the main agencies pay the fees for you. A lesson learnt for next time.

Fourth place was taken by print site Redbubble with two merchandise sales. Things seem to have slowed recently here but nothing like Fine Art America where it is now some fourteen months since my last sale. Not sure what happened to them but I have, in any case, paid my premium account fee for another year in the hope that things pick up.

Church of Christ The Saviour, Tilos island

Fifth place went to Istock with 16 downloads. February 20 saw the first of their new monthly sales reports. Unless you upload the report into some spreadsheet software you are going to have a hard time deciphering what has sold and for how much. Why they can't just give you a straight forward list of sales and commission I don't know. There's talk of improvements to come so I hope this will be one of them. The big question around the new % based subscription commissions was partially answered, Yes there some paltry $0.02 commissions but also many well above the old fixed 28c per download. I'll have to see how that pans out in the coming months before making decisions on continuing to work with Istock.

Bigstock were in sixth place with 17 downloads. A strong surge of Greek island images here this month.

123rf made seventh place with a poor 5 downloads. There seems to be no consistency with them at all recently.

Dodekanisos Express catamaran powers into Tilos island

Lastly, in at eighth place were Fotolia with 3 downloads. Bring on the editorial is what I would say to them!

Over at Alamy, still no sales as yet but exciting times as their impressive new Image Manager finally reached me (they have been rolling it out across contributors for a while now). Easy to upload and bulk edit it is a pleasure to use and, of course, the new Manager finally allows for editorial images to be set as Royalty Free (RF). For me, this means that I can now upload all the editorial images I have on Microstock (e.g. most of my portfolio). I also applied for and was granted access to the archive/historic uploads so I can also upload all my old celeb/political images. Best of all, these do not have to be approved - just upload and they're in. My portfolio has jumped from under 100 images to over 700 since getting the new Manager - with quite a bit of interest (in terms of views and zooms) from buyers. Feels like Alamy will now finally come good for me going forward.

Recent uploading saw me working on more images of the Greek island of Tilos including the Church of Christ the Saviour in Mikro Chorio and the Dodekanisos Express ferry arriving at Livadia. March has started slowly so far so I'll see what the rest of the month brings. Regards, David.

January Sales Updates:

Wartime defence post at Loggos on Paxos island

An unusual month in January as due to Istock transitioning to their new Enterprise Submission Platform (ESP) for uploading and account management no sales information was available so they are not included this month. Going forward I will include Istock stats in the month I get them notified (e.g. January sales will be in my February report -as that is when I got them). Worth mentioning that I have accessed the ESP site (with some issues initially) and have uploaded a small quantity of trial images -both commercial and editorial. The ability to batch upload and edit is a huge leap forward from the old one image at a time uploader. More on Istock in February.

In January, obviously, Shutterstock took first place as is always the case. Reviews there seem to be fast at the moment with a high percentage of approvals which has enabled a worthwhile growth in my portfolio.

Flying Cat 5 at Patitiri harbour on Alonissos island

In second place were Dreamstime with 8 downloads -again prompt and favourable reviews for my uploads.

Third place  went to 123rf with 10 downloads -sadly not a repeat of my BME in December.

Bigstock took fourth place with 7 downloads. Greek island related images seem to be selling well there recently.

A big surprise when Cutcaster turned up in fifth place with 2 downloads. These were my first sales there since 2014! I stopped uploading there a long time ago now. Even with these two sales my total downloads still only amount to 10 (with a port of 1.4k images). Still a long way to payout there.

The historic Acropolis in Athens

Fotolia came in with sixth place with 2 downloads. Until they decide to accept editorial images this is never likely to be a big selling site for me.

Finally in seventh place were Canstock with I download. My comments on Fotolia also apply to Canstock.

Not a stellar month overall but I am hoping my upload drive will start to pay off during 2017 as new material gets accepted. Recent uploads revolved around Greek images including a wartime defence post on Paxos, the Flying Cat catamaran on Alonissos and finally another image from the Acropolis in Athens. A lot has happened in Microstock in February (hence my late posting) so more of that next time. 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.