August Sales Updates:

Vintage aeroplane ride at Tibidabo, Barcelona

August saw some slight signs of recovery from the Summer Slowdown (Stall might be a better word) with an unexpected boost from one site but a really disappointing result from another.

Back to first place were Shutterstock but with only a single On Demand sale all month (these normally comprise 40-50% of my monthly earnings. Only two modest (but worthwhile) Single downloads on the 31st pulled things around here - about a third of my monthly total in one swoop.

Istock came in second place with a solid 39 downloads. Lots of new image acceptances here giving hope for a steadily improving future. My Istock portfolio is still way behind others in terms of size as a result of (thankfully, now historic) upload limits, no editorial, and constant rejections for everything imaginable -usually "contains artifacts" (when did you last see that as a rejection reason?).

Still in the game Alamy took third place with another single sale, this time of the Greek island of Skiathos. Good to see a travel image selling there as I have long believed that is probably the area that eventually I will do best with at Alamy. Just look at the travel pages of newspapers to see the large number of Alamy credits.

Fourth place (and here's the surprise) went to Fotolia with 8 downloads. Not just subscription sales

Volleyball on the beach, Barcelona

either but almost all paying out at 0.99 credit levels. I'm actually in danger of getting a payout at Fotolia if this keeps up :)

Bigstock produced 8 downloads to make fifth place. Greek island images continue to sell here as well.

Sixth place went to Redbubble with a single T shirt sale featuring (yet again) Margaret Thatcher.

Seventh place was 123rf with (shock!) 4 downloads. Yet another month in which the 4 downloads rule applies. Barely one dollar to payout level now -then it will be time to Shower The Horse (as Anne-Marie didn't sing). You might have to Google that....

Megalo Chorio on Tilos island, Greece

Finally in eighth place ( and the big disappointment) were Dreamstime with just a single $0.35 subscription sale. Two thousand and three hundred images there and one sale. It's genuinely a shame to see what is happening here. They're a nice agency run by nice people (and I'm not just saying that as a former "artist of the week"). It's been reported that they are taking action against Google because of their low ranking in search results - which I'm sure is a factor here. I have no intention of stopping uploading here and just hope things can be turned around.

Uploading (now super-fast thanks to my previously mentioned new broadband connection) concentrated on my 2018 trips with the 1928 vintage aeroplane ride at the Tibidabo park in Barcelona as well as a lively volleyball game on the beach. Also up were a set of Megalo Chorio the Capital of the Greek island of Tilos. The medieval Crusader Knights castle can be seen on the hill in the background.

Hopefully, September will start to see some improved results all round. Regards, David.