August Sales Updates:

The Flying Saucers, sold and unsold on Alamy

Apologies for the late posting. Regular readers will know this is often because nothing especially exciting happened and, yes, here we are in the Summer Slowdown with a Pandemic thrown in for good measure. 

That said there were a few highlights in a rather turgid month. 

 Straight to first place we had Redbubble with 4 product sales ranging from stickers to mug and best of all a framed print of the Greek island of Agistri. 

 Shutterstock took second place in what was my first full month back with them since re-activating my portfolio after a seven week protest shutdown. Still plenty of the pathetic 10-17 cent subscription sales but a number at higher rates such as 44, 59, 66 76 cents (all of which obviously better than my old fixed 36cent rate. On Demand sales have varied from lower to higher than my former $2.70 rate (from $2.25 up to $3.25). Note that this is for level 3 at 25% commission. I anticipate reaching level 4 (30% commission) in October before, of course, being plunged along with everyone else to level 1 on January 1st. 

 Third place went to Istock with 23 downloads. A low RPD dragged them down this month. 

 In fourth place were Alamy, not with sales but an unexpected small amount from ASCRL (American

El Salvador church, Seville

Society for Collecting Rights Licensing). It's the US version of a DACS payment and not one I had seen before. There should have been sales at Alamy as I had two personal use sales of the 1976 Rock and Roll Radio campaign march in London. Guess what's coming next! Both refunded the following day presumably once the "buyer" had downloaded the unwatermarked image. Pretty annoying but not a lot to be done about it as RF (Royalty Free) images on Alamy do not have an opt out for personal use sales. Rights Managed images do but as my images are RF on other sites they have to be RF on Alamy too.

 Moving to the lower end we had Dreamstime in fifth place with 4 downloads. These included a couple of my archive b/w images of actors Jeremy Sinden and Michael Gough.

 Bigstock only managed sixth place with just 2 downloads. Never a big seller but they have really slowed in recent months. 

Agistri island, framed print sale on Redbubble

 Seventh place went to Adobe with just a single small subsciption sale. As mentioned many many times before I will never make much at Adobe unless they start taking regular Editorial. 

 No sales as yet at Pond 5, but I am continuing to upload to them and now have several hundred images online. They have said publicly that they intend to give more of a marketing push on images if we supply the content. Well, who knows but I am certainly willing to give them a chance. 

 Recent uploads have been curtailed whilst I put my effort into Pond 5 uploading but I did add one of the El Salvador church in central Seville. September is showing signs of improvement so more to come next month. Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

Plaza Virgen de Los Reyes, Seville

 An overall unexciting month in July with one main highlight sales wise. First off, though, I need to address the Shutterstock issue. Having deactivated my images on June 6 to support the boycott against their commission cuts it became clear to me that not nearly enough contributors were joining in with this to make an effective protest. It was with no great sense of joy that I decided to reactivate my portfolio on July 22. I held out for over six weeks which is a lot more than some that just deactivated for a week or so. I had really hoped that enough people would join in to force a reversal of the cuts. I had also hoped that I would see an increase in sales at other sites (especially on editorial images which were no longer available at SS). That didn't happen so, for now, I'm back. I'll make a longer term decision once I get a few months actual sales figures in. Difficult, but everyone has to make their own decision on this.

So to the actual monthly sales: First up were Redbubble with 5 product sales. Several T shirts and other merchandise were topped by a framed print sale of the Greek island of Skiathos pushing RB into a well deserved first place.

Alamy took second place with 4 downloads. A couple of low paying distributor sales from Russia and a

MetroCentro tram, Seville

couple of reasonable $$ direct sales. Three of these were from my b/w archives but the best selling one was a modern image of the St.Leonards Festival.

Third place went to Istock with a disappointing 15 downloads. Only a reasonable RPD pulled them up a bit.

Despite not been switched on till near the end of the month, Shutterstock still managed to make fourth place. Varied amounts - rubbish 10-17 cent subscription sales but then one paying $0.73. Overall, I still expect to make less but, as I said above, I want to see some actual results for this.

Dreamstime made fifth place with 4 subscription sales. DT were one of my big hopes for an uptick in sales whilst not on SS but, sadly, it wasn't to be.

Sixth place saw Bigstock with just 2 downloads.

New products for my art sites with added text

And, finally, we had Adobe with just a single sale during July.

One good thing to come out of the Shutterstock debacle was that it pushed me to finally start uploading to Pond 5. No sales yet but I now have over 200 images online (and rising). The contributor interface takes a bit of getting used to but once you find your way around it gets easier. Just a reminder - they pay 50% royalties (for images) and you can set your own pricing so they are certainly worth a try. They are known as a footage agency but recently said (roughly) give us your image content and we'll do our best to build up sales. I'm happy to support them on that.

Recent uploading saw some more of my 2019 Seville trip going up. For my art product sites I have been mucking around with adding captions to a bored looking (yawning) cat image. I hope they might appeal to someone as a T shirt or whatever. Adding the text was done in Photoshop and doesn't take long -so worth a try I thought. More next month. Regards, David.

June Sales Updates:

Symi island - sold on Fine Art America

A strong month in June with a few exceptionally good sales and a marked changing in my results line up.

Alamy took a commanding lead in first place with 3 downloads (all from my b/w archives). A couple of very modest sales of politicians Richard Tracey and Ken Clarke were topped off on the last day of the month by an excellent $$$ sale of Seventies band The Fabulous Poodles (specifically violinist Bobby Valentino playing live on stage in 1978). A great end to the month!

Second place went to FineArtAmerica with a substantial canvas print sale of Yialos harbour on the Greek island of Symi. I am certainly seeing an upturn at FAA in recent months.

Third place place was taken by another print site Redbubble with 3 product sales. Two posters of Majorca and a sticker of Tony Blair.

Istock made fourth place with a disappointing 18 downloads. Only a reasonable RPD held things up

Fabulous Poodles - sold on Alamy

here.

Fifth place went to Dreamstime with 5 downloads. Three of these paid out the 10% bonus commission offered from new sales after June 1. Thus a $0.35 sub sale rises to $0.38 and the $2.00 sales are now $2.20. Note, the bonus does not apply to plans purchased before that date. It's a nice touch in these times.

Making their final appearance (for now at least) in Sixth place were Shutterstock with 11 downloads. As previously posted, I deactivated my port on June 6 in protest at the new commission structure so this just represents sales for the first week of June - many of which were for paltry $0.10 amounts. My withheld portfolio may be small (compared to some) at 2600 files but I am certainly leaving them some gaps in their coverage. Margaret Thatcher anyone? I even had an email from them saying a buyer wanted to purchase one of my archive images and the fee would be $5.00. Would I consider re-activating to allow this sale? Politely declined with my reasons. The #boycottshutterstock goes on. Check out the newly formed https://stockcoalition.org/ for news of action here.

Bigstock made seventh place with 4 downloads. As mentioned before, my portfolio here will not get bigger as my SS uploads were mirrored to them. Cannot see it would be worth uploading directly for those sort of sales. That said, they did get another sale of my Coronavirus letter image -the only place to have sold it so far.

Plaza de Espana in Seville

Bringing up the rear in eighth place were Adobe with just a single small sub sale. If I had hoped they would be announcing a full editorial image offering to capitalise on the Shutterstock carnage I was to be disappointed (so far).

Recent uploading saw me returning to my 2019 trip to Seville for a number of images including one of the rowing boats you can hire at the stunning Plaza de Espana. I look forward to the day when I can actually return for real.

Looking for other outlets for my images I decided to sign up to Pond5 My portfolio page . They are mainly known as a video agency but do take other media including stock photographs. They quite often supply archive footage for television documentaries and the like so I thought my archive images (at least) might make a good fit. I wasn't at all sure if my b/w scans would get accepted but my initial test batch of 11 images all passed. You can set your own prices or let them do it and they pay 50% commission on photo sales. I've set my own for now but really have no idea how Pond5 will work out for me. Obviously, I will report any sales if they happen.

Stay safe. Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

Puente del Alamillo in Seville

Highs and lows in July as we enter the Summer Slowdown period with four agencies making a good contribution and three others barely making a showing.

Starting at the top Shutterstock continued to hold their first place with a good number of subscription sales, plenty of On Demand sales and three modest Single sales. I had a flurry of sales of Dutch actor Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) who, sadly, died recently. Jumping ahead,  SS got off to a great start in August with an Enhanced Download on the first day of the month.

Alamy took second place with 2 downloads (both from my B/W political archives). These old images seem to have done especially well on Alamy rather than my much bigger library of travel images which I had expected to get more interest.

Third place went to Redbubble with 3 product sales ( T shirt, greetings card, phone case). Redbubble

Blue Star 2 ferry boat in Rhodes

have a useful and time saving new Copy facility for when you have a number of images of the same subject. Just go to Manage Portfolio and select Copy on the image you want to replicate. Then click on Replace Image to drop in your new image. All the information and settings for the various products are carried over to the new image (this doesn't effect your original upload in any way). Do check that all the products look how you want them and make any adjustments before hitting Save. This is a real time saver for batch uploads.

Rutger Hauer, actor

In fourth place were Istock with 37 downloads. A lower RPD this month pulled them down in earnings and in my ranking. Reviews continue to be fast at Istock with many getting accepted within an hour or two of submission -editorial especially.

Dropping down to the also rans we had Bigstock in fifth place with 6 downloads. Three of these were of Margaret Thatcher - a subject that just keeps on selling in my portfolio.

Sixth place went to Dreamstime with just 3 downloads. Two subscription sales and a small credit sale. This on a portfolio that matches my Shutterstock one. Such a difference in sales.

Finally in seventh place were Adobe with just a single subscription sale.

Recent uploads spanned my trips to Seville and Rhodes/Tilos with a set of the Alamillo suspension bridge in Seville and the Blue Star ferry boat Blue Star 2 moored at Rhodes.The impressive looking bridge was opened in 1992 for the Universal Exposition.

August should really see the Slowdown cutting in so more details next month. Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

Skywalk on the Metropol Parasol, Seville

A strong month in May for my bigger agencies and the usual low level results from the weaker ones. May also saw me give up on one agency and delete my portfolio and a routine check on another past agent threw up an unpleasant surprise.

Way out in front in first place were Shutterstock with a good crop of On Demand sales and two double digit Single Downloads boosting the income. Pleased to see editorial review times seem to have speeded up here -to within 24hrs of upload.

Second place was taken by Alamy with 2 downloads. The best one ( a television use of one of my archive Poll Tax Riots images) made a great illustration of their cut to 40% commission for non exclusive images. From a $68 sale they got $41 and I got $27. The difference really becomes obvious on larger sales. That said, I have no plans to make my images exclusive at this time as I prefer the spread of sales across different agencies.

In a strong third place were Istock with an impressive 47 downloads and an improved RPD (helped by a sale via Getty Images).

Redbubble took fourth place with 3 product sales ( two prints and a T shirt). I continue to be impressed by Redbubble and their regular sales.

Fifth place saw Bigstock with 6 downloads. I doubt they are ever going to take off as a high selling agency but the few dollars each month gradually add up.

Dreamstime managed sixth place with 7 downloads -pretty much all subscription sales.

Seventh place saw another sale on FineArtAmerica, this time just a greeting card (of the Houses of

Las Setas de Sevilla (Metropol Parasol)

Parliament). Not much but at least some signs of life there after my several years drought.

Eighth place went to Adobe with just a single download. Maybe one day they will start taking editorial, maybe not.

I finally gave up on Canstockphoto and manually deleted my small 350 odd portfolio and closed my account. They get to keep the $16 I earned over many years but I am happy just to forget about them. Low sales are one thing but picky, silly rejections (property release wanted for public landmarks and weird key word rules that didn't allow the keywords Hastings and Pier for an image of -guess what?)just didn't make them worth my time.

Puenta de la Barqueta, Seville

Meanwhile, over at Yay Micro I stopped uploading some years ago and requested them to close my account. They ignored that but, never mind, I opted out of all sales there including their own Yay Images site. So, no problem then? Sadly not - a routine check showed that they have added Deposit Photos as a partner site and automatically opted me in meaning all my (non editorial) images are now on an agency that I have never wished to sell through. I've opted out of that now as well and made another request for Yay to close my account -so far ignored. Anyone with images still at Yay should make a regular check of their partner list to make sure your images aren't being sent somewhere you don't want them. To be fair, they do at least offer an opt out but I was surprised that they had added a new partner and just included me in that.

Recent uploads have concentrated on my April trip to Seville including the impressive Barqueta bridge (Puente de la Barqueta) and the fabulous Metropol Parasol - more commonly known as Las Setas de Sevilla (Mushrooms of Seville). This was one of the highlights of my trip both for the overall view of the structure but especially for the walkway on the roof which offers great views over the City. I am sure I will be making a return trip to Seville in the future but meanwhile have a Greek island trip on the horizon - bring on the Retsina! Regards, David.

April Sales Updates:

The medieval Torre del Oro in Seville

A varied month in April with a range of good and less good results.

Back up in first place were a much improved Shutterstock. Only one tiny Single download this month but a good number of On Demand sales - making up over half of my income. Editorial reviews at SS have slowed of late mostly taking 2-3 days. I remember the days when editorials would get approved within minutes of uploading.

Second place went to Redbubble with 5 product sales. These were varied with a pillow, mug, phone case, sticker and baby clothes being purchased. The upload interface at Redbubble has been updated with caption and keyword information now coming first before the individual product templates. I must say I prefer getting these done first before getting into slightly the tedious process of setting up the products.In a less welcome change there no longer seems to be an easy share (to Twitter etc) button next to some products - in particular framed prints. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough yet! I'd ask about that on their forum -if they hadn't scrapped that last year (with no sign yet of the promised return in 2019).

Istock took third place with 34 downloads. In contrast to Shutterstock editorial reviews are flying

Kayaking action on the Guadalquivir river in Seville

through here, usually within an hour or two of upload. Of course, it is sales not review times that are important but I do like see them going through promptly.

In fourth place was a low key return for Alamy with a single figure presentation sale of the Poll Tax Riots of 1991. Good to see these archive images proving popular but a bigger paying sale would have been nice. My zoom activity has gone up of late so, hopefully, there are some more sales in the pipeline.

Bigstock came in fifth place with 8 downloads. Good to see two downloads of my University of Barcelona image. I had hoped that somebody would find that useful.

Dreamstime managed sixth place with just 4 subscription downloads so a far from good result from them.

Debenhams department store In Ashford, Kent

Bringing up the rear were Adobe with 2 downloads but, as I always say, my port there is only just over 300 images. Whether or not editorial submissions will ever be allowed for normal contributors I still don't know. There have been hints that is coming but still nothing has been forthcoming. I may be being simplistic but wouldn't this just require two things? First a bit of code allowing us to mark uploads as Editorial Use Only and, secondly, telling their reviewers not to reject those images for unreleased people/trademarks etc. Could be up and running by tonight if they wanted it!

Recent uploads mainly concentrated on my April images from Seville. The tourist attraction of the medieval Torre del Oro and some "bonus" images of people kayaking on the Guadalquivir river. It's worth looking out for extra shots such as those in addition to the obvious landmarks in the guide books. My port is lacking in sport and action images so those are useful to have. Closer to home the Debenhams department store chain announced 22 store were to be closed next year. One of those is the Ashford store where I used to live and I got an old image of that onto all my sites (not sure why I never uploaded it before, but it's there now). Still only May 1, so everything to play for this month. Regards, David.