February Sales Update:

Ken Russell - card on Redbubble

Given that it is a short month I tend not to have great expectations for February but I was proved wrong by one very large sale this time.

First place (by a very long way) went to Alamy with 5 downloads. Four were from my B/W archives plus one digital image of the Greek island of Halki. The winner here was my 1991 image of Body Shop founder Anita Roddick speaking at a rally in Trafalgar Square, London. Alamy contacted me to ask if I would waive the Editorial Use Only restriction as the client wanted to use it for a social media campaign. Assured that they had the required permissions, I agreed and was delighted to see a sale just short of $400.00 (gross) later that day. Following on from my biggest ever sale in January it was exciting to see that repeated and exceeded in February.

Staying on the subject of Alamy it is worth noting that April is the one time of year when you can choose to opt out of different selling options. In particular you can review the countries where they have distribution partners and opt out of any regions you would prefer not to have your images on sale. A few spring to mind at present. You can also opt out of the low value Novel Use scheme as well (though I must say I have never actually had any of those sales).

Shutterstock took second place. A few On Demand sales and two modest Single sales kept them up in

Anita Roddick - big sale on Alamy

the rankings.

Third place went to Istock with 19 downloads. A bit disappointing in quantity but, of course, these were mainly January sales being reported.

Redbubble took fourth place with 2 product sales. This month it was greeting cards of British film director Ken Russell and legendary WW2 singer Dame Vera Lynne.

Fifth place went to Adobe with 5 downloads though nothing on the editorial front this month despite my having a number of new ones accepted recently. Edit: I was wrong - one of them was of Waitrose supermarket trolleys.

Dreamstime made sixth place with 3 downloads. All editorials in their case.

Finally in eighth place were Bigstock with 2 downloads. Those months last year when I was getting dozens of airshow image sales seem line a distant memory now.

Ferry at Skopelos - archives to Pond5

New uploading still consisted mainly of my back catalogue to Pond 5. Not too many left to go on that front but no sign of any further sales at the moment.

I have continued to research travel ideas (in particular Lisbon) but have yet to book anything for certain. At least things are getting easier with most European destinations no longer requiring a Covid test before you go (for vaccinated people) and no testing required to return to the UK. There is also talk of the PLF (Passenger Locator Form) being scrapped for UK return. Having not travelled since November 2019 I am very much looking forward to seeing some new (and old) destinations this year.

Too early to predict how March will go but in general it is usually an upturn month. Let's see. Regards, David. 

November sales updates:

A reasonable month overall in November despite the Thanksgiving holiday in the US (Shutterstock are the only site that give you an idea of where images were bought courtesy of their animated world map and judging from that most of my sales are outside the US).
So starting with Shutterstock, they produced a very neat 100 downloads ($58.20). Interesting to note that $30.15 of that came from the higher paying On Demand downloads.
Istockphoto pulled in 10 downloads ($15.98) and an additional $1.12 from 4 PP sales. My portfolio there continues to grow and I have now passed the 600 mark with, in the main, editorial images. I expect to reach my next payout in December - a far cry from the pre editorial days when sales were few.
Dreamstime did well with 18 downloads ($12.38) but a high number of sub sales pulled the earning down.
123rf managed 11 downloads ($6.17) again with a high proportion of sub sales. I will have to review 123 in January when (if?) they introduce their new commission rates/cuts. Being primarily editorial my images are not the ones that get massive sales and, consequently, I expect to drop to the minimum rate of 30% and only $0.22 for subs. Compared to the $0.33 I get for sub sales at SS that is very poor. Though not a big seller there, my portfolio currently fills editorial gaps in their library (Margaret Thatcher etc). We'll see.
Yaymicro sold an archive shot of Body Shop founder Anita Roddick paying a healthy 3.75 euros with an additional 2.48 euros coming from their Third Party programme.
Bigstock managed 4 downloads ($2.50) - a dissapointing result from them. On the plus side their wonky Bridge connector from SS got fixed and all images are now moved over.
Fotolia saw 4 sub sales netting 1 credit in commission. Best selling there seem to be my Greek island images though that is more a result of what I have uploaded and had accepted than any great industry insight.
Nothing from the rest in November. Veer continues to sit at $93 dollars in commission with no sign of even a sub sale to push me to payout level. Their upload has now been broken (for me) for two months -just "not processed/unknown error" messages after uploading. I emailed support but never got a reply.
Picturenation, sadly, reached the anniversary of my last sale there on November 30. Over 2k images, loads of views, nice friendly team -but nobody buying my images. I emailed them as well and, as ever, got a prompt reply from founder Jane Louise Green. Without breaking any confidences here suffice to say that sales there (overall) are fine -it's my portfolio that isn't selling. One theory we both explored is that buyers spot my images on PN and then look for them at cheaper prices on the micro sites. That's certainly a possibility. Either way uploading is quick and simple so I'm keeping on submitting there.
Uploading in November was down due to time constraints but one archive image that I added was from the 1991 Poll Tax Riots in London (pictured) That brought back some memories. Regards, David.
Edit: The Download Fairy appears to have paid a visit. Just days after writing about no sales on Picturenation I had two sales within hours. A 1989 image of British politician Sir Geoffrey Howe got first a Web Res sale (£0.40) then a High Res sale paying a pleasing £6 in commission. I'm assuming it was the same buyer. More of those please!

February updates:

February saw a strong month at Shutterstock with a total of 83 downloads ($21.31) helped by one buyer scooping up 17 of my archive b/w images of various celebrities (Anne Bancroft etc). I also had a number of sales of the Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore who, sadly, died in February (likewise on Dreamstime). They also rolled out a Beta version of a great new feature in which you can see the total all time sales and income from each image. No great surprise to find my image of the 2009 Tentertainment local music festival (see earlier posting) at the top position with over 80 downloads. Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister, comes a close second for a single image (or top if you combine the sales of all my images of her).

Dreamtime produced 19 downloads ($7.82). A higher than usual number of subscription sales pulled the income down there but was boosted by a (level three) sale of Margaret Thatcher - paying $3.70 in commission.

Bigstock made 3 downloads ($4.50) including one of my Shell petrol station images which paid a pleasing $3 in commission. The really good news here this month was their announcement that their payout limit has reverted to $30 (from $50). In their announcement they stated that this was so contributors could get more regular payments. What a refreshing attitude compared to the agencies that set high payouts (probaly hoping that many will never make it and they can just keep the money). My balance was already over $40 so I applied for payment and received it a couple of days later. All credit to Bigstock for this move. Now, if only Shutterstock would just include me in the "Bridge to Bigstock" programme I could double my portfolio and hopefully see a good increase in sales.

Also hitting payout was British agency Picturenation with a medium res sale of Anita Roddick (founder of the Body Shop chain of cosmetic stores) which paid £4 in commission, taking me above the magic £50 required. In contrast to Bigstock though PN only payout once every 8 weeks and I just missed the deadline for the next one. That's certainly one area of improvement Picturenation could work on in the future. If Yaymicro can pay within two minutes of request (via Paypal) I don't see why others cannot.

123RF continued its climb with 7 downloads ($3.50) -virtually all Editorial images. Many of my images there now also feature on parent company site Inmagine.com (but, sadly, as yet they are still not taking Editorial images).

Istock produced 1 regular download ($0.20) and 3 partner program sales at the newly improved rate of $0.28 each. On the plus side there the Editorial collection is now live. With ten images accepted so far and more pending I have already had my first Editorial sale. Istock could potentially (finally) prove a worthwhile site for my images.

Nothing at Cutcaster yet but I continued uploading my celebrity archives and now have over 400 images online there. I haven't had time, as yet, to start further uploads to Canstockphoto so nothing there yet either.

February also saw nothing at Veer, Mostphotos or Yaymicro, though at the latter the 4th quarter (2010) third party sales must now be imminent. Wishing you all good sales in March. Regards, David.