Picturenation to close:

A very sad day for me yesterday with the news that Picturenation is to close their site on August 17, 2013.
There is a message on their home page (and also on Facebook and Twitter) giving the news and more details.
It seems that a new site was paid for in 2011 but never completed or delivered to them and the costs and effort of trying to keep the current (circa 5 year old) site functioning were too much. Regular contributors will know that the upload hasn't been working properly over the last few weeks - just another problem to resolve.
Just what happened to the new site isn't revealed.

Importantly, the notice states that all outstanding commission will be paid to contributors (regardless of the amount). Contributors should send in their user name with a request for payment. Thereafter, their account will be closed. Buyers can still use outstanding credits up to the shut down date, although PN warns there may be technical difficulties with some images but that they will use every effort to get the image to the buyer.

I joined Picturenation back in October 2007, back when my only other agency was the (badly named and since closed) Snap Village. I soon realised that they were accepting editorial images which paved the way for me to digitise and upload my archive political images. This formed the basis for my Microstock future as I later found the other sites I could upload these to as well.
Over the last six years sales have never been as frequent as I would have liked but the higher (than microstock) commissions helped balance that. My total PN earning are way higher than some of the micro sites I contribute to.

Above all, this has always been a site that I liked and trusted. PictureNation founder Jane-Luise Green has always sent me ultra fast personal responses to any problems or queries I had and we have had many enjoyable email discussions about the stock business over the years.

For any PictureNation contributors reading this, especially if this is the only site you contribute to, do take a look at the microstockgroup.com forum where you can find a wealth of information and views on alternative sites to sell through.

With all best wishes for the future to Jane, her team, and all PictureNation contributors.
Regards, David.

Paid account at FineArtAmerica:

As I said on my previous posting about FineArtAmerica I was always pretty sure that I would upgrade to the  paid version. The basic free account allows unlimited uploads but you can only have a maximum of 25 images for sale as prints and posters at any one time.
I finally upgraded a while back and paid the $30 annual fee. In the UK this converted to around £18 so did not represent a huge investment.
The main advantage of the paid account is that there is no limit to the number of images you can offer for sale. They also give you your own artist website to help market your images. If I'm honest I am not sure how useful that is compared to just having your images on the FAA site itself. I assume it may help generate more traffic having the images in two places. There is some scope for customising your artist website and the facility to post blog messages and news items. Thankfully, you only have to upload once to either site and the images automatically get mirrored on the other.
Other perks of the paid version include a $5 referral commission should anyone use your link to sign up for a paid account. Here is my referral link for anyone interested: 4-david-fowler.artistwebsites.com.
You also receive 5% commission on materials and accessories (frames etc) should you sell an image.
So, how it all going? I'm now up to 253 images online and over 5000 views (though these include an unknown number of automated visits from search engines) but, as yet, no sales.
That said, I wouldn't expect many sales on that number of images on regular stock sites, so I will just keep uploading and be patient.
One feature I didn't discover at first is the Limited Time Promotions. This is accessed from your control panel and allows you to have up to three images at a time on a special discounted promotion. You set the duration of the offer (up to a limit) and how many copies are available at that price (up to 25). Most importantly, you still choose how much money you make from each sale (whatever you like). These promotions are available on both the free and paid for version, so are well worth trying.
As I said before, I have no idea what images might be purchased so I am just uploading a whole variety from archive celebrities through to Greek islands ones such as the chapel of Agios Kosmas on Alonissos (pictured). I am looking forward to posting about my first sale there, hopefully fairly soon. Regards, David.

Shutterstock sales!

Well as I just posted earlier I only had a couple of dollars to go before reaching my $500. Sales at Shutterstock have been painfully slow for the first two days of the month (1 download) so I wondered when I would make it. Wonder no more -I just had 4 regular sales and my first ever Enhanced Download (paying $28). The image (pictured) was of a little seafront chapel that I took on my trip to the Greek island of Halki last Summer. Three of the other downloads were from the same trip as well. So a big well done to Shutterstock and thank you to the buyer! Regards, David (now in the 33cent club).

From Woohaying to No Waying (Istock in turmoil):

Well, I was about to post some stats for August when Microstock events overtook me. Istockphoto announced major commission changes (cuts) from next January. Instead of your commission rate being set by your "cannister" level (based on all time sales) it will now be based only on sales from the previous year. For small and independent contributors (like myself) commission will drop from an already poor 20% to what I believe to be an industry low of 15%. Even many of the successful exclusive contributors are anticipating a drop in earnings. Not surprisingly this has led to an outcry on the forums (link here:http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=252322) with the main thread now running to over 3336 (mainly hostile) postings. Several statements by IS chief Kelly Thompson to justify the move seem, if anything, to have made matters worse with many posters cancelling their exclusive status and halting new uploads. Others are calling on image buyers to boycott IS. This is where it gets interesting because IS seems to have overlooked the fact that many contributors are also buyers in their "day job". An increasing number are now posting that they and their companies will not buy images from IS again.
Istock are part of Getty images who are owned by equity group Hellman and
Friedman. This whole move looks like an attempt to up profits (possibly before a sell off, as some have speculated) and seems to have been done with complete disregard for loyal contributors. The so called Istock Community is fast looking like a thing of the past with many now posting four letter word abuse in the forums.
I should say, that none of this has much impact on me financially. I only have a small portfolio there and not many sales. But I do feel really sorry for those who rely on IS for a big part (or all) of their earnings and especially those making a full time living from stock. It remains to be seen how this all pans out in the coming weeks. Regards, David.

Local photo sale at PictureNation

After a bit of a slow period, I was pleased to get a medium res sale on PN this week (which pays £14.00 commission). On checking, I was amused to see that the picture sold was of the High Street in Hastings (about 10 minutes walk from where I live!). PN always say in their "pictures we want" section to get pictures of where you live (as boring as this sounds -to use their own words). Certainly not boring if it gets a sale! Seriously, we can all plan trips to exotic locations and exciting cities to get great photos but don't forget to photograph what is on your doorstep as well. Regards, David