September Sales Updates:

The abandoned village of Mikro Chorio on Tilos island

A routine month in September without any signs of a big uplift as the Summer period comes to an end.

Starting with Shutterstock, things were slow here with a number of zero sales days through the month including a weekday. I cannot remember the last time that happened and is far from encouraging. A good crop of On Demand sales made up over 50% of sales, along with one modest Single sale.

In second place were Redbubble with four product sales. T shirts, poster and phone case were the products this month. Redbubble has certainly proved to be a site worth uploading to.

Istock took third place with 3 credit sales and a further 32 sub/pp downloads. Images continue to be readily

Pondamos beach on Halki island

accepted here though with a slow review time for non editorials.

Dreamstime managed fourth place with a welcome 10 downloads. Three of these related to media tycoon Robert Maxwell whose death 25 years ago was a subject of a Dreamtime blog I wrote. It's not unreasonable to think that the blog post helped get those sales though it can't be proved, of course.

123rf came in at fifth place with 14 downloads -pretty much all sub sales. Review problems seem to have returned here with several images pending for weeks now.

Bigstock dissappointed with just 2 downloads putting them in sixth place. This was way less than my usual sales with them so I am not sure what happened there

The restored chapel in the Crusader Knights castle on Halki

Bringing up the bottom with just one download each were Canstock, Mostphotos and Fotolia (in that order).

Uploading in September saw me continuing with images from my July trip to the Greek island of Halki. Whilst there I took a daytrip to the nearby island of Tilos where I got some photos of the abandoned village of Mikro Chorio. I was pleased to get two sales of this image within days of uploading to Shutterstock. My images of Amber Rudd also continued to sell following her promotion to Home Secretary and  would expect that to be ongoing given her high profile. Regards, David.

December sales updates:

Catching up with my monthly updates my December report is rather overdue.

As ever, Shutterstock outperformed all other sites with the highlight being a further three Single and Other Downloads (SOD) contributing $27.58 to the total. These are starting to prove rather interesting and for very worthwhile amounts.

Dreamstime followed up with 10 downloads ($8.06) and a further $0.04 in referral income as one of my referred photographers had their first sale.

Bigstock produced 11 downloads ($5.04) with most of these being subs.

Istock ticked over with 6 downloads ($4.52) and a further $1.96 from 7 PP sales. Sales certainly seem to have declined at Istock over recent months.

123rf managed 11 downloads ($4.73). Again, mainly $0.25 sub sales.

Fotolia saw 6 sub downloads ( 1.50 credits).

Yay pleasantly surprised with one editorial sale of Robert Maxwell giving a worthwhile 3.75 euros in commission.

Nothing from my other sites during December. Picfair has proved rather dissapointing after my first sale only days after joining. Several hundred images uploaded since haven't seen any action. Still it is early days and I think the site has lots of potential. Hard not to like setting your own prices and getting 100% of that. Over at Mostphotos I hit the nine month mark without a single sale. I'm guessing that my mainly editorial images just aren't what their buyers are looking for.

Recent uploading included images of the Tilos Sea Star ferry (top) moored on the Greek island of Symi. Greek islands also featured with a set of images of the Express Pegasus ferry visiting Skopelos island. Regards, David.

 

October sales updates:

A less than sparkling month in October with no agent producing an exciting result.
As ever, Shutterstock came out a long way on top but was far from a BME with a number of zero selling days and few, higher paying, On Demand sales (and no Single or EL sales either). Which is all I am allowed to say about them.

Dreamstime were the runners up with 10 downloads ($16.66) with 35cent subscription sales dragging down the revenue.

Istock saw 11 downloads ($7.32) and a further 4 PP sales ($1.12). As I said last month, I am really missing those higher paying Photo+ sales there.


123rf produced just 8 downloads ($7.54). Their review process of (non editorial) files seems to have ground to a halt with one pending image awaiting review since August!

Bigstock saw a good month with 15 downloads, but as many of these were 38cent subs produced just $6.06 in revenue.

Fotolia managed just one sale (1 credit).

Mostphotos is worth a mention if only to note that it is over six months since my last sale there. Not surprising if the buyers experience of their new (ish) site is as bad as that for contributors. Buggy and slow, everything takes an eternity to load (put the kettle on) or things that you click on just never go anywhere. It's a shame because the site actually looks rather good when/if you actually get there.


Uploads in October included further images of my 2011 trip to the Greek island of Symi and a colourful pet dog belonging to a group of Morris dancers performing at the Jack In The Green festival in Hastings. The latter had an unexpected result when following an upload update on Twitter I found myself being Followed and receiving nice comments from several Morris dancing groups. The power of the internet in action!

Hopefully, maybe, November might bring an uplift in sales. Regards, David.

September sales updates:

September started off slowly but there were signs of improving sales towards the end of the month.
As ever, way out in front were Shutterstock with my best sales (quantity and income) but, sadly, under their new revised Terms Of Service contributors are now not allowed to disclose detailed results -under pain of having your account closed if you do. The official reason given is that information is of use to competing agencies.  Personally I doubt that Istock executives are waiting in anticipation every month for my blog post so they can see how I did there. Some more cynical posters on the forums suggested that this might be a move to suppress future bad publicity for Shutterstock should they import the Received Credits system they are trialling at Bigstock (as opposed to the current lifetime earnings levels) -resulting in big drops in income for many contributors. I honestly hope they are completely wrong. However, it is their business and their rules. It's actually a great shame as month after month I have reported how well Shutterstock have done for me -with way more sales and income than the other sites. For further information check out this thread on the Shutterstock forumhttp://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=132223

Moving on to the sales I am allowed to post about 123RF takes second place with 13 downloads and a BME there of $32.07 thanks to a Multi seat license and a Print Extended license on images of Boris Yeltsin and the Tentertainment music festival respectively.

Dreamstime produced 15 downloads ($23.55) in a strong month for them.

Istock managed 14 downloads ($8.76) with a further $4.12 from 10 PP sales. Before the price reductions there those 14 downloads would have produced considerably more income as many of them were previously Photo Plus images -now reduced to the basic Main collection.

Bigstock continued to see more activity with 12 downloads ($5.16).

Fotolia managed a couple of sales (1.85 credits).

Veer surprised with another sub sale ($0.25). Goodness. Better still their broken uploader has been fixed and I was able to upload my backlog of (non editorial) images -even getting some accepted.

Yay gets a mention if only to report zero sales for September. This means that since April I have had just one 0.75euro sale there (in August). On over 2000 images? With all those distribution partners? I am truly at a loss to know what has happened there. I really like Yay and have never had anything but friendly and prompt responses to any problems so they remain on my upload list. I just hope things improve soon. Yay also announced their new subscription and streaming packages (streaming as in small users like bloggers paying a modest monthly fee to have images streamed to their site from the Yay library, as opposed to actually downloading the images). This is aimed to appeal to those who would not normally pay for images or just steal them from the internet. Many would say that those users are not going to start paying anything for images -no matter how modest the price. I've stayed opted into this for now to see how it goes.

Uploading in September saw some images of the Hastings Old Town Carnival accepted as well as further Greek island images of Skopelos. I also revisited my archives for further 1989 images of Lech Walesa (President of Poland). Let's now see how October does. Regards, David.

August sales updates:

A rather lacklustre performance across the board for August.
As usual Shutterstock came out on top with 114 downloads ($56.39). A disappointing five seperate days with zero sales didn't help matters here.

Dreamstime produced 12 downloads ($14.14) with some prolonged periods of no new sales.

Istock saw 10 downloads ($8.49) with a further 8 PP sales netting $2.24.

Bigstock had 10 downloads ($6.66). The new subs packages seem to be taking off there with an increasing number of $0.38 commissions being seen. On the other hand, one sale produced a worthwhile $3 commission.

123rf  produced 8 downloads ($4.68).

Yaymicro finally saw a sale - the first since April - with one download netting 0.75euro.

Cutcaster produced a rare (for me) sale with $0.46 for an image of musician Phil Lynott.

Surprisingly, nothing at all from Fotolia in August.

Uploading for me was very limited this month due to two visits to the Eastbourne airshow and spending a lot of time working on my new Greek islands blog (as previously posted). A couple of images that did get uploaded were Greek as well! Looking down into Yialos harbour on Symi island and the harbour on Skopelos island.

Hopefully, the slow days of  August are now past and I'll start to see a pick up through September. We will see. Regards, David.

July sales updates:

Again, not the big summer slump I might have expected in July.
Out front, as ever was Shutterstock with 133 downloads ($95.68). An Enhanced Download of Margaret Thatcher ($28) on July 31 pushing me over the payout limit once again - that was a nice last minute surprise.

Dreamstime did well again with 13 downloads ($18.36).


Istock produced 15 downloads ($11.87) plus 14 PP sales (for May and June) netting $3.92. The recent changes to pricing took a toll here with a number of my former Photo+ images selling for much lower rates in the Main collection. It might well have been a BME here but for that. Hopefully, some of my better selling images will eventually move up into the higher priced Signature collection.

123rf saw 10 downloads ($5.83). Their low pricing and reduced commission showing in the $ earnings.

Bigstock saw some activity with 8 downloads ($3.04). These were all $0.38 subs payments. That's a bit concerning as the six month period for receiving that amount (for Bridge to Bigstock contributors) is coming to an end soon. Looks like I'll be down to low 123rf type commissions soon.

Fotolia saw 6 downloads (2.45 credits).

Yaymicro continued to dissapoint with another month of zero sales. I had usually seen some monthly activity there either from direct sales or their myriad of partners but things stopped dead on April 28. It may well be that there have been partner sales not yet reported but three zero months is rather concerning. On the subject of Yay, I am still waiting to see my (non editorial) images appear on Alamy. I had high hopes for this partner deal but so far none of my images appear to have arrived there. I did query this and was told they were going over in batches and that it was a complex business (avoiding duplicates etc). I thought they were just going to flick an API switch and mirror the Yay library there -but it seems not.

A reminder about Picturenation - only sixteen days until they close the site. If you have any images there do check for any sales and request payout via the contact link on the site (any amount).

Uploading in July saw a set of images of a Lancaster bomber at the 2012 Eastbourne airshow (Airbourne) as well as a young Herring Gull chick -which has been spending time on my window ledge here in Hastings.
Regards, David.

June sales updates:

Not too much sign of a Summer Slowdown in June as might have been expected.

As always Shutterstock led the way with 153 downloads ($82.88). Greek island images (in particular Halki) proved especially good sellers this month.

Another good month from Dreamstime saw 16 downloads ($28.74). A varied mix of images selling there.


Istock produced 10 downloads (£12.98) but due to technical issues the May partner program sales were not posted during June. In another major move Istock simplified their various collections and price points during June. Short term, the main effect for me was the scrapping of the Photo+ level (a limited percentage of my portfolio which I self-selected to sell at a higher price point). These images are now, for the time being, back in the lower priced "main" collection. Istock say the process is not yet complete and my hope is that these files will move up to the new Signature collection, though there appears to be no certainty of that happening. A wait and see situation.

Bigstock perked up with 11 downloads ($6.28) with a noted increase in subscription sales.

123rf only managed 6 downloads ($1.72) leaving me to start questioning again if they are worth uploading to.

Fotolia produced two downloads (0.50 credits).

Amazingly, Veer suddenly produced a subscription sale ($0.25) - my first sale there since 2011. Payout there still looks as far away as ever but at least there is some sign of life. Their web uploader still remains broken after some 7-8 months and a further email to them produced the response that they were looking to the forthcoming updating of the site to resolve the problem.

Uploads in June saw some new archive images of Mohamed Al Fayed (former owner of Harrods department store) being accepted.
However, uploading was limited due to spending two weeks holiday on the charming Greek island of Alonissos where I encountered some mules (pictured). I was also able to spend a day photographing on the nearby island of Skopelos (location of the film Mamma Mia). I'm looking forward to editing and uploading these images in due course. Regards, David.

May sales updates:

May was never going to match the special circumstances of April, however it still proved a strong month.

Inevitably, out in front was Shutterstock with 151 downloads ($97.16). A single sale of the Old Town area of Hastings netted $18.75 helping to push up the income total.

Istock produced 10 downloads ($20.14) with four PP sales adding another $1.40. In a surprise move they recently scrapped their restrictive upload limits and contributors can now submit up to 999 images per week. A welcome move I had always hoped for.  

Dreamstime saw 16 downloads ($17.73). A number of subscription sales helped keep the amount earned down.

Picturenation saw an archive image of Labour MP Chris Smith selling in high resolution which earned a worthwhile £6 in commission. Sadly, not long now till their close down in August but, hopefully, I may pick up a few more sales before then.

123rf continued to get sales with 16 downloads ($7.15). 

Bigstock achieved 9 downloads ($5.02). All of these were editorial images.

Mostphotos pleased with two downloads making Euro 4.09.

Fotolia netted three downloads earning 0.70 in credits.

As previously posted, my first FineArtAmerica sale netted $25.35. A very welcome start.

No sales at Cutcaster but one of my referred contributors had their first sale there netting me $0.06 in commission. It's a start!

Uploads in May saw some archive images of Bruce Kent, Vice President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and some portrait shots of a Common Barn Owl. 

We are now heading into the famous Summer Slowdown period so it remains to be seen how sales will go in June. Regards, David.

April sales update:

Anyone familiar with this blog or my portfolio will realise that April was never going to be a normal month for me following the death of Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Britain. My archive B/W images of her from 1991 were in great demand after the announcement with Shutterstock alone having 72 downloads on the day and many more since.

Starting with Shutterstock then I had a BME with a stunning 278 downloads ($122.79). I'm pleased to say that these weren't all Margaret Thatcher images, with a whole variety of subjects being downloaded. As Summer approaches my other good selling subject, the Tentertainment music festival, saw an uplift in sales.

Dreamstime also produced a superb BME with 26 downloads ($63.22). Much of this income was generated  by the levels system there, with repeat credit sales of Margaret Thatcher producing over $6 in commission each time.

Istockphoto rebounded from its recent slump to produce 12 downloads ($21.01) with a further $1.12 in PP sales. No Thatcher images there yet - though they do now accept "celebrity" images they do require accreditation details (or the images to have been taken in a public place). I'm trying to think of a way round that as, obviously, I don't have accreditation details from 22 years ago.

Yaymicro had a good month with 6 downloads (8.25 euros). Surprisingly, no Thatcher images sold but, on the day, three sales of politicians of the same era -so I presume they were related.

123rf produced 24 downloads ($8.03). I have had a re-think with them. After months of not uploading I was still seeing regular monthly sales and decided that, really, I was just leaving money on the table by not uploading there. The debate, as ever, is do buyers shop around looking for the cheapest sites and are my sales at higher priced sites harmed by having images at 123rf? For now, my personal conclusion is that this isn't the case. Sites have their own sets of buyers that, by and large, stick with that site. Microstock prices are low enough to make shopping around a waste of time (therefore money) for most buyers. Just my view. It took a couple of days of intensive uploading to catch up with the backlog but I'm pleased to say a 100% acceptance on editorials and a surprisingly high acceptance on commercial images as well.

Bigstock did well with 11 downloads ($7.64). The much criticised new subscription plans didn't have much effect with most of my downloads being regular credit sales.

Fotolia saw just 2 downloads (1.65credits).

Mostphotos saw a sub sale of Thatcher (0.28 euros).

Picturenation proved disappointing as despite a number of my Thatcher related images on their home page they got just one web size download (£0.40).

Overall then, an excellent month which demonstrated just how much events can dictate the success of editorial images. Regards, David.

March sales updates:

An excellent month overall in March, with the usual suspects doing well and some surprise sales elsewhere.
Way out in front was Shutterstock producing a BME (without any Enhanced Downloads) of 143 downloads      totalling $100.27 in income. Two big factors here: I had a single download of an archive photo of former Prime Minister Edward Heath paying $13.19 and, virtually every day, multiple On Demand downloads which totalled some $46.44 of my overall sales. Especially pleasing was the wide variety of images downloaded -both editorial and commercial. If there was any sort of theme, certainly the Greek islands of Meganissi and Halki sold especially well.
Dreamstime also had a good month of 19 downloads ($31.92) with their levels system working well with three of those downloads paying over $6 each in commission.
Picturenation bounced up the league in March with two medium resolution sales paying £4.00 (GBP) each in commission. Both sales were 1990s b/w images of British politician Eric Ollerenshaw (now Member of Parliament for Lancaster and Fleetwood).
Istockphoto had another dissapointing month with just 7 downloads ($5.59) plus a further $1.12 from 4 PP sales. Not sure where all their increasing editorial sales vanished to.
123rf produced 12 downloads ($5.26).
Bigstock managed 8 downloads ($3.52) with four of those being $0.38 sub sales.
Fotolia saw four downloads producing 1.70 in credits.
Mostphotos produced one sale of Margaret Thatcher - a sub sale paying Euro 0.22. Of significance here is that was my first ever celebrity image sale on Mostphotos.
Finally, Cutcaster produced my fourth ever sale - a large archive image of  British Airways chief Sir Colin Marshall making $1.84 in commission.
Uploading in March saw my returning to my 2008 images of Croatia - complete with a re-edit on a number of images. It was really interesting, some five years on, to see the improved results I was getting from the images. Pictured are the Church of St.Mark at Makarska and boats in the harbour at Brela. We'll see what April can bring. Regards, David.

February sales updates:

As ever, another great month at Shutterstock which pulled in 136 downloads ($65.18). Is there anything bad to say about them? Well, their Facebook contributor app doesn't always work and just misses days out. Ironically it always seems to miss when I have a good (for me) day. I recently had 15 downloads in one day and, of course, the app didn't post that one.
Dreamstime produced 18 downloads ($11.99) though, sadly, that included quite a few sub sales bringing down the actual income.
Istock didn't repeat their strong performance from January but managed 7 downloads ($9.71) plus a further $1.12 from four PP sales. Further (mainly) editorial uploading brought my portfolio there up to 670. I also hit   my 250 downloads which means, woohay, that I am now elligible to go exclusive there! I'll pass on that one, thanks, but what was interesting was that my upload limit rose from 18-20. Not sure if that was just for becoming a "bronze" level contributor or not. Couldn't find anything on the site saying you get a rise in upload limits.
Bigstock saw 8 downloads ($5.88). Their new subscription packages are now live and I have had 2 so far at  $0.38 each.
123rf also saw 8 downloads bringing in just $3.86. Still a wait and see on them but I'm into my third month of halting uploads there.
Yaymicro reported 2 partner sales and one direct sale bringing in 1.25 euro.
Fotolia were up with 8 downloads (1.95 credits). These were pretty much all sub sales.
Uploading in February saw me continuing with my Jack In The Green festival images and also re-visiting my seventies music images such as the one above of "power pop" band The Boyfriends, which I took in 1978. March has started well on Shutterstock so we will see how that goes. Regards, David.

January sales updates:

A strong start to the year in January. After a slow start around the holidays things picked up nicely as the month went on.
Needless to say, Shutterstock came out top with 89 downloads ($41.96).
Dreamstime saw a good performance with 13 downloads ($21.17).
Bigstock also saw a flurry of sales with 9 downloads ($5.50). Five of the sales were of Hastings.
Yaymicro reported 4 partner subscription sales making 0.64 euro. They also continued to annoy with a number of random editorial rejections.
Picturenation produced a web res sale of an old b/w archive image (£0.40).
Fotolia saw 2 downloads (1.20 credits).
123rf produced 7 downloads for a miserly commission of $3.75. They're off my upload list and I am considering deleting certain images. I don't really want good selling images like Margaret Thatcher going for 25cent subs or 69cents large sales.
Finally, with supreme irony given all the drama at Istockphoto, I had my BME there with 16 downloads ($22.96) and a further $1.68 from 6 partner sales. At one point sales, and sometimes multiple sales,were coming in daily -with all but two being editorial images. Editorial certainly seems to be taking off there. For anyone that doesn't know "the drama" involves a recent deal between Getty Images and Google. Here's a (long) thread on Microstockgroup  for all the information. At this stage I intend to keep my images on sale there.
No sales yet at FineArtAmerica but I am getting views and I feel positive about the site. I am now going to upgrade to the paid membership and upload a lot more images.
Uploading in January saw a large number of my old archive images as well as some new ones from the 2012 Jack In The Green festival (pictured). Regards, David.

December sales updates:

With a few honourable exceptions it turned out to be a fairly Dismal December overall.
Shutterstock (as ever) led the pack with 101 downloads ($49.38). Old favourites such as Margaret Thatcher, Professor Stephen Hawking and the Tentertainment music festival continued to get regular sales.
Picturenation (as previously posted) pulled in 2 downloads of my archive image of politician Sir Geoffrey Howe making a worthwhile £6.40 GBP in commission.
Istockphoto produced 6 downloads ($5.44) with a further $2.24 from 8 PP sales.
Bigstock perked up with 6 downloads ($5.90).
Dreamstime plunged to just 6 downloads (mainly subs) producing a miserable $3.77 in commission. My worst month there in a long time.
123rf  (what can I say?) managed just 3 downloads producing just $1.66 in commission. This was my worst month there since my first sales back in 2010. When they announced their 2013 commission cuts (now in effect) they talked of a big increase in sales there. I'm certainly not seeing any signs of that. Actually, to my surprise, I scraped into level 2 of the new rates (35% commission and $0.25 for subs). The problem is lack of sales and the low rates they charge customers. Superficially, at least, 35% doesn't sound so bad compared to some agencies but my 15% at Istock generally brings in $1-$2 in commission per sale. Even on 50% at 123rf actual income was lower. I'm just waiting to see how the new rates pan out in income over the month. Meanwhile, I have ceased uploading any new images to them.
New uploads for December included a further image from the Poll Tax Riots (showing the South African embassy on fire) and more images from my September trip to the Greek island of Alonissos (this one is of freight ship Ioanna Chrisoula docked at Patitiri harbour).
Hopefully, as The World gets back to work after the holidays sales will improve. Meanwhile, I'll wish everyone a happy and successful 2013. 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!

October Sales Updates:

For a few days in October I thought we were going from the Summer Slowdown to an Autumn Abyss as the month started off so slowly. However, things picked up and October ended up being a strong month.

123rf get first billing here as I had a BME of $28.76 from 13 downloads. Two PEL sales of $11.25 each achieved that (Hastings pier and Dungeness lighthouse) though, in general, sales were busier there than for a long time. Hopefully, there is a return to form going on at 123.
Shutterstock (obviously) excelled with 103 downloads ($56.23). What else to say about this agency? They sell - that's it.
Dreamstime produced 10 downloads ($14.09). The search engine changes that favoured my images a few months back seems to be swinging the other way now.
Istockphoto picked up 8 downloads ($13.58) plus 2 PP sales ($0.52). Editorial images continue to grow here and my portfolio is now just off 600 in number. A far cry from the days (pre editorial) when I only had 150 images there and a rare sale. They (editorial) are currently getting excellent review times -often just an hour or two.
Bigstock saw 5 downloads ($6.90). I am still waiting to see the anticipated big boost in earnings here now that the majority of my portfolio has been transferred via the Bridge to Bigstock program, but I still feel that this is an agency that could do good things in the future.
Fotalia achieved 3 downloads (2.45 credits). This is still a very small portfolio for me but sales are encouraging on that small amount. I'm still bemused how any agency can not have a description field for uploaded images. How do buyers actually know what the image is of? My response is to have longer than usual image titles in which I try to cram in the required information. Probaly just my editorial instincts here as I want to explain the Who?What?Where?When? for my images.
Yaymicro had one download (1euro) and new tougher reviews resulting in a number of rejections for lighting/artifacts. Reminded me of the old days on Istock.
Canstockphoto produced my second ever download ($0.30). I still need to build my portfolio there.

Uploading in October saw more images of the Sussex town of Rye including the famous Mermaid Inn (pictured) and, of course, further images from my September trip to the Greek islands of Skiathos and Alonissos (pictured). Regards, David.

September sales updates:

Overall, September didn't prove to be the big climb out of the Summer Slowdown that I might have hoped but some pleasing results here and there all the same.
Shutterstock fell just short of my BME with 80 downloads bringing in $96.86. This was achieved thanks to two Enhanced Downloads (on the same day) of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher netting $28 each.

Dreamstime didn't match the excellent results of late and just managed 9 downloads ($9.39)

Istock produced 6 downloads ($5.99) plus a further $1.96 from 7 PP sales.

Bigstock saw 6 downloads ($6.40).

123rf perked up slightly with 10 downloads ($5.28). On the plus side, jumping ahead here, October started with two PEL sales on the same day bringing in $22.50 so not all bad news at 123.

Fotolia saw 2 downloads making 0.50credits. Some fresh uploading of my back images saw my portfolio here rise to 60.

Mostphotos produced one subscription sale paying 1.50euros.

Yaymicro also saw one sale achieving 0.75euros. They have a forthcoming partner deal with Alamy which hopefully will produce some sales. Sadly, editorial images are not included in the deal but it will be interesting to see how my images fare on Alamy.

Finally, my very first sale at Canstockphoto produced $0.35. It is always pleasing to get the first sale at a new agency and especially so in this case as it was an image of Herring Gull chicks in their nest on my window ledge. I didn't even have to leave home to get that photograph!

A holiday on the charming Greek island of Alonissos (pictured) produced a lot of new images (awaiting edit). Flights were to the nearby island of Skiathos where I was able to capture the low level approach of a Boeing 757. This is not an airport for nervous fliers due to the very short runway - expect some rapid braking on landing. Return flights can only take off with a limited amount of fuel before touching down again on the Greek mainland for a full re-fuel. There's some good footage on You Tube for anyone interested. Alonissos itself is very unspoilt and full of pine forests and old donkey trails to walk.

October seems to be starting strongly so I hope to have some good results to report next month. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

A slight Summer slowdown on some sites this month but overall not at all too bad.

As ever, Shutterstock led the way with 78 downloads ($51.54) but sadly no ELs this month.

Dreamstime kept up a strong performance with 11 downloads ($19.41) before stopping dead in its tracks towards the end of the month. No downloads at all since then.

Istock produced 12 downloads ($14.73) plus a further $1.68 from 6 PP sales. My portfolio continues to grow there and is now approaching 550 images. I was pleased to get 18/18 acceptance on my last two batches. A softening on the "no celebrities" line there also opened up more of my portfolio for upload so I was able to submit Conservative politician Amber Rudd and a number of bands from the recent Tentertainment music festival. A welcome move on their part.

Bigstock saw 8 downloads ($5.80). The Bridge connector continues to push my Shutterstock approvals over, although it can sometimes take a few days for them to show up.

123rf dropped yet further with just 5 downloads ($3.08). I really don't know what to make of this decline there. They were doing so well for me earlier in the year.

Yaymicro produced one sale through a partner paying 1euro in commission.

And finally, a second sale at Cutcaster -an image of Olympic cyclist Jamie Staff earning $0.46.

Shooting and uploading saw me covering the 20th Eastbourne International Airshow (Airbourne) on August 11. Good conditions this year helped produce a whole bunch of stock images with around 30 uploaded so far including the Hawker Hunter jet and the wartime Douglas C47A Dakota (both pictured).

In September I hope to start seeing some returns on all my recent uploading. Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

Not my best seller in July, but certainly deserving to be reported first, was a BME at Dreamstime with 19 downloads pulling in a pleasing $42.43 in commission. I actually had to double check that one with a calculator just to make sure! So, what's going on at DT? Take your pick between changes to their search engine, price increases to buyers, changes to the image level system and a tweaking to the commission levels. Bottom line, for me at least, is increased sales and higher commissions ($) for most downloads. More of that please.

As ever, of course, Shutterstock was my best seller with 86 downloads making $72.58 in commission. Following my two EL sales in June, I got yet another one in July for a 1991 portrait of John Prescott (former Deputy Prime Minister of Britain).

Istock produced 7 downloads ($8.74) with a further $1.12 from four PP sales. My lack of uploading of late seems to be showing there but I'm now putting the tedium aside and making use of my 18 slots per week. Editorial images continue to sell there as my portfolio pushes close to 500 images.

123rf continues to stall with just 7 downloads ($8.29). Without one sale which earned a healthy $5 in commission that would have just left $3.29 for the month. Not sure what happened to all the editorial sales I was getting a few months back.

Bigstock produced just one download for $1.50.

My 39 image port at Fotalia managed 4 downloads earning 2.70 credits.

Finally, Yaymicro credited some third party sales of 2.97 euros. Long gone are the days when their Third Party sales raised any excitement. I am still hoping that all their recent partner deals are going to pay off but, as previously posted, they are still excluding editorial images from these so most of my portfolio is ruled out.

Recent uploading saw me completing my images of the 2012 Tentertainment music festival with a near 100% acceptance rate (DT knocked out a few "similars"). Latest uploads are from the Olympic Torch Relay event at Rye in East Sussex (pictured). Town Crier, Rex Swain, and schoolchildren with flags made for some colourful and, hopefully, saleable images.

August is generally the slowest sales month of the year and certainly the first few days haven't looked too promising. We'll see. Regards, David.

June sales updates:

A mixed set of results in June - but overall pleasing.

Shutterstock excelled with 104 downloads bringing in a BME in earnings of $98.26. This was achieved from two Enhanced Downloads paying $28 each. One was the ever popular Tentertainment music festival (pictured) and the other was an archive B/W image of the 1989 Trades Union Congress in Blackpool. June also saw another milestone as my total earnings at SS crossed the $1000.00 line.

Dreamstime produced 7 downloads ($10.90). Frustratingly their review of editorial images has slowed greatly (I now have three batches going back some 14 days in the queue). According to their forum they have seen a big increase in editorial submissions and are training up extra reviewers to catch up with the backlog.

Bigstock continues to show promise with 5 downloads ($7.70) -all editorial images.

Istock dissapointed in June with just 8 downloads ($4.88) plus a further $3.64 from a BME of 13 Partner Program sales.

123RF also dissapointed with just 7 downloads ($5.04). My worst month there since October 2011. Not sure what's happening there - they were gaining me a growing number of (mainly) editorial sales but that seems to have tailed off in the last few months.

Yaymicro sold one image of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, paying a worthwhile 3.75 euro.

Finally, another nice surprise from Mostphoto when an image of The Red Arrows produced a subscription sale for 5 euros. This took me neatly over the 10 euro payout level so I was able to get my first ever payment from them. Annoyingly I had to pay a 0.70 euro fee to Paypal to get this. An email to Mostphotos received a prompt and friendly reply that this was normal on Paypal. Well, no it's not - not unless you are selling something on Ebay or whatever. This did happen once before with a payment from Yaymicro and they (Yay) promptly apologised and credited my account with the fee amount. Anyone else had this issue with Mostphotos payouts?

Recent shoots saw images of the historic Cinque Port town of Rye in East Sussex (some now online) and coverage of the 2012 Tentertainment music festival (awaiting edit).

July has seen a good start at Shutterstock, so I'll see if this continues before the famous Summer Slowdown kicks in. Regards, David.

May sales update:

May saw the usual strong performance from Shutterstock with 93 downloads ($38.62).

Dreamstime saw a good increase with 17 downloads ($17.04).

Istock dropped down with 9 downloads ($10.01) plus three PP sales adding $0.84.

123rf produced 11 downloads ($10.67).

Bigstock perked up with 5 downloads ($7.70) plus a $0.60 commission adjustment. All but one sale here were editorial images.

Yaymicro saw 2 downloads (4.05 Euros). Interestingly, one of these was via their Pixmac partner.

Fotalia produced 3 downloads from my small port there (0.75 credits).

And finally, Cutcaster produced my first ever sale there. A small download of the Sudbury Stages Enduro race (pictured) made $0.46. Taken in November 1977, I had only uploaded this set of images a few days before. They have also been getting some early sales at Shutterstock, so I have hopes for these. On a personally pleasing note, some of the images feature my brother and his wife (both keen motorcyclists at the time).

Looking ahead, June seems to have started well (including a $28 Enhanced Download at Shutterstock). I just hope that continues. Regards, David.