January Sales Updates:

Tenterden signal box -editorial sale at Adobe

The dull and cold days of January proved a good metaphor for stock sales this month with little to get excited about. Welcome to 2023! 

Back in their once traditional first place were Shutterstock. Only one On Demand sale and four modest single sales and, of course, that annual reset to 15% commission rate for credit sales.

Second place went to Istock with 22 downloads. The usual mix of music festival and travel images selling this month.

Alamy managed third place with 2 modest (very) downloads and a ASCRL (the US version of DACS) payment.

Fourth place went to Adobe with 10 downloads. This included three editorial images - the Tenterden

Boxing Day hunt meet in Tenterden

signal box on heritage steam line the Kent and East Sussex Railway and a couple of eighties b/w images of Thames Television and Capital Radio in London. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised when these two even got accepted yet alone sold. 

Redbubble came in fifth place with a single product sale. This was a mug featuring the historic old Mermaid Inn at Rye in East Sussex. Rather unusually the buyer went for a view of the rear of the building rather than the more traditional front view showing Mermaid Street itself.

Sixth place went to Dreamstime with 3 downloads. If 2023 is the year of their hoped for turn around January certainly didn't show any signs.

Bigstock took seventh place with a single download. Now they have removed the Bridge transfer of Shutterstock uploads I do wonder if they'll keep this going as a separate agency for much longer.

Mermaid Inn - mug sale on Redbubble

Finally, in eighth place was a very rare appearance from Mostphotos with a single download. Most is one of those agencies that you almost forget is there until the odd sale pops  up.

Recent uploading included a couple of images of the Boxing Day fox hunt meet here in Tenterden. It's the one time we see a big police presence here because the crowds divide firmly into those supporting the hunt and those opposed (each on a different side of the road).

Still, no foreign trips booked but I'm in the research phase. Also looking to some photo day trips out with a number of locations in mind.

Regards, David. 

January Sales Updates:

 

Robert Maxwell - mega sale on SS

A good end to January after a slow start with one exceptional sale making a big difference.

Shutterstock took first place not least because of a mega Single sale of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell. TOS do not allow too much detail but suffice to say this sale came in at just over the start of $$$ amounts. This was, in fact, the highest single commission I have ever received while selling online. Even Alamy hasn't quite matched that (though they have come close several times). These big sales are rare, of course, but very welcome when they do happen.

Second place went to Alamy with 5 downloads. Three from my political archives and images of a Lidl store and my WW2 ration book series making up the total.

Redbubble made third place with 3 product sales. Two photographic posters and a greetings card.

Istock came in fourth place with 22 downloads. Nice to see a sale of St. Mildreds church from my home town of Tenterden in there.

At the lower levels Dreamstime made fifth place with 3 downloads. Two images of Folkestone and an

Tenterden - home town sales on Istock

archive B/W of  pop singer Alvin Stardust.

Adobe continued their long run of zero downloads which ran from the end of November right through to the last few days of January when a single download gave them sixth place. On the plus side I have had a number of new images accepted by them (mainly in the Illustrative Editorial category).

Finally we had Bigstock in seventh place also with a single download. 

Jamie Staff - archives to Pond 5

No new shooting in January (pretty dull weather most of the time here) but I have been going through my film archives and selecting a number of images for future scanning. I have pretty much exhausted my celebrity shots but have a variety of other images that might have value -especially to Alamy. 

I have also started to have a good look at travel websites with a view to making a booking in the coming weeks. Being someone that mainly does travel photography these days it has been sad not to gone anywhere new for such a long time. Lisbon has been getting particular attention from me as the architecture looks great and they have all those photogenic trams - but who knows what I'll pick as my first trip.

Uploading is still concentrating on getting my back catalogue to Pond 5 (plus filling a few gaps elsewhere at the same time). I now have over 2.5k images there including my recent uploads of Olympic gold medal cyclist Jamie Staff (2008 Beijing games) who I photographed making an appearance in his home town of Ashford, Kent.

Early days for February so far and, of course, it's a short month so we will see how it pans out. Regards, David.

January Sales Updates:

Poll Tax Riots - poster sale on Redbubble

A pretty slow month in January overall with some highlights here and there.

Leading the field in first place was Alamy with 3 downloads. Two small sales of a Lidl supermarket and a good $$ for my archive shot of tv mogul Lord Lew Grade. There was also a modest payment for ASCRL (the US counterpart to DACS) fees.

Second place went to good old Redbubble with 4 product sales. Three T shirts and a poster print from the 1990 Poll Tax Riots in London.

Lord Lew Grade - archive sale on Alamy

Shutterstock could only manage third place with only one paltry Single download and one On Demand. Being bounced back to Level 1 didn't help matters here though I expect to be up to Level 2 during February.

Istock had another slow month with 20 downloads and a low RPD.

Fifth place went to Dreamstime with 5 downloads. Their new upload interface went live for me this month and so far I seem to have made it work. It didn't seem to have made the process any easier and the changes seem mainly cosmetic. 

Bigstock scraped into sixth place with 2 downloads.

Back to life (just) were Adobe in seventh place, also with 2 downloads. My hoped for surge of Illustrative Editorial downloads is yet to happen here.

Medieval windmills in Rhodes Old Town

Apart from getting my back portfolio onto Pond 5 (still no sales as yet) uploads were limited to a set from my 2019 trip to the Greek islands Rhodes and Tilos, including the medieval windmills in Rhodes Old Town.

Some early good sign in February but, then again, I said that about January. We'll see. Regards, David.   

January Sales Updates:

British power pop band The Boyfriends in London, 1978

An interesting month in January when it looked like the usual front runner was doomed to relegation until a last minute sale turned things around.

In first place were Shutterstock. Though there were a good number of downloads an almost complete lack of On Demand sales (just one) made it look like I would be struggling to even make the minimum payout. Right on cue a substantial $$ Single sale came in on the last day of the month when a buyer in Russia downloaded my 1978 image of British power pop band The Boyfriends. I saw the band play many times and knew them quite well so was able to get these exclusive posed shots.

Beaten into second place were Alamy who had led the way for most of the month with 4 downloads (the most I have had in one month so far). A good variety as well - a Shell petrol station, the Department of Health in Whitehall, an archive b/w image of Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore and, finally, a travel image of the harbour on the Greek island of Skiathos (location for one of the scenes in the film Mamma Mia). Good to see a travel image sell here.

A worthy third place went to Redbubble with 5 product sales (T shirts through to phone cases).

Alcudia marina on the Spanish island of Majorca

Istock managed fourth place with 36 downloads and a reasonable RPD this month. The Greek island of Tilos featured heavily here in my downloads probably down to the islands ongoing project to become self sufficient in power by use of solar and wind technology.

Moving down to the (much) lower levels I had Dreamstime in fifth place with just 4 downloads - all subscription sales at that.

Adobe managed sixth place with 2 downloads. Still waiting on them giving the green light to general editorial images (if they ever do).

The Palau de les Arts in Valencia

Bringing up the rear were Bigstock with 2 downloads. Never a big seller for me but a real decline for me over the last few months.


Recent uploading saw me continuing to work through my Valencia images, this time concentrating on the visually stunning Palau de les Arts at the City of Arts and Sciences. Other uploads came from my November trip to Majorca including the iconic Alcudia sign in front of the marina.


February is painfully slow so far (with one surprise exception) but, hopefully, will pick up towards the end of the month. We will see. Regards, David.

January Sales Updates:

Mark Barty-King, Bantam Press publisher

A lively month in January with an unexpected winner in first place and, sadly, a not so unexpected taker for bottom place.

Straight in to first place were FineArtAmerica with a large print sale of Thin Lizzy leader Phil Lynott. This follows on from my couple of sales in November after a void of nearly three years of no sales at all. Not sure why this sudden activity is happening but long may it continue!

Alamy took second place with three sales. Two from my B/W archives and a landscape image from my trip to the Greek island of Tilos last year. Alamy is certainly starting to repay my time in uploading my back catalogue to them -even if commission for non-exlusive images will shortly drop to 40%.

In third place were normal frontrunners Shutterstock. About 40% of my total income this month was from On Demand sales but with no Single downloads at all this time.

Fourth place went to Istock with a slow 28 downloads but a much improved RPD (rate per download) over December.

At the lower end were Bigstock in fifth place with 6 downloads.

Sixth place went to Redbubble with a single product sale (a mug featuring former Prime Minister

Megalo Chorio, Tilos island

Tony Blair).

Just behind in seventh place were Fotolia/Adobe with 3 downloads. Uploading via the Fotolia site will end soon so the time is coming for me to get the hang of the Adobe site.

Sadly, in eighth and final place were Dreamstime with just two $0.35 subscription sales. I suppose I could claim that as a 100% increase on December when I had just the one sale but it's still a pretty dismal picture at DT. Maybe 2019 can see a turn around for this likeable and contributor friendly agency.

Sacred Heart temple, Barcelona

Recent uploading saw some images of the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the summit of Mount Tibidabo in Barcelona. I also uploaded a new image of a Bougainvillea filled street in Megalo Chorio on Tilos island. Turning my hand back to scanning I uploaded an archive image of book publisher Mark Barty-King. As head of Bantam Press it was he who decided on the UK publication of Professor Stephen Hawking's book A Brief History of Time. This was taken at a press conference marking the success of the book. Success didn't follow through to my image which got rejected (twice) at Shutterstock for "film grain". I suspect that the days of SS accepting these old archive images may be in the past so I'm glad I got all my main images in some years ago! Never mind, it's on Alamy and elsewhere.

Too early to make any predictions for February so we'll see how the month pans out. Regards, David.

January Sales Updates:

The Temple of Apollo on Aegina island, Greece

If December was a slow month then January can only be catagorised as dire. Even my top performing agency Shutterstock produced a disappointing result and for the first time in years failed to make the minimum for payout. I can only hope that February shows some improvement.

Shutterstock in first place managed only two On Demand sales and a small Single download and coupled with a reduced amount in subscription sales produced a far from stella month.

Second place went to Redbubble with 4 product sales ranging from childrens clothes to stickers.

Istock came in at third place with 27 downloads. A disappointing month from them also.

Michael Latham M.P. -third sale on Alamy

Fourth place went to Alamy with one single sale. This was my third sale there of the late Conservative politician Michael Latham. I actually managed to find that one in use on the BBC News website in a feature on Members of Parliament (and former Members)  who had died in 2017. I suspect that a number of my archive political images will end up being used in a similar way as time goes on.

Fifth place went to a perked up Dreamstime with 10 downloads (and not all subs at that). The Greek island of Agistri accounted for nearly half of these.

Bigstock managed sixth place with 9 downloads. My images of the Tenterden Food and Drink festival continued to sell there.

Seventh place went to Fotolia with just 1 download -a reasonable paying credit sale.

The church of  Agioi Anargyroi on Agistri island, Greece

Bottom of the pack in eighth place were 123RF with just 4 subscription downloads. My December editorial uploads continued to be pending throughout the month just to make matters worse. Their latest changes to commission levels (not even announced -just discovered) which, in my case, will make it much harder to ever move up from the low ball level one rates means that 123rf are very much making themselves contenders to be dropped by me.

Whilst considering the 123rf position I have also emailed both Cutcaster and YayMicro asking them to close my accounts. Though I haven't uploaded to either in a long time I was leaving my accounts open but have now decided that neither is likely to ever produce another payout and they may as well be closed. I expect to lose the small amount of commission earned but they probaly need it more than I do :)

Recent uploads included the 6th century BC Temple of Apollo on the Greek island of Aegina. You can read more about my trip to the island on my Small Greek Islands blog (link on the right). Hopefully my February results will make for more cheerful reading. Regards, David.

January Sales Updates:

Wartime defence post at Loggos on Paxos island

An unusual month in January as due to Istock transitioning to their new Enterprise Submission Platform (ESP) for uploading and account management no sales information was available so they are not included this month. Going forward I will include Istock stats in the month I get them notified (e.g. January sales will be in my February report -as that is when I got them). Worth mentioning that I have accessed the ESP site (with some issues initially) and have uploaded a small quantity of trial images -both commercial and editorial. The ability to batch upload and edit is a huge leap forward from the old one image at a time uploader. More on Istock in February.

In January, obviously, Shutterstock took first place as is always the case. Reviews there seem to be fast at the moment with a high percentage of approvals which has enabled a worthwhile growth in my portfolio.

Flying Cat 5 at Patitiri harbour on Alonissos island

In second place were Dreamstime with 8 downloads -again prompt and favourable reviews for my uploads.

Third place  went to 123rf with 10 downloads -sadly not a repeat of my BME in December.

Bigstock took fourth place with 7 downloads. Greek island related images seem to be selling well there recently.

A big surprise when Cutcaster turned up in fifth place with 2 downloads. These were my first sales there since 2014! I stopped uploading there a long time ago now. Even with these two sales my total downloads still only amount to 10 (with a port of 1.4k images). Still a long way to payout there.

The historic Acropolis in Athens

Fotolia came in with sixth place with 2 downloads. Until they decide to accept editorial images this is never likely to be a big selling site for me.

Finally in seventh place were Canstock with I download. My comments on Fotolia also apply to Canstock.

Not a stellar month overall but I am hoping my upload drive will start to pay off during 2017 as new material gets accepted. Recent uploads revolved around Greek images including a wartime defence post on Paxos, the Flying Cat catamaran on Alonissos and finally another image from the Acropolis in Athens. A lot has happened in Microstock in February (hence my late posting) so more of that next time. Regards, David.

January sales updates:

Avro Vulcan XH588 -sadly flying no more

An interesting month in January with the holiday season still in full swing for the first part of it. The diversity between my best sites and the bottom ones seemed more pronounced than ever.

Shutterstock made first place as ever with earnings greatly exceeding my other agencies. A fair number of On Demand sales and a worthwhile Single download for nearly $20 kept my sales up here. The holiday effect led to no less than Seven zero sales days in January. What was also heartening here was a noticable increase in acceptance rate for my new uploads. At one point I was wondering if I was going to get any rejections at all -until I did :) A pleasant change from being told all my images are out of focus, wrong colour balance, poor lighting et al. It remains to be seen if this will last.

Second place was taken by Redbubble with two products sales. A framed print of cruise liner Norwegian Jade and a T Shirt featuring one of my Poll Tax Riots images. It looks like my images are starting to get some traction here (I already have more sales in February).

Hastings Pier - set to re-open in April 2016

Third place was taken by Istock with five credit sales and a further 19 sub/PP downloads. Editorial images continue to figure highly here.

Fotolia took fourth place with four downloads. Several of these paid larger than usual (for me) royalties which helped push them up my rankings here.

Fifth place went to Bigstock with eleven downloads. Several of my archive celeb images (Alan Alda, Leslie Nielsen etc) sold there.

Sixth place was taken by 123RF with eleven downloads -mainly subscription sales. Reviews continue to be an issue for them with many images just sitting in pending week after week. I do hope I am not going to have to email them yet again asking them to review my uploads. To add to the fun, 123 also had over a week in which their uploader failed to work. You could go through the usual process but at the end the files just weren't there. Waiting for them to turn up didn't work -they never did. At least that did get fixed in the end although it disrupted my workflow by having to backtrack to the missing images and re-uploading.

Halki island - the stunning view from my apartment in 2015

In a sad Seventh (and bottom) place were Dreamstime with just 4 downloads making under $3 in commission. I do not think there is anything I can do about Dreamstime other than keep uploading and hoping things improve there.

New uploads saw a variety of images including a set of the re-construction work on the Victorian pier here in Hastings (now scheduled to re-open in April). As work nears completion, this seemed a good time to get them out there. Other new images included my last photographs of Avro Vulcan bomber XH588 appearing at the Dunsfold airshow in 2014. Sadly, XH588 had her last flight in October 2015 and there are now no more flying Vulcans. I just feel priviliged to have seen this iconic aircraft in flight several times. Finally, I continued to upload images from my 2015 trip to the little Greek island of Halki. This utterly charming small island is right up there in my favourites list and I have now booked again for 2016. Hopefully, I'll still find something new to photograph when I make, what will be, my fourth visit there! Regards, David.

January Sales Updates:

Alonissos -first Extended License on Istock

There were certainly some encouraging signs in January as we came out of the Christmas and New Year holiday slowdown.

Inevitably, Shutterstock came out on top by a long way with a sprinkling of On Demand sales (not the best month for these) and one modest Single sale.

A strong month for Istock putting them in second place with 6 credit sales and 12 sub/PP downloads. What boosted things here was getting my first ever Extended License sale on Istock with my image of the coastline on Alonissos island.

Dreamstime managed third place with a pleasing 23 downloads. Sadly, all but one were 35cent sub sales which pulled the actual income down. Greek island images featured strongly in this months downloads.

Breitling WingWalkers in action

Bigstock was just pipped into fourth place (by only 2cents) with 17 downloads. As I have mentioned before local Hastings images seem to do well here with 9 of the 17 being from my home town. In fact, images downloaded on Bigstock seem to be rather quirky -often being ones that haven't sold much elsewhere (as well as the usual Margaret Thatcher type good sellers).  This suggests that they have a distinctive group of customers -no bad thing in my opinion.

123rf came in at fifth place with 9 downloads. Now, I am quick to express disappointment here with 123rf
and January looked like it was heading the same way with only four sub sales for most of the month. However, things were redeemed by 2 LEL sales and a Large sale on the 31st (a Saturday at that!) which was enough to push me back to Level 2 at the start of February. Hopefully, I can remain at that level for some time now. Further, the backlog of pending Editorial images all got reviewed and accepted right at the end of January after sitting there all month.

Finally, in the sellers list, Canstock pulled in 2 downloads which was a nice surprise given that I do not often see much action with them.

Skiathos Town and harbour, Greece

Nothing from my other sites in January with Cutcaster becoming a casualty when I decided it was no longer worth my time and broadband costs to continue uploading new material. With a current port of 1498 files, I have had just 8 downloads since joining in January 2011. Increasingly picky reviews where images that are accepted and sell on the top tier sites were being rejected didn't help matters. I'll just keep my port there and check in from time to time in the hope of a surprise. If I had to speculate about the problem here I would guess that, though they accept Editorial images, they do not have the Editorial buyers that would be interested in my port. Lifestyle/models/isolation images may do much better here for some.

Uploads in January included new images of the Breitling WingWalkers (an ever popular seller) and some views over Skiathos Town taken during my 2012 trip to Alonissos. February has got off to a slow start but, hopefully, things will pick up as the month goes on. Regards, David.

January sales updates:

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing my December updates post. Hang on, it was! Anyway, here we go straight on to my January updates.

In what turned out to be, in general, a rather slow month the leader of the pack (by a big margin) was, as ever, Shutterstock. Even here though there was a marked lack of higher paying On Demand sales which usually boost the income up.

Dreamstime produced 13 downloads ($13.82) with a mix of credit and sub sales.

Bigstock proved lively with 19 downloads ($8.67) with $0.38 subs well to the fore. Interestingly,one
of their partner sites added two "single merchandise" sales. T shirts? Mugs? Who knows.

Istock saw just 4 downloads ($3.19) with a further $1.68 from 6 PP sales.

123rf managed 8 downloads ($4.08) -virtually all subs.

Fotolia produced 2 sub downloads (0.50 credits).

And finally two sites I do not see much action with: Canstock had 2 downloads ($1.00) and a sale at Cutcaster produced $1.84 in commission.

Recent uploads followed a flight theme with a reworked b/w version of a Herring Gull and some more images from the 2012 and 2013 Eastbourne International Airshow (Airbourne) -a Chinook helicopter and the Breitling wing walking team. The airshow images were accepted everywhere except my best agent Shutterstock who insisted I needed "credentials" (i.e. a press pass/permit or similar). A prompt and friendly email came back from them when I queried this. It seems that ALL airshow images now need credentials. Even the ones that are free and open to the public like Eastbourne. That's certainly a big blow as there aren't any credentials issued for this event -they are not needed as it's held on the seafront for all to see (and photograph). I have sent them another email pointing this out and asking if there is any way forward for airshow images. I'll update this post with any developments. Regards, David.

Edit: Got a fantastically helpful response from Shutterstock. They took a look at the Eastbourne images and agreed they were OK to upload. Now all accepted. Going forward, should I cover other airshows, I will contact Credentials at Shutterstock with details of the show so they can make a decision on it. As they (rightly) said their inspectors wouldn't know the circumstances of each airshow when images are uploaded. So contact Credentials first before uploading. Great response from Shutterstock I thought!