December Sales Updates:

The Acropolis of Athens

Well that's it then for 2016. Not a spectacular year in terms of microstock sales for me due to a combination of lack of uploading time reducing my output and the continuing influx of new images to all the sites. Redbubble proved the rising star of the year with regular sales of a wide variety of images. A far cry from FineArtAmerica where I had no sales at all in 2016 -I will, however, be renewing my premium membership for 2017 to see if there is a turnaround. Yay was the casualty in 2016 when I finally ceased uploading new images. With over 2000 files uploaded they produced just one sale for 0.68euros.

So to December then there's no need to say that Shutterstock maintained their lead in first place -though I barely scraped past the minimum payout.

Second place went to Redbubble with 5 product sales ranging from clothing to phone covers.

Stefanos volcano crater on Nisyros island

Third place was taken by Dreamstime. Though they only managed 3 downloads one of those was another high paying credit sale of nearly $10.

Fourth place went to 123rf with an astonishing 25 downloads making it my BME in quantity but not income. A lot of Greek island images sold -presumably to the same buyer.

Steady Bigstock produced 10 downloads to make fifth place.

Exceptionally down in sixth place were Istock with 2 credit sales and 10 subs. This was because of their transition to new sales reporting which is due to happen around February. As a consequence reporting in December ended before the month was over and before any Partner sales had been added. From now on sales will be updated monthly in one go so my rankings will be a bit out of line for a while. Not being able to see sales accrue in real time is hardly motivating for anyone and I hope they reconsider this in the future.

Tentertainment music festival at Tenterden, Kent

Finally a single sale from Mostphotos earned them seventh place. I haven't forgotten Fotolia -they just didn't have a single sale for me in December!

Uploading in December saw a big increase with many new files now available. I intend to keep this pace up throughout 2017 as much as possible. New images included my first Acropolis shot from my Athens trip last May as well as my set from the 2016 Tentertainment music festival. Backtracking to 2015, I also uploaded further images of the Stefanos volcano crater on the Greek island of Nisyros.

Wishing all readers a very happy 2017! Regards, David.

March Sales Updates:

Tony Blair -notebook sale on Redbubble

March proved a mixed month with strong sales from one agency (guess) and a slow performance elsewhere.

As always, in first place were Shutterstock with above average subscription sales. An Enhanced Download (this time down to just $16 compared to the old $28 rate) and a couple of Single Downloads added to the mix. The month saw a big fall in On Demand Downloads which often make up to 50% or more of my monthly totals. Hopefully, April will see a come back for these. Uploading continued to be a pleasure here with quick review times and high acceptance rates (what happened to all those poor lighting/wrong colour balance/out of focus rejections?) Obviously, I must suddenly have become a brilliant photographer in the last few weeks :)

Stunning volcano crater on Nisyros island, Greece

Second place went to Istock with (sadly) just 2 credit sales but 35 sub/pp downloads.

Dreamstime was in third place with 6 downloads. Back to business as usual then with no repeat of my
record month in February.

123rf took fourth place with 14 downloads. There are still some issues with slow reviews but I have, at least, had some looked at without having to send them a begging email -so some improvement there.

Fifth place went to Bigstock with 10 downloads.

Redbubble were in sixth place with 3 products sales. Two stickers of a Greek goat and a notebook with my 1991 image of Tony Blair (former Prime Minister) on the cover.

Tarpon Springs Boulevard, Halki island

Bringing up the rear in seventh place were Fotolia with just one small sale. That Adobe effect really is slow in kicking in for me though others have reported a big jump in sales this year.

Uploading of new images was concentrated on my trip to the Greek island of Halki last year. Among my favourites were an image of the surprisingly named Tarpon Springs Boulevard. So named because it was funded by the Greek community of Tarpon Springs in Florida -which has close ties with the island (when the sponge fishing industry died out on Halki many citizens moved to Florida). I also uploaded the first image of one of my favourite places - the still active volcano on the island of Nisyros. It truly is a spectacular place and not to be missed if you are ever in the Dodecanese region of Greece. Regards, David.

Shutterstock Galleries - The Joy Of Sets:

From Set: Margaret Thatcher and Beyond

For any contributors not familiar with Shutterstocks excellent Gallery (or Sets) feature or those that have seen them but are unsure how to set them up and make use of them this post will attempt to give you a basic overview and guide. Obviously, if you only have a handful of images accepted there or your portfolio is of totally diverse subjects these are something you will not need at this point.

Setting up your Sets:
Starting from the Contributor Home page of Shutterstock hover over the "Portfolio" tab (upper left of the page) to reveal the drop down menu. Click on "Catalog Manager". This will take you to thumbnails of all your images which you can sort by Most Popular/Newest First/Oldest First. Now click on one or more images which you wish to make a set from (for example, images of New York). Now click on "Add To Set" (top right of your screen). This will bring up a box with a drop down menu of your existing sets (once you have them) and a "Create New Set" button. Using this gives you the prompt to type in the name of your new set New York and then add your selected images.

From set: Halki and Nisyros islands

Congratulations! You now have your first Set up and running -well almost. Your set/s will now be listed on the left of the screen -click on the word "Sets" to reveal the list. After the name of your set you will see the number of images it contains in brackets. Now click on the name of your set to view it. The full catalogue of images on screen will be replaced by just images from your chosen set. Next click on the "Actions" link (top right of screen). This gives you three options: Show Stats (gives you total downloads and total income for each image in the set. Edit Set Name (you may wish to change or refine the name of your set). Publish/Unpublish This Set (this is the important one -your new set must be Published before it is visible to buyers so click on that. Once a set is published the button will change to Unpublish -should you later wish to have it hidden. Obviously, if you just wish to use the Sets for your own personal organisation of images, you can leave it Unpublished.

From Set: Aviation and Airshows

Choosing a cover image for your set:
By default one of your Set images will become the cover image. To change this first click on the existing cover image and you will receive a prompt to click on another image of your choice. Just do that and it will automatically become your cover image. You can change and update this whenever you want.

Adding new images to your sets:
Now you have some Sets established you'll want to add further images to them. There are several ways of doing this. You can, if you want, just go through each page of your portfolio (in the Catalog Manager) clicking on each image you wish to add to a Set then use the Add To Set link (top right) as before. You can add as many as you want in one go. Don't worry about accidentally adding the same image more than once to a set (it will not let you!).
If you have a big portfolio there is a much quicker way, however. In the Catalog Manager use the "Filter By Keyword" boxes (top left of the screen). Type in the relevant keyword for your set e.g. New York and hit Filter. Now only images with the keywords New York will be visible. Just click on all of them and then Add To Set. For new images recently accepted change the sort order in the Catalogue Manager to Newest First then just click and add as before. Should you wish to remove an image from a set just click on it and an X will appear in the top right. Just click that to remove. This will not delete your image from Shutterstock -only remove from that set!

From Set: Seventies Bands

Now I have sets, what do I do with them?
This is the fun part. The part where you get to encourage potential buyers to view your sets and, hopefully, give you a sale. Even if not purchasing right away they may well remember your images for future reference. To do this you need to select a set from your list in the Catalog Manager. In the top right of the screen (next to Actions) is another link for "Share". Clicking this gives you several options. Click the Twitter logo to automatically post a Tweet linking to your set. You can also "recommend" your set on Facebook (this one is a bit disappointing as it doesn't put it slap on your timeline for all to see but tucks it away over on the left of your Timeline along with the Friends/Likes etc lists. The third option is to copy and paste the displayed link to the set. Use this for posting on Google+, your own blog, anywhere you like really -without spamming, obviously.

Anything else useful about my sets?
Now that you have Sets you'll now notice that you can add five of them to your Contributor Home page under Track Your Sets. This will give you an, at a glance, view of the stats for each set (number of images, total downloads, total sales in $). Change these five at any time by clicking on Select Sets.

Finally, a couple of things in conclusion. Firstly do NOT overdo the sharing thing. A link to a great set of images that people may enjoy looking at soon becomes spam if you constantly bombard them with the same links. Be considerate. Secondly, what to put in each set? Every image you have of a particular subject? Or just a selection of your best images to serve as an appetiser to search your entire portfolio? I think everyone will have different views on that and that's the great thing -it's entirely up to you. Personally, I now include everything I have. Good luck with setting up a promoting your own Sets. Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

The Red Arrows -Extended License at Istock

Somewhat later than I had hoped here are my updates for July. Expect August updates to follow soon to get things back on track :)

In first place (of course) were Shutterstock. A good number of On Demand downloads and a handful of Single Downloads pushed July over the payout limit. In an interesting move SS announced that the minimum payout is to drop to just $35 (from $75). Just go into your account settings at SS and change the figure. This move prompted some cynical speculation that SS anticipate a drop in sales for contributors. I do not buy that theory. Why would they care if contributors had to wait a bit longer for payout? My belief is that as a public company they simply want to clear all that debt (unpaid commissions) off the balance sheet. It doesn't benefit them to have all that money (which isn't theirs) sitting there. In practise, I usually make the existing payout each month but I will now get the certainty of a monthly payment even if I haven't quite made the old limit.

Tentertainment festival - illustrating festivals, summer, events

In second place came Istock with an excellent month consisting of 5 credit sales (including an EL on one of my Red Arrows images) and a remarkable 46 sub and PP downloads. My mainly Editorial portfolio (which now stands at 983 images) seems to be attracting the interest of the sub package buyers.

Third place went to Dreamstime with 8 downloads boosted heavily by a IEL (Increased usage) and a UEL (multi seat) on my image of the Italian street party in Clerkenwell, London.

123RF made fourth place with 5 downloads. They still seem to be having issues getting new uploads reviewed in a timely manner.

Italian street party - EL at Dreamstime

Bigstock made fifth place with 8 downloads -virtually all subs. As noted before, Hastings related images continue to be downloaded here.

In sixth place came FineArtAmerica with a single greeting card sale of my Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast image.

Bringing up the rear in seventh place were Fotolia with just 2 downloads earning 0.72 credits. On the plus
side I contacted them to increase the prices of my Extended License sales. Bronze level contributors can place these sales at 60 credits rather than the default 30. You can change each one manually but much easier to contact Fotolia support and they will do it for you. Whilst I do not expect that many EL sales it is nice to know that I will get a decent amount of commission for them.

Of note amongst the non sellers was the lack of action from Redbubble which had got off to such a promising start in May/June. Maybe I had benefited from a new contributor bounce and things have now settled down? I have continued to upload and hope for better things in the future. Also notable was that is now a full year since my last sale at Cutcaster. A total of just 8 sales ever on a portfolio of circa 1400 confirms my decision to cease uploading new images to them was the correct one (for me).

Octopuses drying on Nisyros - classic Greek image

Shooting in July mainly centered on the annual St.Leonards Festival -a community arts and music event which yielded excellent crowd and festival images. I have yet to edit and upload these but the images from last year continue to sell steadily. I also covered the Tentertainment music festival once again and have already seen sales from these. This local event has proved to be a constant seller over the last few years as an illustration for festivals/summer/outdoor events etc. A Google search finds these images of Kent being used across the world!  

Other uploading in July included my first images from my June trip to the lovely Greek island of Halki. One of my favourites included one from the nearby island of Nisyros of Octopuses drying on a line. In terms of Greek island images it's a real "classic" image which I have seen used many times. Sadly, until now I had never actually seen any drying Octopi in real life to photograph. I was excited, to say the least, when I spotted these on the seafront at Mandraki. As well as several early sales this image recently got chosen by Picfair for their weekly pick of top images -resulting in hundreds of views. I have high hopes for this image :) Regards, David.

June sales updates:

Emborio village, Halki island

As ever, by far, Shutterstock came in the number one slot for June. The month saw a good crop of On Demand downloads but only two modest Single downloads.

Second place went to Istock with a strong performance of 12 credit sales (many of the Tentertainment music festival) plus a healthy 37 subscription and PP sales.

Bell tower on Halki island

New agency Redbubble took third place with two product sales (as previously posted). An exciting start to my relationship with this Print On Demand site.

In fourth place Dreamstime showed a bounce back from the dire sales last month with 8 downloads.

Fifth place went to Fotolia with only 1 download but it was my first ever extended license on the site -paying a healthy six credits. Pleasingly the image was from the same set as my avatar picture here. Fotolia also had some exciting news with the launch of Adobe Stock. Adobe (who purchased Fotolia a while back) will now mirror the Fotolia library within Adobe products such as Photoshop allowing designers to choose and purchase images without leaving the programme. This should certainly lead to a boost in sales once it gets established. In addition, at Fotolia, sub sales now count as full sales towards your ranking. This was applied retrospectively so I jumped from the basic white level to the higher paying bronze level.

In sixth place were 123RF with 7 downloads. My images uploaded in May continued to await review throughout the month (and still do at this time). Not sure what's going on there.

Stefanos volcano crater, Nisyros island

Just pushed into seventh place were Bigstock with 13 downloads (virtually all subs).

Finally, a small subscription sale from Mostphotos gave them a rare appearance here and eighth place.

Very little uploading in June but plenty of shooting as I spent two weeks on the lovely small Greek island of Halki. This was my third visit to the island (population just 280!). As before I took a day trip by ferry to the nearby island of Nisyros where the star attraction is the live volcano crater which you can walk around in -this was still as amazing third time round. I'll be working on my new images in due course but the ones here are from my last visit in 2010. Check out my Greek island blog for more info on Halki. Regards, David.

What? Another Extended Licence!

Just a couple of weeks after reporting my first ever EL, I just had my second one. Not exactly from an expected source either but from a site I hardly mention anymore -Veer.
The long established Veer agency opened to Microstock a couple of years ago when parent company Corbis closed down the amusingly named Snapvillage. I had one sale (of two Jack Russell dogs) in the first few weeks then nothing at all till now. Hardly surprising with only 231 images on the site. My images do not meet the "aesthetic quality required by Veer buyers" it seems. And, of course, they do not take Editorial.
I do not often upload to them these days and check the site even less so it was a nice surprise yesterday to find a regular sale ($2.10) followed by a Multi User EL ($17.50). Both of the same image -a Romanian flag flying on the Greek island of Nisyros (don't ask). Added to the $75 I made last year in their "Dash for Cash" upload promotion I am now just $7 away from their $100 payout level.
Of course, it could be a long time before I get that $7. It is a shame that Corbis ended their policy of paying out all outstanding commission at the end of each business year. Something that, in my opinion, all agents should do. Still, well done Veer. Regards, David.

September updates:

After the dull performance that was August, things started to look up in September. At least at Shutterstock where 69 downloads netted a very precise $20. I passed the $75 payout threshold at the start of September (having failed in August by just 90cents!). A $94 payout is now on its way.

Dreamstime produced 11 downloads ($9.49) and Istock had two regular sales ($1.32) and three partner program sales ($0.75). Bigstock only managed a single sale at $0.50.

Yaymicro posted their second quarter third party re-seller results netting 10.42 euros. Combined with the 5 euro sale last month I am already over half way to the next 30 euro payout threshold. Yay are planning to add a number of other re-sellers in the future, which can only help sales there. Unfourtunately, one of their current partners -German owned Polylooks -has just announced that it is closing at the end of the year.

No sales at Veer but they get the star prize this time as my $74.20 upload bonus from the "Dash For Cash" promotion was added to my account. Views are increasing there as well and they have a lot of marketing going on right now (their ads frequently popping up on the left of this blog). It's starting to look like Corbis are getting their Micro offering right this time (after the dissapointing Snapvillage venture).

Nothing in September from Picturenation or Mostphotos and still zero sales at 123RF (after five months of having my images online there).

Meanwhile, I am continuing to upload images from my Greek island trip in June so any image buyers looking for images of Halki, Nisyros and Tilos check out my various ports on the left. I must admit, as I work with those images, it would be nice to be in the sun again. The weather here on the coast is steadily growing colder and wetter!

Finally, check out a new photo blog by London based Rob Ewen at http://www.photocritical.co.uk/ . He is fairly new to Microstock but already seems to be doing rather well -especially with his images of neon signs. And he was kind enough to give Shootingstock a link there.

Regards, David.

June updates:

Another steady month in June. Shutterstock produced 59 downloads ($18.57). Dreamstime netted 11 dls ($10.12). Bigstock had another (little) flurry of 4 sales ($4.50). Istock produced 2 regular sales and 4 partner program sales totalling $3.64. Picturenation brings up the rear with a pleasing £6.00 for one sale. That's why I like PN -they do not yet get me volume sales but the commission is considerably higher than micro sites. That £6 is about the equivalent of around 40 regular 25c downloads on Shutterstock! Nothing in June from Veer, Yay, Mostphotos or 123RF.

The lack of sales at 123RF is dissapointing. I now have over 500 images online (mainly Editorial but I also now have 17 or so non-editorial accepted). The images went live at the start of May so that's a couple of months now with zero sales. I had hoped that some of my good sellers -Margaret Thatcher etc would have picked up some sales. That said, they have only recently started marketing their Editorial collection so I guess it is early days. Indeed their home page categories list still doesn't even mention Editorial. On a more positive note I eventually queried the 40 images I had pending since April/May. Turned out to be a server glitch and they had dropped off the revue radar. Showing very good contributor service they sorted it within a day or so and all were reviewed (and appoved) promptly.

June saw a big drop in uploads from me as I was on holiday (aka photoshoot) in Greece for the first two weeks. Making full use of my new monopod I now have stacks of new images to edit and upload. They are mainly of the tiny Dodecanese island of Halki (population 300!) but also a lot of the volcano crater on nearby Nisyros island. Uploading of these has begun but I still have a long way to go.

Meanwhile the Veer "Dash for Cash" has now closed. I still have 143 pending so I should know in the next few weeks how much I made from this. Views continue to rise at Veer but still only the one sale to date. I am hoping their forthcoming new marketing campaign will change that. Regards, David.