November Sales Updates:

Today launch issue from 1986 -new upload

A slow month in November with only one standout performer and nothing at all from my two POD sites -FineArtAmerica and Redbubble (so much for my hoped for Christmas surge).

Way out in first place were Shutterstock. A good Single sale of a Poll Tax Riots image pushed them up here.

Second place went to Alamy. Though I only had two modest downloads a worthwhile sum of DACS payments came in. I always count this in my totals as it is, in effect, secondary income on previous sales - and much appreciated at that.

Istock took third place with 22 downloads. The usual suspects of music festival and travel images did well here.

Fourth place went to Adobe with 10 downloads. My electric vehicle charging point sign continued to feature here. That is one good example of a saleable stock image taken just a few minutes walk from
home.

Dreamstime were in fifth place with 5 downloads. A rare credit sale from them this month.

Finally in sixth place were Bigstock with just a single download. I suspect the lack of new material

M & Co in the old Embassy Cinema building

going into my portfolio (thanks to the ending of the Bridge to Bigstock scheme) doesn't help matters here.

November also saw the ending of my Picfair store subscription (as mentioned in my last post) so I will decide what to do about them going forward. It does mean that I am no longer able to upload any further images as Unlimited Uploads was a feature of the paid store. 

Recent uploading included an image of my local branch of fashion chain Mackays (trading as M & Co) which has just gone into administration. With 170 UK stores this is quite a big business story here and a worrying time for their near two thousand staff. I took a longer shot of the building (rather than just a close up of the store sign) to show the historic Embassy sign as this was once the home of any Embassy Cinema until its closure in the sixties. 

Poll Tax Riots - good sale on Shutterstock

I have also been uploading more historic newspaper mastheads including the launch issue of National daily Today which was first published in 1986. I really liked this newspaper and was sorry to see it close in 1995. Sadly, as a former Fleet Street person, newspapers are becoming a thing of the past with constant news updates available on television news channels and our friend the internet. That said, I cannot remember the last time I actually purchased a newspaper so I am as much a part of the decline as anyone else.

As we near the end of the year I'll take this chance to wish readers  a happy Christmas (should you celebrate it) and every best wish for 2023. Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Leslie Nielsen -print sale on Redbubble

 A strong month in November boosted in part by the upcoming Christmas holidays.

Way out in first place were Redbubble with no less than 12 product sales. Items ranged from framed prints, mugs, t shirts and cushions. I have no doubt that many of these were destined to be Christmas presents (though the rush has come a little later this year). So, if you have always wanted a cushion with Margaret Thatcher on it your luck could in this year.

Istock took second place with 36 downloads and a good RPD (highest commission being just over $6). As is normal for Istock most sales were either travel images or my Tentertainment music festival images (a sure sign of some return to normality ahead despite the new variant).

Third place went to FineArtAmerica with a framed print sale of a vintage Hawker Hunter jet fighter. As a paid up member not only do you get unlimited uploads but also a commission on frames etc which helps push up the earnings.

Alamy came in fourth place with (sadly) no downloads but a worthwhile DACS payment which I always count as "earnings from stock" so they make the rankings.

Fifth place went to Shutterstock but a dearth of On Demand sales and zero Single sales pulled them down the earnings league.

Adobe made sixth place with 7 downloads (not bad given my small portfolio there). None of these were editorials this month.

Moving down to the minnows we had Bigstock in seventh place with 3 downloads and finally one time

Hawker Hunter - print sale on FAA

top tier agency Dreamstime in eighth place with just 2 subscription sales.

As two POD (print on demand) sites did well this month it might be worth mentioning that I did try US print/poster site Image Kind for a while. Hundreds of images uploaded but not a single sale. It may just be that my images just aren't what their buyers want so might be worth a look for others. Their near dead forum doesn't inspire much confidence though. Other sites that some report sales from are Society6 and British site Photos4Me. I might give these a try in the future -maybe.

Music festival -selling well at Istock

Another non selling (for me) site is Picfair. I love the ethos of the site (set your own fee and get 100% of that) but with a grand total of five sales (the last in 2017) and a portfolio of over 2.5k it doesn't seem to work for me. I suspect that sales there come from the photographer having their own buyer contacts and directing them to  Picfair. I also wonder if they are concentrating on selling Stores to photographers rather than images to buyers. I see an awful lot of Google ads for Picfair but they are never about buying from their great collection of images. That said my Store fee came up for renewal this month and I have signed up for another year. I think this be my final year with them unless I start seeing sales.

November saw the thirtieth anniversary of the death of media tycoon Robert Maxwell (see my post on the twentieth anniversary) but I didn't see the big flurry of sales I was hoping for. Perhaps the forthcoming BBC documentary and also a drama series about him will stir up some interest when they eventually air.

Very limited uploading in November (Christmas preps etc) and no new shooting. That said, I have just applied to renew my passport and hope to actually use it in 2022. We will see. Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas. Kind regards, David. 

November Sales Updates:

Tenterden town hall -editorial sale at Adobe

A fairly strong month in November with a nice boost at one agency.

Down to business we had Shutterstock taking a strong first place. A reasonable Single sale and a slew of On Demand sales (making up circa 50% of earnings) pushing things up here.

Second place went to Redbubble with 5 product sales. The usual range from prints to T.shirts here. As last month, I would expect some of these are destined to be Christmas gifts.

Dreamstime gave a pleasant surprise by coming in third place with no less than 31 downloads. This was another of those unusual events where the same buyer bought a whole load of semi related images (Hastings pier fire, Eastbourne pier fire etc). This is not the first time DT has produced something like this.

Istock managed fourth place with 21 downloads. Again, a disappointing RPD this month.

Fifth place went to FineArtAmerica with a single T.Shirt sale. 2020 has certainly seen some steady results at FAA.

Alamy disappointed with just a single Personal Use sale of Professor Stephen Hawking to give them sixth place.

Seventh place was interesting as Adobe produced 3 downloads. Interesting because all three were from

Hastings pier fire - surge at Dreamstime

my newly submitted Illustrative Editorial range. We had a Barclays Bank, Laura Ashley store front and my own local Tenterden town hall. What they seem to like and accept is branded stuff - store fronts, petrol stations, a Boeing airliner. What failed were just travel type shots which had an editorial element in them. These were all rejected. They also stipulate No Recognisable People. People in the distance or people you can't really make out seem to be ok here. Truth is I'm not sure I have that many in my portfolio that will qualify but I've added about forty so far on Adobe. I'll update on how these do in coming posts.

Finishing off in eighth place were Bigstock with just a single download. As previously posted this was my first sale there since August! I still have no idea why they just stopped.

Rt.Hon. John Smith - archives to Pond 5

Also stopped (briefly) were my uploads to Picfair. This is because they now only offer unlimited uploads if you upgrade to their Picfair Plus store. I probaly did well to get to over 2000 images before the upload button grayed out. With a 20% discount code I upgraded for circa £55 (normally £69 p/a). It certainly looks nice though I am yet to make the most of the customising features available. The key thing is will they actually sell anything now that I have forked out my money? I do have a rather uneasy feeling that they are concentrating their efforts on selling nice websites and not on selling images. I'll see in the coming year and then make a decision.

Not much photography shooting since last time but I get out to do a few store fronts and the like (all accepted at Adobe!). I also continued to get my back portfolio up to Pond 5 - well over 1000 images now including some of the late John Smith (former Labour party Leader). We shall see what happens there as well but if they are not uploaded they certainly cannot sell them. More updates next time, Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Margaret Thatcher: Single download on Shutterstock

Another variable month in November with one agency going from hero to zero and another moving right up from the lower ranks.

No surprise in first place were Shutterstock. Downloads were down with not many On Demand sales but a Single sale of Margaret Thatcher (for Enhanced Download type $$) brought them to the top.

Second place went to Adobe Stock with 2 downloads with an Extended license for a speed camera sign in Folkestone pulling them up from the lower ranks.

Istock took third place with 27 downloads. Thomas Cook and Tentertainment music festival images continued to do well here.

In fourth place Dreamstime produced 5 downloads with a reasonable credit sale bumping them up the

Plaza de Toros, Valencia

list. Credit sales on DT are, sadly, infrequent but when they occur can produce decent levels of $. In this case a credit sale of former boxer Frank Bruno from my archives did the business.

Redbubble made fifth place with two product sales of army parachute display team The Tigers going to the same buyer. A sticker and a T shirt were the products in this case.

Bringing up the rear in sixth place were Bigstock with 4 downloads. They seem to have slowed down again after a few months where they looked to be picking up a bit. It's always a bit surprising that Bigstock do not do better given the marketing resources of parent company Shutterstock behind them.

Hero to zero? That was Alamy. Not a single download in November!

Extended License on Adobe: Speed camera sign in Folkestone

New uploads in November were very limited with some of the fortified Rhodes Old Town and the Plaza de Toros in Valencia amongst the few. Limited for two good reasons. Firstly I had a trip to the Spanish island of Majorca. I took a chance of some late Mediterranean sun but ended up with pouring rain and overcast skies for most of my stay. The sun did come out for one day when I went to the medieval town of Alcudia but otherwise I didn't get to shoot many new images.

Secondly, I am about to move home. I'm swapping the seaside location of Hastings for the quaint market town of Tenterden in Kent. Anybody who has experience of moving home will understand the work involved and I write this post surrounded by packing boxes (even after a massive exercise in de-cluttering!). My December updates will be the first from Tenterden so until then....Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Stone tower at Emborio on Halki island

A pleasing month in November including the surprise return of a long absent market.

By far, Shutterstock held onto first place with a strong showing of On Demand and Single sales (both combined making up some 60% of my monthly total).

In second place were an improved Istock with 51 downloads and an RPD (rate per download) substantially up on October.

Third place was taken by Alamy with 2 downloads (both from my B/W political archives). Two developments at Alamy pleased and dismayed in various ways. On the plus side they introduced new Portfolio pages coupled with the ability to create individual Galleries (sets). These can both be easily shared on social media to help direct buyers to your images. I've already created a good number of galleries along obvious lines such as Aviation, Barcelona, Majorca etc. You can view my portfolio here My Alamy Portfolio .
The second news was the far less welcome cutting of commission from next February. This drops from an equitable 50/50 split on direct sales to 60/40 ( a drop of 20% in income). They claim this is needed to help fund and develop their business with the usual "you'll benefit from more sales" placebo thrown in. Regular readers will know that I put a lot of time and faith in recent months building up my Alamy portfolio so this comes as a blow. As expected the negative comments on the Alamy forum now run to many pages with a hope that they might re-consider this move and find other ways of funding their business rather than making contributors pay for it. We'll see what happens next.

Redbubble came in fourth place with 3 product sales (I know what someone's getting for

Cap de Barcelona, Port Vell

Christmas!

Fifth place saw the surprise return from the dead of FineArtAmerica with 2 product sales (a mug and a towel). My first sales there since December 2015 so not quite three years. Whether this was a one off event or I shall start seeing more sales will be interesting.

Bigstock were in sixth place with 7 downloads.

Sadly, after a couple of strong months Dreamstime fell to seventh place with 7 downloads (mainly sub sales). Obviously the buyer who had been hitting my port in September and October was absent this month.

Dead rat on Paxos island

In eighth place were Fotolia with just a single download.

Recent uploads included a mixed bunch ranging from a tower of stones on the Greek island of Halki through to the Roy Lichtenstein sculpture Head of Barcelona on the harbour front of Port Vell. For something a bit different I also uploaded images of a dead rat found on the Greek island of Paxos. A good image for pest control/vermin features. I can also envisage this ending up on a T shirt at some point :) Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Barcelona bicycle sharing rank

A pleasing month in November with some strong results from some and only really one big disappointment.

Shutterstock had a good performance to stay at first place. A large number of On Demand sales and a rare Enhanced License kept them out in front.

Second place went to Redbubble with 3 product sales including a canvas print (products seem to sell better here so it was nice to get an actual art print sale). I have mentioned my lack of sales at Fine Art America many times so decided to go in and reduce my prices across the board there. I'll see if that has any effect.

Istock made a strong third place with 28 downloads and a pleasing amount of revenue. I am finding the batch uploading and editing on their ESP platform vastly quicker and easier than their old one at a time uploader.

A return for Alamy who made fourth place with the sale of another of my 1980s archive shots - this time of

Passeig de Colom, Barcelona

former Conservative MP Michael Latham. I continued to upload my (non archive) back catalogue here and now have a port of circa 2100 images.

In fifth place were 123rf with an outstanding 27 downloads. There was a theme there as nearly all the downloads were of my Greek islands images.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 5 downloads. My images of the Tenterden Food and Drink Festival seem to have taken off here with several downloads turning up each month.

Dreamstime proved to be the disappointment in seventh place with just 3 subscription sales (and 35c sales at that). After last months upturn things just slipped away here.

Local Summer event - Tentertainment music festival

Fotolia, Mostphotos and Canstock took up places eight to ten with 2, 1, 1, downloads respectively.

Recent uploading continued with my Barcelona trip images (ahead of the Catalonian elections on December 21). I'm hoping my parliament building images get some sales in the coming weeks. I also edited and uploaded my images from the 2017 Tentertainment music festival -a subject that has always done well for me. For some reason the Istock reviewer rejected these as an Entertainment event best suited to the Getty newsdesk -despite just being people in a park at a local event that took place nearly six months ago! I'll re-submit those in due course as Istock have never had a problem with this type of image before and previous Tentertainment images are regular sellers on their site. Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Nissos Halki ferry arriving at Rhodes island

Another unspectacular month in November with one notable highlight and one negative low point.

As always, leading the pack was Shutterstock but a month of just four On demand sales and no Single sales saw me barely making payout. As I posted last month I haven't uploaded much in recent weeks but I am now attempting to make up for that so, hopefully, 2017 will see some increases.

Dreamstime delighted by coming in at second place with 7 downloads. What boosted things here was the return of high paying credit sales ($9.47 and $6.98 commissions). This is much more like the DT of old and very welcome.

Istock took third place with 5 credit sales and 27 sub and partner sales. Reporting here is slightly

Collecting pine resin on Alonissos island. Bring on the Retsina

complicated here because of the current transition to a new reporting system. November saw both PP sales for October credited and (semi) real time sales for November. We are now moving to the new royalty structure which potentially has sub sales paying out a (worse case) $0.02 per download. Obviously, that's an appalling prospect which has seen a number of contributors closing their accounts. That scenario will only apply where a buyer downloads their entire allowance of images. Shutterstock will tell you that the subscriptions model works because most buyers do not do that and only download what they need. It may well be that income from sub sales actually increases after the change but who knows? The option to close my account is always there so I will wait and assess the situation next year.

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 3 product sales. This has really proved a site worth joining for me. The key is in setting a profit margin high enough to make a worthwhile amount but not so high as to deter buyers.

Female music fans at the Tentertainment music festival

Bigstock came in fifth place with 8 downloads. Never a site that produces any great excitement but ticks away in the background. Obviously, being in the (now closed) Bridge to Bigstock programme helps here. My Shutterstock images just get mirrored at BS automatically so there is no effort on my part.

Fotolia made sixth place with just 2 downloads. I still have hopes that at some point they will start accepting editorial images especially now they have a deal for editorial with Reuters (?). Currently this is not an option for ordinary contributors.

And the low point was 123rf in seventh place with just 3 downloads. Echoes of July when I had just two sales there. Not at all sure what is going on at 123 with such variations (by contrast I have already had 17 downloads so far in December!).

Uploading in November saw further images from my 2016 trip to the Greek island of Halki and then backtracking to 2012 for some images of pine resin collecting on Alonissos island and female fans at the Tentertainment music festival. As it is nearly Christmas day I'll end by wishing all readers a great Christmas and brilliant 2017! Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Navy patrol ship Antipliarchos Mykonios departs Halki island

A steady month in November with neither great excitements or big disappointments. Starting in first place we, of course, find Shutterstock (by the usual huge margin). A good flow of On Demand sales and a couple of modest Single downloads contributing to the totals here. Shutterstock recently caused some comment when they changed their entry exam requirements -you now only have to get one image approved out of your initial ten sample images to be accepted (it was previously seven of of the ten). I do not see this move as especially good or bad -individual images uploaded will still get reviewed and either accepted/rejected (rightly or wrongly). The prediction by some that this will lead to a poorer quality collection of images doesn't work for me as Shutterstock have stated that they are not lowering their review standards. What probaly will not change either is the inconsistency in reviewing -where perfectly good stock images (accepted elsewhere) get rejected for spurious focus/lighting/white balance issues. For me, that is the most depressing thing about uploading to SS. It's the top selling agency and to have a good image rejected is just money lost -for me and them.

Nissos Halki ferry in Emborio harbour, Halki island

Climbing to second place were 123rf with a strong month of 15 (mainly editorial) downloads. Also, on a positive note, my backlog of pending images finally got reviewed and accepted. I have posted previously that some of these dated back to August. Once again, it took an email to support to get them reviewed. I really shouldn't have had to do that but there it is.

Istock came in at third place with 2 credit sales but a healthy 28 sub/PP downloads.

Stone pile on Ftenagia beach, Halki

In fourth place were Dreamstime with 13 (mainly sub) downloads. As one of the major agencies, they really should be performing better than this. What I am not seeing much of recently are the big credit sales on higher level images which used to push up the sales at DT.

Bigstock took fifth place with 10 downloads -again pretty much all subs.

Finally in sixth place were Fotolia with 2 downloads.

Recent uploading concentrated on my June trip to the Greek island of Halki. The Nissos Halki is one of several ferries making the crossing between the island and Rhodes. This image was taken on the morning of my departure. The stone piles I found on Ftenagia beach were a great photo opportunity and provided a host of images. This one cried out for a B/W version which, luckily most agencies (even Shutterstock!) accepted.  The Hellenic Navy warship Antipliarchos Mykonios took me by surprise when I opened my shutters one morning to find it moored in Emborio harbour. They later gave tours round the ship for groups of locals. I'm told that last year a submarine turned up and did the same. You never know what you will find in the Greek islands :) Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Caroline Flint, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy

Top of the field in November was, as ever, Shutterstock. No Single or Other Downloads this month but a good crop of On Demand sales pushed the earnings up.

Dreamstime did well coming in second place with 16 downloads, with several good credit sales in the mix.

At number three we had Istock with 8 regular credit sales and 20 sub and PP sales. My portfolio there is now just over 900 files (mainly editorial).

Bigstock came in fourth place with 11 downloads - mainly sub sales as usual.

St.Leonards-on-Sea Frost Fair parade

Bringing up the rear were 123rf with 13 downloads where my recent drop to Level 1 status showed in the poor amount of actual earnings. Hopefully, a few good sales or an EL or two will push my level back up again. They will stay on my upload list because they are still an agency which get me sales every month.

Surprisingly, not a single download from Fotolia in November.

Shooting and uploading saw a couple of good events in November. Earlier in the month I was invited to a Labour party policy launch in Hastings where Caroline Flint (Shadow Secretary of State Energy and Climate Change) was the main speaker. As well as being an interesting event, this also yielded images of Shadow Energy Minister Jonathan Reynolds and our Labour Parliamentary candidate for Hastings - Sarah Owen. As we approach the next General Election in May 2015, these are all good images to have in my portfolio.I even took the opportunity to get some exteriors of the venue -the impressive modern building of Sussex Coast College.


Arkoudaki beach, Paxos island, Greece

At the end of the month there was a new event here in St.Leonards-on-Sea with a "Frost Fair" to promote local trade in the approach to Christmas. A colourful parade through the streets was followed by horse and carriage rides -both of which yielded stock images (literally on my doorstep).


Meanwhile, I also continued editing and uploading images from my June trip to Paxos -this time featuring Arkoudaki beach near Lakka. You can read more about a walk to Arkoudaki on my Greek island blog. Regards, David.

November sales updates:

A mixed result for November with (of course) Shutterstock leading the rest with a BME fuelled by one Enhanced Download and a Single sale netting a very pleasing $56.25 in commission. This was my largest ever sale in Microstock and the image in question of British physicist Professor Stephen Hawking (pictured) is a regular seller for me. Also continuing to do well are my various images of the Tentertainment music festival at Tenterden in Kent.

Dreamstime produced some good results with 9 downloads netting $18.34. A few higher level images helping to push the amount up here.

Bigstock saw 10 downloads ($5.10) with a number of $0.38 subs included. It remains to be seen how much longer Bridge to Bigstock contributors continue to get this premium subs rate.

Istock disappointed with 9 downloads but only $5.10 in commission (plus a further $1.40 from 5 PP sales). Still no news of when/if non exclusive contributors are going to have good
selling files moved into a higher price band. The Photo+ facility is really missed here.

123rf achieved a good 14 downloads but just $6.28 in commission.

Fotolia saw 3 downloads (0.75 credits).

Yaymicro finally saw some Third Party commission added but was only 1.57 euros.

Veer surprised again with just one download but making a respectable $3.50 in commission - now only a couple of dollars short of my long awaited payout.

Finally, as previously posted, I had my first sale at Picfair netting me £10 (my own set rate there of which I get 100%). A bit of a set back, however, when it turned out that they currently have (all time) upload limits imposed on contributors. To be fair, they are still in Beta and are refining and tweaking the site to get the best results. Long term, I would hope these limits won't carry forward but short term it has affected my plans to upload as much of my portfolio as possible, as soon as possible. I am now just uploading a few new images a week to avoid running out of further upload slots.

There are currently a number of stock photographers looking to start their own direct selling sites (many using the free Symbiostock  theme -details at symbiostock.com ). Certainly I am not the only photographer that considered that Picfair could be an viable alternative to this with no reviews (you choose which images are online), setting your own price/s and receiving 100% of that price. All just like having your own site. Image upload limits, however, change things. I'll see how this goes as the site develops.

Uploading (generally) in November was restricted whilst I concentrated on building my Picfair portfolio but among new images online was one of boats at Folkestone harbour in Kent (pictured). Folkestone images seem to do quite well -possibly due to the plans for a major re-development of the harbour and seafront. 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!

November updates:

November proved stronger than last month with some slower sites pulling in sales.

Shutterstock produced 67 downloads ($35.56) with just under 50% of that revenue coming from On Demand sales. My friends at http://www.microstockposts.com/ are currently running a poll on just that subject -check it out. Sadly, the month saw me just 20cents short of my $75 payout. On the plus side it will be an even better payout in January.

Dreamstime picked up with 9 downloads ($6.17) -though still far from their best performance.

Istockphoto continued to power up for me with 12 downloads ($14.79) and $0.56 in partner sales. Editorial is still doing well here and my total portfolio rose to 372 (with both editorial and commercial images being accepted).

123RF produced 13 downloads ($10.73). Sales seemed to lift towards the end of the month. A possible cause being that I changed a number of my "faved" images. For anyone not familiar with this useful feature it allows you to nominate 5% of your portfolio as favourites. These then get better exposure in search results. You can remove and add to these (up to your limit) at will.

Bigstock had a good November with 7 downloads ($5.50). Many of these from my celebrity archives. Still waiting on my invite to the "Bridge to Bigstock" program though.

Picturenation had one medium resolution sale (£4).

Yaymicro surprised with a sale paying a healthy 5 euros in commission. An archive image of former Chancellor Lord Denis Healey.

Mostphotos also surprised with a subscription sale paying 1.87 euros. Some contributors there are reluctant to allow subs (its optional) because potentially you can get a low rate per download if the buyer uses their full allowance. The three sales I had have all paid out worthwhile amounts.

Fotalia produced my third sale -a sub download (0.25 credits). Encouraging given that I still have less than 40 images online there.

Still awaiting those elusive first sales at Cutcaster and Canstockphoto and some more from Veer to take me over the payout level.

New uploads in November included images of the Sound Waves Community Choir (pictured) performing in Hastings. These had early success with downloads at Bigstock and 123RF. Choirs seem to be attracting quite a bit of interest these days so I have hopes for these images. Regards, David.

November updates:

A solid month on Shutterstock with 63 downloads ($19.01). Dreamstime produced 12 downloads ($10.13) -both these sites getting sales on my archive image of actor Leslie Nielsen who, sadly, died last month.
123RF continued it's new phase of activity with 3 Editorial sales ($1.27) so, as previously posted, it looks like these are starting to take off at last.
Picturenation managed a single web resolution sale of Olympic games chief Sebastian Coe netting £0.40. Still just painfully short of the £50 payout level. Next month?

BigStock produced one editorial sale ($0.50) but on the plus side there, my acceptance rate seems to have improved in recent weeks. A good selection of Editorial images of the Hastings Jack In The Green festival being accepted -rather than deemed "Not Newsworthy" as they have in the past.
One interesting thing here is that they (or some reviewers) now require a Shutterstock style "dateline" caption. Some images got put back in my edit section for that reason but were then accepted with the revised caption. The strange thing is that I have yet to see an official announcement that this is now a requirement. Maybe it's when you get a reviewer used to SS?

Istock couldn't manage a single regular sale but I did get 5 partner program sales ($1.25).
Nothing from Veer or Mostphotos in November. Mostphotos, however, have just started selling subcription packages (to which I am currently opted in) so I will be interested to see if this starts producing sales. Regards, David.

November updates:

November saw a slight drop in sales at Shutterstock. 49 downloads compared to 67 in October. However, thanks to three On Demand sales income remained virtually the same at $16 odd. Considering I have uploaded few new images to them recently I was quite happy with this. More importantly I hit my first payout at the end of the month and now have $82 on its way to me!

Over at Dreamstime (which I have been concentrating on) my portfolio has reached 547 images, netting 23 sales in November and an all time figure of 34 sales. This amounts to nearly $23 in earnings in just a few weeks (nearly as much as I have ever earned on Istock!). I have now started uploading my non editorial images with (as I expected) a lower acceptance rate than my editorial ones. All the same, I am getting plenty accepted and had my first non-ed sale this week (a landscape shot of Hastings beach).

One or two sales at Istock and Bigstockphoto and a pleasing 11 euros from the Yaymicro "third party sales" scheme (basically, selected images are going to a third party seller and contributors get a quarterly payout). Veer marketplace sales remain at just 1, though my portfolio there has now reached 98. Still getting lots of rejections there ("not quite Veer") and very few views.

Istocks "partner program" with Photos.com is now underway and first results/sales should be available on our Istock page at the end of December. They will normally be updated monthly but because it was mid November before the scheme launched they are merging November/December results. I'm pleased to say my images show up well in searches on Photos.com so I am optimistic about getting some sales there.

Meanwhile British site Picturenation.co.uk remains offline in mysterious circumstances (see earlier posting). Their last Twitter update was on November 1 "back next week". Well that didn't happen. On November 24 they updated the apology notice on their site, again saying they would be back up "next week". They have long weeks in Staffordshire it seems. Just don't know what to make of the situation but I am still keeping my fingers crossed for this site.

Finally, much fun to be had at http://microstockgroup.com/ this week, after they moved to a new server. Most of us have been bounced back and forth from the new server to the old one where founder Tyler Olson (Leaf) has set up a "graveyard chat" page. It's been like being in a parellel universe all week and quite weird. I expect Picturenation would be glad to just have one version of their site up, yet alone two. Regards, David.