September Sales Updates:

Calidus Autogyro at Shoreham

September saw a fairly slow month overall with not even my best agent Shutterstock turning in a great performance.
However, Shutterstock did take first place for the month with a good crop of On Demand sales and a couple of Single sales. Under the old payout limits I would not have been seeing any money from them for September.

In second place were Istock with 5 credit sales and 23 sub/PP downloads. Just a few uploads to go to break the 1000 image level in my portfolio there.

Third place saw 123rf with 11 downloads. There reviewing hiatus is still in effect for me with uploads going back to August still in Pending (both editorial and commercial uploads). Sigh.

Bigstock took fourth place with 10 downloads with, as ever, Hastings area images showing strongly.

Scraping into fifth place were Dreamstime with just 7 downloads with all but 2 being subs. One of the two credit sales netted a magnificent $0.13 for an Extra Small download!

The famous Notre Dame in Paris, France

Sixth place saw Redbubble selling a sticker of, you guessed it, Margaret Thatcher. This was somewhat offset by my discovering the Sales By Time view on the sales page. This shows the status of all commission payments and I was somewhat disappointed to see my very first sale there (a Margaret Thatcher T shirt) now had the status as Cancelled. Oh well, I'm just continuing to upload images and see what happens.

Fotolia took bottom place with just two sub sales. As yet I am not really seeing any boost from the new exposure of my FT files on Adobe Stock. However, my port is still small so I will continue to upload any non editorial files I have. Whether or not FT might take editorial in the future came up for discussion on Microstockgroup recently. Personally, I think it is a possibility especially with Adobe's recent appointment of Scott Braut (ex Shutterstock). If anyone knows the value of editorial images, he certainly does!

Eternal love and, hopefully, eternal sales from Paris

Meanwile my Alamy experiment continues with , so far, no further images rejected. However, just uploading one at a time to avoid mass rejection is a slow way of building a portfolio there :)

Recent uploading saw some of my few images from the Shoreham airshow. The tragic event that occurred bringing the show and photography to an end. On a happier note, I went back to my Paris trip of last year to upload images of the ancient Notre Dame cathedral and the, so called, Love Locks on the Pont De L'Archeveche. This is where couples from the world over attach padlocks to the bridge railings as a symbol of eternal love. I'm hoping these might generate eternal sales for me :) Regards, David.

May sales update:

Reversing the usual order here I'll start with some agencies I don't see see that many downloads with but all three produced some action in May.

Fineartamerica, saw my second ever sale -a framed print of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher netting $30.00 and a further $3.22 commission on the print materials. That's my second years paid membership covered in one sale.

Cutcaster sold a recently uploaded image of the Eiffel Tower ($0.46). Just wish this agency could produce more sales.

Over in Sweden, Mostphotos saw three downloads (12.84 euros). Two small value subscription sales and, more interestingly, my first full price single sale for 12.50euros. Yet again, another Margaret Thatcher image. It's starting to look like there may be a bit of a pick up in sales here.

Bigstock continued to get regular sales with 14 downloads ($6.18). A good number of subscription sales with a sprinkling of regular credit sales.

Fotolia only managed two subscription sales netting 0.50 in credits. As previously posted, my images are now opted out of the Dollar Photo Club there so some drop in sales might be expected. A price I am prepared to pay to be out of DPC.

123rf saw 9 downloads ($6.22). Pretty much all subscription sales at $0.25 each.

Istock produced 10 downloads ($7.75) but with a further $3.92 from PP (Thinkstock) sub sales. None of the new Istock subscription sales for me in May -though I have since had my first ones credited during June. For anyone new to Istock -the PP (Partner Program) and Istock subs are paid out the following month en masse (which is when I include them in my sales report). Thus subs sales that occurred in May will be in my June sales report.

Dreamstime had a good month with 14 downloads ($28.47). A lot of Greek island (especially Halki) images sold and the highlight being an I-EL for $13.35). This was for my Italian street party image featured in my last post. I-EL? I had to look it up -the I stands for "Increased" (basically a bigger print run than is allowed with the standard license).

Needless to say, the big one as always was Shutterstock with numerous downloads and a good crop of higher paying On Demand sales as well as one pleasing Single sale.  If only I had a whole bunch of agencies with the mass selling power of Shutterstock!

New uploads in May included, finally, my images of the derelict Lazy Days boat on Symi island. You can read more about this lovely old boat on my Greek island blog ( mysmallgreekislands.blogspot.com ). I also edited and uploaded more images from my Paris trip including the iconic Sacre Coeur cathedral and the Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris). I'll be posting my June updates soon - a month in which uploads (and blog posts!) came to a halt while I enjoyed a wonderful two weeks on the little Greek island of Paxos. Regards, David.

March sales updates:

A rather late March sales update -you can blame that on too much wine. No, not what you are probaly thinking. I have been completing a course on wine knowledge and needed to get it finished! If you want to know what wine to drink with spicy prawns I'm your man......**

March proved fairly average for sales with the usual exception of Shutterstock which had a very strong month. I only wish I was allowed to give out the actual figures.

Dreamstime ticked over with 11 downloads ($11.70) with a good number of subscription sales dragging down the earnings.

Istock proved dissapointing on the main site with just 6 downloads ($4.18) but pulled in a pleasing 20 PP sales ($7.15). The start of the new subscription sales at Istock has now begun. Of course, in time honoured fashion, they are not going to report these as they happen (as every other site manages to do) but will add them on en masse the following month (as they currently do with Partner Programme sales). I understood with the PP sales because they are happening on a different site, but these are directly on Istock itself so I have no idea why they can't log them as they occur. As I said before, I am quite optimistic that subs sales are going to add not detract to my income here. In another good move Editorial images are now also being sent to Thinkstock -greatly increasing my portfolio there. Again I am expecting a jump in sales because of this.

Bigstock saw a positive 17 sales ($8.09) quite possibly a BME there (It's not such a large amount that I'm going to spend time checking that!) with many of the new subs sales making up the total. Bigstock illustrates why I am optimistic about the Istock subs scheme.

123rf produced 12 downloads ($6.81) with mainly $0.25 sub sales. On the plus side my outstanding non editorial images got reviewed after 2-3 months of Pending and all were accepted. Perhaps they didn't have the heart to reject after making me wait that long....

Fotolia saw 5 downloads (1.20 credits) with a variety of subjects from my small portfolio there being sold.

Nothing from the rest in March I'm afraid.

New shoots in March included the 30th annual Hastings Half Marathon and, even more exciting, I spent four days in Paris capturing loads of images -some of which have already got sales. It was around eight years since I last went to Paris (one of my favourite Cities) and great to be back again. I really should go more often as I can easily get the Eurostar train from nearby Ashford International station and be in the heart of Paris in a couple of hours. Four days was certainly not long enough to cover all the sights I wanted to. I'm planning a seperate post on photographing stock in Paris so stay tuned! Regards, David.

**Try a Gewurztraminer from Alsace, France