October Sales Updates:

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

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

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

July Sales Updates:

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

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

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

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

Bigstock produced just one download for $1.50.

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

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

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

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

June sales updates:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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