February Sales Updates:

Sold at Alamy: 1978 animal rights demonstration

A steady (and short) month in February with a mix of highs and lows.

Still up in the usual first place were Shutterstock. No Single sales this month but a worthwhile increase in On Demand sales pushing the income up.

In a surprise second place were FineArtAmerica with first a high value print sale of Margaret Thatcher and then four separate postcard sales of the Greek island of Paxos. I have had Paxos images bought as postcards before and I am guessing these are to the same buyer.

Alamy took third place with a single good price $$ of a 1978 anti seal hunting demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London. This archive image gets used on quite a regular basis across the various sites that have it. Not bad for a fourty two year old image.

In fourth place were a disappointing Istock with just 16 downloads -less than half of what I normally

T shirt sale at Redbubble: Monarch jet landing at Skiathos

get. A low RPD didn't help matters here either. Can only hope for an improvement in March.

Also disappointing in fifth place were Redbubble with just a single product sale. In this case a T shirt of a Monarch jet coming in to land on the Greek island of Skiathos. Taken in 2012 it is a reminder that Monarch, sadly, no longer exist.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 6 downloads. Nothing to get excited about but an improvement on recent results.

Seventh place was taken by Adobe with 2 downloads. I had some fun recently by going into my portfolio here and forming two galleries (Majorca and Halki islands). These get featured on your profile at Adobe as well as being published on an Adobe Portfolio page. Whether it helps sales in any way at all I couldn't say but the customisable Portfolio pages look good at least!

Halki island chapel, Greece

Finally, down in eighth place we had Dreamstime with just 2 downloads. 35c subscription sales at that :( With around 2.6k images on Dreamstime that really is a sorrowful result. I've said many times before that I really like DT and can only hope for a turnaround there.

Personal circumstances meant not much time for uploading recently but I did revisit my 2017 trip to the Greek island of Halki including an image of a small chapel on the seafront at Emborio. I've uploaded images of this chapel before but like this more distant view framing the chapel with trees.


Too early to judge how March will go but past experience suggests things should take an upturn from here. More next month. 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.

June Sales Updates:

The Red Arrows

A steady month in June reflecting the usual Summer slowdown. As previously posted, I was on the Greek island of Paxos for two weeks and, therefore, new uploading was very limited during the month.

Obviously, Shutterstock came way out on top with a slight drop in download numbers over May but a good number of On Demand sales increasing the total revenue. Just one small Single download this month.

Istock produced 6 regular downloads ($5.72) but then boosted that with a pleasing $5.32 from 19 PP sales (one of my best results ever on the PP -probaly as a result of editorial images now being available) and finally the first of the new subsciption sales netting $0.84 from 3 downloads.

Coco and The Butterfields

Dreamstime saw 15 downloads ($11.82) with a continuing mix of Greek island images and old archive favourites such as Margaret Thatcher.

123rf ticked on with 12 downloads ($6.88). There seems very little variation in sales on 123 each month and at my Level 2 status income remains dissapointingly low -receiving just $0.25 for subscription sales. The days of 50% commission seem a long time ago now.

Fotolia produced just 2 downloads (0.82 credits). Whether or not being opted out of their DPC operation made a difference I don't know. I still only have a very small port there in any case.

Finally, another sale at Mostphotos! OK it was just a subscription sale paying 0.23 Euros but, all the same, still showing some signs of life. The image in question was British band Coco and The Butterfields performing at the annual Tentertainment music festival (pictured).



Al fresco dining, Skiathos

Nothing again from Yaymicro in June making my 0.75Euro sale in February my only sale for 2014 (with over 2k images online there). Not even their many Partner sites seem to be producing any sales -though to be fair most of my port is editorial (which, sadly, they do not send to the Partners). It's a real shame to see how sales have declined there. It was never a top seller but I used to see regular payouts. A check on my uploads for the last year or so just shows zero views on virtually everything to the extent I wondered if the view counter was broken. As an experiment I Tweeted a couple of images and the views count shot up to double fiures on those -so it does work. Shortly after every image suddenly had one view each - I assume Tweeting attracted the attention of a search engine somewhere. Might be worth trying with your own images. Even their Twitter page seems to have vanished -I just got a Page Does Not Exist message. (Edit: The Twitter link on their site doesn't work. However, you can find their account at twitter.com/yayimages ). I really hope they can turn this around.


Recent uploads included a lucky shot of a Gull swallowing a rat in the harbour at Skiathos. I was rather pleased with this image but Shutterstock obviously weren't -Poor Composition/Lighting etc. Luckily it got accepted virtually everywhere else. I also uploaded a couple of new images of The Red Arrows from the 2013 Eastbourne Airshow (Airbourne). Recent news reports that the team might be scrapped as a part of defence spending cuts (though, thankfully, denied) might help get some sales. Regards, David.

June sales updates:

Not too much sign of a Summer Slowdown in June as might have been expected.

As always Shutterstock led the way with 153 downloads ($82.88). Greek island images (in particular Halki) proved especially good sellers this month.

Another good month from Dreamstime saw 16 downloads ($28.74). A varied mix of images selling there.


Istock produced 10 downloads (£12.98) but due to technical issues the May partner program sales were not posted during June. In another major move Istock simplified their various collections and price points during June. Short term, the main effect for me was the scrapping of the Photo+ level (a limited percentage of my portfolio which I self-selected to sell at a higher price point). These images are now, for the time being, back in the lower priced "main" collection. Istock say the process is not yet complete and my hope is that these files will move up to the new Signature collection, though there appears to be no certainty of that happening. A wait and see situation.

Bigstock perked up with 11 downloads ($6.28) with a noted increase in subscription sales.

123rf only managed 6 downloads ($1.72) leaving me to start questioning again if they are worth uploading to.

Fotolia produced two downloads (0.50 credits).

Amazingly, Veer suddenly produced a subscription sale ($0.25) - my first sale there since 2011. Payout there still looks as far away as ever but at least there is some sign of life. Their web uploader still remains broken after some 7-8 months and a further email to them produced the response that they were looking to the forthcoming updating of the site to resolve the problem.

Uploads in June saw some new archive images of Mohamed Al Fayed (former owner of Harrods department store) being accepted.
However, uploading was limited due to spending two weeks holiday on the charming Greek island of Alonissos where I encountered some mules (pictured). I was also able to spend a day photographing on the nearby island of Skopelos (location of the film Mamma Mia). I'm looking forward to editing and uploading these images in due course. Regards, David.

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.

September sales updates:

Overall, September didn't prove to be the big climb out of the Summer Slowdown that I might have hoped but some pleasing results here and there all the same.
Shutterstock fell just short of my BME with 80 downloads bringing in $96.86. This was achieved thanks to two Enhanced Downloads (on the same day) of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher netting $28 each.

Dreamstime didn't match the excellent results of late and just managed 9 downloads ($9.39)

Istock produced 6 downloads ($5.99) plus a further $1.96 from 7 PP sales.

Bigstock saw 6 downloads ($6.40).

123rf perked up slightly with 10 downloads ($5.28). On the plus side, jumping ahead here, October started with two PEL sales on the same day bringing in $22.50 so not all bad news at 123.

Fotolia saw 2 downloads making 0.50credits. Some fresh uploading of my back images saw my portfolio here rise to 60.

Mostphotos produced one subscription sale paying 1.50euros.

Yaymicro also saw one sale achieving 0.75euros. They have a forthcoming partner deal with Alamy which hopefully will produce some sales. Sadly, editorial images are not included in the deal but it will be interesting to see how my images fare on Alamy.

Finally, my very first sale at Canstockphoto produced $0.35. It is always pleasing to get the first sale at a new agency and especially so in this case as it was an image of Herring Gull chicks in their nest on my window ledge. I didn't even have to leave home to get that photograph!

A holiday on the charming Greek island of Alonissos (pictured) produced a lot of new images (awaiting edit). Flights were to the nearby island of Skiathos where I was able to capture the low level approach of a Boeing 757. This is not an airport for nervous fliers due to the very short runway - expect some rapid braking on landing. Return flights can only take off with a limited amount of fuel before touching down again on the Greek mainland for a full re-fuel. There's some good footage on You Tube for anyone interested. Alonissos itself is very unspoilt and full of pine forests and old donkey trails to walk.

October seems to be starting strongly so I hope to have some good results to report next month. Regards, David.