March Sales Updates:

Tesco: largest supermarket in the UK

 As Spring starts to arrive (though we saw a bit of snow here this week!), vaccines continue to roll out and outdoor events and travel start to seem more possible, I'm hoping to see an upturn in the stock photograph market - especially for my kind of travel/editorial portfolio. March wasn't it, however :(

Back in their old first place were Shutterstock. A good number of On Demand and Single sales made up most of the income here and with the plethora of 10c subscription sales I expect this to be the pattern for the future. Months where it is mainly subs will be poor and months where the non subs prevail will do better. The new normal.

Redbubble took second place with 4 product sales from a T shirt, a mug and two greeting cards featuring the Greek island of Tilos.

Pleasingly, Adobe moved up to third place with 5 downloads. It was good to see that four of these came

Donkey track on Symi island, Greece

from my recent Illustrative Editorial uploads. My port here may be tiny but these editorials seem to be gaining a bit of traction.

Fourth place went to Alamy with 2 modest fee downloads. On the plus side I did spot a couple of uses in Daily newspapers which have yet to be officially reported as sales.

Istock made a disappointing fifth place with 14 (poor RPD) downloads. Still awaiting a return to form here.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with an improved 9 downloads. Interesting that five of these were of the RAF aerobatic team The Red Arrows. This was just the start as throughout the early days of April I have had a further 46 (yes 46!) downloads of the Reds. Multiple downloads every day (even Sunday). No idea why the buyer wants all these but unless they all get refunded for some reason April promises to be a BME on  Bigstock. The phrase Too Good To Be True comes to mind. We'll see.

Red Arrows flying high at Bigstock

Dreamstime completes the line up in seventh place with 6 downloads. All subs.

Lack of travel opportunity meant Staying Local (as per Government guidance) so I took the chance to get shots of rows of Tesco supermarket trolleys (good for financial reports) and a closed down branch of fashion chain Monsoon (decline of the High Street). Delving back into my older files I found a few to upload of my 2011 trip to the Greek island of Symi including the steep Kataraktis donkey track which leads from the harbour up to the village of Chorio above.

More on April results (including Red Arrows updates) next month. Regards, David. 

June Sales Updates:

Symi island - sold on Fine Art America

A strong month in June with a few exceptionally good sales and a marked changing in my results line up.

Alamy took a commanding lead in first place with 3 downloads (all from my b/w archives). A couple of very modest sales of politicians Richard Tracey and Ken Clarke were topped off on the last day of the month by an excellent $$$ sale of Seventies band The Fabulous Poodles (specifically violinist Bobby Valentino playing live on stage in 1978). A great end to the month!

Second place went to FineArtAmerica with a substantial canvas print sale of Yialos harbour on the Greek island of Symi. I am certainly seeing an upturn at FAA in recent months.

Third place place was taken by another print site Redbubble with 3 product sales. Two posters of Majorca and a sticker of Tony Blair.

Istock made fourth place with a disappointing 18 downloads. Only a reasonable RPD held things up

Fabulous Poodles - sold on Alamy

here.

Fifth place went to Dreamstime with 5 downloads. Three of these paid out the 10% bonus commission offered from new sales after June 1. Thus a $0.35 sub sale rises to $0.38 and the $2.00 sales are now $2.20. Note, the bonus does not apply to plans purchased before that date. It's a nice touch in these times.

Making their final appearance (for now at least) in Sixth place were Shutterstock with 11 downloads. As previously posted, I deactivated my port on June 6 in protest at the new commission structure so this just represents sales for the first week of June - many of which were for paltry $0.10 amounts. My withheld portfolio may be small (compared to some) at 2600 files but I am certainly leaving them some gaps in their coverage. Margaret Thatcher anyone? I even had an email from them saying a buyer wanted to purchase one of my archive images and the fee would be $5.00. Would I consider re-activating to allow this sale? Politely declined with my reasons. The #boycottshutterstock goes on. Check out the newly formed https://stockcoalition.org/ for news of action here.

Bigstock made seventh place with 4 downloads. As mentioned before, my portfolio here will not get bigger as my SS uploads were mirrored to them. Cannot see it would be worth uploading directly for those sort of sales. That said, they did get another sale of my Coronavirus letter image -the only place to have sold it so far.

Plaza de Espana in Seville

Bringing up the rear in eighth place were Adobe with just a single small sub sale. If I had hoped they would be announcing a full editorial image offering to capitalise on the Shutterstock carnage I was to be disappointed (so far).

Recent uploading saw me returning to my 2019 trip to Seville for a number of images including one of the rowing boats you can hire at the stunning Plaza de Espana. I look forward to the day when I can actually return for real.

Looking for other outlets for my images I decided to sign up to Pond5 My portfolio page . They are mainly known as a video agency but do take other media including stock photographs. They quite often supply archive footage for television documentaries and the like so I thought my archive images (at least) might make a good fit. I wasn't at all sure if my b/w scans would get accepted but my initial test batch of 11 images all passed. You can set your own prices or let them do it and they pay 50% commission on photo sales. I've set my own for now but really have no idea how Pond5 will work out for me. Obviously, I will report any sales if they happen.

Stay safe. Regards, David.

October Sales Updates:



Douglas C47-A Dakota

A great month in October on my number one agency, Shutterstock, helped along by my new higher earning level as well as a $28 enhanced download for one of my Margaret Thatcher images. Good On Demand sales and a modest Single Download also added to the mix.

FineArtAmerica came second this month with the sale of a framed print of Pedi bay on the Greek island of Symi (pictured). Just as a reminder, if you have the paid premium account (currently $30 per annum) you also receive a percentage commission on the printing materials and frame etc in addition to the fee you have set. You are also allowed unlimited uploads as opposed to the 25 image limit with the free account.

Pedi bay, Symi island

Istock were third this month with an improving 12 credit downloads and 15 sub and PP sales. The new pricing structure there is certainly helping with most of my credit sales being around $1.40 -certainly better than the below a dollar commissions I often used to see for smaller size uses.

Dreamstime made fourth place with 8 downloads. As mentioned last month there was a long gap in sales which ran right through to October 17 giving DT little time to pick up before month end.

Bigstock came in at number five with a healthy 15 downloads but as they were nearly all subs this pushed the earnings down. Bigstock do not seem to be a site where I get large individual sales -let alone an Enhanced Download. Nethertheless, as part of the Bridge to Bigstock programme, they require no effort on my part and sales are regular there.

New Esperance Morris, Hastings

Finally, in at sixth place were Fotolia with 4 downloads. I am actually quite pleased with that result as my portfolio there is still very small (circa 100 images). As they do not take Editorial images I only make infrequent uploads to them when I have something suitable.

October saw new uploads including an airshow image of a WW2 Dakota, which I decided to give a period feel to by converting to B/W. I also carried on working through my images from this years Jack In The Green festival at Hastings including a couple of the New Esperance Morris dancers. 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.

October sales updates:

A less than sparkling month in October with no agent producing an exciting result.
As ever, Shutterstock came out a long way on top but was far from a BME with a number of zero selling days and few, higher paying, On Demand sales (and no Single or EL sales either). Which is all I am allowed to say about them.

Dreamstime were the runners up with 10 downloads ($16.66) with 35cent subscription sales dragging down the revenue.

Istock saw 11 downloads ($7.32) and a further 4 PP sales ($1.12). As I said last month, I am really missing those higher paying Photo+ sales there.


123rf produced just 8 downloads ($7.54). Their review process of (non editorial) files seems to have ground to a halt with one pending image awaiting review since August!

Bigstock saw a good month with 15 downloads, but as many of these were 38cent subs produced just $6.06 in revenue.

Fotolia managed just one sale (1 credit).

Mostphotos is worth a mention if only to note that it is over six months since my last sale there. Not surprising if the buyers experience of their new (ish) site is as bad as that for contributors. Buggy and slow, everything takes an eternity to load (put the kettle on) or things that you click on just never go anywhere. It's a shame because the site actually looks rather good when/if you actually get there.


Uploads in October included further images of my 2011 trip to the Greek island of Symi and a colourful pet dog belonging to a group of Morris dancers performing at the Jack In The Green festival in Hastings. The latter had an unexpected result when following an upload update on Twitter I found myself being Followed and receiving nice comments from several Morris dancing groups. The power of the internet in action!

Hopefully, maybe, November might bring an uplift in sales. Regards, David.

August sales updates:

A rather lacklustre performance across the board for August.
As usual Shutterstock came out on top with 114 downloads ($56.39). A disappointing five seperate days with zero sales didn't help matters here.

Dreamstime produced 12 downloads ($14.14) with some prolonged periods of no new sales.

Istock saw 10 downloads ($8.49) with a further 8 PP sales netting $2.24.

Bigstock had 10 downloads ($6.66). The new subs packages seem to be taking off there with an increasing number of $0.38 commissions being seen. On the other hand, one sale produced a worthwhile $3 commission.

123rf  produced 8 downloads ($4.68).

Yaymicro finally saw a sale - the first since April - with one download netting 0.75euro.

Cutcaster produced a rare (for me) sale with $0.46 for an image of musician Phil Lynott.

Surprisingly, nothing at all from Fotolia in August.

Uploading for me was very limited this month due to two visits to the Eastbourne airshow and spending a lot of time working on my new Greek islands blog (as previously posted). A couple of images that did get uploaded were Greek as well! Looking down into Yialos harbour on Symi island and the harbour on Skopelos island.

Hopefully, the slow days of  August are now past and I'll start to see a pick up through September. We will see. Regards, David.

June updates:

Rather late, but here are my results for June 2011. Certainly there were signs of the famed Summer Slowdown with a slight fall in sales in most cases.

Shutterstock produced 73 downloads ($22.07) pushing me ever closer to the $500 sales (all time) required to get an increase in commission rate. I would expect this to happen within the next month or so.

Dreamstime had a respectable 18 downloads ($15.34) with the usual mix of editorial and commercial images.

Istockphoto continued to prove interesting with 8 dowloads ($4.46) and a further 5 partner programme downloads ($1.40). My portfolio there has now passed the 200 mark compared to the miserable 56 I had prior to them accepting editorial images.

123RF also proved worthwhile with 10 downloads ($6.40) again with editorial images to the fore.

Bigstock proved dissapointing again with only 2 downloads ($2.00) though I did have some potentially exciting news from them following various communications (future post!).

Yaymicro pulled in 1 regular sale (0.50 euro) but still not the long awaited 3rd party payment. Yay have recently announced a whole raft of re-seller/API deals -some now live and some to come in due course. This easy to upload to agency could certainly have good potential in the future.

Nothing from my other agencies in June.

Uploads during June were very limited as I spent two weeks on the beautiful little Greek island of Symi (pictured). Needless to say I returned with a mass of images which I'll be editing and uploading in due course. Regards, David.