July Updates:

July saw Dreamstime powering up to an excellent 26 downloads ($18.29) making this my BME there. My portfolio there also hit the 800 milestone in July. Best of all, I am only $1.45 short of my first $100 payout so that should happen very soon.

Over at Shutterstock I had 57 downloads ($16.44) and I am on course to hit my third $75 payout in August.

British agency Picturenation did well with two high res sales (archive shots of Margaret Thatcher and Lord Peter Mandelson) netting £6.00 each in commission.

Bigstock produced 1 editorial sale ($2) and bringing up the rear Istock with one regular sale ($0.29) and 3 partner program sales ($0.75).

Nothing in July at Yay, Most, Veer or 123.

On a more positive note at Istock, I had 11 new images accepted (all from my recent Greek trip). That might not sound a lot, but for me very unusual. I've finally managed to produce some images they couldn't find any artifacts in, it seems! Also announced in July, their basic upload limit is raised from 15 a week to 18, giving a better chance of building a reasonable sized portfolio there.

Finally a bit of Summer success. My images of the crowd at the 2009 "Tentertainment" local music festival (in Tenterden, Kent) seem to have become my current best sellers. Almost daily downloads at Shutterstock and a rise to Level 2 on Dreamstime. One buyer at DT searched for "music, festival, grass" . I tried the same search at SS (under Editorial images) and there it was: Page 1, Image 1 in the results. That's why it keeps selling! I only spent a few minutes taking these images but with an excellent payback. I guess you just never know. Regard, David.

June updates:

Another steady month in June. Shutterstock produced 59 downloads ($18.57). Dreamstime netted 11 dls ($10.12). Bigstock had another (little) flurry of 4 sales ($4.50). Istock produced 2 regular sales and 4 partner program sales totalling $3.64. Picturenation brings up the rear with a pleasing £6.00 for one sale. That's why I like PN -they do not yet get me volume sales but the commission is considerably higher than micro sites. That £6 is about the equivalent of around 40 regular 25c downloads on Shutterstock! Nothing in June from Veer, Yay, Mostphotos or 123RF.

The lack of sales at 123RF is dissapointing. I now have over 500 images online (mainly Editorial but I also now have 17 or so non-editorial accepted). The images went live at the start of May so that's a couple of months now with zero sales. I had hoped that some of my good sellers -Margaret Thatcher etc would have picked up some sales. That said, they have only recently started marketing their Editorial collection so I guess it is early days. Indeed their home page categories list still doesn't even mention Editorial. On a more positive note I eventually queried the 40 images I had pending since April/May. Turned out to be a server glitch and they had dropped off the revue radar. Showing very good contributor service they sorted it within a day or so and all were reviewed (and appoved) promptly.

June saw a big drop in uploads from me as I was on holiday (aka photoshoot) in Greece for the first two weeks. Making full use of my new monopod I now have stacks of new images to edit and upload. They are mainly of the tiny Dodecanese island of Halki (population 300!) but also a lot of the volcano crater on nearby Nisyros island. Uploading of these has begun but I still have a long way to go.

Meanwhile the Veer "Dash for Cash" has now closed. I still have 143 pending so I should know in the next few weeks how much I made from this. Views continue to rise at Veer but still only the one sale to date. I am hoping their forthcoming new marketing campaign will change that. Regards, David.

April Updates (finally):

A rather late update on my stats for April. Blame that on Veer as I have been busy "dashing for cash" (no results on that one yet but 121 pending).
Meanwhile over at Shutterstock (where my portfolio passed the 800 mark) I totalled 53 downloads in April ($14.88). The hoped for General Election boom for my archive political images didn't happen there (or anywhere for that matter). Certainly there were some sales but probaly no more than average. A Conservative party election poster on SS and a polling station sign at Dreamstime being the only specific election related sales. Staying on Dreamstime, April brought 15 sales (netting a healthy $12.04). Istockphoto produced no regular sales but 7 partner program downloads at 25cents each ($1.75). British agency PictureNation produced another 3 web resolution sales at £0.40 each (£1.20). Bringing up the rear in April, Bigstock had one editorial sale at 50cents.
No action last month for Veer, Yaymicro, or Mostphotos. Nothing at 123RF as none of my editorial images were live in April. As for BritishImages -who knows. They do not have a views/download counter and I am still unable to change my contact details for payment on the site.
April also saw a return to my editorial archives as I finally got round to scanning and uploading more of my B/W negatives. Highlights included Ted Heath, former British Prime Minister, and a new (old) one of Gordon Brown (now, of course, also a former Prime Minister). Regards, David.

March Updates:

March saw a good month on Shutterstock with a total of 71 downloads ($23.81). This took me over the payout threshold for the second time resulting in an $82 payment. I also had my BDE in March with 24 downloads (23 from my 70's pop music archives and 1 of the Hastings "Jack In The Green" festival).
Dreamstime slowed a bit with 10 downloads ($5.56). Yaymicro finally paid out the Third Party royalties from the last quarter 0f 2009 (Euro 10.68). This took me tantalisingly close to their E30 payout level. Just E1.60 to go. One sale could do it!
As posted earlier Picturenation produced 3 sales (£4.80). Since the announcement of the forthcoming General Election (May 6) PN have been using a number of my archive politician shots on their homepage, which I'm hoping might generate further sales.
Bigstock bring up the rear in sales with just 1 (50cents). Mostphotos/Istock/Veer all produced zero sales in March.
Meanwhile at 123RF I continued to upload Editorial images ahead of the launch of their Editorial section. I emailed them about this and they say they are looking at May for launch, though I think that will depend on them having enough images to make a worthwhile offer. My first attempt at getting some non-editorial online there resulted in all 20 being rejected (poor lighting/composition). They'd pretty much all been approved elsewhere.
Finally, still nothing back from Britishimages in response to my letter and the site still has my old contact details (and no way to change them). I'll just leave that one well alone for now. Regards, David.

December Update:

A not unexpected slow down in sales during December due to the Christmas and New Year holiday period. From having sales virtually every day on Shutterstock, I had a whole run of zero days over the holiday. A total for the month of 41 downloads (netting $13.56). Still, sales are starting to pick up this week (with 6 in one day yesterday). Also a slowdown at Dreamtime for a couple of weeks. Total sales to date there have reached 38 (netting just over $25). I uploaded heavily to DT last month, bringing my online portfolio to 619 -so I hope to see the benefits of that in the coming weeks.
A couple of sales on Istock and an amazing 5 on Bigstockphoto. I say amazing because prior to December my all time sales on BSP amounted to 1o downloads and $10 commission. It rapidly went to 15 and 15 in a few days. BSP always puzzle me -they want Editorial images, but then reject my archive images for being "grainy". That's why I only have 200 images on BSP, wheras parent company Shutterstock has approved nearly 700! What would be ideal would be some linking of the two libraries, so that BSP buyers could access SS images.

Nothing to report for Yaymicro and Veer marketplace for December, so no change there then!

Returning to Istock, the November sales figures for their "Partner Program" with Photos.com
came out in December (they had previously intended to merge November and December results). Sadly, nothing for me there but it is still early days. Next results due any day now.

Meanwhile the Picturenation.co.uk saga rolls on. Still not back online after some three months. They have updated the message on their site (today) saying that they hope to be back very soon. At the same time a new UK micro site Workingtitleimages.com is set to launch in February. Other than that they are based in Sheffield nobody seems to know anything about them (I have wondered if this is some sort of Picturenation breakaway). They are a subscription site and will pay photographers 15pence (about 24cents) per download. That sort of payment is one thing from a well established site like Shutterstock, but certainly isn't appealing from a new start up with no customer base. Still, it will be interesting to see how they do (whoever they are). Regards, David.

First sale at Veer Marketplace:

Having said just yesterday that I hadn't had any sales at Veer yet I logged in today to find my first sale! A pleasing $1.75 for a shot of two Jack Russell dogs that I had grabbed in the street in Hastings (grabbed the shot, not the dogs, obviously). Suddenly all those pretty little graphs Veer provide on their "dashboard" page looked much more interesting. They'd been flatlining up to now. The first sale on a new site is always the most exciting and this had been a few weeks coming. I am still concerned about their rather erratic review process (see earlier posting) but hopeful this could turn out to be a good earning site. Regards, David

Progress Veers off course:

A very dissapointing set back yesterday. Having waited in anticipation for my Snapvillage portfolio to be moved over to the new Veer Marketplace site I (and many others) got an email saying our portfolio hadn't been selected for Veer. That's 883 photographs uploaded and keyworded over the last couple of years. What a waste of time Snapvillage has now proved. My photos will remain available on SV until they wind it up later in the year so I might get a few more 30c subscription sales but that's it. On a cheery note the Veer email invites me to start uploading direct when their contributors site goes live on June 8th. Right, so I just start uploading my SV portfolio all over again then? Thanks. Needless to say the forum at http://microstockgroup.com is buzzing with both those delighted at being accepted and even more from us who received the "loser email" as one poster amusingly described it. Bitter? Me? Yup! Regards, David P.S. How many days to June 8th?

Full price sale at Snapvillage

On an ironic note given that Snapvillage is being merged into Veer (see earlier posting ) I have just had my first full price ($5) sale there, netting me $1.50 in commission. Up to now all I have had are 30c subscription sales! Looking forward to a big sales increase when my portfolio is transferred over to the Veer site. Regards, David