November Sales Updates:

Barcelona bicycle sharing rank

A pleasing month in November with some strong results from some and only really one big disappointment.

Shutterstock had a good performance to stay at first place. A large number of On Demand sales and a rare Enhanced License kept them out in front.

Second place went to Redbubble with 3 product sales including a canvas print (products seem to sell better here so it was nice to get an actual art print sale). I have mentioned my lack of sales at Fine Art America many times so decided to go in and reduce my prices across the board there. I'll see if that has any effect.

Istock made a strong third place with 28 downloads and a pleasing amount of revenue. I am finding the batch uploading and editing on their ESP platform vastly quicker and easier than their old one at a time uploader.

A return for Alamy who made fourth place with the sale of another of my 1980s archive shots - this time of

Passeig de Colom, Barcelona

former Conservative MP Michael Latham. I continued to upload my (non archive) back catalogue here and now have a port of circa 2100 images.

In fifth place were 123rf with an outstanding 27 downloads. There was a theme there as nearly all the downloads were of my Greek islands images.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 5 downloads. My images of the Tenterden Food and Drink Festival seem to have taken off here with several downloads turning up each month.

Dreamstime proved to be the disappointment in seventh place with just 3 subscription sales (and 35c sales at that). After last months upturn things just slipped away here.

Local Summer event - Tentertainment music festival

Fotolia, Mostphotos and Canstock took up places eight to ten with 2, 1, 1, downloads respectively.

Recent uploading continued with my Barcelona trip images (ahead of the Catalonian elections on December 21). I'm hoping my parliament building images get some sales in the coming weeks. I also edited and uploaded my images from the 2017 Tentertainment music festival -a subject that has always done well for me. For some reason the Istock reviewer rejected these as an Entertainment event best suited to the Getty newsdesk -despite just being people in a park at a local event that took place nearly six months ago! I'll re-submit those in due course as Istock have never had a problem with this type of image before and previous Tentertainment images are regular sellers on their site. Regards, David.

October Sales Updates:

Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona

October saw no sales at Alamy so they drop right off the list this month. It seems to be that it takes time to build regular sales there so I would expect them to jump on and off my rankings for some time to come. With a portfolio there now just passing the two thousand mark I am continuing to upload my back catalogue (as well as new images) and gradually building a presence.

With Alamy absent that, of course, leaves Shutterstock in top place and a good solid month of sales there. Shutterstock have recently caused some excitement by introducing a new submission editing page. I've only used it a few times but after spending thirty minutes trying to submit my first upload I found things got better once I grasped how the page works and I'm sure it will soon be totally familiar.

Redbubble made a strong second place with two sticker sales and a good print sale. As I approach the second anniversary of my last FineArt America sale I can only wonder at the big difference in performance from these two POD sites.

Istock came in third place with 35 downloads. Not as good as some recent months but subscription sales

Fountain in the Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona

are still averaging well above the old 28 cent flat rate payment.

In fourth place were Dreamstime with 5 downloads. A higher paying credit sale (above $5) and several of the $2 sub sales improved things here a bit.

Bigstock made fifth place with 9 downloads. A variety of sales but I'm still seeing a trend to local Hastings and area images - as I have noted many times before.

Sixth place saw 123rf with 7 downloads. I'm still languishing down at level 1 there and I'll need to see a lot more sales than that to have a hope of returning to level 2.

Catalonian Parliament building in Barcelona

Canstock made an infrequent appearance in seventh place with 2 downloads.

Fotolia brought up the rear in eighth place with just a single download (editorial submissions -please!).

Recent shooting and uploading has concentrated on my last minute trip to Barcelona following the declaration of independence there. Though only a two day trip I managed to get a number of key Barcelona images including, of course, the Catalonian parliament building. Hopefully, these will see some sales as fresh elections approach there. It was a brief but fun introduction to an exciting City and I will certainly be returning for a longer stay in the future. Regards, David.

September Sales Updates:

The road to Sa Calobra in Majorca -a famous cycling challenge

September certainly didn't see the hoped for upturn after the Summer Slowdown months with some highs and lows to report.

Once again Shutterstock retained its first place with a solid month helped by a regular On Demand sales and a pleasing Single sale coming right at the end of the month.

Bouncing back into my charts at second place were Alamy with another good paying sale (a B/W archive image of actor Nigel Havers). I certainly feel my effort in uploading my portfolio to Alamy is proving worthwhile. All my archive stuff (pre 1992) is now up (via their Archive and Reportage portal) and I am continuing uploading my portfolio of digital images from 2007 onwards.

Puerto Pollensa beach in Majorca

Istock took third place with some 40 downloads. Once again I used the excellent Today Is 20 site to make sense of my results.

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 4 product sales varying from stickers to mugs.

Fifth place went to 123RF with 9 downloads. I really feel sales should be much higher here given the size of my portfolio (over 2K images). I have the feeling that whilst they accept editorial images they do not perhaps have the buyers for them. On the plus side, recent reviews of new uploads have all been prompt.

In sixth place were Bigstock with 5 downloads. Hastings images to the fore once again.

In a sad seventh place were Dreamstime with just 3 downloads (all subs). Compounded with (to date) no sales at all in October things are not looking good there. I really like Dreamstime and hope that they can get back to near the top where they used to be (for me, if not everyone).

Tram tracks in Port de Soller in Majorca

Bringing up the rear were Fotolia in eighth place with 3 downloads (though in the absence of editorial images my portfolio is tiny there).



Uploading recently has concentrated on my September trip to Puerto Pollensa in Majorca. Though only there for a week I shot a large range of stock images from Roman ruins at Alcudia through to the beauty of the Tramuntana mountains. A world away from the bars and nightclubs of Magaluf which many associate with Majorca.

A return visit in the future is certain to visit some more of the places I couldn't get to this time, hopefully in 2018. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

Greek marine research vessel Aegaeo at Piraeus

August proved another slow summer month with not even the unexpected leap to top place which I saw from Alamy in July (in fact, nothing at all from them in August -though that is the nature of how Alamy works with various billing cycles meaning I could have had sales which are not reported yet).

So, as in a normal month, Shutterstock moved back to first place. A good crop of On Demand sales and several modest single sales helped stabilise things here.

Istock made second place with 37 downloads. Down on recent months but still maintaining higher sales since the Unification process at the start of 2017. I finally got round to signing up for the free Todayis20 site which helps you make sense of the inscrutable sales reports from Getty. Once signed up just upload your Getty sales file to them to have all revealed -including thumbnails of all the sold images. There is a wealth of information available which you can break down in multiple ways. This site was created by a Getty contributor and, though free, donations are welcomed.

In third place were Redbubble with three product sales (including one order of 10 stickers of a CCTV camera image - I suspect they are going up in someones shop or similar!).

Fourth place saw Dreamstime with 7 downloads. Some higher priced subcription sales here but no big credit

Torrent De Pareis on Majorca

sales this month.

123RF perked up with 18 downloads to make fifth place. As seems frequent here the sales started off slowly before picking up towards the end of the month.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 10 downloads. My images of the Tenterden Food and Drink Festival continued to sell here.

Finally in seventh place were Fotolia with 3 downloads (still waiting for them to accept Editorial images so I can really upscale my portfolio. Who knows if this will ever happen but I keep hoping).

Xara gate at Alcudia on Majorca

Recent uploads included some of Greek marine research vessel Aegaeo in Piraeus port, Athens. Operated by the Institute of Oceanography this ship is involved in all sorts of marine research work so I have hopes for some sales there. I'll be honest -this was just a harbour shot made while heading out to Aegina island. I only found out how high profile the vessel was when I researched it at home. You just never know what you might capture by chance.

Recent shooting revolved round my week long trip to Port Pollenca in Majorca during which I covered a lot of ground and added a lot of new images to my portfolio including the stunning gorge of Torrent De Pareis at Sa Calobra and the picturesque Old Town area of Alcudia. It certainly made a change from Greek islands and I am already considering a return visit as there were many more sights to photograph than I could manage in a week. Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

Margaret Thatcher - now at Alamy

A slowish month as expected in July as the usual Summer Slowdown continues. However, one agency did buck the trend to leap to number one position ahead of Shutterstock (probaly the only time I can remember SS not being at the top).

So, in first place we have Alamy with 3 downloads. One smallish amount, one good double figure amount and finally one mega sale netting me not far short of $100. This was for an archive image of British/Danish broadcaster Sandi Toksvig. British television viewers will know that Sandi is one of the new presenters of The Great British Bake Off which returns to screen shortly - presumably prompting this sale. The other two sales were both of the Greek island of Tilos, so nice to see some diversity of sales going on here.

In second place, of course, were Shutterstock with a slow month in terms of downloads. Only the fact that over 50% of the total income was for On Demand downloads brought the value up. No doubt they will be back to their top place next month.

Phil Lynott - now at Alamy

Istock continued doing well in third place with 53 downloads. Many of my subscription downloads are netting well over the old fixed 28cent flat rate and far outweigh the few that received a pittance rate. Others over on the Microstockgroup forum are also reporting increased sales at Istock.

In fourth place were Dreamstime with 5 downloads. A credit sale netting over $10 pushed them up the rankings this month (more like that please!).

Fifth place was taken by Bigstock with 9 downloads. My images of the first ever Food and Drink Festival in
Tenterden, Kent seem to be doing well here with a number of sales.

Redbubble took sixth place with one good product sale.

Seventh place went to Mostphotos with 2 modest subscription sales.

Finally Canstock came in in eighth place with 1 small download.

Poll Tax Riots - now at Alamy

Sadly nothing at all in July from Fotolia.

Uploading in July saw me, again, concentrating on uploading my portfolio to Alamy. This has been a twin track operation with me uploading regular batches of digital images and awaiting QC (Quality Control) passes before uploading the next batch. At the same time I have been working through my (mainly B/W) archive image scans from the 1980s-1990s. As I have written before you have to be approved for this archival route by submitting link/s to your archive images online somewhere. The great thing is that once given the OK your uploads bypass the QC process and are ready to put on sale as soon as the uploads are processed at Alamys end (usually within an hour or so).  The upshot of this is that I have pretty much had a continuing flow of new images ready to put on sale taking my portfolio now to around 1700 and rising. Not bad considering I had less than a hundred images back in February before they allowed Royalty Free Editorial images. This months post is illustrated by some of those archive images. More updates in September! Regards, David.