September Sales Updates:

Neil and Glenys Kinnock. Archives to Pond5

Another varied month in September from high to low (to non existent in one case). In these far from normal times I suppose we shouldn't expect photo agencies to be producing normal results.

In first place (and I didn't expect to be writing this again) were Shutterstock with my best month there in ages. This, it has to be said, was down to several good paying Single downloads which pushed the results right up. Indications for October suggest they are going to plunge in my next results rankings so do not put too much weight on their top score for September.

Only just behind in second place were Redbubble with a record score of 11 product sales running the whole gamut from prints, t shirts, stickers and even a pair of socks (with a motorbike photo on them). Previous years experience is that Redbubble sales build up towards Christmas and this was certainly a good early start towards that.

Third place went to another POD site FineArtAmerica with 2 sales. A T shirt with a Greek ferry on it

Wine lovers Christmas gift?

and a framed print of a Monarch airliner descending into the Greek island of Skiathos. Actually the same image was also one of my sales on Redbubble - this time as a cushion.

Alamy took fourth place with 2 downloads -both from my b/w archives.

Istock were in fifth place with just 17 downloads. Only an improved RPD saved the day here. What I am missing on Istock (and everywhere else) are the multiple sales of my music festival images which in other years would be selling on a daily basis to illustrate upcoming outdoor events.

In the also rans at the bottom were Dreamstime with just 2 sub sales to make sixth place and Adobe with just a single sale to make seventh. In the non existent category mentioned at the top were Bigstock where I haven't had a single sale since mid August. Nothing. At all.

Monarch flight to Skiathos. Print sale on FAA

Also nothing yet at Pond 5 but I continued my drive to put my full portfolio on there to give them a chance to do something with photo sales (rather than the footage they are best known for). I'm currently somewhere just over 600 images so plenty to go yet. I've been uploading a mix of my current travel type images and my archive political/celebrity ones. It's also been an opportunity to fill in some gaps in my Picfair portfolio and the POD sites while I'm at it.

Also on the POD sites I continued my experiment of adding text to some images such as the Time for Wine! on a picture of grapes. I am hoping someone might see these as Christmas present ideas for the wine lover in their life. It'll either work or it won't! 

Half way through October and things are looking far from stellar, but we'll see in my next updates. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

The Flying Saucers, sold and unsold on Alamy

Apologies for the late posting. Regular readers will know this is often because nothing especially exciting happened and, yes, here we are in the Summer Slowdown with a Pandemic thrown in for good measure. 

That said there were a few highlights in a rather turgid month. 

 Straight to first place we had Redbubble with 4 product sales ranging from stickers to mug and best of all a framed print of the Greek island of Agistri. 

 Shutterstock took second place in what was my first full month back with them since re-activating my portfolio after a seven week protest shutdown. Still plenty of the pathetic 10-17 cent subscription sales but a number at higher rates such as 44, 59, 66 76 cents (all of which obviously better than my old fixed 36cent rate. On Demand sales have varied from lower to higher than my former $2.70 rate (from $2.25 up to $3.25). Note that this is for level 3 at 25% commission. I anticipate reaching level 4 (30% commission) in October before, of course, being plunged along with everyone else to level 1 on January 1st. 

 Third place went to Istock with 23 downloads. A low RPD dragged them down this month. 

 In fourth place were Alamy, not with sales but an unexpected small amount from ASCRL (American

El Salvador church, Seville

Society for Collecting Rights Licensing). It's the US version of a DACS payment and not one I had seen before. There should have been sales at Alamy as I had two personal use sales of the 1976 Rock and Roll Radio campaign march in London. Guess what's coming next! Both refunded the following day presumably once the "buyer" had downloaded the unwatermarked image. Pretty annoying but not a lot to be done about it as RF (Royalty Free) images on Alamy do not have an opt out for personal use sales. Rights Managed images do but as my images are RF on other sites they have to be RF on Alamy too.

 Moving to the lower end we had Dreamstime in fifth place with 4 downloads. These included a couple of my archive b/w images of actors Jeremy Sinden and Michael Gough.

 Bigstock only managed sixth place with just 2 downloads. Never a big seller but they have really slowed in recent months. 

Agistri island, framed print sale on Redbubble

 Seventh place went to Adobe with just a single small subsciption sale. As mentioned many many times before I will never make much at Adobe unless they start taking regular Editorial. 

 No sales as yet at Pond 5, but I am continuing to upload to them and now have several hundred images online. They have said publicly that they intend to give more of a marketing push on images if we supply the content. Well, who knows but I am certainly willing to give them a chance. 

 Recent uploads have been curtailed whilst I put my effort into Pond 5 uploading but I did add one of the El Salvador church in central Seville. September is showing signs of improvement so more to come next month. Regards, David.

July Sales Updates:

Plaza Virgen de Los Reyes, Seville

 An overall unexciting month in July with one main highlight sales wise. First off, though, I need to address the Shutterstock issue. Having deactivated my images on June 6 to support the boycott against their commission cuts it became clear to me that not nearly enough contributors were joining in with this to make an effective protest. It was with no great sense of joy that I decided to reactivate my portfolio on July 22. I held out for over six weeks which is a lot more than some that just deactivated for a week or so. I had really hoped that enough people would join in to force a reversal of the cuts. I had also hoped that I would see an increase in sales at other sites (especially on editorial images which were no longer available at SS). That didn't happen so, for now, I'm back. I'll make a longer term decision once I get a few months actual sales figures in. Difficult, but everyone has to make their own decision on this.

So to the actual monthly sales: First up were Redbubble with 5 product sales. Several T shirts and other merchandise were topped by a framed print sale of the Greek island of Skiathos pushing RB into a well deserved first place.

Alamy took second place with 4 downloads. A couple of low paying distributor sales from Russia and a

MetroCentro tram, Seville

couple of reasonable $$ direct sales. Three of these were from my b/w archives but the best selling one was a modern image of the St.Leonards Festival.

Third place went to Istock with a disappointing 15 downloads. Only a reasonable RPD pulled them up a bit.

Despite not been switched on till near the end of the month, Shutterstock still managed to make fourth place. Varied amounts - rubbish 10-17 cent subscription sales but then one paying $0.73. Overall, I still expect to make less but, as I said above, I want to see some actual results for this.

Dreamstime made fifth place with 4 subscription sales. DT were one of my big hopes for an uptick in sales whilst not on SS but, sadly, it wasn't to be.

Sixth place saw Bigstock with just 2 downloads.

New products for my art sites with added text

And, finally, we had Adobe with just a single sale during July.

One good thing to come out of the Shutterstock debacle was that it pushed me to finally start uploading to Pond 5. No sales yet but I now have over 200 images online (and rising). The contributor interface takes a bit of getting used to but once you find your way around it gets easier. Just a reminder - they pay 50% royalties (for images) and you can set your own pricing so they are certainly worth a try. They are known as a footage agency but recently said (roughly) give us your image content and we'll do our best to build up sales. I'm happy to support them on that.

Recent uploading saw some more of my 2019 Seville trip going up. For my art product sites I have been mucking around with adding captions to a bored looking (yawning) cat image. I hope they might appeal to someone as a T shirt or whatever. Adding the text was done in Photoshop and doesn't take long -so worth a try I thought. More 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.

May Sales Updates:

Tom Robinson Band in 1978 -Sold on Alamy

Putting aside the shock Shutterstock announcement at the end of May it was overall a steady month with some good results from Print On Demand sites.

In first place were the excellent Redbubble with 6 product sales. A framed print sale led the way here with the rest a mix of T shirts, posters, stickers. I am also pleased, that in the light of recent events, I didn't have to give Shutterstock their usual top place :)

Shutterstock did manage second place with 60 downloads. A fair number of On Demand and three modest Single sales boosting up the income here. How good all those 36c subscription and $2.70 On demand sales look now.

Third place went to Alamy with 3 downloads. These were all from my B/W archives. We had the Tom Robinson Band and Steel Pulse - both performing at the Rock Against Racism festival held in Hackney, London in 1978. Also sold was the former Conservative Minister Richard Tracey (I spotted this one in the obituary page of the Daily Telegraph newspaper -complete with credit line to myself). I am hoping I might see more of these uses now my images are not available at Shutterstock.

Fourth place went to my other POD site FineArtAmerica with 3 product sales. The same customer

St. Mildred's church in Tenterden

purchased a Tote bag and two carry pouches all featuring the same image. I was a bit surprised that they chose a portrait format image which didn't really work on the products when there was a similar landscape version available. However, as long as they are happy that's fine by me.

Istock made fifth place with a less than stellar 24 downloads. A lower RPD than recently made this a disappointing month from them. Acceptance rate continues to be high with lightening fast approvals of editorials and a few days wait for the rest.

Sixth place went to Dreamstime with 3 downloads. They also announced that from June 1 they were increasing commission by 10%  on new image sales for a time during the pandemic as a help to contributors. Clearly intended as a poke against Shutterstock who slashed their commission on the same date but a very welcome gesture all the same.

Tourists in London before Coronavirus

Bigstock took seventh place with 4 downloads. Not sure what to do about them as my portfolio there is mirrored (via the closed Bridge to Bigstock program) from my Shutterstock uploads (now halted) so there will be no new images on Bigstock either.  Sales at BS certainly wouldn't warrant the time to upload directly. Wait and see on that one.

Finally in eighth place were Adobe with just a single download. A lot of angry Shutterstock contributors are talking of directing buyers towards Adobe but until they open up to general editorial uploads this is not any help to me.

Not much shooting recently due to Coronavirus restrictions ( I should have been on a Greek island as I write this) but I have been out capturing a few images where I live in Tenterden including the 12th century St.Mildred's church. I also uploaded an old image of women tourists in London which I thought might be useful for articles on travel/tourism restrictions.

Stay safe. Regards, David.