Back in the Seventies and Eighties I founded and ran several Fleet Street photo agencies specialising in stock images of celebrities from pop stars to politicians. These were syndicated to the National and International press and Television. These days I am active in the Microstock world and this blog charts my journey as well as, hopefully, providing inspiration and ideas to others. Image buyers should also find this blog useful with links to my portfolios and regular updates on new uploads. Unless otherwise stated all images are my copyright and may not be reproduced or copied. Comments are very welcome but will be reviewed before publication. Enjoy your visit. Regards, David.

Monday 22 June 2009

Accepted At Veer Marketplace:

Have just been accepted as a contributor at Veer Marketplace. They required a test submission of 10 images. From mine 7 were approved for the site so I am in. I can now upload up to 100 images per week. Those images that are approved will go into the Veer database but will not be available to buyers until the full launch (scheduled for mid Summer). Currently Marketplace is in Beta using images transferred over from the Snapvillage site. As you will see from earlier postings, mine weren't included in this. As I expected, I have been approved for Veer on a set of images which were already on SV! On the plus side Veer is being more selective in what it takes which can only make for a stronger offering and (hopefully) better sales. As a general rule, sites that take just about every image you throw at them tend to be poorest selling sites. They are generally the new sites which are trying to amass a large number of images quickly to make themselves attractive to buyers. Snapvillage was a classic example of this approach. By being more selective and with their well established reputation Veer are looking like a very good proposition for contributors. As with Shutterstock, I now just have to "feed the beast"! Regards, David

Wednesday 10 June 2009

In at Shutterstock!

An exciting step forward this week when (at second attempt) I got accepted as a contributor at Shutterstock. This New York based image library specialises in subscription sales, paying contributors from 25c per download (the amount goes up once you reach a certain sales level). This may not sound a lot but Shutterstock gets high volume sales. Some new photographers I know have had loads of downloads in just a few weeks with just a few files online. Many Microstock photographers give this as their top earning agency. So my hopes are high. Now I just need to "feed the beast" to borrow a quote from the http://www.microstockgroup.com/ forum. Photographers wanting to sign up to Shutterstock can follow my link on the left hand column of this blog. Picture buyers can use the link below (in both cases I get income under Shutterstocks referral program). Regards, David

http://www.shutterstock.com/?rid=370843