It is amazing to me that I have been able to keep this up for more than 2 years now, with one, or occasionally two or more posts every month. If only I had followed all my own ideas – I could have retired! This is a difficult month to forecast new concepts that might catch fire, when the news is full of the invasion of Ukraine. As I have mentioned in the past, only certain hot topics are suitable...
Way back in September last year, I wrote about my experiences in trying, really hard, to use Social Media to boost my sales of prints on Fine Art America in particular. That post also links back to three earlier articles from when I started this effort at the early part of 2021. Now, after more than a year at this effort, has it been worthwhile? I wish I had a clear answer to that question. I did sell more prints...
The shortest month of the year! Does that mean those stock agencies will leave us with a shortfall in our pockets? Unfortunately yes! Monthly Earnings Another interesting month that set a record as the lowest February in terms of stock earnings since February 2013! I know that Alex talked about inflation hitting our payouts in his monthly report, so just think how far I would have to go back to get an inflation adjusted record! February 2022 came in with...
I’ve been busier on new concepts these past few weeks, although there was one that I thought about early on and did nothing about – the online game Wordle. I knew about it, knew that it was becoming something that people were talking about, but never got round to taking a few simple photos of the screen. As it turned out, much discussion in most newspapers and many, many sites around the web. So, an opportunity missed! Increasingly, I think...
Many of us have a portfolio site – perhaps selling prints, direct licensing of stock images, or just where we blog or write articles of interest to our friends and followers. Of course, much happens on Facebook and the like, but with their strong focus on earnings, they are reducing the reach of any posts which are not being promoted via their paid advertizing plans. So, we need to try to build an audience around what we do control –...
A new month, a new year and a new low in terms of earnings from stock photography in January. As the month went on, I knew this was not going to be great, as I just did not seem to break a steady but very slow daily pattern. Of course, the horrible reduction in Shutterstock earning percentage on January 1 did not help at all, although I managed to climb to Level 4 by January 20, which still meant I...
Another month, another surge in cases of this virus! I’m still getting sales of my various covid related imagery and I have some new ideas for you this month. As you will remember from previous posts, you are looking for stories that have two main strands – they will be the subject of both news and comment-type articles and posts and they will need to be illustrated by something other than a straight editorial shot. One that comes to mind...
A second year without much travel! It’s great to be a travel stock photographer who doesn’t get to go anywhere new, although as I explained in a post last month, capturing images in your hometown might be worthwhile! But in this annual review of my efforts in stock photography, I’ll see if the lack of new imagery impacted my earnings. Spoiler alert – yes… You have seen this annual chart before, but this shows how 2021 dropped off from the...
Another year comes around! So, firstly, a Happy New Year to you all and let’s hope that 2022 shows us some light at the end of the tunnel. December did not look like a great earning month right from the start, with a very slow few days, and although it picked up a little, I still ended up with $2309, which as this graph shows, is the lowest for 5 years, but when I checked in my stats, it is...
My good friend Alex (and his anonymous partner) recently posted a statistical analysis of the most profitable locations (major cities) for stock photography, taking their earnings in that city and the cost of living into account. Their top 3 cities turned out to be Seville, Jerusalem and Rio de Janeiro. Here is their main table (although you should go and read the rest of the article!) That got me thinking. Are those the best places for travel stock photography or...
