Shutterstock - On Demand
By Captured | August 28, 2008
WOW!
I come back off holiday to a new looking payment/download schedule that includes an ‘On Demand’ column. My first thoughts were, ‘oh great, another scheme to kill the downloads’ but having today lost my OD virginity with a whacking $2.48 for one image, i am officially converted!
Roll on more of the little beauties!
I now pray to 3 fairies: -
- EL Fairy - This is the queen bee of downloads
- OD Fairy - The new princess in my life
- DL Fairy - The workhorse that keeps the income flowing in
Topics: Earnings and Stats, Shutterstock, Uncategorized | No Comments »
September Theme
By Captured | August 27, 2008
After a very disappointing (through neglect on my part) august I need to get back to concentrating on a theme for new images to be shot, unfortunatley keyworded, and submitted to all the agencies.
I have decided that I will return to shooting images on white backgrounds and then properly isolating them in photoshop as this proved very popular the first time round. My gallery could do with tonnes more images and I keep reading that more simple images are required by designers so they can manipulate them easier.
The Halloween/Autumn/christmas seasons are approaching and less buyers will be on vacation so i envisage sales to only increase for the rest of the year (am I keeping a positive mind or what?). Isolations including these themes should help me no end.
What will you be shooting in september?
Topics: Organisation, Shooting, Shutterstock | No Comments »
Mid August 2008 report
By Captured | August 18, 2008
Pants!
This month has been a big wash-out. Mostly due to my (near 3 weeks) holiday, and therefore no uploads, my sales have decreased enormously. I have currently had 50% of the downloads i had this time last month. I am not expecting to report great results for August.
It just shows what happens when you do not upload anything i suppose. This, coupled with the fact that its the summer and the buyers are also probably on vacation is not really surprising.
Fingers crossed for a couple of magical Enhanced Licences from the EL fairys….
Topics: Earnings and Stats, Shutterstock | 2 Comments »
JULY 2008
By Captured | August 15, 2008
New BME!!! The downloads just keep coming!
Topics: $500 to $3000 Progress, Earnings and Stats, Month End Report, Shutterstock | 1 Comment »
25th June report
By Captured | July 25, 2008
I will be away for the next couple of weeks so wont get chance to give a proper report until i get back.
So here is a snapshot of the month so far: -
Number of downloads 277 - Definately will finish with a new BME
Number of new images: 30 - not bad!
Number of double digit download days has increased too.
New best day ever with 22 downloads.
July has been a mega month for me so far seeing increases in portfolio size on other agencies resulting in increased earnings from those agencies (not quite significant enough to report on yet but progress is being made). I look forward to updating you on the final figures for Shutterstock on my return.
Topics: Earnings and Stats, Shutterstock | 2 Comments »
What to shoot? Stuck for ideas?
By Captured | July 25, 2008
In response to Matt’s post on ‘coming up with ideas’ i thought i would share my idea source and workflow.
It is very hard to come up with new ideas by just sitting at your computer. Matt is right, you have to look for them in everything you do and the key thing is to record them. Write them down. This is a big thing for me because my memory is terrible sometimes and i am likely to forget.
My two main recommendations for shooting ideas are: -
- I have a moleskin notebook where i note down all the little ideas that spring to my mind. I keep this diary with me most of the time.
- Rifle through your magazines, newspapers, or even things you see on the internet. Cut/Print out the existing images that jump out at you (or that just take ur fancy) and think about how you could make that image better. Put your own take on the image. Yes the idea has already been thought up for you, but I often find that the final images come out very different because ideas develop as you’re shooting or even as your thinking about how you can put your ’stamp’ on it. So i see these ideas as the bones of the image and i have to put the meat on.
Number 2 is by far the most successful method for me and is the source of many of the images in my stock gallery. I have a thick scrap book full of things i want to shoot and put my own personal touch on but haven’t yet got round to. My problem isn’t the ideas, its the time to shoot!
Topics: Shooting | No Comments »
My Gallery
By Captured | July 18, 2008
I haven’t really mentioned my personal gallery on the Main Website until now.
I have finally managed to get a more presentable tool working to showcase my portfolio, using Simpleviewer.
Please have a look (by clicking the ‘Gallery’ tab on my main site) and let me know what you think. I would eventually like to get a facility to sell prints of my images for personal use on there (when I am happy that they all look as good when printed and I have costed everything out etc) so I feel this is a step in the right direction.
Topics: Other Photography | No Comments »
July 2008 - Mid month report
By Captured | July 15, 2008
This month has started off even better than last month which is my BME!
Here are my newest images on Shutterstock
DLs so far: 158
New Uploads this month so far: 24
The clouds theme has proven to be a bit of a flop with the buyers, it has to be said. With Shutterstock, you either get immediate results showing in the first week with a boost in download numbers or you get crappy little trickly downloads every now and then. I use this as my success-barometer as far as new images and ideas are concerned. The new cloud images have unfortunately produced nothing more than trickles.
My most successful day this month has been 22 downloads so far which was 2nd July. My downloads have been faily consistant since then at an average of 9-10 per day.
I have made a small dent in distributing my images for sale to the other agencies because I now have 738 images across all agencies to date with 336 of them being on Shutterstock.
The new image I am most pleased with this month is WHEAT. I have loads of them to submit but this has to be my favourite.
Topics: Earnings and Stats, Organisation, Shutterstock | No Comments »
123RF - 1st Sale
By Captured | July 11, 2008
Yes!
I take it back. This site is up and running now. I took Alex’s advice and used a few of the tools on the site and a day or three later i get my first sale!
And… it was at $0.36 which is higher than SS. Lets hope they continue. I will certainly continue to upload to 123RF.
Topics: 123RF, Earnings and Stats | No Comments »
Uploading to Istockphoto
By Captured | July 9, 2008
I just wanted to give a little update to my last post.
Deep Meta is brilliant! It even gives you stats on your acceptance/rejections (even if it is a little upsetting!). The process is so easy. It even suggests categories for you instead of you having to search through them all on site.
I have made use of my full upload quota for this week and have a load more in the queue now!
Recommended!
Topics: Istockphoto, Organisation | No Comments »