how much i have earned from selling and licensing photos online

GOOD JOB PHOTOGRAPHY IS A HOBBY!

i take some nice photos and occasionally am complimented on some of my photographic output. Much of the total output of London images have been online for at least five or so years. Prior to using the domain name photoslondon.com i used the very similar domain name photos-london.com and before that imagesofbritain.com Though there is but one character separating the two similar domains, trying to pronounce it to anyone showing the least bit of interest when i'm out and about photographing London was quite awkward. Pronouncing 'photos hyphen London.com' or 'photos-dash-London.com' and expecting a person(s) to remember my site's web address felt like a waste of time. Yes, i should have had some business cards made up but never got around to it. When the domain photoslondon.com became available i snapped it up quicker than i repel the opposite sex (actually that's a lie) but it was almost as fast. I was really happy i managed to acquire this hyphen-less web name and in no time was using it as my default web site with a link from my old photos-london.com site to the new one.

I expected it to start doing better in Googles and other web search engine results but so far (September 2010) it's still doing rather poorly. Sites that have much less relevance regarding London photos leapfrog my site by pages, mine buried in virtual no-mans or no-womans land. Those visitors that do somehow stumble upon my site (i do get visitors) tend to have no referring link i.e. they didn't use a search but found the site via other means and i have no idea what this other means of arriving is. I'm always happy to see people have both found and visited my web. Sometimes the person visiting leaves instantaneously which is a bit of a worry. Others visit a particular section only and some have a slightly longer stay checking out more than one section of the site. Though i get visits from all over the world a fair sized percentage come from London. Whether that's other London based photographers or tourists i again have absolutely no idea.

It may not have escaped your notice that this pages title is money from photos sales. I have not forgotten this and believe the above waffle was necessary - some of it at least - before shedding some light on the not so dirty subject of my photographic sales and earnings. Before reading this you may have been under the mistaken notion i was raking it in and making a tidy profit in sales of images, licensing and other money making ways from images. Sadly this is not the case as i will now show.

Please also be aware that i did not take up photography with a view to making it a career or possible money spinner. If that was the case i'd be chasing celebrities, hanging outside nightclubs in the early hours and basically looking for the 'money shot'. I enjoy taking photos as i always have though nowadays i do admit to having both eyes on taking some images that have the potential to sell as well. Anyway below is a table showing how long my site(s) have been online and the corresponding photographic sales earnings for that year. Although my motivation is not money it would be nice to see a rise in print or licensing sales. However there maybe one or two photographers out there thinking their hobby could be a good earner. If that is the case i hope for your sake my case is the exception rather than the rule or you will be very disappointed

2006	no sales
2007	no sales
2008	no sales
2009	whoopee! sales :) 1) image licensing total £95.25 2) money from ads on the website: total so far nearly £4
2010	nada so far :( unfortunately i may have made some money earlier this year had i not had a 'blond' moment. The less said about this the better but it was a shoot myself in the foot experience i hope not to repeat but had i not made an error relating to my emails i was sure to have received a cheque this year regarding image licensing
2011	will it be a vintage year? Who knows what the immediate future will bring?