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Author Topic: Alamy- Any success??  (Read 70449 times)

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« Reply #50 on: August 27, 2015, 16:36 »
+2
I have roughly the same photos on Alamy as on micros. One just sold for $150 ($75 my cut) that sells quite regularly  on micros for much, much less. I don't have a portfolio that sells with regularity on Alamy, but I certainly like the sale prices and royalty level a lot.   


« Reply #51 on: August 27, 2015, 17:16 »
+7
I have 1700 images on IStock and 4200 on Alamy. I started with both back about 2003. RF "commercial" at IS and RF editorial at Alamy.

At iS I uploaded hard through 2006 and then pretty much flatlined with small increments. I caught some good income 2005-2009 and some great income 2009-2011. In early 2011 my income tanked with the site changes. In the recent couple of years I'm drifting down at well under half my best periods.

I went Exclusive as early as I could but I certainly don't recommend that for someone these days. I keep debating when to cut exclusivity and put the effort into other sites. But I'm at the 30% point and have a hard time with the pay cut to go non-Ex. Where I once had periods above $14 PIPY (per image per year), I'm now around $3.50.

Alamy is a whole different market for my output. I do not share images with microstock. Here are more editorial and travel and tourism for me (the things that iS won't take before they introduced editorial). Even with higher file count and percentage of each sale, my income is less than 1/4 of iS. Between 2005 and 2007 I had some periods above $2 PIPY but a couple of high value sales had very positive influence and those higher prices are being seen less. I've had some decent sales times between 2009 and mid-2014. Sales for me seem to be slowing and income is dropping to roughly $0.30 PIPY. Granted, I've sent a lot of stuff I didn't know if it would ever sell - looking for niches.

So, once again, there is a lot to be said for finding your niche and hitting a viable market. For quite a few years my living circumstances included some travel where I was feeding Alamy more than iS. Because of that I could write off some business expenses for the images that in the end returned less income. But the write-off was still useful to my overall stock photo business. Everybody's circumstances are different, both on the image capture and the image sales ends. So you have to probe, find, and plot your own course in this business. I hope you all find some useful perspective in all this discussion, but you will not be likely to duplicate any one persons experience for your own path. In this business we often talk about income from various sites but we rarely talk about the equally relevant expenses in image gathering and processing.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2015, 17:22 by StanRohrer »

« Reply #52 on: August 27, 2015, 17:44 »
+2
I agree with Stan's assessment that you have to look at all the pros and cons, not just sales but learning curve, exposure, and cost to produce your images among them. For me the intangibles are definitely part of the assessment. I look at SS with daily sales practically from day one, and how much that helped me learn about stock as well as at how much I've made from my best -sellers, and weigh that against the pennies I get for so many subscription sales. At Alamy, I'm pleased that their News wing has helped me get credentials for some excellent events, from two of which I've had print sales and an invitation to show my work at a prestigious gallery, not something I expected from either one.  When I started with them in 2008 I had to uprez my 6MP files from my old D70 to 48MB, which meant everything had to be tack-sharp and it pushed me to think about the technical end of things, not just the aesthetic. I also learned a lot from seasoned travel and nature photographers there and had images appear in significant national publications which helped me get other assignment work. So, despite not earning as much PIPY as I might had those 750 images been on the micros, the benefits have been worth the effort IMHO. 

« Reply #53 on: August 27, 2015, 21:02 »
0
You are certainly more productive than I am with both agencies. I imagine your success with Alamy can also be a result of your geological location as a part of UK.

I have more images on iStock (3857 vs 2808 on Alamy), and have been with iS for longer. The files are different, and all RM on Alamy, obviously, so it's not a direct comparison.

However, this slight uptick on Alamy (from a very low base) is only the past three months, and I can't see any pattern in my sales (so that I could try to build on them), they just seem to be what people happen to need.

The downward slope on iStock has been going on for much longer.

« Reply #54 on: August 31, 2015, 09:41 »
+4
Every year my earnings drop from 20%-30% on Alamy.  Yet another blaring instance of market saturation.  I have about 75% of my portfolio uploaded there so far.  It's probably not even worth my time for me to submit the rest, unless things pick up.  It's more likely that I will grow a third nipple from accidentally eating a moldy piece of fruit. 

That's around 6000 images out of almost 62 million...  If my math is correct, that means I'm personally holding .000096 % of the market share, baby!  Talk about domination.  Anybody want to buy me out?  LOL I crack myself up.  :o ;D :D

« Reply #55 on: August 31, 2015, 22:47 »
+1
I will grow a third nipple from accidentally eating a moldy piece of fruit. 

I hate it when that happens

« Reply #56 on: September 01, 2015, 02:44 »
+2
Every year my earnings drop from 20%-30% on Alamy.  Yet another blaring instance of market saturation.  I have about 75% of my portfolio uploaded there so far.  It's probably not even worth my time for me to submit the rest, unless things pick up.  It's more likely that I will grow a third nipple from accidentally eating a moldy piece of fruit. 

That's around 6000 images out of almost 62 million...  If my math is correct, that means I'm personally holding .000096 % of the market share, baby!  Talk about domination.  Anybody want to buy me out?  LOL I crack myself up.  :o ;D :D

So basically in 4 years you sales at alamy dropped to 0%

« Reply #57 on: September 01, 2015, 08:39 »
+2
Every year my earnings drop from 20%-30% on Alamy.  Yet another blaring instance of market saturation.  I have about 75% of my portfolio uploaded there so far.  It's probably not even worth my time for me to submit the rest, unless things pick up.  It's more likely that I will grow a third nipple from accidentally eating a moldy piece of fruit. 

That's around 6000 images out of almost 62 million...  If my math is correct, that means I'm personally holding .000096 % of the market share, baby!  Talk about domination.  Anybody want to buy me out?  LOL I crack myself up.  :o ;D :D

So basically in 4 years you sales at alamy dropped to 0%
That's one way of doing math.  Here's the correct way though, 30% drop every year (at 20% it would be $51):
Year 1:  $100
Year 2:  $70
Year 3:  $49
Year 4:  $34.30
« Last Edit: September 01, 2015, 08:41 by tickstock »

« Reply #58 on: September 01, 2015, 08:42 »
0
Hehe, I guess you're right. My bad.

« Reply #59 on: September 01, 2015, 08:44 »
+1
Hehe, I guess you're right. My bad.
Give it a few more years and it will be pretty close to 0 though.

« Reply #60 on: September 02, 2015, 03:32 »
+1
Most of the sites have the same competition problem, the only way to increase earnings is to upload images that most people aren't supplying.  Being in the UK is an advantage with alamy but I'm sure if I lived in another country I could still find something that sells there that hasn't already been done to death.

FlowerPower

« Reply #61 on: September 02, 2015, 13:24 »
0
Hehe, I guess you're right. My bad.
Give it a few more years and it will be pretty close to 0 though.

I see it the same. Lost 30% then 50% of that and now I have left about 20% income of 2012 for 2015. Next year it will be close to 0 as you predict.

« Reply #62 on: September 03, 2015, 01:38 »
0
How do people think it works for news content? I have submitted fast recent news content before and had no sales.

I just wonder how many people who regularly submit large amounts of news photos makes any money off those? If I was making a lot of effort and submitting lots of news photos I'd want to be getting a nice return from each submission.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

« Reply #63 on: September 03, 2015, 10:06 »
0
How do people think it works for news content? I have submitted fast recent news content before and had no sales.

I just wonder how many people who regularly submit large amounts of news photos makes any money off those? If I was making a lot of effort and submitting lots of news photos I'd want to be getting a nice return from each submission.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Haven't had any luck with live news haven't submitted a ton but got in when they first started - when I split the images between Alamy and SS (picked very different ones since some were RF and other RM) I sold a lot on SS and none on Alamy but I'm based in the US. Some of my live news images sold later as secondary editorial so still worthwhile but I've heard that for UK-based togs it can work well.

Give it a try and see how you do.

« Reply #64 on: September 03, 2015, 11:31 »
0
So, I have a question regarding editorial images.

If I upload an image to SS as editorial can I upload this same image to alamy? If I understand correctly editorial images must be uploaded on alamy as RM? So that means that I can't upload same editorial image on SS and alamy. Am I getting this right or not?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #65 on: September 03, 2015, 12:13 »
+2
That's right, you can't.  You have to choose.

« Reply #66 on: September 03, 2015, 12:19 »
0
Ok, thanks.

« Reply #67 on: September 08, 2015, 15:59 »
+4
Dumc - I've split images from an event  - most to Alamy and some to SS - but chose very different ones for SS. You can't use the same ones but if they are different enough I think IMHO you'd be ok.

« Reply #68 on: October 03, 2015, 03:31 »
0
ok, got 1 sale in 5 months.

« Reply #69 on: February 25, 2016, 14:35 »
+5
I have 900 on Getty and make about $7/month.  I'm starting to regret submitting all those exclusively to Getty.  I think I would have done far better with those photos even with microstock.  So now I'm looking into Alamy, 500px, etc as an alternative for future photos.

« Reply #70 on: February 25, 2016, 22:10 »
+1
Not yet. However, I love it there. My favorite site. They are friendly, the quality control is fair, they don't try to guess which images will sell, and managing images is a breeze. But I have been there only for two months and only have about 150 images.

« Reply #71 on: February 25, 2016, 22:12 »
0
So, I have a question regarding editorial images.

If I upload an image to SS as editorial can I upload this same image to alamy? If I understand correctly editorial images must be uploaded on alamy as RM? So that means that I can't upload same editorial image on SS and alamy. Am I getting this right or not?

You can upload an image is RM to Alamy and as editorial to other sites if you don't have the proper releases and Alamy's will not sell as RF.

« Reply #72 on: February 25, 2016, 22:52 »
+1
There is no such thing as success on Alamy.

Speak for yourself.   Some of us do pretty good on Alamy.

I agree there is no such thing as success on Alamy. I do OK with Alamy from 7000 photos, however Alamy is a perenial under performer compared to my other agencies including Getty. They just never really hit their straps in the marketplace.

« Reply #73 on: February 26, 2016, 01:57 »
+2
This month I've seen an uptick on Alamy.  It is coming back from the dead.  But still many low priced sales and none over $100.  3 or 4 years back you could get one or two big sales there and your month was made.   Now a dozen or so sales barely equal a payout.

authenticcreations

« Reply #74 on: February 26, 2016, 04:09 »
+1
There is no such thing as success on Alamy.

Speak for yourself.   Some of us do pretty good on Alamy.

I agree there is no such thing as success on Alamy. I do OK with Alamy from 7000 photos, however Alamy is a perenial under performer compared to my other agencies including Getty. They just never really hit their straps in the marketplace.

Wrong my friend. There is. If you dont it will not count for everyone. There are many that make good money there. If you have micro photos there then you ask to loosw money. Alamy you have to thread unique. Then you will see rewards.


 

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