MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Alamy.com => Topic started by: avr001 on January 30, 2019, 14:39
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Hi, I´m new in stockphotography and I´m a contributor of alamy for three months now. I had my first sale there ($11 so $5.5 net) I´m wondering which photos sell best in this agency.
Thanks in advance
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213 pages of topics, mainly about this question
https://discussion.alamy.com/forum/4-ask-the-forum/
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Hi, I´m new in stockphotography and I´m a contributor of alamy for three months now. I had my first sale there ($11 so $5.5 net) I´m wondering which photos sell best in this agency.
Thanks in advance
You'll have to do your own research as we will have no idea what kinds of photos you make.
However you can go look on the Alamy measures on the contributor site to see what sells
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Thanks
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In my experience anything can sell there - the same kinds of images that sell everywhere else. For the images that I make at least - not sure about other subjects.
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Hi, I´m new in stockphotography and I´m a contributor of alamy for three months now. I had my first sale there ($11 so $5.5 net) I´m wondering which photos sell best in this agency.
Thanks in advance
You'll have to do your own research as we will have no idea what kinds of photos you make.
However you can go look on the Alamy measures on the contributor site to see what sells
Which in most cases is like closing the barn door after the horses have run off. Be careful of recent sales on Alamy as an indication of future sales, except in broad terms and types of images. Specific keywords and specific subjects, by recent activity and downloads, are very much, yesterday's news.
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Be careful of recent sales on Alamy as an indication of future sales, except in broad terms and types of images. Specific keywords and specific subjects, by recent activity and downloads, are very much, yesterday's news.
Exactly right. Another thing is for sure, if any of us did know exactly the kinds of images to make for maximum profit we wouldn't blab it on a public forum filled with with potential competitors!
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Be careful of recent sales on Alamy as an indication of future sales, except in broad terms and types of images. Specific keywords and specific subjects, by recent activity and downloads, are very much, yesterday's news.
Exactly right. Another thing is for sure, if any of us did know exactly the kinds of images to make for maximum profit we wouldn't blab it on a public forum filled with with potential competitors!
These, plus looking at my own sparse sales, I can't even identify what type of my own images sell best. It seems particularly random, just what a particular buyer wanted at any given time.
Note also that the price is totally based on the buyer discount, not the rarity of the image.
From reading the forum, it seems that the larger value sales tend to be to the US (mostly US content) followed by Live News. But of course, only a very tiny proportion of contributers ever drop into the forum.
I'd venture to say that both by my own records and looking at AoA, wildlife doesn't seem to sell particularly well there.
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Nothing seems to sell these days/years on Alamy.
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I wish I knew. In my experience it seems pretty random. Especially when I only look at those for a decent $ amount. Lately it seems like very low value distributor sales for which I get < a few $ and much better "regular" alamy sales which can be at least double digit $ if not triple. Sadly those will get me 20% less soon.
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Thanks a lot for all the replies. Very useful
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Seagull shots are probably the best selling on Alamy
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Seagull shots are probably the best selling on Alamy
As well as ducks and flowers 😂
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Nothing seems to sell these days/years on Alamy.
I have been consistently selling on Adobe Stock and Shutterstock last year and no bites on Alamy. I've been starting to wonder if anyone does sell there.
Has anyone tried creating images on the "what should I shoot page?" (I'm searching for the Abba jumpsuits and finding a woman to walk a cheetah, but hoping I can make it soon to the Tomb of Mehu.) Seriously, though, is it worth consulting the list for some of the more reasonable items, with reasonable being a relative thing depending on location, budget, etc.?
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I was also curious about the "what should I shoot?" list. There are a few in the list that I can actually get, but wondered if there's much use in putting the effort into it.
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Nothing seems to sell these days/years on Alamy.
I have been consistently selling on Adobe Stock and Shutterstock last year and no bites on Alamy. I've been starting to wonder if anyone does sell there.
Has anyone tried creating images on the "what should I shoot page?" (I'm searching for the Abba jumpsuits and finding a woman to walk a cheetah, but hoping I can make it soon to the Tomb of Mehu.) Seriously, though, is it worth consulting the list for some of the more reasonable items, with reasonable being a relative thing depending on location, budget, etc.?
The list is based on searches they haven't been able to fulfil in the past (last year? not sure how long). However, three of the searches referring to places near me refer to historic legal cases, which may never be searched for again. (one doesn't actually exist any more, but people may have had a historic photo, it was a former children's home which featured in a 'historic abuse' inquiry early last year).
There was also a request for a town in Australia - but when I looked out of curiosity, I saw there were already over 600 photos, mostly high quality, of that town. I don't know whether that meant that someone had looked at over 600 pics without buying any (but their system isn't that informative) - but the potential buyer presumably would then filter down for what they actually wanted.
With the way prices are going on Alamy nowadays, I wouldn't go out of my way to fulfil any of these pics; but if I happened to be passing, why not?
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Nothing seems to sell these days/years on Alamy.
I have been consistently selling on Adobe Stock and Shutterstock last year and no bites on Alamy. I've been starting to wonder if anyone does sell there.
Has anyone tried creating images on the "what should I shoot page?" (I'm searching for the Abba jumpsuits and finding a woman to walk a cheetah, but hoping I can make it soon to the Tomb of Mehu.) Seriously, though, is it worth consulting the list for some of the more reasonable items, with reasonable being a relative thing depending on location, budget, etc.?
The list is based on searches they haven't been able to fulfil in the past (last year? not sure how long). However, three of the searches referring to places near me refer to historic legal cases, which may never be searched for again. (one doesn't actually exist any more, but people may have had a historic photo, it was a former children's home which featured in a 'historic abuse' inquiry early last year).
There was also a request for a town in Australia - but when I looked out of curiosity, I saw there were already over 600 photos, mostly high quality, of that town. I don't know whether that meant that someone had looked at over 600 pics without buying any (but their system isn't that informative) - but the potential buyer presumably would then filter down for what they actually wanted.
With the way prices are going on Alamy nowadays, I wouldn't go out of my way to fulfil any of these pics; but if I happened to be passing, why not?
All items listed on the "what should I shoot?" tool are verified manually to ensure that whatever appears on there is a genuine need. We don't add items on there that have just been searched for once for example. The list comes from search data but also feedback from our clients and sales teams.
If you found a case where we already have material of something listed, then what we're saying is that we need more of that subject and a fresh supply of imagery.
A quick note on the pricing comment at Alamy - although like all agencies our average prices started to dip around 2008 following the recession, our average price has actually been stable since 2015 at $35 per licence.
The "what should I shoot?" tool was introduced to help answer that very question that we get asked the most, pointing contributors to a list of image needs that have been asked for by clients and verified by us.
Cheers
James A
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I was also curious about the "what should I shoot?" list. There are a few in the list that I can actually get, but wondered if there's much use in putting the effort into it.
I've covered 3 'needs' with series of images (as many different angles as possible), and so far... no sales on these.
I won't bother covering more for the time being.
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Thanks for bringing this up. I didn't know there was a what to shoot, I just looked at recent sales in measures for my own ideas. I found that to be specific and history, not much of a useful indication of the future.
(https://i.postimg.cc/8PPv4fzH/just-one-more-thing.jpg) Here's a link so people don't need to search.
https://www.alamy.com/contentresearchtool/whatshouldishoot.aspx (https://www.alamy.com/contentresearchtool/whatshouldishoot.aspx)
Now I'll bookmark that on my browser.
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Once I shot specifically based on looking at my Alamy Measures when I saw an image of mine from 2006 show up a for a search of a rather obscure landmark (in a very touristy area) and knew I could shoot a better one since I was heading out on a photo trip and would be staying in that town. This was in 2016. I shot some vastly better images of it, uploaded them, and one sold for $250. It seemed like a good bet since there were only one or two pages of that particular place. I also shot images of the town, which I might not have bothered with, as my shot list was concentrating more on the surrounding vacation spots, but one of those sold for $60. (And I got into two gallery shows with fine art photos I shot of the surrounding area, as well - one of my favorite images I would not have shot otherwise).
The popular landmarks I shot on that trip have also sold on Alamy a few times and elsewhere many times, but other than fine art sales, that $250 ($175 to me) was my best profit for a single sale from that 5-day trip, so it can't hurt to look at the data available in What to Shoot as well as elsewhere on the site.
Magazines usually search well in advance of when they need an image, so that 'historical' data can be useful. I can't imagine that two customers were looking for that location, and I wouldn't have made a trip just to shoot it, but circumstances were perfect as it was right near where I was staying.
And many of the same images and same locations sell for me on Alamy year after year - travel sells best for me there (most sales at best prices - no difference between RF and RM) - so I wouldn't discount looking at what has sold in the past as that same place or concept might well sell again. If nothing else, when you are fresh out of ideas, it never hurts to look.
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Nothing seems to sell these days/years on Alamy.
I have been consistently selling on Adobe Stock and Shutterstock last year and no bites on Alamy. I've been starting to wonder if anyone does sell there.
Has anyone tried creating images on the "what should I shoot page?" (I'm searching for the Abba jumpsuits and finding a woman to walk a cheetah, but hoping I can make it soon to the Tomb of Mehu.) Seriously, though, is it worth consulting the list for some of the more reasonable items, with reasonable being a relative thing depending on location, budget, etc.?
Happy to say that the stock photo gods were listening on the forum. Had my first Alamy sale of one of my food photos to Lithuania. Only $2.19, but it's a start. Better than 0.25.
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Nothing seems to sell these days/years on Alamy.
I have been consistently selling on Adobe Stock and Shutterstock last year and no bites on Alamy. I've been starting to wonder if anyone does sell there.
Has anyone tried creating images on the "what should I shoot page?" (I'm searching for the Abba jumpsuits and finding a woman to walk a cheetah, but hoping I can make it soon to the Tomb of Mehu.) Seriously, though, is it worth consulting the list for some of the more reasonable items, with reasonable being a relative thing depending on location, budget, etc.?
Happy to say that the stock photo gods were listening on the forum. Had my first Alamy sale of one of my food photos to Lithuania. Only $2.19, but it's a start. Better than 0.25.
Bulk discount Lithuania I had one too and got a crappy 65 cents your $$2.19 will be less 30% to Alamy and less 40% to the distributor so you'll end with something crappy like mine :(
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Nothing seems to sell these days/years on Alamy.
I have been consistently selling on Adobe Stock and Shutterstock last year and no bites on Alamy. I've been starting to wonder if anyone does sell there.
Has anyone tried creating images on the "what should I shoot page?" (I'm searching for the Abba jumpsuits and finding a woman to walk a cheetah, but hoping I can make it soon to the Tomb of Mehu.) Seriously, though, is it worth consulting the list for some of the more reasonable items, with reasonable being a relative thing depending on location, budget, etc.?
Happy to say that the stock photo gods were listening on the forum. Had my first Alamy sale of one of my food photos to Lithuania. Only $2.19, but it's a start. Better than 0.25.
Bulk discount Lithuania I had one too and got a crappy 65 cents your $$2.19 will be less 30% to Alamy and less 40% to the distributor so you'll end with something crappy like mine :(
Same at China and Romania pennies from partners.