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Author Topic: Recently joined!! how successful??  (Read 35281 times)

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« on: February 21, 2009, 08:53 »
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Hey I recently joined alamy a couple of weeks ago and am slowly building up a portfolio on there. I was just wondering how successful you lot are on there. Im not asking to tell me any financials I just would like to know roughly how many images a month you sell?

Reason im asking is because firstly the price the images go for sure surely buyers would go to microstock agencies and before you say yes I know the size of the images are larger on alamy. I just generally want an idea of how sales are on the site

thanks

Ant


« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2009, 09:37 »
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I was on alamy for a year, never sold anything. :D

« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2009, 10:00 »
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Not only are the prices a little higher...  Bear in mind that your images are competing with roughly 15 million other images as well...  My guess is that when the buyers download from alamy, they're very sure that they actually really need that particular image...  On microstock, quite a lot  of download will proporly never get used... But at MS prices, I would imagine that the large buyers proporly don't care much...  That's not the case om Alamy...

Alamy contyributors will have less downloads, but when they come, they are worth quite some money...

That's my observation's and opinnion on the subject...

Flemming

« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2009, 10:10 »
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Reason im asking is because firstly the price the images go for sure surely buyers would go to microstock agencies and before you say yes I know the size of the images are larger on alamy. Ant

Hi Ant,
Most Microstock sites do not have editorial content and the images are mainly Royalty Free.

So your conclusion is not really true, as Alamy sell 78% of images for editorial use, and about the same percentage as Rights Managed (79%) and Royalty Free (21%).

So you can say that the Buyers and image usage is often from different type of company, first it is a bit confusing as to why the buyers prefer RM surly RF is cheaper you might say, but in a lot of cases you would be wrong, a news story about refuge collection they may require a spot size image for a single use and a limited run, this is often less that a small RF image on the traditional sites and the chance is they may never need to use this particular image again.

Take the credit crunch you may not find an image of the RBS or Northern Rock on the microsites but you will find many on Alamy, so most news stories will have an appropriate stock image on Alamy.

As to Sales this will depend on your portfolio, mainly content, type of image, how good you keyword, and if they are looking for and at your images amongst the 15 million others, if you upload an image of "The London Eye" yours would join the 35,000 other images that match the search, so you need to look at the All Alamy measures data, look at the search terms as a guide only as these are just from selected buyers, do lots of research looking at Sunday Newspaer Supplements, Lifestyle magazines, Travel magazines etc:, then you need to use tight keywording as spamming will hurt your Alamy Rank, but the more you put in the more you should get out.

Here ends this reply

David  ;D
  
« Last Edit: February 21, 2009, 10:19 by Adeptris »

« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2009, 12:10 »
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Reason im asking is because firstly the price the images go for sure surely buyers would go to microstock agencies and before you say yes I know the size of the images are larger on alamy. Ant

Hi Ant,
Most Microstock sites do not have editorial content and the images are mainly Royalty Free.

So your conclusion is not really true, as Alamy sell 78% of images for editorial use, and about the same percentage as Rights Managed (79%) and Royalty Free (21%).

So you can say that the Buyers and image usage is often from different type of company, first it is a bit confusing as to why the buyers prefer RM surly RF is cheaper you might say, but in a lot of cases you would be wrong, a news story about refuge collection they may require a spot size image for a single use and a limited run, this is often less that a small RF image on the traditional sites and the chance is they may never need to use this particular image again.

Take the credit crunch you may not find an image of the RBS or Northern Rock on the microsites but you will find many on Alamy, so most news stories will have an appropriate stock image on Alamy.

As to Sales this will depend on your portfolio, mainly content, type of image, how good you keyword, and if they are looking for and at your images amongst the 15 million others, if you upload an image of "The London Eye" yours would join the 35,000 other images that match the search, so you need to look at the All Alamy measures data, look at the search terms as a guide only as these are just from selected buyers, do lots of research looking at Sunday Newspaer Supplements, Lifestyle magazines, Travel magazines etc:, then you need to use tight keywording as spamming will hurt your Alamy Rank, but the more you put in the more you should get out.

Here ends this reply

David  ;D
  

This pretty much sums it up real well.. Alamy is really heavy on editorial, so I would think of it in those terms when building a portfolio.. Their commercial images are somewhat outdated for the most part and have to compete with the micros collections.. Someone here on this forum that is very versed in the macro market as well as entering strong in the micro market once told me I don't know how those guy's on Alamy make it..

 I'm not sure concentrating on Alamy with commercial images is worth it, although things may possibly change with their new commercial collection setup.. But noone really knows how that's going to turn out.. I think travel and editorial is worth uploading..

 As far as sales there, it is slow but one sale from an image I took in Ireland made me $270 recently.. So one sale is much better than months of sales at certain micro agencies.. Also remember that quite a few people are uploading their micro images to alamy and that will in the future have an effect on the way the sites direction goes as well.. Buyers will eventually figure out that the images are in both places and get turned off..

« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2009, 13:17 »
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I have about 700 images with them now and have been selling about 1 a month.  Nice size sales when the come... :)

RT


« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2009, 20:22 »
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Don't bother with any commercial type images they don't sell, stick with editorial on Alamy.

« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2009, 21:46 »
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Although all my sales have been editorial, a friend recently sold a few commercial images (RF) and got more than the editorial prices. RF prices are higher in Alamy than L. Plus, Alamy has started a commercial collection, probably for the needs of the US market.

It is my impression that Alamy is expanding itself into the RF market more aggressively, or at least it hopes.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2009, 22:00 by Freedom »

« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2009, 22:04 »
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Although all my sales have been editorial, a friend recently sold a few commercial images (RF) and got more than the editorial prices. RF prices are higher in Alamy than L. Plus, Alamy has started a commercial collection, probably for the needs of the US market.

It is my impression that Alamy is expanding itself into the RF market, or at least it hopes.

Alamy has been in the RF market for a long time. About 5/8 of my sales there are RF. They do make some very good commercial sales ($10k+) but often of editorial slanted images. They do sell commercial images though often for editorial uses and prices. Average prices aren't high but of course appear astronomical compared to micro. With a US office and a start of commercial collection their market base may change.

« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2009, 02:58 »
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Although all my sales have been editorial, a friend recently sold a few commercial images (RF) and got more than the editorial prices. RF prices are higher in Alamy than L. Plus, Alamy has started a commercial collection, probably for the needs of the US market.

It is my impression that Alamy is expanding itself into the RF market more aggressively, or at least it hopes.

The expansion is more territories than into RF, Alamy have just recorded thier first negative growth slowdown quarter on quarter, new UK clients and markets have dried up so they are looking for new growth, with 75% of stock image sales, 20% of photographers and 25% of thier sales being in or to the USA this has become the target.

There are new markets in asia but these would require huge changes and investment also licences would be hard to police, so the US a country with a common language is a bonus.

Alamy sales are 78% editorial but the US editorial market is already sewn up, so there is no way the unknown Alamy is going to break into he editorial market.

That leaves the commercial market, macro sites that looked to be starting up and making progress had the investors pull-out, with no finance they folded, Alamy does not need venture capital as it is already trading and has no debt so the risk is lower, there is a commercial market to grow into, but this will take 18-24 months, the value would also need to be on price point and quality, Alamy has started to make some changes to filter the commercial images into a new section, these will also stay in the all Alamy.

The main problem they have at the moment is that the photographers are seen as professional and trusted to set the licence options on the images after QC acceptance, Alamy only QC some images in a batch for quality not content, so there are unreleased images that do require a release for commercial use turning up in the commercial collection, this is because the photographer or agency has not been honest, also with other images there is no way at the moment to mark images of flowers, food and other subjects as commercialy safe.

So at the moment there is no right sort of image to upload, commercial or editorial only, specialist or diverse, my personal thoughts are to carry on uploading with a preference for the RM licence and wait until Alamy sort out the check boxes for the commercial collection.

These are just my opinions as an Alamy Contributor from what I have read and observed.

David  :-\         
« Last Edit: February 22, 2009, 03:02 by Adeptris »

e-person

« Reply #10 on: February 22, 2009, 05:12 »
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I have been there since October 2007, more or less. Have more than 500 photos. Zero sales. At the same time, I made more than one thousand dollars on microstock, with fewer images. Of course I am none. Still...

« Reply #11 on: February 22, 2009, 06:33 »
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I have been there since October 2007, more or less. Have more than 500 photos. Zero sales. At the same time, I made more than one thousand dollars on microstock, with fewer images. Of course I am none. Still...

How much research have you done since?

Unlike some micros there is only one level of Photographer / Contributor, I have less Images than you but get regular views and zooms and have had sales, as an average one in a hundred viewed images get a zoom, so we are talking 1%.

Research? 
Look at your statistics "Your Alamy Measures" are you getting views and zooms, what is the ratio of these, are the search terms relevent to your images, if not you will need to look at your keywords and placement.

Look at other statistics "All Alamy Measures" what is getting views and zooms, what is the ratio of these, are the search terms relevent to your images but you are not getting views, if not you will again need to look at your keywords and placement.

Look at your images and the number of keywords the relevence and the placement of these, on Alamy and on most good sites Less is more so your essential keywords should reflect what you see, if your image is a Girl Brushing Her Teeth then you first 3 keywords should likely be Girl Brushing Teeth, as a rule I only have a total of between 10 - 15 keywords and these are only Essential and Main, also take enough interest to do this correctly, do not rely on keywording software to generate the keywords and just accept them as placement is very important.

This might also apply to a few other sites, just do a search to see where your images fit in with similar images from other photographers, make sure you test with an image that is keyworded well and use a typical buyers search string and options, one that is based on your "first few keywords", like "Girl Brusing Teeth", one you would use if you was looking for an image, then have a look where your image comes up, if it is way down the resulting images ask yourself why, if it because there are to many pages then you are just shooting the same images as everyone else in a saturated area.

When I search on my Alamy Images essential keywords my Images appear often in the top 5% of the returned images, my 2 "Girl Brusing Teeth" images turn up in Rows 3 and 7 from 183 rows of 5 images (918 Images in total)

This is the sort of research I do:
With 4 pictures of the popular landmark The London Eye I done two searches.

Search "London Eye" all images, 1st and 4th Keywords (Essentials)
My First Image, Page 19 of 130 Image 2300 0f 15484

Search "London Attraction" all images, 1st and 2nd Keywords (Essentials)
My First Image, Page 15 of 283 image 1724 of 33934

The second search with the first two keywords just shows me how important keyword placement is.

If I am keywording right and getting views with no sales then my images are not what the buyer was looking for or just not good enough, if I am not getting views then I am keywording wrong or shooting the wrong subjects.
 
David ;D Simples   

For non UK readers "Simples" is a phrase used in a UK advertisment
   
« Last Edit: February 22, 2009, 06:45 by Adeptris »

e-person

« Reply #12 on: February 22, 2009, 12:26 »
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I get views and zooms, some months more than all of Alamy average, some months less, still no sales, though. Even if I am not English mother tongue, my keywords are not complete rubbish and are relevant to the subject.

Thing is, I don't have any UK images, so far.

« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2009, 01:24 »
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1000 images on Alamy
3-5 sales regular sales per month.
Royalty earnings usually betwwen $100- 500 US with the best sale being $1200 US for one image and the lowest $39.
I get to keep over two thirds the sale price.
And yes mostly editorial type image which wouldnt be accepted on microstock.
My earning per image has been dropping off a little lately but not a lot
I suppose this can be expected with the supply of so many images available worldwide.
And of course my Alamy/superstock images are completely different images to my 'generic' microstock ones.
I can see the tradional and microstock both having their own markets at this stage.
But as micros go editorial I can see the tradional libraries going bust unless they lower their prices to match.


« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2009, 19:42 »
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 As far as sales there, it is slow but one sale from an image I took in Ireland made me $270 recently.. So one sale is much better than months of sales at certain micro agencies.. Also remember that quite a few people are uploading their micro images to alamy and that will in the future have an effect on the way the sites direction goes as well.. Buyers will eventually figure out that the images are in both places and get turned off..

This is the kind of statement I used to keep hearing.  I got sucked in by this faulty logic, and went to the trouble of uploading a couple of hundred images to Alamy (about three-quarters editorial and travel).   I haven't had a single sale yet, after 3 months.   I do regularly sell editorial photos at DT (at low prices, to be sure, but if you know your math, that's infinitely more than nothing).   Alamy recently published some sales figures, and it turns out that the average photographer's revenue per image is 80 cents per year.  If that's the case, it's not worth the effort to upload to Alamy, because I do much better than that on the  microstock sites  (where the best one is Istock, with $4000 in the past year on 1000 images, in spite of their low commission rate).   In fact, I have stopped uploading to Alamy, and would have to see some sales before I go to the trouble of adding more.    Alamy has some good images, but also a lot of junk, because they are the least selective of any stock agency I have seen.   At the prices they charge, buyers don't get very good value, so it's not surprising that sales are poor.    In spite of their high prices, Alamy's searching is pretty much cruder than any microstock, with no disambiguation, and that wastes the buyer's time.

« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2009, 22:45 »
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But, isn't that an interesting point? Alamy lives, until now, by selling at much higher prices. They have problems indeed and i on myself haven't sold anything there, but... after having some bad experiences with FT in the last month I'm looking for alternatives. Looking for agencys who treat artists with the minimum respect someone can estimate. As human contractor. Alamy behave like this, maybe owed on their problems in the market, but i'm more than willing to support this attitude.
During the last weeks i started to build up my portfolio on alamy with some of my best  new images, just to support them or let me say: to give them a chance.
I like the way they communicate and behave with their distributors and like the prices also. Why don't support them? If all distributors support agencys what only dump prices in a nearly quaterly time...no one should complain about prices going under the basement.

But by the way...i only sale much (nearly 1000 USD a month) at FT, and they behave real bad with distributors. Maybee my engagement wouldn't be that high if i hadn't my startup, experiences and success only at FT. I tried to make me a home there and they gave me a kick in the ass. crap happens, hard reallity here i will come.

Greets from Bertold



« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2009, 03:27 »
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What is really interesting is the zoom/sale ratio.
Currently I am at 9,5 zooms/sale.
I have a portfolio of 88 images online and currently 6 zooms in the last 30 days. So theoretical I can expect  one sale every 1,5 month.
Btw my revenue per image is ~ $11/year (for 2008). That is not as good as my iStock revenue, but better than the other micros.
However with 88 images my sample is relatively low and I had no sales this year so far and maybe I was just lucky. But at least it tells me yes you can make some good money with them. Looking at these numbers I am actually encouraged to upload some more from my work.

@Danybot. Three month is not much on Alamy. Sometimes it takes quite a while until you are notified of sales.

« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2009, 08:49 »
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What is really interesting is the zoom/sale ratio.
Currently I am at 9,5 zooms/sale.
I have a portfolio of 88 images online and currently 6 zooms in the last 30 days. So theoretical I can expect  one sale every 1,5 month.
Btw my revenue per image is ~ $11/year (for 2008). That is not as good as my iStock revenue, but better than the other micros.
However with 88 images my sample is relatively low and I had no sales this year so far and maybe I was just lucky. But at least it tells me yes you can make some good money with them. Looking at these numbers I am actually encouraged to upload some more from my work.

@Danybot. Three month is not much on Alamy. Sometimes it takes quite a while until you are notified of sales.
I joined Alamy only a few weeks ago and have 16 images online. Right now I have 6 zooms in the last 30 days. I guess it means one a sale is possible in the near future :) I thought that their statistics updates once every day, including the sales. It takes longer sometimes?

« Reply #18 on: March 26, 2009, 09:47 »
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 As far as sales there, it is slow but one sale from an image I took in Ireland made me $270 recently.. So one sale is much better than months of sales at certain micro agencies.. Also remember that quite a few people are uploading their micro images to alamy and that will in the future have an effect on the way the sites direction goes as well.. Buyers will eventually figure out that the images are in both places and get turned off..

This is the kind of statement I used to keep hearing.  I got sucked in by this faulty logic, and went to the trouble of uploading a couple of hundred images to Alamy (about three-quarters editorial and travel).   I haven't had a single sale yet, after 3 months.   I do regularly sell editorial photos at DT (at low prices, to be sure, but if you know your math, that's infinitely more than nothing).   Alamy recently published some sales figures, and it turns out that the average photographer's revenue per image is 80 cents per year.  If that's the case, it's not worth the effort to upload to Alamy, because I do much better than that on the  microstock sites  (where the best one is Istock, with $4000 in the past year on 1000 images, in spite of their low commission rate).   In fact, I have stopped uploading to Alamy, and would have to see some sales before I go to the trouble of adding more.    Alamy has some good images, but also a lot of junk, because they are the least selective of any stock agency I have seen.   At the prices they charge, buyers don't get very good value, so it's not surprising that sales are poor.    In spite of their high prices, Alamy's searching is pretty much cruder than any microstock, with no disambiguation, and that wastes the buyer's time.

I don't think you have been there long enough to come to this conclusion.. You start at a middle rank and work your way up from there and sales can take months to actually come together.. I think your calculations of $0,80 per image is not really the case, maybe if you are calculating all the crap and bad keyworded images yes.. But I think if you took all the real hard working photographers and averaged their per image income it would be a different number.. most people say that if you are decent you can expect somewhere at 1 sale per month per every 1000 images if you averaged that sale at $100 you get $10 per image per month.. But it is not fast cash like the micros, you have to wait for things to start rolling.. And alamy is a great place I think for good editorial and RM that wouldn't make the mass download thresh hold on micro, unless you have access to Getty or Jupiter RM but that is a different story all together..

 Actually their search is a pretty logical setup you handle all the keyword plurals to make sure plural actually fits the image.. You get moved up the search by how many views to zooms/sales, so if your images are good and keyworded good then you will be rewarded.. If your images suck and you have spammed or bad keywording you get penalized.. Seems pretty logical to me..

« Reply #19 on: March 26, 2009, 10:09 »
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.. most people say that if you are decent you can expect somewhere at 1 sale per month per every 1000 images if you averaged that sale at $100 you get $10 per image per month.. But it is not fast cash like the micros, you have to wait for things to start rolling..

I am all with you except with your calculation... you probably just mixed up the numbers ..
$10/image/month I believe is more than Yuris Arcurs makes on all microstock agencies together.

RacePhoto

« Reply #20 on: March 26, 2009, 18:36 »
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.. most people say that if you are decent you can expect somewhere at 1 sale per month per every 1000 images if you averaged that sale at $100 you get $10 per image per month.. But it is not fast cash like the micros, you have to wait for things to start rolling..


I am all with you except with your calculation... you probably just mixed up the numbers ..
$10/image/month I believe is more than Yuris Arcurs makes on all microstock agencies together.


Comparing apples to watermelons?  :D

The top seller on Alamy compared to Yuri or Lise would be a fair point, not the average seller on Alamy compared to the top seller in Micro.

"At Alamy, the top photographer earned about $163,000 and the 100th on the list earned $15,600. Lise Gagne probably earned more than $163,000, but she is also exclusive with iStock. How many at iStock earn more than $15,600 annually? What about the next 100? Alamy has 15,127 photographers. iStock has about 47,000..."

Average RPI on Alamy is about $1.80 per image. not 80c. There's more but I'd rather work with fair numbers.

https://secure.alamy.com/Alamy%20iStock%20comparisons.pdf

There's no way to create an accurate downloads per view prediction until after the fact. Someone could have 1200 topical photos and thousands of views, with no sales. Someone else could have a broad collection of marketable photos and have good sales. The same thing happens at IS and other micro sites. There are some people on IS with very high download numbers and only 200-300 photos.

Good reading...

http://istockcharts.multimedia.de/

Position number 1000 on IS averages 20 downloads a month. Roughly $165 a year.

One photo sale on Alamy can easily earn that. Even with the discounted rates, three photo sales a year will equal that. The average RF license at Alamy in Q3 2007 was about $235, and the average commercial license was $393.

Both can be valuable, each with own marketing strategy, and different types of photos. Keep in mind that RM and editorial bring in bigger numbers at Alamy. RF in volume creates the sales at IS.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2009, 18:38 by RacePhoto »

« Reply #21 on: March 26, 2009, 18:44 »
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Good reading...

http://istockcharts.multimedia.de/

Position number 1000 on IS averages 20 downloads a month. Roughly $165 a year.

One photo sale on Alamy can easily earn that. Even with the discounted rates, three photo sales a year will equal that. The average RF license at Alamy in Q3 2007 was about $235, and the average commercial license was $393.

Both can be valuable, each with own marketing strategy, and different types of photos. Keep in mind that RM and editorial bring in bigger numbers at Alamy. RF in volume creates the sales at IS.



Read that chart again.  Position number 1000 on IS averages 20 downloads a day, not a month...  and it's a Gold Exclusive, that'll be more than you're calculating as income.  I'd guess roughly $4,500 to $5000 a year as a conservative estimate, possibly more with the new prices.


Edited to add:

Actually even that estimate is way too low.  I averaged $1.32 per download on IS last year, and I'm Silver.  A Gold, on the same basis, would average $1.60 per download, for 20 downloads that's $32 per day or getting on for $10,000 a year.  Your mileage may vary.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2009, 19:00 by Gannet77 »

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #22 on: March 26, 2009, 18:55 »
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I read a few posts on Alamy that on average $1 per image per year is common. Micro seems to average $1 per image per month.

So since I only have 60 pictures there it looks like I only need to submit about 100,000 more to consider it successful. 

« Reply #23 on: March 26, 2009, 18:57 »
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.. most people say that if you are decent you can expect somewhere at 1 sale per month per every 1000 images if you averaged that sale at $100 you get $10 per image per month.. But it is not fast cash like the micros, you have to wait for things to start rolling..


I am all with you except with your calculation... you probably just mixed up the numbers ..
$10/image/month I believe is more than Yuris Arcurs makes on all microstock agencies together.


Comparing apples to watermelons?  :D

The top seller on Alamy compared to Yuri or Lise would be a fair point, not the average seller on Alamy compared to the top seller in Micro.

"At Alamy, the top photographer earned about $163,000 and the 100th on the list earned $15,600. Lise Gagne probably earned more than $163,000, but she is also exclusive with iStock. How many at iStock earn more than $15,600 annually? What about the next 100? Alamy has 15,127 photographers. iStock has about 47,000..."

Average RPI on Alamy is about $1.80 per image. not 80c. There's more but I'd rather work with fair numbers.

https://secure.alamy.com/Alamy%20iStock%20comparisons.pdf

There's no way to create an accurate downloads per view prediction until after the fact. Someone could have 1200 topical photos and thousands of views, with no sales. Someone else could have a broad collection of marketable photos and have good sales. The same thing happens at IS and other micro sites. There are some people on IS with very high download numbers and only 200-300 photos.

Good reading...

http://istockcharts.multimedia.de/

Position number 1000 on IS averages 20 downloads a month. Roughly $165 a year.

One photo sale on Alamy can easily earn that. Even with the discounted rates, three photo sales a year will equal that. The average RF license at Alamy in Q3 2007 was about $235, and the average commercial license was $393.

Both can be valuable, each with own marketing strategy, and different types of photos. Keep in mind that RM and editorial bring in bigger numbers at Alamy. RF in volume creates the sales at IS.



Errr.... an average of 20 downloads per day... not month... there is a small difference on your calculations... income would be more like $8000pa for a non-exclusive IS contributor.

« Reply #24 on: March 26, 2009, 22:54 »
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I don't think there will be an average factor what will work for any distributor. Thats why this is creative business and not technical production process. I earn more than 2$ on every Image i have online - at a month - and i'm a newbie in this business.
Quality and quantity are always and in every case different factors what can't be messured in one single size.

But, back to my previous comment, doesn't anyone think its a good idea to support agencies with good behave and better prices? Maybe by accepting lower results?

« Reply #25 on: March 27, 2009, 02:35 »
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I joined Alamy only a few weeks ago and have 16 images online. Right now I have 6 zooms in the last 30 days. I guess it means one a sale is possible in the near future :) I thought that their statistics updates once every day, including the sales. It takes longer sometimes?

Yes it takes longer in fact, I just had a sale reported today. But the sale occured in Februray.

RacePhoto

« Reply #26 on: March 27, 2009, 18:32 »
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I read a few posts on Alamy that on average $1 per image per year is common. Micro seems to average $1 per image per month.

So since I only have 60 pictures there it looks like I only need to submit about 100,000 more to consider it successful. 


Top 100, but might be interesting.



PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #27 on: March 27, 2009, 20:07 »
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If that's per year then those numbers are consistent with what I've heard.

RacePhoto

« Reply #28 on: March 28, 2009, 00:47 »
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If that's per year then those numbers are consistent with what I've heard.

Then why would you write this, when the data shows it's not accurate? "I read a few posts on Alamy that on average $1 per image per year is common. Micro seems to average $1 per image per month." Really? Micro averages $1 per image per month?

You win, I give up. Micro is 12 times more profitable than Alamy.  ::)



« Last Edit: March 29, 2009, 13:26 by RacePhoto »

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #29 on: March 28, 2009, 06:37 »
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Wow, must have missed your anger management classes yesterday.

« Reply #30 on: March 28, 2009, 08:11 »
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If that's per year then those numbers are consistent with what I've heard.

Then why would you write this, when the data shows it's not accurate? "I read a few posts on Alamy that on average $1 per image per year is common. Micro seems to average $1 per image per month." Really? Micro averages $1 per image per month?

You win, I give up. Micro is 12 times more profitable than Alamy.  ::)


Selecting data for the top 100 and using that as an argument to claim that an average of $1 per image per year is inaccurate isn't exactly the best use of statistic. There are those who perform better - clearly represented in the top 100, and those who don't, which clearly aren't. If the top earner gets $59 per image per year, and the bottom earner in the top 100 gets only $1, then its entirely consistent with the theory that on average Alamy earns $1 per image per year. Actually on those figures $1 per year seems somewhat high.

I'm not saying that there isn't a place for Alamy - clearly there is which is why I contribute images that I think will do well. At the same time there are images that perform very well on microstock that would never register any interest on Alamy.

Maybe everyone should take their daily dose of Valium and relax about it.

afs

« Reply #31 on: April 01, 2009, 13:59 »
0
I make over $40,000 (after their commission) per year from 6000 images on Alamy. One image sold for $3600 last year, though the average RM image sells for about $135.

Yes there are a lot of images on Alamy but remember that it is unedited so many of them are not great plus there are a LOT of similars.

Also remember that many of the posters on here who report zero sales are not representative of most people's experience.

Alamy is unique and gets much better rates than the micros. If you can take relevant sellable images than I recommend making the switch.

« Reply #32 on: April 01, 2009, 16:22 »
0
Welcome afs, good to hear the opinion from such an experienced Alamy contributor as you!
I would be very interested to have a look at you portfolio, would that be possible? I am interested what sells on Alamy, thats why I ask. You can send me a PM, if you wish. Thanks!

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #33 on: April 01, 2009, 21:40 »
0
I make over $40,000 (after their commission) per year from 6000 images on Alamy. One image sold for $3600 last year, though the average RM image sells for about $135.

Yes there are a lot of images on Alamy but remember that it is unedited so many of them are not great plus there are a LOT of similars.

Also remember that many of the posters on here who report zero sales are not representative of most people's experience.

Alamy is unique and gets much better rates than the micros. If you can take relevant sellable images than I recommend making the switch.

Hey afs, thanks for posting your experience.

Your numbers show about .55 per image per month which is actually comparable to overall micro earnings. The average amount per sale is higher but with lower volume the end result is similar.

« Reply #34 on: April 01, 2009, 22:02 »
0
My numbers on alamy:
joined 12/2007
94 images
3200 views
27 zooms
ctr .83
1 sale for $ 299.00 1 month ago
main subject  travel [mexico]/editorial
I believe if I would have work harder on my submissions by now I would have had more sales. But I concentrated on the easy micro sales.

KB

« Reply #35 on: April 01, 2009, 22:41 »
0
Your numbers show about .55 per image per month which is actually comparable to overall micro earnings. The average amount per sale is higher but with lower volume the end result is similar.
I apologize for this drift into off-topic land, but I hadn't come across that figure before.

So an average someone with, say, 1000 images in their port would be expected to make an average of $550 / mo? Is that at each micro? Just the top 4? 2? Or all of them as a combined effort?

Again, apologies, and I hope this ends up being just a one OT Q&A. Thanks!

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #36 on: April 01, 2009, 23:17 »
0
Your numbers show about .55 per image per month which is actually comparable to overall micro earnings. The average amount per sale is higher but with lower volume the end result is similar.

I apologize for this drift into off-topic land, but I hadn't come across that figure before.

So an average someone with, say, 1000 images in their port would be expected to make an average of $550 / mo? Is that at each micro? Just the top 4? 2? Or all of them as a combined effort?

Again, apologies, and I hope this ends up being just a one OT Q&A. Thanks!

I'd say that's average for all contributors. And yes, your calculation is right. If you submitted to the top 4 or a dozen sites, you'd probably be in the $.50 to $1.00 range per image per month. Some people make a lot more, some a lot less.

If you want a good example check out Lee Torrens site at http://www.microstockdiaries.com/. This month he's at $1.37 per image per month average. In the past he's been in the .80 range. So that's actually better than afs's figures but Lee is submitting to multiple sites where afs is using only Alamy. If Lee was only at one site his earnings per image per month would probably be a lot less.

KB

« Reply #37 on: April 01, 2009, 23:57 »
0
Thanks, I really appreciate the info. It helps me get an idea of how I'm doing relative to the "norm".

RacePhoto

« Reply #38 on: April 02, 2009, 20:01 »
0
Thanks, I really appreciate the info. It helps me get an idea of how I'm doing relative to the "norm".

Here's another one for you KB

Quote
Total Gross Sales: $3378.56

Total of 28 Sales

The number of images I have on Alamy has grown from approx 400 to just
over 1000 pictures during the year.

All sales editorial 1/4 or 1/8th page except for one website home page,
one brochure cover and one press advert.

Majority of sales from set up model released studio sessions. 18 out of
the total 28 sales.

Highest single value sales from sudio still life and "wandering"
pictures. Highest sale $ 404.69 for a UK financial services brochure
cover, lowest sale $ 36.07 for an 1/8th page Czech Republic editorial.

afs

« Reply #39 on: April 03, 2009, 09:19 »
0
The other thing I want to mention is the shelf life of images on Alamy is longer. Images which I took 5 or more years ago continue to sell.

My photos are mostly real life people and places rather than set up situations or studio work.

lisafx

« Reply #40 on: April 03, 2009, 13:01 »
0
The other thing I want to mention is the shelf life of images on Alamy is longer. Images which I took 5 or more years ago continue to sell.

My photos are mostly real life people and places rather than set up situations or studio work.

The people you have, are they model released?  If so, are you selling RF or RM?

afs

« Reply #41 on: April 03, 2009, 14:33 »
0
Some model released but not that many. All RM.

lisafx

« Reply #42 on: April 03, 2009, 14:51 »
0
Some model released but not that many. All RM.

Thanks for the info.  :)

You certainly make a strong case for uploading my non-model released people shots to Alamy RM.   Will have to devote some time to that, maybe over the summer. 

« Reply #43 on: April 06, 2009, 11:12 »
0
Well... I got my first sale! It will end up being about $40 in my account - not the big sales that some have, but still nice start seeing as I've only been uploading for about 6 mths, and still only have around 200 images online.

« Reply #44 on: April 06, 2009, 14:16 »
0
Congratulations! :)

I wanted to know, do you get an email when you sell an image there?

« Reply #45 on: April 06, 2009, 14:18 »
0
Congrats Holgs! No you do not get an e-mail when you get a sale.

« Reply #46 on: April 06, 2009, 19:32 »
0
Thanks! No email, so its probably worth checking there once in a while. They do give you a summary of how the image is used though which is nice:

Country: United Kingdom
Usage: Editorial
Media: Newspaper - National
Industry: Media Industry
Sub-Industry: Publishing
Print run: up to 2 million
Placement: Inside
Image Size: 1/4 page
Start: 03 April 2009
End: 04 April 2009

« Reply #47 on: April 06, 2009, 22:52 »
0
Thanks guys, I do keep checking :)

« Reply #48 on: April 06, 2009, 22:53 »
0
Congrats, holgs. It's good to sell at a fair price.

« Reply #49 on: April 07, 2009, 15:48 »
0
Just sold one today for $365 less 40% commission of $146 leaving me $219. Because the image is RF there is no sale info available, the detailed summary shown by 'Holgs' is for RM sales. Most of my port is RF so most of my sales have been RF. Sales may be less frequent at Alamy, but they are always a nice surprise :-)

« Reply #50 on: April 07, 2009, 16:19 »
0
Nice, thats almost a payout :)

« Reply #51 on: April 07, 2009, 16:57 »
0
Nice, thats almost a payout :)

Tantalizingly close, as my balance was already paid, I'll probably have to wait months before I reach $250 for the next payout ;-)

« Reply #52 on: November 12, 2009, 11:45 »
0
Nice, thats almost a payout :)

Sorry to dig up an old thread.... but I just wanted to give an update on how Alamy was doing.

Somewhere in the last 6 months I must have got a sale somewhere that I missed, because on my calculations I wasn't due for a payout... still I got an email from Australia today letting me know that I'd received a cheque from Alamy.

Despite my intentions to upload a lot more files, I've been pretty slow on the follow through - I now have a little over 500 images there, after recently uploading another 150, but just received news that the first payout has arrived - $308 from 7 sales, the first of which was in April.

Put into RPI figures over the year that I've been contributing there, it works out to over $2 per image, which makes alamy my #3 site for this particular statistic - still well behind SS and IS, but ahead of all the other sites. With the size of my portfolio the margin for error is pretty huge... still just thought I'd put it out there for all the Alamy detractors ;)

lisafx

« Reply #53 on: November 12, 2009, 19:09 »
0

Despite my intentions to upload a lot more files, I've been pretty slow on the follow through - I now have a little over 500 images there, after recently uploading another 150, but just received news that the first payout has arrived - $308 from 7 sales, the first of which was in April.


Interesting.  Reading over this thread I see that in April I was planning to spend the summer uploading some RM to Alamy.  Haven't gotten around to it yet.  How embarassing  :-[

My sales there are definitely headed south though.  I have 5k images and am not managing to get a payout each month.  Probably a lot of it is that it took me awhile to catch on to their keywording scheme.   

If I took the time to go back and rekeyword my images I might see a sales uptick, but can't manage to find time for that grind, and considering how many hours it would take I am not sure there is enough incentive. 

dbvirago

« Reply #54 on: November 12, 2009, 19:22 »
0
By keywording scheme do you mean the essential vs the other two boxes, or do you know a better way to get hits? Last year I did ok, there, but this year, it has fallen off a lot. I would spend some time making changes it if made a difference, but not sure what to do there. Very erratic

lisafx

« Reply #55 on: November 12, 2009, 19:41 »
0
I have been doing okay with my essential keywords, but I think I have overloaded the "main keywords" boxes with as many as I could put in.  I think that has negatively affected my CTR rate. 

« Reply #56 on: November 12, 2009, 19:45 »
0
I have a problem with Alamy search (and therefore CTR) because everytime someone searches for Adelaide (Australia) my images are included.   :-\

« Reply #57 on: November 12, 2009, 20:12 »
0
I have a problem with Alamy search (and therefore CTR) because everytime someone searches for Adelaide (Australia) my images are included.   :-\


Ouch... not good! Very strange that they'd include a contributors name in the search. Have you tried emailing support to see if there is some sort of fix?

dbvirago

« Reply #58 on: November 12, 2009, 21:18 »
0
I have been doing okay with my essential keywords, but I think I have overloaded the "main keywords" boxes with as many as I could put in.  I think that has negatively affected my CTR rate. 

Got it. When I pared down my keywords to essentials, it helped my CTR rate a lot, but I think sales actually dropped. Alamy is a complete mystery to me.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #59 on: November 13, 2009, 05:32 »
0
I have a problem with Alamy search (and therefore CTR) because everytime someone searches for Adelaide (Australia) my images are included.   :-\


Ouch... not good! Very strange that they'd include a contributors name in the search. Have you tried emailing support to see if there is some sort of fix?
This is the fact. I noted it on the forum a couple of weeks ago, but I assumed support knew about it. Maybe not!

« Reply #60 on: November 13, 2009, 05:48 »
0
I have a problem with Alamy search (and therefore CTR) because everytime someone searches for Adelaide (Australia) my images are included.   :-\


Ouch... not good! Very strange that they'd include a contributors name in the search. Have you tried emailing support to see if there is some sort of fix?
This is the fact. I noted it on the forum a couple of weeks ago, but I assumed support knew about it. Maybe not!

You can create several pseudonyms (user names) on Alamy - perhaps you should make a new one (in the same account) and move your photos over to that name.  Some people do this to differentiate different parts of their their portfolio.

lisafx

« Reply #61 on: November 13, 2009, 09:54 »
0

Got it. When I pared down my keywords to essentials, it helped my CTR rate a lot, but I think sales actually dropped. Alamy is a complete mystery to me.

Thanks for sharing that.  I definitely won't bother if it doesn't increase sales. 

« Reply #62 on: November 13, 2009, 15:49 »
0
You can create several pseudonyms (user names) on Alamy - perhaps you should make a new one (in the same account) and move your photos over to that name.  Some people do this to differentiate different parts of their their portfolio.

Leaf, are you referring to me?  It's quite odd that I would not use my name in my pseudonym, especially in RM images that will be probably used, if sold, in editorial content. 

I have already thought of emailing them, as holgs suggested.  Maybe they could have a separate field for photographer name, when someones wants this specific search.

RacePhoto

« Reply #63 on: November 13, 2009, 23:28 »
0
You can create several pseudonyms (user names) on Alamy - perhaps you should make a new one (in the same account) and move your photos over to that name.  Some people do this to differentiate different parts of their their portfolio.


Leaf, are you referring to me?  It's quite odd that I would not use my name in my pseudonym, especially in RM images that will be probably used, if sold, in editorial content. 

I have already thought of emailing them, as holgs suggested.  Maybe they could have a separate field for photographer name, when someones wants this specific search.


It has been discussed a number of times. I suppose that there are many names that would get more hits than others. "Jack London" ?  ;D

http://alamy.com/forums/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=4125

How would people find a photographer by name if it didn't search?

Dook

« Reply #64 on: November 14, 2009, 11:05 »
0
I have been doing okay with my essential keywords, but I think I have overloaded the "main keywords" boxes with as many as I could put in.  I think that has negatively affected my CTR rate. 
Lisa, try using FindPhotoKeywords tool (the one similar to Yuris). There is great option to separate keywords for Alamy.

lisafx

« Reply #65 on: November 14, 2009, 12:13 »
0
Thanks Dook.  I will check it out.  :)

« Reply #66 on: November 18, 2009, 22:46 »
0
OK, it is now nearly a year that I have had my images on Alamy.  I have had 39 zooms, with CTR of 2.01, which is considerably higher than the Alamy average.  Still zero sales.   I haven't registered for RF with them.  Given that the minimum payout is $250, it would be pointless, since I would never get any money from them.   I might as well keep my RF photos at Istockphoto, where they actually sell (about 60 per week, at an average of a bit more than $1 each).   

@Danybot. Three month is not much on Alamy. Sometimes it takes quite a while until you are notified of sales.
[/quote]

« Reply #67 on: November 19, 2009, 16:33 »
0
"I got sucked in by this faulty logic, and went to the trouble of uploading a couple of hundred images to Alamy (about three-quarters editorial and travel)."

Hi Danybot

Hang in with Alamy and keep uploading - I come from a macro background, and unlike micro, it took years to get some of my outlet agents to pay on a monthly basis. Starting from scratch with zero pics, it took me a year of working late every night to build a portfolio of a few thousand images which started to pay every month. Next step, I quit the day jobb (at another agency) and stated my own.

Now I had left the normal 9-5, I was working for myself an extra 40 hours a week, and could concentrate on building portfolio size.

I've never cracked Alamy, it's just another outlet. Howver, it does provide decent returns as long as I keep tightly keywording and increasing the number of images I have online. When I started my experience was all negative from a  financial point ov view - patience did the trick.

Keep going with it as it is not an outlet to ignore, and is one of the only readily accesable macro agencies who would be keen to take your images.

Rgds

Oldhand


 

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