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Author Topic: What about sales and accepting in Alamay?  (Read 10413 times)

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« on: April 11, 2008, 10:42 »
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I recently started to upload to Alamy.
Are you selling well here?
I am surprised about acceptance ratio they are accepting almost everything I upload. (batches of 2 because of their policy)


« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2008, 10:44 »
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I quit there. Tried 2 months, didnt sell anything. It is not worth the time....

jsnover

« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2008, 10:52 »
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I uploaded about 100 images to Alamy last fall as a test - and I know that's not very many images given the size of the collection. I had one sale in November, but nothing since. It isn't very motivating to build a portfolio when you don't see the sales, but I don't think 2 months is anything like enough time to see if/how it will work for you.

The one sale was $220 (of which I get about $140), but the minimum payout is $250, so I'm going to at least wait until I reach that before deciding what to do. At the moment I've not been investing any time in uploading there (and it's RM stuff, not the same images I have on the micros).

« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2008, 10:55 »
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I submitted a batch of 16 on Wednesday.

They reviewed them today - which is fast - found something wrong with the first one, and rejected the whole lot.

Now that's rejection for you.   :o   (Was someone complaining about it in another thread?)

jsnover

« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2008, 11:08 »
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I submitted a batch of 16 on Wednesday.

They reviewed them today - which is fast - found something wrong with the first one, and rejected the whole lot.

Now that's rejection for you.   :o   (Was someone complaining about it in another thread?)

If you look in the Alamy forums for threads about their zero tolerance policy (that's what they call this thing of dumping a whole batch if any don't pass) you'll see a lot of complaints about it.

I uploaded in small-ish batches of 5 and then 10-15 to make sure I "got" their inspection criteria, and didn't have any rejected.

It does get people's attention though and I think they were trying to clean up their reputation for having a huge pile of images with a lot of dreck in the heap.

« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2008, 11:27 »
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If you look in the Alamy forums for threads about their zero tolerance policy (that's what they call this thing of dumping a whole batch if any don't pass) you'll see a lot of complaints about it.
That probably changed. In my last batch of 10, 8 were accepted and 2 rejected (size problem).

« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2008, 11:46 »
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I have about 30 images there and not a single rejection. I upsample them from 10 megapixels to 48-50 megabytes uncompressed, sometimes I even crop significantly before upsampling. If the image is too soft after that, I reject it myself and it works so far.


« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2008, 12:30 »
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I have uploaded over 100 but no sales yet.  I don't expect many sales but the higher prices will make up for it.  I am trying to upload photos that are not on the micro sites.

In the alamy pro forum there is a spreadsheet of the results of an earnings poll, like the ones we have here.  That has given me motivation.  There are people making good money with them.

« Reply #8 on: April 11, 2008, 14:16 »
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You have to understand that Alamy is a totally different animal from micro. Sometimes the buyer will just "consider" an image for a few months. And even after downloaded, there is always a chance of it being returned if the image does not work out as expected. It is absolutely not in the same class of the "download fever" micros.

Alamy instituted the ZT, or zero tolerance policy last year. It certianly does make one pay more attention.

« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2008, 14:40 »
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I recently started to upload to Alamy.
Are you selling well here?
I am surprised about acceptance ratio they are accepting almost everything I upload. (batches of 2 because of their policy)

I've been at alamy since 2004. I have 5,000 RM images there. I have sold images every month except for the first 5 or six months. Returns are about $6 per image per year. For about 80% of all first sales (ie the first sale for any one image), the image was online 8 months or longer (ie reflecting the longer turnaround for professional buyer projects). Don't expect quick sales.

Competition is tough. Good quality images shot on professional equipment and subjects not well covered or difficult to shoot do very well. Forget the iStock type of images (nice red tomatoes on white background, or smily business people, or cut-outs of everyday things). The micros have killed that market. Editorial stuff sells well at alamy (travel, culture, day-to-day real-life, current world issues etc etc).

Don't upload more of the same crap. Be selective, research your competition, look at magazines, newspapers etc. Read the news. Know what is in demand.

Alamy is about real photo business. Shoot for the market. Don't upload stuff expecting it to sell. There is no buyer risk purchasing an image for $5 (probably many images at micros don't even get used!). $500 is a different matter. Buyers are more selective.

« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2008, 15:17 »
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I submitted a batch of 16 on Wednesday.

They reviewed them today - which is fast - found something wrong with the first one, and rejected the whole lot.

Now that's rejection for you.   :o   (Was someone complaining about it in another thread?)

If you look in the Alamy forums for threads about their zero tolerance policy (that's what they call this thing of dumping a whole batch if any don't pass) you'll see a lot of complaints about it.


I'm not complaining. That's the way it goes. I'll fix the errors (or reject the dud photo) and try again.


It does get people's attention though and I think they were trying to clean up their reputation for having a huge pile of images with a lot of dreck in the heap.


What they need is for a good image editor to go through the heap and chuck out all the rubbish. There are some appallingly bad images on Alamy.

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2008, 16:32 »
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I've been at alamy since 2004. I have 5,000 RM images there. I have sold images every month except for the first 5 or six months. Returns are about $6 per image per year. For about 80% of all first sales (ie the first sale for any one image), the image was online 8 months or longer (ie reflecting the longer turnaround for professional buyer projects). Don't expect quick sales.

Competition is tough. Good quality images shot on professional equipment and subjects not well covered or difficult to shoot do very well. Forget the iStock type of images (nice red tomatoes on white background, or smily business people, or cut-outs of everyday things). The micros have killed that market. Editorial stuff sells well at alamy (travel, culture, day-to-day real-life, current world issues etc etc).

Don't upload more of the same crap. Be selective, research your competition, look at magazines, newspapers etc. Read the news. Know what is in demand.

Alamy is about real photo business. Shoot for the market. Don't upload stuff expecting it to sell. There is no buyer risk purchasing an image for $5 (probably many images at micros don't even get used!). $500 is a different matter. Buyers are more selective.

1st post, eh? Welcome aboard. Good info.

« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2008, 18:32 »
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If you look in the Alamy forums for threads about their zero tolerance policy (that's what they call this thing of dumping a whole batch if any don't pass) you'll see a lot of complaints about it.
That probably changed. In my last batch of 10, 8 were accepted and 2 rejected (size problem).

Size rejectioins are not a reason to reject all the batch. Only quality problems count. (I think)

cphoto

  • CreativeShot.com
« Reply #13 on: June 03, 2008, 21:37 »
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I quit there. Tried 2 months, didnt sell anything. It is not worth the time....

:D  Alamy is not SS, LOL.

It took me about 6 months to have my 1st sale, and after that my rank was high enough to show in the first search pages.  Now I sell consistently between 2 to 6 images every month, which roughly is worth 2000 sales with SS :)

Last month Alamy was my 1st earner, 60% of total stock income.  I have 285 pics with Alamy and about 800 with micros.

« Reply #14 on: June 03, 2008, 23:59 »
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I quit there. Tried 2 months, didnt sell anything. It is not worth the time....

hi, it is a very different market and arena. people talk about building a portfolio for years.

it took me over a year to get my first sale, it is now just over 20% of my stock income and every sale makes think that microstock is too cheap :) not to mention that compared to the micros image acceptance is a breeze.

Phil

« Reply #15 on: June 04, 2008, 01:08 »
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You have to understand that Alamy is a totally different animal from micro.


You bet. Be aware that you're up against some big-time players on there ... Martin Harvey, Bob Elsdale, Ron Chapple, John Terence Turner, etc.

Your average 'dog in the garden', 'close-up of a brick wall' or 'office stapler isolated on white' isn't going to do very well on Alamy.

And they have just about the most involved and complex keywording/classification system going. If you thought iStock's was bad, you ain't seen nothing.

But, then, of course, there's the chance to earn serious money for good images. That's why the big players are there.

« Reply #16 on: June 04, 2008, 01:35 »
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You have to understand that Alamy is a totally different animal from micro. Sometimes the buyer will just "consider" an image for a few months.

Yes, bingo!

With another similar agency, I had a few pictures.  The designer downloaded the comp, considered it for a YEAR with his client, then (after I'd left the site) tracked me down and asked me to sell him the file privately!

Traditional design agencies can often work on this time scale for big campaigns.


 

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