MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => Alamy.com => Topic started by: lagereek on April 29, 2011, 09:02

Title: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: lagereek on April 29, 2011, 09:02
had a good month so far at Alamy,  many RF sales and noveltys.

anybody else?
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: PeterChigmaroff on April 29, 2011, 09:21
Middle of the road here. The usual last minute sales at the end of the month. One reasonable RM at $450.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: Blufish on April 29, 2011, 09:38
Made my first sale there last week. RF. I was happy.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: grp_photo on April 29, 2011, 09:45
below average  the last months haven't been good for me at Alamy  :-[
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: franky242 on April 29, 2011, 10:00
Also for me a good month: One very nice sale there mid of April.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: luissantos84 on April 29, 2011, 10:09
started there in Feb this year, around 600 pics there, isolations, people, travel, etc I guess a lot of crap because I hadnīt have a single sale since start :P
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: stockastic on April 29, 2011, 10:50
I just submitted a few and I'm trying to understand their statistics.  Apparently what they call a "view"  just means the image appeared on a search page that was presented to a buyer.  A "click-through" is what most sites call a "view", i.e. the buyer clicked on your thumbnail.   Is that correct?
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: Anita Potter on April 29, 2011, 11:35
I've only had one sale there but I started back in March.  I'm a little afraid to upload any photos (probably silly) course my port is small there still.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: lisafx on April 29, 2011, 12:26
Good sales for me this month, but also an unusually high number of refunds.  I had a whole series of NU refunds and also a 185 sale refunded yesterday.  That kind of hurts. 
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: dbvirago on April 29, 2011, 12:54
Yeah, first refunds there I have ever had. Also getting a lot of the $3 sales. I'm going to have to delete my RF images there and only do RM. I didn't upload to Alamy to get $3 sales.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: Freedom on April 29, 2011, 13:37
Also had a refund of an RM sale at $180. :(

It happens where an image is supposed to be published in the future months.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: ShadySue on April 29, 2011, 16:39
Just one low-average sale and one newspaper sale which I know of but hasn't come through yet, but will be low $$ - tiny use. I've even got the tear sheet.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: tomasfoto on April 29, 2011, 19:43
Good to hear.  Alamy has been very quiet for me.  No sales this month for the first time I can remember.  Been with them 8 years, have about 3000 images, and I add about 50 per month.  The trend has been down for almost a year.  I'll look forward to better times.

Aloha.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: Carl on April 30, 2011, 05:25
I've been with Alamy a few months, and I recently had my first sale - a $40 RF sale, no less!  I'm not accustomed to that much money for RF!  On other sites, I'd have to rack up 100 sales or more to get that much money.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: ShadySue on April 30, 2011, 05:47
I've been with Alamy a few months, and I recently had my first sale - a $40 RF sale, no less!  I'm not accustomed to that much money for RF!  On other sites, I'd have to rack up 100 sales or more to get that much money.
Was that $40 to you or $40 total?
For newbies, it's worth noting that on Alamy, when they talk about the value of a sale on their forums, they talk about e.g. a $100 sale, which is the total price, of which we get either 60% (if sold directly) or 40% (if sold through an agency).
To be fair, also note that you can get $40+ sales on micros, e.g. iStock via ELs. And conversely that for some uses you'll get less on Alamy, e.g. for the Newspaper Use scheme, than you would with an EL on a micro (but only if the print run was over 500,000!). (Note that you can opt out of newspaper sales if you choose).
Finally, it's your life and your business, but I'd seriously reconsider sites that regularly returned me 40c or less per sale. Tiny sales are always possible, e.g. with XSm size, but not that regular.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: CD123 on May 02, 2011, 17:24
Thank you for the explanation ShadySue. Also started round about Feb., but no sales yet. Even a $3 sale will be nice (had 10 sales at Fotolia for a massive $3.80 so far)!
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: gwhitton on May 02, 2011, 20:30
Until the other day all I've had were "microstock-like" sales...a $1.5 here and there. But then I got a $166 sale on an image I would never have guessed. Now hopefully it doesn't take a millenia for me to get the other $150 needed to actually get paid.

One thing I will say for certain is that sales traffic has definitely picked up. I have been on there for probably a year now...though not in a serious way as I have about 250 images that are live. All sales traffic has happened in the last 3 months, and I have a feeling at least the small ones will continue. Something has definitely changed.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: Morphart on May 10, 2011, 07:50
Yes definetly seeing some action. Joined Alamy in January. Up until late april my sells were a few .87 novel use and one 8$, about 3 sales in those month.

End of april I saw a mythical 215$ sales (135$ profit) and I was really surprised. From the 30 of april up to here I had 3 sales, which is a lot more than usual for me, and another 80$ sale, which is refreshing :)

I am not sure how payments work with Alamy, I filled in my Bank account information which I think is right (I am from Canada not sure they are doing bank transfer there). Do I need to request a payout or it does so automatically?

Answer to this question here, yes, definetly 5 times the action of usual for me :P
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: lisafx on May 10, 2011, 12:07
I am not sure how payments work with Alamy, I filled in my Bank account information which I think is right (I am from Canada not sure they are doing bank transfer there). Do I need to request a payout or it does so automatically?

Congrats on the increasing sales :)

At Alamy, they pay automatically after you have $250 or better in your account.  The catch is, the buyer's payment has to clear, and that takes 4-6 weeks, on average.   Once you have enough cleared payments to total over $250, you will get a payment around the first of the following month.  I get mine via check and it takes about two weeks for me to get their check (cheque) here in Florida.  So basically they are not fast money, like the micros, but it is very nice money when it does arrive :)
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: Morphart on May 11, 2011, 13:45
I am not sure how payments work with Alamy, I filled in my Bank account information which I think is right (I am from Canada not sure they are doing bank transfer there). Do I need to request a payout or it does so automatically?

Congrats on the increasing sales :)

At Alamy, they pay automatically after you have $250 or better in your account.  The catch is, the buyer's payment has to clear, and that takes 4-6 weeks, on average.   Once you have enough cleared payments to total over $250, you will get a payment around the first of the following month.  I get mine via check and it takes about two weeks for me to get their check (cheque) here in Florida.  So basically they are not fast money, like the micros, but it is very nice money when it does arrive :)

Haaa, now I understand better :)...
Balance carried forward:    $182.26
Cleared balance:    $8.68

Basically I have 8.68$ for sure hehe. So 250$ is the target, I'll just wait and be patient. I just hope they will let me know in case there is an issue with my Bank Account information, I am not all that sure I gave the right "swift" informationt they needed.

Anyhow thanks for the information LisaFxx, I appreciate :p
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: lisafx on May 11, 2011, 14:03

Basically I have 8.68$ for sure hehe. So 250$ is the target, I'll just wait and be patient. I just hope they will let me know in case there is an issue with my Bank Account information, I am not all that sure I gave the right "swift" informationt they needed.

Good news is their customer service is outstanding.  If there is any problem with your payment, they will get it sorted out for you quickly, I am sure :)

Also, once your sales start to pick up, you can get a check every couple of months, so it stops feeling like such a long time.  Waiting for that first $250 to clear is torture though ;)
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: Freedom on May 11, 2011, 14:19
Alamy's payment can take a long time. I had cleared balance of $200 since Feb., my current balance is around $500. Since some are distribution sales, I am not sure when they will be cleared. It may be June or July or even after July for the next cheque. But they will come.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: Morphart on May 11, 2011, 18:02
Alamy's payment can take a long time. I had cleared balance of $200 since Feb., my current balance is around $500. Since some are distribution sales, I am not sure when they will be cleared. It may be June or July or even after July for the next cheque. But they will come.

Yes I guess the good thing in this is that it will come... in time. I like the "surprise" we get out of Alamy each time we see a sale there, and rewarding to see the sale price of some image too. I wasn't expecting much out of them when I joined in January but I will definetly take the time to upload the rest of my portfolio. A few more payments here and there can certainly do a difference year to year.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: gwhitton on May 13, 2011, 13:25
Does anyone have some insight in to what the "All of Alamy" feature is really showing us?

I ask because if this really is "All There Is"...things look pretty dismal. It would lead me to believe there were only 600-1000 sales on Almay in the last month.

I also did a search for "business", and stretch my search back for a year. The phrase "Business People" floated to the top, with just 4 sales. Fours sales, and 28k views in an entire year!!!! The same term on SS I would guess would generated I suspect 10's of thousands of sales, of not 100's of thousands.

Thoughts?
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: ann on May 13, 2011, 16:50
I think this is sort of right:

"All of Alamy" does not show all the sales - it's the sales that are made "right after" a client does a Search, Zooms on one of the images appearing directly on the search page, and then directly buys that image.  (In fact, it may show even fewer than that, if it shows such sales only from the select customers whose Zooms are tracked and counted in contributors' stats.)

If customer does not do search & zoom to find the image, or if s/he puts image in lightbox & buys it later, it doesn't show up in "All of Alamy."

BTW, some data (zooms) was misplaced periodically for the past month or so, though they may have been retrieved by now. Also, though I haven't checked lately, a couple of days ago they posted in forum that they weren't updating  Measures after 5/11 until they fixed some software problem.


Does anyone have some insight in to what the "All of Alamy" feature is really showing us?

I ask because if this really is "All There Is"...things look pretty dismal. It would lead me to believe there were only 600-1000 sales on Almay in the last month.

I also did a search for "business", and stretch my search back for a year. The phrase "Business People" floated to the top, with just 4 sales. Fours sales, and 28k views in an entire year!!!! The same term on Shutterstock I would guess would generated I suspect 10's of thousands of sales, of not 100's of thousands.

Thoughts?
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: RacePhoto on May 16, 2011, 22:47
Does anyone have some insight in to what the "All of Alamy" feature is really showing us?

I ask because if this really is "All There Is"...things look pretty dismal. It would lead me to believe there were only 600-1000 sales on Almay in the last month.

I also did a search for "business", and stretch my search back for a year. The phrase "Business People" floated to the top, with just 4 sales. Fours sales, and 28k views in an entire year!!!! The same term on Shutterstock I would guess would generated I suspect 10's of thousands of sales, of not 100's of thousands.

Thoughts?

Yes, Alamy is not Microstock. Business Handshake, sliced vegetable or <object> isolated on white, are poor sellers and mostly a waste of time to upload.

On the other hand, travel shots, scenic view, and things that don't sell on Micro, do much better on Alamy.

Different buyers, different market.

I'd assume from the stats and people who do well, that even with the marketing and offices spreading out around the world, the UK and next European market is the majority of sales.

While SS is my best and continues to outsell all the rest of Microstock combined (until I dropped "all the rest" except IS), Alamy still makes more dollars annually on many fewer sales. Different files, that wouldn't even get accepted at SS or IS last year. Maybe now as Editorial, but why would I want to sell a limited interest image for 25c or $1.50 on IS, when I can get $80 on Alamy for the same?

Simply put, you don't go to the farmers market for a Prime fillet Mignon and don't go to a butcher shop for cantaloupe. ;)

All of Alamy doesn't seem to be ALL of Alamy. Also after watching for awhile, it's kind of like predicting a horse race after it's over. Too late, the buyer already has the shots they wanted. The next time, the results will be different. Yes, you can find general ideas of what type of shots will sell, what kind of subjects will sell, but the specific searches appear to be after the fact information. That's why you'll see someone searching for something very obscure and buying 3-4 images. Then watch for a year and you'll see that word never come up in the search results.

Look for conceptual and general ideas of what sells there and you'll find it more helpful. Microstock is different, in that the same shots, subjects, searches and keywords selling over and over.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: lagereek on May 16, 2011, 23:27
Two great months with Alamy!  I wish they would extend this novelty-use a bit further,  the RF, takes care of itself but the novelty could in fact be set to some more price levels.

The great thing about Alamy is, they dont tend to lend themselves to all this BS, we have been experiencing with some others. You know where you stand with them. period.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: RacePhoto on May 17, 2011, 00:11
Two great months with Alamy!  I wish they would extend this novelty-use a bit further,  the RF, takes care of itself but the novelty could in fact be set to some more price levels.

The great thing about Alamy is, they dont tend to lend themselves to all this BS, we have been experiencing with some others. You know where you stand with them. period.

I'll believe you, but the funny part is I've never had one of those "novelty-use" sales. Not a novel use either. ;) One RF because I listed something that way, probably wouldn't have mattered. But my sales are mostly RM. Obviously different subjects and directions, produce a different result.

100% on the "all this BS" part. If it's a good quality image, they take it. Exactly like, let the market decide what to buy, not the reviewers. And 23 Million images. Whoa! That's BIG!

Please leave me out of the 95 cent sales though.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: helix7 on May 17, 2011, 11:51
I'm trying Alamy out again. I dropped them last year after a few years with very few sales. I cashed out and cancelled my account. But I've just opened a new account and I'm uploading some new images. We'll see how it goes. I'm optimistic that this time around I'll have better luck with them.
Title: Re: Alamy is seeing some action!
Post by: lagereek on May 17, 2011, 12:14
Well, I like the English trad-agencies, I was with Pictor and Stones and they were really great, they run things differantly from the Yanks, they pay a lot more attention to the human aspect of photographers and everything is not just down to dollars and cents, the same old square thinking.

I might be old fashioned but there you go.