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Author Topic: 1st sale in Alamy  (Read 53018 times)

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« Reply #50 on: November 25, 2011, 22:50 »
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I just posted 4 images for QC last night... lets hope for best.. once i am accepted I am ready to try my photos from rural and tribal parts of India.. but for that i need to be approved man !!!!! lol (Fingers crossed )


« Reply #51 on: November 25, 2011, 22:53 »
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Good luck!!

« Reply #52 on: November 25, 2011, 22:54 »
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I have to be honest...and I know I'll stir the pot with this comment, but editorial images do not belong on the micros.
I recently came to that conclusion too. I shot a couple of tribal fiestas in Asia this year with many groups in different colorful ethnic outfits and set-ups each time. On Dreamstime, they don't sell at all and the last time I was hit by the "similars" monster after uploading just 4 images, when in fact the series told a story (I didn't process the full shoot of 300 pictures yet since DT would reject them as "similars"). Some very generic editorial sells very well though (I have a level 5 editorial), which means you can put a striking generic micro-ish shot on micro but send the rest to RM and relax.

« Reply #53 on: November 25, 2011, 23:01 »
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Gotta agree with Attila.  Most editorial subjects don't sell well on the micros.  I got lucky when Proposition 8 passed in California banning gay marriage and shot a protest at the state capitol, but other than that, my editorial shots are far from being money makers.  One sale at Alamy earns more than 100 on the micros.

« Reply #54 on: November 25, 2011, 23:05 »
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alamy traffic doesnt look to good:

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/alamy.com/

does anybody know why?

« Reply #55 on: November 25, 2011, 23:34 »
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can we know the details of our own photographs in alamy like number of views and downloads etc ?

« Reply #56 on: November 25, 2011, 23:37 »
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can we know the details of our own photographs in alamy like number of views and downloads etc ?
Yes.

« Reply #57 on: November 25, 2011, 23:46 »
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ok. Thanks stockastic

« Reply #58 on: November 25, 2011, 23:49 »
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alamy traffic doesnt look to good:

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/alamy.com/

does anybody know why?


Well, I certainly don't mean to dismiss the big disparity in traffic size, but keep in mind that Alamy is not a microstockgroup agency, where making Lots of rather small sales that involve little-to-no Customer Service is crucial.

(BTW, the link leads to info based on U.S. Data Only, and Alamy's home base is in England, though it's continuing to open offices in other countries.)
« Last Edit: November 25, 2011, 23:52 by ann »

« Reply #59 on: November 25, 2011, 23:57 »
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I am sure you can make good money there. But I do wonder why there would be such a strong drop.

So what you are saying is - you havent seen or heard of any complaints of sales dropping significantly in 2011?

« Reply #60 on: November 25, 2011, 23:58 »
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A lot of Alamy's traffic comes over the phone, too, with direct sales.  They have picture researchers on staff to help customers find the right image.  The micros typically don't offer that service.  Plus they partner with quite a few distributors around the world. 

My sales tripled this year without adding much new content, so they are doing something right.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2011, 00:01 by Karimala »

Ed

« Reply #61 on: November 26, 2011, 00:49 »
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 If you commit to go out and shoot, you can create a fairly large portfolio quickly.
... if you don't live in a rainy area, having one of its rainiest years on record. But also you either have to live in an area with photographic/saleable things around and/or going on or travel. Even the travelling takes time! If you live out in the boonies, your saleable shots are going to be limited in scope and variety.

I keep hearing a legend about some bloke who only shoots on some (un-named) small Scottish island and allegedly does "very well" on Alamy - but I've never seen it substantiated, i.e. by a post by the bloke, or a link to his port, or even his name. I suspect that's an apocryphal tale, but I'd be intrigued to be proved wrong.

...but you can sell editorial product...go out, buy two bottles of wine.  Open one, pour a glass and place the unopened bottle next to it over white with the brand showing, and walla!  You have one down and 9 more to go.  I read on the forums that micro brews sell well - I've been backed up shooting models (boudiar/pinup shoot this afternoon) and haven't gotten around to shooting the beer.

« Reply #62 on: November 26, 2011, 00:52 »
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Thanks everybody for the valuable info. I have an RF account at Alamy but since that content is over the micros, I abandoned it. I felt it not to be fair to buyers to have such diverging price points for the same shots.

RM is another cup of tea. I had a look at the port of Jeff Greenberg and most looks like snapshots, anyways not the kind of imagery that would be accepted in micro, not even as editorial. You can very well see he doesn't put much time in post-processing, rather upload straight from cam to the site. He seems to walk around and snap whatever moves. It seems to sell too. Good to know.  ;)

« Reply #63 on: November 26, 2011, 00:53 »
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Thats good to hear.

Anyway, I believe if a site has less than 50k traffic, it is probably difficult to get a reliable trend out of compete.

I think all it does tell us, is that alamy is probably advertising a lot less on the internet in the us.

« Reply #64 on: November 26, 2011, 02:57 »
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@Baldricks - he is only one guy.  He travels to different places and shoots there.  Recently he spent two or three days in New Orleans and added 450 images to his port.  He does not edit much - he barely learned how to use the burn and dodge tool this year.  He recently mentioned in a thread of another guy (topic of procrastination or some sort) that rather than a 1 image per day commitment, the guy should consider a 10 image per day commitment - as he does.  It's not hard...think like a photographer, not a micro shooter and you'll find it to be relatively do-able.

It's not hard to get 1,000 images up on Alamy.  This is especially true if you prove yourself and get accepted to upload either via the news/archival route or the creative route.  If you commit to go out and shoot, you can create a fairly large portfolio quickly.  I've added over 1,000 new images since May myself and my goal is another 4,000 by the end of 2012.

I have to be honest...and I know I'll stir the pot with this comment, but editorial images do not belong on the micros.  These images are unique and your choice is to earn less than $5 or $6  US for these images on the micros, or earn (net) $40 on the images at a macro agency like Alamy for editorial licensing.  This includes both newspapers and textbooks.

Creative images are different.

That's very interesting Ed.  I'm not sure that churning out snapshots by the thousand (as someone just called his work) is "thinking like a photographer", maybe it is thinking like an old-time stock shooter - though wouldn't the waste of chromes have argued against that? Maybe it is shooting like a old-time stock shooter who has got his hands on a digital camera. It doesn't seem to be the norm, or Alamy would have 100 times as many shots.

I agree with you about editorial on the micros. It's not their market and their attempts to break into it don't seem to have had much success.

The hard bit with Alamy is the keywording, captioning and box ticking. If you are going to do it right, then you can't even bulk process that job, as each photo needs to be independently checked for how many people it has in it and whether or not it would need a property release. I suppose that if you are machine-gunning images to upload you just choose "more than four" and "no release" for property and let it go.

Do you check images for CA, sensor dust, WB adjustment, exposure, tone curve, vignetting, level horizons and noise before uploading, or do you just shoot a jpg and shove it up the tube uncorrected, despite the rejection risk? Basic corrections would take at least 10 minutes per image but must make it more saleable.

I must take issue with the idea of buying two bottles of wine, opening one, shooting it and then going to look for nine other subjects.... I would have to shoot the nine subjects first THEN open the wine ;)

Anyway, great information from a different perspective and as I've got a few thousand unused snapshots of different places I'll have a go at trying to monetise some of them.

« Reply #65 on: November 26, 2011, 04:19 »
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Go for it, Baldrick!  I wish I could find the photo, but I remember a few years ago there was a $10,000 sale of probably the ugliest snapshot I've ever seen.  It was of an outdoor Asian market, horrible lighting, and it was so underexposed I could hardly tell what the subject was.  Whatever was in that photo, a buyer wanted it so badly they paid $10,000 for the copyright! 

I challenged myself after your "impossible" comment earlier to see how many images I could shoot, process, keyword, and upload in one evening.  Got 40 shots of 21 different subjects completed in about 4 hours with ease...and all from the comfort of my couch...including the shooting.  LOL  If I did that every day, and it is possible, I'd have 14,600 images online in a year.  New Year's resolution?!

Now for that bottle of wine Ed suggested to celebrate...       

« Reply #66 on: November 26, 2011, 04:50 »
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I've always liked alamy I made my first sale in my second month there ( July 2008) $114.70 a black widow spider.
I have 754  pictures there now
Total sales:                   $22664.75
Commission / charges:   $-10390.22
Total payments to me:   $-11330.18
 :)

rubyroo

« Reply #67 on: November 26, 2011, 05:27 »
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Well done julie123.  Compared to my results on Alamy, yours are very good!

Clearly I've been sending them the wrong stuff!   Time to break out that box of black widow spiders I have somewhere.

Now... where did I put that...?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #68 on: November 26, 2011, 05:34 »
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I am sure you can make good money there. But I do wonder why there would be such a strong drop.

So what you are saying is - you havent seen or heard of any complaints of sales dropping significantly in 2011?

No, just complaints about value of sales decreasing, in general, being pulled down by the micros and 'buyer power' and special negotiations.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #69 on: November 26, 2011, 05:51 »
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I have to be honest...and I know I'll stir the pot with this comment, but editorial images do not belong on the micros.  
One of the problems is that micro buyers have not been used to editorial. Despite red type and editorial explanations, I'm finding several of my editorial images being used commercially (via GIS).
One iStock buyer SMd me asking if he could use a particular image for his project. I suggested he contact support with his particular project, but he chose to link me to the work he'd done on a comp, which , he said, he hadn't realised was Editorial. It was clearly a commercial project, and heavily manipulated to boot, so I said that was not a permitted use. He asked could I make it available for commercial use. Now let me see: it was a street scene with sixteen people, a restaurant, and several posters and that's before even zooming in on clothes and accessories. I found some vaguely similar shots, but of course they weren't 'real' enough. Then the pic sold twice in the ensuing week and I was left fretting.
Of course, this could happen on Alamy, but I guess micro customers are too used to being able to do almost anything they like with images. I have't seen mention of editorial images being used commercially on the Alamy forum, though obviously I have read about pics being used without any payment coming through; or of course, photos being lifted from legitimate purchased uses and used illegitimately, like from anywhere else.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2011, 07:10 by ShadySue »

« Reply #70 on: November 26, 2011, 06:03 »
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I've had the same problem, Sue, which is why I no longer upload editorial shots to the micros.  The buyers don't seem to realize or frankly care that they can be sued for using editorial images in commercial projects.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #71 on: November 26, 2011, 06:34 »
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 If you commit to go out and shoot, you can create a fairly large portfolio quickly.
... if you don't live in a rainy area, having one of its rainiest years on record. But also you either have to live in an area with photographic/saleable things around and/or going on or travel. Even the travelling takes time! If you live out in the boonies, your saleable shots are going to be limited in scope and variety.

I keep hearing a legend about some bloke who only shoots on some (un-named) small Scottish island and allegedly does "very well" on Alamy - but I've never seen it substantiated, i.e. by a post by the bloke, or a link to his port, or even his name. I suspect that's an apocryphal tale, but I'd be intrigued to be proved wrong.

...but you can sell editorial product...go out, buy two bottles of wine.  Open one, pour a glass and place the unopened bottle next to it over white with the brand showing, and walla!  You have one down and 9 more to go.  I read on the forums that micro brews sell well - I've been backed up shooting models (boudiar/pinup shoot this afternoon) and haven't gotten around to shooting the beer.

The guy in the legend apparently isn't shooting studio-type stuff.

« Reply #72 on: November 26, 2011, 07:01 »
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Go for it, Baldrick!  I wish I could find the photo, but I remember a few years ago there was a $10,000 sale of probably the ugliest snapshot I've ever seen.  It was of an outdoor Asian market, horrible lighting, and it was so underexposed I could hardly tell what the subject was.  Whatever was in that photo, a buyer wanted it so badly they paid $10,000 for the copyright! 

I challenged myself after your "impossible" comment earlier to see how many images I could shoot, process, keyword, and upload in one evening.  Got 40 shots of 21 different subjects completed in about 4 hours with ease...and all from the comfort of my couch...including the shooting.  LOL  If I did that every day, and it is possible, I'd have 14,600 images online in a year.  New Year's resolution?!

Now for that bottle of wine Ed suggested to celebrate...       

Their biggest ever sale was an atrocious snapshot of a Spanish fishmonger's shop, more than $20,000. The things people want are truly odd.

You have my admiration for your effort. I've managed to pull out 60 travel shots from a single folder and run them through RAW conversion since yesterday (oh, and get a night's sleep). I still have to check them for sensor crud, straighten, add text and upload. I can't see myself completing that today. I'd love to know how you can do it.

« Reply #73 on: November 26, 2011, 10:14 »
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This thread has actually made me a little more optimistic.  I'm getting zooms, so eventually I should get a sale.  I'll put my other images up there and just think of it as a lottery ticket.


 

« Reply #74 on: November 26, 2011, 13:10 »
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Well, I've managed to sort, process and keyword 52 in about 24 hours, so it's possible - though the uploading will take several more hours and so will the final processing at Alamy. Presumably, I'm just slow (and so is my net connection).

Yes, stockastic, if you are getting zooms then sales should eventually follow. They used to reckon 10 zooms per sale but the sale may turn up months after the zoom. It's a very slow, long-term game.


 

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