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Author Topic: Alamy sales  (Read 48420 times)

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« Reply #100 on: July 11, 2014, 19:50 »
0
Alamy: 663 images on sale, 64 sales.
SS: 214 images on sale, 2361 sales.

So, on alamy it's roughly 1 sale for every 11 images in my portfolio (1:10.69), on SS its 11 sales for every one image in my portfolio (11.03:1). Very different markets.  8)

Here's the $250K link mentioned below: pic.twitter.com/NoI7rx8cM8  (He's averaging one sale for every 7.5 images, nicely done)

3 RM sales so far this month, seeing some growth over 2013.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2014, 11:44 by wordplanet »


ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #101 on: July 11, 2014, 20:26 »
0
I'm wondering if Alamy is once again pushing their original content, i.e. not the "Creative" stuff that has them competing with Getty and the micros, ...


Their choice of which files were 'creative' was always 'interesting' (or maybe better, 'random'). I have a few editorial series where one or a few images within a series were deemed to be 'creative' and the rest weren't, with no way I could distinguish the difference. Some people said it was sales, but not in my case, none of those in the series which had sold were 'creative', but some which hadn't sold were. I wouldn't have said any were creative - they were definitely editorials, so shot 'straight' other than choosing the angle to best highlight the subject and obscure distractions. On the other hand, two highly manipulated illustrations, effectively cartoons, are not creative.

I have no pics in this search, but anyone care to explain the differences between the creative and non-creative in this search?
http://tinyurl.com/pjn7xmz


Still, agencies definitions are weird anyway.
E.g. on iStock a photo is 'creative' if it has MRs and/or PRs or doesn't need them. That's the only definition of 'creative', which is a creative definition, IMO.

SS is even more surprising, by dividing images into 'Editorial' and 'non-editorial', which is silly, as any files could, in theory, be used editorially, 'non-editorial' is just plain nonsensical.

Ooops, I'm onto a rant. Bedtime, methinks.   ;)

gpgibson

« Reply #102 on: August 19, 2014, 11:42 »
+9
Alamy is the only site I submit to and this is why......

91 sales this month $5,840 Gross $2839 Net still 2 weeks left !!

1,598 sales to date $119,996 Gross since end of 2012

I stopped submitting to all Micro sites 2 years ago and have not looked back !!


ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #103 on: August 19, 2014, 12:34 »
+1
Alamy is the only site I submit to and this is why......

91 sales this month $5,840 Gross $2839 Net still 2 weeks left !!

1,598 sales to date $119,996 Gross since end of 2012

I stopped submitting to all Micro sites 2 years ago and have not looked back !!

How many files in your port?

« Reply #104 on: August 19, 2014, 15:22 »
+1
Alamy is the only site I submit to and this is why......

91 sales this month $5,840 Gross $2839 Net still 2 weeks left !!

1,598 sales to date $119,996 Gross since end of 2012

I stopped submitting to all Micro sites 2 years ago and have not looked back !!

that's pretty impressive for me, as i deleted my port ( after 3 years of 100% approval
from the time of Alamy inception ) due to pittance in views ( and  not being listed in Photographers List, which i  am told that it no longer exist).
so, taking that things have changed indeed since then , it does look impressive.

 
« Last Edit: August 19, 2014, 15:26 by etudiante_rapide »

« Reply #105 on: August 19, 2014, 19:01 »
0
Alamy is the only site I submit to and this is why......

91 sales this month $5,840 Gross $2839 Net still 2 weeks left !!

1,598 sales to date $119,996 Gross since end of 2012

I stopped submitting to all Micro sites 2 years ago and have not looked back !!

How many files in your port?

Congrats to you gpgibson!  I am also curious how many images in your port, and if they are mostly RM or RF.  Your numbers are very good! 

gpgibson

« Reply #106 on: August 20, 2014, 08:56 »
0
Thanks for the nice comments all RM and  556,781 Images on sale  :D been very long days to get these scanned uploaded and key-worded 6 days a week 12+ hour days, so proves hard work pays off in the end.

« Reply #107 on: August 20, 2014, 09:13 »
+1
Thanks for the nice comments all RM and  556,781 Images on sale  :D been very long days to get these scanned uploaded and key-worded 6 days a week 12+ hour days, so proves hard work pays off in the end.

Over HALF MILLION images?!  72 hours a week! That does add perspective. 

All this to net $3.000 - $4.000 per month is not great return on investment to me.  Most at Alamy say they get $1 per image per year.  So you should be earning half million per year. In micro most pros would expect to make 3 to 4k per month or more off 10 k images.

 Glad your happy tho.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #108 on: August 20, 2014, 09:17 »
0
Well, that might have been in the old micro days, times are changing fast.

However, I'm (apparently) a dilettante, and work to live, not the other way round.

« Reply #109 on: August 20, 2014, 10:33 »
+1
Thanks for the nice comments all RM and  556,781 Images on sale  :D been very long days to get these scanned uploaded and key-worded 6 days a week 12+ hour days, so proves hard work pays off in the end.

and u said SCANNED. i take it that it means from photographs that were sitting in your boxes collected over many years?
pardon me asking .
 i agree with PBytes and SSue 556,781 images is alot. but if it was from old photographs collected over the years not earning money , then maybe it is worth the while...
but if from new digital images u set out to create, u should be earning lots more.

still, it's money in the wallet, so better than vapour.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2014, 10:38 by etudiante_rapide »

gpgibson

« Reply #110 on: August 20, 2014, 11:29 »
+1
Yes its from old photos collected over 30 years and I'm happy with the hard work because I now Nett 2000+ / month and also month on month the graph is going up with more sales and more revenue. I now only upload new digital at a much lower rate couple days a week of 4 to 5 hours :)

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #111 on: August 20, 2014, 11:55 »
+1
I've got thousands of 35mm slides lying about, and some may get into the 'historic interest' territory  soon, but IME it takes lots more time to prep slides for stock than digital (no matter how I stored them, they always seem to have lots of little dust spots I can't see until they're scanned.
Unless you really know they will sell for good amounts (never a given with Alamy, and getting lower every year) when it might be worth engaging one of the slide scanning/cleaning services.

Valo

« Reply #112 on: August 20, 2014, 12:22 »
+1
Thanks for the nice comments all RM and  556,781 Images on sale  :D been very long days to get these scanned uploaded and key-worded 6 days a week 12+ hour days, so proves hard work pays off in the end.

Alamy is the only site I submit to and this is why......

91 sales this month $5,840 Gross $2839 Net still 2 weeks left !!

1,598 sales to date $119,996 Gross since end of 2012

I stopped submitting to all Micro sites 2 years ago and have not looked back !!

First off all, hats off for the insane amount of work you put in. That is dedication right there and deserves a compliment. I cannot manage to do that.

If I may be so free, did you track your efforts and sales and calculated your hourly pay?

You started end of 2012, about 21 months to date. 120,000 dollar gross, assuming you got 50% for all sales, you made 60,000 dollar in 21 months or 2,857 dollar per month. At 72 hour a week, you worked for 9.9 $/h pre tax. The real number may be higher, 12 $/h.

Based on August alone your RPI clocks $0.005c. To compare, my RPI on Shutterstock this month is $0.20c.

The good thing is, if you are done uploading, the money will now just keep rolling in.  ;) But I am still not sure if Alamy is paying you more than Shutterstock. 500,000 images on Shutterstock could probably make you 10,000 dollar per month easy.

Still impressive amount of work, and I am sure there are a lot more factors influencing your sales on micro and macro agencies. You have the numbers, so you know best. But it was fun running through those numbers anyway :)

Ed

« Reply #113 on: August 20, 2014, 13:13 »
0
All of this talk about getting more money from Shutterstock....

It has me curious, has anyone successfully had a slide scanned image pass QC at Shutterstock?  Is that really possible these days?

It's a serious question.

Valo

« Reply #114 on: August 20, 2014, 13:24 »
0
I believe Mike Norton sends in scans of his 4x5 photos.

« Reply #115 on: August 20, 2014, 13:31 »
+1
Yes its from old photos collected over 30 years and I'm happy with the hard work because I now Nett 2000+ / month and also month on month the graph is going up with more sales and more revenue. I now only upload new digital at a much lower rate couple days a week of 4 to 5 hours :)

ah, then, it's all money in the bank . so no matter how much work vs number, it's still been worth it
as it would have collected dust otherwise.
thx 4 reply.

« Reply #116 on: August 20, 2014, 16:21 »
0
If you're scanning while watching tv, listening to music, chatting with family or friends, doing other stuff while you wait for the scanner to work, then it's not the same as working for an hourly wage. $60,000 from boxes of old photos, slides, negatives collecting dust doesn't sound so bad if he makes another $30,000-40,000 a year on them for the next 5-10 years without doing any more work. Perhaps on the micros or on another traditional site, they might have earned more, but a lot depends on what the photos are, whether they'd be accepted, etc. The thing is, there's really no way to know how you'll do until you try.

« Reply #117 on: August 20, 2014, 18:55 »
+1
I believe Mike Norton sends in scans of his 4x5 photos.

He does but you have to know what you are doing. Scanning properly is an art and I suck at it.  I have thousands of images that could do very well if I scanned them professionally.

« Reply #118 on: August 20, 2014, 22:54 »
0
I believe Mike Norton sends in scans of his 4x5 photos.

He does but you have to know what you are doing. Scanning properly is an art and I suck at it.  I have thousands of images that could do very well if I scanned them professionally.

Yes, good scanning can't be done chatting with friends or watching tv or what ever.  This guy already say he spent 72 hours per week on it. 

« Reply #119 on: August 21, 2014, 03:20 »
+3

You started end of 2012, about 21 months to date. 120,000 dollar gross, assuming you got 50% for all sales, you made 60,000 dollar in 21 months or 2,857 dollar per month. At 72 hour a week, you worked for 9.9 $/h pre tax. The real number may be higher, 12 $/h.

Those numbers can't be right: 21 months x 4.3weeks per month x 72 hours work per week  = 6,500 hours work for 557,000 images = 86 images per hour, or more than one a minute, for scanning, processing (any dust or scratches would need attention) keywording, uploading and then faffing about with Alamy's bizarre keyword prioritisaion etc.  There have to be a lot more years work to get that many images ready - even if there is five minutes work per image the keywording and description must be very limited, which could explain the low sales to uploads ratio.

It takes me more than a minute per image just to arrange the keywords, put in location data etc. on Alamy's website, and that's after processing and keywording.

As for film on SS - I put up some medium and large format shots about a year ago. I generally don't bother, though, because it's quite tough to get it past the inspection, they really don't like any grain.

« Reply #120 on: August 21, 2014, 03:28 »
+1
Scanning properly is an art and I suck at it.  I have thousands of images that could do very well if I scanned them professionally.

I had a roll of 35mm Velvia scanned by Peak Imaging in Sheffield at the time that they processed it and I was very disappointed, I rescanned it on my Epson V500 and got much better results, so I wouldn't trust "professional scanning services" unless they were doing proper drum scans which are very, very expensive. Standard scanning services just run the film through on automatic, as far as I can make out, and that certainly doesn't give the best results.  I've seen a 24x19 inch print from a scan I made and you couldn't tell it wasn't a darkroom print (that was 5x4 B&W).

gpgibson

« Reply #121 on: August 21, 2014, 04:56 »
+2

You started end of 2012, about 21 months to date. 120,000 dollar gross, assuming you got 50% for all sales, you made 60,000 dollar in 21 months or 2,857 dollar per month. At 72 hour a week, you worked for 9.9 $/h pre tax. The real number may be higher, 12 $/h.

Those numbers can't be right: 21 months x 4.3weeks per month x 72 hours work per week  = 6,500 hours work for 557,000 images = 86 images per hour, or more than one a minute, for scanning, processing (any dust or scratches would need attention) keywording, uploading and then faffing about with Alamy's bizarre keyword prioritisaion etc.  There have to be a lot more years work to get that many images ready - even if there is five minutes work per image the keywording and description must be very limited, which could explain the low sales to uploads ratio.

It takes me more than a minute per image just to arrange the keywords, put in location data etc. on Alamy's website, and that's after processing and keywording.

As for film on SS - I put up some medium and large format shots about a year ago. I generally don't bother, though, because it's quite tough to get it past the inspection, they really don't like any grain.

The majority have been scanned over the years, I have always found key-wording easy, I find Alamy very easy, I only use their essential and main fields and I use lightroom with some of my own scripts to match Alamy's fields.
I would assume the reason my sales v size of portfolio is mainly down to the subject matter being, in the majority the same, this also helps with description and keyword fields, I can cut and paste.
They are all RM and are editorial. SS is an absolute waste of time as is the majority of Microstock for my images, they would reject 99% of my images, I have tried, they rejected one scanned image for a reason like ' we don't think this has any sale potential' it has gone to sell many times and for one use around $890 if i recall right.

I do things different to the majority in Alamy, I have a lot of similars again makes keywording easy. I have uploaded over 2000 files in one day with the majority having the same info in each field (they still sell well and sometimes at 10-20 a time with very little between each image). Many disagree with the way I do things but it works for me and I'm happy with it. I don't follow the crowd, I hold no emotional value to my images, I'm into stock for the money to enjoy my main hobbies in life. I don't pull out of certain schemes ie distributor IQ ETC a sale is a sale even if it's 0.5$ or $1000+, I've had both. I don't delete anything I've uploaded, I read on the forums people delete or prune their collection to look better WHY unless you are a mind reader you don't know what will sell next ! that one image could be the next $1000 sale.

Again thanks for the comments makes interested reading. :)
« Last Edit: August 21, 2014, 04:58 by gpgibson »

« Reply #122 on: August 21, 2014, 08:07 »
+1
I have 3300 images on Alamy and this month I have only 2 sales totaling $49, before my cut. One is a distribution sale do I will get less than $20. Really tough.  Now, looking on the bright side, August is pathetic across all agencies. SS was horrible yesterday, like a weekend but it was WEDNESDAY which is usually a big day for me there. 

Hobostocker

    This user is banned.
« Reply #123 on: August 21, 2014, 08:44 »
+1
@gpgibson

did you ever sent a hdd full of images to alamy or you only upload from your pc ?
do they ever rejected a big batch with 1000s of pics ?


gpgibson

« Reply #124 on: August 21, 2014, 09:03 »
0
Yes and never been rejected


 

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