MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Author Topic: 1st sale in Alamy  (Read 53015 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

« on: November 25, 2011, 11:59 »
0
Hello friends..
  I am about to submit photos for alamy QC and curious to know how much longer did Alamy take to sell your 1st photo after your registration.
So lets share your experience with 1st sale in alamy and how big/small did you earn from that 1st sale...  and what makes you keep posting photos in Alamy ?
:-)
Do tell the portfolio size at the time of 1st sale comparing today's port size..
« Last Edit: November 25, 2011, 12:24 by dr_skn08 »


« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2011, 12:18 »
0
I had my first sale 11 months after joining.  If memory serves me right, I didn't actually upload anything for about six months and when I had the sale, there were only a few hundred images online.  Gross sale was $68.

« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2011, 12:23 »
0
oh.. long time... I am affraid that most of the responses will mentions the duration in months lol
 and after that do you sell photo (if not exactly then atleast somewhat similar to) often ? what is your portfolio size ?

« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2011, 12:27 »
0
As I mentioned in the payout threshold thread, according to folks on Alamy's forums sellers can expect one sale per year per 100 photos online.  My numbers hold up to the theory.  I have just over 2000 images online and have had 19 sales this year.

Ed

« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2011, 12:27 »
0
The first time, it took three months.  Then I closed my account down in 2008 (for business reasons).  I opened my account again this past May and I licensed two images in July - it was a topic not covered anywhere else (including the micros).  It depends on what you have available and how large your portfolio is.  It takes at least 3 months (Alamy gives you a default rank for 100 days because they know this) and for most folks, they won't see regular sales until after the first year.

« Reply #5 on: November 25, 2011, 12:30 »
0
The first time, it took three months.  Then I closed my account down in 2008 (for business reasons).  I opened my account again this past May and I licensed two images in July - it was a topic not covered anywhere else (including the micros).  It depends on what you have available and how large your portfolio is.  It takes at least 3 months (Alamy gives you a default rank for 100 days because they know this) and for most folks, they won't see regular sales until after the first year.

What is that rank about ? new thing about alamy for me...!
« Last Edit: November 25, 2011, 22:21 by dr_skn08 »

« Reply #6 on: November 25, 2011, 12:31 »
0
As I mentioned in the payout threshold thread, according to folks on Alamy's forums sellers can expect one sale per year per 100 photos online.  My numbers hold up to the theory.  I have just over 2000 images online and have had 19 sales this year.
lo people posting images in alamy must have great patience ! :-)

« Reply #7 on: November 25, 2011, 12:33 »
0
A lot of folks have gigantic portfolios numbering in the 10s of thousands!  No patience required when you've done the work.

« Reply #8 on: November 25, 2011, 12:35 »
0
is it really more fruitful to post alamy exclusively ?

Ed

« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2011, 12:36 »
0
Rank relates to your click through rate (how many times a registered buyer views your image) as well as how many images you have licensed and other factors that are not known to the public.  It determines what order images are displayed in a search.

As Karimala says - there are people making good money from Alamy but they have large portfolios.  Average about 1 image licensed per month per 1,000 images.

« Reply #10 on: November 25, 2011, 12:41 »
0
so rank is given broadly to a member... so are you people dont get bored from alamy as results come quite late here ?

Paulo M. F. Pires

  • "No Gods No Masters"
« Reply #11 on: November 25, 2011, 12:46 »
0
I'm have +300 images RF ( will start sending some RM in 2012 ), 100% acceptance rate, almost one year there and have one sale... novell use... 0,41c



Anyway, only last month I start re-keywording all images and start getting more zooms , better CTR.. lets hope ;D

« Reply #12 on: November 25, 2011, 12:51 »
0
good. I wish you may earn more in alamy Paulo :-) and i may learn from your shots lol

« Reply #13 on: November 25, 2011, 13:19 »
0
A lot of folks have gigantic portfolios numbering in the 10s of thousands!  No patience required when you've done the work.

Yeah, but it's a hell of a lot of work. My return is less than $1 per file per year there. If you've already got 20,000 files posted and you can sit back and watch 1,000 a month roll in I'm sure it feels quite good, but the uploading process is horrendous and it would be pretty much a full time job to shoot, process and push through 2,000 files a year.

« Reply #14 on: November 25, 2011, 13:23 »
0
yeah you are right Baldricks...so can you guys suggest.. is alamy worth for amateur photographers ?

« Reply #15 on: November 25, 2011, 13:29 »
0
Rank relates to your click through rate (how many times a registered buyer views your image) as well as how many images you have licensed and other factors that are not known to the public.  It determines what order images are displayed in a search.

I've had 100 there for about 6 months without a sale.   It looks like the longer I go without making a sale, the less likely I am to ever make one.  A beautiful system!

I had no problem getting images accepted, but obviously it's been a waste of time.   

« Reply #16 on: November 25, 2011, 15:13 »
0
I went a few years w/o a sale, but I had under 100 images for that time. When they dropped their size limit I started pushing images there in my downtime. I have over 1,000 images there now and have had a few sales in the last year (more recently) - when/if they all clear I'll have enough for a payout. Sales seem to be a little random though - both in subject and return. At some point I'd like to send them some more editorial street type travel photos, but that is relatively low on my priority list.

Don't expect quick returns there, but one good sale can equal many months on one of the small tier sites.

« Reply #17 on: November 25, 2011, 15:34 »
0
One sale per 100 images per year?

What is the average payout for these sales?

The payouts must be extremely high, otherwise surely nobody would bother uploading thousands of files?

If I had my 3000 images there and only got 30 sales at 10 dollars...I mean you can earn more than that in 2 or 3 days on istock.

« Reply #18 on: November 25, 2011, 15:49 »
0
Based on a recent thread, my guess is the the average sale is somewhere between $75-125.  Mine is right around $100 over the years.  I've had sales as low as $6 and as high as $380 in three years.  It's not unheard of to make a $1000 sale, and a handful of folks have had $10K+ sales.  RM pays more than RF.

The folks who have 10s of thousands of images have been shooting a very very long time.  Alamy gets 100% of my attention these days as I'm focused on RM stuff rather than RF, and I'm definitely seeing results.  I've earned twice as much there than at BigStock and 123RF this year with a smaller portfolio.

As for exclusivity, Alamy doesn't require it or provide the option, so it's up to you whether you want to go exclusive or not.  Whether it's a better choice or not entirely depends on your portfolio.  It's the best option for what I'm shooting right now, but for others it might not be.    
« Last Edit: November 25, 2011, 15:52 by Karimala »

« Reply #19 on: November 25, 2011, 16:01 »
0
I am interested in RM as an alternative to RF.

I only have two RM files on getty, but only got a normal "RF level" payout so far. I think I uploaded the wrong material.

I might give alamy a go and just slowly build up another portfolio there.

is it difficult to delete single images, if you want to? For instance if a file  hasnt sold in two years, I might want to move it into RF and into my portfolio on istock (I know it can never go back to RM)
Or shuld one give RM files more time? 3 years, 5 years?

Thank you for the numbers, this is certainly a decent level.

« Reply #20 on: November 25, 2011, 16:29 »
0
It's very easy to remove images, but you might have to wait up to six months for them to be removed completely (my last deletions only took a week).  Alamy's management section allows you to search for specific images by keyword or Alamy's unique ID number, so you don't have to dig through your portfolio trying to remember exactly when you uploaded something.  It's the easiest and best system around, from my experience.  

IMO I wouldn't remove anything after any period of time, but then again my RM portfolio contains images geared towards the historical and editorial that would never do well or be accepted on the micros.  I also have some photos that compositionally aren't very good, but have elements a buyer might be interested in.  My highest sale was on a photo of copper pots that is pretty much a piece of crap.  HUGE shadow along a wall that does nothing to make the photo look good.  It just happened that the angle of one of the pots worked with the book cover design and was the only one available with that angle.  The photo didn't need to be good for their purposes.  They just wanted the pot.  



« Last Edit: November 25, 2011, 16:36 by Karimala »

« Reply #21 on: November 25, 2011, 16:33 »
0
Very interesting, thank you. So I could upload normal content and just wait and see what happens. This might be easier to leave in RM.

I think Ill browse through the alamy collection a bit more. I think if someone has thousands of images there, they must know what they are doing.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #22 on: November 25, 2011, 16:38 »
0
One sale per 100 images per year?

What is the average payout for these sales?

The payouts must be extremely high, otherwise surely nobody would bother uploading thousands of files?

If I had my 3000 images there and only got 30 sales at 10 dollars...I mean you can earn more than that in 2 or 3 days on istock.

You can make intelligent choices about what to send for Alamy. For example, very specific locations which wouldn't have general interest, or photos taken in the sort of natural light that the micros (OK, I only know about iStock) wouldn't accept, e.g. Scotland in winter or rainforest.
Money 'to me' averages around or above iStock's EL, but usually for uses that wouldn't require an EL on iStock (very few publications have print runs of over 100,000 imprints).

« Reply #23 on: November 25, 2011, 16:47 »
0
You are right in that you cannot depend on Alamy for stable income unless you have a substantial  port.

With less than 800 RM images, I have managed to get at least one sale or over $100 per month. However because of the high payout threshold until recently and Alamy's lenient policy in collecting money from the buyers (some of my distribution sales were cleared after 6-7 months), the gap between each payment was rather big and long. I could get $500-600 in one payment but it was likely 5-6 months or longer after the sales. Even with the lower threshold which was just announced, I am still $2 short of $175 from my next payment.

I have no idea how RF sales are.

Very interesting, thank you. So I could upload normal content and just wait and see what happens. This might be easier to leave in RM.

I think Ill browse through the alamy collection a bit more. I think if someone has thousands of images there, they must know what they are doing.
« Last Edit: November 25, 2011, 17:07 by Freedom »

« Reply #24 on: November 25, 2011, 17:01 »
0
Very interesting, thank you. So I could upload normal content and just wait and see what happens. This might be easier to leave in RM.

I think Ill browse through the alamy collection a bit more. I think if someone has thousands of images there, they must know what they are doing.

Search Alamy for Jeff Greenberg.  His portfolio has over 78,000 images and counting...mostly street photography.  He's a frequent poster on their forums and openly shares his sales numbers (well over $100K per year in earnings from Alamy alone).


 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
4 Replies
6170 Views
Last post June 21, 2007, 07:31
by fintastique
110 Replies
58992 Views
Last post April 28, 2010, 02:58
by Oldhand
My first sale on Alamy

Started by AstburyD Alamy.com

16 Replies
11147 Views
Last post August 30, 2010, 07:41
by ann
0 Replies
4129 Views
Last post November 21, 2010, 20:15
by JGAdams
15 Replies
8201 Views
Last post July 02, 2012, 12:35
by wordplanet

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors