Author Topic: Alamy - is it worth the time and trouble? (Read 44623 times)

lightphoto · « **Reply #25 on:** February 24, 2015, 13:33 »

My travel & landscapes sell well on Alamy. Not consistent, but the royalties are unmatched anywhere else, and it was my #2 in the first year of uploading there.

I would say absolutely.

spike · « **Reply #26 on:** February 24, 2015, 16:03 »

Nope.

If I could send them my hard drive with keyworded photos, so they process it and put it online, then I'd be happy to see what they can do in terms of sales. But uploading is currently a pain in the ass (I have just 200 images there) and I have no desire to continue to contribute there.

heywoody · « **Reply #27 on:** February 24, 2015, 17:31 »

I've had a few sales with untypical Alamy content. My keywords are in IPTC in relevance order anyway and I just copy and paste to the 2 main boxes, not a huge deal. View on Alamy just mean a thumb of you image appeared in a search. I would say marginally worthwhile uploading and view any returns as a bonus.

ShadySue · « **Reply #28 on:** February 24, 2015, 17:34 »

I believe there could be a difference re RF or RM on Alamy, but I've variously heard one or the other is better! But clearly it depends on your port and its competition and site buyer interest.

Digital66 · « **Reply #29 on:** February 24, 2015, 18:28 »

Thank you Hatman for opening this thread. I started my RM portfolio on Alamy about 4 weeks ago and have also spent a lot of time learning the keywording system. Like you, I've been using the brackets and phrases (didn't know that feature is not working!!!). And I've also been wondering whether it is worth the time and trouble?

I'm exclusive with iStock, but things are so seriously bad (at least for me), that it makes no sense to keep investing in producing new images for my iStock portfolio.

At this time, I don't really know what to do... Keep creating new work for my new RM portfolio on Alamy? Drop iStock exclusivity? Stop production completely? Maybe I should just become a hobbyist and enjoy life.

Hobostocker · « **Reply #30 on:** February 25, 2015, 01:14 »

Quote from: MarcvsTvllivs on February 24, 2015, 10:29

Editorial and press stuff sells well (almost exclusively to British clients)

exactly, photos about the UK.

MarcvsTvllivs · « **Reply #31 on:** February 25, 2015, 04:10 »

Quote from: Hobostocker on February 25, 2015, 01:14

Quote from: MarcvsTvllivs on February 24, 2015, 10:29
Editorial and press stuff sells well (almost exclusively to British clients)

exactly, photos about the UK.

I have no photos about the UK. My travel stuff is from all over the world with a lot of it coming from the Americas. My press stuff is all U.S. or continental European major cities.

50% · « **Reply #32 on:** February 25, 2015, 05:28 »

I would say it's worth it. It's a long term investment as their search is not (that) biased to newer stuff, I still do sell stuff there that I have uploaded more than 10 years ago. No big money but at least a picture once in the database is still visible to buyers after a decade! I just wouldn't waste my time to upload typical microstock-pictures there.

dpimborough · « **Reply #33 on:** February 25, 2015, 15:41 »

Well I'd say it's worth it they are slow to show results but I got sales through 2014/15 and they are anything from $5 to $150 with $50 $30's and so on.

A dayum sight more than $0.25 or a $2/$3 sale on micro.

As to keywords I add them all in to the image file including plurals i.e. tiger, tigers, cat, cats and just do a quick copy and paste in Alamy's file manager.

It's easier if you do batches of similar subjects because you can edit them all as one batch.

All the microstock stuff goes to Alamy and RM it's about a 50/50 split.

Though RF images have earned very high amounts RM images have also earned very small amounts it's swings and roundabouts

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #34 on:** February 25, 2015, 15:52 »

alamy would have been perfect ...
if they only had sales.

StanRohrer · « **Reply #35 on:** February 25, 2015, 17:17 »

Being an iStock exclusive for many years, Alamy is an outlet where i can sell RM editorial that wouldn't fit on iStock. So it has been worth the time and effort to upload images that otherwise would sit on my hard drive. Then iStock started editorial but the pricing doesn't make sense for low sales volume that I would expect. Alamy covers it.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #36 on:** February 26, 2015, 20:01 »

I say yes, but only if you don't manually add those extra keywords (a real pain). I'm an illustrator. They force you to choose manual keywords, so I choose "illustration." I have been making a $100 every couple months with 3,000+ images.

Phadrea · « **Reply #37 on:** March 06, 2015, 05:03 »

In my experience No. Absolute waste of time and effort.

2013=2 sales + Increased portfolio + 2014= 1 sale + Increased portfolio + 2015=0 sales.

Ariene · « **Reply #38 on:** March 06, 2015, 05:39 »

Herg, your information says nothing to us... We have no clue what kind of images you offer, what is the number of your files, etc... You gave empty numbers.

In one month I've made more sales with over 2,5k files than you in over 3 years.

iandmph · « **Reply #39 on:** June 19, 2015, 17:50 »

I'm new on Alamy. I choose it cos I have mostly editorial, event kind of photos and travel photos, not really stock kind of photos yet. Is there any other site that you could recommend me to join based on my interest in travel and event photos.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #40 on:** June 20, 2015, 01:08 »

About 5% of my total stock income so worth it just but not high priority

Rage · « **Reply #41 on:** June 20, 2015, 23:09 »

Started putting my editorial to Alamy. what all needs to go there? Same as what I'm sending to SS and the rest? Or exclusive pics owing to the higher prices? Proper microstock ot travel and editorial?

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #42 on:** June 21, 2015, 08:40 »

Quote from: izzikiorage on June 20, 2015, 23:09

Started putting my editorial to Alamy. what all needs to go there? Same as what I'm sending to SS and the rest? Or exclusive pics owing to the higher prices? Proper microstock ot travel and editorial?

You can't send the same images that are editorial elsewhere to Alamy. At Alamy you have to sell anything with people that doesn't have a model release as RM and RM images cannot also be sold RF editorial. It is the same for property. If someone licenses your image as RM on Alamy expecting it to have limited distribution and then sees that it is used elsewhere as RF editorial they could sue you and win - it is not worth taking that chance. If you have put your microstock editorial images also for sale at Alamy as RM then I would delete them.

I have separate images for Alamy that are different from the ones that are editorial on microstock. They are exclusive just because there isn't another good place to send them. Anything that is RF on microstock can also go to Alamy except for editorial.

I usually put images without property or model releases that I think would have wide interest (e.g., iconic images of travel destinations) as RF editorial on microstock agencies and those that are more specialized with less interest (such as images of minor monuments or obscure destinations) on Alamy. Or shoot the same destination on different days or different times of day (morning versus evening) with one set for microstock and the other for Alamy. Maybe others have better suggestions.

photostockad · « **Reply #43 on:** June 22, 2015, 06:51 »

Different microstock agencies have different reviews about what is Editorial (specifically about some travel landmarks) so it is possible that you have the same image as RF on Dreamstime and Editorial on Istock.

Semmick Photo · « **Reply #44 on:** June 22, 2015, 06:58 »

Before closing my account I pulled all RM images of Alamy and added them to the micro and they made me far more than on Alamy.

Alamy is good for new contributors as you start with normal ranking. As soon as you hit the first re-rank and your images didnt deliver you end up at the end of the search and good luck to you to recover from that.

dirkr · « **Reply #45 on:** June 22, 2015, 07:14 »

Quote from: photostockad on June 22, 2015, 06:51

Different microstock agencies have different reviews about what is Editorial (specifically about some travel landmarks) so it is possible that you have the same image as RF on Dreamstime and Editorial on Istock.

Which is no problem at all.
But still, on the micros they are all RF and thus can only be uploaded as RF to Alamy.
So if you think RF on Alamy is fine, you could upload them.
But as soon as any person is in the frame and you don't have a release, Alamy forces you to make it RM.

Julied83 · « **Reply #46 on:** June 22, 2015, 07:23 »

I have 300 images , any download yet .... keep uploading and hoping ...

photostockad · « **Reply #47 on:** June 22, 2015, 08:34 »

Quote from: dirkr on June 22, 2015, 07:14

Quote from: photostockad on June 22, 2015, 06:51
Different microstock agencies have different reviews about what is Editorial (specifically about some travel landmarks) so it is possible that you have the same image as RF on Dreamstime and Editorial on Istock.

Which is no problem at all.
But still, on the micros they are all RF and thus can only be uploaded as RF to Alamy.
So if you think RF on Alamy is fine, you could upload them.
But as soon as any person is in the frame and you don't have a release, Alamy forces you to make it RM.

The problem with Istock, for example, is that they prefer to force you to upload the European castles as ED because they don't want to spent time to see which need property realese and which no (even from the public places). Also 123RF force you to upload almost all landmarks as ED because they don't want to track which is suitable for RF and which not.

spike · « **Reply #48 on:** June 22, 2015, 10:46 »

Quote from: Semmick Photo on June 22, 2015, 06:58

Before closing my account I pulled all RM images of Alamy and added them to the micro and they made me far more than on Alamy.

Alamy is good for new contributors as you start with normal ranking. As soon as you hit the first re-rank and your images didnt deliver you end up at the end of the search and good luck to you to recover from that.

Really?

Where can I read more about reranking?

rimglow · « **Reply #49 on:** June 22, 2015, 11:54 »

Alamy has been very good for me! 767 RF files.

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Author Topic: Alamy - is it worth the time and trouble? (Read 44623 times)

lightphoto

spike

heywoody

ShadySue

Digital66

Hobostocker

MarcvsTvllivs

50%

dpimborough

etudiante_rapide

StanRohrer

Tryingmybest

Phadrea

Ariene

iandmph

Pauws99

Rage

sgoodwin4813

photostockad

Semmick Photo

dirkr

Julied83

photostockad

spike

rimglow

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