MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Alamy.com => Topic started by: Microbius on August 20, 2012, 03:50
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I am signed up for Novel Use sales, and it seems nearly all my sales now come from these and get me a paltry 50c.
The worst thing is the lack of info on what these sales actually are and what the client is getting for their $1.
Are you signed up for them? have they eaten up an increasing amount of your sales too?
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Nope never did, I knew this was bad news from the start.
I didn't sign up with a macro site to get micro sales, but then we're selling the same material for pennies, doesn't make much sense either way.
I've had a 178$ sale recently on a new image that is already popular in micro. I can't say I feel good about this, it's always the contributor or the buyer getting punished in this business.
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Novel Use is being phased out according to James West - see comment number 34 under his blog post here (http://www.alamy.com/Blog/contributor/archive/2012/06/01/4931.aspx).
Novel Use is probably more trouble than it’s worth. We've been winding up the deals partly because many of you have voted with your feet and opted out the scheme (which is completely fine by the way, I only get cross when people get cross with us for something they agreed to) and partly because we have found more exciting opportunities at higher price points to concentrate on. Only two Novel Use deals remain in place and the one that is in the sub $5 category has been notified that we will not be renewing the deal when the contract expires next year.
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Thanks for posting that, problem solved :D
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Funny you made this post because I was inches away from getting out of novel use. Nice that West is going to close shop here but I hope they find more buyers. Problem is their collection size, too...lots and lots and lots of junk in there, spammed keywords and a critical mass that's impossible to re-do. But good news on the Novel use thingie.
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Funny you made this post because I was inches away from getting out of novel use.
That would have been in April, which is the opt-out window.
I'm almost certainly coming out of the UK Newspaper scheme then, mainly because of replication all over the web.
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Good news about NU being phased out!
I have been in it because most of my Alamy RF port is the same as my micro port. I figured that if I sell the images for $1 on the micros, no reason not to do so on Alamy. However in the two years I've been in it, the volume has never compensated for the low price.
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Glad it is being phased out. Maybe they can use the extra time in finding better monetary deals for us and Alamy.
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Novel use is being phased out, but I got 2 sales this month - one for $ 7.63 and another one for $ 5.00. That's before the commission cut. So ... we're still in the microstock prices level however they're going to call it.
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Novel use is being phased out, but I got 2 sales this month - one for $ 7.63 and another one for $ 5.00. That's before the commission cut. So ... we're still in the microstock prices level however they're going to call it.
I had a non novel-use sale this week for an editorial website: RM, non novel use, non newspaper scheme which was $7.54 gross, so even opting out of NU won't stop micro-level sales prices.
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Today I open up the 'summary of items sold' page and see more than 50 new thumbnails showing sales, so my right brain hemisphere immediately goes "we're rich I tell ya!" ... and then my left hemisphere goes ... "look at the prices and license". All novel use. Got fooled again! :D
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Today I open up the 'summary of items sold' page and see more than 50 new thumbnails showing sales, so my right brain hemisphere immediately goes "we're rich I tell ya!" ... and then my left hemisphere goes ... "look at the prices and license". All novel use. Got fooled again! :D
Yup, I consider novel use as the microstock equivalent and never opted-in.
Still you might even get very low priced sales from RM too.
I think they are moving away from the novel use anyway.
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I think they are moving away from the novel use anyway.
I keep hearing that, but then there they are each month.
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I think they are moving away from the novel use anyway.
I keep hearing that, but then there they are each month.
You didn't opt out of Novel Use?
http://www.alamy.com/noveluse.aspx (http://www.alamy.com/noveluse.aspx)
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No, I am not opted out. ATM I only have my micro portfolio there anyway, so these are already images I sell for a couple of bucks. But of course I would rather sell them for more :).
I keep hearing it is going to be discontinued so it will be a non-issue anyhow.
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No, I am not opted out. ATM I only have my micro portfolio there anyway, so these are already images I sell for a couple of bucks. But of course I would rather sell them for more :).
I keep hearing it is going to be discontinued so it will be a non-issue anyhow.
Either way I'd set up a Google or Outlook calendar alert for the 1st of April 2013 in order to opt out. Just in case the Novel Use them will be still around. Just to get your bases covered.
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Either way I'd set up a Google or Outlook calendar alert for the 1st of April 2013 in order to opt out. Just in case the Novel Use them will be still around. Just to get your bases covered.
Good advice. Especially if I upload some non-micro images.
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Anyone else still getting these $1 Novel Use sales, weren't they supposed to be phased out by now?
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Anyone else still getting these $1 Novel Use sales, weren't they supposed to be phased out by now?
Yea I am still getting them. I didn't do anything about it because I thought the program was going away. I plan on opting out though.
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I hadn't had any of these up until last week - when I had 3. If I knew what they were getting (if it's tiny blog images for example) I'd mind less, but as they're phasing it out (it's next year when the contract expires I think), I'm not going to worry about it.
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Oh good, I had just mis-remembered the date of phase out. As long as it's going soon.
My last five sales are $370, $1, $1, $1, $1 it's a bit jarring
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Where do you see if you are opted in to novel use sales? I've had a look round and can't find it. I've never had one so may be opted out already.
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Where do you see if you are opted in to novel use sales? I've had a look round and can't find it. I've never had one so may be opted out already.
MyAlamy > Contributor Infomation > Additional Revenue Opportunities > (Scroll down to Novel Use, then click on the link 'Want to sign up?' Don't panic, clicking on the link doesn't sign you up, it takes you to a page with more info about the scheme. At the top of the page it will tell you if you've opted out, and at the bottom of the page it says Yes ... or No ... and you'll see if you've opted out (and presumably if you're opted in). I'm almost certain the default is opted out. You can opt in any time, but if you have opted in, you can't opt out until 1st April.
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Where do you see if you are opted in to novel use sales? I've had a look round and can't find it. I've never had one so may be opted out already.
MyAlamy > Contributor Infomation > Additional Revenue Opportunities > (Scroll down to Novel Use, then click on the link 'Want to sign up?' Don't panic, clicking on the link doesn't sign you up, it takes you to a page with more info about the scheme. At the top of the page it will tell you if you've opted out, and at the bottom of the page it says Yes ... or No ... and you'll see if you've opted out (and presumably if you're opted in). I'm almost certain the default is opted out. You can opt in any time, but if you have opted in, you can't opt out until 1st April.
Thank you:D Seems I've been opted out since 2010. Didn't even know I had joined then as only started to upload half way through this year.
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Where do you see if you are opted in to novel use sales? I've had a look round and can't find it. I've never had one so may be opted out already.
MyAlamy > Contributor Infomation > Additional Revenue Opportunities > (Scroll down to Novel Use, then click on the link 'Want to sign up?' Don't panic, clicking on the link doesn't sign you up, it takes you to a page with more info about the scheme. At the top of the page it will tell you if you've opted out, and at the bottom of the page it says Yes ... or No ... and you'll see if you've opted out (and presumably if you're opted in). I'm almost certain the default is opted out. You can opt in any time, but if you have opted in, you can't opt out until 1st April.
Thank you:D Seems I've been opted out since 2010. Didn't even know I had joined then as only started to upload half way through this year.
I think that's the default message from when the scheme started.
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Where do you see if you are opted in to novel use sales? I've had a look round and can't find it. I've never had one so may be opted out already.
MyAlamy > Contributor Infomation > Additional Revenue Opportunities > (Scroll down to Novel Use, then click on the link 'Want to sign up?' Don't panic, clicking on the link doesn't sign you up, it takes you to a page with more info about the scheme. At the top of the page it will tell you if you've opted out, and at the bottom of the page it says Yes ... or No ... and you'll see if you've opted out (and presumably if you're opted in). I'm almost certain the default is opted out. You can opt in any time, but if you have opted in, you can't opt out until 1st April.
Thank you:D Seems I've been opted out since 2010. Didn't even know I had joined then as only started to upload half way through this year.
I think that's the default message from when the scheme started.
OK thanks, that explains it. :D
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Hi,
I just signed up to Alamy. Should I opt in Novel Use and Third-party distribution option or not?
Thank you,
Maria
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Hi,
I just signed up to Alamy. Should I opt in Novel Use and Third-party distribution option or not?
Thank you,
Maria
I believe that Novel Use is supposed to be on its way out, but haven't heard any definite date for its demise. If you happen to be exclusive at iStock, NU isn't allowed because the NU terms are vague and may hheoretically trespass into RF territory. (At least, that's what one iStock CR rep told one iS exclusive.) The net amount is tiny, but these are should be very low budget buyers (e.g. students) and you either sell to them at the very low price or you're extremely unlikely to get the sale.
Distributors possibly likewise, i.e. they may reach markets the main Alamy website doesn't reach, but from Jan 1st you'll only get 30% of the sale price. Some people opt out of particular geographical distributors because of perceived problems.
Essentially, it's your choice. Same as with the UK newspaper scheme - lower prices, ages to wait for payment; but you'd have to have a super-rare and highly-desireable photo to get a full price sale in that market via Alamy - plus a citizen journalist might already have emailled the photo from their phone. Actually, my sales through the UK newspaper scheme have earned me more than I'd have earned via iStock, as they often are just for their website, so wouldn't need an EL from iS. (Odd, you can buy a photo on iStock for the normal price and have it on your website for ever, but if your newspaper print run is over 1/2 million, you need an EL, even though the next day it's in the recycling bin.)
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I hope the novel use does end soon. These $1 sales, while in line with the rest of microstock, aren't what I expect to see in my Alamy account.
Anyone heard an ETA on the novel use demise?