MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Alamy.com => Topic started by: Phadrea on October 23, 2013, 05:34
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Well I have been with Alamy a few months and I have so far had 2 sales and they were in the first 2 months. I know they are meant to be slower sales but as you have to do a lot more keyboard work when submitting I am wondering if it is worth investing so much time :(
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Only you can decide that. There certainly is a lot of effort involved and the RPI is not brilliant. I currently seem to be getting about one sale a month per 1,000 files, but everybody will be different.
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Your call.
I didn't have a sale for about eight months when I started and I still submit there. No one can make this decision other than you. I've only had one fastish sale, and that was my highest sale value; other than that, it can take years, and I certainly can't discern any pattern in what sells.
You'd have to work out what you could be doing with the time you're uploading to Alamy. If you can use it more productively making images which would sell elsewhere, go ahead. If you upload at 2 a.m. when otherwise you'd be playing Candy Crush or watching TV, where's the harm? OTOH, if you're spending time/money making files specially for Alamy, it's probably not worth it at your sales rate.
At the time, I told you Alamy is definitely a case of 'patience, poppet'. James said in his last video that they licensed 'about 360,000 images' out of about 30 million in 2012, so that's the ballpark we're in.
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I like your pictures Herg. But you have fewer than 350 from what I can see and all of them (I think) RF. So presumably all of these pictures are also available much less expensive at other sites (I do not know if that is an issue and there is no way of measuring). You need more pictures.
But again - I really like your pictures. You have a nice style IMO. And some of your incidental in the garden and farming stuff etc has a good authentic feel about it which should be current. But I think you need to do much much more of what you are doing best. More farming including the incidental details which show the human activity, more real produce in situ. More local. More community.
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I like your pictures Herg. But you have fewer than 350 from what I can see and all of them (I think) RF. So presumably all of these pictures are also available much less expensive at other sites (I do not know if that is an issue and there is no way of measuring). You need more pictures.
But again - I really like your pictures. You have a nice style IMO. And some of your incidental in the garden and farming stuff etc has a good authentic feel about it which should be current. But I think you need to do much much more of what you are doing best. More farming including the incidental details which show the human activity, more real produce in situ. More local. More community.
Thanks. Appreciate the comments. I would have a lot more to upload but since I got Lightroom I am going through all my files again and editing before submitting as my old submissions were edited on inferior software which now look naff.
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And still no sales despite constant uploading. I find the tediousness of editing key wording into three sections very very slow and frustrating with the prospect of no reward for this time invested when other sites allow it to be done much faster. When I first joined I got 2 sales but of course I can't claim the money until I go above the threshold. :-\
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And still no sales despite constant uploading.
Alamy's customers are for the most part looking for editorial content. You have uploaded appx 70 new pictures. Nice pictures. You now have 423 - a lot of which are textures and close-ups.
Keep at it. Think about the potential story - e.g. the who, why, when, where, what and how. How useable are your pictures - how likely are they to be topical from a publishing perspective ? How often are those stories going to come up. I wouldn't bother with bits of wall etc unless there is a very specific aspect which would relate to a story - e.g. geographical, geological, environmental ...
You might need to adjust your expectations a little too. Over time any picture might get chosen - but it is unlikely to happen instantly unless you have the best pictures of something which is suddenly topical.
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Thanks. I see what you are saying which is helpful but I did upload an editorial photo but I don't have a model release so it can't go any further. They didn't give me the option of it being editorial unless I missed something. I don't think I would be too bothered if it wasn't for the time taken with each file. If it was a quick as SS or Dreamstime, the latter letting you use templates from previous files it would be so much less hassle.
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Thanks. I see what you are saying which is helpful but I did upload an editorial photo but I don't have a model release so it can't go any further. They didn't give me the option of it being editorial unless I missed something. I don't think I would be too bothered if it wasn't for the time taken with each file. If it was a quick as SS or Dreamstime, the latter letting you use templates from previous files it would be so much less hassle.
Not understanding you about model release etc with respect to editorial. No matter.
Anyhow - it's the use which is typically editorial - there is no specific option to select (except in the restrictions which you can apply - and that is a different matter). Provided you choose RM were appropriate to their rules.
The point I am making is that with Alamy you probably want to think more about pictures which would potentially illustrate a topical thing - or which are perhaps about a specific place.
You might want to look at your workflow as you move forward. So if you are uploading say 10 pics from a specific shooting - upload them all together and use the batch processor rather than adding the metadata one file at a time.
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Thanks. I see what you are saying which is helpful but I did upload an editorial photo but I don't have a model release so it can't go any further. They didn't give me the option of it being editorial unless I missed something.
There is no model release for editorial. If you don't have a model release, the image has to be RM (if there's at least part of a person in the image), and is indicated as not having releases, so can only be used as editorial.
Alamy is not really an outlet for things like textures etc., though you could always get one in a blue moon. They make no bones of saying that typical 'micro' stock "doesn't tend to sell well" there.
On the positive side, when you get over $75,you don't have to claim your money, it comes automatically.
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I was averaging a tad over 2 sales a month there with around 700 images, then in late summer it slowed to a crawl - no sales for 4 months - I was really frustrated - and now I've had 2 sales in just over a week - it's a very different place than the micros where I get multiple sales daily with ports of 150-190 images.
While I do sell a fair number of RF images there that are similar to what I sell on the micros, that's probably because about half of my micro port is travel which is traditionally a good seller on Alamy - I've also sold concept images there but nearly all of these - despite the fact that they could be used for advertising, have been used editorially - that's Alamy's primary customer base.
The few backgrounds and such I uploaded there early on have sold a couple of times over the years but only as "novel use" (i.e. their version of micro) - while they've sold countless times on the micros making me far more.
RPI on Alamy is much lower than on the micros (maybe 1/5th) so you have to decide for yourself whether it's worth the time. I started with Alamy and have always preferred the RM model to RF so I keep my hand in there despite the frustration that a slow month there means no sales - a concept inconceivable on the micros. Coming from a micro background, I'm guessing, it's hard for you to wrap your head around that - now that I've become more involved in the micros I see my patience level dropping so I understand - but then I think about my return per image on Alamy and realize that one well-priced sale can earn me as much or more than I'd earn with 100 sales on one of the micros, so I've stuck with them.
Two sales early on with under 400 images sounds like you've got the right stuff for them so I'd stay with it but only you can decide if it's worth your time. Good luck!
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Thanks for that. I haven't really thought of Alamy as being any different than any other stock site like DT,SS,IS etc except you get more money per sales but less sales.
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My RPI on Alamy is similar to my RPI on DT. There is more effort involved in wading through their caption/keyword system, that's all.
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Just like nearly every other month, I had a $200 sale on Alamy and almost immediately, it is refunded. It's a pattern with them. Happens a lot with me and I wonder if there is an ulterior motive by the buyers. It's always the big sizes that get refunded. I had one last month for $165 that was refunded quickly and another $85 the month before. I can't speak for anyone else but for me it's becoming a pattern.
As for sales, I have and will share that I have gone from $240 a month keepable dollars to $120 a month, literally a 50% reduction from 2012 to 2013. Frustrating but it's stock.
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I would be happy with £120 a month Mantis but it still must hurt dropping down from what you had.
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Well some weeks on and still no sales. I have a load of files to edit but as it takes such a longwinded effort I can't be bothered. There are others more lucrative things I need to spend my time on.
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4 dollar net in 6 months.
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4 dollar net in 6 months.
From how many images? I seem to make about 25c per image per year (it was better than that earlier on).
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4 dollar net in 6 months.
From how many images? I seem to make about 25c per image per year (it was better than that earlier on).
488
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Well some weeks on and still no sales...
Last week I sold 2 files... With 1200 files in PF. One file a month is normal.
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Well some weeks on and still no sales...
Last week I sold 2 files... With 1200 files in PF. One file a month is normal.
Last month I sold 4. None so far this year. I have pulled a few recently and also done some re-arranging between pseudonyms. I currently have only about 600 again but am planning to upload many more in 2014. Very pleased with Alamy in general.
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I dont understand why people are so happy with Alamy, my RPI on Alamy is below 1 dollar, the RPI on SS is above 3 dollar. If you do the number crunching, it turns out that for many people Alamy is not performing well at all. The idea of getting more $$ per sale is distracting from the fact that they dont sell a lot.
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Giving my work away for almost free is not that satisfying ;)
Besides, I rather like RM than RF. Just that easy - it's not only money in here :)
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If you are not in it for the money, than Alamy is good choice indeed.
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I dont understand why people are so happy with Alamy, my RPI on Alamy is below 1 dollar, the RPI on SS is above 3 dollar. If you do the number crunching, it turns out that for many people Alamy is not performing well at all. The idea of getting more $$ per sale is distracting from the fact that they dont sell a lot.
The pictures which I am selling RM at Alamy would be unlikely to sell regularly. Therefore they do not make sense at microstock prices. Microstock pricing makes sense for pictures which will sell many times. Pictures which will sell fewer times only make sense if they potentially sell for more. Whist the RPI is lower at Alamy the average sale earns very much more. Another reason I am happy with Alamy is that I like them. That matters to me.
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I've been with Alamy longer than I've been in microstock and it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that for many files I can earn a lot more licensing them for peanuts hundreds of times on the micros than I can even with a few decent sales at Alamy. As prices at Alamy have come down from $150-250 which was what I'd gotten used to - to mostly <$100 per license (and some RM licenses this past year netting me as little as $13.50), I've started putting more images on the micros and have seen a nice jump in income. But for photos that are unusual or that I just really love, I'd still rather see them as RM at Alamy.
If I just uploaded all my work to the micros based on my RPI there I would definitely make more, but it isn't just about making money now, but also about the potential of some photos. Since I also license RM stock on my own directly, I definitely see the need to have two different portfolios. On sites like imagebrief where they'll offer hundreds and even thousands per photo licensed, you can't upload a photo that anyone can license for a few dollars, so there is more to it than simply the RPI.
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If you are not in it for the money, than Alamy is good choice indeed.
Alamy was between DT and 123 in my earnings last year. It made a modest but significant contribution to my overall income.
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... and some RM licenses this past year netting me as little as $13.50),
If you think about this, a non-exclusive RM licence with a limited use should cost less than an RF licence where the image can be used multiple times in many media for one price.
The problem is really that on Alamy if you have a unique photo, there's no way you can 'protect' it from buyers with huge discounts.
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(and some RM licenses this past year netting me as little as $13.50),
Ha! Today I got my first Alamy sale of the year, an RM netting me $3.24 (sic).
Still, I've had less than half of that from Getty (RF), so :-)
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Bad start of something good, I hope! :(
My first DL in 2014 is (RM) $4.04 net...
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My first license of this year was only $32.78, netting me $16.39 - of a photo I licensed on my own last year for $150 (and I kept 100% of that).
On the surface, it seems like it's not much better than the micros, but because it's RM, there is actually a difference between the two. The license alamy sold is for a corporate website and so would only require a regular license - netting me as little as 33 cents on a subscription site to perhaps $7 on DT if not sold as a sub. The license I granted for $150 would require an extended license, netting me $14-28 on one of the micro sites. As the photo is not one that is likely to sell that often - it's a nice travel shot but not of a widely sought-after destination, I'm still way ahead having put it on alamy instead of on the micros.
While alamy's prices have come down drastically since I started there in 2008, at least they give us 50% of what they license photos for instead of 15%, so that's a plus. And there are buyers who specifically search for RM images, knowing they are not widely distributed.
Deciding whether or not to place images there really depends on what type of images you have and whether you do anything else with them.
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same here.
my last RM distributor sale was 6$ net.
the trend now is very bad, few sales and all for a pittance.
what's the point ?
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same here.
my last RM distributor sale was 6$ net.
the trend now is very bad, few sales and all for a pittance.
what's the point ?
No point at all. It's the same with a lot of these stock sites. You first join, get some good sales and then it drops off a cliff. I have never had any rejections with Alamy but they rejected a whole batch on the basis of one images being "over processed". That tells me they don't even look at the others.
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same here.
my last RM distributor sale was 6$ net.
the trend now is very bad, few sales and all for a pittance.
what's the point ?
No point at all. It's the same with a lot of these stock sites. You first join, get some good sales and then it drops off a cliff. I have never had any rejections with Alamy but they rejected a whole batch on the basis of one images being "over processed". That tells me they don't even look at the others.
Yes, thats exactly how they work. That is their policy. They only check random images from a batch, and if one image fails, all your batches in the queue are failed. Its no secret.
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same here.
my last RM distributor sale was 6$ net.
the trend now is very bad, few sales and all for a pittance.
what's the point ?
No point at all. It's the same with a lot of these stock sites. You first join, get some good sales and then it drops off a cliff. I have never had any rejections with Alamy but they rejected a whole batch on the basis of one images being "over processed". That tells me they don't even look at the others.
Yes, thats exactly how they work. That is their policy. They only check random images from a batch, and if one image fails, all your batches in the queue are failed. Its no secret.
Ron is right; this has been discussed both here and in Alamy's discussion boards often.
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I wondered about that. Haven't had any rejections and Alamy has been getting my edgier rejects from other RM areas.
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In the macro world, Alamy is a perennial bottom feeder. You will get sales as your portfolio increases but RPI is very poor compared to most other agencies of any type - micro/macro/POD.
That's my experience and I have 6300 photos on Alamy.
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I just know when I go to summery of items sold it will say "zero" despite continuity uploading. And yet when I first started with a handful of images I got 2 sales within a short space of time lifting my expectations.
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I just know when I go to summery of items sold it will say "zero" despite continuity uploading. And yet when I first started with a handful of images I got 2 sales within a short space of time lifting my expectations.
It's been a real letdown. For me, it pretty much ended in the middle of 2013. From what I read on this forum, they now focus on editorial and don't sell much stock.
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I just know when I go to summery of items sold it will say "zero" despite continuity uploading. And yet when I first started with a handful of images I got 2 sales within a short space of time lifting my expectations.
It's been a real letdown. For me, it pretty much ended in the middle of 2013. From what I read on this forum, they now focus on editorial and don't sell much stock.
What is their editorial if it isn't stock?
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Ok then let's say 'non-editorial' stock if my meaning wasn't totally clear.
My impression is that today, their marketing efforts are focused on editorial. How's that?
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Ok then let's say 'non-editorial' stock if my meaning wasn't totally clear.
My impression is that today, their marketing efforts are focused on editorial. How's that?
It may be, I couldn't say. Last year they were specifically asking for 'creative' imagery, where 'creative' meant 'non-editorial'. (bizarre definition of 'creative', which iS also uses.)
However, the Alamy 'creative' search filter is a total mystery to me, as editorial images can appear in the 'creative' section.
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I haven't submitted any photos, anywhere, in months. But my (admittedly small) porfolio is actually selling more over time at SS and DT, whereas Alamy just... went away. Of course I don't know what's going on there, maybe they still want to sell 'creative' stock but are losing that market to SS.
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I haven't submitted any photos, anywhere, in months. But my (admittedly small) porfolio is actually selling more over time at SS and DT, whereas Alamy just... went away. Of course I don't know what's going on there, maybe they still want to sell 'creative' stock but are losing that market to SS.
They always said that what sells well in micro is unlikely to sell well on Alamy.
Although the prices at Alamy are sinking, and most buyers seem to get a deep discount, they're not as low as SS (subs).
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Ah....... the morning wouldn't start normal if I didn't have my porridge, cup of tea and check into Alamy to see "summery of items sold=zero" happy days !
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Herg, just out of curiosity - do you sell the same RF images in microstock? Just asking...
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Yes I do sell these images on microstock.
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the problem with Alamy is always the same : they're a good agency overall and their product can differentiate itself from the competition but at the end of the day they're struggling to find new buyers and their traditional customers are slashing their budgets and are forced to ask for discounts or to use microstock.
all in all they're doing fine considering many others went bankrupt but it's not enough to justify the cost involved in keywording uploading etc etc as their dirty little secret is that a big chunk of their sales is about UK images.
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For my 250 images, the interval between payouts has gone from months to years - assuming I ever get another sale. Sadly it seems like I should probably just close the account. I cling to the possibility of that once-in-a-blue-moon $100 sale.
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My sales used to be consistently at around $500 to $750 per month gross. Today it's roughly $240 gross. Last month I got lucky and made a little over $500 gross. Holistically, though, I think microstock is slowly killing them on pricing. Alamy has chopped our commissions several times and they have seemed to lower their pricing because I rarely see anything over $75 gross now. Bottom line is that much of their collection is RF, and that competes largely with microstock RF. The sub model by in large is killing agencies like alamy.
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My sales used to be consistently at around $500 to $750 per month gross. Today it's roughly $240 gross. Last month I got lucky and made a little over $500 gross. Holistically, though, I think microstock is slowly killing them on pricing. Alamy has chopped our commissions several times and they have seemed to lower their pricing because I rarely see anything over $75 gross now. Bottom line is that much of their collection is RF, and that competes largely with microstock RF. The sub model by in large is killing agencies like alamy.
My entire port there is RM, obviously, but prices are equally low [1] - lower, really, on average, as I'm in the UK newspaper scheme.
Still, I certainly agree that it's just about impossible now for sites like Alamy to hold out for decent prices in competition with sub micros, especially with SS and iS selling editorial files. OTOH, with the super low UK Newspaper scheme prices, it's hard to persuade people not to submit to the micros.
However, with iS introducing subs, even the UK Newspaper scheme (which we can opt out of) will be discernably better, whereas just now, newspaper prices on Alamy are 'similar' to Signature sales on iS.
[1] I see reports of considerably higher sales from time to time, but don't know whether they're RM or RF.
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For my 250 images, the interval between payouts has gone from months to years - assuming I ever get another sale...
250 files is NOTHING! It's good to test new ground, to make first steps, but not for serious work and sales :)
Maybe I'm wrong, but I can see that lately there is the "coming back" trend - fair pricing for RF. Look at new agencies like Stockbo, SS offset or Stocksy. I know it's not the best idea to compare them with Alamy... but we can see that not only microstock is going to exist. High pricing is managing pretty well... Alamy will survive :)
After 3 years with Al. I can clearly see that there is not big sense to upload specific work to microstock (they usually don't want accept my images, and if they accept it doesn't find right client target). If you take some special shots you can do pretty well with Al.
As I said before, I started getting regular, at least 1 sale/ month with only ~ 700 images.
First sales were with 200.
With 1500 there is every month sales...
For me it works. But I don't shoot standard microstock pics. I'm not good in micro. I prefer places like Alamy. And it's different market with different stuff (and different prices! :) ).
It's up to us, what we shoot, where sell it, for what prices... ;)
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Well 12 months with Alamy and 3 sales. That's appalling. Won't bother uploading more. waste of time with all the keywording etc.
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I think that in general people need to be realistic with respect to looking at what they upload and thinking seriously about how likely it is to be used in a mostly editorial context. Are the pictures telling a story which anyone is likely to be focused on ? Random stuff, street furniture and the village fête is unlikely to sell much unless it is very special - and there are already bucket loads of it.
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I wish I could see rhyme or reason to my Alamy sales. I can't think of any way of analysing what has sold in the past to work out what I should concentrate on. It seems to be just photos that someone wanted at the time.
No matter how unusual / hard to source the images might be, they can be subject to huge discounts, so hardly worth the effort of the upload system and researching properly, even if there were no other expenses.
Still, not as low as some Getty sales. ::)
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With low sales volume you get far too much randomness to be able to work out patterns except in a very broad way (i.e. if you have a significant niche to yourself you may see that subject tends to outsell other material ... but that doesn't really tell you much).
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I haven't had a "novel use" download in months. Today I have a bunch, about 30. I wonder if they renewed a contract with someone.
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I got one, too. More interestingly, I've got a spate of decent sales since they brought in the new console and I'm also able to see sales on the day in the sales tab, rather than waiting for the update the following morning.
- and 36 hours later the sales get cancelled ... seems to have been duplicate reporting.
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More people had NU sales lately. All is on Alamy forum.
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I'm not in NU, since iS said exclusives couldn't be in it - but didn't Alamy say a while ago that they were stopping it?
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I'm not in NU, since iS said exclusives couldn't be in it - but didn't Alamy say a while ago that they were stopping it?
Yes, a couple of years ago they said it would expire and not be renewed - but then they seemed to forget that. The sales became more infrequent but didn't stop.
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With Alamy, as with most other RM agencies, you reap what you sow. You aren't going to get many sales with a portfolio of about 300 images.
I was once with Alamy, then I left (I shut my business down in order to help my Mom financially). I started up again in 2011 and I currently have a portfolio of about 4,000 images.
Here is my sales growth (based on gross sales)
(http://i59.tinypic.com/vs176a.jpg)
Here is my sales volume
(http://i62.tinypic.com/2lbf7tj.jpg)
I am looking forward to continuing this trend. In 2012 I had quite a few NU sales hence the volume spike but as you can see, gross sales continue to rise year over year and my 2014 figures so far are equal to all of 2012.
I also have to say that I am finding the prices much higher than what I'm seeing at other RM agencies which is a relief to me.
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500 files
2 months
0 sales
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Less than 100 images
been there 4 months
first sale in the first 2 months
no sales the last 2 months
all RM
Just started and I have a small portfolio but I hope to be building up. Got a day job that gets in the way :)
I do not plan to do RF at the micro's anymore.
Maybe some day if I have a large enough portfolio that can compete I might try Micro's again but with such a small portfolio the one sale at Alamy is more than I made at IS, DT, FT, CS, and 123rf all put together in a year and a half. Most downloads were well under a dollar.
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Alamy is dead, Dead, DEAD. Hit a new low averaging 2.60 per sale. Where are those multi-hundred $ sales I joined up for?
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I have about 250 photos there. In 2012 (on fewer photos) I had 15 sales. In 2013, 13 sales. So far this year, 1 sale. If the second half of 2014 the same, I guess I'll just close the account.
I have no real complaints about Alamy, but for me at least, it seems like the party is over. There is certainly no reason to upload anything new.
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Everyone with a new account starts with a medium rank, and after the first reshuffle of the rank based on CTR, your images are pushed back or forward. I was doing okish in my first year but apparently a rerank pushed me back killing my sales, and I could recover from that. My work is mostly creative and not in high numbers. Which is why people work with several pseudonyms. they move sellers over to another pseudonym so that they keep a good CTR. People who are best at playing that system and throw everything against the wall to see what sticks, come out best. If you want to see an overabundance of similar images, go to Alamy. I have seen the sales threads, they are full of people with a dozen of sales per month out of tens of thousands of images. Alamy only sells 0.87% of their database annually. Shutterstock sells 300% just to give you an idea. Alamy reduced their royalties to fund their NY office and promised to increase sales with targeting US audience, but all that happened was a decline in sales. So people lost earnings on both fronts. For me Alamy is an ostridge with its head in the sand.
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I have 1000 images online (90% RF) and 2 sales/month this year (1/month in 2013) so i guess is growing up. I had sales from 15$/image up to 250$/image.
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Still 3 sales in over a year. One sale only this year.
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Surprised and pleased: 4 (unrelated) sales in the past two weeks. 8)
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Alamy used to get few but high rated sales for me over a year ago. Then it dried up. Completely. I have pretty much stopped uploading new content there.
Apart from complexities of key wording by their system, there seem to be aspects of 'working their system' in play to be able to generate sales. I don't have the time nor inclination for that! I think its become a huge white elephant with too many images and too little overall return to an average contributor like me.
Good luck to those who can still make successful sales at Alamy :)
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Surprised and pleased: 4 (unrelated) sales in the past two weeks. 8)
Ha. Were they over $8? ;)
Just kidding. Glad to see some movement on alamy.
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^^ Not kidding, as many of my sales are from the UK newspaper scheme, so low value (though I've had some repeat sales through the scheme too, advantage of RM).
These four weren't, though one was distributor.
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I've had 8 sales in the first 6 months on a portfolio of about 500 images, but since the average download has been worth just under $50, it's become my #3 site fairly quickly (behind SS & iS, and ahead DT, 123RF and Pond 5). All of the images I have sold have been travel/landscapes.
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Once a year download for $ 9-50 , specific but pleasant.
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I usually get a few good sales a month but nothing at all this month. Debating whether to submit more or stop submitting there completely.
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Had 4 sales last month with a smallish portfolio of 675 images. These included an RM sale for $58 and an NU sale for $52, best NU sale I had before that was $10, which is why I ignore NU sales when analyzing my portfolio.
Average RPD on RM sales this year is a tad over $50, which includes the newspaper scheme. RPD for RM sales last year averaged around $35 if I remember correctly, so this is encouraging. (I try not to think about the days when RPD was over $100 - too disheartening).
Sales volume and revenue are keeping pace with 2013; since I've only uploaded 2 images this year and deleted a bunch, I can't complain. After plateauing between 2011 and 2012, I saw a huge drop in earnings from 2012 to 2013, so I'm glad revenues have evened out.
These days, nearly all my RM and RF sales there are travel; most concept images tend to be licensed under the NU scheme (compared to the heyday when they'd go for $150-250 and I'd get 60%), so I now put most of my concept pix on the micros where they earn me more.
For me, Alamy is still a viable agency. Of course, I've been looking into better traditionally priced agencies (and have also been licensing images directly), so I haven't been uploading anywhere much. Once I place a bunch of my recent shoots elsewhere, though, I plan to upload the best of my (non-similar) images there, as well as some offbeat images that might sell once.
To me, it's a long-term investment of my time. This year, 2 of the RM images they licensed for me were travel images from 2007 taken with my 6MP D70 when I just started out - netting me an average of $30 per sale for 7-year-old travel images - about the same as an EL on SS. Unlike sales at SS, both photos had been sitting there with no sales since 2008. Unlike the micros, where not seeing daily sales, never mind no sales at all in a couple of months, is a reason to consider leaving, Alamy requires patience.
Once you're with them 2-3 years you'll see the same photos selling multiple times and also get a sense of what sells. Realistically, even if you've only been with the micros, you should have a sense of what makes a good stock photo since I assume you're thinking about that when you're out shooting and not just uploading and keeping your fingers crossed hoping for sales. You can do well on both micro and Alamy - but if you have the same photos on both, buyers may well find them elsewhere - I've had lots of RF zooms on Alamy purchased from the micros the same day, so that's something to consider. Fortunately, they're mostly very good earners on the micros, but if they were only on Alamy I'd probably have a lot more sales there. It's a gamble.
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I don't understand why someone will go to Alamy to search for RF files and than will search for the same images on microstock? I guess if someone want cheap images, it will go from the first time on microstock agencies.
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... if you have the same photos on both, buyers may well find them elsewhere - I've had lots of RF zooms on Alamy purchased from the micros the same day, so that's something to consider.
Same here. To many coincidences to ignore it. But I removed images from micros, Alamy still pays better.
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... if you have the same photos on both, buyers may well find them elsewhere - I've had lots of RF zooms on Alamy purchased from the micros the same day, so that's something to consider.
Same here. To many coincidences to ignore it. But I removed images from micros, Alamy still pays better.
This is why Alamy struggles. Basically they are competing with the micros but at traditionally much higher prices. I love getting Alamy sales, but they are getting fewer and lower paying. This is why they have lowered their pricing and commissions so many times. I thing they lowered commissions three times. Years ago I think I was at 70%. We are at 50 now, which is still way better than the micros but far fewer sales. It essentially proves that pricing wars work.
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This is why Alamy struggles. Basically they are competing with the micros but at traditionally much higher prices.
Do they advertise at all? I've never seen an Alamy advert, but there must be many relevant publications I don't see. I didn't ever notice any Alamy online ads before I got AdBlocker.
Sometimes I think that as long as they have enough money to keep the foundation going, possibly as a tax write-off (? I don't know), they're happy enough just to chug along.
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This is why Alamy struggles. Basically they are competing with the micros but at traditionally much higher prices.
Do they advertise at all? I've never seen an Alamy advert, but there must be many relevant publications I don't see. I didn't ever notice any Alamy online ads before I got AdBlocker.
Sometimes I think that as long as they have enough money to keep the foundation going, possibly as a tax write-off (? I don't know), they're happy enough just to chug along.
Good question. Now that you mention it I haven't seen any adverts either. I see a crossroads with stock coming. As much as I like getting those bigger sales on Alamy, I don't have a warm and fuzzy about their future.
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... if you have the same photos on both, buyers may well find them elsewhere - I've had lots of RF zooms on Alamy purchased from the micros the same day, so that's something to consider.
Same here. To many coincidences to ignore it. But I removed images from micros, Alamy still pays better.
This is why Alamy struggles. Basically they are competing with the micros but at traditionally much higher prices. I love getting Alamy sales, but they are getting fewer and lower paying. This is why they have lowered their pricing and commissions so many times. I thing they lowered commissions three times. Years ago I think I was at 70%. We are at 50 now, which is still way better than the micros but far fewer sales. It essentially proves that pricing wars work.
Once the get to 20% they will blend right in with the rest of the other RF companies... :-\
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... if you have the same photos on both, buyers may well find them elsewhere - I've had lots of RF zooms on Alamy purchased from the micros the same day, so that's something to consider.
Same here. To many coincidences to ignore it. But I removed images from micros, Alamy still pays better.
This is why Alamy struggles. Basically they are competing with the micros but at traditionally much higher prices. I love getting Alamy sales, but they are getting fewer and lower paying. This is why they have lowered their pricing and commissions so many times. I thing they lowered commissions three times. Years ago I think I was at 70%. We are at 50 now, which is still way better than the micros but far fewer sales. It essentially proves that pricing wars work.
Once the get to 20% they will blend right in with the rest of the other RF companies... :-\
That's what I suspect will happen.
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I don't understand why someone will go to Alamy to search for RF files and than will search for the same images on microstock? I guess if someone want cheap images, it will go from the first time on microstock agencies.
Perhaps because those particular customers want to see a really wide range at Alamy and really are open to licensing through Alamy, but first want to make sure their fav image isn't available for less at micro?
- Ann
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I don't understand why someone will go to Alamy to search for RF files and than will search for the same images on microstock? I guess if someone want cheap images, it will go from the first time on microstock agencies.
Perhaps because those particular customers want to see a really wide range at Alamy and really are open to licensing through Alamy, but first want to make sure their fav image isn't available for less at micro?
- Ann
It's moot, as certain customers pay less at Alamy, if they have a big discount. Also, buying one-offs at other sites can be expensive (depending on site). [1]
OTOH, if they have a sub or discount package at a rival site, why would they look on Alamy?
[1] Or is it only RM which is discounted at Alamy, not RF?
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I was at a meeting somewhere in NYC - not sure if it was at Alamy (they invited a bunch of us when they opened their office in Brooklyn) or if it was at PhotoExpo - a few years ago - but a large Alamy customer said they searched on Alamy first but if the image they liked was RF, they'd search on Fotolia afterwards and get it there for less, if it was there. If not, they'd pay the Alamy price (which was higher then).
I've also spoken to other designers who say they look at SS first and if they can't find something cheap they go to Getty. This tells me that people are willing to pay more for the right photo but if they can find it for less, then that's what they're going to do.
I've licensed travel photos to magazines from my own site and have seen Alamy license different ones to the same magazines - I've also found my travel images from both DT and Alamy on the same magazine websites, so this tells me Alamy's traditional buyers - magazines and newspapers and their associated websites - will look in several different places for the right picture - some don't look on the micros - but some do.
I think that the biggest problem for Alamy was allowing us to put our RF images on both Alamy and the micros - this eventually dissuaded some people from paying more for RF - although traditional RF gives them far more rights than RM, and used to command a higher price - getting $250 for RF images used to be the norm on Alamy - but the micros have upended the system.
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Well I give up with them. Still only 1 sale in 2014 with nearly 600 images. I don't even bother checking my account anymore as I know there will be a big fat nothing (of course I just checked it now before I wrote this message ;-)
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Well I give up with them. Still only 1 sale in 2014 with nearly 600 images. I don't even bother checking my account anymore as I know there will be a big fat nothing (of course I just checked it now before I wrote this message ;-)
Is your Alamy content only there, or also on other sites?
Still, as I said before, I was about eight months and >800 files before I had my first sale, and they are all 'only on Alamy', except nowadays for some which are also on FAA.
Still, if you read last month's sales thread, they seem to have sent out emails to their 'top hundred sellers' in June, and some who made that happy band earned less than $400 gross in June, so ...
I just had my first sale of the month
Country: Worldwide
Usage: Non-Editorial Electronic and web uses
Media: Corporate website, single design
Industry sector: General business services
Image Size: Any size
Start: 01 June 2014
End: 01 June 2019
5 years multiple web use incl. personal screensaver use
$17.12 to me.
So certainly no get-rich-quick scheme.
Still, every month, some people report big-value sales, but obviously they're not sharing what files got the big money. But in fact, that's irrelevant, as 'big discount' trumps 'unique content'.
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Over month ago I closed my account at FT where I had only one image. Now it's available in Alamy only... Few days ago I sold the image at Alamy for $125. It's one of many examples when I remove(d) images from micros and sold it in nice price with Alamy.
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Hi Shady Sue - If an Alamy contributor posted in their forum about getting a "top hundred sellers" letter due to earning less than $400 gross in June, there was a typo or other error - it's not accurate.
I grossed well over $500 last month, and no "top 500" email arrived, let alone "top 100."
So either the person has some details wrong, or Alamy sent email in error, didn't send an email in error.... I'm guessing the error is not with Alamy's emails in this case.
(And, FWIW, during another recent month I grossed over $500, and no "Top Anything" letter then either.)
All the best - Ann
[ edited to modify my gross, plus add (after seeing Ed's post below): My portfolio's not quite 2,000 images ]
Well I give up with them. Still only 1 sale in 2014 with nearly 600 images. I don't even bother checking my account anymore as I know there will be a big fat nothing (of course I just checked it now before I wrote this message ;-)
Is your Alamy content only there, or also on other sites?
Still, as I said before, I was about eight months and >800 files before I had my first sale, and they are all 'only on Alamy', except nowadays for some which are also on FAA.
Still, if you read last month's sales thread, they seem to have sent out emails to their 'top hundred sellers' in June, and some who made that happy band earned less than $400 gross in June, so ...
I just had my first sale of the month
Country: Worldwide
Usage: Non-Editorial Electronic and web uses
Media: Corporate website, single design
Industry sector: General business services
Image Size: Any size
Start: 01 June 2014
End: 01 June 2019
5 years multiple web use incl. personal screensaver use
$17.12 to me.
So certainly no get-rich-quick scheme.
Still, every month, some people report big-value sales, but obviously they're not sharing what files got the big money. But in fact, that's irrelevant, as 'big discount' trumps 'unique content'.
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I have uploaded 6 images for RM three months ago,but no one has been sold so far,maybe it is not suitable for me.
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Sue and Ann, with relation to the top 500 messages....
I've noticed that it doesn't directly relate to the sales amounts and it doesn't directly relate to how many images a person has.
I suspect it is a ratio of some sort relevent to the number of images and the revenue returned for that number of images. I think Alamy is recognizing those with images that sell.
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I don't see how to link to individual posts, but bottom post on this page:
http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/2618-how-were-your-sales-in-june-2014 (http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/2618-how-were-your-sales-in-june-2014)
But I may have misinterpreted, as a later post says:
"12 sales for $845 gross total. Made to Alamy Top 500 second quarter in a row. No complain."
and anther:
"7 sales gross $340.00. Top 500 three quarters in a row."
So the Top 500 email must be per quarter. I'd never read about it before, but last month I saw a few references to it across several threads.
Hi Shady Sue - If an Alamy contributor posted in their forum about getting a "top hundred sellers" letter due to earning less than $400 gross in June, there was a typo or or other error - it's not accurate.
I grossed over $400 last month, and no "top 500" email arrived, let alone "top 100."
So either the person has some details wrong, or Alamy sent email in error, didn't send an email in error.... I'm guessing the error is not with Alamy's emails in this case.
(And, FWIW, during a recent month I grossed over $500, and no "Top Anything" letter then either.)
All the best - Ann
Well I give up with them. Still only 1 sale in 2014 with nearly 600 images. I don't even bother checking my account anymore as I know there will be a big fat nothing (of course I just checked it now before I wrote this message ;-)
Is your Alamy content only there, or also on other sites?
Still, as I said before, I was about eight months and >800 files before I had my first sale, and they are all 'only on Alamy', except nowadays for some which are also on FAA.
Still, if you read last month's sales thread, they seem to have sent out emails to their 'top hundred sellers' in June, and some who made that happy band earned less than $400 gross in June, so ...
I just had my first sale of the month
Country: Worldwide
Usage: Non-Editorial Electronic and web uses
Media: Corporate website, single design
Industry sector: General business services
Image Size: Any size
Start: 01 June 2014
End: 01 June 2019
5 years multiple web use incl. personal screensaver use
$17.12 to me.
So certainly no get-rich-quick scheme.
Still, every month, some people report big-value sales, but obviously they're not sharing what files got the big money. But in fact, that's irrelevant, as 'big discount' trumps 'unique content'.
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Sue and Ann, with relation to the top 500 messages....
I've noticed that it doesn't directly relate to the sales amounts and it doesn't directly relate to how many images a person has.
I suspect it is a ratio of some sort relevent to the number of images and the revenue returned for that number of images. I think Alamy is recognizing those with images that sell.
Oh, right. Tx.
I don't keep a close watch on the forums, in fact the monthly sales thread is the only one I regularly read, (then my eye might alight on an interesting heading) but I hadn't noticed the Top 500 thing being mentioned before.
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I sent in a disc full of vectors, and they've been processed and on sale for a few weeks now. No sales yet.
I'm hopeful that vector sales pick up at Alamy, but so far I'm not seeing much to suggest that it will happen. I wonder if they're just too late to the vector game, and buyers who need vectors have gotten in the habit of going elsewhere already.
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I never understood the posting of gross numbers as 900 dollar gross could well be 270 dollar net. Gross numbers look impressive but its a bit misleading as the lowest royalty on Alamy is 30%. I always earn more on Shutterstock than I earn on Alamy.
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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, and which probably sells better elsewhere, but their traditional illustrative editorial photos (including those not restricted to editorial but that are largely used by the media - travel, urban scenics, etc.). I know that they've always been big sellers of UK related content. And right now the handful of photos I took when my daughter was performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival back in 2007 seem to be selling. They just licensed another one for me today. After what I feared was a continuing downward spiral there, it looks as though 2014 could beat 2013 earnings well before the end of the year.
Half of the photos I've licensed there since May were from Europe (3 Scotland, 1 Italy), the balance were travel shots from Baltimore, MD, Boston & Nantucket, MA and Hollywood, CA so I guess their market for US sights is also growing.
Secondary editorial is really their strong suit, at least for European images. Probably worth a stroll down memory lane 8)
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Indeed, some people are doing OK:
https://twitter.com/KeithMorrisAber?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure.alamy.com%2FMyAlamy.aspx&profile_id=24773556&tw_i=487527875856592896&tw_p=embeddedtimeline&tw_w=372382503476031488 (https://twitter.com/KeithMorrisAber?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure.alamy.com%2FMyAlamy.aspx&profile_id=24773556&tw_i=487527875856592896&tw_p=embeddedtimeline&tw_w=372382503476031488)
(scroll down a bit, I don't know how to link to one Twitter post).
Mind you, you also need a LOT of files.
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6,886 Images on sale 263 sales to date!
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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 (http://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.
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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 (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. ;)
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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 !!
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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?
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 :)
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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.
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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 :)
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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.
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I believe Mike Norton sends in scans of his 4x5 photos.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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. :)
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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.
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@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 ?
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Yes and never been rejected
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On Alamy forum one guy opened thread where shared his last sale - 12k $ for 2 licenses. After few minutes later the thread was gone... Is Alamy hiring something?
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Ariene, I'm wondering about that myself. I wanted to follow the thread, see answers, but when I checked back a few minutes later it was gone.
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This month I have $12 in sales on Alamy, before my cut. $12k? That would be nice. This is another site affected by crowdsourcing.....well, all of them are except the sites like Stocksy who don't let in just anyone. But for most of us we can thank all those advertisers/bloggers over the years who tell people that they can make money with their pictures. Remember, everyone who owns a camera IS a photographer!! :'(
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Just check my Alamy balance and bam! I got a HD video sale last month, netted me
450$ 225$ :D once in a while this would happen! been dry zero nada nill there for a lot of months.
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I´m start upload my vectors to alamy, with the new ftp is easy, I'm curious, How are sale in alamy? on vector side?
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I´m start upload my vectors to alamy, with the new ftp is easy, I'm curious, How are sale in alamy? on vector side?
I'm not a vector contributor but sales are nearly non-existent there. Used to be around $500 a month for me but now I am lucky to make $50.
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Mantis, was it 2010 yr when things (income) changed?
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Mantis, was it 2010 yr when things (income) changed?
Yes. It started around then and its just getting worse.
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On their forum you can clearly see that 2010 for almost everyone was the last period when people got good income. After 2010 and again in 2012 it got down a lot (even 50% less). Worth to read there to see what happened then.
It won't get better anymore. In next two-three years we can expect to see 100 mlns images in Alamy gallery crossed. You know what it means for us, right?
Who wants to bet?
And about sales. I still get them regularly, just worrying thing is that they didn't increase with my gallery growing (3-4 times bigger since I got that sales level).
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My peak at Alamy was 2013, but 2014 was 2/3 of that for sales and 5/7 for income. Sales this year are about the same as last year (but nada this month so far), but rpd is lower still.
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it would be easy to dismiss Alamy's management and their sales force as clueless but on the other side considering they survived the switch to digital, the internet, microstock, and much more ... you know so many other agencies went bust including the big ones like Jupiter, it's a miracle Alamy is still in biz if we think how much everything changed and how much the industry became less profitable in just a few years.
said that, doubling their archive year on year won't make Alamy's profits increase too much but it will soon kill the sales of most of their contributors and it's just a matter of time before we reach the point of non return.
agencies know VERY WELL that for a contributor to make steady sales he must have at least xxx photos on sale and the whole archive must maximum yyy photos .. it's math ! they know it, but they won't care as this doesn't clash with THEIR sales !
but a domino effect will come, it's only a matter of when, not of IF.
people will upload only as soon as it's profitable, simple as that, and this is true for any other micro agency as well.
citizen journalism failed because the money is just not there, once photographers can't make money with stock the same result will be achieved ... and look at Beatport, iTunes, PODs, and much more, same logic, same trends .. i mean even Walmart killed the market and forced small shops to close down ... this is the future for pretty much anything sold digitally in one way or another.
i understand that nowadays people dont want to OWN things but want the ACCESS to digital things.
it's OK ... i get it !
but ... where . the money is coming from in this scenario ? i can't play live gigs with my editorial photos, either someone pays for it or i'm done with it ...
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I think the RPD could be as little as 10 cents and there would still be people out there eager to upload like there was no tomorrow.
For the record
MY APRIL 2015
- 0 sales so far (had multiple sales a month for several years now)
- 18 zooms at about 0.40 CTR
- 7000 images
- Page 1 of BHZ
- Recently received the 'you're a top 500' contributor email
- Alamy is by far my worst performing agency in regards 'return per image per year'
I think the problem is Alamy has found a niche, which seems to be editorial. The problem is they have dragged about 30 million non-editorial images along for the ride.
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I think the problem is Alamy has found a niche, which seems to be editorial. The problem is they have dragged about 30 million non-editorial images along for the ride.
it's a niche and it seems they've no idea how to grow their market outside of this niche, they've tried everything including video and news and mobile but with little success.
flooding their archive with random images will just devalue their whole collection and sandbox many good editorial photos that would otherwise sell but this was their policy since the start so now it's too late to make radical changes.
their real issue is they're neither fish nor flesh, just a huge dump of 30-40 millions unedited images and sooner or later it will backfire.
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I sold a picture on 04 March 2015 ( my net income 87,5$).
When can I expect to receive the money?
Thanks !!
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I sold a picture on 04 March 2015 ( my net income 87,5$).
When can I expect to receive the money?
Thanks !!
Whenever.
Look on your My Alamy page, and under the overview tab you'll have a message saying:
"Current Cleared Balance: $XX We'll pay you once your balance is over $75."
Which means that you'll be paid at the beginning of the month after your cleared balance is over $75. It depends on the deal your buyer got how long it will take them to clear. Could be instant, could be months; sometimes they default.
Or if your message indicates that your Cleared Balance is already over $75, it will say you'll get paid on the 1st of May, which may not mean literally the first of May, probably the next UK banking day.
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I sold a picture on 04 March 2015 ( my net income 87,5$).
When can I expect to receive the money?
Thanks !!
Whenever.
Look on your My Alamy page, and under the overview tab you'll have a message saying:
"Current Cleared Balance: $XX We'll pay you once your balance is over $75."
Which means that you'll be paid at the beginning of the month after your cleared balance is over $75. It depends on the deal your buyer got how long it will take them to clear. Could be instant, could be months; sometimes they default.
Or if your message indicates that your Cleared Balance is already over $75, it will say you'll get paid on the 1st of May, which may not mean literally the first of May, probably the next UK banking day.
Thx.
My Cleared Balance is 0 unfortunately. It's been more than 45 days but I will be patient :)
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I sold a picture on 04 March 2015 ( my net income 87,5$).
When can I expect to receive the money?
Thanks !!
Whenever.
Look on your My Alamy page, and under the overview tab you'll have a message saying:
"Current Cleared Balance: $XX We'll pay you once your balance is over $75."
Which means that you'll be paid at the beginning of the month after your cleared balance is over $75. It depends on the deal your buyer got how long it will take them to clear. Could be instant, could be months; sometimes they default.
Or if your message indicates that your Cleared Balance is already over $75, it will say you'll get paid on the 1st of May, which may not mean literally the first of May, probably the next UK banking day.
Thx.
My Cleared Balance is 0 unfortunately. It's been more than 45 days but I will be patient :)
I usually give them a nudge after six months.
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I think the RPD could be as little as 10 cents and there would still be people out there eager to upload like there was no tomorrow.
For the record
MY APRIL 2015
- 0 sales so far (had multiple sales a month for several years now)
- 18 zooms at about 0.40 CTR
- 7000 images
- Page 1 of BHZ
- Recently received the 'you're a top 500' contributor email
- Alamy is by far my worst performing agency in regards 'return per image per year'
I think the problem is Alamy has found a niche, which seems to be editorial. The problem is they have dragged about 30 million non-editorial images along for the ride.
I split my portfolios and the non-editorial microstock portfolio does much better with less images than my editorial portfolio. They are middle tier here in the poll and i suspect most of the people doing that poll are selling their non-editorial microstock images with alamy. Like any other site, some people will do better with them than others. I don't sell much with FT while others say they are one of the best.
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I think the RPD could be as little as 10 cents and there would still be people out there eager to upload like there was no tomorrow.
For the record
MY APRIL 2015
- 0 sales so far (had multiple sales a month for several years now)
- 18 zooms at about 0.40 CTR
- 7000 images
- Page 1 of BHZ
- Recently received the 'you're a top 500' contributor email
- Alamy is by far my worst performing agency in regards 'return per image per year'
I think the problem is Alamy has found a niche, which seems to be editorial. The problem is they have dragged about 30 million non-editorial images along for the ride.
I split my portfolios and the non-editorial microstock portfolio does much better with less images than my editorial portfolio. They are middle tier here in the poll and i suspect most of the people doing that poll are selling their non-editorial microstock images with alamy. Like any other site, some people will do better with them than others. I don't sell much with FT while others say they are one of the best.
I have a small micro portfolio of about 120 images spread over all the usual micro sites. They return me a very decent $15 approx return per image a year for all agencies combined. Most of them are on Alamy as micro and sales are non existent.
My overall sales at Alamy have historically been better than 1 sale per thousand photos a month that has been stated a general guideline in the past. I'm in the top 500 contributors at Alamy for the time being. My return per image is around 40 cents per image a year. My next worst agency is around three dollars. Alamy just don't have the business model in my opinion.
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For some LUCKY, NON-NORMAL reason I am having a very good month in April on Alamy. Up to $850 so far. Unfortunately about $650 of that is distributor sales, taking my 50% down to 30%. But it's better than my last 8-9 months combined on Alamy, meaning it is an anomaly. All micro stock images.
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I usually average $200-400 per month (my share) on Alamy. So far not a single sale in April. WhatTF is going on there?
Congrats to you Mantis. I am glad somebody is having a good month.
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I had more or less forgotten about uploading to Alamy, but a couple good size sales this month have me perked up enough to upload more. It's the crazy upload system and the long wait to get paid that always holds me back.