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Agency Based Discussion => Alamy.com => Topic started by: SuperPhoto on October 31, 2024, 12:12

Title: alamy sales?
Post by: SuperPhoto on October 31, 2024, 12:12
Seeing a few people post about their 'biggest' sale on alamy got me wondering...

I'm curious - for people making sales on Alamy,
a) How many photos do you have?
b) How consistently do you make sales? (I.e., 1x/month? 10x/month, etc?)
c) Are you finding editorial is what is selling?

Not that I have that much there - I think I have a couple hundred - but never have made a sale there so didn't continue uploading there... But reading about some of the "big" sales some people had (i.e., several hundred to several thousand for a single images) sounds a little inspiring...

Thanks!
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: fotoroad on October 31, 2024, 14:04
Seeing a few people post about their 'biggest' sale on alamy got me wondering...

I'm curious - for people making sales on Alamy,
a) How many photos do you have?
b) How consistently do you make sales? (I.e., 1x/month? 10x/month, etc?)
c) Are you finding editorial is what is selling?

Not that I have that much there - I think I have a couple hundred - but never have made a sale there so didn't continue uploading there... But reading about some of the "big" sales some people had (i.e., several hundred to several thousand for a single images) sounds a little inspiring...

Thanks!

2024 so far /October/ :
1. 4 796
2. 18 sales so far in 2024
3. 17 editorial 1 commercial /celebrities, event, landmark/

2023
1. less than 4 796
2. 30 sales in 20243
3. 28 editorial 2 commercial /celebrities, event, landmark, food, animal/
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: MPfoto71 on October 31, 2024, 18:28
Alamy ist in 2024 bei mir komplett abgestürzt:

2023: 119 Verkäufe bei ca. 28.000 Bildern
2024:  4 Verkäufe bei ca. 31.000 Bildern
Die Views sind in 2024 auf 10% meines 2023 Wertes gefallen, innerhalb von einer Woche ging das massiv nach unten.

Sorry for posting in german at first ...

Alamy completely crashed for me in 2024:

2023: 119 sales with approx. 28,000 images
2024: 4 sales with approx. 31,000 images
The views in 2024 dropped to 10% of my 2023 value, within one week this went down massively.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Reimar on November 01, 2024, 14:49
Alamy ist in 2024 bei mir komplett abgestürzt:

2023: 119 Verkäufe bei ca. 28.000 Bildern
2024:  4 Verkäufe bei ca. 31.000 Bildern
Die Views sind in 2024 auf 10% meines 2023 Wertes gefallen, innerhalb von einer Woche ging das massiv nach unten.

That is strange.  Worth investigating.  Even in these market conditions, with 31,000 images you should be making several hundred dollars a month.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: zeljkok on November 01, 2024, 16:12
Since 2022 my Alamy took big nosedive.   Around 2500 images.   2022 40 sales,  2023 24 sales, this year only 9 sales as of Nov 1.
CTR downslide too, although there are way too many bugs with that tool to be relevant.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: ShadySue on November 01, 2024, 16:37
I don't do very well there, but my port is relatively small, and I don't do Live News. I did get a $54.60 net infringement fee in October.
I'm in a little Alamy Social Group, and those in the group who do Live News do well.
Also, check out the monthly sales thread over on the Alamy forum. These are self-reported, but assuming the people are honest, you can see what they made and the size of their port. Most people there quote gross $$, unless they specifically say otherwise.
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/18098-how-was-your-october-2024/#comment-371008 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/18098-how-was-your-october-2024/#comment-371008)
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: RalfLiebhold on November 01, 2024, 16:46
Alamy is completely unsuitable for monthly statistics. In October I had 48 downloads, in summer I went almost 8 weeks without.

The overall development at Alamy looks like this for me, almost all sales are editorials.:

The meaning for sales of this ominous CTR with this curve to me personally is pretty unclear.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: MPfoto71 on November 01, 2024, 18:33
That is strange.  Worth investigating.  Even in these market conditions, with 31,000 images you should be making several hundred dollars a month.
I absolutely agree with you and I don't understand how it came about.
One observation I made... I normally had about 4,500 views per month and a number of zooms.
These views dropped from one day to the next to about 400 views per month - I don't know why, but if you suddenly only have 9% of your previous views, hardly anyone buys anything.

Presumably Alamy also uses some algorithm to ensure that you appear in searches or not - and I was probably simply “downgraded”.
I can't think of any other explanation, but if anyone has any ideas - let me know :)
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Reimar on November 02, 2024, 10:34
That is strange.  Worth investigating.  Even in these market conditions, with 31,000 images you should be making several hundred dollars a month.
I absolutely agree with you and I don't understand how it came about.
One observation I made... I normally had about 4,500 views per month and a number of zooms.
These views dropped from one day to the next to about 400 views per month - I don't know why, but if you suddenly only have 9% of your previous views, hardly anyone buys anything.

Presumably Alamy also uses some algorithm to ensure that you appear in searches or not - and I was probably simply “downgraded”.
I can't think of any other explanation, but if anyone has any ideas - let me know :)

I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Uncle Pete on November 02, 2024, 12:24
That is strange.  Worth investigating.  Even in these market conditions, with 31,000 images you should be making several hundred dollars a month.
I absolutely agree with you and I don't understand how it came about.
One observation I made... I normally had about 4,500 views per month and a number of zooms.
These views dropped from one day to the next to about 400 views per month - I don't know why, but if you suddenly only have 9% of your previous views, hardly anyone buys anything.

Presumably Alamy also uses some algorithm to ensure that you appear in searches or not - and I was probably simply “downgraded”.
I can't think of any other explanation, but if anyone has any ideas - let me know :)

I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.

True, BHZ game is entertaining, and just what you said, plain tag on an image. Everyone starts in the middle, until you have what Alamy calls a significant number of sales. I think that number might be 100, from email that they sent me long ago. The good news is, anyone who hasn't had 100 sales, will be "in the middle", of course, everyone can't be in the middle, but that's the position. Your theory of adding a Pseudo may change nothing.

The search, the whole views and all that. There are web spiders or whatever they are called, the go out and search. If I look at the report for FAA, I get all kinds of views, but few sales? But then comparing, they almost all come from the same cities, where the web searches are collecting data. Point being that, placing too much importance on views for Alamy and rank, may not be statistically valid. But click through/zooms are.

The other question for the thread is how are sales? One Alamy sale, can often equal a year or five on DT for me. One good Alamy sale can usually surpass a year on IS, for me. But the truth is, the volume is small and the sales are scattered. I'm not a good or busy or serious as many other people. Just over 3,000 images in lets say, 15 years. 8 sales in 2024 $430 x 50% = $215 which is just fine with me.

Some are junk and minimal, but now and then, one good sale, makes me happy that I have some images up there, just for the possibilities.

Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: zeljkok on November 02, 2024, 13:48
I never put "BHZ" or any similar identifier in tags, but sometimes I search for my images as customer would and placement is fairly consistent.   (This is btw related to often talked about "Alamy Rank",  of which CTR is one of factors but not the only one).   

Fact is, at least for me,  for whatever reason ~2 summers ago slide started and it keeps nosediving.   In Feb 2022 alone I had 8 sales which is just 1 less than entire 2024 so far.  Alamy is far more inconsistent compared to classic microstock agencies but now it's been going bit too long.   But like Uncle Pete says, there is always that hope of major sale,  QA is fast and consistent, payment threshold very reasonable so it is more than worth keep working with Alamy.   

-----------

Edit:  An hour after I posted this Alamy sale came in.  On Saturday nevertheless, which is the first for me.   Not to venture into quasi science but things work in mysterious ways we don't understand.   Nothing to get excited about,  but it's Alamy exclusive and Rights Managed Image.  So
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Uncle Pete on November 03, 2024, 15:17
You want mysterious. how about this one.  "30 October 2024    Other fees       Exclusivity Admin Fee/image ref-B8N48R    150.00         -135.85    Cleared" what the heck is that. For a non-exclusive image, which has never sold.

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/17201-i-was-hit-with-a-50-%E2%80%9Cexclusivity-admin%E2%80%9D-penalty-by-alamy-3-months-after-all-my-images-were-changed-to-non-exclusive/

One guess is, it's an error. Another is $50 for them chasing an infringing use, and they found my image wasn't exclusive. I need to mark everyth8ng non-exclusive which if that's one by one and trying to find them, is going to be drudgery.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: MPfoto71 on November 03, 2024, 18:56
I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.
Thanks for the interesting idea - I'll give it a try and see what effect it has :)

I personally believe that I was simply pushed into an “unpopular” corner because this transition happened from one day to the next. Suddenly views and zooms were virtually non-existent.
But it doesn't hurt to try it out :)
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Brasilnut on November 04, 2024, 09:40
Despite historically quite high sales volumes, my earnings at Alamy have pretty much stagnated in my port that is just over 16,000.


Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: zeljkok on November 05, 2024, 04:01
Got another one, this one ok, 2nd in first 5 days of November.  Alamy is totally unpredictable.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Uncle Pete on November 05, 2024, 15:05
Got another one, this one ok, 2nd in first 5 days of November.  Alamy is totally unpredictable.

That is one of the most accurate predictions and observations on the forum. I mean 100% true. The repeats and the volume are low, but the sales are random and can be high value or some cheap web use subscription from a partner.

People need to be patient and don't get their expectations up, after getting a sale, that there might be another one soon.

Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Reimar on November 13, 2024, 09:09
I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.
Thanks for the interesting idea - I'll give it a try and see what effect it has :)

I personally believe that I was simply pushed into an “unpopular” corner because this transition happened from one day to the next. Suddenly views and zooms were virtually non-existent.
But it doesn't hurt to try it out :)

Curious minds want to know what page you landed on for BHZ? 
BTW, Alamy has been having trouble with their "Measures" off and on for a while now.  So a sudden loss of views and zooms may in part be explained by a technical glitch.  But not a sudden drop in sales.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: zeljkok on November 13, 2024, 13:38

BTW, Alamy has been having trouble with their "Measures" off and on for a while now.  So a sudden loss of views and zooms may in part be explained by a technical glitch.  But not a sudden drop in sales.

I believe you are right on.  Posted Last Month Measure across Alamy is only 0.24;  that is constantly considerably above 0.50.  That tool was always buggy btw, breaks often etc.

Sales are different issue and really only one that matters.  After summer drought I have 3 in less than half of Nov (~2500 images port).  Sales will always fluctuate, but one constant is that even when you get a sale, average price is consistently trending downward.   
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: hansenn on November 20, 2024, 07:17
Number of sales in 2024 so far a third of 2023 (74). However revenues about the same. So revenue per sale up sharply. About 9000 images online.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Uncle Pete on November 20, 2024, 12:46
I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.
Thanks for the interesting idea - I'll give it a try and see what effect it has :)

I personally believe that I was simply pushed into an “unpopular” corner because this transition happened from one day to the next. Suddenly views and zooms were virtually non-existent.
But it doesn't hurt to try it out :)

Curious minds want to know what page you landed on for BHZ? 
BTW, Alamy has been having trouble with their "Measures" off and on for a while now.  So a sudden loss of views and zooms may in part be explained by a technical glitch.  But not a sudden drop in sales.

Everyone starts in the middle of course that's impossible as everyone can't be in the middle, but that's what Alamy told me. So someone new, might be on the start of the middle and someone older would be at the end of the middle. Or it could be the opposite? We don't know.

Page 9 image 92 "Bhz' (3,059) which assumes that everyone did that with just one tag Standard Tag only. 892?

Alamy diversity, which doesn't show all one author in a stack for any search, but instead gives (what appears) everyone, one chance, before the same author repeats.

However: depending on the tagging, your images might be higher than the same word(s)

1 - Supertag Alone
2 - Caption Only
3 - Caption and Supertag
4 - Standard Tag Only
5 - Caption and Standard Tag

That was 2022, I haven't retested since then. The idea is, for an image I wanted to force to the top of a search, which would be my own images vs my own, I could favor one over the rest, so diversity would show it first.

For a specific search, a specific name, two words, 165 results, I am #1-20-32-34-52-54-64-70 and I might have missed some. I have 10 images, all on page one.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: zeljkok on November 20, 2024, 15:14
Yes, everyone starts in the middle and stays there for awhile because they know how hard it is to get a sale on Alamy.

Re Tag importance, once again Caption is by margin the most important. Holds true for my port over and over.  Cram the most relevant words in caption, and do not repeat them as supertags as it will have no effect.  I believe we discussed this before.   

I had a strange one this month.   Sale on Nov 5,  refunded on Nov 19, then immediately sold again.   Difference:  Original  (refunded) sale was 49.99 and

84 MB
5469 x 5389 pixels
6 MB compressed
Use in a single magazine or book (print and/or digital), inside use, 2,500 circulation, worldwide (excludes advertising).

Repeat sale was 49.00 with only data

47 MB
4102 x 4042 pixels


Anyone has experience with something like this?  I am guessing this is same customer, decided to get smaller resolution for whatever reason?
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Reimar on November 20, 2024, 16:00


Page 9 image 92 "Bhz' (3,059) which assumes that everyone did that with just one tag Standard Tag only. 892?
[/quote]

 That's  a good position (ranking).  My best (of three) pseudos is the first image on page 7.  My other pseudos are further back.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Uncle Pete on November 21, 2024, 11:45

 That's  a good position (ranking).  My best (of three) pseudos is the first image on page 7.  My other pseudos are further back.

Probably "the middle"  ;D I didn't realize it was by Pseudo, I just picked the one with the most images and most sales. I usually have a heck of a time, finding myself, in all the BHZ images.

Yes, everyone starts in the middle and stays there for awhile because they know how hard it is to get a sale on Alamy.

Re Tag importance, once again Caption is by margin the most important. Holds true for my port over and over.  Cram the most relevant words in caption, and do not repeat them as supertags as it will have no effect.  I believe we discussed this before.   


From the email I got from Alamy I think it's 100 sales, before we get a rank of our own. I can't find the original to quote. It was from James West.

Yes, I think we did discuss Caption being most important and last test I did was 2022, using a nonsense word, so all that came up, well mostly all, was my test word. I'd have to go find all of the images and look at which ones have that word in which choices, and then look again.

Wow! Now the results are 756 images, for the test word. I guess I need a new one. I'm starting with a real word and a nonsense word so there will be less chance of accidental matches. Six files edited, now I wait for the overnight indexing.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: zeljkok on November 21, 2024, 13:14

From the email I got from Alamy I think it's 100 sales, before we get a rank of our own. I can't find the original to quote. It was from James West.

Really?  100 sales for Alamy is awfully big, if someone is just starting.  Would take 8-10 years.   My impression is that it's time limit, I believe I read on their Forum once it is first 6 months, could be wrong
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Uncle Pete on November 22, 2024, 13:43

From the email I got from Alamy I think it's 100 sales, before we get a rank of our own. I can't find the original to quote. It was from James West.

Really?  100 sales for Alamy is awfully big, if someone is just starting.  Would take 8-10 years.   My impression is that it's time limit, I believe I read on their Forum once it is first 6 months, could be wrong

Could be? I got my answer from James West, personally in an email. Maybe it's either?  ;) Yeah who gets over 100 sales, before 6 months?

It's just another one of those things that people can start to obsess over, "what's your rank"? How many images do you have? Do people walk up on FB or a forum and ask people, "How much do you make for a living?" No, but on a Microstock site, it seems to be, bragging and chest pounding.

I know we all like to say, hey I made a sale, or I reached a level or something good happened, but the endless I, Me, My, just gets boring.

When I started and the Alamy forum was fun and friendly the "What's your BHZ" came up. For anyone who tests, just keep in mind that some people have placed the BHZ in the wrong place or more than once. They will be ahead of anyone doing it right. Keyword Only

I don't understand if it works by Pseudo or my account. If what Reimar says is true (and he's been around the block and knows quite a bit) then if I have five pseudos, I have five BHZ photos and I could be five ahead of you, two up, two down or five below. I guess I'll have to do that now and see how I'm doing compared to myself. LOL  :o

Here's the latest, just tested yesterday: in order of appearance
Caption + Supertag
Supertag Only
Caption with one of the test words first
Caption with one of the test words last
Keyword Only

I can do that again, but for now, Caption + Supertag is first for mine.

Oh I didn't say. The second keyword is only in keywords, so if I searched for my images, I only get the real word with the nonsense word, and the nonsense word is keyword only.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: zeljkok on November 22, 2024, 14:03

When I started and the Alamy forum was fun and friendly the "What's your BHZ" came up. For anyone who tests, just keep in mind that some people have placed the BHZ in the wrong place or more than once. They will be ahead of anyone doing it right. Keyword Only

I don't understand if it works by Pseudo or my account.

Multiple Pseudos are too complicated for my taste.   Just describe the asset best you can.   Measures tool is very valuable as you can see what real customer is searching for.  Phrases in particular.  I frequently modify metadata after I see some search term I haven't been thinking about.

Their Forum was once ok,  you could find valuable info.  "wiskerke", think guy is Dutch, would often post very intelligent stuff.  But it became full of snitches and I don't go there anymore either.

As for Tags/Supertags etc.  it is also likely they periodically tune algorithms just like everyone else.  My observation are less "scientific" than yours,  I just notice very often in Measures my asset was returned and/or clicked for search term that was in the Caption.    IMHO using these 150 characters in Caption field in optimal way is most important thing.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Uncle Pete on November 23, 2024, 12:57

When I started and the Alamy forum was fun and friendly the "What's your BHZ" came up. For anyone who tests, just keep in mind that some people have placed the BHZ in the wrong place or more than once. They will be ahead of anyone doing it right. Keyword Only

I don't understand if it works by Pseudo or my account.

Multiple Pseudos are too complicated for my taste.   Just describe the asset best you can.   Measures tool is very valuable as you can see what real customer is searching for.  Phrases in particular.  I frequently modify metadata after I see some search term I haven't been thinking about.

Their Forum was once ok,  you could find valuable info.  "wiskerke", think guy is Dutch, would often post very intelligent stuff.  But it became full of snitches and I don't go there anymore either.

As for Tags/Supertags etc.  it is also likely they periodically tune algorithms just like everyone else.  My observation are less "scientific" than yours,  I just notice very often in Measures my asset was returned and/or clicked for search term that was in the Caption.    IMHO using these 150 characters in Caption field in optimal way is most important thing.

I don't really disagree, well, except the forum can be fun, now and then, but it's not what it used to be.  8)

I did pseudonyms, back in the start, because people had all kinds of theories about placement and if you put your best images into a "good" pseudo, then you would rank higher and get more views, and maybe people would look at your other images. Or something along those lines. Also that the pseudo with the higher rank would be ahead on the search pages. I just don't know.

One is Motorsports, another illustrations, another is nature or wildlife, and the other is the Crapstock... I mean Microstock snapshots.

I do know that Alamy has a diversity algorithm, so they won't have a whole page at the start of the most popular images, on one search, because someone does that subject the most. Say someone who specializes in birds, and then a search for a specific bird, would be a flock of their pictures, before everyone else. To our benefit, diversity is supposed to mix the results.

Yes to captions which are also used for ALT text by agencies. Many assistive technologies stop reading alt text at 125 characters. Search engines may never see any words after the first 125 characters. This could matter for SEO. Best and most important words first.

Scientific, maybe, but barely. (or someone might argue hardly?) I tagged five images with the nonsense word keyword and a real word that was the variable, and waited overnight.  ;D Just because I did one test and saw the order, doesn't mean, the same results will always occur in  the same way. It would need to be tested on different images, selected at random, and then notes made again. I'd say another ten times, might show a pattern, and if they aren't always the same results, in the same order, then the whole conclusion is unsupported.

So when it snows and I'm bored, I'll go look again.  8)

Here's some fun? For a single keyword, where there are only four pages of results, I have ten images on the first page. When it was only one page, I had all ten on the first page. Since then someone has uploaded a bunch of some event, and they have the entire 4th page and many on the 3rd page. Someone else used that word for their series of images on a different subject and the fill out page 3 and much of page 2.

Nice if someone searching uses that word, I'm well placed. What if they don't use that word, and instead us a more common term? My best selling image is #4 and I don't appear again in the 42 pages, until page nine. Add the word "Illustration" and I'm back to page one, some images that are illustrations are missing. Thanks for asking, I need to go edit...
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: pancaketom on November 26, 2024, 20:35
Yes, everyone starts in the middle and stays there for awhile because they know how hard it is to get a sale on Alamy.

Re Tag importance, once again Caption is by margin the most important. Holds true for my port over and over.  Cram the most relevant words in caption, and do not repeat them as supertags as it will have no effect.  I believe we discussed this before.   

I had a strange one this month.   Sale on Nov 5,  refunded on Nov 19, then immediately sold again.   Difference:  Original  (refunded) sale was 49.99 and

84 MB
5469 x 5389 pixels
6 MB compressed
Use in a single magazine or book (print and/or digital), inside use, 2,500 circulation, worldwide (excludes advertising).

Repeat sale was 49.00 with only data

47 MB
4102 x 4042 pixels


Anyone has experience with something like this?  I am guessing this is same customer, decided to get smaller resolution for whatever reason?

I have had numerous instances of image sales on Alamy that are refunded and rebought. Usually the new sale is for a small bit less $ - often just cents. The most frustrating was when they cut our take 20% from 50 to 40% and a big sale from before the slash was refunded and repurchased after the slash (months later) for maybe a dollar less, but I got a lot less because of the percentage cut.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: zeljkok on November 27, 2024, 02:41
I have had numerous instances of image sales on Alamy that are refunded and rebought. Usually the new sale is for a small bit less $ - often just cents. The most frustrating was when they cut our take 20% from 50 to 40% and a big sale from before the slash was refunded and repurchased after the slash (months later) for maybe a dollar less, but I got a lot less because of the percentage cut.

Do you have any theory / explanation as to why refund / repurchase, for slightly lower amount,  happens?  I presume this has nothing to do with Alamy accounting, but end customer?
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: pancaketom on November 27, 2024, 12:29
I have had numerous instances of image sales on Alamy that are refunded and rebought. Usually the new sale is for a small bit less $ - often just cents. The most frustrating was when they cut our take 20% from 50 to 40% and a big sale from before the slash was refunded and repurchased after the slash (months later) for maybe a dollar less, but I got a lot less because of the percentage cut.

Do you have any theory / explanation as to why refund / repurchase, for slightly lower amount,  happens?  I presume this has nothing to do with Alamy accounting, but end customer?

I always assumed it was mostly from the customer - maybe they realized they needed a slightly different usage or time frame and then contacted Alamy who said refund and purchase this slightly different deal. I don't actually know though.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: Uncle Pete on November 27, 2024, 15:12
I have had numerous instances of image sales on Alamy that are refunded and rebought. Usually the new sale is for a small bit less $ - often just cents. The most frustrating was when they cut our take 20% from 50 to 40% and a big sale from before the slash was refunded and repurchased after the slash (months later) for maybe a dollar less, but I got a lot less because of the percentage cut.


Do you have any theory / explanation as to why refund / repurchase, for slightly lower amount,  happens?  I presume this has nothing to do with Alamy accounting, but end customer?


I always assumed it was mostly from the customer - maybe they realized they needed a slightly different usage or time frame and then contacted Alamy who said refund and purchase this slightly different deal. I don't actually know though.


I've had the same and the following sale is always lower. $77.24 became $69.51. Another funny one was someone licensed the same image, small and large, same day, $40 and $40? Unless there was something in the news and I magically had two sales of the same image of a scenic view? Surprised that this ever sold at all, anywhere. Hazy morning, I climbed up a day after it rained, no choice. Take it or leave it. 2 miles roundtrip, 350 feet elevation gain.

(http://c7.alamy.com/thumbs/4/98EB84C1-3F84-4D65-A2ED-617C3C79EF61/BC1P6M.jpg)

But I've never had an image refunded, that wasn't licensed right after, again. Yet.
Title: Re: alamy sales?
Post by: zeljkok on November 27, 2024, 15:37
On the upside, couple of yrs ago I had an image sold twice on same day
https://www.alamy.com/stock-image-building-facade-exterior-wall-of-new-age-vortex-center-in-sedona-arizona-168574379.html?imageid=8494B2A1-8797-4D55-AE9A-F3FA8BF1A49A&p=373373&pn=1&searchId=1f2afe39c0bea4768dc5e35646f842df&searchtype=0 (https://www.alamy.com/stock-image-building-facade-exterior-wall-of-new-age-vortex-center-in-sedona-arizona-168574379.html?imageid=8494B2A1-8797-4D55-AE9A-F3FA8BF1A49A&p=373373&pn=1&searchId=1f2afe39c0bea4768dc5e35646f842df&searchtype=0)

Both amounts identical low 3 digits, same country, very likely same customer.  Why would they purchase same thing twice?? I fully expected to be a mistake and refund of one sale, but never happened & both were cleared in couple of weeks.

Alamy sales model can be quite weird sometimes