I�ve always liked Alamy�s business model. For years they�ve worked hard to keep license fees relatively high by carving out an editorial niche in a crowded marketplace. Their commission levels continue to be one of the better ones within the major agencies, at 40% for non-exclusive and 50% for exclusive. In addition, they have top-notch contributor customer services.

However, for the past year I�ve noticed within my port, reduced sales and low low prices. Easy to blame Covid but I�ve noticed this trend long before March 2020. So let�s dig deeper at what�s going on at Alamy! Be warned that this way a a very stats-based post.

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2020/09/13/i-love-you-alamy-but-im-breaking-up-with-you/

How have your sales at Alamy been for the past year?

Alex

I never understood why so many people praised Alamy to begin with. Just because - usually - royalities are higher than with other agencies? (And that's not even really the case for me, I had multiple sales that earned me as little as 2.84 there.)  What's the point if you earn $10 for an image, but only have 1 or 3 sales each month? Even if other agencies pay less per image, I still earn way more for the exact same work I put into this.

At the beginning I uploaded to them frequently, but sales were so rare, it didn't seem worth it and I stopped completely. Then, maybe a year ago, I had one large sale which motivated me to keep uploading again, but after that one big sale it just went back to the 1-2 average sales each month and a refund for a sale that happened months ago (and the image was still being used on a website and I had to run after them for weeks to finally get at least part of that money back) was the final straw for me. It's really not worth the effort. I earn on other agencies in a month what I earn on Alamy in a year. By the way, Dreamstime earnes me about 3x as much as Alamy. Dreamstime is certainly far from doing great, but at least I do actually get money from them regularly, so it's a "little bit extra" that's worth it to me. I don't even know when was the last time I reached payout on Alamy. January maybe? Had enough sales for another payout since then, but you know how it takes months to actually get the money on your account after a sale... another thing I find not acceptable with them.

I never understood why so many people praised Alamy to begin with. Just because - usually - royalities are higher than with other agencies? (And that's not even really the case for me, I had multiple sales that earned me as little as 2.84 there.)  What's the point if you earn $10 for an image, but only have 1 or 3 sales each month? Even if other agencies pay less per image, I still earn way more for the exact same work I put into this.

At the beginning I uploaded to them frequently, but sales were so rare, it didn't seem worth it and I stopped completely. Then, maybe a year ago, I had one large sale which motivated me to keep uploading again, but after that one big sale it just went back to the 1-2 average sales each month and a refund for a sale that happened months ago (and the image was still being used on a website and I had to run after them for weeks to finally get at least part of that money back) was the final straw for me. It's really not worth the effort. I earn on other agencies in a month what I earn on Alamy in a year. By the way, Dreamstime earnes me about 3x as much as Alamy. Dreamstime is certainly far from doing great, but at least I do actually get money from them regularly, so it's a "little bit extra" that's worth it to me. I don't even know when was the last time I reached payout on Alamy. January maybe? Had enough sales for another payout since then, but you know how it takes months to actually get the money on your account after a sale... another thing I find not acceptable with them.

The point is, why I stay... when we used to get a sale, note a couple years ago, the money was 50% and fair. Low sales volume didn't matter when I was averaging $88 commission for my downloads. Those days are gone. Reason I won't leave is because I already did the hard parts, taking photos, uploading and adding the details.

Different photos will work better or worse, depending on what agency. On DT I'll collect the next $100 in 2026 if I'm lucky. Minimum $100? What's that? But that tells me, you have better works for DTs customers, than I do.

Right, Alamy is slow, and the returns are lower. Minimum is $50? This year I have one sale for $19.99 and they owe me $9 and change. This could be the first year I don't make payout from Alamy. But I've never had a year where I made more on DT than Alamy. I'll also agree that the $3.38 sales for $1.69 (2019 sales) is disappointing. But last sale on DT was $2 in May. Obviously neither one is anything special? 

The point is, fair pay even if there are low sales, the images are already there. Nothing complicated and not a big financial deal. I'll leave everything there because if I close my account, I'm positive I won't make anything at all? Closing my DT account would be less of a loss, as they can keep the $11.52 I made in 2019/2020.

In the past I did close ever agency except SS, IS, DT, Alamy and P5. I only went back to FT after Adobe bought them. I added Wirestock because it's a lazy way to take old files and spread them around. Plus the $35 minimum, which I already cashed once, means I don't have to wait years for DT or the rest of them, it's whenever I make $35. I suppose I could close DT and upload all the same to WS and apply them to DT? Seems like and odd way to make less, and give 15% to WS, just because DT is slow and low.

Oh and what's the point? I'd say I have dropped 20 or more agencies, because they are just a waste of time and didn't pay fair. Only reason I have an IS account is, same as Alamy, I already did the work. IS gets nothing new for years now. Alamy gets something, if it's travel, scenic or that kind of thing, nothing I'd call Microstock.

ps Adobe gets my illustrations, no place else does. I tried vectors and illustrations at Alamy which was a dead end, waste of time, IMHO. Every place has it's better matching images. Alamy is not a good choice for Microstock type images. But you knew that? 

I�ve always liked Alamy�s business model. For years they�ve worked hard to keep license fees relatively high by carving out an editorial niche in a crowded marketplace. Their commission levels continue to be one of the better ones within the major agencies, at 40% for non-exclusive and 50% for exclusive. In addition, they have top-notch contributor customer services.

However, for the past year I�ve noticed within my port, reduced sales and low low prices. Easy to blame Covid but I�ve noticed this trend long before March 2020. So let�s dig deeper at what�s going on at Alamy! Be warned that this way a a very stats-based post.

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2020/09/13/i-love-you-alamy-but-im-breaking-up-with-you/

How have your sales at Alamy been for the past year?

Alex

I don't think RPI is a fair way to compare, since "what are the images" matters. But no disagreement that sales are down and the value of downloads are down. Want to make Alamy look good, use RPD, which is also not a good measure. Honestly, since this is about making money, the real measure is, how many dollars did I put into my pocket. I'll assume that for most people, that number is down for Alamy in 2020.

Like I wrote above. If I already did the work, uploaded and tagged thousands of images, how does it hurt to just leave them and take what falls on me, at the same time, stop uploading new, to work harder at places that pay back better?

As a matter of interest do portugese/Spanish newspapers use alamy?

Conversely, I'm having a good month on Alamy - 4 sales so far, over $200 gross.  Not my best month ever, but definitely well above average for me.

This year on $10 sale ($4 earnings), not good!

But if i upload images to other sites, it is no effort to upload them to AL

And there's a change for higher sales

I'm okay with Alamy: yes, up and down along the months, not many sales but the best paid. For me July 2020 was exceptional: 25 sales (almost one/day) and 779 USD gross

I'm happy with Alamy.
If Alamy does not work for you, take a look at the content that you are providing: is it generic microstock style?
Do you offer the same images at cheap micro prices and expect to get more on Alamy?
You may be surprised, but this just doesn't work.

So far, I'm about 300$ down compared to entire last year. Alamy can be hit or miss. One month, you'll get 10 sales, all together netting you like 10 bucks, and the next month, you can have big sales. In august I had my biggest sale on alamy yet, 300$ gross, + next month 2 sales 120$+50$ gross. I think it's still worth it.

For years and years Alamy has been a sort of private club with a few vip members in this case getting 80% of all royalties on tons and tons of old editorial content!  thats Alamy for you guys!

For years and years Alamy has been a sort of private club with a few vip members in this case getting 80% of all royalties on tons and tons of old editorial content!  thats Alamy for you guys!

Nah not really I regularly make several sales every month and have for the last few years.

I'm certainly not in the VIP club but those contributors who do make big money analyse their market well and have really big portfolios.