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Author Topic: New to Alamy? Read this! :-)  (Read 33995 times)

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« on: March 07, 2016, 09:16 »
+24
Hi there,

We're really happy to have seen a big rise in the growth rate of new photographers registering with us over the last 12 months or so. It's great to see so many new people joining the 40,000 photographers already placing their work with Alamy.

Along with these new registrations, it's understandable that there are lots of questions about how Alamy works so we've recently updated all our contributor help pages. You can get to them by following this link:

http://www.alamy.com/contributor/

Also, we'd like to remind you of the following:

- We give 50% commission
- We're non-exclusive (so you can sell your images elsewhere)
- Our acceptance rate averages around 92%
- You can sell your work either as RM or RF

We're aware that our upload and keywording system is looking a bit tired and for many of you this is what stops you sending us more images. The good news is that we are in the process of updating this and within the next few months there's going to be a much better system in place for uploading and managing your files, we think you're going to love it. We appreciate your patience waiting for the release!

So if you're new to Alamy or haven't used us much, please check out our help pages and if you've got any questions, our Member Services team ([email protected]) will be more than happy to help. If you email us within UK office hours our average response time is less than an hour  :D

If you've got a large collection (5000+ images) you would like to submit in bulk, please send me a PM and I'll see what we can do to make the process as easy as possible before the new image tools are released.

Cheers

James Allsworth
Content Partnerships Manager
Alamy
« Last Edit: March 10, 2016, 09:15 by Alamy »


authenticcreations

« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2016, 09:20 »
+4
Hello James,

As always thanks for your info and direct approach to contributors. I am looking forward for the new system :).

Mirco

« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2016, 09:23 »
+1
Hello James,

As always thanks for your info and direct approach to contributors. I am looking forward for the new system :).

Mirco

Thanks Mirco - so are we!

angelawaye

  • Eat, Sleep, Keyword. Repeat

« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2016, 09:45 »
+3
Great news to hear! Sometimes I struggle with the "essential keywords" so it hinders me from uploading more images. I must have 1000 I want to upload with meta data but thinking about the time it takes to choose the essential keywords makes me pause... Maybe if I drink more coffee I can find the energy and focus - hehe

« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2016, 10:15 »
+2
Great, you are right about systematically procrastinating new uploads and keywording.
I only get motivated and push myself to do it after getting large sales ;)

Looking forward to a simplified keywording system.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2016, 10:28 »
+5
30,000 new images per day.  This, more than the keywording pain, is what keeps me from doing more microstock.  As this post from Alamy makes clear, these agencies are really expecting to make it off of a flood of photos from new contributors, very few of whom will ever see an actual payoff for their work. Many will never even get a payout from Alamy.   

IMHO, it's madness. But, it's also a done deal.  Moving on.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2016, 10:37 by stockastic »

« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2016, 11:11 »
+3
Your slow payment system is what makes me think twice about uploading new photos.  I decided to upload the best of my port last November (about 700).  I got my first big sale on January 5th and four more since then.  It has been two months and I have yet to be paid one dime.  My "cleared" balance is still showing 0.  I'm beginning to wonder if I really will ever get paid. That's a large chunk of my time and effort to waste on Alamy if I never see any results from it.  Why is it that contributors to every other stock site can be paid in a timely manner except yours? 

authenticcreations

« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2016, 11:15 »
+2
Your slow payment system is what makes me think twice about uploading new photos.  I decided to upload the best of my port last November (about 700).  I got my first big sale on January 5th and four more since then.  It has been two months and I have yet to be paid one dime.  My "cleared" balance is still showing 0.  I'm beginning to wonder if I really will ever get paid. That's a large chunk of my time and effort to waste on Alamy if I never see any results from it.  Why is it that contributors to every other stock site can be paid in a timely manner except yours?

I see that you dont understand yet the concept of Agencies like Alamy. Images are not bought on credits or subscriptions like Microstock. Customers license a image and get invoiced. It can take few months till a customer pays and then still on months to make the transfer to you. This is how i understand it.

« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2016, 11:18 »
+8
Your slow payment system is what makes me think twice about uploading new photos.  I decided to upload the best of my port last November (about 700).  I got my first big sale on January 5th and four more since then.  It has been two months and I have yet to be paid one dime.  My "cleared" balance is still showing 0.  I'm beginning to wonder if I really will ever get paid. That's a large chunk of my time and effort to waste on Alamy if I never see any results from it.  Why is it that contributors to every other stock site can be paid in a timely manner except yours?

Lots of reasons why it may appear to be the case, but many other agencies report sales when they receive funds from the client and not before. We report sales as soon as a bill is issued - this keeps things transparent and it keeps you in the know.

Also, unlike many other agencies, many of our sales are done on account and not with pre-paid credits and subscriptions etc. This means we have to go through a process of collecting and allocating funds which can give the impression that things are going unpaid.

The alternative is for us to report the sales only when we receive the funds like other agencies, but we feel telling you as soon as a bill has been issued is the best policy.

I don't want this thread to get sidetracked as we wanted it to point people to the contributor help pages. If you've got any other questions about this process, feel free to drop us an email.

Thanks

James A

« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2016, 11:57 »
+9
Hi James, been with Alamy for years and I think you are doing a great job.  Not sure what you are doing with video though?  I hope you will open up video for everyone.  I think Pond5 has been almost like a video version of Alamy up until recent months but now there are signs that they are making changes that are bad for contributors.  I'm sure Alamy could establish themselves as a serious site for video buyers if you followed the same strategy you have for stills.  With 4K video being relatively new, there's a good opportunity to grab a share of the market, if you grow a big collection.

« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2016, 14:38 »
+3
Hi James, been with Alamy for years and I think you are doing a great job.  Not sure what you are doing with video though?  I hope you will open up video for everyone.  I think Pond5 has been almost like a video version of Alamy up until recent months but now there are signs that they are making changes that are bad for contributors.  I'm sure Alamy could establish themselves as a serious site for video buyers if you followed the same strategy you have for stills.  With 4K video being relatively new, there's a good opportunity to grab a share of the market, if you grow a big collection.

I agree!

I'd also be happy to become a video contributor at Alamy if you will open up video for everyone.

« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2016, 15:32 »
+3
Alamy, if you were to get rid of excessive similars and tighten up on QC you could easily eliminate 10 million plus images from the library. This would be attractive to clients.

authenticcreations

« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2016, 16:11 »
+1
Alamy, if you were to get rid of excessive similars and tighten up on QC you could easily eliminate 10 million plus images from the library. This would be attractive to clients.

I think it is not necessary. A agency like Alamy exist already very long and they know exactly how to run the business. For us contributors it is easy to throw some comments when we dont run an Agency ourselves. I am sure that Alamy is doing the max to make clients happy. They have the experience and knowledge what we dont have.

Mirco

THP Creative

  • THP Creative

« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2016, 17:18 »
+2
New upload editor will be great (hopefully) assuming you are doing away with the flash-based version. Cant wait.

Also ditto on the video question - can you please update us on that?

« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2016, 04:01 »
0
Regarding video, we do have a help section via the link above which gives you the info on how to apply:

http://www.alamy.com/contributor/how-to-sell-footage/best-place-to-sell-stock-footage/

Video is a very small part of our business, which is why we don't have an online system that's open to all. We're adding around 100,000 clips a year, which although modest, does allow those with strong collections to contribute, but the process is quite manual.

Cheers

James A

« Reply #15 on: March 08, 2016, 05:16 »
+3
James, I think a lot of us wont want to apply to be video contributors until we see Alamy taking it more seriously.  The stock sites with small collections have generally been a failure.  Why would video be any different?  There's a great opportunity to make video a much bigger part of your business.  I'm sure a lot of us are very keen on another site that pays 50% and has higher prices.  The problem is, I half expect you to give up on video if you aren't taking it as seriously as stills.  I just don't see how a much smaller collection is going to attract buyers.  So I have little motivation to go through your manual process.

authenticcreations

« Reply #16 on: March 08, 2016, 05:56 »
0
Just one small question to James.

Will there still be the possibility to choose for the License RM-Exclusive in the new system?

Thanks allready.

Mirco

« Reply #17 on: March 08, 2016, 06:08 »
+1
GO Alamy!  8)

« Reply #18 on: March 08, 2016, 06:49 »
+3
Just one small question to James.

Will there still be the possibility to choose for the License RM-Exclusive in the new system?

Thanks allready.

Mirco

Hi Mirco,

Although the option to select the licence type RM-Exclusive will be removed, we will still be selling exclusive licenses but we will always contact you first before proceeding.

If you're wondering why we're removing that option on the licence type, it's simply because it tends to confuse users and we would always contact you to check first anyway so we're just simplifying the process.

Cheers

James A

authenticcreations

« Reply #19 on: March 08, 2016, 07:04 »
+1
Just one small question to James.

Will there still be the possibility to choose for the License RM-Exclusive in the new system?

Thanks allready.

Mirco

Hi Mirco,

Although the option to select the licence type RM-Exclusive will be removed, we will still be selling exclusive licenses but we will always contact you first before proceeding.

If you're wondering why we're removing that option on the licence type, it's simply because it tends to confuse users and we would always contact you to check first anyway so we're just simplifying the process.

Cheers

James A

Hello James,

Ok clear to me. Thanks  :D.

But dont you think it could be a good option for us to somehow mark if a photo is exclusive on Alamy? Regardless if it is RM o RF? This will let the client know that they dont need to check somewhere else for the same photo and the photo is then likely to be sold faster without any way around.

Only an idea... maybe i am wrong. ;)

Thanks.

Mirco

authenticcreations

« Reply #20 on: March 08, 2016, 07:08 »
+1
Forgot to add that i am not having that much time anymore to submit to Multiple Agencies and there are photos i would place only on Alamy. It is nice to show the client that the image is only available on Alamy. I am not talking about an exclusive license directly but about an info that photo is only on Alamy.

Thanks.

« Reply #21 on: March 08, 2016, 07:17 »
0
Forgot to add that i am not having that much time anymore to submit to Multiple Agencies and there are photos i would place only on Alamy. It is nice to show the client that the image is only available on Alamy. I am not talking about an exclusive license directly but about an info that photo is only on Alamy.

Thanks.

Again, without wanting to sidetrack this thread, sure, we understand that view - but even if an image is marked as exclusive available, we would still contact you to check before an exclusive sale is made so the client can have peace of mind. That way we can be sure the license type was not selected by accident or that the image has not been sold elsewhere by the contributor who forgot it was exclusive on Alamy.

I'm not sure how useful it would be for regular sales to show the client the image was only available on Alamy.

Cheers

James A
« Last Edit: March 08, 2016, 07:20 by Alamy »

authenticcreations

« Reply #22 on: March 08, 2016, 07:36 »
0
Ok thanks..... i understand. Sorry for sidetracking.

By the way lets not forget that you also have a large distribution list where we can opt in.  ;)

Mirco


« Reply #24 on: March 08, 2016, 08:46 »
+1
I would like to sell my clips on Alamy... unfortunately u dont currently support FTP or online upload for video.
It is more convenient for me to upload via FTP, than shipping u once a month or every two months a hard drive.
Still waiting to see a FTP uploder on Alamy :) Good luck


 

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