Nice, thats almost a payout

Quote from: Freezingpictures on April 07, 2009, 22:19
Nice, thats almost a payout

Tantalizingly close, as my balance was already paid, I'll probably have to wait months before I reach $250 for the next payout ;-)

Quote from: Freezingpictures on April 07, 2009, 22:19
Nice, thats almost a payout

Sorry to dig up an old thread.... but I just wanted to give an update on how Alamy was doing.

Somewhere in the last 6 months I must have got a sale somewhere that I missed, because on my calculations I wasn't due for a payout... still I got an email from Australia today letting me know that I'd received a cheque from Alamy.

Despite my intentions to upload a lot more files, I've been pretty slow on the follow through - I now have a little over 500 images there, after recently uploading another 150, but just received news that the first payout has arrived - $308 from 7 sales, the first of which was in April.

Put into RPI figures over the year that I've been contributing there, it works out to over $2 per image, which makes alamy my #3 site for this particular statistic - still well behind SS and IS, but ahead of all the other sites. With the size of my portfolio the margin for error is pretty huge... still just thought I'd put it out there for all the Alamy detractors

Quote from: holgs on November 12, 2009, 16:45

Despite my intentions to upload a lot more files, I've been pretty slow on the follow through - I now have a little over 500 images there, after recently uploading another 150, but just received news that the first payout has arrived - $308 from 7 sales, the first of which was in April.

Interesting.  Reading over this thread I see that in April I was planning to spend the summer uploading some RM to Alamy.  Haven't gotten around to it yet.  How embarassing 

My sales there are definitely headed south though.  I have 5k images and am not managing to get a payout each month.  Probably a lot of it is that it took me awhile to catch on to their keywording scheme.   

If I took the time to go back and rekeyword my images I might see a sales uptick, but can't manage to find time for that grind, and considering how many hours it would take I am not sure there is enough incentive. 

By keywording scheme do you mean the essential vs the other two boxes, or do you know a better way to get hits? Last year I did ok, there, but this year, it has fallen off a lot. I would spend some time making changes it if made a difference, but not sure what to do there. Very erratic

I have been doing okay with my essential keywords, but I think I have overloaded the "main keywords" boxes with as many as I could put in.  I think that has negatively affected my CTR rate. 

I have a problem with Alamy search (and therefore CTR) because everytime someone searches for Adelaide (Australia) my images are included.   

Quote from: madelaide on November 13, 2009, 00:45
I have a problem with Alamy search (and therefore CTR) because everytime someone searches for Adelaide (Australia) my images are included.   

Ouch... not good! Very strange that they'd include a contributors name in the search. Have you tried emailing support to see if there is some sort of fix?

Quote from: lisafx on November 13, 2009, 00:41
I have been doing okay with my essential keywords, but I think I have overloaded the "main keywords" boxes with as many as I could put in.  I think that has negatively affected my CTR rate. 

Got it. When I pared down my keywords to essentials, it helped my CTR rate a lot, but I think sales actually dropped. Alamy is a complete mystery to me.

Quote from: holgs on November 13, 2009, 01:12

Quote from: madelaide on November 13, 2009, 00:45
I have a problem with Alamy search (and therefore CTR) because everytime someone searches for Adelaide (Australia) my images are included.   

Ouch... not good! Very strange that they'd include a contributors name in the search. Have you tried emailing support to see if there is some sort of fix?

This is the fact. I noted it on the forum a couple of weeks ago, but I assumed support knew about it. Maybe not!

Quote from: ShadySue on November 13, 2009, 10:32

Quote from: holgs on November 13, 2009, 01:12

Quote from: madelaide on November 13, 2009, 00:45
I have a problem with Alamy search (and therefore CTR) because everytime someone searches for Adelaide (Australia) my images are included.   

Ouch... not good! Very strange that they'd include a contributors name in the search. Have you tried emailing support to see if there is some sort of fix?

This is the fact. I noted it on the forum a couple of weeks ago, but I assumed support knew about it. Maybe not!

You can create several pseudonyms (user names) on Alamy - perhaps you should make a new one (in the same account) and move your photos over to that name.  Some people do this to differentiate different parts of their their portfolio.

Quote from: dbvirago on November 13, 2009, 02:18

Got it. When I pared down my keywords to essentials, it helped my CTR rate a lot, but I think sales actually dropped. Alamy is a complete mystery to me.

Thanks for sharing that.  I definitely won't bother if it doesn't increase sales. 

Quote from: leaf on November 13, 2009, 10:48
You can create several pseudonyms (user names) on Alamy - perhaps you should make a new one (in the same account) and move your photos over to that name.  Some people do this to differentiate different parts of their their portfolio.

Leaf, are you referring to me?  It's quite odd that I would not use my name in my pseudonym, especially in RM images that will be probably used, if sold, in editorial content. 

I have already thought of emailing them, as holgs suggested.  Maybe they could have a separate field for photographer name, when someones wants this specific search.

Quote from: madelaide on November 13, 2009, 20:49

Quote from: leaf on November 13, 2009, 10:48
You can create several pseudonyms (user names) on Alamy - perhaps you should make a new one (in the same account) and move your photos over to that name.  Some people do this to differentiate different parts of their their portfolio.

Leaf, are you referring to me?  It's quite odd that I would not use my name in my pseudonym, especially in RM images that will be probably used, if sold, in editorial content. 

I have already thought of emailing them, as holgs suggested.  Maybe they could have a separate field for photographer name, when someones wants this specific search.

It has been discussed a number of times. I suppose that there are many names that would get more hits than others. "Jack London" ? 

http://alamy.com/forums/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=4125

How would people find a photographer by name if it didn't search?

Quote from: lisafx on November 13, 2009, 00:41
I have been doing okay with my essential keywords, but I think I have overloaded the "main keywords" boxes with as many as I could put in.  I think that has negatively affected my CTR rate. 

Lisa, try using FindPhotoKeywords tool (the one similar to Yuris). There is great option to separate keywords for Alamy.

Thanks Dook.  I will check it out. 

OK, it is now nearly a year that I have had my images on Alamy.  I have had 39 zooms, with CTR of 2.01, which is considerably higher than the Alamy average.  Still zero sales.   I haven't registered for RF with them.  Given that the minimum payout is $250, it would be pointless, since I would never get any money from them.   I might as well keep my RF photos at Istockphoto, where they actually sell (about 60 per week, at an average of a bit more than $1 each).   

@Danybot. Three month is not much on Alamy. Sometimes it takes quite a while until you are notified of sales.
[/quote]

"I got sucked in by this faulty logic, and went to the trouble of uploading a couple of hundred images to Alamy (about three-quarters editorial and travel)."

Hi Danybot

Hang in with Alamy and keep uploading - I come from a macro background, and unlike micro, it took years to get some of my outlet agents to pay on a monthly basis. Starting from scratch with zero pics, it took me a year of working late every night to build a portfolio of a few thousand images which started to pay every month. Next step, I quit the day jobb (at another agency) and stated my own.

Now I had left the normal 9-5, I was working for myself an extra 40 hours a week, and could concentrate on building portfolio size.

I've never cracked Alamy, it's just another outlet. Howver, it does provide decent returns as long as I keep tightly keywording and increasing the number of images I have online. When I started my experience was all negative from a  financial point ov view - patience did the trick.

Keep going with it as it is not an outlet to ignore, and is one of the only readily accesable macro agencies who would be keen to take your images.

Rgds

Oldhand