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Author Topic: Sales at Alamy #2 Update from 2008 Thread  (Read 56315 times)

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« Reply #25 on: November 06, 2010, 11:20 »
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Partially failed inspection:
But they do, it has happened to me . . . but only once.
Since the size of your partially failed jpg is 114Kb, it was clearly far too small for Alamy and auto-rejected at upload, as has been explained above at least twice.

Right, right . . .  I stand corrected.


donding

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« Reply #26 on: November 06, 2010, 11:27 »
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Look in "My Alamy" and go to Alamy Measures and click "All of Alamy". There you will see what people are looking for. Click on the Sales Column and that will show you how many sales for a certain Search. Thats one way of checking out what sells.

You can also go into the forums and look for Threads about Found Images to get an idea of types of images that are being use.. and by who.

I see a lot of usage by UK Guardian.. I think an Online News outlet.

That helps a lot. It gives an idea what the keywords they use to find what they are looking for. I'm going to study that more and try to see what the treads are. I can't help with the UK, but the US I can. We'll see if it works.

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #27 on: November 06, 2010, 12:43 »
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I submitted a couple dozen of mostly editorial images as a test and haven't sold anything. I was just reading the latest sales results thread and was kinda surprised with the responses. Some of these people have 10,000 - 15,000 images and are getting $500 - $1,000 per month. If Alamy could deliver at least comparable or better RPI than micro then it would be worth the time. But it doesn't look like that's happening.

Sorry to stick a pin in the bubble but the number you want is bottom line, how much do they send you in a check, per year. Statistics don't put food on table or pay the bills. RPI is a micro statistic and meaningless at Alamy.

The less photos you have, the more it will go up. PaulieWalnuts, you know how well you did with IS when you started. Very Well, and great shots to match that. Now you have doubled your portfolio and your RPI is dropping. It's just the way it goes. But you are still making a better Bottom Line income from IS than you did the first year. <snip...>

Bottom line obviously is important. But RPI does mean something - how much return am I getting for the time I invest.  Having a bottom line of a few thousand dollars per month would be nice. But if it takes 50,000 images to get it (RPI), not worth the effort. A few thousand images in micro could give me the same bottom line. I'm planning to diversify but I haven't figured out where Alamy would fit in that plan.

My RPI has actually steadily been going up so that's not a concern today. Diversifying through other non-micro/RF channels is the goal.

« Reply #28 on: November 06, 2010, 15:28 »
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Kone: No They Don't!

Why does this erroneous claim keep making the rounds. Are you reading that self centered guru David K's claims? He's so full of himself he can't see past his own nose.

If you upload a file and the server fails, you can get a partial fail. If you upload and undersized image, you can get a partial fail.

If you have 1 photo or 7 batches of uploads, waiting for QC, and one photo fails, everything waiting will fail. It hasn't changed.

donding: One Fail all fail, and there's a reason.

Okay, you might be right, but this is my experience (I had couple times "partially passed inspection"). I don't understand why would one upload a smaller size of image if know what size is required. My acceptance is almost 100% so maybe I am not right person to comment on this.

RacePhoto

« Reply #29 on: November 07, 2010, 02:09 »
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Race . . You are right, I had a "Partially Failed" but it had to do with an Error with the Upload.

Maybe it would be easier if I explained what I see there.

You can get a processing error, which would be something on the server or upload, where the file isn't transferred correctly. It's not really a rejection.

You can get an automatic, for file size, which also doesn't blow the whole batch or anything else.

OR

The dreaded QC rejection which still means one fail all fail.  >:(

"Failed QC
    The Image has been scrutinised by our QC team but has failed quality control. An asterisk (*) next to an image when viewing your submissions will indicate the reasons for the failure. Please note as we do not look at all images we will reject all images in a submission if we find recurring problems."

Although someone did claim that one bad scan was rejected and the rest went through. So maybe they have a policy for "processing screw-up" and people can get a pass for that? WHo knows...

But in general, I wouldn't expect a batch to pass with a failed image in it.

donding

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« Reply #30 on: November 07, 2010, 11:23 »
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The dreaded QC rejection which still means one fail all fail.  >:(


I guess the best way to handle that if you have a iffy one is to upload it like you do with iStock...15 a week. That is if their approval time is a week. I don't know because it's been a long time since I uploaded anything there. After looking at some of the shots in category I was looking at, those shots are much worse than I have so I doubt I'd have a problem.

« Reply #31 on: November 07, 2010, 11:32 »
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The dreaded QC rejection which still means one fail all fail.  >:(


I would think that if you have been submitting to micro for a while and have an idea of what QC errors get you rejected from micro then it should be a breeze getting through Alamy QC. Micro is by far and away the most nit picky of them all.

LSD72

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« Reply #32 on: November 07, 2010, 11:46 »
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My review times are 24 to 36 hours. Unless you put something in on Friday... then you wait all weekend like I am doing now. ;D

I do consider the Micros more stringent on reviews than Alamy.

donding

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« Reply #33 on: November 07, 2010, 12:13 »
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My review times are 24 to 36 hours. Unless you put something in on Friday... then you wait all weekend like I am doing now. ;D

I do consider the Micros more stringent on reviews than Alamy.

That's a better review time than most of the micro's!!

I agree the Micro's are picker. The old photos I uploaded there in 2007 are the worst I've seen.. :D

« Reply #34 on: November 08, 2010, 09:23 »
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I have roughly around 2000 images with Alamy, 1700 or so RF, all the same RF images I submit to microstock. And before you bash me for sending Alamy the same stuff that's on the micros, Alamy has publicly said that they accept micro images, just as long as they are RF. My Alamy earnings: In 2009 I earned a total of $1600, in 2008 $1800, 2007 $2600. So that isn't as much as I earn from IS or SS or Fotolia, but for me it's on par with Dreamsime, and much better than Big, or Can , or 123. So I just think of Alamy like another micro, with the benefit of sending them the occasional RM, and not having to worry about any editing on their part. There is always the possibility of getting a real big payoff with Alamy, rare but it does happen, and it's no more time consuming than most micros. Now there is no upsizing so that even saves more time. Win win in my book.
-David

lisafx

« Reply #35 on: November 08, 2010, 09:35 »
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I have roughly around 2000 images with Alamy, 1700 or so RF, all the same RF images I submit to microstock. And before you bash me for sending Alamy the same stuff that's on the micros, Alamy has publicly said that they accept micro images, just as long as they are RF. My Alamy earnings: In 2009 I earned a total of $1600, in 2008 $1800, 2007 $2600. So that isn't as much as I earn from IS or SS or Fotolia, but for me it's on par with Dreamsime, and much better than Big, or Can , or 123. So I just think of Alamy like another micro, with the benefit of sending them the occasional RM, and not having to worry about any editing on their part. There is always the possibility of getting a real big payoff with Alamy, rare but it does happen, and it's no more time consuming than most micros. Now there is no upsizing so that even saves more time. Win win in my book.
-David

Agree 100% with all of the above. 

I is notable, though, that the earnings are going down rather than up.  Is that because you are getting fewer sales there, or because the average price per sale is dropping? 

In my case, the price per sale has dropped significantly over the past year (even without counting Novel Use) and I'm just wondering if it's the same with others.

donding

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« Reply #36 on: November 08, 2010, 10:49 »
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Since they did away with the upsizing policy and accept microstock as RF maybe next they will reduce the payout to $100 rather than $200..... ;D

I know it's probably wishful thinking. I've started uploaded to them again and we'll see how that goes. I can upload so much more with Alamy than I can with the microstock because of their copyright policies.

« Reply #37 on: November 08, 2010, 12:34 »
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Quote
I is notable, though, that the earnings are going down rather than up.  Is that because you are getting fewer sales there, or because the average price per sale is dropping? 
Both

Also, a few years ago they changed their system of key wording and I never took the time to go through my images and fix them so I believe since then, my images have never ranked very high in Alamy searches. I just recently went through all 2000 of my images, and re-keworded them to fit their hierarchical system, and also removed duplicated keywords (i used to be very sloppy at keywording) so now hopefully my images will rank higher and I'll get more sales. Or maybe i just wasted a whole bunch of time. We'll see.
-David

ShadySue

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« Reply #38 on: November 08, 2010, 12:42 »
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Since they did away with the upsizing policy and accept microstock as RF maybe next they will reduce the payout to $100 rather than $200..... ;D
Isn't it $250?

« Reply #39 on: November 08, 2010, 16:49 »
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Yes, payout threshold is $250 at Alamy.

donding

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« Reply #40 on: November 08, 2010, 20:16 »
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Since they did away with the upsizing policy and accept microstock as RF maybe next they will reduce the payout to $100 rather than $200..... ;D
Isn't it $250?

SHOOT!!! Well then maybe they will reduce it to $200.00... ;)
I just hope I'm not wasting my time uploading all these pics.

« Reply #41 on: November 09, 2010, 03:51 »
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Quote
I is notable, though, that the earnings are going down rather than up.  Is that because you are getting fewer sales there, or because the average price per sale is dropping? 
Both

Also, a few years ago they changed their system of key wording and I never took the time to go through my images and fix them so I believe since then, my images have never ranked very high in Alamy searches. I just recently went through all 2000 of my images, and re-keworded them to fit their hierarchical system, and also removed duplicated keywords (i used to be very sloppy at keywording) so now hopefully my images will rank higher and I'll get more sales. Or maybe i just wasted a whole bunch of time. We'll see.
-David
Perhaps some buyers have been put off by all the microstock images on the site?  I'm not having a dig at people uploading them there, I have started doing it myself.  They have clearly stated that they have no concern where else we sell our RF images.  I just can't believe alamy haven't separated them from their main collection.  Some buyers just don't like microstock, the same way some contributors don't.  When they find out they have been buying microstock images on alamy, I wonder how they react?

RT


« Reply #42 on: November 09, 2010, 06:45 »
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When they find out they have been buying microstock images on alamy, I wonder how they react?

As it's the license they're buying and not the image it's their own fault if they react badly for buying something they don't need.

If I need turf for my lawn and buy 500 rolls from a bulk supplier only to find out that the shop down the road sells them in individual rolls and I could have just bought the 20 that I needed it's my own stupid fault, not that of the bulk supplier or the guy that grew the grass.

« Reply #43 on: November 09, 2010, 09:33 »
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...In my case, the price per sale has dropped significantly over the past year (even without counting Novel Use) and I'm just wondering if it's the same with others.

On the last three RF sales I had I received a tenth of what the list price/commission was  :o

Large resolution but micro pay.  :-\

donding

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« Reply #44 on: November 09, 2010, 11:58 »
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Got the latest upload through, but has anyone had a problem with the new "Manage Your Images" not showing the description? I also noticed they all come through as royalty free through this way and no way to change them to RM. I finally went to the Old version and the description showed up there and had the option to change to RM. Is this the way the new one is or am I doing it wrong?

LSD72

  • My Bologna has a first name...
« Reply #45 on: November 09, 2010, 12:20 »
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Had a few pass last night. No problem with any part of Manager. These were RF shots anyways but I could change it if I wanted in Manager. Dont know what is happening with yours.

donding

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« Reply #46 on: November 09, 2010, 12:44 »
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Had a few pass last night. No problem with any part of Manager. These were RF shots anyways but I could change it if I wanted in Manager. Dont know what is happening with yours.

I don't know either. I was a bit surprised when the description wasn't there. All the keywords were of course in the third keyword space as always but no description and royalty free as default. And you can't change that after it's saved. I'll just stick with the old manager. I just wish they would just put all the keywords in one place rather than having to move them all around.

« Reply #47 on: November 09, 2010, 14:13 »
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Got the latest upload through, but has anyone had a problem with the new "Manage Your Images" not showing the description? I also noticed they all come through as royalty free through this way and no way to change them to RM. I finally went to the Old version and the description showed up there and had the option to change to RM. Is this the way the new one is or am I doing it wrong?

Not sure if this is at all relevant, in "Manage Your Images" you can set the Default Pseudonym and type of License. So I set mine to my main pseudonym and license type, and start from there when getting images ready.

donding

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« Reply #48 on: November 09, 2010, 21:15 »
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Got the latest upload through, but has anyone had a problem with the new "Manage Your Images" not showing the description? I also noticed they all come through as royalty free through this way and no way to change them to RM. I finally went to the Old version and the description showed up there and had the option to change to RM. Is this the way the new one is or am I doing it wrong?

Not sure if this is at all relevant, in "Manage Your Images" you can set the Default Pseudonym and type of License. So I set mine to my main pseudonym and license type, and start from there when getting images ready.

Thanks Ann, but I noticed that when I went back to that area to assign releases so I changed it to no license type assigned. I'll see how that works out. I noticed also that there are more than one tab and the additional information you can put in like what is in the old "manage images" section is there. Call me stupid I guess..... ;D I still think I like the old way better because it's all right there in front of you.

« Reply #49 on: November 11, 2010, 16:27 »
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sounds like that should work fine, dongding.
I don't remember the old version of managing images - partly because I didn't start submitting more than 1.5 images :D a month until a few months ago.


 

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