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Author Topic: Alamy prices vary so much & no data on iQ sale size  (Read 31200 times)

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« on: November 27, 2012, 22:08 »
0
Alamy shows prices in $ for royalty free sales, but when I get a sale, the price shown in my sales report has (so far) never matched the displayed prices? Why is that?

So today I got a sale for the maximum size of an image for $200 (gross) but the site says it should cost $315. A few weeks ago, I sold something listed at $190 but the sale was for $152 (from which their 60.80 commission is deducted)

Do they just discount images for big customers? I thought that distributor sales would be shown as such and there's nothing indicating that was the case here. The amounts are too large to be currency issues.

Perhaps someone who has sold royalty free there for longer than me (I was just RM while exclusive) can explain how this works...
« Last Edit: December 20, 2012, 03:23 by jsnover »


Ed

« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2012, 22:40 »
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Do they just discount images for big customers?

You nailed it.  They discount sales for big customers.  The calculator on their site is way off and has been for quite a few years.  This is not just limited to RF but is also applicable to RM sales.

They are re-designing the site in 2013.  Not sure if they are going to change the calculator or not.

« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2012, 02:35 »
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I thought that distributor sales would be shown as such and there's nothing indicating that was the case here. ..
It does say when it is distributor sales and you would know anyway as you get 40% commision instead of 60%

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2012, 04:12 »
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What they said ^^.  Plus:
http://www.alamy.com/forums/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=14470
and various previous threads.

Poncke

« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2012, 04:52 »
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I had one RF sale and it matched with the prices on the image

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2012, 05:04 »
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I had one RF sale and it matched with the prices on the image
I think that I've read that the negotiations are more likely with RM.

Poncke

« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2012, 06:34 »
-1
I had one RF sale and it matched with the prices on the image
I think that I've read that the negotiations are more likely with RM.

Oh ok, sorry I missed the part about RM. Yeah, the calculator is very off for what I understand. Alamy is negotiating deals to get sales, so giving away RM images for peanuts.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2012, 08:20 »
0
I had one RF sale and it matched with the prices on the image
I think that I've read that the negotiations are more likely with RM.

Oh ok, sorry I missed the part about RM. Yeah, the calculator is very off for what I understand. Alamy is negotiating deals to get sales, so giving away RM images for peanuts.

No, I was wrong (sorry). I see the OP was referring to RF files, so I guess negotiations are open for all files.

« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2012, 11:40 »
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Thanks for the answers.

There's no calculator that I see for RF sales - just a list of prices based on size. The sale for $200 represents a 37% discount on the "list" price, which is a pretty hefty whack. When you combine big discounts with long waits for balances to clear, it does take some of the fun out the whole process :)

The only other observation is that I have no idea what possible value the chart that shows you your "zooms" is. I don't think anything I've sold this year has ever shown up as a zoom. As long as there are sales, I don't much care, but someone must have thought people zooming images meant something.

« Reply #9 on: November 28, 2012, 12:06 »
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People say they get about about 1 sale per 5 zooms on average, and that's how it's working out for me, with most sales having been zoomed within the last few months.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #10 on: November 28, 2012, 12:34 »
0
The only other observation is that I have no idea what possible value the chart that shows you your "zooms" is. I don't think anything I've sold this year has ever shown up as a zoom. As long as there are sales, I don't much care, but someone must have thought people zooming images meant something.
It's only a select group of Alamy's biggest buyers whose zooms show up in Measures.
Also now that they have a hover-enlarge thingy, zooms aren't so common.

It's a quaint site altogether.

« Reply #11 on: November 28, 2012, 13:14 »
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...It's a quaint site altogether.

Quaint is good for a village tea shop, not so much for an internet storefront :)

« Reply #12 on: November 28, 2012, 13:28 »
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Thanks for the answers.

There's no calculator that I see for RF sales - just a list of prices based on size. The sale for $200 represents a 37% discount on the "list" price, which is a pretty hefty whack. When you combine big discounts with long waits for balances to clear, it does take some of the fun out the whole process :) ...

Fun? doing stock? I must have missed out...

I had RF sales at Alamy for full resolution images with a discount of 95% - I kid you not!

aspp

« Reply #13 on: November 28, 2012, 13:44 »
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The only other observation is that I have no idea what possible value the chart that shows you your "zooms" is. I don't think anything I've sold this year has ever shown up as a zoom. As long as there are sales, I don't much care, but someone must have thought people zooming images meant something.

Zooms vs views give us a cross section of how our images and their keywords are performing. Zooms vs views is used to calculate the CTR which affects our search positioning. So we have a sense of how well (or how badly) our images are performing. If our images are showing up in lots of views but not getting zoomed then either they have been over enthusiastically keyworded or else maybe the images would be better moved to a different pseudonym - rather than dragging down our CTR and affecting our search placement.

Quite often newspaper sales show up first as a zoom. If I see that something has been zoomed which is probably a newspaper or syndicated sale then searching for the pseudonym in Google News often finds the use long before it is ever reported.

Poncke

« Reply #14 on: November 28, 2012, 14:35 »
0
The only other observation is that I have no idea what possible value the chart that shows you your "zooms" is. I don't think anything I've sold this year has ever shown up as a zoom. As long as there are sales, I don't much care, but someone must have thought people zooming images meant something.

Zooms vs views give us a cross section of how our images and their keywords are performing. Zooms vs views is used to calculate the CTR which affects our search positioning. So we have a sense of how well (or how badly) our images are performing. If our images are showing up in lots of views but not getting zoomed then either they have been over enthusiastically keyworded or else maybe the images would be better moved to a different pseudonym - rather than dragging down our CTR and affecting our search placement.

Quite often newspaper sales show up first as a zoom. If I see that something has been zoomed which is probably a newspaper or syndicated sale then searching for the pseudonym in Google News often finds the use long before it is ever reported.
I think I have that keywording problem, but my days at Alamy have been counted already.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #15 on: November 28, 2012, 14:47 »
0
The only other observation is that I have no idea what possible value the chart that shows you your "zooms" is. I don't think anything I've sold this year has ever shown up as a zoom. As long as there are sales, I don't much care, but someone must have thought people zooming images meant something.

Zooms vs views give us a cross section of how our images and their keywords are performing. Zooms vs views is used to calculate the CTR which affects our search positioning. So we have a sense of how well (or how badly) our images are performing. If our images are showing up in lots of views but not getting zoomed then either they have been over enthusiastically keyworded or else maybe the images would be better moved to a different pseudonym - rather than dragging down our CTR and affecting our search placement.
...
QED - quaint.
They have a really weird system for ordering images in the search, but gives you the means to 'game' the system.

« Reply #16 on: December 05, 2012, 00:48 »
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So today's gem is a sale of a small size - 758 x 505 pixels - royalty free (i.e. not Novel Use) for $7.83 - of which my 60% is $4.70. Not a horrible return for a regular license (i.e. not EL) but the "list" price on that size is $95! They're selling it at a 92% discount...

It beats the 31 cent royalty from Pocketstock, but that's really damning with faint praise.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #17 on: December 05, 2012, 04:11 »
0
So today's gem is a sale of a small size - 758 x 505 pixels - royalty free (i.e. not Novel Use) for $7.83 - of which my 60% is $4.70. Not a horrible return for a regular license (i.e. not EL) but the "list" price on that size is $95! They're selling it at a 92% discount...
OUCH!
Was that sold through the UK newspaper scheme? (that will show in the details).

Poncke

« Reply #18 on: December 05, 2012, 05:50 »
0
So today's gem is a sale of a small size - 758 x 505 pixels - royalty free (i.e. not Novel Use) for $7.83 - of which my 60% is $4.70. Not a horrible return for a regular license (i.e. not EL) but the "list" price on that size is $95! They're selling it at a 92% discount...

It beats the 31 cent royalty from Pocketstock, but that's really damning with faint praise.
isnt it 50% ?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #19 on: December 05, 2012, 08:23 »
0
So today's gem is a sale of a small size - 758 x 505 pixels - royalty free (i.e. not Novel Use) for $7.83 - of which my 60% is $4.70. Not a horrible return for a regular license (i.e. not EL) but the "list" price on that size is $95! They're selling it at a 92% discount...

It beats the 31 cent royalty from Pocketstock, but that's really damning with faint praise.
isnt it 50% ?
Not until 1st January. Currently it's 60% if the sale is directly from Alamy,and 40% is sold via a distributor (which you can opt out of).

« Reply #20 on: December 05, 2012, 11:00 »
0
So today's gem is a sale of a small size - 758 x 505 pixels - royalty free (i.e. not Novel Use) for $7.83 - of which my 60% is $4.70. Not a horrible return for a regular license (i.e. not EL) but the "list" price on that size is $95! They're selling it at a 92% discount...
OUCH!
Was that sold through the UK newspaper scheme? (that will show in the details).

I don't see anything referencing a UK newspaper scheme on the page "Summary of Items Sold". I find the maze of reports of what I've earned and which page has what detail very, very disorienting - so perhaps that's in some other report?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #21 on: December 05, 2012, 11:06 »
0
So today's gem is a sale of a small size - 758 x 505 pixels - royalty free (i.e. not Novel Use) for $7.83 - of which my 60% is $4.70. Not a horrible return for a regular license (i.e. not EL) but the "list" price on that size is $95! They're selling it at a 92% discount...
OUCH!
Was that sold through the UK newspaper scheme? (that will show in the details).

I don't see anything referencing a UK newspaper scheme on the page "Summary of Items Sold". I find the maze of reports of what I've earned and which page has what detail very, very disorienting - so perhaps that's in some other report?

No, it would be in the usage on that page.
Actually, looking at my own sales, my UK newspaper sales have all been higher than that. My low (sub $10 gross) sales are all 'editorial website' 1/4 page sales with a time of one week. One which popped in from yesterday is $27 gross, but with a time of one month.
Also some small sales can be reuses of the same photo, by the same company if RM - there's a discount for second and subsequent uses.

« Reply #22 on: December 05, 2012, 11:29 »
0
I don't see anything labeled "Usage" on the page www.alamy.com/stock-photography-contrib-sales-history.asp. It says Royalty Free in the license column and in the Details column:
 "1 MB
758 x 505 pixels
160 KB compressed"

Perhaps usage is only for RM sales? On my older (while exclusive) "Traditional License" sales I see a breakdown of Usage: xxx in the Details column

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #23 on: December 05, 2012, 11:48 »
0
I don't see anything labeled "Usage" on the page www.alamy.com/stock-photography-contrib-sales-history.asp. It says Royalty Free in the license column and in the Details column:
 "1 MB
758 x 505 pixels
160 KB compressed"

Perhaps usage is only for RM sales? On my older (while exclusive) "Traditional License" sales I see a breakdown of Usage: xxx in the Details column


Oh, of course; I wasn't thinking of RF, sorry. RF wouldn't give a usage.
No explanation, then, other than a buyer with a huge bulk discount.

« Reply #24 on: December 20, 2012, 02:47 »
0
So today's new Alamy experience was an Alamy iQ sale. Royalty free, listed like this "Royalty-free  Usage: iQ sale: Corporate Package Use Internal use and external non-advertising use". The gross was $76.72 & alamy took their 40%

So with an iQ sale, I apparently don't see any information about what size was purchased, so it's hard to say if this was a huge discount on a $365 sale or a small discount on a $95 sale. Has anyone else had an iQ sale on a royalty free image? I tried searching Alamy's forums but got a "runtime error" page. Is there any way (other than writing to support) to find out what size they got for $76.72?


 

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