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Author Topic: Alamy prices vary so much & no data on iQ sale size  (Read 31198 times)

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« Reply #50 on: March 25, 2013, 09:59 »
0
James, in regards to the lower prices and 50 cent royalties on Novel Scheme images and what not, can you lower the payout threshold? 175 dollar on 50 cent sales is taking really long if not forever. I know you can blow 175 dollar out of the water with one sale, but I and many others dont have 80.000 photos online like some do. And with the heavily discounted pricing and giving away hi res images for a re-calculated royalty of 12%, I think its only fair to lower the payout threshold to match your new low pricing and reduced royalties.

We are always looking at the numbers and ensuring that our payout threshold is suitable for the majority of contributors. We recently reduced the threshold from $250 down to $175.

I can understand your point, but equally we hear from a number of contributors who have asked us to raise the threshold.

The alternative would be a system where contributors "cash out" and request to be paid when it suits them. We may be able to offer something like this in the future, but the resource and development time required to put something like this in place would best be diverted elsewhere for now. We've got a complete overhaul of the site starting very soon, with further developments for contributor facing features on the horizon for later this year.

Thanks,

James


rubyroo

« Reply #51 on: March 25, 2013, 10:35 »
+3
Hi James,

Are there any plans in the upcoming overhaul to make uploading simpler?  For other sites we don't have to sit with each file deciding how to prioritise keywords into subsets after upload - they just populate a single form field with the keywords from our IPTC data.  Because this is consistent across other sites, it's easy to just upload everything to them all in one sitting. 

OTOH, if I want to upload to Alamy, I have to carve out time for a separate sitting and enter a different headspace to deal with the unique post-upload work required.  I would have sent a lot of images to Alamy if it weren't for the extra time required to jump that hurdle.

Could you not just advise uploaders to prioritise keywords the way you want them within the IPTC data and cut out the post-upload requirements?
« Last Edit: March 25, 2013, 12:01 by rubyroo »

« Reply #52 on: March 25, 2013, 12:02 »
+1
Hi James,

Are there any plans in the upcoming overhaul to make uploading simpler?  For other sites we don't have to sit with each file deciding how to prioritise keywords into subsets after upload - they just populate a single form field with the keywords from our IPTC data.  Because this is consistent across other sites, it's easy to just upload everything to them all in one sitting. 

OTOH, if I want to upload to Alamy, I have to carve out time for a separate sitting and enter a different headspace to deal with the unique post-upload work required.  I would have sent a lot of images to Alamy if it weren't for the extra time required to jump that hurdle.

Could you not just advise uploaders to prioritise keywords the way you want them within the IPTC data and cut out the post-upload requirements?

(ETA:  This is assuming, of course, that the system hasn't been changed since I last uploaded!)

Hi there,

Although our multi-tier keyword system does have numerous benefits, we are well aware that the post upload workload imposed on our contributors can be an off-putting and at times a laborious task.

With this in mind, we are currently working on some fresh ideas that we hope to have in place at some point in the not too distant future. There are a few updates we need to make first, but it is very much in our thoughts.

In the meantime, if you have a high volume of images (eg, several hundred) you need to apply metadata to, if you email [email protected] there are a few things we can do to help, particularly in the way of offering an excel metadata template you can populate and email us which we will then apply to your images. This can often work out to be a quicker method than using the online Manage Images tools.

Best wishes

James Allsworth

rubyroo

« Reply #53 on: March 25, 2013, 12:31 »
0
Thanks James, I'm glad some ideas are in place to ease the upload burden on contributors.  I'm not sure about the excel thing though.  Like most of us, I embed keywords, title and description data when I save the image prior to uploading as the other agencies simply utilise that 'as is'.  It sounds as though I'd have to open every image I want to upload and copy paste the metadata across to a spreadsheet, is that right?  If so that would also be a very long-winded task for anyone with anything between several hundred and several thousand images.

« Reply #54 on: March 26, 2013, 04:33 »
0
Thanks James, I'm glad some ideas are in place to ease the upload burden on contributors.  I'm not sure about the excel thing though.  Like most of us, I embed keywords, title and description data when I save the image prior to uploading as the other agencies simply utilise that 'as is'.  It sounds as though I'd have to open every image I want to upload and copy paste the metadata across to a spreadsheet, is that right?  If so that would also be a very long-winded task for anyone with anything between several hundred and several thousand images.

I can't speak for your specific workflow, but many contributors keep a database of their metadata and send this out to agencies via excel templates. I'm no expert on database management, but I would assume that it would be relatively simple to export your data from your images into a spreadsheet format - if something doesn't exist that makes this simple, then there is a gap in the market!

Best wishes

James

rubyroo

« Reply #55 on: March 26, 2013, 04:38 »
0
Really?  I've never heard of that method being used before.

Thanks for the information.  I have a live-in database developer right here, so I'll be having a word with him tonight.  :)

« Reply #56 on: March 26, 2013, 07:16 »
0
Hi James,

While we're pinging ideas off of you, can you redesign the stats summary page? It is time consuming and cumbersome to figure out your monthly, quarterly and annual sales in a summary format.  For example:

March 2013:

$2150 Gross sales
$1000 Contributor commissions

Breakdown
$36 Novel Use Gross Sales   
$18 Novel use Contributor commission

$400 Distributor Gross Sales
$160 Distributor commission (40%)
$120 Alamy Commission (30%)
$120 Contibutor Commission

Alamy Sales
$1714 Gross
$857 Contributor commission

Even your CSV file requires you to manipulate it in Excel.  Would be REALLY nice if you had a nice, succinct financial summary by month, quarter and calendar year and also specified date range summaries.

« Reply #57 on: March 26, 2013, 07:52 »
+2
Would be REALLY nice if you had a nice, succinct financial summary by month, quarter and calendar year and also specified date range summaries.


Again, it's something we are aware is cumbersome and not very user friendly - even though it does technically work and is functional. Have you looked at the Net Revenue pages? You can set specific date ranges to suit you...

We've launched phase one of the new site today with some great features (http://www.alamy.com/whatsnew.asp) - the next phase is to improve some contributor facing pages. I can't say for sure when the financial summary pages will get a re-work, but I can assure you that it is on our road-map of improvements to be made. We are already working on the next version of "My Alamy" and a great looking contributor dashboard that will help you get to the important information much quicker - and it will look a darn sight nicer than it does currently.

All in all, many more improvements are on the way and it's always good for us to get this kind of feedback, so thank you.

Cheers

James

« Reply #58 on: March 26, 2013, 09:02 »
0
Would be REALLY nice if you had a nice, succinct financial summary by month, quarter and calendar year and also specified date range summaries.


Again, it's something we are aware is cumbersome and not very user friendly - even though it does technically work and is functional. Have you looked at the Net Revenue pages? You can set specific date ranges to suit you...

We've launched phase one of the new site today with some great features (http://www.alamy.com/whatsnew.asp) - the next phase is to improve some contributor facing pages. I can't say for sure when the financial summary pages will get a re-work, but I can assure you that it is on our road-map of improvements to be made. We are already working on the next version of "My Alamy" and a great looking contributor dashboard that will help you get to the important information much quicker - and it will look a darn sight nicer than it does currently.

All in all, many more improvements are on the way and it's always good for us to get this kind of feedback, so thank you.

Cheers

James


Thanks a bunch. Glad it's on your to do list.

« Reply #59 on: April 15, 2013, 11:21 »
0
...It's also worth baring in mind that if you are not comfortable with the third party additional revenue opportunities you can opt out during the month of April.

I just opted out of Novel Use and the UK Newspaper scheme. I think I opted out of distributor sales (I unchecked all territories and clicked Save; there's no opt in or opt out button I could find)

If anyone else wants to opt out, April is the month to do so

« Reply #60 on: April 26, 2013, 19:53 »
0
Just logged in and noticed I got my first sale on April 24. Finally.

Selling is great, however, the sale was for $20.64. I was surprised at how low the price was so I checked out the licensing. Below are the specifics:

Country: United Kingdom
Usage: Editorial
Media: Newspaper - national
Print run: up to 2 million
Placement: Inside and online
Image Size: 1/4 page
Start: 01 March 2013
End: 02 March 2013
One use in a single editorial or advertorial article used within print and /or web versions, with re-use of the article in other titles or web versions within the same newspaper group. Digital use includes archive rights for the lifetime of the article.

This said, several things surprise me. The start run date is March 1 and yet the sale shows as April 24. Anyone know why this might be?

Second, I did a price check for the exact specifications shown above - $245. How does a rights managed image go from $245 to $20.64? Whatever the reason, I'm not too happy as this "subtle "pricing difference cost me $115. Apparently there is a UK newspaper scheme? It seems I might have to opt out of this because for a paper to use my image in a run of up to 2 million AND online for $20.64 is ridiculous. And that's leaving out the expletives.

Alamy seems to be taking liberties with the pricing or giving huge discounts with what is effectively my money...If I wanted to make $10 a photo I'd do nothing but sell on Microstock sites.

If anyone can help me understand this I'd appreciate it. Thanks.



ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #61 on: April 26, 2013, 20:06 »
0
Sales can take six months or more to show up, so two months is pretty good. Apparently that's normal in RMland.

The pricing shown on a file's page bears little resemblance to that which might actually be paid. Think of it as the hotel night you got online for $23 when the rack rate is $125. Bulk buyers negotiate low-price deals. You can opt out of the UK newspaper scheme, but I've had lower sales than that not to UK newspapers. I've also had higher values to a UK newspaper, presumably not in the scheme.

I'm sure you know this, but just in case you don't, the rate which shows on your sales page is gross. Your cash will be 50% of that, presumably as it's a UK newspaper, or 30% if it was a distributor sale. (You can opt out of distributor sales too, but that can only be done in April each year, like a football transfer window.)

This has been gone over manys the time and oft in the Alamy forums. There are a couple of real PITAs over there, but you do get information in between the bickering.

BTW: this has been discussed in this very thread, and here's one of Alamy's posts on the very questions you raise:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/alamy-com/why-are-prices-not-what%27s-shown-on-the-site/msg302245/#msg302245
« Last Edit: April 26, 2013, 20:08 by ShadySue »

« Reply #62 on: April 26, 2013, 20:26 »
0
Thanks Sue. I get 50% of the whopping $20.64 sale. I guess $10.32 is better than nothing but frankly, it's rubbish. When I saw I had a sale I was happy, of course, but then I saw how much it was for and compared to 50% of a $200-$300 sale, $20.64 is rather disheartening. Seriously, selling to a Microstock could make as much or more.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #63 on: April 26, 2013, 20:37 »
+1
Seriously, selling to a Microstock could make as much or more.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
Usually I find when I get a low value sale, I wouldn't have got an EL on iS (fewer than 1/2 million print run, don't know what the threshold is on other micros). There are sales even lower than the one you reported. I had one at sub-$10, but with the way it worked out I got an identical sale the week after.
You have to remember that a lot of UK newspapers won't buy from micros, because of the way they are taxed (it's complicated, but it's why the lapse in reporting/paying time is useful to them), so you wouldn't necessarily pick up the sales on any of them.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #64 on: April 27, 2013, 06:46 »
0
Seriously, selling to a Microstock could make as much or more.

Remember also that a bulk-buyer will be able to negotiate favourable terms on the micros too, see the recent SS thread ('Do I have to worry?').
Directly from SS on that thread:
"High "single image" royalties are often the result of a prenegotiated agreement with volume buyers such as large publishers and advertising agencies.  These volume buyers may require additional license or workflow features, such as the option for sensitive use, indemnification, multi-user accounts, prenegotiated pricing, and special billing and workflow features. "
http://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/do-i-have-to-worry/msg313575/#msg313575

There are huge unadvertised discounts on really large credit bundles from iS which are negotiated directly.
Need Larger Credit Packs?
For larger or on-going projects, we also offer credit packs of 6,000, 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 credits. For more information, please contact our Customer Sales team toll-free at 1 866 478 6251.

http://www.istockphoto.com/buy-stock-prepaid-credits.php
and presumably the other micros have similar arrangements.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2013, 06:51 by ShadySue »


 

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