Quote from: Noedelhap on March 10, 2016, 15:33

Quote from: sharpshot on March 10, 2016, 11:52

Quote from: mantered on March 10, 2016, 08:45

I had to close my Alamy account since I had 4 small sales from 1 Jan 2015 :| (contributing from 2009 with a portfolio of 6k+ images/illustrations only).
So I'm not sure how accurate are those ratings ... maybe the sales are better for other contributors but for me it was a big fail.

You must of been doing something wrong with the keywords to sell that little.  I don't think they are great with illustrations but I only have around 100 and get regular sales with them.

I was wondering about that. I have mass uploaded my images so I didn't pay attention to the whole "essential"/"main"/"comprehensive" keywords thing. Would that make a difference or is it a waste of time?

I think it makes a big difference, at least get the most relevant keywords in the Essential keywords box.

I think you are right. Essential is very important for search.

In the meantime Alamy rating hitting new high! I took a trip to Alamy forum today and there were many Alamy vets discussing regular 3 digits sales.. Got me encouraged more (and just a tiny bit jealous)

I took a trip to Alamy forum today and there were many Alamy vets discussing regular 3 digits sales..

Do I need to sign in to read that? Can you give the exact link to the forum thread? Just got interested to read that.

Remember that on Alamy people quote the sales gross value, unless they specifically say "net".

Remember that on Alamy people quote the sales gross value, unless they specifically say "net".

Sure, still with regular 180$ and 250$ gross sales the net amount looks attractive too.

Most of vets reporting regular sales on Alamy forum have the ports of 6000+ photos.

So I keep asking myself if I should bet on Alamy now...  I have a few thousands of photos from last year travels that I keep selecting, processing and submitting bit by bit to all of the sites I contribute to, but maybe long term I could benefit more if I concentrate on Alamy right now with submitting more exclusive content rather then only RF

I have just short of 300 photos on Alamy, most of it uploaded within last couple of months, only 4 of my images are RM, 1 sale so far, views are good, a few zooms..

The poll is useless, and so is alamy.

Quote from: ShadySue on March 23, 2016, 04:41

Remember that on Alamy people quote the sales gross value, unless they specifically say "net".

Sure, still with regular 180$ and 250$ gross sales the net amount looks attractive too.

Indeed, but remember these are reported specifically to promote positive results. To be balanced, you'd need a wider view of overall sales. After all, there have been reports here this past week of large sales on SS, and heaven forbid I'd advocate SS!

Most of vets reporting regular sales on Alamy forum have the ports of 6000+ photos.

And at the end of the month, when you see reports of people reporting e.g. 40 or 70 sales from ports of 50k plus, I often think they'd likely do better on the micros, at least historically (probably not nowadays).
But at least the way the forum is set up, you can look at the ports of the people who post there, with either good or bad results. So if you see that a lot of the people who post good results have mainly images from a particular geographic locality you don't have access to, their results are irrelevant to you.

So I keep asking myself if I should bet on Alamy now...  I have a few thousands of photos from last year travels that I keep selecting, processing and submitting bit by bit to all of the sites I contribute to, but maybe long term I could benefit more if I concentrate on Alamy right now with submitting more exclusive content rather then only RF

It's really impossible to be able to discern this in advance. Who knows what way the market is going? If you have a good spread af agencies just now, that might be the way to stay. but maybe not. It's a risk either way.

I have just short of 300 photos on Alamy, most of it uploaded within last couple of months, only 4 of my images are RM, 1 sale so far, views are good, a few zooms..

Seems about normal. I had to laugh when I read of a newbie saying about the same as you, and one of the regulars was dissing them a bit, and said when he started at Alamy, he uploaded 1000 pics straight away. (I can only hope he had these images elsewhere, or else he had accumulated the 1000 on one trip, and wasn't holding them for the big upload.

You also have to look at Alamy to see how many more pics there are of your subject. That can be seriously scary! (And often if I have an 'alamywhack', it's of no interest anyway!)

Just a FI, for some reason, Alamy was getting better for me for sales (but worse for rpd) over the past nine months, but this month has almost ground to a halt. Adding insult to injury, one of my only two sales this month was of a lesser-known celeb. There are five pics of him on Alamy, two from 1991 (so of historic interest only), two by me from 2013 and one other. So not much choice for a buyer, but mine was chosen, netting me $1.28 (distributor sale). Didn't even pay for my bus fare to get there!

I do like Alamy in some ways, but ... it's just too random. Even looking at my own sales, I see no pattern which would help me know what to focus on (except that US content seems to hit above its weight in my port, but that's no actual help).

I have to say 70 sales from 50k on Alamy is not bad at all. It will be good enough for around 2700 dollars net.

You should not forget that those reporting contributors are all editorial photographers. Creating editorial photography goes in general much faster then commercial ones. For 10k commercial photos the time spend could be the same like 50k editorials. It talk just about principe. I hope you know what i mean.

On Alamy there are contributors with 20k photos that make net 300$ but on the other hand there are contributors with  1k of photos making 1000$  net per month. Just like everywhere.

Not talking about you ShadySue because i see that you know what you are doing but i know directly when some other people say that Alamy is not working i know that they do something bad. Wrong keywording or stop building port or having all their images also on microstock.

Try this:
1. Create also decent port with variation that is not on micro (around 3k images)
2. Upload and keyword them according Alamy guidelines
3. Then sit back have some patience and sales will slowly thick in and after time become regular. Dont quit in between.

Good luck.

Quote from: MircoV on March 23, 2016, 08:46

I have to say 70 sales from 50k on Alamy is not bad at all. It will be good enough for around 2700 dollars net.
Good luck.

It could be good enough for $2700; or if on my recent average, it could be $700 net.
Remember, that thread you started was about positive results. People aren't saying all their sales are good, they're just posting their good value sales.

Actually i am talking about the thread "How was your.....). There is a mix between good results and bad results. Just like on every other agency. I just want to say that in the microstock world Alamy is underestimated because of some errors many do including me in the past.

Quote from: Lana on March 23, 2016, 07:55

Quote from: ShadySue on March 23, 2016, 04:41

Remember that on Alamy people quote the sales gross value, unless they specifically say "net".

Sure, still with regular 180$ and 250$ gross sales the net amount looks attractive too.

Indeed, but remember these are reported specifically to promote positive results. To be balanced, you'd need a wider view of overall sales. After all, there have been reports here this past week of large sales on SS, and heaven forbid I'd advocate SS!

Quote

Most of vets reporting regular sales on Alamy forum have the ports of 6000+ photos.

And at the end of the month, when you see reports of people reporting e.g. 40 or 70 sales from ports of 50k plus, I often think they'd likely do better on the micros, at least historically (probably not nowadays).
But at least the way the forum is set up, you can look at the ports of the people who post there, with either good or bad results. So if you see that a lot of the people who post good results have mainly images from a particular geographic locality you don't have access to, their results are irrelevant to you.

Quote

So I keep asking myself if I should bet on Alamy now...  I have a few thousands of photos from last year travels that I keep selecting, processing and submitting bit by bit to all of the sites I contribute to, but maybe long term I could benefit more if I concentrate on Alamy right now with submitting more exclusive content rather then only RF

It's really impossible to be able to discern this in advance. Who knows what way the market is going? If you have a good spread af agencies just now, that might be the way to stay. but maybe not. It's a risk either way.

Quote

I have just short of 300 photos on Alamy, most of it uploaded within last couple of months, only 4 of my images are RM, 1 sale so far, views are good, a few zooms..

Seems about normal. I had to laugh when I read of a newbie saying about the same as you, and one of the regulars was dissing them a bit, and said when he started at Alamy, he uploaded 1000 pics straight away. (I can only hope he had these images elsewhere, or else he had accumulated the 1000 on one trip, and wasn't holding them for the big upload.

You also have to look at Alamy to see how many more pics there are of your subject. That can be seriously scary! (And often if I have an 'alamywhack', it's of no interest anyway!)

Just a FI, for some reason, Alamy was getting better for me for sales (but worse for rpd) over the past nine months, but this month has almost ground to a halt. Adding insult to injury, one of my only two sales this month was of a lesser-known celeb. There are five pics of him on Alamy, two from 1991 (so of historic interest only), two by me from 2013 and one other. So not much choice for a buyer, but mine was chosen, netting me $1.28 (distributor sale). Didn't even pay for my bus fare to get there!

I do like Alamy in some ways, but ... it's just too random. Even looking at my own sales, I see no pattern which would help me know what to focus on (except that US content seems to hit above its weight in my port, but that's no actual help).

Thank you for such a detailed opinion, ShadySue!
I will take some time to weigh my options better. Maybe I will keep submitting accross the agencies but will select some photos to upload as RM exclusive to Alamy just to see how it will do over the time..  I do have a lot of content that is not so well covered in Alamy, so maybe it's worth a try.. 

Did Alamy ever lower their payment threshold?  Wasn't it around $250 or something unattainable by a lazy uploader like me?

Yes, they lowered the threshold to $75, which at the time was seen as a recognition of lowering rpd.

Quote from: MircoV on March 23, 2016, 08:46

Try this:
1. Create also decent port with variation that is not on micro (around 3k images)
2. Upload and keyword them according Alamy guidelines
3. Then sit back have some patience and sales will slowly thick in and after time become regular. Dont quit in between.

Why not to put pictures which are on micro (red part)? Is it because buyer will check the price on SS or others and buy it there for cheaper?

I still get sales on Alamy with my micro port.