Author Topic: Alamy - is it worth it? (Read 19717 times)

brianholm · « **on:** August 27, 2019, 08:11 »

Hey guys

I dropped Alamy about three years ago, after I've been on the platform for maybe 2-3 years - without any sales. I remember the upload process and all the keywording etc to be such a hassle, that I just gave up on it.

I'm now doing a little research to see what other photographers do with their stock portfolio, and how they "make things happen". Many are talking about Alamy as a good source of income.

Has the upload process changed at Alamy, are you guys selling anything, is it worth it to create a new profile and try again? Please let me have your input.

Thanks

Brian

noodle · « **Reply #1 on:** August 27, 2019, 08:23 »

I don’t have very many sales on Alamy, about 2-4 sales each month.
The sales can vary from very low single digit figures to $$$ sales, so sales can be all over the map.
Lately I’ve had a good portion of sales be in the high $$ to $$$ amounts. About 18 months ago I even had a $$$$ sale but those are very rare.

For me personally, I find it is worth it although I do hate the upload process, having to fill out info on each image esp with regard to does this image have people/property visible? Do you have a release?

I am am based in North America and I find often the photographers that have more UK and Euro content tend to do better with sales than I would with my content. That is just my observation.

It can take time to realize sales, and it takes time for payments to be cleared as well, but overall I am quite satisfied with Alamy for a passive monthly payout

brianholm · « **Reply #2 on:** August 27, 2019, 08:26 »

Thanks for sharing, noodle :-)

Brasilnut · « **Reply #3 on:** August 27, 2019, 08:29 »

Hi Brian,

Looking through your port, I don't see how you would have many sales on Alamy.

Most of my sales on there are of news-type editorials and general travel postcard type shots.

noodle · « **Reply #4 on:** August 27, 2019, 08:35 »

Quote from: Brasilnut on August 27, 2019, 08:29

Hi Brian,

Looking through your port, I don't see how you would have many sales on Alamy.

Most of my sales on there are of news-type editorials and general travel postcard type shots.

I would agree with Brasilnut on this
Your port seems more geared toward a true stock photo type of site, whereas Alamy generally does well with more editorial type content

mj007 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 27, 2019, 09:34 »

I really like Alamy. I sell 2-10 images a month. I wish it were more images as sometimes the sells price can be quite good. For me the sells are 4 bucks to $600 per image. The type images that sell for me are all over the range of just about everything. Maybe someday I can figure out what really sells. When I upload to them I just send a few images at a time. I find this works best to not getting rejections. If I coped it correctly you can see some of my images and how they are all over the spectrum. https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/wscottmcgill

Pauws99 · « **Reply #6 on:** August 27, 2019, 09:46 »

I don't find it easy to predict what will sell on any site but I'd say Alamy is the most unpredictable of all. Its worth a go I'd say. Its my 5th best site some months best some zilch.

pancaketom · « **Reply #7 on:** August 27, 2019, 13:27 »

Alamy seems to be 20% less worth it than last year. Actually probably even less worth it, since sales seem to be lower everywhere and we get 20% less out of each sale unless they are distributor sales which tend to be low $ sales for me. They would have gotten a much more ringing endorsement from me before their latest "unsustainable" money grab.

Sales at Alamy are all over - some big $, some under a $. Some months they are my best earner, some months 0 sales. Sometimes sales are refunded months later - often to be resold almost immediately for a few cents less. Some sales take months and months to actually be paid.

What will sell and why is a complete mystery to me.

The keywording is a pain there, and it isn't clear at all what actually helps and what hurts.

morfon · « **Reply #8 on:** August 27, 2019, 20:03 »

You don't have to do the keywording in Alamy, embedded IPTC data is taken over. I think the supertag method is way superior to AS, where you have to manually move your top 10 keywords to the top of the list. If you have thousands of images, this is a nearly impossible task — and i have yet to find a DAM that doesn't sort keywords in alphabetic order, whether you want it or not.

I upload almost exclusively editorial (newsworthy events) to Alamy but it's been always very slow for me, it's not worth my time. However they are one of the very few fair agencies, portfolio management is convenient, rejection rate is very low (in fact i never had any, as opposed to AS or SS), so i'll just keep uploading. If sales were somewhat better over there, i'd say they are the best agency hands down.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 28, 2019, 02:50 »

Quote from: morfon on August 27, 2019, 20:03

You don't have to do the keywording in Alamy, embedded IPTC data is taken over. I think the supertag method is way superior to AS, where you have to manually move your top 10 keywords to the top of the list. If you have thousands of images, this is a nearly impossible task — and i have yet to find a DAM that doesn't sort keywords in alphabetic order, whether you want it or not.

I upload almost exclusively editorial (newsworthy events) to Alamy but it's been always very slow for me, it's not worth my time. However they are one of the very few fair agencies, portfolio management is convenient, rejection rate is very low (in fact i never had any, as opposed to AS or SS), so i'll just keep uploading. If sales were somewhat better over there, i'd say they are the best agency hands down.

But the super tag thing is time consuming and I think no-one really knows if it makes any difference. I would say total time spent in tagging etc is the longest of any agency....apart from Panther which I stopped uploading too way back as their "system" was tortuous.

OM · « **Reply #10 on:** August 28, 2019, 03:27 »

I find it weird that 'good discoverability/poor discoverability' of an image seems to be determined by number of keywords above 40. I have less than 100 images (not editorial) there and have sold (not unsurprisingly) zero in 3 years!

ShadySue · « **Reply #11 on:** August 28, 2019, 04:21 »

Quote from: OM on August 28, 2019, 03:27

I find it weird that 'good discoverability/poor discoverability' of an image seems to be determined by number of keywords above 40.

It's not, that's just some insane thing someone thought up, but they aren't humble enough to say 'we made a mistake'.

ShadySue · « **Reply #12 on:** August 28, 2019, 04:22 »

Quote from: morfon on August 27, 2019, 20:03

and i have yet to find a DAM that doesn't sort keywords in alphabetic order, whether you want it or not.

It may not suit your workflow, but I keyword in Bridge which holds and exports them in the order I set them to be.

Atomazul · « **Reply #14 on:** August 28, 2019, 09:10 »

Quote from: Alamy on August 28, 2019, 06:50

Quote from: ShadySue on August 28, 2019, 04:21
Quote from: OM on August 28, 2019, 03:27
I find it weird that 'good discoverability/poor discoverability' of an image seems to be determined by number of keywords above 40.
It's not, that's just some insane thing someone thought up, but they aren't humble enough to say 'we made a mistake'.

I think maybe "insane" is a little unfair. We've been open and appreciate that the current system doesn't work for everyone but it does for others. Some contributors feel that we ask for too much info and others feel that we don't give enough space to add even more tags!

Essentially, we had an issue before the current system where many contributors were not adding enough information, just adding a handful of tags. We needed a system that would encourage users to add more info, and that's what this system does. We've been very open and said within our help info that the "discoverability bar" is not analysing your data in any way, it's just essentially letting you know if you have more space to add more info. The more relevant information you can add the better, and the key term there is relevant - again, something we've been trying to make clear to contributors. I'm sure we'll tweak the terminology in time, maybe even remove the "discoverability" labelling as we can appreciate this can be confusing. We do test any changes with groups of current contributors before going live though to get feedback, and this system was no exception.

We need a caption and 5 tags to get the image searchable - everything else is optional. Additional info like number of people, release info etc is desirable but not mandatory. We'll extract any embedded info and apply it, so if you have a caption and 5 tags the images will go online without you doing anything else. Supertagging definitely does help images get higher up in the search engine - so if you have the time to do it and want to give certain images a boost for certain words then you should try and make the time to take advantage. Again though, not mandatory so it's a judgement call for you and your time.

Back to the OP question though - is Alamy worth it? Of course we would say yes, but it works better for some than for others. We'll offer you 50% commission for images exclusive to us and 40% for non-exclusive. Our average licence price is $35, although as others have mentioned, it's not uncommon to get much higher and sometimes lower. If you have a portfolio of images sat on your hard drive or sat on another site, you absolutely should upload them to Alamy to see if we can make you some additional revenue. Once the images are up and online, there is nothing further for you to do other than enjoy the extra money! We pay out well in excess of $1 million every month to contributors so you should put yourself in the mix and get a slice.

Happy to answer any other questions here about Alamy as best I can. As others can attest to, I'm also open to answering any questions you have via PM if you'd rather not ask out in the open.

Cheers

James Allsworth

Contributor Experience Manager

Great to see official conversations happening here. Thank you for your comment, James.

Although I'd agree with "insane" if Alamy believes the system is logical. If you are truly concerned with the importance of relevant keywords, then giving the impression to contributors that their image will suffer from "poor discoverability" if it contains less than 40 keywords is obviously only going to encourage irrelevant keywords. If that qualification was simply lowered to a reasonable amount, the system might be closer aligned to it's intention, and without the temptation to add spam or borderline spam keywords to reach an arbitrary minimum.

Alamy · « **Reply #15 on:** August 28, 2019, 09:33 »

Again, I hear you, however we get plenty of contributors asking us to allow more space for tags as they feel 50 is not enough. So for some, getting to 40 tags is really not a problem, even when adding highly relevant words - literal, descriptive and conceptual.

Of course, this amount of tags is not always required, depending on the type of image, so it's not a perfect system by any means.

We are committed to continually develop the system and we've already made a number of changes and improvements since the original release. Before making any changes to the number of tags needed to achieve "good" status (or removing the discoverability bar entirely) we would adopt an evidence based approach looking at data across the board. E.G average number of tags in the collection, looking at best performing collections and number of tags per image etc before making any decisions. It's worth noting that previously we had a character based system rather than individual tags, and when we analysed the collection at the time we found that 50 tags seemed to be the sweet spot in terms of an optimal number. Things change all the time though and we've had enough feedback to know it needs to be revisited and tweaked if required.

So I can't offer any timeframes for change, but just know that if you feel you have added all relevant information yet still don't have a "good" rating for the image discoverability, it's fine to leave it as "poor / amber". I think we all agree that labeling something "poor" from our side is no longer the best terminology, however at the time of release this was about encouraging contributors to provide more info as a lot of it was too sparse.

We know we're not perfect but we promise to learn from our failings - the perfect system probably does not exist when you're dealing with 150,000 contributors, all of which have different requirements and image types - but we'll keep evolving!

Thanks for sticking with us.

James A

SherylW · « **Reply #16 on:** August 28, 2019, 18:27 »

I think Alamy is great - I find the uploading and keywording system very good compared to say Getty, which is horrendous and I enjoy uploading to Alamy. I also find the payout average to downloads is the best of all stock sites and I wish I had more sales per month - of course.

MxR · « **Reply #17 on:** August 29, 2019, 01:26 »

Quote from: Alamy on August 28, 2019, 09:33

Again, I hear you, however we get plenty of contributors asking us to allow more space for tags as they feel 50 is not enough. So for some, getting to 40 tags is really not a problem, even when adding highly relevant words - literal, descriptive and conceptual.

Of course, this amount of tags is not always required, depending on the type of image, so it's not a perfect system by any means.

We are committed to continually develop the system and we've already made a number of changes and improvements since the original release. Before making any changes to the number of tags needed to achieve "good" status (or removing the discoverability bar entirely) we would adopt an evidence based approach looking at data across the board. E.G average number of tags in the collection, looking at best performing collections and number of tags per image etc before making any decisions. It's worth noting that previously we had a character based system rather than individual tags, and when we analysed the collection at the time we found that 50 tags seemed to be the sweet spot in terms of an optimal number. Things change all the time though and we've had enough feedback to know it needs to be revisited and tweaked if required.

So I can't offer any timeframes for change, but just know that if you feel you have added all relevant information yet still don't have a "good" rating for the image discoverability, it's fine to leave it as "poor / amber". I think we all agree that labeling something "poor" from our side is no longer the best terminology, however at the time of release this was about encouraging contributors to provide more info as a lot of it was too sparse.

We know we're not perfect but we promise to learn from our failings - the perfect system probably does not exist when you're dealing with 150,000 contributors, all of which have different requirements and image types - but we'll keep evolving!

Thanks for sticking with us.

James A

Hello, I see that the button to upload the model releaseo has disappeared for both Mac and Windows, take a look, I have not been able to upload a new authorization for two months!

ShadySue · « **Reply #18 on:** August 29, 2019, 04:19 »

Quote from: Alamy on August 28, 2019, 09:33

Again, I hear you, however we get plenty of contributors asking us to allow more space for tags as they feel 50 is not enough. So for some, getting to 40 tags is really not a problem, even when adding highly relevant words - literal, descriptive and conceptual.

Are you checking all of those who ask? Usually when people have brought this up in Alamy's forum, their efforts to reach 50 words has left them with a lot of spam keywords.
It's not the person, it's the image. I have about 1% of my pics in the green, naturally, because these pics need alternate keywords or many place names (local going back to country), but most don't. Even Alamy's own 'exemplar' video has 16 keywords - though I remember a discussion on the forum which suggested that at least another three were relevant and important.
The more keywords you have, the more scope for malgorithms from combining/splitting random keywords (also with words in the caption).

bestravelvideo · « **Reply #21 on:** August 29, 2019, 09:07 »

Are there any thoughts about raising the number of allowed characters to captions (not in live news) from 150 to 200? That would help in a more detailed description. It would be better Alamy allows that option. After all, not all would make use of it. Sometimes I find the 150 characters not enough. This now might force me to ommit letters to fit a sentence, which naturally does not look proficient.

Snow · « **Reply #22 on:** August 30, 2019, 08:39 »

Quote

Back to the OP question though - is Alamy worth it? Of course we would say yes, but it works better for some than for others. We'll offer you 50% commission for images exclusive to us and 40% for non-exclusive. Our average licence price is $35, although as others have mentioned, it's not uncommon to get much higher and sometimes lower.

Sometimes? try most of the times, sometimes higher and rarely much higher.

My last 3 sales were $3.72, $3.53 and $5.09 and that's without their cut (so at least half of these figures)
If you ask me Alamy isn't worth it, they are no better and most of the times even worse then Microstock.

My 2c

Gannet77 · « **Reply #23 on:** August 30, 2019, 09:33 »

Quote from: Snow on August 30, 2019, 08:39

Quote
Back to the OP question though - is Alamy worth it? Of course we would say yes, but it works better for some than for others. We'll offer you 50% commission for images exclusive to us and 40% for non-exclusive. Our average licence price is $35, although as others have mentioned, it's not uncommon to get much higher and sometimes lower.

Sometimes? try most of the times, sometimes higher and rarely much higher.

My last 3 sales were $3.72, $3.53 and $5.09 and that's without their cut (so at least half of these figures)
If you ask me Alamy isn't worth it, they are no better and most of the times even worse then Microstock.

My 2c

Well, everybody's results will differ of course, and three sales does not a representative sample make - but for my part, my last three sales were $55.99, $41.99 and $3.62, so fairly close to what the Alamy rep says, on average.

And I'm not a big seller, but if I total all my sales over my time with Alamy (that's 10 years) the average license price comes to about $43.

So from my point of view, it's hardly a living wage, but in answer to the OP - yes, it's worth it.

MxR · « **Reply #24 on:** August 30, 2019, 11:12 »

Quote from: Alamy on August 29, 2019, 08:15

Quote from: MxR on August 29, 2019, 01:26
Quote from: Alamy on August 28, 2019, 09:33
Again, I hear you, however we get plenty of contributors asking us to allow more space for tags as they feel 50 is not enough. So for some, getting to 40 tags is really not a problem, even when adding highly relevant words - literal, descriptive and conceptual.

Of course, this amount of tags is not always required, depending on the type of image, so it's not a perfect system by any means.

We are committed to continually develop the system and we've already made a number of changes and improvements since the original release. Before making any changes to the number of tags needed to achieve "good" status (or removing the discoverability bar entirely) we would adopt an evidence based approach looking at data across the board. E.G average number of tags in the collection, looking at best performing collections and number of tags per image etc before making any decisions. It's worth noting that previously we had a character based system rather than individual tags, and when we analysed the collection at the time we found that 50 tags seemed to be the sweet spot in terms of an optimal number. Things change all the time though and we've had enough feedback to know it needs to be revisited and tweaked if required.

So I can't offer any timeframes for change, but just know that if you feel you have added all relevant information yet still don't have a "good" rating for the image discoverability, it's fine to leave it as "poor / amber". I think we all agree that labeling something "poor" from our side is no longer the best terminology, however at the time of release this was about encouraging contributors to provide more info as a lot of it was too sparse.

We know we're not perfect but we promise to learn from our failings - the perfect system probably does not exist when you're dealing with 150,000 contributors, all of which have different requirements and image types - but we'll keep evolving!

Thanks for sticking with us.

James A

Hello, I see that the button to upload the model releaseo has disappeared for both Mac and Windows, take a look, I have not been able to upload a new authorization for two months!

In a bid to simplify the upload process we removed the requirement for you to upload releases. If you have a release available, just check the box to say you have one. If we have a client that needs a copy, then we'll get in touch with you.

Cheers

James A

Thanks!!!

stockastic · « **Reply #25 on:** August 30, 2019, 11:55 »

If you're not on any other stock sites, can you list images as "exclusive" with Alamy and still sell them as art prints on PODs?

ShadySue · « **Reply #26 on:** August 30, 2019, 13:07 »

Quote from: stockastic on August 30, 2019, 11:55

If you're not on any other stock sites, can you list images as "exclusive" with Alamy and still sell them as art prints on PODs?

Yes.

medveh · « **Reply #27 on:** August 30, 2019, 15:04 »

What I'd like to know is if there's anyone with vector graphics that sells well on alamy, is it worth uploading vector graphics at all?

MegM · « **Reply #28 on:** August 30, 2019, 19:08 »

I had not considered Almay for video contribution until I read this post. Does anyone know if the company is on track to accept 4K videos in the near future? Thanks -

dpimborough · « **Reply #29 on:** August 31, 2019, 02:41 »

Quote from: MegM on August 30, 2019, 19:08

I had not considered Almay for video contribution until I read this post. Does anyone know if the company is on track to accept 4K videos in the near future? Thanks -

As far as I know Alamy don't accept any video at all these days. They did dabble in it some years back then decided to concentrate on still images.

Though no doubt they could boost revenue by selling clips and reduce the need to take 20% off none exclusive images in the future (like they did earlier this year)

mj007 · « **Reply #30 on:** September 01, 2019, 07:35 »

I just did the math for my Alamy account. It was must better than I would have thought. I have been on Alamy for eight years. The average sale for eight years was 43 dollars per sale. So yes, Alamy is OK.....

ShadySue · « **Reply #31 on:** September 01, 2019, 07:50 »

Quote from: mj007 on September 01, 2019, 07:35

I just did the math for my Alamy account. It was must better than I would have thought. I have been on Alamy for eight years. The average sale for eight years was 43 dollars per sale. So yes, Alamy is OK.....

Gross or net?

mj007 · « **Reply #32 on:** September 01, 2019, 14:20 »

gross

ShadySue · « **Reply #33 on:** September 01, 2019, 15:05 »

@OP, why not check out the Alamy reporting threads? There's one every month and the thread for August sales is here:
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/11948-how-was-your-august-2019
Of course, only a very tiny proportion of Alamy contributors post in that thread, but you can get an idea.
From reading these threads, Live News can do well, and NA sales average higher values than UK sales (which isn't suprising for RM at least as they can have much larger print runs).

hatman12 · « **Reply #34 on:** September 01, 2019, 22:14 »

When I went non-exclusive four years ago I decided I'd upload my entire microstock portfolio to Alamy (including some editorial work) as a potential source of extra income. I did this 'knowing' that for the best success on Alamy one really needs to be a UK editorial photographer (which I am not). Frankly Alamy has been a disappointment (although not entirely unexpected). I make about $1,000 a year from my portfolio of about 5,000 images. Hardly worth the effort, but I suppose in these times of much more difficult trading conditions for stock photographers every extra dollar helps.

Sion · « **Reply #35 on:** September 03, 2019, 23:04 »

I got into Alamy in 1917 which was still a golden era for traditional stock. With only 200 photos I started selling normally at $250 a photo.

Now? I'm not sure.

I guess with so many online job market sites many photographers are turning to shoot for commercial jobs instead of shooting stock. At least you'll get to see money faster and more consistent.

dpimborough · « **Reply #36 on:** September 04, 2019, 01:42 »

Quote from: Sion on September 03, 2019, 23:04

I got into Alamy in 1917 which was still a golden era for traditional stock. With only 200 photos I started selling normally at $250 a photo.

Now? I'm not sure.

I guess with so many online job market sites many photographers are turning to shoot for commercial jobs instead of shooting stock. At least you'll get to see money faster and more consistent.

1917 you say

Welcome to the new millenium

dpimborough · « **Reply #37 on:** September 04, 2019, 01:45 »

Quote from: hatman12 on September 01, 2019, 22:14

When I went non-exclusive four years ago I decided I'd upload my entire microstock portfolio to Alamy (including some editorial work) as a potential source of extra income. I did this 'knowing' that for the best success on Alamy one really needs to be a UK editorial photographer (which I am not). Frankly Alamy has been a disappointment (although not entirely unexpected). I make about $1,000 a year from my portfolio of about 5,000 images. Hardly worth the effort, but I suppose in these times of much more difficult trading conditions for stock photographers every extra dollar helps.

Seems $1,000 per year seems to be standard income I get round $1,000 per year too on 5,000 images ~ then again it always seems to be about $1,000 no matter how much I put up.

pkphotos · « **Reply #38 on:** September 04, 2019, 02:35 »

1 million dollars paid out per month divided by 170,000,000 photos = 0.00588 cents per photo per month.

Or more simply you need 170 photos to make $1 per month. Or 1700 photos to make $10. Or 17,000 to make $100. That's just an approximate average but on those stats only someone who has more time than sense would upload to Alamy.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #39 on:** September 04, 2019, 03:03 »

Quote from: pkphotos on September 04, 2019, 02:35

1 million dollars paid out per month divided by 170,000,000 photos = 0.00588 cents per photo per month.

Or more simply you need 170 photos to make $1 per month. Or 1700 photos to make $10. Or 17,000 to make $100. That's just an approximate average but on those stats only someone who has more time than sense would upload to Alamy.

Not all contributors are equal. Some people are very succesful on Alamy as they focus on the content that sells there. So someone with sense and ability can make money there but not those who throw random stuff at them.

Sion · « **Reply #40 on:** September 04, 2019, 04:51 »

Quote from: hatman12 on September 01, 2019, 22:14

When I went non-exclusive four years ago I decided I'd upload my entire microstock portfolio to Alamy (including some editorial work) as a potential source of extra income.

The day I found out many contributors were uploading their microstock files into alamy especially the setup still life shots common in microstock I changed from a studio shooter into an outdoor editorial shooter. My income from Alamy has been better than those days of shooting studio tabletop setup shots.

Sion · « **Reply #41 on:** September 04, 2019, 05:02 »

A company in another city needed photos of a hospital in Sydney. They advertised online for someone to shoot the hospital by showing sample tumbnails of the hospital with Alamy and Getty watermarks. To get someone in Sydney to go to shoot the hospital was cheaper than buying 6 photos from Alamy or Getty.

Commercial shooters used to be expensive and stock has driven many of them out of business. Now with internet and free online job market sites, The companies get a commercial shooter to provide the most up-to-date photos in better weather conditions than those old photos in stock sites. I guess it's fight back time.

ShadySue · « **Reply #42 on:** September 04, 2019, 05:04 »

Quote from: Sion on September 04, 2019, 05:02

A company in another city needed photos of a hospital in Sydney. They advertised online for someone to shoot the hospital by showing sample tumbnails of the hospital with Alamy and Getty watermarks. To get someone in Sydney to go to shoot the hospital was cheaper than buying 6 photos from Alamy or Getty.

Wasn't that mis-use of the watermarked images?

Five Thumbs · « **Reply #43 on:** September 04, 2019, 12:13 »

Quote from: medveh on August 30, 2019, 15:04

What I'd like to know is if there's anyone with vector graphics that sells well on alamy, is it worth uploading vector graphics at all?

@medveh. I submit both photos and vectors to Alamy. About 50/50 in terms of content with more vector sales than photos. On average, my vectors sell consistently for about $20 each. My photo income is random to say the least. Anything from $0.83 to $310 per image. I don't get anywhere near the amount of sales as AS or SS but it's a pleasant surprise when I do get a sale. I'd say go for it!

KarenH · « **Reply #44 on:** September 06, 2019, 12:27 »

Quote from: brianholm on August 27, 2019, 08:11

Hey guys

I dropped Alamy about three years ago, after I've been on the platform for maybe 2-3 years - without any sales. I remember the upload process and all the keywording etc to be such a hassle, that I just gave up on it.

I'm now doing a little research to see what other photographers do with their stock portfolio, and how they "make things happen". Many are talking about Alamy as a good source of income.

Has the upload process changed at Alamy, are you guys selling anything, is it worth it to create a new profile and try again? Please let me have your input.

I tried Alamy for a short time, less than a year, albeit with a very small portfolio as kind of a test. Literally no action, not a one, so I dropped it. Six months after closing the account, I got a $150 d/l. I questioned it, but they said there can be a delay in payment. So I reopened it.

I don't find their upload process terribly tedious. I was able to upload in bulk, but then of course, have to tag a lot of things that I didn't include metadata for to start with. I'm not into stock very much anymore due to personal circumstances, admittedly I'm not putting much work into it anymore, but I'm fine with getting a surprise payment now and then.

mj007 · « **Reply #45 on:** September 06, 2019, 13:33 »

Yes the Alamy payout is a strange beast. I do believe they are a very honest company. Sometimes it can be three or more months for a payment to happen after a sale. I guess it is all about the Benjamin's, as long as they are coming life is good.

Lina · « **Reply #46 on:** September 06, 2019, 16:11 »

Quote from: Five Thumbs on September 04, 2019, 12:13

@medveh. I submit both photos and vectors to Alamy. About 50/50 in terms of content with more vector sales than photos. On average, my vectors sell consistently for about $20 each.

I haven't uploaded any vectors on Alamy, because I saw that price is always 9.99$ (https://www.alamy.com/contributor/how-to-sell-vectors/how-alamy-sell-vectors/?section=6).

And you are selling for 20$... Am I missing something?

Five Thumbs · « **Reply #47 on:** September 06, 2019, 22:58 »

Quote from: Lina on September 06, 2019, 16:11

Quote from: Five Thumbs on September 04, 2019, 12:13
@medveh. I submit both photos and vectors to Alamy. About 50/50 in terms of content with more vector sales than photos. On average, my vectors sell consistently for about $20 each.

I haven't uploaded any vectors on Alamy, because I saw that price is always 9.99$ (https://www.alamy.com/contributor/how-to-sell-vectors/how-alamy-sell-vectors/?section=6 [nofollow]).

And you are selling for 20$... Am I missing something?

You might be right there Lina. My overall average is $20+ but that's dropped in the last year or so. They might have changed it because before last year I was getting a lot more. I don't sell by the bucket load so probably missed the change!

suz7 · « **Reply #48 on:** September 07, 2019, 01:02 »

It would be great to hear if people sell vectors and how much alamy pays us for them

ShadySue · « **Reply #49 on:** September 07, 2019, 03:25 »

Quote from: suz7 on September 07, 2019, 01:02

It would be great to hear if people sell vectors and how much alamy pays us for them

See I. Mediate Lynda previous posts

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #50 on:** September 09, 2019, 00:08 »

Quote from: Snow on August 30, 2019, 08:39

Quote
Back to the OP question though - is Alamy worth it? Of course we would say yes, but it works better for some than for others. We'll offer you 50% commission for images exclusive to us and 40% for non-exclusive. Our average licence price is $35, although as others have mentioned, it's not uncommon to get much higher and sometimes lower.

Sometimes? try most of the times, sometimes higher and rarely much higher.

My last 3 sales were $3.72, $3.53 and $5.09 and that's without their cut (so at least half of these figures)
If you ask me Alamy isn't worth it, they are no better and most of the times even worse then Microstock.

My 2c

Since the figure cited is an average, it stands to reason that amounts above that are matched by amounts below that. A single $600 sale needs to be followed by 20 $5 sales to produce an average of about $35. The larger a big sale is the more small sales will be needed to balance it, that's just elementary maths. And, of course, Alamy quotes the overall sales figure, not the photographer's commission, which could be 50%, 40% or for partner sales 30%. For the photographer 40% of a $35 sale translates into $14 commission. Unfortunately, that average sale price seems to have declined considerably - presumably as a result of pressure from the micros (yes, we are all to blame, but the micros were a juggernaut that could not be stopped, try though the Alamy crowd did back 15 years ago). The other unfortunate thing is that while the sales price average seems to have declined to within spitting distance of the micros, the sales volume has not risen accordingly. My sales volume has remained roughly static for six or seven years but my sales value has halved and the commission cut has, of course, added to the pain.
That said, the earnings plunge is nothing like as bad as I've seen on the micros where my peak-to-current-trough earnings have dropped by about 90%. I'm not sure that any of the micros are worth the effort any longer, but if they are then so is Alamy.

MicroVet · « **Reply #51 on:** September 09, 2019, 00:54 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on September 09, 2019, 00:08

while the sales price average seems to have declined to within spitting distance of the micros, the sales volume has not risen accordingly. My sales volume has remained roughly static for six or seven years but my sales value has halved and the commission cut has

And that above, is the main problem. To which I may add the fact that to costumers take months to pay a $5 sale, contrary to micros where the payment is immediate. With such cheap sales there's no reason the image isn't immediately paid.

In 2013 I had roughly the same sales as in 2018. Yet the average license price dropped from $60 to $27, and my average commission form $33 to $12. And this year my average commission is even lower than last year with a big drop in the number of sales.

Chichikov · « **Reply #52 on:** September 12, 2019, 06:34 »

Quote from: Alamy on August 28, 2019, 06:50

Quote from: ShadySue on August 28, 2019, 04:21
Quote from: OM on August 28, 2019, 03:27
I find it weird that 'good discoverability/poor discoverability' of an image seems to be determined by number of keywords above 40.
It's not, that's just some insane thing someone thought up, but they aren't humble enough to say 'we made a mistake'.

I think maybe "insane" is a little unfair. We've been open and appreciate that the current system doesn't work for everyone but it does for others. Some contributors feel that we ask for too much info and others feel that we don't give enough space to add even more tags!

Essentially, we had an issue before the current system where many contributors were not adding enough information, just adding a handful of tags. We needed a system that would encourage users to add more info, and that's what this system does. We've been very open and said within our help info that the "discoverability bar" is not analysing your data in any way, it's just essentially letting you know if you have more space to add more info. The more relevant information you can add the better, and the key term there is relevant - again, something we've been trying to make clear to contributors. I'm sure we'll tweak the terminology in time, maybe even remove the "discoverability" labelling as we can appreciate this can be confusing. We do test any changes with groups of current contributors before going live though to get feedback, and this system was no exception.

We need a caption and 5 tags to get the image searchable - everything else is optional. Additional info like number of people, release info etc is desirable but not mandatory. We'll extract any embedded info and apply it, so if you have a caption and 5 tags the images will go online without you doing anything else. Supertagging definitely does help images get higher up in the search engine - so if you have the time to do it and want to give certain images a boost for certain words then you should try and make the time to take advantage. Again though, not mandatory so it's a judgement call for you and your time.

Back to the OP question though - is Alamy worth it? Of course we would say yes, but it works better for some than for others. We'll offer you 50% commission for images exclusive to us and 40% for non-exclusive. Our average licence price is $35, although as others have mentioned, it's not uncommon to get much higher and sometimes lower. If you have a portfolio of images sat on your hard drive or sat on another site, you absolutely should upload them to Alamy to see if we can make you some additional revenue. Once the images are up and online, there is nothing further for you to do other than enjoy the extra money! We pay out well in excess of $1 million every month to contributors so you should put yourself in the mix and get a slice.

Happy to answer any other questions here about Alamy as best I can. As others can attest to, I'm also open to answering any questions you have via PM if you'd rather not ask out in the open.

Cheers

James Allsworth

Contributor Experience Manager

Frankly, your system is so tricky and time consuming, and the interface so badly designed (sometimes I need to click 5 times or more on a keyword to select it as a supertag) that I have completely stopped to edit my images

Mrl · « **Reply #53 on:** September 16, 2019, 21:46 »

As mine viewpoint, it has
Yes
I started at 2013 but has not any sale until 2017, it comes two sales. After the long time consuming key-wording and tags procedure in 2018-9 i sell regularly and my average earning per download is 23$

ShadySue · « **Reply #54 on:** September 17, 2019, 06:04 »

Quote from: Mrl on September 16, 2019, 21:46

As mine viewpoint, it has
Yes
I started at 2013 but has not any sale until 2017, it comes two sales. After the long time consuming key-wording and tags procedure in 2018-9 i sell regularly and my average earning per download is 23$

$23 gross or net?

Mrl · « **Reply #55 on:** September 17, 2019, 06:53 »

Gross
23X40%= 9.2 for each one. Not bad

Snow · « **Reply #56 on:** October 17, 2019, 04:39 »

Last two sales were $119 and $120 (exclusive images) so that's looking a bit better.
Sales are still few and far between though so if that would pick up I would seriously put more effort into them because I am fed up with Shutterstock and the like.

ShadySue · « **Reply #57 on:** October 17, 2019, 05:18 »

Quote from: Snow on October 17, 2019, 04:39

Last two sales were $119 and $120 (exclusive images) so that's looking a bit better.

Net? Well done - you're obviously doing something right.

My last two netted me $6.74 and 63c!

Snow · « **Reply #58 on:** October 17, 2019, 08:09 »

Quote from: ShadySue on October 17, 2019, 05:18

Quote from: Snow on October 17, 2019, 04:39
Last two sales were $119 and $120 (exclusive images) so that's looking a bit better.
Net? Well done - you're obviously doing something right.
My last two netted me $6.74 and 63c!

Nah gross, thats why I said a bit better. Still far from what it should be for exclusive RM images.

ShadySue · « **Reply #59 on:** October 17, 2019, 08:28 »

Quote from: Snow on October 17, 2019, 08:09

Quote from: ShadySue on October 17, 2019, 05:18
Quote from: Snow on October 17, 2019, 04:39
Last two sales were $119 and $120 (exclusive images) so that's looking a bit better.
Net? Well done - you're obviously doing something right.
My last two netted me $6.74 and 63c!

Nah gross, thats why I said a bit better. Still far from what it should be for exclusive RM images.

I tend to think it's a bit unfair to quote gross, in case it wrongly excites people who don't submit there yet.
For avoidance of doubt, mine are also exclusive RM. Both of my last two sales - only two this month - happened to be distributor, which to be fair we can opt out of.

m · « **Reply #60 on:** October 17, 2019, 08:49 »

I find that Alamy is too difficult to submit content and that there are little sales anyway for the effort it take. I'm willing to put in the effort if I could see some traction.

Also, The price for customers is in GBP and I get paid in USD without the current exchange rate being applied. (maybe I'm missing something)

for example on the home page of Alamy
'Pricing from £9.99'
but a recent sale in my dashboard is
'Vector $ 9.99'

I would rather get paid in GBP and have paypal do the exchange conversion

ShadySue · « **Reply #61 on:** October 17, 2019, 08:54 »

Quote from: martinrichard on October 17, 2019, 08:49

Also, The price for customers is in GBP and I get paid in USD without the current exchange rate being applied. (maybe I'm missing something)

for example on the home page of Alamy
'Pricing from £9.99'
but a recent sale in my dashboard is
'Vector $ 9.99'

If you are in the UK, you see prices in GP£, as with other agencies.
Buyers outwith the UK see prices in their own currencies. Also prices in other countries vary, so they're not necessarily the equivalent of the prices you see.

That can be the same with physical goods in different countries. E.g. in India, many international products were much cheaper than they are here (UK).

If you're not a buyer, you'll see a much larger price than most buyers see, as most buyers have negotiated a discount, often a hefty discount.

As well as that, apparently they have regular pricing A/B type tests.

So you very seldom, if ever, will see sales of the value you might expect from the file page. That's the same at e.g. Getty.

pkphotos · « **Reply #62 on:** October 17, 2019, 08:55 »

Time and expense wise Alamy is not really worth it. However people are still prepared to waste tehir time doing it. Some weird sort of masochism IMO

m · « **Reply #63 on:** October 17, 2019, 09:04 »

Quote from: ShadySue on October 17, 2019, 08:54

Quote from: martinrichard on October 17, 2019, 08:49

Also, The price for customers is in GBP and I get paid in USD without the current exchange rate being applied. (maybe I'm missing something)

for example on the home page of Alamy
'Pricing from £9.99'
but a recent sale in my dashboard is
'Vector $ 9.99'

If you are in the UK, you see prices in GP£, as with other agencies.
Buyers outwith the UK see prices in their own currencies. Also prices in other countries vary, so they're not necessarily the equivalent of the prices you see.

That can be the same with physical goods in different countries. E.g. in India, many international products were much cheaper than they are here (UK).

If you're not a buyer, you'll see a much larger price than most buyers see, as most buyers have negotiated a discount, often a hefty discount.

As well as that, apparently they have regular pricing A/B type tests.

So you very seldom, if ever, will see sales of the value you might expect from the file page. That's the same at e.g. Getty.

I understand that other countries should see a different currency. I used a VPN in the past to test what you are saying. I remember it always being in GBP with various countries.
Without a VPN. I'm in Canada and I'm seeing GBP pricing.

Really doesn't matter to me too much because the number of sales are so low. It's not worth the time.

ShadySue · « **Reply #64 on:** October 17, 2019, 09:14 »

Quote from: martinrichard on October 17, 2019, 09:04

Quote from: ShadySue on October 17, 2019, 08:54
Quote from: martinrichard on October 17, 2019, 08:49

Also, The price for customers is in GBP and I get paid in USD without the current exchange rate being applied. (maybe I'm missing something)

for example on the home page of Alamy
'Pricing from £9.99'
but a recent sale in my dashboard is
'Vector $ 9.99'

If you are in the UK, you see prices in GP£, as with other agencies.
Buyers outwith the UK see prices in their own currencies. Also prices in other countries vary, so they're not necessarily the equivalent of the prices you see.

That can be the same with physical goods in different countries. E.g. in India, many international products were much cheaper than they are here (UK).

If you're not a buyer, you'll see a much larger price than most buyers see, as most buyers have negotiated a discount, often a hefty discount.

As well as that, apparently they have regular pricing A/B type tests.

So you very seldom, if ever, will see sales of the value you might expect from the file page. That's the same at e.g. Getty.
I understand that other countries should see a different currency. I used a VPN in the past to test what you are saying. I remember it always being in GBP with various countries.
Without a VPN. I'm in Canada and I'm seeing GBP pricing.

Strange, it's not what I've read in the past, maybe things have changed.

Quote

Really doesn't matter to me too much because the number of sales are so low. It's not worth the time.

Yeah, that's probably the case for most people. Live News togs probably do best there.
I've only ever once read of anyone say they did better on Alamy than any of the micros - he seemed to be a strange bloke altogether, but eventually it turned out he had thousands of photos on Alamy, and well under a hundred (sic, <100) on his only micro, iS.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #65 on:** October 17, 2019, 09:41 »

Quote from: pkphotos on October 17, 2019, 08:55

Time and expense wise Alamy is not really worth it. However people are still prepared to waste tehir time doing it. Some weird sort of masochism IMO

Yes and no. Yes I'd agree, Alamy is not Microstock, anyone who wastes time uploading hundreds of Microstock images, is not using their time and effort wisely.

No not a total waste of time: I might uploads hundreds of images from an event to SS, but Alamy gets three. They already have the keywords, upload is easy, after they are accepted, I click a few stars, add categories, set the license or use, and send them off.

I get on average six sales a year varying from under $5 commission to $60 commission. Used to be more. But my main point is, I am very selective, and I agree with you, no volume sales or return to balance the amount of time and effort, if someone was uploading large numbers.

In the years since, roughly 2009, I've sold one illustration. I stopped uploading those. One creative concept, three panoramic scenic views, and the rest is Editorial. Under 2,000 images, but slowly getting there. Again, I am very selective. Also I upload the full size to Alamy, some 40MP and the reduced size, maybe 10MP to Microstock. Some are exclusive alternate shots that I select. Micro gets one version, Alamy gets the other.

I gets DACS payback every year from Alamy.

I used to file myself but now I let them do it and they take a percentage. I do nothing except get the money credited to my account.

To me Alamy is worth the time and effort I put into supplying them with limited and selective chosen images. Alamy will not pay back for the average person, if they are going to be working and uploading hundreds of Microstock style images. My opinion of the site.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #66 on:** October 21, 2019, 00:48 »

Quote from: pkphotos on October 17, 2019, 08:55

Time and expense wise Alamy is not really worth it. However people are still prepared to waste tehir time doing it. Some weird sort of masochism IMO

For most people isn't that probably true of all but SS IS and Adobe these days? Alamy is no 4 for me so plenty much worse. At least they give hope of a really big sale. I carry on uploading to sites I shouldn't from a return on time spent perspective from a combination of irrational optimism, stubborness and habit.

Deyan Georgiev Photography · « **Reply #67 on:** October 21, 2019, 03:04 »

Quote from: pkphotos on October 17, 2019, 08:55

Time and expense wise Alamy is not really worth it. However people are still prepared to waste tehir time doing it. Some weird sort of masochism IMO

I upload let's say 150 images just with two clicks in 2 sec, then I continue with my other work. After upload i spend 5 min to select releases and some other info in groups usually. And that's it. I don't know how expensive is your time, but to me it absolutely worth uploading to Alamy. I do not sell editorial and can say Alamy give me a more money than iStock for example.

ShadySue · « **Reply #68 on:** October 21, 2019, 13:06 »

Quote from: Deyan Georgiev on October 21, 2019, 03:04

I do not sell editorial and can say Alamy give me a more money than iStock for example.

That's interesting. ~~What are your port sizes on each?~~ Wow!!! 10,674 on Alamy and 9272 on iS. Go Deyan!!!

My port is a bit (c12%) bigger on Alamy and iS far out-earns Alamy each month (except May this year, first time in ten years Alamy earned more than iS, but that was definitely a one-off, in my case )(e.g. 4.5x more in Sept). But my files are editorial or 'most likely to be used editorially' and that's a big difference. I know some people personally who are doing well with Live News on Alamy, but you're the first commercial shooter I've read of who is doing well there. Well done!

Added: a lot of your images are very 'editorial' in nature.

MotionDesign · « **Reply #69 on:** October 21, 2019, 13:51 »

is it worth it?
for me, not...
My illustrations and 3d render don't sell well on Alamy, maybe i'm not the target of their customers.
They don't accept videos, so i'm thinking to stop uploading and move on...maybe i'll submit to their 'stokimo'
platform, just for fun

Deyan Georgiev Photography · « **Reply #70 on:** October 21, 2019, 14:17 »

Quote from: ShadySue on October 21, 2019, 13:06

Quote from: Deyan Georgiev on October 21, 2019, 03:04
I do not sell editorial and can say Alamy give me a more money than iStock for example.
That's interesting. What are your port sizes on each?
My port is a bit (c12%) bigger on Alamy and iS far out-earns Alamy each month (except May this year, first time in ten years Alamy earned more than iS, but that was definitely a one-off, in my case )(e.g. 4.5x more in Sept). But my files are editorial or 'most likely to be used editorially' and that's a big difference. I know some people personally who are doing well with Live News on Alamy, but you're the first commercial shooter I've read of who is doing well there. Well done!

Unfortunately no. I can't say for both that I'm doing well there.
My port in Alamy is double times bigger than iStock. I postpone uploading to iStock from years due the complicated submission process. Alamy is stable while iStock is dropping each month for me. Before a couple of years the proportion was way different in this two.

I wanted to say that it's easy and fast to upload to Alamy and it worth when a man is non-exclusive to use this additional source, but that's simply my opinion.

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