MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: sweetgirll on May 13, 2016, 16:43
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Hi,
In the past Alamy was way down in the poll results...
This year all the sudden Alamy is almost going head to head with Shutterstock.
So does it mean people are making almost the same they make at Shutter?
What did change from past years???
I am seeing Alamy 73, and Shutterstock 86.1.
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There was an urging by an msg member over on the Alamy forum for people there to start polling here.
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I wonder if some of the Alamy people are reporting the sale price instead of their take. Still, based on my experience #2 for Alamy is reasonable.
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Yea, is this real? If someone said they only wanted to upload to three agencies, would Alamy be one of those three? Seems it was never close in the past??
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I just hit a new low with Alamy. Sale price 2.23$ of which I get to keep 30% !!!
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Hi,
In the past Alamy was way down in the poll results...
This year all the sudden Alamy is almost going head to head with Shutterstock.
So does it mean people are making almost the same they make at Shutter?
What did change from past years???
I am seeing Alamy 73, and Shutterstock 86.1.
I think many people here submit videos or videos and photos both. I shoot videos only and the offer to send them a hard drive via mail is kind a nice joke for me. I would have asked them if I had to use pigeon mail to get some real old school experience. So 73 is ok. 1873 is more correct for me.
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Problem is, most MSG members donīt understand the poll results...
All the agencies without a number next to them are NOT necessarily low earners - they just didnīt receive the required 50 votes. You can mouse-over to see the voting results for them.
So Alamy was never actually "way down" on the list - it simply wasnīt ON the list (due to insufficient number of votes).
And the "Earnings Rating" is neither $ nor %. (100 = 500$/month)
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I don't understand, why some people care so much for Poll results. It's your sales that matter, not anybody else's.
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Do a bit of research and you should see that there are a lot of people making good money with Alamy. It might only be a tiny fraction of their contributors that make significant earnings but if some of them are now doing the poll, it shouldn't be a surprise to see Alamy at number 2. If I had spent all my time on Alamy and not the microstock sites, I think my earnings would be higher than SS but I would probably be earning less than all the microstock sites combined.
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Recently some contributors reported 2000+ dollar sales. So 1000 dollar net per sale. Add this in the poll and voila.... already 1 reason why Alamy is climbing. Next to that it seems indeed that people came over here to vote.
In my case i have to admit that Alamy is the only Agency that is on the move. Blogs are updated regular. Forum is alive. Contributor tools are updated time to time with one of the biggest update coming soon.
For me also the only agency where the sales are growing every month. Others in general having half revenue with double port compared to last year. To be short i think it is very realistic to see Alamy on that position.
In general i see that people are making good money on Alamy. Yes their ports are large. Much larger then microstockers in general have BUT you should not forget that those Alamy big earners on the forum are mainly editorial shooters. Creating a editorial port goes in general much faster then a commercial one. Having 10.000 editorial photos instead of 2000 commercial ones is not a strange thing.
Mirco
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It could be that they were always high but just didn't have the 50 votes needed to register as mentioned previously. Today they have 146 votes so way over the minimum. If somebody at the Alamy forums urged them to come here to vote, then probably only those making something decent would bother - who would go to the trouble to report zero or a very low number? So we may be seeing voting from a select group with large portfolios that make good sales numbers. It might be interesting to break out the Alamy votes into those who are only on Alamy or macros versus those who do MS plus Alamy - the latter would show Alamy sales relative to a similar-sized portfolio of comparable quality. I suspect the poll results are skewed by people who get good sales there but don't submit to the micros - those with no sales there probably don't bother to come here.
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I had deep faith in Microstock Poll but after Alamy taking 2nd position, I don't trust the poll results anymore. I've never received even a single sale on Alamy so how is this possible?
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Seems like an outbreak of voters for alamy. Falling low again now.
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There was a low score for Alamy for years, unlike some of the agencies with no score. I'd think that if the high fliers could be bothered polling here, all would go up; however, if most people polled, all would go down.
The poll is only a bit of fun, with no real significance. E.g. nowadays I alternate whether I report Alamy or iS (exclusive) each month, as if I polled both, my iS score would go to indie rather than exclusive.
And after rising Alamy sales, though not necessarily $$s (last month more $$ than iS credits, but that's more about falling iS credit sales), this month so far not one Alamy sale. Plus I'm still waiting for over 20 unreported uses to be paid from one of their biggest customers, reported in early January. Still, that'll just be added to their sub for the month it's reported, so just less money for everyone that month. It's an iniquitous policy - we have to find our own unreported sales, go through hoops to report them all individually, in detail, on a form, rather than just accepting a search link, then wait for months for tiny payments. And now these buyers seem to have forced Alamy to sell RF editorial. :(
One file has been used over 40 times by one site (but paid for fewer than 20); I bet you won't get 40x the RM price for RF.
Other than that, it would work well if buyers were honest. Even at UKNS prices, I've had repeat sales, adding up to a reasonable price. Currently, RF pricing on Alamy is by size of image, not by usage, so they could aggregate a huge number of prints with no EL. They might make different pricing for editorials (but I doubt it, as current RF imagery could be used millions of times for one sale, so why would this be different?)
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I surely missed the explanation, but why is the left side ranking different than the graph? The graph shows Alamy dropping on a more realistic 4th position.
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Just today again a Alamy contributor showed a part of his sales from yesterday. He wanted to show all his distributor sales. It where 17 sales with a net total of 640 dollars for most editorial photos. This is 640 dollars net in 1 single day only distributors.
Such a performance can only come from an Agency that is doing very well. You just have to know what to sell. In the contributor case editorial.
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As I understand the chart at the right of the MSG page is a 3 month moving average. The graph is real month by month numbers.
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As I understand the chart at the right of the MSG page is a 3 month moving average. The graph is real month by month numbers.
Ok, then.
Alamy #2 was a clear abnormality 2 months ago. This abnormal position will still be reflected on the right side ranks for another month, while, in fact, Alamy is rather #4.
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i have never been a big fan of alamy, as i was there with them from the inception with almost a clean 100% approval. but after a few years of zero views and not even seeing my name in the photographers list, i thought that was a bit much, considering my approval ratio and regular uploads.
so i deleted my account, and stay pretty much exclusive with ss.,
who has paid me almost monthly since my inception.
but don't get me wrong, i am not for ss to be a monopoly. i was in full support for is before they
effed themselves up our youknowwhere laughing their way to the bank selling out to getty.
it is to our benefit that more than one get as close a rating as ss
so, if it is real numbers... i say, well done alamy.
in fact i weclome 2 or more sites to get past the 50% mark, as all this will be healthy for the
contributors. by then, i will begin to upload to those sites ... including alamy.
good for you ppl who brought alamy up there. keep it up.
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p.s.
and maybe this might even push ss to start bringing us back those once regular 28 to 102 single earnings in an effort to keep us from moving our new works to alamy, and any one else that works hard to reward their contributors elsewhere.
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My sale decrease this month i dont know what happen but i also have my photo on alamy but no more sale on it.
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It's a complete myth that Alamy is doing well. I've been a contributor there for ten years and have thousands of photos. In comparison to my other agencies they are low grade performers. The poll is doctored.
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It's a complete myth that Alamy is doing well. I've been a contributor there for ten years and have thousands of photos. In comparison to my other agencies they are low grade performers. The poll is doctored.
Do you really think that because one person can't do well on a site, nobody else is doing well? The fact is that if you do your research, there are many people doing well with Alamy and if they vote in the poll, it isn't doctored.
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I dont get what is the advantage for the one that doctors Alamy up?????? Then SS also could be doctored. All other agencies including low earners have chance to be doctored. Why only Alamy you think???? For me it is simple. Alamy is doing well for many and those are voting here. There are here some people reporting alamy beating SS. If you dont get many sales then it is because you make typucal microstock photos or bad keywording. One thing is sure ... Alamy has great potential.
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If you dont get many sales then it is because you make typucal microstock photos or bad keywording.
Or any number of other reasons.
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I dont get what is the advantage for the one that doctors Alamy up?????? Then SS also could be doctored. All other agencies including low earners have chance to be doctored. Why only Alamy you think???? For me it is simple. Alamy is doing well for many and those are voting here. There are here some people reporting alamy beating SS. If you dont get many sales then it is because you make typucal microstock photos or bad keywording. One thing is sure ... Alamy has great potential.
Because, statistically, it is very unlikely to have such a massive spike like the one from 2 months ago (22.86 -> 94.49). It is also very unlikely to have such a massive drop as the one from last month (94.49 -> 31.54).
Even if Alamy implemented changes leading to better sales, these improvements cannot happen overnight. All changes need time to propagate. The surge noticed 2 months ago was definitely artificial and far from being representative for the agency as a whole.
Remember that statisticians regularly exclude such extreme values from their analysis.
A value around 20-30 on that graph, makes more statistical sense, and it is more likely to be representative.
This means that Alamy #4 is closer to the truth.
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Still i can not explain why only Alamy? And what reason somebody would do this. I think if only for example 5 new members coming from Alamy reporting earnongs of over 1000 net per month the climb could be realistic. If they where not reporting before.
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Still i can not explain why only Alamy? And what reason somebody would do this. I think if only for example 5 new members coming from Alamy reporting earnongs of over 1000 net per month the climb could be realistic. If they where not reporting before.
Check the other trends and their standard deviation, there are no such massive spikes, followed by similar massive drops.
If those 5 new hypothetical users of yours have regular, statistically representative, large sales, why would they report them only in March, but forget to report them in April?
My point is: even if that March spike is real, it is not representative for Alamy. Alamy #2 is no go. Alamy #4 is more likely.
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If people who submit only to Alamy suddenly start reporting, it doesn't signify anything - we (and they) have no idea whether they'd do better if they were also supplying the other agencies.
In any case, some people who report Alamy have broadly the same port there as they have on the others; others have a completely different port on Alamy, e.g. if they supply RF only to iS.
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I know for example user worldplanet has Alamy as best selling agency. Number two shutterstock. I hope he sees this thread and can confirm. It is possible.
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Another contributor there regularly said he had earned a lot more on Alamy than he does on iStock. It's probably true, as he has over 21000 pics on Alamy and around 20 on iStock.
Wordplanet certainly isn't in that category, but one Swallow doesn't make a summer.
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Still i can not explain why only Alamy? And what reason somebody would do this. I think if only for example 5 new members coming from Alamy reporting earnongs of over 1000 net per month the climb could be realistic. If they where not reporting before.
Check the other trends and their standard deviation, there are no such massive spikes, followed by similar massive drops.
If those 5 new hypothetical users of yours have regular, statistically representative, large sales, why would they report them only in March, but forget to report them in April?
My point is: even if that March spike is real, it is not representative for Alamy. Alamy #2 is no go. Alamy #4 is more likely.
I think the more people that vote, the more accurate the poll results are. So if a bunch of people from the Alamy forum came here to vote one month, that's more accurate than the months when they haven't taken part.
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Still i can not explain why only Alamy? And what reason somebody would do this. I think if only for example 5 new members coming from Alamy reporting earnongs of over 1000 net per month the climb could be realistic. If they where not reporting before.
Check the other trends and their standard deviation, there are no such massive spikes, followed by similar massive drops.
If those 5 new hypothetical users of yours have regular, statistically representative, large sales, why would they report them only in March, but forget to report them in April?
My point is: even if that March spike is real, it is not representative for Alamy. Alamy #2 is no go. Alamy #4 is more likely.
I think the more people that vote, the more accurate the poll results are. So if a bunch of people from the Alamy forum came here to vote one month, that's more accurate than the months when they haven't taken part.
But not for relative rankings.
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Still i can not explain why only Alamy? And what reason somebody would do this. I think if only for example 5 new members coming from Alamy reporting earnongs of over 1000 net per month the climb could be realistic. If they where not reporting before.
Check the other trends and their standard deviation, there are no such massive spikes, followed by similar massive drops.
If those 5 new hypothetical users of yours have regular, statistically representative, large sales, why would they report them only in March, but forget to report them in April?
My point is: even if that March spike is real, it is not representative for Alamy. Alamy #2 is no go. Alamy #4 is more likely.
I think the more people that vote, the more accurate the poll results are. So if a bunch of people from the Alamy forum came here to vote one month, that's more accurate than the months when they haven't taken part.
But not for relative rankings.
Correct.
The other speculation is that the rank is doctored by someone trying to make Alamy attractive to contributors, the same way some Amazon reviews are doctored by seller's insiders. It is advisable to be careful when you see those over enthusiastic positive reviews and better pay attention to what the negative reviewers have to say ;)
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
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I have been stocking for over 6 years and got over 8000 images portfolio. And these are the the percentage of shares for some of my stocks: Shutter: 42%, Fotolia 34%, 123RF 6%, IStock 7%, and so on... and ALAMY: 0.5% ... so it looks very strange to me what the poll shows :)
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Correct.
The other speculation is that the rank is doctored by someone trying to make Alamy attractive to contributors, the same way some Amazon reviews are doctored by seller's insiders. It is advisable to be careful when you see those over enthusiastic positive reviews and better pay attention to what the negative reviewers have to say ;)
Like Yay did, not long ago.
Maybe Alamy is good for the images not longer accepted by the other agencies (graffiti, logos, etc.etc.), otherwise (if i was a buyer) i really can't find a reason to go there and buy something.
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Still i can not explain why only Alamy? And what reason somebody would do this. I think if only for example 5 new members coming from Alamy reporting earnongs of over 1000 net per month the climb could be realistic. If they where not reporting before.
I figure 1 or a couple of people had exceedingly good sales on Alamy in that one month. A couple of sales at $1000's of dollars would be a wonderful windfall for the seller and could be reported here for that month. I keep hoping my ship will come in some day. ;-) In the meantime I live with my regular $25-$150 per month.
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From 2014 to 2015 my average sale on Alamy went from around $35 to $75, with half to me - so my net income per sale increased over 100% from $17.50 to $37.50 per sale. That includes averaging in a bunch of little $6-16 ($3-8 net) sales. My sales volume also increased leading to an even larger increase in my overall income.
For 2016, my average sale is $98, which includes averaging in my most recent $7.01 sale, or else it would be even higher. So, I'm netting $49 per sale there on average in 2016, more than my average gross sale in 2014. I'm not surprised by how Alamy is doing at all.
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April sales
Shutterstock 1st
Alamy 2nd
iStock 3rd
No brainer to me Alamy always comes in at number 2 or 3 One day it will be number 1 and the naysayers will still deny you can make money with Alamy 8)
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April sales
Shutterstock $250 (323 sales)
Alamy $200 (5 sales)
iStock $42 (so far 100 sales)
No brainer to me Alamy always comes in at number 2 or 3 One day it will be number 1 and the naysayers will still deny you can make money with Alamy 8)
i don't think anyone is staying away from alamy not because they are without a brain like you say,
as who would not want to make the money like you do with alamy.
the fact is that only a handful of ppl are able to make money with alamy, as i said, i was there from the inception with 90% approval and did not see a penny for 5 years, nor see my name listed in their photographers' list. it's no wonder i had zero views in 5 years.
with ss, since i joined only the same time (5 years), i have reach payout almost monthly.
iow, almost everyone can make money with ss, but only a handful make money elsewhere.
that is why no one wants to bother uploading to everyone listed to the right.
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... nor see my name listed in their photographers' list ...
What photographer's list?
The only one I can think of is a scheme they used to have whereby people could opt to be on some list to take on local commissions; not sure about the details as I had no interest in being included. But that had nothing to do with Alamy sales, IIRC.
Was there something else?
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You could get on the list for assignments if you had assignment experience. I started my career shooting editorial photos, and still do, so I was on that list ... but they abolished it a long time ago.
I get emails from the Live News people from time to time about events near me, but none of this has an impact on sales.
You need a diverse selection of images, good keywords, and after starting with a mid-level rank you need sales and a good CTR to get you a good rank so your photos are up on the first couple of pages. They are heavily editorial and travel, though I've sold concept stuff there too, so having a portfolio heavy on travel stock with clean composition and lots of copy space (not holiday snapshots) and editorial helps. I often see travel sites that buy their images from Alamy, Getty, and then either SS, DT or iStock - so I try not to overlap my micro and macro ports so I don't compete with myself.
For a long time I was making more with a small port on SS than with more than twice as many photos on Alamy, but lately Alamy has been number one for me. But I'm not a typical microstock shooter, since my port leans more toward editorial.
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I dont get what is the advantage for the one that doctors Alamy up?????? Then SS also could be doctored. All other agencies including low earners have chance to be doctored. Why only Alamy you think???? For me it is simple. Alamy is doing well for many and those are voting here. There are here some people reporting alamy beating SS. If you dont get many sales then it is because you make typucal microstock photos or bad keywording. One thing is sure ... Alamy has great potential.
Incorrect assumption. I started off in macro on slide film long before micro was invented. My photos at Getty outperform my Alamy photos by over 1000%. Therefore I do well at my other macro agency and I do well at all my micro agencies. The only odd one out is Alamy. In fact Alalmy is the only agency where forum members seem to post gross earnings instead of net, probably because once the commission is taken off net looks way less impressive.
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I dont get what is the advantage for the one that doctors Alamy up?????? Then SS also could be doctored. All other agencies including low earners have chance to be doctored. Why only Alamy you think???? For me it is simple. Alamy is doing well for many and those are voting here. There are here some people reporting alamy beating SS. If you dont get many sales then it is because you make typucal microstock photos or bad keywording. One thing is sure ... Alamy has great potential.
Incorrect assumption. I started off in macro on slide film long before micro was invented. My photos at Getty outperform my Alamy photos by over 1000%. Therefore I do well at my other macro agency and I do well at all my micro agencies. The only odd one out is Alamy. In fact Alalmy is the only agency where forum members seem to post gross earnings instead of net, probably because once the commission is taken off net looks way less impressive.
You are the one with the incorrect assumption that because you don't do well with Alamy, other people can't do well with them. I never sold a thing with FAA in two years but that doesn't mean that they aren't a good site for a lot of people. The same applies to Alamy.
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If you're with Getty and giving them your best stuff exclusively, your experience on Alamy will differ from someone who puts their best RM stuff there.
For me, sometimes DT beats SS, which is not most people's experience. One month I actually earned nearly $400 with just over 200 photos - which would skew results here being unusual. On Alamy, regular earnings can vary even more widely.
You can't assume your experience and others' is going to be the same.
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After about 2 years on Alamy, my sales are really perking up. March was my best month yet, and April was even better still, with good sales for May so far. YTD for me Alamy is #2 behind Shutterstock, having passed iStock at #3, which continues to decline.
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As I understand the chart at the right of the MSG page is a 3 month moving average. The graph is real month by month numbers.
Ok, then.
Alamy #2 was a clear abnormality 2 months ago. This abnormal position will still be reflected on the right side ranks for another month, while, in fact, Alamy is rather #4.
I wonder, too, if people are reflecting their scores on the gross sales and not the net?
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I only know that SS report for first quarter says that they paid to contributors 33 million. Thats 130 million to expect for 2016. In 2014 it was 84 million. I think Alamy paid 130 million in all the time they exist. So SS paid in one year the same as alamy in all their lifetime. First ace belongs to ss for unknown time.
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I only know that SS report for first quarter says that they paid to contributors 33 million. Thats 130 million to expect for 2016. In 2014 it was 84 million. I think Alamy paid 130 million in all the time they exist. So SS paid in one year the same as alamy in all their lifetime. First ace belongs to ss for unknown time.
Exactly. The poll has now lost most of its former credibility
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I only know that SS report for first quarter says that they paid to contributors 33 million. Thats 130 million to expect for 2016. In 2014 it was 84 million. I think Alamy paid 130 million in all the time they exist. So SS paid in one year the same as alamy in all their lifetime. First ace belongs to ss for unknown time.
Exactly. The poll has now lost most of its former credibility
exactamento. my point against alamy is that even if one person came to say alamy earned that person xxx per dl vs 38 cts with ss. i really don't give a r@t$ @$$ to that .
there are many agencies on the right that pays one or a handful contributors a lot of money
which we don't see. it can be slanted as those ppl may be the owners,etc..
ss pays me, and a lot of other contributors, money every month,
we may not make as much as the top sellers, but we make money every month with ss.
that's what make me want to contribute to an agency. not that 20 ppl make alot
and the rest make 0 views and 0 cts in the first 5 years with agency x.
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If you dont get many sales then it is because you make typucal microstock photos or bad keywording.
This in short of an oversimplification of the issue, isn't it?
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I guess this month Alamy will be at the very bottom of the page for me, since I earned more from all agencies I didn't contribute to :)
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I guess this month Alamy will be at the very bottom of the page for me, since I earned more from all agencies I didn't contribute to :)
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
Well... the refund has been "re-funded" back, same photo re-purchased again, same size, same license (go figure!).
My balance is positive again (yay!) and Alamy "jumped" from the very bottom of the page, to #10, this month!
Anyway, this makes me think that the poll also needs to accommodate negative values ;)
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It seems that there is no way to pass shutterstock.
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It looks like DT has fallen below 123RF.
They really need to relax their acceptance policy, get rid of their socialist image rotation policy and redesign their website. The decline was preventable but they didn't do anything to fix it.