Author Topic: How Does Alamy Stack Up (Read 12935 times)

pmstephens · « **on:** September 17, 2011, 13:20 »

I would like to hear from folks with images on Alamy about how sales, review times, acceptance rates, etc., stack up against other sites. I currently have images on Shutterstock, iStock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, and a few other sites.

sharpshot · « **Reply #1 on:** September 17, 2011, 13:52 »

100% acceptance for me, fast reviews, usually within 3 days. Sales depend on what you upload. There's lots of threads about sales in their forum, so you can see who does well. The average seems to be 1 sale per 1,000 images per month but some do much better. It might seem that sales are low but prices and commission are higher than microstock and they accept much more, so it's easier to build a big portfolio.

The only thing I find hard with alamy is keywording, it takes me longer than other sites. There's 25 million images, so lots of competition and a lot of microstockers are going to find that a big problem.

ShadySue · « **Reply #2 on:** September 17, 2011, 14:05 »

Yup, agree with sharpshot, quick reviews, higher acceptance rate, sales so-so and totally unpredictable (from my pov, there is NO pattern to what has sold, but I guess I could say wildlife/nature is getting no love, far too much competition).
Keywording is a nightmare, I really hate it (and I seem to 'get' iStock's system 99% of the time) and the search is really bad because of the way keywording and the different fields are read.
Otherwise, you get 60% or 40% of amounts from tiny to huge (not often), and the profits go towards educational and medical charities.
You can choose to opt out of the newspaper program and the novel use program, both of which are lower priced programs, but it's all or nothing, you can't opt out individual photos. However you can opt out of one program and into the other.
Also, if you find an untapped niche, it might be because no Alamy buyers are interested in that niche. I've managed to find a couple of AlamyWhacks (in the Googlewhack model) and it's done me no good, so far.

pancaketom · « **Reply #3 on:** September 17, 2011, 19:18 »

What they said above.

I recently started sending more images since they lowered the size requirement and I got a few sales. Hopefully that will result in more sales in the future, as I don't have many there yet. I think all my micro sites are beating them (not to mention the 250$ payout limit). The sales I have had have been pretty random (and for fairly small amounts) Less than EL sales would bring me in most cases.

Maybe I should put up more of my random non-released people travel shots - who knows.

The keywording is pretty tedious compared to most micros.

I have only had one image rejected for reasons other than the upload was corrupted or the file was too small. Reviews are usually just a few days.

Freedom · « **Reply #4 on:** September 17, 2011, 19:45 »

I can't complain about Alamy sales because with less than 800 images, I average at least 1 RM sale per month and most of my sales are over $100 each. I don't upload a lot, I only upload what I believe Alamy's customers need. But I don't always have the time to shoot what they need.

Alamy seems to be a little too lenient in collecting money from the distributors. One of my photo was sold to a Brazilian distributor in Feb, it has been 7 months but the fund has not been cleared. The reply from Alamy was - don't worry, we'll chase the money. Ok, what else can I do, other than be patient.

hofhoek · « **Reply #5 on:** October 11, 2011, 02:26 »

I'm having some images at Alamy but have missed the notice about the change in file size. Can anyone elaborate?
And is anyone happy with novel use? I have opted out that one but am curious if I should opt in now? I have about 800+ files and sell about one a month on average.

MatHayward · « **Reply #6 on:** October 11, 2011, 02:43 »

My entire portfolio at Alamy consists of editorial footage. I had all but forgotten about the site until recently I logged in to find a $95 balance based on one sale of an image of Ichiro. I like the high return on one sale but am not crazy about the low volume.

Wim · « **Reply #7 on:** October 11, 2011, 02:54 »

Quote from: hofhoek on October 11, 2011, 02:26

I'm having some images at Alamy but have missed the notice about the change in file size. Can anyone elaborate?
And is anyone happy with novel use? I have opted out that one but am curious if I should opt in now? I have about 800+ files and sell about one a month on average.

Filesize requirement now is 24MB, used to be 48MB, but that's probably a long time ago.
I have also opted-out of Novel use, I'm not joining macro to get payed in micro

Hope that helps

lagereek · « **Reply #8 on:** October 11, 2011, 04:06 »

Cant complain, fast reviewing, 100% acceptance, and with less then 600 images I have plenty of RF sales and plenty of Novelty sales per month. Its a no fuss agency, professionally run and with none of the bickering going on inside some of the micros.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #9 on:** October 12, 2011, 00:38 »

Don't expect Microstock images to sell on Alamy, it's a different customer base. With that, people who want to see volume sales, will be disappointed. But when I get a $200 sale for $120 commission, I'm pretty happy. Much more than getting a sub sale every day = 30 for a month on SS for $7.50 total? Also don't expect things that get accepted and sell on Alamy to get accepted on Micro.

RPD is huge! Number of downloads is tiny.

Do you want to take the kids to the store, get good mileage, and drive a nice safe daily driver or do you want to do a quarter mile in under ten seconds once a month at 200 MPH? That's about the size of it. Micro is volume and long term sales, adding up. Alamy is a quick shot and then maybe nothing for a couple of months.

Personally I make more on Alamy than all my micro added together, but that has more to do with having loads of Editorial up on Alamy and something like 300 marginal RF images on Micro. It's different for everyone based on what they shoot.

With that, Alamy in some ways has become closer to Micro. I just had my first $15 newspaper sale, 1/8th page in Slovania of all places. One year RM, small, 5000 circulation fine with me. Small is small.

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Author Topic: How Does Alamy Stack Up (Read 12935 times)

pmstephens

sharpshot

ShadySue

pancaketom

Freedom

hofhoek

MatHayward

Wim

lagereek

RacePhoto

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