Author Topic: Poor sales on Alamy (Read 9500 times)

Fletch · « **on:** December 04, 2013, 06:03 »

I upload to 7 of the main sites and have daily sales, however since the start of the year only 3 sales with Ala my. Unusual thing is all 3 were in July within 2 week of each other. These were my biggest grossing sales, 175$, 22$ and 10$. Any suggestions why only 3 and why they were so close together?

leaf · « **Reply #1 on:** December 04, 2013, 06:05 »

Alamy is very hit and miss. They have some good sales once in a while but nothing very reliable. Alamy only earns about 2% of my best site so your results are probably fairly typical.

cidepix · « **Reply #2 on:** December 04, 2013, 06:22 »

this has been a very poor year on alamy.. nothing new..

glad to see they are heading down to their natural position in poll results.. it was inflated and plain WRONG that they appeared in middle tier..

they should be where stockfresh is..

Mantis · « **Reply #3 on:** December 04, 2013, 08:45 »

Quote from: leaf on December 04, 2013, 06:05

Alamy is very hit and miss. They have some good sales once in a while but nothing very reliable. Alamy only earns about 2% of my best site so your results are probably fairly typical.

Yea, what ever happened to those 7-10 $27 dls we used to get each month? Even those are gone for me.

ShadySue · « **Reply #4 on:** December 04, 2013, 08:58 »

Quote from: Mantis on December 04, 2013, 08:45

Quote from: leaf on December 04, 2013, 06:05
Alamy is very hit and miss. They have some good sales once in a while but nothing very reliable. Alamy only earns about 2% of my best site so your results are probably fairly typical.

Yea, what ever happened to those 7-10 $27 dls we used to get each month? Even those are gone for me.

I never got these, but I believe (from the Alamy forum) they were sales to Huffington Post, who now seem to source mostly elsewhere.

ShadySue · « **Reply #5 on:** December 04, 2013, 09:02 »

Quote from: cidepix on December 04, 2013, 06:22

this has been a very poor year on alamy.. nothing new..

glad to see they are heading down to their natural position in poll results.. it was inflated and plain WRONG that they appeared in middle tier..

they should be where stockfresh is..

Hard to know where they should be. I, for one, suddenly stopped recording Alamy sales as it was pushing my iS figures into indie. Swings and roundabouts; one month it was >45% my iSales, more usually c10-15%.

Hobostocker · « **Reply #6 on:** December 04, 2013, 23:39 »

I know very well where Alamy is heading : they will finally give up and start selling RM at 5-10$ flat rate and they will launch monthly subscriptions and eventually they will switch the RM images to "editorial RF".

Their CEO has been very clear about what's going on, their clients wants cheaper photos and are sick of the RM model altogether so they'll either adapt or die.

How long will it take ? 1 year ? 2 year ? we will see but i've the feeling this is unavoidable.
We must accept that for buyers RM is more and more perceived as pain in the A-ss and they can't justify the prices considering the gazillions of decent RF micro alternatives.

On top of this, iphone-quality cr-ap is now earning lots of supporters in the publishing industry.
As much as we're disgusted at the idea this is already happening and it will be the soon the norm, i'm already seeing newspapers and magazines using sh-it done with iphones EVERY DAY.

No matter if they paid for it or if it was stolen from Instagram, Flickr, WeChat, FB, Twitter, photo editors now like this sh-it and nobody seem to complain especially their readers.

Actually we're even seeing iphone stuff coming from the frontlines in Sirya, Lybia, and Afghanistan and the recent clashes in Bangkok.

I'm horrified by this trend but it can't be stopped.

gemmy12 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 05, 2013, 00:17 »

Quote from: Hobostocker on December 04, 2013, 23:39

I know very well where Alamy is heading : they will finally give up and start selling RM at 5-10$ flat rate and they will launch monthly subscriptions and eventually they will switch the RM images to "editorial RF".

Their CEO has been very clear about what's going on, their clients wants cheaper photos and are sick of the RM model altogether so they'll either adapt or die.

How long will it take ? 1 year ? 2 year ? we will see but i've the feeling this is unavoidable.
We must accept that for buyers RM is more and more perceived as pain in the A-ss and they can't justify the prices considering the gazillions of decent RF micro alternatives.

On top of this, iphone-quality cr-ap is now earning lots of supporters in the publishing industry.
As much as we're disgusted at the idea this is already happening and it will be the soon the norm, i'm already seeing newspapers and magazines using sh-it done with iphones EVERY DAY.

No matter if they paid for it or if it was stolen from Instagram, Flickr, WeChat, FB, Twitter, photo editors now like this sh-it and nobody seem to complain especially their readers.

Actually we're even seeing iphone stuff coming from the frontlines in Sirya, Lybia, and Afghanistan and the recent clashes in Bangkok.

I'm horrified by this trend but it can't be stopped.

they wont die, at least not in next 1-2 years. If they had to then it would already have died long before when were paying 70% and then 60%. But they continued to survive paying highest commission with out requiring exclusivity even during economical crisis was at peak and most of the well established sites had reduced commission to 15-30%. I cant say they cant reduce commission to further but i am sure they will "not" die. Btw i also sell very few but at the end of month my income surpass other micro sites reaching to 3 digit income and that too for my small portfolio of about 700 images and many of them are unreleased images

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #8 on:** December 06, 2013, 09:53 »

At least there is an excuse for using mobile phone cameras in places like Libya, where news crews are at high risk, what really disgusts me is that they seem to regard the reporter's phone as standard video equipment in places were there would be no difficulty in getting a proper camera in place. Sky News's storm coverage in the UK yesterday seemed to depend heavily on phone cams that kept breaking up. Of course, the Finance Director will be overwhelmed with joy at discovering there is no real need for TV cameras/crews any more and I shouldn't think a few viewers' complaints will weigh heavily in the balance.

Ron · « **Reply #9 on:** December 06, 2013, 09:55 »

Quote from: gemmy12 on December 05, 2013, 00:17

Quote from: Hobostocker on December 04, 2013, 23:39
I know very well where Alamy is heading : they will finally give up and start selling RM at 5-10$ flat rate and they will launch monthly subscriptions and eventually they will switch the RM images to "editorial RF".

Their CEO has been very clear about what's going on, their clients wants cheaper photos and are sick of the RM model altogether so they'll either adapt or die.

How long will it take ? 1 year ? 2 year ? we will see but i've the feeling this is unavoidable.
We must accept that for buyers RM is more and more perceived as pain in the A-ss and they can't justify the prices considering the gazillions of decent RF micro alternatives.

On top of this, iphone-quality cr-ap is now earning lots of supporters in the publishing industry.
As much as we're disgusted at the idea this is already happening and it will be the soon the norm, i'm already seeing newspapers and magazines using sh-it done with iphones EVERY DAY.

No matter if they paid for it or if it was stolen from Instagram, Flickr, WeChat, FB, Twitter, photo editors now like this sh-it and nobody seem to complain especially their readers.

Actually we're even seeing iphone stuff coming from the frontlines in Sirya, Lybia, and Afghanistan and the recent clashes in Bangkok.

I'm horrified by this trend but it can't be stopped.
they wont die, at least not in next 1-2 years. If they had to then it would already have died long before when were paying 70% and then 60%. But they continued to survive paying highest commission with out requiring exclusivity even during economical crisis was at peak and most of the well established sites had reduced commission to 15-30%. I cant say they cant reduce commission to further but i am sure they will "not" die. Btw i also sell very few but at the end of month my income surpass other micro sites reaching to 3 digit income and that too for my small portfolio of about 700 images and many of them are unreleased images

he didnt say Alamy will die, but RM will die. That was his whole point.

gemmy12 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 06, 2013, 11:26 »

Quote from: Ron on December 06, 2013, 09:55

Quote from: gemmy12 on December 05, 2013, 00:17
Quote from: Hobostocker on December 04, 2013, 23:39
I know very well where Alamy is heading : they will finally give up and start selling RM at 5-10$ flat rate and they will launch monthly subscriptions and eventually they will switch the RM images to "editorial RF".

Their CEO has been very clear about what's going on, their clients wants cheaper photos and are sick of the RM model altogether so they'll either adapt or die.

How long will it take ? 1 year ? 2 year ? we will see but i've the feeling this is unavoidable.
We must accept that for buyers RM is more and more perceived as pain in the A-ss and they can't justify the prices considering the gazillions of decent RF micro alternatives.

On top of this, iphone-quality cr-ap is now earning lots of supporters in the publishing industry.
As much as we're disgusted at the idea this is already happening and it will be the soon the norm, i'm already seeing newspapers and magazines using sh-it done with iphones EVERY DAY.

No matter if they paid for it or if it was stolen from Instagram, Flickr, WeChat, FB, Twitter, photo editors now like this sh-it and nobody seem to complain especially their readers.

Actually we're even seeing iphone stuff coming from the frontlines in Sirya, Lybia, and Afghanistan and the recent clashes in Bangkok.

I'm horrified by this trend but it can't be stopped.
they wont die, at least not in next 1-2 years. If they had to then it would already have died long before when were paying 70% and then 60%. But they continued to survive paying highest commission with out requiring exclusivity even during economical crisis was at peak and most of the well established sites had reduced commission to 15-30%. I cant say they cant reduce commission to further but i am sure they will "not" die. Btw i also sell very few but at the end of month my income surpass other micro sites reaching to 3 digit income and that too for my small portfolio of about 700 images and many of them are unreleased images
he didnt say Alamy will die, but RM will die. That was his whole point.

Ron ! I think by saying "They" he meant Alamy. what i understood-

Quote from: Hobostocker on December 04, 2013, 23:39

I know very well where Alamy is heading : they will finally give up and start selling RM at 5-10$ flat rate and they will launch monthly subscriptions and eventually they will switch the RM images to "editorial RF".

Their CEO (whose- Alamy's) has been very clear about what's going on, their clients (whose client's- Alamy's)wants cheaper photos and are sick of the RM model altogether so they'll (who- Alamy, not RM modelS) either adapt or die.

How long will it take ? 1 year ? 2 year ? we will see but i've the feeling this is unavoidable.
We must accept that for buyers RM is more and more perceived as pain in the A-ss and they can't justify the prices considering the gazillions of decent RF micro alternatives.

On top of this, iphone-quality cr-ap is now earning lots of supporters in the publishing industry.
As much as we're disgusted at the idea this is already happening and it will be the soon the norm, i'm already seeing newspapers and magazines using sh-it done with iphones EVERY DAY.

No matter if they paid for it or if it was stolen from Instagram, Flickr, WeChat, FB, Twitter, photo editors now like this sh-it and nobody seem to complain especially their readers.

Actually we're even seeing iphone stuff coming from the frontlines in Sirya, Lybia, and Afghanistan and the recent clashes in Bangkok.

I'm horrified by this trend but it can't be stopped.

bunhill · « **Reply #11 on:** December 06, 2013, 11:30 »

Quote from: Ron on December 06, 2013, 09:55

he didnt say Alamy will die, but RM will die

Tiered self service RM from a small menu of choices is potentially just as easy for the customer as RF. With a short single use being the least expensive and unlimited use in perpetuity presumably being the most expensive. An RM licence can potentially afford the customer similar rights as RF (unlimited use in perpetuity etc) - if they really need all that. Though the majority of Alamy customers probably do not need those sorts of extensive rights.

My impression is that Alamy customers are mostly looking for often quite obscure editorial content. I doubt that many of them need it to be RF. Quite different from designers looking for subscription content which they can buy once and then potentially repeatedly recycle for different customers.

There has definitely been a downward pressure on prices. But, apart from product shots, most editorial does not sell in any great volume (either at Alamy or at the microstocks). In that sense it is often not cost effective to sell at microstock prices. And none of the microstock sites are ever likely to have the range of obscure editorial content which Alamy offers. A range of flexible pricing according to the rights makes editorial potentially more sustainable. If Alamy went to microstock pricing there would be no reason to upload the sort of content which they mostly sell because the volume would be too small.

It surprises me when I hear people complaining that their microstock RF content does not perform nearly so well at Alamy as at a microstock subscription site. Of course it doesn't. Alamy has completely different customers and a completely different model.

I think a thing to remember is that Alamy is probably not under any pressure to show growth. They just have to pay the wages and not lose money. It's not a race.

lisafx · « **Reply #12 on:** December 06, 2013, 12:47 »

There is sure a diversity of opinions on RM. I've been reading for the past year or two here from some that RM is where the money is and where the customers are migrating to after becoming disgusted with RF microstock. Now I'm reading the opposite, and apparently the demise of RM is just around the corner.

Could the truth be somewhere in between?

Ed · « **Reply #13 on:** December 06, 2013, 17:30 »

According to the people that I've talked to at various RM agencies, and various opinions coming from sources including Photoshelter, CEPIC, APA, etc. RM is not going away anytime soon. It serves a purpose. As bunhill says, you can get essentially the same image rights in RM as you do RF.

One of the "Ask James" segments indicated the sales to the Huffington Post have dropped off because they have spent the year going through and updating their own internal image library - and they are sourcing images internally as opposed to licensing from Alamy.

My Alamy revenue (cash in hand) in 2013 is up 30% from 2012. My portfolio size increased (so far) by 57% during that same period. I shoot primarily unreleased editorial so my results are going to be very different than those that primarily shoot released or RF type images.

heywoody · « **Reply #14 on:** December 06, 2013, 17:55 »

The advice over there seems to be "if you don't have at least 5K images, forget it". I've had a look at some of the big ports and get the distinct impression of folks wandering around randomly pointing a camera at stuff - is this a very unfair impression?

pancaketom · « **Reply #15 on:** December 06, 2013, 18:08 »

Quote from: heywoody on December 06, 2013, 17:55

The advice over there seems to be "if you don't have at least 5K images, forget it". I've had a look at some of the big ports and get the distinct impression of folks wandering around randomly pointing a camera at stuff - is this a very unfair impression?

It certainly seems like that is what some people there do. It certainly would be easier to amass a large port that way, but unless you keyworded in blocks - which would probably make for poor search results - the keywording would be really painful.

Oct I had 0 sales there, 3 in Nov, this month 2 so far. My average take has slowly dropped there to probably close to 20$ per sale. Still, they are often in my top 2 to 4 sites.

My guess is that long range the sales amounts continue to go down and the number of sales drop too, but it will be a long slide with occasional big sales and nice months.

grapegeek · « **Reply #16 on:** December 06, 2013, 18:20 »

I've had a small portfolio on Alamy for several years an only have had a couple of sales. When I got into them I was on Yahoo group that was focused on Alamy and when people would post their portfolios I would check them out and it was crazy what some of these guys had up there. To me it seemed like many thousands of random shots of England. The only guys that did good where focused and had a unique vision. I stopped uploading there years ago...

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #17 on:** December 06, 2013, 18:21 »

No that's not unfair. Some people do that. I don't know about the "how many images" theories, which are still around for MicroStock as well. It's not a number it's what are you presenting.

The people who shoot like nuts, everything and anything, might need 5,000 to make a good selection and variety. People who specialize and shoot top notch images, won't need thousands, maybe hundreds will do.

Quote from: heywoody on December 06, 2013, 17:55

The advice over there seems to be "if you don't have at least 5K images, forget it". I've had a look at some of the big ports and get the distinct impression of folks wandering around randomly pointing a camera at stuff - is this a very unfair impression?

Yes Lisa you are correct again. Depending on who's talking, they will be an advocate of what they believe is true, when I don't see any absolute direction. It depends on what and who and where, and what the buyer needs, not something as simple as license vs license.

Quote from: lisafx on December 06, 2013, 12:47

There is sure a diversity of opinions on RM. I've been reading for the past year or two here from some that RM is where the money is and where the customers are migrating to after becoming disgusted with RF microstock. Now I'm reading the opposite, and apparently the demise of RM is just around the corner.

Could the truth be somewhere in between?

Alamy is not a MicroStock site, and the customers can find the same images for a few bucks elsewhere. I don't know why some people expect the same shots to make more money, just because they are on Alamy. Unless those same people assume the buyers are total idiots and don't know, that there are 1000 microstock agencies, with pretty much all the same images, from all the same people.

It's the shots that are different that get DLs from Alamy and these are of limited or special use. So low volume, low demand. I think the best answer for what to expect from Alamy is this:

Quote from: leaf on December 04, 2013, 06:05

Alamy is very hit and miss.

ShadySue · « **Reply #18 on:** December 06, 2013, 21:21 »

Ooooh, Thursday I got 2 unrelated dls at Alamy, whoopee, and of course yesterday I got a refund from November, more than wiping out the value of one of Thursday's dls.
You win some, you lose some. $:-\$

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #19 on:** December 07, 2013, 08:08 »

Quote from: heywoody on December 06, 2013, 17:55

The advice over there seems to be "if you don't have at least 5K images, forget it". I've had a look at some of the big ports and get the distinct impression of folks wandering around randomly pointing a camera at stuff - is this a very unfair impression?

Obviously different people approach things differently but I was quite shocked with the portfolio of one of the largest contributors there when I looked at it a few years back. He seems to fly round the world snapping everything and then uploading it with some vague keywords. It allowed him to process something like 10,000 images a year (yes, that's about 30 a day, it would kill me!) and become one of the biggest earners but his RPI was very low.

Alamy's approach allows you to do that sort of thing. If you've got what it takes to do it (without going mad) and it brings you a living wage it is a valid strategy = though I should think it leaves you very vulnerable to an influx of better material.

That said, I've got about 4,000 there and its in third place for my agencies (it would probably be fourth if I had Fotolia) so it is significant.

ShadySue · « **Reply #20 on:** December 07, 2013, 08:23 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 07, 2013, 08:08

Obviously different people approach things differently but I was quite shocked with the portfolio of one of the largest contributors there when I looked at it a few years back. He seems to fly round the world snapping everything and then uploading it with some vague keywords. It allowed him to process something like 10,000 images a year (yes, that's about 30 a day, it would kill me!) and become one of the biggest earners but his RPI was very low.

He's an interesting case, as he also spends time on the forums. I suspect that's all he does, and has no 'normal' living expenses. I guess it's a lifestyle choice.

The 'vague keywords' are noticeable and interesting. Until I looked, I couldn't work out how he could research his images and keyword so many daily in Alamy's 'system'. Even disregarding the feeling of dread I have if I have even ten images in a batch to 'manage', and somehow dribble it over a day, I wondered how he could manage to research his photos in such tight timeframe, and it seems, in general, that he doesn't. I have some secondary editorial shots on my HD waiting until I can find out some more details about them (i.e. I've tried, unsuccessfully). I guess that's not a consideration for the said contributor. Even his description seems to be a mass of keywords, with the last word often truncated.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #21 on:** December 07, 2013, 14:20 »

They took several days to approve my last batches so I found myself facing 119 that all needed finished at once. It really is awful, as bad as wading through the sections on Deep Meta and trying to organise everything.

ShadySue · « **Reply #22 on:** December 07, 2013, 15:26 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 07, 2013, 14:20

They took several days to approve my last batches so I found myself facing 119 that all needed finished at once. It really is awful, as bad as wading through the sections on Deep Meta and trying to organise everything.

Oh, that would be far to daunting for me to consider. I don't upload a batch nowadays unless the previous batch is through, unless it's news (which is very seldom).

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #23 on:** December 07, 2013, 17:08 »

I really can't let Alamy's upload system limit my production, so when I'm in a productive frame of mind I just have to cope with it. I've had too much time off this year for one reason or another so I'm trying to make up for it a bit. I cleared the last pile yesterday and I already have another 25 pending and plans to push up another 10 or 15 tomorrow.

Ed · « **Reply #24 on:** December 07, 2013, 18:40 »

The person you mention is not the only one to take this approach - and it's not unique to Alamy....

Quote

Over the next year he took 30,000 pictures. “I would shoot everything I could find–breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’d shoot my friends and make them sign model releases,” he says. “It turned out it was really easy to create commercial stock footage.” Eventually he hired a photo director to organize shoots and hired models at $100 per day through Craigslist to fill boardrooms, hold fake picnics in Central Park or pose with a newspaper and a mug of coffee.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2013/10/09/silicon-alleys-first-billionaire-aims-to-dominate-images-on-web/

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 07, 2013, 08:08

Quote from: heywoody on December 06, 2013, 17:55
The advice over there seems to be "if you don't have at least 5K images, forget it". I've had a look at some of the big ports and get the distinct impression of folks wandering around randomly pointing a camera at stuff - is this a very unfair impression?

Obviously different people approach things differently but I was quite shocked with the portfolio of one of the largest contributors there when I looked at it a few years back. He seems to fly round the world snapping everything and then uploading it with some vague keywords. It allowed him to process something like 10,000 images a year (yes, that's about 30 a day, it would kill me!) and become one of the biggest earners but his RPI was very low.

Alamy's approach allows you to do that sort of thing. If you've got what it takes to do it (without going mad) and it brings you a living wage it is a valid strategy = though I should think it leaves you very vulnerable to an influx of better material.

That said, I've got about 4,000 there and its in third place for my agencies (it would probably be fourth if I had Fotolia) so it is significant.

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Author Topic: Poor sales on Alamy (Read 9500 times)

Fletch

leaf

cidepix

Mantis

ShadySue

ShadySue

Hobostocker

gemmy12

BaldricksTrousers

Ron

gemmy12

bunhill

lisafx

Ed

heywoody

pancaketom

grapegeek

Uncle Pete

ShadySue

BaldricksTrousers

ShadySue

BaldricksTrousers

ShadySue

BaldricksTrousers

Ed

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