of all the sites I am submitting Alamy is by far the worst..

I understand that everybody will have different results, but really? that much different?

and I am not on pond5 but is it really better than CanStockPhoto, bs and envato? because if it is, then it's really worth it..

Quote from: cidepix on May 01, 2014, 14:27
of all the sites I am submitting Alamy is by far the worst..

I understand that everybody will have different results, but really? that much different?

and I am not on pond5 but is it really better than CanStockPhoto, bs and envato? because if it is, then it's really worth it..

Thing with Alamy is when you get a sale it's usually for a decent amount.

Had a single Alamy sale in April and it beat Fotolia, Dreamstime, 123RF and all the others

Alamy sucks - and that my friends - is entirely my own opinion.

YMMV

I am selling there one or two images per month... But all amounts less than 10$...

I sell every now and then but the so called "Quality Control" is a total joke. In the past they let everything just through, nowadays it happens more and more that a whole series of Batches is stuck for a month and then rejected because one image was bad....very unprofessional.

Alamy was my 2cd best earner last year.     April this year = 0 In general sales numbers have been fairly steady but $ amounts have been falling.

Yes Tror, that is how submissions work there - they check one image. If it is bad they all fail and if it is good they are all in.

I think P5 is boosted by good video sales.

For me, Alamy is fourth (but I don't have Fotolia).

It depends on the portfolios.

Last month Alamy was our best agency and we got a total of 14 sales and the average was on the tenths of dollars.

And we didn't even voted on the pole.

I don't put my lowish Alamy sales into the poll, as although I'm RM there, reporting my Alamy sales switches me to non-exclusive at iS. Don't know how many are in the same position, and how much that skews the poll.
It might be interesting for some if we could have RM and RF at Alamy reported separately - but that probably would be a pain to separate out for those with good sales there.

To compare earnings from agencies with completely different prices and sales patterns, like for example SS and Alamy, I simple calculate my RPD - which in this case is "return per day" or simply "lifetime earnings on this site" divided by "number of days at this site". For me this nicely evens out all seasonal changes, provided I've been with a site long enough.

To answer the question, Alamy is on 6th place (head to head with FT) for me, but still way ahead of Bigstock or Canstockphoto - not to speak of Veer  As I had my personal D-day at FT last July, I guess Alamy will make it into 5th place some time this year 

Tror,

Alamy actually regard their contributors as professionals capable of assessing their own images and therefore only assess a sample and punishing them if contributors don't do their QC properly but delaying the rejection. Different but certainly not unprofessional.

Quote from: Tror on May 01, 2014, 15:36
I sell every now and then but the so called "Quality Control" is a total joke. In the past they let everything just through, nowadays it happens more and more that a whole series of Batches is stuck for a month and then rejected because one image was bad....very unprofessional.

I haven't had a rejection for about three years. If you get it right, you don't get hit with a heap of rejections. Their QC is far more relaxed than that of the leading micros.

I never had a QC fail. But I closed my account for the non existence of sales and the highly annoying waiting period to get paid, sometimes over 6 months.

I see no reason to dislike Alamy. When we are discussing which agencies we like and which we dislike - it often comes down to the question whether the agency pays a fair royalty to the contributor.

I have had $ 455 USD sales on Alamy.com with a $ 227 USD royalty for me. That's for the same image Fotolia tries to sell on DPC for $ 1 USD with a royalty of 0.29 USD to me.

So I would have to make 782 DPC sales to match the royalty i received from 1 sale on Alamy.com.

THAT makes it worthwhile for me to be on Alamy.

Shutterstock sells for pennies but they outsold Alamy by a mile and then some. My RPI on Shutterstock was 3 times higher then the RPI on Alamy.

I guess its what you sell images you sell.

Alamy is my 2nd best with an average of 8 sales a month average sale nets around $75.00. Wait for payment is about 45 days. I love that stock agency.

Alamy is #2 or 3 depending on the month.  But I have a completely different portfolio there.  I tried uploading my rf portfolio there and it just did not sell.  Took the time to study what they were selling and it made a big difference.  The rf stuff is still there but no sales.  The RM portfolio does OK and is growing.

From the beginning of 2014 Alamy is my second best earner, after Shutterstock.

Alamy is a smaller agency but at least they treat their contributors as pros. Also they expect we do the QC like pros ourself and they do only some sampling for each submitted batch.
They sell in a different market mostly at other price levels and a fair  50% (usually) goes to the contributor.
Wish there were more agencies like this where I could sell my local (Belgium, French, Dutch) pictures.

That ranking is in line with my sales. In fact my monthly average with Alamy puts them in 4th place.

Quote from: jatrax on May 02, 2014, 06:20
Alamy is #2 or 3 depending on the month.  But I have a completely different portfolio there.  I tried uploading my rf portfolio there and it just did not sell.  Took the time to study what they were selling and it made a big difference.  The rf stuff is still there but no sales.  The RM portfolio does OK and is growing.

I figured it must be that..

I have no RM on alamy..

RF used to be good though.. it's only this past year that it all went downhill..

(was never my no:6 though)

Quote from: cidepix on May 02, 2014, 14:32

Quote from: jatrax on May 02, 2014, 06:20
Alamy is #2 or 3 depending on the month.  But I have a completely different portfolio there.  I tried uploading my rf portfolio there and it just did not sell.  Took the time to study what they were selling and it made a big difference.  The rf stuff is still there but no sales.  The RM portfolio does OK and is growing.

I figured it must be that..

I have no RM on alamy..

RF used to be good though.. it's only this past year that it all went downhill..

(was never my no:6 though)

I would agree with this wholeheartedly.  My income has been cut in half for some reason.  Most of the big sales are non existent now, with a very occasional $125-$150 sales. And that's only good if it isn't a stinking distributor sale.

.

Quote from: tickstock on May 02, 2014, 14:55

Quote from: Mantis on May 02, 2014, 14:43
I would agree with this wholeheartedly.  My income has been cut in half for some reason.  Most of the big sales are non existent now, with a very occasional $125-$150 sales. And that's only good if it isn't a stinking distributor sale.

What's your best guess as to why this is happening?  I know a lot of people put the same files on Alamy for $150 that they have on the sub sites.  What happens if a buyer wants two of your images from Alamy for $300 and finds out he can get 750 images including those two images for less?   I think it would be hard to pass up a buy 2 get 748 free deal.

Well, I believe that they are having a tough time competing with MS.  Most of my sales are $20-$30 now with some at $5-$6.  I believe that the overall effect of micro stock is forcing Alamy to change their pricing so that single image sales are in line with what a customer would pay for an on demand file in micro stock.  Something along these lines.  And they have also cut commissions two or three times.

Regarding the QC: I haven`t had rejections for manymany years and suddenly it started. Quality of my images is not perfect - there is always room for improvement - but in general has risen due to prime lenses and 36mp. I have no idea what changed...so please don`t be too fast with your judgement. It is easy to be laid back if you are not in the situation.