Seeing a few people post about their 'biggest' sale on alamy got me wondering...

I'm curious - for people making sales on Alamy,
a) How many photos do you have?
b) How consistently do you make sales? (I.e., 1x/month? 10x/month, etc?)
c) Are you finding editorial is what is selling?

Not that I have that much there - I think I have a couple hundred - but never have made a sale there so didn't continue uploading there... But reading about some of the "big" sales some people had (i.e., several hundred to several thousand for a single images) sounds a little inspiring...

Thanks!

Quote from: SuperPhoto on October 31, 2024, 17:12
Seeing a few people post about their 'biggest' sale on alamy got me wondering...

I'm curious - for people making sales on Alamy,
a) How many photos do you have?
b) How consistently do you make sales? (I.e., 1x/month? 10x/month, etc?)
c) Are you finding editorial is what is selling?

Not that I have that much there - I think I have a couple hundred - but never have made a sale there so didn't continue uploading there... But reading about some of the "big" sales some people had (i.e., several hundred to several thousand for a single images) sounds a little inspiring...

Thanks!

2024 so far /October/ :
1. 4 796
2. 18 sales so far in 2024
3. 17 editorial 1 commercial /celebrities, event, landmark/

2023
1. less than 4 796
2. 30 sales in 20243
3. 28 editorial 2 commercial /celebrities, event, landmark, food, animal/

Alamy ist in 2024 bei mir komplett abgestürzt:

2023: 119 Verkäufe bei ca. 28.000 Bildern
2024:  4 Verkäufe bei ca. 31.000 Bildern
Die Views sind in 2024 auf 10% meines 2023 Wertes gefallen, innerhalb von einer Woche ging das massiv nach unten.

Sorry for posting in german at first ...

Alamy completely crashed for me in 2024:

2023: 119 sales with approx. 28,000 images
2024: 4 sales with approx. 31,000 images
The views in 2024 dropped to 10% of my 2023 value, within one week this went down massively.

Quote from: JustAnImage on October 31, 2024, 23:28
Alamy ist in 2024 bei mir komplett abgestürzt:

2023: 119 Verkäufe bei ca. 28.000 Bildern
2024:  4 Verkäufe bei ca. 31.000 Bildern
Die Views sind in 2024 auf 10% meines 2023 Wertes gefallen, innerhalb von einer Woche ging das massiv nach unten.

That is strange.  Worth investigating.  Even in these market conditions, with 31,000 images you should be making several hundred dollars a month.

Since 2022 my Alamy took big nosedive.   Around 2500 images.   2022 40 sales,  2023 24 sales, this year only 9 sales as of Nov 1.
CTR downslide too, although there are way too many bugs with that tool to be relevant.

I don't do very well there, but my port is relatively small, and I don't do Live News. I did get a $54.60 net infringement fee in October.
I'm in a little Alamy Social Group, and those in the group who do Live News do well.
Also, check out the monthly sales thread over on the Alamy forum. These are self-reported, but assuming the people are honest, you can see what they made and the size of their port. Most people there quote gross $$, unless they specifically say otherwise.
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/18098-how-was-your-october-2024/#comment-371008

Alamy is completely unsuitable for monthly statistics. In October I had 48 downloads, in summer I went almost 8 weeks without.

The overall development at Alamy looks like this for me, almost all sales are editorials.:

The meaning for sales of this ominous CTR with this curve to me personally is pretty unclear.

Quote from: Reimar on November 01, 2024, 19:49
That is strange.  Worth investigating.  Even in these market conditions, with 31,000 images you should be making several hundred dollars a month.

I absolutely agree with you and I don't understand how it came about.
One observation I made... I normally had about 4,500 views per month and a number of zooms.
These views dropped from one day to the next to about 400 views per month - I don't know why, but if you suddenly only have 9% of your previous views, hardly anyone buys anything.

Presumably Alamy also uses some algorithm to ensure that you appear in searches or not - and I was probably simply "downgraded".
I can't think of any other explanation, but if anyone has any ideas - let me know

Quote from: JustAnImage on November 01, 2024, 23:33

Quote from: Reimar on November 01, 2024, 19:49
That is strange.  Worth investigating.  Even in these market conditions, with 31,000 images you should be making several hundred dollars a month.

I absolutely agree with you and I don't understand how it came about.
One observation I made... I normally had about 4,500 views per month and a number of zooms.
These views dropped from one day to the next to about 400 views per month - I don't know why, but if you suddenly only have 9% of your previous views, hardly anyone buys anything.

Presumably Alamy also uses some algorithm to ensure that you appear in searches or not - and I was probably simply "downgraded".
I can't think of any other explanation, but if anyone has any ideas - let me know

I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.

Quote from: Reimar on November 02, 2024, 15:34

Quote from: JustAnImage on November 01, 2024, 23:33

Quote from: Reimar on November 01, 2024, 19:49
That is strange.  Worth investigating.  Even in these market conditions, with 31,000 images you should be making several hundred dollars a month.

I absolutely agree with you and I don't understand how it came about.
One observation I made... I normally had about 4,500 views per month and a number of zooms.
These views dropped from one day to the next to about 400 views per month - I don't know why, but if you suddenly only have 9% of your previous views, hardly anyone buys anything.

Presumably Alamy also uses some algorithm to ensure that you appear in searches or not - and I was probably simply "downgraded".
I can't think of any other explanation, but if anyone has any ideas - let me know

I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.

True, BHZ game is entertaining, and just what you said, plain tag on an image. Everyone starts in the middle, until you have what Alamy calls a significant number of sales. I think that number might be 100, from email that they sent me long ago. The good news is, anyone who hasn't had 100 sales, will be "in the middle", of course, everyone can't be in the middle, but that's the position. Your theory of adding a Pseudo may change nothing.

The search, the whole views and all that. There are web spiders or whatever they are called, the go out and search. If I look at the report for FAA, I get all kinds of views, but few sales? But then comparing, they almost all come from the same cities, where the web searches are collecting data. Point being that, placing too much importance on views for Alamy and rank, may not be statistically valid. But click through/zooms are.

The other question for the thread is how are sales? One Alamy sale, can often equal a year or five on DT for me. One good Alamy sale can usually surpass a year on IS, for me. But the truth is, the volume is small and the sales are scattered. I'm not a good or busy or serious as many other people. Just over 3,000 images in lets say, 15 years. 8 sales in 2024 $430 x 50% = $215 which is just fine with me.

Some are junk and minimal, but now and then, one good sale, makes me happy that I have some images up there, just for the possibilities.

I never put "BHZ" or any similar identifier in tags, but sometimes I search for my images as customer would and placement is fairly consistent.   (This is btw related to often talked about "Alamy Rank",  of which CTR is one of factors but not the only one).   

Fact is, at least for me,  for whatever reason ~2 summers ago slide started and it keeps nosediving.   In Feb 2022 alone I had 8 sales which is just 1 less than entire 2024 so far.  Alamy is far more inconsistent compared to classic microstock agencies but now it's been going bit too long.   But like Uncle Pete says, there is always that hope of major sale,  QA is fast and consistent, payment threshold very reasonable so it is more than worth keep working with Alamy.   

-----------

Edit:  An hour after I posted this Alamy sale came in.  On Saturday nevertheless, which is the first for me.   Not to venture into quasi science but things work in mysterious ways we don't understand.   Nothing to get excited about,  but it's Alamy exclusive and Rights Managed Image.  So

You want mysterious. how about this one.  "30 October 2024    Other fees       Exclusivity Admin Fee/image ref-B8N48R    150.00         -135.85    Cleared" what the heck is that. For a non-exclusive image, which has never sold.

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/17201-i-was-hit-with-a-50-%E2%80%9Cexclusivity-admin%E2%80%9D-penalty-by-alamy-3-months-after-all-my-images-were-changed-to-non-exclusive/

One guess is, it's an error. Another is $50 for them chasing an infringing use, and they found my image wasn't exclusive. I need to mark everyth8ng non-exclusive which if that's one by one and trying to find them, is going to be drudgery.

Quote from: Reimar on November 02, 2024, 15:34
I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.

Thanks for the interesting idea - I'll give it a try and see what effect it has

I personally believe that I was simply pushed into an "unpopular" corner because this transition happened from one day to the next. Suddenly views and zooms were virtually non-existent.
But it doesn't hurt to try it out

Despite historically quite high sales volumes, my earnings at Alamy have pretty much stagnated in my port that is just over 16,000.

Got another one, this one ok, 2nd in first 5 days of November.  Alamy is totally unpredictable.

Quote from: zeljkok on November 05, 2024, 09:01
Got another one, this one ok, 2nd in first 5 days of November.  Alamy is totally unpredictable.

That is one of the most accurate predictions and observations on the forum. I mean 100% true. The repeats and the volume are low, but the sales are random and can be high value or some cheap web use subscription from a partner.

People need to be patient and don't get their expectations up, after getting a sale, that there might be another one soon.

Quote from: JustAnImage on November 03, 2024, 23:56

Quote from: Reimar on November 02, 2024, 15:34
I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.

Thanks for the interesting idea - I'll give it a try and see what effect it has

I personally believe that I was simply pushed into an "unpopular" corner because this transition happened from one day to the next. Suddenly views and zooms were virtually non-existent.
But it doesn't hurt to try it out

Curious minds want to know what page you landed on for BHZ? 
BTW, Alamy has been having trouble with their "Measures" off and on for a while now.  So a sudden loss of views and zooms may in part be explained by a technical glitch.  But not a sudden drop in sales.

Quote from: Reimar on November 13, 2024, 14:09

BTW, Alamy has been having trouble with their "Measures" off and on for a while now.  So a sudden loss of views and zooms may in part be explained by a technical glitch.  But not a sudden drop in sales.

I believe you are right on.  Posted Last Month Measure across Alamy is only 0.24;  that is constantly considerably above 0.50.  That tool was always buggy btw, breaks often etc.

Sales are different issue and really only one that matters.  After summer drought I have 3 in less than half of Nov (~2500 images port).  Sales will always fluctuate, but one constant is that even when you get a sale, average price is consistently trending downward.   

Number of sales in 2024 so far a third of 2023 (74). However revenues about the same. So revenue per sale up sharply. About 9000 images online.

Quote from: Reimar on November 13, 2024, 14:09

Quote from: JustAnImage on November 03, 2024, 23:56

Quote from: Reimar on November 02, 2024, 15:34
I'm going to assume you have 10 supertags for each image, and a full caption that includes most of those supertags. 
Try this:  Put "BHZ" without quotes in a regular tag of any one image (not in the caption or a supertag).  Do this for any other pseudonyms you have.  Wait a day or two for the database to update.    Search for BHZ.  What page is your image on?  If your image(s) is/are well back of halfway down the 33 pages, you're in trouble.  I would suggest moving your best images (sold or zoomed) into a new pseudonym that should land you close to the middle of the field in terms of ranking.  See if the zooms/sales of those images improve.  Also check using BHZ.

Thanks for the interesting idea - I'll give it a try and see what effect it has

I personally believe that I was simply pushed into an "unpopular" corner because this transition happened from one day to the next. Suddenly views and zooms were virtually non-existent.
But it doesn't hurt to try it out

Curious minds want to know what page you landed on for BHZ? 
BTW, Alamy has been having trouble with their "Measures" off and on for a while now.  So a sudden loss of views and zooms may in part be explained by a technical glitch.  But not a sudden drop in sales.

Everyone starts in the middle of course that's impossible as everyone can't be in the middle, but that's what Alamy told me. So someone new, might be on the start of the middle and someone older would be at the end of the middle. Or it could be the opposite? We don't know.

Page 9 image 92 "Bhz' (3,059) which assumes that everyone did that with just one tag Standard Tag only. 892?

Alamy diversity, which doesn't show all one author in a stack for any search, but instead gives (what appears) everyone, one chance, before the same author repeats.

However: depending on the tagging, your images might be higher than the same word(s)

1 - Supertag Alone
2 - Caption Only
3 - Caption and Supertag
4 - Standard Tag Only
5 - Caption and Standard Tag

That was 2022, I haven't retested since then. The idea is, for an image I wanted to force to the top of a search, which would be my own images vs my own, I could favor one over the rest, so diversity would show it first.

For a specific search, a specific name, two words, 165 results, I am #1-20-32-34-52-54-64-70 and I might have missed some. I have 10 images, all on page one.

Yes, everyone starts in the middle and stays there for awhile because they know how hard it is to get a sale on Alamy.

Re Tag importance, once again Caption is by margin the most important. Holds true for my port over and over.  Cram the most relevant words in caption, and do not repeat them as supertags as it will have no effect.  I believe we discussed this before.   

I had a strange one this month.   Sale on Nov 5,  refunded on Nov 19, then immediately sold again.   Difference:  Original  (refunded) sale was 49.99 and

84 MB
5469 x 5389 pixels
6 MB compressed
Use in a single magazine or book (print and/or digital), inside use, 2,500 circulation, worldwide (excludes advertising).

Repeat sale was 49.00 with only data

47 MB
4102 x 4042 pixels


Anyone has experience with something like this?  I am guessing this is same customer, decided to get smaller resolution for whatever reason?

Page 9 image 92 "Bhz' (3,059) which assumes that everyone did that with just one tag Standard Tag only. 892?
[/quote]

That's  a good position (ranking).  My best (of three) pseudos is the first image on page 7.  My other pseudos are further back.

Quote from: Reimar on November 20, 2024, 21:00

That's  a good position (ranking).  My best (of three) pseudos is the first image on page 7.  My other pseudos are further back.

Probably "the middle"  I didn't realize it was by Pseudo, I just picked the one with the most images and most sales. I usually have a heck of a time, finding myself, in all the BHZ images.

Quote from: zeljkok on November 20, 2024, 20:14
Yes, everyone starts in the middle and stays there for awhile because they know how hard it is to get a sale on Alamy.

Re Tag importance, once again Caption is by margin the most important. Holds true for my port over and over.  Cram the most relevant words in caption, and do not repeat them as supertags as it will have no effect.  I believe we discussed this before.   

From the email I got from Alamy I think it's 100 sales, before we get a rank of our own. I can't find the original to quote. It was from James West.

Yes, I think we did discuss Caption being most important and last test I did was 2022, using a nonsense word, so all that came up, well mostly all, was my test word. I'd have to go find all of the images and look at which ones have that word in which choices, and then look again.

Wow! Now the results are 756 images, for the test word. I guess I need a new one. I'm starting with a real word and a nonsense word so there will be less chance of accidental matches. Six files edited, now I wait for the overnight indexing.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 21, 2024, 16:45

From the email I got from Alamy I think it's 100 sales, before we get a rank of our own. I can't find the original to quote. It was from James West.

Really?  100 sales for Alamy is awfully big, if someone is just starting.  Would take 8-10 years.   My impression is that it's time limit, I believe I read on their Forum once it is first 6 months, could be wrong

Quote from: zeljkok on November 21, 2024, 18:14

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 21, 2024, 16:45

From the email I got from Alamy I think it's 100 sales, before we get a rank of our own. I can't find the original to quote. It was from James West.

Really?  100 sales for Alamy is awfully big, if someone is just starting.  Would take 8-10 years.   My impression is that it's time limit, I believe I read on their Forum once it is first 6 months, could be wrong

Could be? I got my answer from James West, personally in an email. Maybe it's either?  Yeah who gets over 100 sales, before 6 months?

It's just another one of those things that people can start to obsess over, "what's your rank"? How many images do you have? Do people walk up on FB or a forum and ask people, "How much do you make for a living?" No, but on a Microstock site, it seems to be, bragging and chest pounding.

I know we all like to say, hey I made a sale, or I reached a level or something good happened, but the endless I, Me, My, just gets boring.

When I started and the Alamy forum was fun and friendly the "What's your BHZ" came up. For anyone who tests, just keep in mind that some people have placed the BHZ in the wrong place or more than once. They will be ahead of anyone doing it right. Keyword Only

I don't understand if it works by Pseudo or my account. If what Reimar says is true (and he's been around the block and knows quite a bit) then if I have five pseudos, I have five BHZ photos and I could be five ahead of you, two up, two down or five below. I guess I'll have to do that now and see how I'm doing compared to myself. LOL 

Here's the latest, just tested yesterday: in order of appearance
Caption + Supertag
Supertag Only
Caption with one of the test words first
Caption with one of the test words last
Keyword Only

I can do that again, but for now, Caption + Supertag is first for mine.

Oh I didn't say. The second keyword is only in keywords, so if I searched for my images, I only get the real word with the nonsense word, and the nonsense word is keyword only.