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Microstock Photography Forum - General => Newbie Discussion => Topic started by: lefty on August 27, 2010, 18:22

Title: Alamy editorial or micro RF ?
Post by: lefty on August 27, 2010, 18:22
I have some photos that can be both royalty free microstock or editorial.
For rf I only make it generic with cloning off logos etc and by historical past
I sell some for 25 cents with micro stock.
But I read here that Alamy is good potential for editorials.
I am asking you, if you have option to present image as is for editorial restriction
usage with Alamy 26 MB size  with no time wasted for cloning off logo, brand on boxes,etc..
and you can also submit smaller size 6MP , 4MP for micro stock rf.
Which one will you choose.
micro stock you know you can make 25 cents and sure to at least make say $5, $10
total. Alamy, you know it is one time in a blue moon chance, but one download will bring a lot of money, esp since editorial sell best for Alamy.

Do you choose Alamy or the more sure thing of microstock?
My approval with Alamy is 100% .But of course, not many of my work was 48 MB,
so I do not have many. But now 24MB it is possible I can increase upload.
Title: Re: Alamy editorial or micro RF ?
Post by: PeterChigmaroff on August 27, 2010, 18:35
You might make a few bucks in micro and nothing from Alamy. If you get a sale or two off Alamy you'd likely easily beat anything you make in micro. I think I would take my chances at Alamy for editorial type images. The return from micro is so low as to amount to nothing.
Title: Re: Alamy editorial or micro RF ?
Post by: lefty on August 27, 2010, 18:59
You might make a few bucks in micro and nothing from Alamy. If you get a sale or two off Alamy you'd likely easily beat anything you make in micro. I think I would take my chances at Alamy for editorial type images. The return from micro is so low as to amount to nothing.

Thank you for rapid response Zeus. Much appreciation for your idea.
I think I want to experiment after studying Alamy and personal communications with some people who do well with Alamy. They too say to not intermingle micro images with Alamy because buyers don't look for micro type in Alamy.
And evidence is in the popular images very different.

Also, some pictures I give to micro are almost wasted there which I see similar style in Alamy which are
said to be placed high in search. So I am thinking of doing more homework and separate contribution to Alamy for the rest of year.   
Like you say, micro is so low it amount to nothing, except for Shutterstock due to volume download .
I can do with two separate portfolio, one for Alamy, one for Shutterstock.

What do you think? A good idea to try?
Title: Re: Alamy editorial or micro RF ?
Post by: sharpshot on August 28, 2010, 02:02
I have a separate RM portfolio with alamy.  I am think those images have made more than they would on the micros but you need patience.  Some people upload there, give them 6 months and then leave.  You need to upload and forget about it, then one day you might make a nice sale.  Give them at least 3 years.
Title: Re: Alamy editorial or micro RF ?
Post by: ShadySue on August 28, 2010, 02:28
micro stock you know you can make 25 cents and sure to at least make say $5, $10
total. Alamy, you know it is one time in a blue moon chance, but one download will bring a lot of money, esp since editorial sell best for Alamy.
Do you choose Alamy or the more sure thing of microstock?
My approval with Alamy is 100% .But of course, not many of my work was 48 MB,
so I do not have many. But now 24MB it is possible I can increase upload.
Be aware that a lot of Alamy editorial photos are sold to newspapers or educational publishers, who both get big discounts off the prices you see on the pages.
Yes, you can get big sales (so I'm told!), but  you can also get surprisingly small returns for sales. Remember also that your 60% is only if an image is sold directly by Alamy. If sold by a distributor, they get their cut too.
However, I didn't upload one photo to iStock in August but sent many to Alamy. Each has their place, and I much prefer 'real' photos to set-ups or those with reality cloned out. The difficulty is knowing what to place where. Of my measly six sales, four were scenics,  no MR or PR needed, but hard to know how they'd have done on iStock. One definitely could not have gone micro and one was marginal for possibly identifiable tiny fuzzy people - but that last one would probably never have sold on Micro (a very specific developing world, non-touristy location).
Good luck!
Title: Re: Alamy editorial or micro RF ?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on August 28, 2010, 03:03
It doesn't sound like your image is editorial at all to me. It sounds like an advertising photo that you don't want to spend time cleaning up.

What kind of news or feature story would a newspaper editor grab your photo for? If you can't think of one then there is no point in sending it anywhere as editorial because it simply won't sell, the same as 95% of the other photos on Alamy.

You don't send one photo to Alamy expecting it to sell. You send 1,000 photos expecting that at least 950 of them will never sell and hoping that the 50 that do sell within a few years will go for a decent price (not for 24c as "novel use").
Title: Re: Alamy editorial or micro RF ?
Post by: lefty on August 28, 2010, 10:04
Many thanks sharpshot, SSue, BT. All very useful information.
BT, the pictures are both possible editorial or commercial because like Sue , travel, tourism , which I have both with people and others without people.
I am thinking who would take more? Ads for travel brochure or newsprint for travel?

Sharpshot, Shadysue and Baldrickstrousers,
if I have to give 1,000 photos to Alamy , I am sure 1,000 photos with Shutterstock will earn me more money because Shutterstock has bigger sale base market corner.

My friends and I have tiny portfolios with Shutterstock and already we four are earning more money individually than we had with previously 20 other sites from Istock down to agency xxx. You know what I mean.

ShadySue, lastly, thank you for pointing out the illusion that Alamy mean only big commission. I did have no idea that there is other distributorship to wittle down
big commission from Alamy.

So, still based on what I see in my wallet now, and compare to moon dreams of visual vapour big money and bigger commissions, I am still better to stay with Shutterstock,
right?
Title: Re: Alamy editorial or micro RF ?
Post by: PeterChigmaroff on August 28, 2010, 10:49
I guess I look at what I make on average for images on micro and don't much like what I see. I've done a couple of mainstream shoots i.e. models in business situations and they do okay in micro. But any that are a bit unusual just don't sell well enough in micro to bother. Like I said it may make a few dollars but in reality a few dollars is as good as nothing. Also it is NOT true that buyers don't search micro type images on Alamy. I just sold a very simple shot of a hand and paint roller against white for about $40. Very micro in composition except it probably had some technical flaw that would have had it rejected from micro. I absolutely hate micro for their pixel arrogance. Micro photogs were riding a wave a couple of years ago enjoying their lofty position not noticing that the beach was coming up. From the many "are sales slowing down" posts I see here I would say they too have a storm to weather. I think any stock photographer has  got his work cut out for him these days.
Title: Re: Alamy editorial or micro RF ?
Post by: ShadySue on August 28, 2010, 13:30

ShadySue, lastly, thank you for pointing out the illusion that Alamy mean only big commission. I did have no idea that there is other distributorship to wittle downbig commission from Alamy.

So, still based on what I see in my wallet now, and compare to moon dreams of visual vapour big money and bigger commissions, I am still better to stay with Shutterstock,
right?

Not necessarily. (Though to be fair, I can't speak for Shutterstock). I've discovered that on iStock, it's all very well having the only pic of something in the whole collection, and probably on the whole of micro, but if it's not a subject the buyers want (e.g. less usual wildlife) you'll only sell very few, if any, licenses.
Then on Alamy, it's far more difficult to get the only shot of something. Even less usual species from less usual places seem to be well covered on Alamy!
Anyway, here is the information about the Distribution scheme: http://www.alamy.com/distribution-terms.asp (http://www.alamy.com/distribution-terms.asp) (note you can opt out of this; only you can decide if you think 40% is better than 0).
Here is the information about the newspaper scheme: http://www.alamy.com/editorialuse.aspx (http://www.alamy.com/editorialuse.aspx) (again, you can opt out, if you decide that "average prices maybe lower than previously attained" is better than 0.)
And finally, here's the Novel Use info: http://www.alamy.com/noveluse.aspx (http://www.alamy.com/noveluse.aspx). You can opt out of this. It seems that as an iStock exclusive, I must opt out of NU, but from what I'm reading, it's no great loss. However, some interesting information came out with a very recent forum thread about NU, which would be worth reading before making up your mind.
PS: I'm glad I decided to post these links. I discovered that since I changed my email address registered with them earlier in the week, I wasn't shown as opted out of NU. (Nor was I shown as opted in, so I'm hopefully OK!) Now done.