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Messages - Oldhand
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251
« on: February 11, 2010, 04:46 »
Hi there
Good old 123!
I earned $75.26 in January, of which they paid $51.88 today.
Anyone has a similar problem, or is it a mysterious glitch?
This month I've earned $26, which puts me on target for the usual $65 per month.
All fun and games
Oldhand
252
« on: February 08, 2010, 10:03 »
"It's insulting selling at 0.25$ but what should i say when i make a 5$ sale for
an image printed on The Guardian sold as RM ?"
Hello there Macrosaur!
I'd be a bit annoyed, their minimum rates is around 70 for a small head shot. Then, having got over my annoyance I'd have realised I'm small fry, my picture wasn't exclusive, and their budget for pics is shot to pieces.
I can't blame them, however as yet I don't believe the Uk newspapers have taken to using lots of Macro - deals with Alamy, yes, but not large volume macro. Why not?
Rgds Oldhand
253
« on: February 05, 2010, 11:01 »
You can transfer buyer credits to IS, however contributors can not transfer earned credits. You can either request a one time payment from support at StockXpert, or leave it there and cash out with earnings from TStock which will be added.
It's as clear as mud, hence it took a lot of digging to solve the mystery of transferring credits.
Oldhand
254
« on: February 04, 2010, 15:55 »
My tuppence (2 cents) worth!
My sales at SS were always steady, without any great increases over time. My material is hugely varied, and I submitted regularly. This was my wall, the quality of my pics, subject matter and frequency of upload led to a leveling out of income, i.e my worth.
Problem here for me was SS has great potential for income. I posted several times on a different topic towards the end of last year about the amount of uploads needed to succeed in Micro, well if I've gone quiet since then, it's because production had to increase.
SS has around 10 million images, increasing at around 100,000 per week. That's a 1% growth every seven days.
I have been increasing my portfolio size by 5% per week - (currently that means uploading 100 every seven days).
My image quaility is largely the same, although subject matter more varied. The net result is I am increasing sales consistently every month by around 5%.
For me wether or not there is an invisible barrier is irrelevant ( I am sure there is not), but it can feel like one when sales don't increase. I'm no photographic genius, so my only option at present is to increase my presence on their site by more than their growth. DT has an option to let you see your percentage of their library - try it sometime.
You only have three options - more pics of a similar standard to the ones you have online, better quality pictures, or more sellable ones.
I'll keep you posted how I get on.
Oldhand
255
« on: January 28, 2010, 10:07 »
Hi again
Mine just continues going where it had stopped - it would be annoying if it restarted for me..
Oldhand
256
« on: January 28, 2010, 07:31 »
Hi Stu
For the last couple of weeks when using the Alamy uploader I get a warning message saying some uploads could be problematic as they are changing the system slightly.
"You may experience occasional problems whilst using this service. Please accept our apologies. We are currently testing an alternative solution."
If it does crash out half way through, just click upload again or retry and it will keep on going.
Rgds
Oldhand
257
« on: January 28, 2010, 06:30 »
Ditto - I've been out since the change over, and it's first time in for me today. Funnily enough, or maybe coincidence, I had to disable my autocomplete on the windows XP internet toolbar yesterday, although I have no idea if this helped at all.
Oldhand
258
« on: January 28, 2010, 06:27 »
Hi there
Last job of the day for me, I set it going very late at night, and never have a problem with batches of 25 or so. I'd try uploading at different times to see if it helps.
Oldhand
259
« on: November 19, 2009, 16:33 »
"I got sucked in by this faulty logic, and went to the trouble of uploading a couple of hundred images to Alamy (about three-quarters editorial and travel)."
Hi Danybot
Hang in with Alamy and keep uploading - I come from a macro background, and unlike micro, it took years to get some of my outlet agents to pay on a monthly basis. Starting from scratch with zero pics, it took me a year of working late every night to build a portfolio of a few thousand images which started to pay every month. Next step, I quit the day jobb (at another agency) and stated my own.
Now I had left the normal 9-5, I was working for myself an extra 40 hours a week, and could concentrate on building portfolio size.
I've never cracked Alamy, it's just another outlet. Howver, it does provide decent returns as long as I keep tightly keywording and increasing the number of images I have online. When I started my experience was all negative from a financial point ov view - patience did the trick.
Keep going with it as it is not an outlet to ignore, and is one of the only readily accesable macro agencies who would be keen to take your images.
Rgds
Oldhand
260
« on: November 16, 2009, 06:17 »
"I shot Simple Minds concert in Belgrade few days ago. I am a newspaper photographer. Is it allowed to put these pictures at Alamy, for editorial usage, of course?
Thanks!"
I'd get them straight up there - Simple Minds would be glad of any publicity! If you restrict their use to editorial, it will be fine - (in my humble experience).
I was with an agency who photographed a play once with Hutch out of the US show Starsky and Hutch in it. Not a lot of interest in the play, but as a head shot of a celeb it still sold as stock.
Anyway, time passed, and a very irate Mr. Hutch rang up asking why we were selling his pic and it was online for sale at our web site. Despite the oddness of a converation with a celebrity, we stuck to our guns, we hadn't actually signed anything or agreed to any condition - we were the press doing our job.
He backed down - case solved. Chances of being sued by Simple Minds are as little as them having a number one at Christmas.
Oldhand
261
« on: November 05, 2009, 10:02 »
Hi there
Alamy rank could be all sorts - previous number of pics sold, how long you've contributed, are you a world famous photographer, subject matter - all time views - the list could go on.
Actually my Ayers rock example is not the best one, but it does give you an idea. There are 500,000 landmark pictures, 702 "landmark ayers", 2,800 "ayers, rock", 3,100 "uluru", and 740 "ulura, landmark". You get the idea!
There are 159,000 banks - 2,400 "banks, scotland".
The Alamy search algorythmn is pretty good at sorting out results, just don't go mad the the number of keywords, essential or main. Most things will be searched and found in three or four unless it's very specific.
Oldhand
262
« on: November 05, 2009, 09:32 »
Sorry - missed the editing question.
I am mid way through changing essential and main keywords.
Take the example of Ayers Rock.
Essential, "Ayers rock", uluhru
Main - all the rest, australia, landmark etc.
Previously I'd have put in - ayers, rock, australia, uluhru, landmark
That meant it would have showed up in a search for any landmark, australian or rock climbing pic etc, etc.
Now to find the image you would have to type in "ayers rock", or uluhru (that's the aboriginal name".
My CTR has been as high as 4.25.
It's a balance between making sure people can find your pictures, and avoiding anything which means they show up in other searches.
I got paid $327 this month, with a balance of $350 due next month.
Had I the time I would be putting more time into this market.
Oldhand
263
« on: November 05, 2009, 09:23 »
Hi there
No problem I have two pseudonyms - one with 1100 - CTR 1.11, new one with 400, CTR - 2.5. Sales have come from new one with higher CTR rate. I think Alamy average them, giving me a 1.80 average.
Previously I put up a lot of "news" pics, with long captions - hence the were in effect stuffed with bad kewords for people looking for stock - my CTR was about 0.25 with no sales for a long time. I am rekeywording these images, which is adressing this problem.
With the newer pics, I edit as tight as humanly possible. "Ayers rock" is just that, not "ayers, rock, australia.". Touch wood it seems to be working, my pics come up in the first couple of pages depending how popular the subject is.
Final point - nothing special about my pics (and illustrations which sell) - simple stuff with good captions.
The 30% drop is just numbers - to the average contributor, they still present a bog opportunity, selling the vast numbers of pics they do.
Rgds
Oldhand
264
« on: November 05, 2009, 07:28 »
"Is it possible that the images that have been removed had keywords that were considered trademarks or copyrights?
For example, if you search on the keyword "BMW", there are 5 results. If you search on "Volvo", there are 77 results. Etc."
I had a map of Spain removed this week because, "Portugal is not in Spain". I checked -my keyword error as I was illustrating lots of maps at the time!
No other reason to disable an outline map, other than inappropriate keyword!
Oldhand
265
« on: November 05, 2009, 07:08 »
Hi there - with very tight editing of my portfolio, my CTR averages over 2.5. This helped lead to $600+ sales last month - best for a while. Without the editing, I'd have been sunk.
Alamy results do seem similar to the rest of the maco world - my own agency included.
Rgds
Oldhand
266
« on: November 02, 2009, 05:00 »
Hi there
Conistent rise across the board, with exception of IS - static again.
To tie in with Jonathans comments - unusually I made over $650 at Alamy last month. I am as sure as I can be it's been helped by recaptioning my portfolio, which I did a couple of months ago. I edited it very tightly, giving me a much higher score than the average alamy contributor on the ratio of views and zooms etc. Could also be that people are spending again and having pics on the first pages has led to sales.
Editorial usage in the UK - pretty hopeless, but no cause for panic yet.
Oversea sales through agents - on the rise thank goodness.
Overall - pretty encouraging if I keep putting the hours in!
Rgds
Oldhand
267
« on: September 28, 2009, 07:11 »
Hi Adeptris
My point was this was the first use I'd seen in mainstream newspapers from this latest Getty outlet - it must be starting to reap dividends for them.
Oldhand
268
« on: September 28, 2009, 05:24 »
Hi there - just a quick one..
In the UK today (28th Sept), there's a picture in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Page 25, captioned, "FickrRF/Getty". I think it's of an organic vegetable or wine glasses. Sorry I can't post the pic, scanners on the blink!
Fist time I've come across this caption, and I scan through every national UK newspaper every day.
If it had come from a macro agency they'd have paid about $70 - not sure with Flickr.
I have no pics with Flickr, but thought it might interest someone
Rgds
Oldhand
269
« on: September 28, 2009, 05:17 »
Hi there I've used Fotostation for the last ten years - it's probably more "pro" based captioning software, but worth the price. You can get a free 30 day fully useable download at www.fotoware.com. For batches of pics it's great - if anyone else uses it I'd be interested in knowing how they get on. I should be a sales rep I've plugged it that many times. It's straightwforward to use as well. Rgds Oldhand
270
« on: September 11, 2009, 09:29 »
In the case of my lion images where someone flagged the keywords "panthera" and "cat" the reviewer AGREED with the flagger and those keywords were removed and the images locked. I am unable to edit them.
DT is defending the system by stating that photographers should not be concerned with abusers of the system since a reviewer will verify the validity of the flagging. Clearly in my case this did not happen. This is where the system is flawed and subject to abuse.
Hi again To play devils advocate - the reviewer was being over zealous. Panthera Leo is the latin name for lion, but inserting panthera also means all panthers are going to show up. Cat is appropriate, but 99.99% of people who search for, "cat", don't want lions. Problem here - it's not the reviewers call - they are second guessing the search strings people will use. If you could put in double quotes, the problem would be avoided. As for the bad flaggers, some feedback from DT would be good. Oldhand
271
« on: September 11, 2009, 06:52 »
I got flagged... Silly thing...
Hi there - nothing wrong with cat as a keyword for a lion. A lion is a "big cat" - hence the derivative, "big game hunting". It's DT's fault, as they split phrases into individual words. If you typed, lion, big, cat, panthera, leo, felidae, lion - that's fine. To get around the complaint that cat is for domesticated pets type: - lion, big-cat, panthera, leo, lion, felidae, In truth, you should be praised for using the correct scientic / latin name, certainly not flagged over cat. If everyone keyword their pets as "domesticated, cat", then a search would easily eliminate lion's from being found. All fun Oldhand
272
« on: September 04, 2009, 15:36 »
My portfolio is more diverse than the insect kingdom for the record!
Oldhand
273
« on: September 04, 2009, 10:44 »
Exactly. It seems to me that most people's income flattens out after 3-5 years.
This is what I've been fearing. That this may only be a path to supplmental income.
I'm in this two years and am getting nice predictable growth. If this plateau hits after 3-5 years this would rule out stock being primary income for me. And probably for most other people too.
To play devils advocate - why should it plateau? You will probably have improved your photography in that time, so your quality will be up, you will be able to caption better and upload faster. Granted, nothing increase indefinitely, so branch out. Take up supplying Alamy - it should give you the income of a top tier micro site fairly quickly. It maybe Veer is outperforming SS in two years, Istock may be exclusives only, who knows! Approach other traditional outlets, take up graphic design - don't just assume things will stagnate. With my agency I had a good run for five years, then things got very tough. very quickly. I chanced upon micro, which has kept me in the game. I'll try and make as much as possible while there is still money here. My traditional outlets may have picked up by then, or I may I got a celebrity exclusive of a lifetime. Diversify your portfolio as much as you can - the stock market as a whole is robust, it's finding the good outlets which will always remain key. To keep on target with uploading 100 pics per week, I taught myself basic graphic design (very basic). They sold for me on micro, as a trial I sent them over to Alamy and some overseas agents. I didn't expect them to be accepted, now they have sold there as well. You sound a nice chap - be positive, aim high. Right, that's my last post for today, I've got stock for the Sunday newspapers to worry about, I've only sorted 10 pics for uploading to Micro today, and worse, it's my turn to cook the tea. Could be a late night, but in the words of the great Bruce Springsteen, "That's the price you pay" Rgds Oldhand
274
« on: September 04, 2009, 09:58 »
I quite agree quality beats quantity, however...
It's my belief as long as the quantity is of a good level, then with the various search algorithms, it all helps push the top seller pics. The better micro sites are more selective on submissions, so as long as they passed inspection, then they sell as well.
Into this equation I will add my experience with keywording pics, again vital for a good selling portfolio.
It's early days, but the competition don't have huge portfolios relative to macro agents. The top micro earners all have less than 20,000 pictures. That means I have 10% of Yuri's portfolio - although not 10% of his earnings. To get my slice of the rewards the key is to keep uploading.
It may reach a critical mass, or may just sustain a good level of income.
I'll keep you posted
Oldhand
275
« on: September 04, 2009, 08:53 »
"Exactly. It seems to me that most people's income flattens out after 3-5 years. There simply comes a point when the deterioration of your existing portfolio is matched by the increase provided by new images. At that point the only way to increase income will be to significantly increase either output or quality __ and most folk are probably already at full capacity in that regard."
Hi there - I quite agree with this. I posted some comments on the forum a couple of months ago about needing to upload 100 images a week to make progress. Now depending on wether you do this full time, or are able to devote enough time to it, this is possible.
Anyway, I put my money where my mouth was. For the last two months my aim was simple, increase my SS portfolio by 100 pics per week - I uploaded to all of the other sites as well, but my measure was an increase in my SS pictures.
The result, across the board my earnings are up by 25% over two months. My portfolio sizes are between 1500 - 2000 currently, so I think it's a decent measure.
Quality wise I was more selective (only a bit!), but it was output I was concerned with.
Based on my experience so far, that is what I have to continue doing. I am foremost a macro photographer, and it has been my only was to increase sales substantially.
I appreciate ideally everyone would like a portfolio of 1000 great pics, but I am no great photographer, neither am I particularly creative. For me, success means building portfolio size rapidly, and letting the cream work to the top.
So far it's working.
When I can stop relying on macro income to survive, I'll post my micro figures online - hopefully six more months.
Rgds
Oldhand
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