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Messages - Alamy
101
« on: August 08, 2014, 08:13 »
Okay, I've tried everything I can think of on how to get better results (sales) on Alamy but nothing seems to work for me. Any tips on how to keyword or if I should include more information on the other areas?
Thanks
We're selling more images than ever before in our 15 year history so there is plenty of opportunity for revenue with us.
We are very different to microstock so a different strategy is needed. We sell licences from $10 up to $10,000+ but the average price per sale is around $100. You can expect to make fewer sales than you do on MS but for higher value.
You don't mention how many images you have or the type of work you have in your portfolio so it's impossible for us to give you any specific advice but if you want to post a link to your collection here we'd be happy to give you some pointers.
The photographers who do best with us submit well edited work regularly and keyword (relevantly) and thoroughly...
Cheers
Alamy
The bolded text I highlighted above says it all and Alamy doesn't fully fill in the blanks. Alamy, how many images do YOU have and how many are being added per week? If you are adding, say, 200,000 per week (probably more), and you are adding, oh, I dunno, 100 new contributors per week, and Goofy, being one contributor, is adding 5 per week, the math and common sense should be the first explanation as to why sales are dropping (or non existent) for him and all contributors is pretty straight forward. You can use the logic fairly, I suppose, that you are a very different market, but the root cause of declining or non existent sales is the amassing of a ginormous collection on a magnitude that is killing stock for photographers yet pumping up revenue for Alamy. It's simply spreading growing revenue over an even faster growing contributor base, that is the real reason, not so much a 'different market'. I've been with you guys for around 8 years or thereabouts and I used to make A LOT more each month with my style of shooting, which hasn't changed much. Today, I am lucky to make 1/4 of what I used to make. And I know that it is due to incredible image & contributor growth as a weighted priority over a 'different market'. I am not saying your market isn't different, just that this explanation is far lower on a weighted scale than collection growth as it relates to declining/non-existing sales.
If you're making less revenue than what you used to make in the past that could be down to a whole number of factors including: - Increased competition across the whole market, not just on Alamy, are there better pictures available now of the subjects you shoot / shot? - Not changing your content to suit the market (this is an example, without your name we don't know who you are or what your collection looks like). You do say though that your "style of shooting hasn't changed much". Buying habits and trends certainly have changed a lot in 8 years though. - Not refreshing content to keep up with trends - eg if you shoot lifestyle, are your subjects now outdated etc? The point is, we can't give any specifics to Goofy without knowing what his/her collection looks like and whatever way you look at it, the number of images he/she has submitted is important along with what we followed that statement with (but you didn't highlight) - the type of work they are producing. By type we're not only referring to the style/subject but also the quality and suitability for the market. We've got contributors who make very good returns from only 1500 or so images and others who make very good returns from 50,000+ images - so number of images is important to an extent but not the be all and end all. Sorry you feel that our collection is "killing stock for photographers yet pumping up revenue" for us. We remain one of the best places to sell your images if you're a stock shooter. We're non-exclusive and we offer 50% commission on all sales made. We sell all kinds of imagery to all kinds of clients, but if you're submitting exactly the same work on Alamy that you have on the micros, it's feasible that a client will be aware of this and buy your work there. That's not to say you won't also sell this work with us, you will, but you have to be realistic with your expectations if you are submitting the same work elsewhere that is available much cheaper. To get back on topic for the OP - if you're not comfortable sharing your details here please feel free to send us a PM and we'll be happy to look through your collection and give you some pointers as to where you can improve. Cheers Alamy
102
« on: August 08, 2014, 03:50 »
Okay, I've tried everything I can think of on how to get better results (sales) on Alamy but nothing seems to work for me. Any tips on how to keyword or if I should include more information on the other areas?
Thanks
We're selling more images than ever before in our 15 year history so there is plenty of opportunity for revenue with us. We are very different to microstock so a different strategy is needed. We sell licences from $10 up to $10,000+ but the average price per sale is around $100. You can expect to make fewer sales than you do on MS but for higher value. You don't mention how many images you have or the type of work you have in your portfolio so it's impossible for us to give you any specific advice but if you want to post a link to your collection here we'd be happy to give you some pointers. The photographers who do best with us submit well edited work regularly and keyword (relevantly) and thoroughly... Cheers Alamy
103
« on: July 07, 2014, 09:07 »
*double post
104
« on: July 07, 2014, 03:00 »
Thanks to James for responding on the forum about my concern.
It is hard for me say if the image was cleared or not, to be honest, I didn't pay attention to that details.
If the image is not cleared for a certain time, then Alamy should go after the customer or simply cancel the order.
That's the thing, we did do that - we were going after the customer for the whole time, as we do with ALL uncleared sales. We have a credit control team who have set procedures in place in order to obtain funds. A year is a long time in this case but rarely it can take that long. It was just a cancellation, not a refund as the customer never used it or paid for it. I appreciate our communication could be better though as it is listed as a 'refund' in your account. I can also confirm that it had not cleared. You can see this indicated by a 'x' next to the sale in your 'balance of account' page. We took the decision when we first started to report in real time so you are more aware of what is happening with your images in real time. Also, if we were to only show the sale when the funds have cleared then we would be inundated with inquiries about images being used that had not been paid for yet. As Bunhill rightly says, billing cycles like this are the norm for many publishers. Cheers James
105
« on: July 04, 2014, 03:41 »
Actually - I've just been able to find the details and can confirm you were never paid this amount - it was a bill raised in error by the client and they did not use the image.
The 'refund' came off your running uncleared total, nothing was taken away from cleared funds and we (or you) were never paid for this.
It's simply a cancellation of an old invoice for an image that wasn't used.
This issue does happen from time to time - with other agencies it's less obvious because they tend to only report sales when they have the funds, we report sales when the bill is generated.
Hope this clears things up.
James A
Alamy
106
« on: July 04, 2014, 03:25 »
Hi,
I've been following this thread but am unable to check the details personally because I'm not sure of your name or the image it affects (maybe pm me?)
It is extremely, extremely rare that we would refund funds that have been paid to you - but sales that have been listed but have not yet been cleared (ie paid for) can be cancelled if the customer made a mistake and ordered the wrong image. When we cancel a sale like this it's still called a 'refund' even though nothing is refunded as it has not been used or paid for.
Stockastic said:
"I wouldn't be surprised if they knew for some time that the buyer didn't want to pay for that image; they just waited until you had $250 in your account from other sales, then grabbed it."
I can 100% cast-iron guarantee you that we would never do something like that.
James Allsworth
Content Executive
Alamy
107
« on: May 15, 2014, 04:31 »
August 2013 -- my first sale with them. I never really looked at it closely before, but I can see now that most of my sales have not cleared. I'm not sure you could create a more bizarre uploading and accounting system if you threw a team of monkeys at it.
You're post surprised us so we've had a look into it and can confirm that you only have 2 uncleared sales and they are both from this year, all others have indeed cleared. We report sales live as they come in and they clear when we have secured funds from the customer. This is different from other agencies where sales are only reported once the money is received from the customer. I emailed Alamy over a month ago about a sale in November 2013, which is still not cleared. They have never responded to my inquiry. It is not a distribution sale. Losing confidence in Alamy for sure.
That's really surprising that you didn't get a reply - we respond to all mails and our average response time in UK office hours is lest than 1 hr. Did you get the auto reply back to confirm we got your mail? If not there could have been an issue with it arriving. Please email [email protected] and they will be happy to help. Alternatively, send us a PM with your account details and we can look into this for you. Cheers Alamy
108
« on: November 05, 2013, 04:30 »
Any chance you'll improve the time it takes after a "sale" for the balance to clear?
We clear the sale when the funds are received from the customer - this process takes at least 45 days because we need to allow for any changes in design refunds for the customer, as well as counter any fraudulent activity on credit card payments. Most agencies have similar clearing times but they all go on behind the scenes and the sale is only reported to you when it's cleared or very close to clearing. We report live when the sale happens.
I think most understand that there needs to be a reasonable delay to clear funds.
What bothers me are sales that take "forever". I have one uncleared sale now, for example, from January. These are the kind of uncleared sales that I think bother others, too.
45 days is fine, yet I have to wait for 4 months to get the money cleared. Some people are waiting over a year to see a sale clear.
Again though, we only clear the sale when we receive payment from the customer so if it has gone beyond the agreed terms of sale, then our credit control team will be chasing this down in order to get the photographer paid. This issue of a late payment from some customers will be industry wide, however it may be more apparent on Alamy because we report the sales live. (Last post from us on this subject,  ) Thanks for all the positive feedback on the payment threshold revision! Alamy
109
« on: November 04, 2013, 11:29 »
Any chance you'll improve the time it takes after a "sale" for the balance to clear?
We clear the sale when the funds are received from the customer - this process takes at least 45 days because we need to allow for any changes in design refunds for the customer, as well as counter any fraudulent activity on credit card payments. Most agencies have similar clearing times but they all go on behind the scenes and the sale is only reported to you when it's cleared or very close to clearing. We report live when the sale happens.
111
« on: October 17, 2013, 03:53 »
There's one more thing interesting, please let me find it - why other stock agencies let us payout from $50 or $100 without charge and Alamy can't? Where is the different? Thank you for your patience, I really don't get it.
We can't speak on behalf of other agencies, but many factors will affect the costs they incur to pay you. It will depend on how many photographers they have to pay and also how much commission they take from sales. The solution we have reached is clearly not ideal for everyone but it works best for the majority of people and we have provided a free option for all. This will have to be our last post on this subject here. If you've got any other questions, please email [email protected]Thanks James A
112
« on: October 17, 2013, 03:17 »
I believe Alamy didn't see my question - Reply #62 on: Today at 03:17?
Sorry Ariene, there is no option to pick a higher payment threshold. We made the decision to lower the payment threshold because it would unlock money from contributors accounts and give you the opportunity to be paid more regularly. The balance between how and when to pay contributors and all of the various fees associated with international money transfers has always been a tricky equation. We made the change knowing that for the majority of contributors it is still free to receive money and with Skrill there is a free option for all.
113
« on: October 16, 2013, 05:56 »
On a 100 dollar payment you can expect to pay another 8%
I'm sorry Ron, but that is just incorrect information. The $8 fee rate for Euros into a European Paypal account is the maximum amount - there is a cap for Alamy payments that we have negotiated with Paypal. You will be charged 2% of the net amount up to $400 where the max fee is $8. If there are payments higher than that it won't make a difference to the fee because the 2% stops there. For a $100 payment paypal will charge you $2. For a $400 payment paypal will charge you $8. For a $1000 payment paypal will still charge a maximum of $8. If you do not want any fees, you can use Skrill which will be free.
115
« on: October 16, 2013, 04:03 »
Just to re-iterate:
- There is a free payment option for everyone by using Skrill. Alamy will absorb any fees associated with this, as stated in our email to you.
- If you are paid USD or GBP via funds transfer into the US or UK this is also free.
- If your paypal account is set to USD and you are in the US, the maximum fee you will be charged by paypal is $1.
- If your paypal account is set to GBP and you are in the UK, the maximum fee you will be charged by paypal is $7.
- If your paypal account is set to EUR and you are in Europe, the maximum fee you will be charged by paypal is $8.
117
« on: October 15, 2013, 11:31 »
I had to wait for a payment from June to be cleared in October and thats quick.
I am done with them anyway. I will be closing my account. Had enough with them.
You seem to change your mind on that one every week
Well, not really, I was contemplating closing my account and because of the lack of sales I had no incentive to keep uploading. Then James from Alamy and a few people here convinced me to stay. I submitted and completed 70 images on Alamy after that as I was going full in. And then they * me over for another 3.4% so now James and Alamy can eat my shorts.
It makes me sick that they now use the argument that we asked for it. There are some people on the Alamy forum now attacking people who dont agree with another pay cut. Do they even realise that if they make 2000 dollar on Alamy they also are going to pay 68 dollar to get that money.
This is incorrect. Paypal typically charge a 2% fee but depending on where you are and the currency you deal in fees are capped. Alamy do not dictate these fees. Here is a copy of an email we sent out earlier regarding the change: We know our payment threshold has been a frustrating subject for you guys so weve decided to lower this from $175 to $100. If youre based in the UK or US and get paid by bank transfer, or get paid via Skrill well continue to absorb all the transaction fees that go with paying thousands of photographers. If not, unfortunately therell be a small charge - we thought the benefit of getting paid quicker outweighs this and theres an option to avoid paying these regardless of where you live - see the image below;  Weve added this to your Contributor Contract. The key changes are listed here: http://www.alamy.com/contributor/contract/amendments/151013.asp. You can read the full contract here: http://www.alamy.com/contributor/contract/default.asp Well also be sending you a formal notification by email, mainly because our legal people say we have to and we dont want to upset them. The changes come in on 30th November 2013 so if you have $100 or over cleared in your account by December 1st youll get paid in the December pay run. As always, email us if you have any questions. Thanks,
118
« on: October 07, 2013, 06:19 »
James, I would like to say thanks for all the replies here to Ron, that is incredible good from an agency owner, good stuff!
I would love to be the agency owner but alas I am merely a worker... James West is the big boss. Glad your issue is sorted. @Alamy : why not launching a "latest images sold" page ? it would be very useful to know what's actually selling.
We've considered it in the past and it may become a feature. The argument against it is that as a photographer, if you've got a good selling niche, you might not want details of it published out publicly and therefore perhaps copied. I understand that with Alamy, a report of a "sale" doesn't mean the sale was completed. But I guess I don't see the usefulness of this information. All it tells me is "someone has been given your photo, and may or may not decide to eventually pay for it. " As others have pointed out, it just causes aggravation when the money is "refunded" later; and Alamy has to continually explain this policy.
The usefulness of it depends on your situation as a photographer. Some won't see the benefit (and that's fair enough) but others like to know exactly what's going on and what's in the pipeline. If you know an image has been licensed for a campaign and you have another client enquiring with you directly about another license (perhaps exclusive) and they want to know where the image is already being used it's useful. Also, some photographers will spot trends from sales. If they can see 5 images have been licensed that are cut-outs, it might make them devote their next shoot to cut-outs. It's just about keeping the photographer in the loop as quickly and as live as possible.
I've also started with Vectors but telling me unless I have a huge portfolio you are not interested... that is a rather nasty backhand. I think I'll sell them elsewhere...
No, I'm not interested in waiting for 2014. I want to sell my vectors now, today, tomorrow, not next year. I Think you are making a very silly mistake.
This is just about the initial phase. There is no online upload of vectors just yet so content needs to be sent in via DVD or hard drive which means manual processing our side. It's not a sensible use of resources to manually process submissions that contain a small amount of vectors - it only makes sense to focus attention on larger volumes. When online upload is available, there will be no minimum amount. How are you going to handle the vectors James?
I'm wondering since my port is mainly jpg illustrations of vectors. Will there be an easy way to add the vector to their corresponding jpg file?
I don't have 1,000+ vectors so I'll have to wait until next year. But it would be nice if the process to add the eps file to existing content would be made simple.
This depends on a few things being finalised, but we'll probably be able to copy the existing data you have associated with the jpegs over to any newley uploaded .eps files provided the file name was the same. Cheers everyone, James Allsworth Content Executive Alamy
119
« on: October 02, 2013, 05:02 »
Thanks James. Up until July I was doing fine with Alamy. I was actually gearing up and getting ready to upload a lot more images, but sales fell dead 2.5 months ago.
I have seen people with 8,000 10,000 12,000 45,000 images reporting 4 - 5 - 6 sales, for a couple of hundred dollars. I dont think me adding another 1000 images is going to make any change to my chances James. I have been keywording very relative and tight. As a result I had more zooms then ever. I figured I would see more sales too,,but the opposite happened. And I am not the only one seeing this trend.
So, it seems backwards for me to submit a ton of images, hoping to see the odd sale. I am sure Alamy is doing well with 40.5 million images, but for me its no longer working.
I am always open to change my mind, but its hard to see reasons to put in more work, for no return.
Of course Ron, it's totally your decision! "Up until July I was doing fine with Alamy" That was only 2 / 3 months ago - with a collection your size, you cannot determine any trend during this period of time. "So, it seems backwards for me to submit a ton of images, hoping to see the odd sale" It's a shame you feel that way. There are many photographers who see a huge increase in sales as they continue to build a portfolio of good quality work. Unfortunately many of these photographers are perhaps not as 'vocal' on forums and the like as those who are seeing a downward trend so it can sometimes give a distorted view. I do hope you continue to work with us and see an increase in sales. If you had some early successes with us there is no reason to not expect this to continue as your collection grows. Cheers James A
120
« on: October 02, 2013, 04:43 »
To be honest, I'd rather wish you tell me at the end, so I can get the money asap, instead of showing me sale which I have to wait 8 months for to get paid, and even when the sale is reported, I am not sure if it will stick because of your refund policy. It wont be the first time a 1000 dollar sale gets retracted and then sold for 100 dollar instead. In fact, someone on your forum mentioned yesterday he started the October balance in the red, owing you money. LOL
All agencies I am with show me the sale in real time too, so I dont know why you say they dont. But when those sales happen, I know that within 45 days I have the money.
Doesnt matter anyway, I will be closing my account. The extremely tedious editor and the lack of sales and the 8 month period to get paid add too much frustration to my hobby.
Appreciate your comments James, I am sure you will do fine without me
Sorry you feel that way Ron. Sounds like your decision is made but just a couple more points in response to your reply: 1 - "he started the October balance in the red, owing you money. LOL" - not correct. A cancellation of a license may have appeared at the beginning of his gross statement for the month but that doesn't mean he owed us money. Looking through his net revenue reports via my Alamy would confirm this. 2 - there will be varying degrees of exactly what real time sales reporting means I guess. We report as soon as the customer is billed. For RM sales in particular, this is useful as it keeps the photographer updated as to whats in the pipe line. This means though that we report the sale to you during the refund window for the customer rather than after (like others do) so you may see some cancellations come through. These however are pretty rare in the grand scheme of things. 3 - Your lack of sales is likely down to your low numbers of images on Alamy. We've got a different model to other agents you are with and I'm sure if you continued to grow your collection steadily and keyword well, you'd start to see regular sales. Cheers James A
121
« on: October 02, 2013, 03:45 »
Well distribution sales work slightly differently and yes, quite often the clearing terms for those can be 90 days, sometimes 120. The chain of payment is much longer:
>client informs distributor of useage>distributor informs Alamy (and therefore you, the photographer because we report live)>Distruibutor obtains payment from client>Distributor then pays Alamy>Alamy process the payment to you
This is quite common within the industry but please remember - with some other agents, you will not see this long process because they will only report the sale to you at the end of the process - we tell you at the start.
Some of the large publishers require long billing cycles, it's how they pay all of their providers, and we have to be flexible in order to retain business. That's the reality of the industry, there is nothing untoward going on here.
Is it frustrating waiting to be paid for an image use? Yes of course, but we will always be working to get the payment to you as quickly as possible. We've paid out over $135 million to photographers since we started and we're working on lowering the payment threshold further so there is less time our photographers have to wait before getting hold of their well earned money.
Happy to answer any other questions you've got.
Cheers
James A
122
« on: October 01, 2013, 03:17 »
Slightly annoying now that I have almost 1,000 JPG versions of vectors up there. Oh well.
http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/1022-why-not-sell-vectors/
We're introducing vectors to Alamy during the last quarter of this year and we're currently looking for high volume contributors.
At the moment, the submission process is via hard drive only and you must have at least 1000 vectors to submit. If this works for you then please get in touch by emailing [email protected]
If you've got less than 1000, you'll be able to upload via the website soon, but not just yet.
Cheers
James A
You can always send me the vectors (although they must be .eps files) and we'll replace your jpg files like for like. Just email me if interested. Cheers James A
123
« on: September 30, 2013, 08:50 »
Thanks guys, you're welcome! James A
124
« on: September 30, 2013, 06:48 »
While we have your attention, are there any plans in changing the image editor? The keywording system could do with an upgrade.
Yes - couldn't agree more that it needs an upgrade. We've been gathering feedback for a while and we know exactly what's required in order to make improvements. We've got a checklist of things there that we want to implement. You'll want to know timescales and rightly so! However, I'm not going to be able to offer any I'm afraid. All I can say is that it is very much on our list but customer facing improvements have to take priority. Cheers James A
125
« on: September 30, 2013, 06:30 »
Thanks James. Most of the microstock sites seem to credit us almost instantly for most sales. Would be good if alamy could take instant payments for the lower priced licences.
I hope vectors are soon opened up for everyone but I'm still disappointed that alamy haven't done that for video clips. I don't see the point in not utilising all contributors and only offering buyers a small collection that isn't going to appeal to them.
The video collection is currently at 260,000 clips and we are seeing regular sales and get good feedback from customers. We would love to be able to allow online upload of video for everyone but aside from the technical complexities and load on infrastructure, it simply comes down to priorities. We have more pressing projects that we are working on that must come first before opening up video, which is why we are limiting video submissions to large volumes of clips from well established brands / collections. Allowing all contributors to upload vectors is a far simpler process and will be available soon. Cheers James A
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