fogwalker Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 Hello guys, I just wanted to ask those with RF only images who started on Alamy in the last 12 month if and when did they have a first sale? I started roughly 8 months ago and still no sale. I have 133 images with good or optimized discoverability and 1542 images with poor discoverability. All the images are fully keyworded. I was hoping for some sale to show me that it is not a work in vain to optimize the rest of my photos but it did not happen so I will probably not bother with the rest. Just wanted to ask around to see if this is not normal and that my images are probably not interesting for Alamy customers. I also had like 12 zooms only in those 8 months so that probably confirms it. Any thoughts are welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 Captions are really important these days. I would add more descriptive and location info to your captions. They are something of a mixed bag at the moment -- some captions are OK, others too sparse. The general consensus is that optimization isn't worth the effort and is probably even counterproductive. Nice images, though. Sales should come along. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 Interestingly enough, Alamy Measures / All of Alamy shows no shortage of client searches for "microstock-like" subjects. However, these types of images definitely don't seem to sell well on Alamy, which is too bad really. It would be nice if they did. Alamy certainly has no shortage of them. I created a separate pseudo for my microstock-ish images, which I enjoy taking, and I have to admit that I'm not having much luck. That said, some "pretty" images can be made more appealing to editorial buyers if enough information is included in captions and keywords. It is sometimes possible to put an editorial slant on typical microstock subjects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 1 minute ago, arterra said: But why would customers buy those subjects here, if they can get them elsewhere for peanuts? Cheers, Philippe Excellent question, Sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proteus Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 Hi , I think 8 month is a short time at Alamy. Give them more. I am a creative photographer, I have RF and RM photos, but I can say and alamy recommended to sell RF. You have some very nice creative photos. All of my sales are RF, also I am with Alamy a little more than 5 month only. Many people say creative photos can not be sold here, but it is not true, trust me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 42 minutes ago, arterra said: Think we cracked fogwalker's mystery Cheers, Philippe Yes, I'd supply some links to images on a certain microstock agency, but that would be against the rules. Still, no harm in dreaming, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 31 minutes ago, GS-Images said: Why not send a personal message with links instead? Oh wait........ you are a riot, Geoff. Love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Limb Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 2 hours ago, arterra said: You know what the main problem is of many who want to try the stock business? They don't have a clue WHAT to shoot (Yeah, yeah, I know. Everything sells, you would be amazed what I last sold, blablabla.... ). This is just a general critique, not aimed at the OP, but if I look at some ports, I often wonder if those people ever opened a good quality magazine. Ever took time to figure out what kind of images are published. Do they actually notice the QUALITY of those published pictures and compare it with theirs? Or do they just rely on the critiques of mum and dad, their friends or their spouse: "My God, you're an amazing photographer. You should be a pro!". And do they ever look at what's already represented by the agencies? Especially here - even if you have a medium ranking - what's the use in submitting the 495.000th tomato? Cheers, Philippe Stock Success = good quality images technically and visually + market research in what sells, plus an inclination on what will in the future Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariaJ Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 I think you have some really nice images, but the captioning on many of them is very vague. As mentioned, alamy is more of an editorial agency and customers are often looking for specific images. E.g. you have an image of railway tracks through a forest. There is no detail about where it is. You have to think about why a customer would be searching for a particular image. Where is the forest, which region, country, continent? What is the railway line? Giving such info might be the image useful for an article on rail travel through X country on X route. Maria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 Deleted, has been dealt with Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpics Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 Don't think there's much wrong with your images, apart from the captions. Always remember to put the exact location into the caption (apart from classic still life shots), even though you may have it in the keywords. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 19 hours ago, arterra said: But why would customers buy those subjects here, if they can get them elsewhere for peanuts? Cheers, Philippe Philippe: There are two answers to this question that I am aware of and I suggest you take them both into account: 1) A buyer can get even a single image from Alamy without taking out a subscription (or worse, being pressured into taking out a subscription). 2) Alamy has a sales department that does picture research even for those who don't have subscriptions. Alamy has always made them selling points and I think it's important that we remember them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 You are really a very good photographer, fogwalker, and it was a pleasure to look through your collection. Unfortunately, you know less than nothing about editorial stock, captioning or tagging. I won't repeat any of the very good advice that John, Philippe and others have given you . . . but let me point out two things: Do you think a picture buyer would be doing a search on "various sorts of food"? Is that your idea of a useful caption? The second point is even harder to digest than some of that unidentified food: Alamy stock is a long game. That is a long game measured in years. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fogwalker Posted August 6, 2017 Author Share Posted August 6, 2017 Good Afternoon guys. First of all I just have to say Wow what an amazing community you are here, it's really something great, I did not expect so many responses and advice. Thank you so much all of you. And you are right that I am new to editorial photography so I will try to get better with the captioning and keywords. To be honest I thought that the caption of a photograph is not that important if the words are in the keywords section but apparently that was a mistake. I will have to remedy that when time allows. I will also try to learn and take more editorial-suitable images if possible. But this will be a long hard game as you say. Maybe a small part of my problem might also be that I am from a small country (Czech Republic) and I see that many of you guys are from either UK or US or Canada so maybe the buyers prefer that? I really thank you for all your help, first I will work on changing my captions and be more specific and see what happens. Thank you and good luck to you all as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 1 hour ago, fogwalker said: Maybe a small part of my problem might also be that I am from a small country (Czech Republic) and I see that many of you guys are from either UK or US or Canada so maybe the buyers prefer that? I doubt that buyers prefer photographers from the UK, US or Canada, but being in a native English speaking place gives certain advantages in keywording at the beginning. It's nothing you can't learn, it will just take a tiny bit longer. Even those of us who ARE native English speakers get a solid lesson in language and vocabulary every time we keyword. ... and welcome to Alamy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 Philippe how do you know what some microstockers think? Sounds to me like wishful thinking on your part if your only proof is that some microstockers no longer sign in and post on the forum. +1 Philippe for deleting the contents of your post. Seems you thought carefully about your post that I am referring to, and subsequently deleted the contents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 Philippe: In terms of sharing disappointing thoughts you seem to be more active in that regard, and you are not even a microstocker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 8 minutes ago, arterra said: Ouch! Touched a delicate nerve Cheers, Philippe Weird. I've done what I can about that. I didn't know arrows were per-post so you've still got some red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 3 hours ago, Brian Yarvin said: Philippe: There are two answers to this question that I am aware of and I suggest you take them both into account: 1) A buyer can get even a single image from Alamy without taking out a subscription (or worse, being pressured into taking out a subscription). 2) Alamy has a sales department that does picture research even for those who don't have subscriptions. Alamy has always made them selling points and I think it's important that we remember them. Good points. Still, it's probably not a wise idea to have the same images on both Alamy and microstock agencies where they are available for much less. No? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 13 minutes ago, arterra said: Guess where they come from Cheers, Philippe You don’t have to guess. I gave one red for your post re naming disappointed microstockers, and one green for deleting the contents of your post claiming that you know what microstockers think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KODAKovic Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 My best selling is a closeup where the skin color was the only "geographic" indication. In my case, my first sale was exactly 1 year after sign up so 8 months i'm jealous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 15 minutes ago, arterra said: Why don't you can give fogwalker some useful advice instead of attacking (as usual) contributors Cheers, Philippe No need to give more advice after Geoff’s excellent post 8 hours ago. That is why I gave Geoff’s 8 hour ago post a greeny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KODAKovic Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 I also want to say that putting the same images on micro and Alamy is wrong not only because prices but because it's a non sense. Micro images are more "stock", location is often not useful and they have a strong concept. Alamy has more to do with location and Editorial style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 29 minutes ago, KODAKovic said: I also want to say that putting the same images on micro and Alamy is wrong not only because prices but because it's a non sense. Micro images are more "stock", location is often not useful and they have a strong concept. Alamy has more to do with location and Editorial style. That's true. However, Alamy Measures / All of Alamy indicates that plenty of buyers do look for "strong concept" images of the type you mention -- and there is now no shortage of them on Alamy -- but they don't seem to be licensing them here for the most part. There must be a reason why they are going elsewhere to shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KODAKovic Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 I've read yesterday a person makes usually 7k a month on micro and his pictures are for the most part seasonal pictures (he covers the whole year) or "patterns" like "shape" pictures. Sorry for my english, i don't know how to explain the word "shape" better I believe Alamy is the strongest place for Editorials after Getty (not iStock). So for me is easy to know which pics to put here and which on micro, they are VERY different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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