no sales

[andre belg]

I uploaded 1600+ images on the site , on here from January and not one sale?

got images elsewhere andI made sales ,  about 100 a month but the same shots with 20+downloads have made nothing on here , I find this a bit strange.

if the shots were no good they would not sell somewhere else?

I am not making mega bucks , so far about $300 this year but it helps paying for equipment / insurance etc...

any tips how to proceed here or would it be better just to give up and delete all my shots on here.

 

thanks Andre

Edited August 23, 2017 by Alamy
Admin removed references to competitor site

[spacecadet]

A page of images of butterflies with this caption

Alicante is a port city on Spain’s south-eastern Costa Blanca, and the capital of the Alicante province

may have something to do with it.

[Jill Morgan]

As Mark has said, you need to properly caption all your images, describing specifically what is in the image.  Captions are important for search, so anyone looking for a Blue Morpho butterfly won't see yours as photographers with properly captioned images as well as keywords will have theirs come before yours.

 

And you will get all kinds of useless vies for those searching for Alicante as of course they aren't looking for images of butterflies.  This will count against you in the CTR which is a part of determining a photographer's rank and where their images will show up in a buyer's search.

 

Selling the same images on Alamy that you have on microstock goes against you.  Many professional buyers will do a reverse image search to see if they can purchase that image elsewhere.  it only takes 3 seconds.  Why pay a larger amount here if they can buy it for pennies at mircrostock?  I do this myself for lineart I buy for converting into embroidery designs.  I know almost all artists list everywhere, so I hunt for the cheapest place.

 

Jill

 

 

[Robert M Estall]

Why would anyone buy your images from Alamy if they can get the very same shots from microstock for peanuts?  ( as Jill also said)

 

That's before you start looking at the inappropriate captions. I'm not even going to peek at the keywords

 

Don't underestimate the savvy of the buyers.

 

In any case, 7 months isn't much time in this business.

Edited August 23, 2017 by Alamy
Admin removed references to competitor site

[Octavio Campos Salles]

Like already said, you are undermining your own business by selling the same pictures on microstock sites for cents. Believe me, buyers will look there first before going to Alamy. 

Edited August 23, 2017 by Alamy
Admin removed references to competitor site

[Johnnie5]

Your photography skills are certainly good enough, but without more accurate and image specific captioning and keywords its like throwing your photos into a trash bin hoping someone comes along and finds them by accident.

Edited August 23, 2017 by Johnnie5

[losdemas]

Can't wait for Philippe to reply to this one...(puts crash helmet on). 

 

I think that we should have a sticky post for all new microstock contributors. These types of posts can get very boring, very quickly and ultimately lead to a lot of inflammatory talk. 

 

As to the original question...all you need to know has been answered in the above posts. Please do a search of the forum for 'microstock' and you'll get a lot of information from many contributors here with widely varying opinions, including a very recent thread which was shut down by Alamy. 

 

Best of luck. 

[Matt Limb]

Think about it for just a minute    ' ... about 100 a month but the same shots with 20+downloads have made nothing on here ...'   

 

It is an easy answer -  they look here and find the images on MS - guess which they are going to buy!!   THE CHEAPEST  

Edited August 23, 2017 by Alamy
Admin removed references to competitor site

[Brasilnut]

Keep them out of Microstock  

[regen]

Andre,

 

The pictures are not to bad but your titling and keywording are a joke. Buyers don't come to Alamy for pretty pictures- its an editorial site which in order to get the buyers interest you have to demonstrate that you know your subject. Your titles are not only insufficient but also totally wrong in many instances. Suggest you remove the lot and start again having done the research necessary to make a professional submission.

 

Regen

[Allan Bell]

18 minutes ago, arterra said:

Remember Mirco?

 

Cheers,

Philippe (busy annoying roe deer in Luxembourg )

 

YES.

 

Allan (going to get my tea)

 

 

[Duncan_Andison]

I take and sell a lot of imagery on Micro, I do upload them here as well and they do sell here as well for nice amounts. BUT, I upload micro content here as a "Catch All". If micro content sells here, great if not, no problem. It's selling where it was intended to sell and at the price I expect it to sell at (small and large sales). Quite happily live off the income that I make there.

 

However, I also have a lot of images just here, editorial work and it is a different style to micro stuff. To be honest, I enjoy shooting for Alamy (editorial) without micro in mind and I have neglected it for a while..... dare I say, I'm missing shooting it as well :-) It's a different mindset from staged shoots etc for the micro market. More relaxed and even engaging.... more "Photography" and less design/staged. 

 

Anyway.... upload you micro stuff here but don't expect it to sell the same way. There will be those that see it here and go elsewhere to buy, others will just buy it here. What you need to do is shoot for Alamy to see improved sales. Look at what sells here and take those findings out with you and upload what you shoot yo Alamy only. Work around a 2 port mentality, them and us..... or us and them  You can have both but they are very much different!!

[Sultanpepa]

A number of images captioned as Autumn fruits, with one showing a river. And what if I'm looking for mushrooms growing on a tree, or a specific type of mushroom, how am I going to find your images? Latin names are often searched for. Much work on keywording/tagging will reap rewards.

 

[Brasilnut]

Quote

I take and sell a lot of imagery on Micro, I do upload them here as well and they do sell here as well for nice amounts. BUT, I upload micro content here as a "Catch All". If micro content sells here, great if not, no problem. It's selling where it was intended to sell and at the price I expect it to sell at (small and large sales). Quite happily live off the income that I make there.

 

Great way you've put it. I would add that if you put stuff on micros then here on Alamy should be also RF.

 

Some clients won't shop around for cheaper prices or the business account is only linked to Alamy. That's good news for us contributors. 

 

[Duncan_Andison]

40 minutes ago, Brasilnut said:

 

Great way you've put it. I would add that if you put stuff on micros then here on Alamy should be also RF.

 

Some clients won't shop around for cheaper prices or the business account is only linked to Alamy. That's good news for us contributors. 

 

 

100%. Never submit RF stuff from Micros as RM here, big no no. Besides, Alamy tend to provide a hybrid license agreement and you can get just as good fees for RF as RM.

 

While I have a large batch of stuff to send here which is elsewhere, I do have an itch to get out for a while and shoot stuff solely for here.... I keep promising myself that ;-)

 

 

Edited August 23, 2017 by Duncan_Andison
typo

[Colblimp]

Now I'm only a noob, so I know nowhere near as much as others on here BUT...

 

As others have alluded to, your captions and keywords are absolutely atrocious!  However, your images are fantastic and very sellable so, although it'll be a lot of work, you need to go through every image one by one and repair the captions and keywords.  Once you do that, you will make sales.  I noticed quite a few similars, too, don't have more than 2-3 pics which are 'samey' - there's a few of the same thing on the first page of your port.

 

Finally, have faith and patience - my first sale came after 4 months and around 250 images.  You'll get there - good luck!

[gvallee]

Great punchy images Andre (I love your seascapes) but as others have said, you won't sell with current captions/keywords.

 

In addition to irrelevant keywords, you also have an enormous amount of typos:

image  HMYN00 has 3 typos: atraction, catepillar (which there is none anyway) and colourfull. 

Image HN1JDM: Mediteranian.

 

and that's the only 2 images I looked at!

 

Take a pause, review them all or you'll be wasting your time which is a real shame as you have a good eye and good technique.

 

Good luck.

 

Gen

 

 

[Brasilnut]

Quote

100%. Never submit RF stuff from Micros as RM here, big no no. Besides, Alamy tend to provide a hybrid license agreement and you can get just as good fees for RF as RM.

 

While I have a large batch of stuff to send here which is elsewhere, I do have an itch to get out for a while and shoot stuff solely for here.... I keep promising myself that ;-)

 

I haven't been on Alamy for so long and haven't had so many sales which is my fault (there was a super long thread on this). 

 

Anyway, this may be a strange question but hear me out. On average how long does it take on average for an image to be licensed at Alamy? The answer is that it probably depends and it's unpredictable...sure, I get that. But, the point I'm trying to make is that if an image hasn't been licensed after let's say after two years, does it mean that it will likely never be licensed? Do people on here have images that are 2+ years old which then suddenly get licensed or are they "good as gone" in terms of "value".

 

To bring this question back to reality, let's say that I have some editorials on here that have been sitting there for 1 year and nothing...not even zooms. Should I assume that they are "good as gone" and I should extract whatever little value there is on them by submitting to micros?

 

Forgive me ahead of time if this is the wrong platform to ask such a question.

 

 

[Jill Morgan]

There is no figuring out when an image, if ever will be licensed. I had an image of a Baobab tree zoomed last month. It was in the first upload I did in 2013.  Whether it will end up a sale, I don't know, but it was the only one zoomed, so hopefully.

 

Also, as you improve in sales and CTR, you hope your rank will increase, so over time your images that may have been on page 5 or later may start to appear on page one or two.  That gives you a better chance at a sale.

 

You  just never know when a world event or even local event will make one of your images desirable.  Bryan licensed his image of the statue of Robert E Lee due to the events in Charlottesville NC.  If that hadn't happened, he may have never licensed that image.  You just don't know.

 

Jill

[Duncan_Andison]

7 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

That's up to you but a year is a very short time.

 

I've had pics here for 15 years when they were licensed for the first time and obviously some here 15 years and still never licensed. 

 

Over the years virtually all those coming over to Alamy from micros have lacked patience presumably because they are used to almost instant and constant gratification. 

 

+1 ...Yeah.... I started here and built a port here first before building a micro port as well. Two different markets that do well on two different styes of imagery. How long does it take for an image to sell, depends on when that person needs it! 

[hdh]

I uploaded this picture for fun only ... didn't think it will get sold ... but it was, after more than a year

 

now waiting for this one to sell

[Brasilnut]

Interesting answers, thanks.

 

Need to play the long game here on Alamy, which is fine for me  

[spacecadet]

My last 3 were taken in 2012, 13 and 14. Then one from 2016 and five from April.. For the last 3 years I've had sales from every year.

You tell me how long an image takes to sell!

[NYCat]

I recently sold two from 2009, one from 2013 and one from 2015. Most of my images don't "date" as they are wild animals and don't wear any clothing.

 

Paulette

[gvallee]

Yesterday I licensed for the first time an old slide scan of Manaus taken around 1996 and probably sent to Alamy on a CD around 2003. Never even zoomed before.

 

Gen