Doc Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Here are some statistics from my sales in 2015 (647 in total), divided up by the initial letter in their Alamy code. For those unfamiliar, the "A"s were the first, and as the number of images on Alamy has grown we are now on image codes starting with "F" The first row is the number of sales made; the second row is the number of Images with that starting letter I have on Alamy, The third row is the percentage of images with that starting letter which sold in 2015 A 29 1820 1.6% Pre 2007 B 158 5470 2.9% 2007-2010 C 187 4880 3.8% 2010-2012 D 169 3130 5.4% 2012-mid 2014 E 99 2524 3.9% mid 2014-early 2015 F 3 768 0.4% 2015-present (dates are approximate) Can any conclusions be drawn from these figures?? My conclusions are as follows: 1. The number of images appearing on Alamy is continuing to accelerate (!) 2. My sales success rate for my older images is rather poor - partially I think because my keywording was not so good at that time (and of course the system has changed meantime), but mainly because they are getting lower and lower down in the searches. HOWEVER, they are continuing to raise some sales 3. Best figures are coming from those images I put up 2-3 years ago - maybe because the keywording was good and they are still appearing relatively high up in searches though many other factors may well be involved (subject matter etc) I would be interested to hear what others think (apart from the fact that I must have OCD) Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Impressed work on the stats, Kumar! Are you an actuary in another life? Without crunching the numbers, I would say my A coded images are still selling well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeRay Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 I don't quite get to your heady figures Doc but like yourself last year 90% of my sales were prefixed either C or D and the previous year showed A and B forming most sales. Strange! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Thanks for that analysis Kumar. I haven't done the analysis for my photos, but I regularly see A and B code photos used in the papers. I guess that it depends upon the subject matter, and whether or not it dates. In the very long term, probably when I am long gone, they will have some historical interest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 C = 3% D = 54% E = 26% F = 0% S = 17% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 My goodness . . . how am I supposed to function in a world where others are so well organized? I misplaced my spoon this morning, and by the time I found it my oatmeal was cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearl Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Interesting analysis Kumar. It happens that I had been thinking about this recently but didn't have the patience to go through and count everything up. However it struck me that the majority of my sales are As, Bs and Cs with a smattering of Ds and even fewer Es. This may suggest that I have lost my way somewhere along the the road or it could be that there are a lot of repeat sellers of the older images such as those used by newspapers. Or it could be that, because older images have sold in the past they have found there way into Creative whereas newer images haven't had the chance. So I suppose the answer to your original question is YES for me. Pearl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 I can find no correlation between sales and time online with my work. Very interesting though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armstrong Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Interesting topic Kumar. B: 9% of sales last year E: 82% F: 9% If there is a quick way of downloading all of the Alamy refs for my portfolio? If someone can help I will add in the % data of how my portfolio is made up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armstrong Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 2. My sales success rate for my older images is rather poor - partially I think because my keywording was not so good at that time (and of course the system has changed meantime), but mainly because they are getting lower and lower down in the searches. HOWEVER, they are continuing to raise some sales Could it also be attributed to the cameras used and image processing? Advances in RAW processing have allowed much greater opening up of shadows and pulling back highlights. ISO performance, Dynamic Range and Megapixels have improved so the files are more malleable. This could mean that more recent images either look better or have been shot and edited in a style that is more prevalent today (less contrast, shadows lightened etc). You also have much more Alamy Measures and Sales Data now then in the earlier years. This gives you more information on what is worth shooting and how to improve key-wording. IMHO one of the issues new contributors face is it takes a long time to get the hard evidence from Alamy Measures on what works and what doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 Interesting analysis Kumar. It happens that I had been thinking about this recently but didn't have the patience to go through and count everything up. However it struck me that the majority of my sales are As, Bs and Cs with a smattering of Ds and even fewer Es. This may suggest that I have lost my way somewhere along the the road or it could be that there are a lot of repeat sellers of the older images such as those used by newspapers. Or it could be that, because older images have sold in the past they have found there way into Creative whereas newer images haven't had the chance. So I suppose the answer to your original question is YES for me. Pearl The other thing to consider I think, Pearl, is that more recently it has been taking much less time to go from one letter to the next than it used to due to the increasing numbers of images, so lets say a contributor who started about 10 years ago uploads the same number of images each year, they will have correspondingly less of the more recent starting letter images as for example the "A's" covered about 7 years, whereas the "E's" finished after about a year.... That may be why you notice more A B and C sales Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 2. My sales success rate for my older images is rather poor - partially I think because my keywording was not so good at that time (and of course the system has changed meantime), but mainly because they are getting lower and lower down in the searches. HOWEVER, they are continuing to raise some sales Could it also be attributed to the cameras used and image processing? Advances in RAW processing have allowed much greater opening up of shadows and pulling back highlights. ISO performance, Dynamic Range and Megapixels have improved so the files are more malleable. This could mean that more recent images either look better or have been shot and edited in a style that is more prevalent today (less contrast, shadows lightened etc). You also have much more Alamy Measures and Sales Data now then in the earlier years. This gives you more information on what is worth shooting and how to improve key-wording. IMHO one of the issues new contributors face is it takes a long time to get the hard evidence from Alamy Measures on what works and what doesn't. Yes I think that's right, and of course in addition many stock images simply become outdated, and/or are replaced by newer ones of the same subject which are more likely to be used. What I might do if I find the time, is go back and look at my "A" images and reconsider their keywording...(If I find the time; - it may be more sensible to spend time taking and producing new images...) Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearl Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Interesting analysis Kumar. It happens that I had been thinking about this recently but didn't have the patience to go through and count everything up. However it struck me that the majority of my sales are As, Bs and Cs with a smattering of Ds and even fewer Es. This may suggest that I have lost my way somewhere along the the road or it could be that there are a lot of repeat sellers of the older images such as those used by newspapers. Or it could be that, because older images have sold in the past they have found there way into Creative whereas newer images haven't had the chance. So I suppose the answer to your original question is YES for me. Pearl The other thing to consider I think, Pearl, is that more recently it has been taking much less time to go from one letter to the next than it used to due to the increasing numbers of images, so lets say a contributor who started about 10 years ago uploads the same number of images each year, they will have correspondingly less of the more recent starting letter images as for example the "A's" covered about 7 years, whereas the "E's" finished after about a year.... That may be why you notice more A B and C sales Kumar That is certainly a good point Kumar. I don't know how to begin counting how many images I have of each letter without it taking up a considerable amount of time but there are probably more As, Bs and Cs for the reasons you point out. I have been fairly consistent in adding images over the years at least since 2004 when I was encouraged by my first sale. Pearl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 I'm much too lazy to do the math (impressive), but I would say offhand that I have groups of older images (submitted in 2007-2010) that continue to do very well. The other oldies are fading into obscurity, which is, I suppose, is to be expected. UPDATE: I just had a better look at my 2015 sales numbers and the majority are A, B (the clear winner), and C. Followed by D. The E's did fairly well, but the F's have yet to blossom, which could help explain why 2015 was not a very good year for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 John - its not so hard to do Took me about a half an hour and I have 18.6K images - just go to "Manage Images" (The new version); click to show you all pseudonyms, and then click to show all images on sale, and change the view to 96 images per page, and it will show you your images with the most recent first. It doesn't take too long to click along and see where the letters change, and then multiple 96 x the number of pages you have gone through plus making a few adjustments for changes in the middle of a page. Looking at the dates of the change-over images then easily tells you the date that one letter changed to the next Remember it is the date of upload that counts, not the date the image was taken. Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Kumar: I had a look at your images, both old and new, and came up with the reason for the better performance of your more recent images. It was difficult to get to page 155 of your images but I made it all the way. The reason is you are a better photographer today than you were pre 2007. You are improving constantly. Therefore your more recent images will do better than the old, once they have a chance to get established in the Alamy system. Other comments would be: You travel a lot to different places so you build a collection with a wide range of locations and subject matter. You do not repeat yourself, so you come up in more searches. You shoot a lot of people. Your statistics, and a look at your portfolio, prove that high numbers are not a substitute for better photography. The Alamy system seems to be working as it should. It is dropping any weaker photography from pre 2007 and favoring the more recent, because it is stronger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 Kumar: I had a look at your images, both old and new, and came up with the reason for the better performance of your more recent images. It was difficult to get to page 155 of your images but I made it all the way. The reason is you are a better photographer today than you were pre 2007. You are improving constantly. Therefore your more recent images will do better than the old, once they have a chance to get established in the Alamy system. Other comments would be: You travel a lot to different places so you build a collection with a wide range of locations and subject matter. You do not repeat yourself, so you come up in more searches. You shoot a lot of people. Your statistics, and a look at your portfolio, prove that high numbers are not a substitute for better photography. The Alamy system seems to be working as it should. It is dropping any weaker photography from pre 2007 and favoring the more recent, because it is stronger. Bill - thank you for looking back through all of my images - I find it hard enough to do it myself! Thanks for the overview - much appreciated!! Regards Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 I have just looked at my sales for this year and they are pretty well evenly spread from A to E. I joined in 2002 and hardly uploaded anything in 2015, hence no F. Mind you the numbers are so small as any conclusions will be statically meaningless! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy deWitt Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Here are mine Kumar with the date I believe the letter changed: A = 29% B = 20% C = 13% D = 21% E = 17% F = 0% A to B April 2008 B to C Sept 2009 C to D Nov 2012 D to E April 2014 E to F Aug 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Whoops, quoted wrong posts. Deleted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy deWitt Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 joined in 2002 and hardly uploaded anything in 2015, hence no F Martin, I was uploading regularly until mid December 2015 and still no sales beginning with F. Kathy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 John - its not so hard to do Took me about a half an hour and I have 18.6K images - just go to "Manage Images" (The new version); click to show you all pseudonyms, and then click to show all images on sale, and change the view to 96 images per page, and it will show you your images with the most recent first. It doesn't take too long to click along and see where the letters change, and then multiple 96 x the number of pages you have gone through plus making a few adjustments for changes in the middle of a page. Looking at the dates of the change-over images then easily tells you the date that one letter changed to the next Remember it is the date of upload that counts, not the date the image was taken. Kumar Right, I gave it a try for % of my 2015 sales only: A - 20% B - 44% C - 17% D - 5% E - 12% F - 0% (still stewing) Conclusion: Images put up long ago are keeping me afloat. For some reason, I thought that some of my F images had leased, wishful thinking apparently, but they have gotten zooms. Hmmm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 joined in 2002 and hardly uploaded anything in 2015, hence no F Martin, I was uploading regularly until mid December 2015 and still no F's. Kathy Kathy, I put a handful of images up 21 October 2015 and they have F4xxxx references. Those I put up in last couple of weeks are FA/FB codes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 I wrote a downloadable report for 2015 sales dates, with the Alamy Ref Number as the only field checked. Then I opened it in Excel, did a Text to Columns (fixed width) and viola. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 joined in 2002 and hardly uploaded anything in 2015, hence no F Martin, I was uploading regularly until mid December 2015 and still no F's. Kathy You're not alone. I'm in the no F's club as well despite having uploaded almost 600 new images in 2015 and having had zooms. Food for thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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