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Don't worry, Vic is here to help you

We have nearly completed another year of Alamy sales and it is time to reflect, review and learn lessons. This chart I am very happy with : This chart I am not so happy with : Sales increasing nicely year on year, efforts being rewarded, careful keywording resulting in customers finding my images. But all that work, all the hours invested, to end up with a declining revenue stream feels like pedaling backwards on my bike or kayaking up a waterfall. Too many photographers I guess, too many images for customers to choose from, too easy to just use Google Images and grab any image you see without even thinking of consequences, it all drives the price per image in one direction only. But high value sales do still turn up once in a while. I had one $650 sale this year, two sales of £225 and 5 others over $100. When they happen, I am reminded that Alamy is still the right place to be. I had a look at distribution of prices across all my sales this year, here are the results : So about 60% of my sales are in the $20-80 gross price band. I also had a look at the price trend over the last 5 years. As expected, this shows a declining average price, but a RECOVERY in the gross price THIS YEAR. Unfortunately, in my case, the net price has continued its decline this year, probably due to the proportion of distributor sales increasing. See chart below : So since 2012, my average net price has declined by more than 50%, ouch ...... what happened to inflation?? Aren't our prices meant to go up with inflation? Every other business seems to manage it, but not us ;-) I hope this is enlightening, or at least informative, for forum members. If you feel so inclined, please share your own data, but I understand many people won't want to. Who knows what 2017 will bring, the new search algorithm and contributor tools have made all that even harder to predict. I was at the top of page 2 on BHZ, then dropped to page 13, now on page 9. It is too early to say whether views/zooms are adversely affected ... Happy New Year! Marc

I have been trying to grapple with the decline in performance of my portfolio. If I had the information I need I would edit it hard and monitor the performance of my portfolio going forward. It would also inform my future shoots and uploads. What I need is a way of seeing how individual images are performing. How many views, zooms, adds to lightbox has each image had since it was uploaded/ in a selected period? Happy to take it as a monthly download (after getting initial history) and maintain the database on my own computers for detailed analysis. It would be useful to also take a download of image-keywords to extend the statistical analysis. I suspect a good chunk of my portfolio has never even been viewed in many years and might be better deleted unless it is a strong image/message in a true niche. Measures does not give me that information. In these days of Big Data it is what I, and I suspect many others, need to refine our offering on Alamy, to make our portfolio more commercial. As a short term alternative it would also be useful if we were able to take images off sale without deleting them. That way we could park images we suspect may not be helping, we could then delete them if appropriate or return them to sale if they turn out not to be the problem. Anyone else?

My experiment is at an end. I purchased a Sony NEX 6 about 6 months ago as a second camera to throw in a backpack or purse that would meet QC. I bought a second 55-210mm zoom, an LCD protector, spare battery, small camera bag and 3-yr warranty through Best Buy. It's a great little camera in near-new condition but I find it will never replace my 5DM2, especially for challenging low light conditions. I figure I'm not using the NEX 6 enough nor selling enough to warrant the investment so if anyone is interested PM me. As for QC, I figure I can always pick up a cheap iPhone.