8 months and not a single Sale HELP!

[CrisG]

Hi everybody, 

I have got into stock photography about 8 months ago. I have joined Alamy and several other agencies since then. Even though I have made many sales on every single agency I have uploaded to, I still haven't made a single one on Allamy. I have only had 4 zooms in 8 months as well. I don't seem to understand what is the issue?  Is it just really hard to sell on here or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks to you all!!

[Inchiquin]

The main issue is that Alamy has 150 million images and you have just 206.

 

Alan

[spacecadet]

+1.

You are doing yourself, and the rest of us, no favours by uploading the same images to microstock. You might expect about 2 sales a year here from 200 images eventually, but why should anyone pay pounds for your images here when they can get them for pennies on MS?

In addition, you have images listed as RF which should be RM because they contain unreleased people and property.

[CrisG]

3 minutes ago, Inchiquin said:

The main issue is that Alamy has 150 million images and you have just 206.

 

Alan

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your answer! 
I'm trying to understand though why on libraries such as Shutterstock which has over 200 million photos, i got the same images upload, and also 100 downloads. So I'm wondering if there is something else other than number of pictures uploaded which is affecting my activity.

Thanks

[CrisG]

6 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

+1.

You are doing yourself, and the rest of us, no favours by uploading the same images to microstock. You might expect about 2 sales a year here from 200 images eventually, but why should anyone pay pounds for your images here when they can get them for pennies on MS?

In addition, you have images listed as RF which should be RM because they contain unreleased people and property.

Thanks for your answer,

All research I did suggested me to upload the same images to multiple agencies. Doesn't Allamy qualify as MS as well?

Thanks just trying to learn here!

[CrisG]

2 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

It's not hard to figure out.

 

If a product is available at one shop for 10 cents and exactly same item at another shop next door for £10 where would you buy it?

I simply wasn't aware of the price differences in sale across these platforms. So buyers pay for images on Alamy that much more than on other sites? Then why would the come to Alamy in the first place then? There are still incredibly high quality and diverse images on other platforms.

[spacecadet]

22 minutes ago, CrisG said:

. Doesn't Allamy qualify as MS as well?

 

Alamy (one "l") isn't a microstock agency, far from it. Buyers come here for images they can't find elsewhere- so not yours, apparently- secondary editorial and not just generic lifestyle.

You are competing with yourself at rock-bottom prices, and, while you're at it, Alamy has to cut its prices to compete. So you hurt the rest of us as well. Shame your "research" didn't tell you that.

Sorry but we tend to call a spade a spade here.

[CrisG]

5 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Alamy (one "l") isn't a microstock agency, far from it. Buyers come here for images they can't find elsewhere- so not yours, apparently- secondary editorial and not just generic lifestyle.

You are competing with yourself at rock-bottom prices, and, while you're at it, Alamy has to cut its prices to compete. So you hurt the rest of us as well. Shame your "research" didn't tell you that.

Sorry but we tend to call a spade a spade here.

Ok, so everyone here is selling exclusively to Alamy? 

Should I then remove all my shots from Alamy?

[spacecadet]

No, Alamy isn't an exclusive agency.

Surely logic suggests that you should remove them from MS, or at least the sort of image that would sell well on Alamy.

[BobD]

49 minutes ago, CrisG said:

Ok, so everyone here is selling exclusively to Alamy? 

Should I then remove all my shots from Alamy?

 

Most people here have respect for their own images and would not offer them to sites that practically give them away. You alone can decide where your images are offered and what value you place on them.

[Colblimp]

Remove your images from the MS sites, concentrate on Alamy, upload quality pics, correctly captioned and tagged and you'll make sales.

[CrisG]

4 minutes ago, Colblimp said:

Remove your images from the MS sites, concentrate on Alamy, upload quality pics, correctly captioned and tagged and you'll make sales.

 

Thank you Andy for a proper and non patronising answer. Would be nice if others were as respectful as you.

Best Wishes,
Cris

[Thomas Kyhn]

10 minutes ago, Colblimp said:

Remove your images from the MS sites …

 

After realizing how little they actually pay, I've removed (and am in the process of removing) mine from four such agencies.

[spiegel]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

If a product is available at one shop for 10 cents and exactly same item at another shop next door for $10 where would you buy it?

 

That depends on the entrance fee. 
With most agencies it is only possible to secure a favourable price if you have a purchase contract. 
In this respect, it cannot be assumed that all buyers will look around at all agencies. 
I have (almost) the same pictures at many agencies. Nevertheless the bestsellers differ from agency to agency. 
So there must be different buyers or groups of buyers who are only travelling with a few agencies. 

 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

[Futterwithtrees]

I have made a few sales on Alamy since I joined 1 year ago approx but hundreds on other agencies. My zooms on Alamy are significant but have never sold an image on Alamy that was zoomed and have no evidence that the zoomed images have been viewed and sold elsewhere. Bottom line is I am afraid to go exclusive but am willing to .listen. What sort of images do best on Alamy.. i woould also suggest to ChrisG that with only 206 images in your port you can make no real conclusions whatsoever on Alamy potential.

[spiegel]

1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

So why is the OP having problems?

 

Because there are less and/or other buyers at alamy.

 

I post my pictures at 8 agencies.
With 3 agencies the number of sales is very high, with the others it is on the same level as with alamy. 
There is no correlation between the price of the photos and the number of sales. 

It seems to be due to the buyer structure and the marketing.  

 

[Bryan]

3 hours ago, CrisG said:

 

Thank you Andy for a proper and non patronising answer. Would be nice if others were as respectful as you.

Best Wishes,
Cris

 

Chris

 

Stock prices here have plummeted over the last 10 years or so. When I started  it was not unusual to make good 3 figure sales or even better. These days such fees are becoming almost as rare as hen's teeth. Long standing contributors blame the Microstock companies for this, and, by association, their contributors. This may or not be entirely the case, we operate in a free market, but cut price selling can't help.  Feelings run high, a notable long standing contributor to this forum once said that he would like to eat the Micro contributors for breakfast (as he fe;lt that they were ruining his livelihood).  

 

Strangely enough, looking at images sold in the papers,  I often see Alamy sales where the image is also available from Microstcock. I guess the newspapers make bulk purchases from the agencies and instruct their staff to use x number of shots.

 

I only contribute to Alamy, and have made a decent, although now declining, amount over recent years. Won't be moving to the dark side anytime soon  

[spiegel]

19 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

I find this very hard to believe. 

 

There are 3 big agencies at MS, I don't want to list the names here, but they should be known. 
This is where most MS photos are sold. 
Besides there are a lot of other stock agencies, partly operating worldwide, partly limited to local markets. 
The price differences for the buyers are not very big with all these agencies.

Nevertheless, none of the smaller agencies manages to get close to the "big three". 
So it has to do with prices only conditionally.  
The reason is rather the partly extremely aggressive marketing of the big three.

 

The competition with the prices led in all other respects to the fact that the contributors often just get a small tip. 
In this respect, alamy, with fair conditions and respectful treatment, is very pleasant to me. 

So I hope for the future, that the general number of sales (which is correlated to the number of buyers) rises. 

[Ed Rooney]

7 hours ago, CrisG said:

Hi everybody, 

I have got into stock photography about 8 months ago. I have joined Alamy and several other agencies since then. Even though I have made many sales on every single agency I have uploaded to, I still haven't made a single one on Allamy. I have only had 4 zooms in 8 months as well. I don't seem to understand what is the issue?  Is it just really hard to sell on here or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks to you all!!

 

Hopefully, Cristino, you understand the advice given about MS Agencies, so I won't repeat all that. 

 

First you must understand that Alamy is a long and slow at first game. If you want to get sales, you must be patient and keep shooting and submitting images. if you sit and wait to see what happens with your 206 images you will fail with Alamy. You also need to stop submitting lots of similar images -- upload 3 or 4 and no more. And you need to improve your PP and your caps and tags. You seem to travel a lot so make a third of your images landmarks, with and without people, and label them fully and correctly.

 

Good luck, Edo

[Cryptoprocta]

14 hours ago, spacecadet said:

In addition, you have images listed as RF which should be RM because they contain unreleased people and property.

RF Editorial is an option on Alamy.

[Cryptoprocta]

15 hours ago, CrisG said:

Hi everybody, 

I have got into stock photography about 8 months ago. I have joined Alamy and several other agencies since then. Even though I have made many sales on every single agency I have uploaded to, I still haven't made a single one on Allamy. I have only had 4 zooms in 8 months as well. I don't seem to understand what is the issue?  Is it just really hard to sell on here or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks to you all!!

I had over 800 pics and about 7 or  months before I had my first sale, and that was in 2009 when the collection was much smaller.

 

It is far harder so sell here. However, there are people who have the same files here and on m****s who sell here as well as there. In some cases, the buyers are different, and in some cases someone who only wants one file from a micro will have to pay lots for it.

I have different files here than on my (one) micro, and make more there, despite having more files on here. Keep going and see what works for you. The best bit of advice is for each of your images, look at the competition and ask yourself why a buyer would choose your file rather than the competition.

[Brasilnut]

We must be careful when advising newbies on what they should or shouldn't do. I feel that much of the evidence presented above in regards to the reason why someone may not be getting as many sales here if they have duplicated in micros are worded as if  they were "facts" when they are just opinions. Not meaning to boast but few have done as much research as I have into this matter and I have seen little evidence of buyers searching elsewhere. 

 

I'm of the opinion that it's a complex issue and price differentiation is only one factor which perhaps isn't even the biggest factor when deciding where to shop for same/similar images.

 

As Alamy's own James Allsworth quoted on my blog:

 

 

Quote

Question: Does submitting images to subscription-based Microstock sites impact potentially higher-priced sales on Alamy (RF)?

 

Answer: “Perhaps. The honest answer is that we can’t be sure. We’re non-exclusive, so we’re always going to have imagery in our collection that appears elsewhere at various different price points (higher and lower). Because that’s the case, we work on making sure the buying experience is so good, that the customer doesn’t want (or need) to look elsewhere. With us, customers can pick up the phone and talk to sales staff and get quick responses to questions etc – something you don’t see as much with the microstock guys (if at all).

 Some customers don’t have time to shop around, some do. Many work via contracts with agencies (or vendor agreements as they are called) so have deals in place to only source images from certain providers. Some clients want a very tailored licence agreement and therefore need a very bespoke service which is where we have an advantage too. Lots of people wrongly assume that a microstock licence means images can be used for anything and everything but it’s often not that simple.”

 

All swans are white, the Earth is flat and micro duplication affects Alamy sales....those are dogmatic arguments. 

 

If someone can present me clear facts that duplication directly affects sales here I'm all ears. 

 

Link to blog post and interview with James here. 

[CrisG]

17 hours ago, Cryptoprocta said:

I had over 800 pics and about 7 or  months before I had my first sale, and that was in 2009 when the collection was much smaller.

 

It is far harder so sell here. However, there are people who have the same files here and on m****s who sell here as well as there. In some cases, the buyers are different, and in some cases someone who only wants one file from a micro will have to pay lots for it.

I have different files here than on my (one) micro, and make more there, despite having more files on here. Keep going and see what works for you. The best bit of advice is for each of your images, look at the competition and ask yourself why a buyer would choose your file rather than the competition.

 

58 minutes ago, Brasilnut said:

We must be careful when advising newbies on what they should or shouldn't do. I feel that much of the evidence presented above in regards to the reason why someone may not be getting as many sales here if they have duplicated in micros are worded as if  they were "facts" when they are just opinions. Not meaning to boast but few have done as much research as I have into this matter and I have seen little evidence of buyers searching elsewhere. 

 

I'm of the opinion that it's a complex issue and price differentiation is only one factor which perhaps isn't even the biggest factor when deciding where to shop for same/similar images.

 

As Alamy's own James Allsworth quoted on my blog:

 

 

 

All swans are white, the Earth is flat and micro duplication affects Alamy sales....those are dogmatic arguments. 

 

If someone can present me clear facts that duplication directly affects sales here I'm all ears. 

Thank  you for your honest and informative answers! 

I will take all of the suggestions and make my own conculsions.

These make much more sense to me than the first answers received. Buying stock images is not like hunting for the cheapest deal at a flea market.

Furthermore deciding to remove all my shots from places that have given me consistent and decent income, and only keeping them on a platform which has never given me a sign of potential sale, is a even more hard decision. I guess I will try out different strategies and see how they will work in the future.

Many Thanks

 

[CrisG]

On 04/10/2018 at 18:05, Ed Rooney said:

 

Hopefully, Cristino, you understand the advice given about MS Agencies, so I won't repeat all that. 

 

First you must understand that Alamy is a long and slow at first game. If you want to get sales, you must be patient and keep shooting and submitting images. if you sit and wait to see what happens with your 206 images you will fail with Alamy. You also need to stop submitting lots of similar images -- upload 3 or 4 and no more. And you need to improve your PP and your caps and tags. You seem to travel a lot so make a third of your images landmarks, with and without people, and label them fully and correctly.

 

Good luck, Edo

Thank you Edo for the very practical and specific suggestions, very appreciative of the time you have taken for me!
 

[spacecadet]

8 minutes ago, CrisG said:

 

Thank  you for your honest and informative answers! 

I will take all of the suggestions and make my own conculsions.

These make much more sense to me than the first answers received. Buying stock images is not like hunting for the cheapest deal at a flea market.

Furthermore deciding to remove all my shots from places that have given me consistent and decent income, and only keeping them on a platform which has never given me a sign of potential sale, is a even more hard decision. I guess I will try out different strategies and see how they will work in the future.

Many Thanks

 

Beware of listening only to the answers you want to hear.