DAVID WILLIAMS Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 HI How many pictures do you need to upload to start earning money? just joined Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Sorry, but there is not one answer to your question. I had about 350 images up when I made my first two sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackietraveller Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 I'm sure I've read somewhere before on the forum that about 3000 images are needed and must admit I think this is a reasonable amount. I now get zooms most days and sell enough to call it making money. The trick is having good, unique and unusual images as much as quantity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Having over 3000 images does not guarantee regular sales. It depends on your subject matter. ...and it was around 300 images before licensed my first image. I'm sure I've read somewhere before on the forum that about 3000 images are needed and must admit I think this is a reasonable amount. I now get zooms most days and sell enough to call it making money. The trick is having good, unique and unusual images as much as quantity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 HI How many pictures do you need to upload to start earning money? just joined How many (good, varied, saleable) images do you have? How frequently are you going to add to those? How good is your keywording? How diligent are you with the technical quality of your images? Are you aware of what the market wants/needs? How contemporary are your images? How much time are you prepared to invest (in research, shooting, post-processing, captioning/keywording, uploading, reviewing stats.and - most importantly - contributing to the forum! ) and (last but not least) is it all worth it?! Personally, I probably had about 500 - 550 images up before I made a sale (which wasn't [self-]reported until I had about 800 images up). Now, let me get back to measuring that piece of string... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidC Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 HI How many pictures do you need to upload to start earning money? just joined See you just 'joined' - no images up to make a judgement by - or is this market research ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 I have about 16,000 images with Alamy, though all my sales have come from fewer than 500 of them. So I could be getting almost daily sales from 500 pictures - if I had known which 500 to pick (I didn't, and I still don't). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVID WILLIAMS Posted September 28, 2013 Author Share Posted September 28, 2013 I am new to Alamy but do have some knowledge of the Stock industry, pictures of Trees in the Mist or Landscapes with mist still sell very well but now on Microstock. One picture on ISTOCK of the sun shining through the Trees made the Photographer 150,000 dollars 7,500 downloads, the same pictures are still sold on Getty RM and can make big money on advertising sales. Alamy from what I have seen makes most of its sales from Tramps on park benches cut outs on white backgrounds pictures of Road signs,drains, fag ends, Seeds, Kippers, I was just enquiring how much money I could earn. That was explained very well by Arterra who talks a lot of sense and knows what he is talking about, I always read his threads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imagery by Charly Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 Well I'm a newbie here: with 91 images up and under 2 months as a contributor, sold my first image. Although I think Aterra might be correct to some extent, I still think it all depends on too many variables to know for sure how sales will be for each individual. In other words, what about the one with 5K images and no sales in a year? That doesn't fit any average/equation. So I expect the worse and hope for the best without any preconceived notions on expected high sales. Not at all sure where you came up with your Alamy statistics of sales though.... ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dov makabaw Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 Alamy from what I have seen makes most of its sales from Tramps on park benches cut outs on white backgrounds pictures of Road signs,drains, fag ends, Seeds, Kippers, I was just enquiring how much money I could earn. Interesting thoughts. Out of the 100's of pix I have sold none of them fall into any of the above categories. Must broaden my horizons. dov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 Alamy from what I have seen makes most of its sales from Tramps on park benches cut outs on white backgrounds pictures of Road signs,drains, fag ends, Seeds, Kippers, I was just enquiring how much money I could earn. Interesting thoughts. Out of the 100's of pix I have sold none of them fall into any of the above categories. Must broaden my horizons. dov +1 Better get out and take some pics of tramps on benches in front of trees a misty background - just the right time of year! Never did like kippers, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Coombs Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 HI How many pictures do you need to upload to start earning money? just joined I think my first sale came after two years with about 80 pictures online with Alamy. The same picture sold again a couple more times in the same year and it kind of rolled from there. I think somebody already said, it depends what you've got. You could have ten pictures online of the right subject, shot in the right way. If the right buyer is looking for that shot at the right time, hey presto, you're up and running. Everyone on here has a different experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Jordan Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 I asked the same question back in 2006 when I had just started. The answer I got from the then (Yahoo) Alamy forum members was basically that my pics were OK, and I should start to get some sales when I had about 300 images on sale. At that time Alamy had some 3 million images. In fact my first sale was when I had 144 images and the second sale was a year later when I had about 900 images. In the last three years I have been averaging about 1 sale per month per 1000 images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 When I started uploading in 2007, one of the first ten images that I uploaded to Alamy literally sold right away, which was very encouraging. Sales also trickled in as I slowly built my collection during 2008. I'd say that I started getting consistent monthly licenses when I hit about 1000 images (I'm not high-volume). Now, though, the ballgame is completely different, and it's almost impossible to make predictions IMO. There is a huge difference between 4-5 million (2007) and 40+ million (2013) images online. This year, I've been averaging about 2-3 sales per 1000 images, but the ups and downs are much more pronounced than they were a few years ago. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 Not at all sure where you came up with your Alamy statistics of sales though.... ? Go to "My Alamy" > > "AlamyMeasures 2.1" >> "Your images" There you'll see a list with your pseudonyms (each photographer at Arterra is a different pseudonym) and their individual views, zooms, sales and CTRs. Cheers, Philippe ... and then back to Charly's original question, how in the world does that show that Alamy "makes most of its sales from Tramps on park benches cut outs on white backgrounds pictures of Road signs,drains, fag ends, Seeds, Kippers"? Similar to some folk above, of all the images I've had licensed via Alamy, not one even remotely comes from that rather unusual list. dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVID WILLIAMS Posted September 29, 2013 Author Share Posted September 29, 2013 Nearly all the pictures that used to sell well in the days before Microstock, are now selling at 25 cents a go on Shutterstock or other Microstock Agencies. Microstock works by the download so popular subjects that used to get lots of sales on RM are now getting lots of downloads on Microstock. So these subjects now get hardly any sales on Alamy as RM, why would they when they can be brought for 25 cents to use for ever in any way they want. So what is left on Alamy that sells for most people are subjects that Microstock Photographers think would not get lots of downloads, that covers thousands of subjects, what I said before was just a few examples. There are exceptions to this, some of the Pro Landscape, Travel, and Wildlife Photographers etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVID WILLIAMS Posted September 29, 2013 Author Share Posted September 29, 2013 Something I forgot to say, from what I have heard Editorial on Microstock does not sell very well at all, most customers on Microstock just want a picture they can use forever in anyway they want. So any pictures of Property or People without releases, should sell as RM for years to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirco Vacca Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 This is indeed a point. I guess also that on of the strong points of Alamy comparing to Microstock is the editorial choice. The editorial collection on Microstock is limited and not so fast growing as on Alamy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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