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I dreamt of a sale


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I guess it has come to that for me. Dreaming about Alamy sales. 

 

I started in July 2012. I had a big first RF sale in September 2012. Then nothing more in 2012, but in January 2013 I had 2 sales, and then one sale every month. But as of July 2013 I have not had a single sale. 

 

I have listened to the advice here, I removed abundant keywords, started adding RM, started keywording nice and tight (relevant only), adding good images, my zooms went up ever since, sales started to come in slow but steady. 

 

And for two months I get nothing, I have more zooms then before but no sales,  and now I am dreaming of Alamy sales, as that is the only way they happen for me at the moment.... in my dreams. 

 

Is there a general slow down on Alamy or is it just the luck of the draw for me? 

 

 

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What I found is that the summer period was dead. But then things have, fingers crossed, started rolling again.

 

You've got 416 images so best i could say is keep getting out there every day/ week.

 

And don't forget to get a good variety of things. I was a dedicated landscape photography but you come to realise that doing just that isn't going to work. I've added in a few other things and off we go:)

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You probably need 2000+ photos to see regular sales. It's getting harder for sure with 40 million photos now live. I have sold one or more photos a month for a couple of years now, however despite increasing my portfolio size, my revenue isn't increasing incrementally because average prices have continued to fall. Hopefully they've bottomed out now. Judging by the amount of photos that still get uploaded, I've come to the conclusion that Alamy photographers are masochists in the extreme

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You probably need 2000+ photos to see regular sales. It's getting harder for sure with 40 million photos now live. I have sold one or more photos a month for a couple of years now, however despite increasing my portfolio size, my revenue isn't increasing incrementally because average prices have continued to fall. Hopefully they've bottomed out now. Judging by the amount of photos that still get uploaded, I've come to the conclusion that Alamy photographers are masochists in the extreme

 

- yes, do not repress that things have become tougher - image-wise it is a brave new world. I sold much more with less images a year or two ago, and I won't mention at what prices.  40+ million images and growing, agency images of mixed quality outranking your images, and perhaps some buyers to your type of images have left.

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Lack of sales on Alamy is because of a number of reasons poor Alamy rank, picture subjects the size of the collection but the biggest reason by miles is Microstock.

 

I just do not understand people on here mention lots of reasons for lack of sales but never mention the main reason, Shutterstock is now worth a Billion pounds.

 

Where do you think Shutterstock made a Billion pounds from destroying RM sales selling pictures at 25 cents a go, so the strange irony is the Person who started this thread complains about lack of sales.

 

But supplies the very Agency that is the main cause of his lack of sales Shutterstock, and describes it as his favorite and best selling Agency.

 

I just do not understand people on here who complain about their lack of sales on Alamy but then supply Agencies selling pictures for 25 cents they can use forever for what ever use they want.

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I am not new to Stock, but have been reading the Alamy forums for years so i know how Alamy works, if I want to know the current state of the Stock Industry I just read comments like from the person who started this thread.

 

And then I just get depressed and know that the Stock Industry is in a race to the bottom, when I want to buy a set of Tyres for my Car I ring around different companies.

 

And if I find one doing a cheap deal 50 miles from Home I quote that price to my local Tyre company and get a cheap deal, customers to the Stock Agencies do the same thing.

 

They just say I can buy a picture from Shuttetstock I can use for ever for 25 cents, what deal can you do for me?

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My experience is that in this calendar year I am already up by about 30% on the last two full years in number of sales, with three months to go. I am not raking in megabucks or talking about huge numbers, but at least the trend is going the right way for me as my portfolio grows.

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I am not new to Stock, but have been reading the Alamy forums for years so i know how Alamy works, if I want to know the current state of the Stock Industry I just read comments like from the person who started this thread.

 

And then I just get depressed and know that the Stock Industry is in a race to the bottom, when I want to buy a set of Tyres for my Car I ring around different companies.

 

And if I find one doing a cheap deal 50 miles from Home I quote that price to my local Tyre company and get a cheap deal, customers to the Stock Agencies do the same thing.

 

They just say I can buy a picture from Shuttetstock I can use for ever for 25 cents, what deal can you do for me?

 

You should try and buy a single image for 25c on any microstock site and let us know how you get on.

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Two minus for asking a normal question and sharing my experiences? Can you please explain? Or are the down votes placed because I submit to micro agencies as well? 

 

I didnt create the micros, I wanted to make money with my photography and when searching the internet I found several options. Getty, Istock, Alamy, FAA and the micros. I had no idea about the differences between RF and RM or about selling photos altogether. So I tried it all. Getty was impossible, my images werent good enough for Alamy or not big enough, I didnt feel  I was good enough for  FAA. I was rejected on Shutterstock and Istock so I ended up submitting to 123RF and a few others. I became a better photographer and got accepted into Shutterstock and then also started submitting to FAA. In July 2012 I was accepted into Alamy and thats where I learned the differences between RF RM and the history of it all and the hate for RF micros. 

 

By then I was generating an income from the micros and FAA and my sales on Alamy have always been slow. At this point RF micro makes me 10 times more then Alamy. So forgive me for not wanting to retract all my portfolios from the micros and end up making nothing from RM. Its a business right? 

 

So my sales have slowed down on Alamy and after two months of no sales I figured I would ask the question. An honest question. So why the down votes? What did I do wrong? Do I need to apologise for submitting to micros? Is there no place for my images on Alamy? I am in the understanding I am not breaking Alamy rules by selling my images here. 

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Two minus for asking a normal question and sharing my experiences? Can you please explain? Or are the down votes placed because I submit to micro agencies as well? 

 

I am didnt create the micros, I wanted to make money with my photography and when searching the internet I found several options. Getty, Istock, Alamy, FAA and the micros. I had no idea about the differences between RF and RM or about selling photos altogether. So I tried it all. Getty was impossible, my images werent good enough for Alamy or not big enough, I didnt feel  I was good enough for  FAA. I was rejected on Shutterstock and Istock so I ended up submitting to 123RF and a few others. I became a better photographer and got accepted into Shutterstock and then also started submitting to FAA. In July 2012 I was accepted into Alamy and thats where I learned the differences between RF RM and the history of it all and the hate for RF micros. 

 

By then I was generating an income from the micros and FAA and my sales on Alamy have always been slow. At this point RF micro makes me 10 times more then Alamy. So forgive me for not wanting to retract all my portfolios from the micros and end up making nothing from RM. Its a business right? 

 

So my sales have slowed down on Alamy and after two months of no sales I figured I would ask the question. An honest question. So why the down votes? What did I do wrong? Do I need to apologise for submitting to micros? Is there no place for my images on Alamy? I am in the understanding I am not breaking Alamy rules by selling my images here. 

"Semmick photo",

 

I have to say that i understand your thinking. But you will also see that after you will have more images on Alamy that it also will pay off. I also did send to microstock and it is true that you make allready sales with 400 images. But it are many small sales. I started to see sale on Alamy after 2000 images. And then one that could be like 70 times a microstock sale.

 

Comparing Alamy to microstock is almost not possible and not fair. Alamy has much more images so the difference between amount of images and sale is different then microstock (but higher earning). Next to that Alamy has a total different market then microstock. It is the kind of photographer that you are to make decision what fits better to you and also piece of own experience.

 

I can imagine as a buyer that it attracts to buy a image of 50 cents. But also i can image that other buyers dont want to licence a image that is allready in use by 1000 other companies for many different uses. This are the buyers that prefers Alamy with much more images and RM licence.

 

Mirco

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But the line between RM and RF is fading. I have sales here on ALamy for 1.50 or 10 dollar. On Shutterstock I have 70 dollar sales (people are reporting 120 dollar sales and higher). I sell my own images for 17.50 euro. In the end its about the bottom line. My RPD on Alamy is 30 times higher then on the micros, but if there are not enough sales, its not helping me at all. 

 

This is the last thing I say about RF RM for me, I didnt have the slightest intention to start a debate about that. I just wanted to find out why I havent had a sale in two months. 

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But the line between RM and RF is fading. I have sales here on ALamy for 1.50 or 10 dollar. On Shutterstock I have 70 dollar sales (people are reporting 120 dollar sales and higher). I sell my own images for 17.50 euro. In the end its about the bottom line. My RPD on Alamy is 30 times higher then on the micros, but if there are not enough sales, its not helping me at all. 

 

This is the last thing I say about RF RM for me, I didnt have the slightest intention to start a debate about that. I just wanted to find out why I havent had a sale in two months. 

 

Dont worry no debate.

 

You have good images so i think it is just that you dont have enough of them here. Most people that have good profits have at least 10.000 images.

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You are not alone in wondering why we have dry spells.

 

I've had a very good month with another agency who have been pro-active in getting me on board, getting accreditation sorted for me and chasing sales to both our benefits. They have got me a commission later in the week and my £ sales are into 4 figures net already. I've had more newspaper usage in three weeks with them than in 9 months with Alamy.

 

When I asked Alamy to arrange accreditation for me to an event they said they were too busy and to do it myself. They would be happy to take any images I sent in from it though. I feel like we have to do all the work for our 50% where an agency should be doing more to earn it's 50% share

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I was at 500 images when Alamy told me I'd need 1000 images to see regular views and zooms. I was at 100 when they told me I'd need 500 to see regular sales. I literally scratched my head for a while over that one. 

 

It's hard to keep going at the bottom. I've maybe licensed about 6 images, 3 being reported. The wait time from learning about a sale and actually being paid is pretty frustrating. However, Alamy can bring success to those who just keep going. People reporting regular sales in the "How was your *insert month*" thread are folk that have large portfolios so it is possible and there is sales. So maybe it is a numbers game. 

 

I'm going to keep plugging away as I see Alamy as a long term thing in between other things I'm involved in. One day someone will want to license a picture of that bin I took in 2011 lol

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I only have a few images up made have made 2 sales to date. It is not much of an encouragement for new contributors to contribute more though when at current rates it will be several years before any of my earnings will be paid to me :-/

 

Also does not encourage me when since my initial submission acceptance I have made 16 successful multiple submissions in a row without a fail and now my 17th submission appears that it will be a fail as it was submitted on the 23rd September and still awaiting QC. But why if you can pass a submission in under 24 hours do you make me wait for such a long time for a fail? Is this for punishment? If I had regular fails i could understand maybe.

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