Decline in sales 2019

[escapetheofficejob]

Hi

First post on here & I would be very grateful for any feedback you may have to offer.

 

SALES DECLINE

My sales up to the end of 2018 were increasing roughly in line with the number of photos online, achieving an average of just under a sale a week last year. However my sales for Jan-Mar 2019 have been almost nil and I am at a loss to explain this sudden drop. I would have expected them to remain constant even without the 1000+ images I have keyworded from late 2018 onwards. FYI I am still getting roughly the same zooms. Has anyone else experienced a drop in sales with Alamy this year?

 

Many thanks in advance, Regards, Rich

[Mr Standfast]

Rich,

 

Alamy sales have in my experience tracked with the economy. 

• It has gone down in the past but also recovered.
• I felt that the time lag between views/zooms and getting a license also increased.

Its our fault for letting politicians and bankers run the economy.  If it was left to photographers then all would be roses.

 

Keep submitting pictures and when confidence returns you will be well placed to benefit.

 

James

 

 

[Bill Kuta]

Not seeing a problem. So far this year, I have 47% of my total sales for 2018, and 57% of the revenue.

[Sultanpepa]

It's a bit up and down so far. A good start to the year and now in the doldrums. I'm not feeling the love at the moment, zooms poor, few sales, no news feed access, no incentive. 😥

[Michael Ventura]

I am not seeing a decline in sales but I am seeing a decline in fees.

[Bill Brooks]

Your images are mainly travel oriented and I think that is might be the reason.

Travel image clients choose their images Jan to March accounting for your present zooms, but make their image purchases for summer travel brochures only when the brochure goes to press in May. Same thing in the fall for 2020 calendars.

So you are probably due for a pickup in sales.

[Rico]

1 hour ago, Bill Brooks said:

Your images are mainly travel oriented and I think that is might be the reason.

Travel image clients choose their images Jan to March accounting for your present zooms, but make their image purchases for summer travel brochures only when the brochure goes to press in May. Same thing in the fall for 2020 calendars.

So you are probably due for a pickup in sales.

I hope you're right.

I had a whole boatload of travel zooms in January, mostly of Myanmar.

[escapetheofficejob]

Many thanks to everyone who has replied much appreciated & a special thanks to Bill for checking out my images to give me picture specific advice. I do remain baffled however as Jan was my best month in 2018 by volume I think and certainly value. Ill just keep my fingers crossed. At least the issue has made me join this forum which appears to be a great network of info & advice having reviewed some of the posts here, cheers Rich.

[amycicconi]

My January through March were looking like 2019 was going to be the best year in my 10 year history here - in terms of both sales volume and revenue.

 

Now April has ground to a screeching halt...

[Paul Glendell]

2 hours ago, amycicconi said:

My January through March were looking like 2019 was going to be the best year in my 10 year history here - in terms of both sales volume and revenue.

 

Now April has ground to a screeching halt...

Same for me !

[losdemas]

1 hour ago, Paul Glendell said:

Same for me !

 

Ditto - it happens.  I was half-expecting it.  I had a dry period of 70 days* here between July & Sept last year (my own little drought!), then Feb was my best (gross) month ever on Alamy.  Good & bad; Yin & Yang and all that.

 

*Even so, 2018 still turned out to be my best year so far on Alamy (mind you, Live News helped and er, 'nuff said)

Edited April 19, 2019 by losdemas

[John Mitchell]

Jan. and Feb., were both above average for me. March was was average-ish, as is April so far, but with some decent sales, including two $$$ ones.

 

My biggest concern is that I now have too many images just sitting around gathering dust. I may have to figure out something else to do with them, even though I quite like the exclusivity idea.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2019 by John Mitchell

[IanDavidson]

Given that Alamy has more than 150 million images and the latest reported sales figures were in excess of twenty two million pounds; any individual fluctuation in sales is "noise".  My understanding, and I may be wrong, is that there are around 17,000 active contributors so one contributor is  0.0058% of the contributor base  and that ignores the impact of partner agency contributors.  You would need to aggregate several hundred users to get any statistically significant trends

[andremichel]

I am not seeing a total collapse but I am not getting any $$$ sales anymore. At best I might get a mid $$ ocassionally. This is resulting in a large fall in the average price of each of my sales this year compared to last year.

 

My total revenues are similar to 2016 when I had 6000 (50%) less images on Alamy.  This is without even considering the impact of the 40% commision drop.

 

Take this month for example. 13 sales so far totalling only $247 gross, gives an average of just $19 gross for each image or $7.60 net.

 

I find it hard to believe this is down to noise.

[John Mitchell]

24 minutes ago, andremichel said:

I am not seeing a total collapse but I am not getting any $$$ sales anymore. At best I might get a mid $$ ocassionally. This is resulting in a large fall in the average price of each of my sales this year compared to last year.

 

My total revenues are similar to 2016 when I had 6000 (50%) less images on Alamy.  This is without even considering the impact of the 40% commision drop.

 

Take this month for example. 13 sales so far totalling only $247 gross, gives an average of just $19 gross for each image or $7.60 net.

 

I find it hard to believe this is down to noise.

 

I've been "plateauing" now -- both in sales numbers and revenue -- for several years, despite continuously adding new images. I'm certainly not complaining since I believe that I'm doing better than most, plus my average price per sale, while declining slightly every year, is still pretty good. However, I do think that Alamy needs to figure out a way to increase sales volume for its contributors. Not sure that it's possible in today's over-saturated marketplace, but...

[Betty LaRue]

I’ve definitely noticed fewer sales per month over the past year. A rare good month now and then. My zooms are healthy. Makes me wonder if they are being stolen.

[Marb]

This month is pathetic. I can hardly be bothered with the tedious 10 keyword selection when my images are passed by QC as I know they will go into a big black hole. 

Edited April 23, 2019 by Marb

[Colblimp]

My sales are way up this year - very happy!

 

As for you, Marb, we've been through this ad nauseum, you have to stay positive and keep uploading and tagging.  You'll get sales at the end of the month, we both always do.  I've had 2 sales so far this month, which I'm very happy about as I know I'm making headway. 

[Sultanpepa]

1 hour ago, Marb said:

This month is pathetic. I can hardly be bothered with the tedious 10 keyword selection when my images are passed by QC as I know they will go into a big black hole. 

 

Got to agree with you. On the face of it, and I know it's only 23rd, this month has been a bit of a wash out. Zoom count is awful with CTR at 0.29, I've two little PU sales and obviously still no news access. 😖

[Cryptoprocta]

55 minutes ago, Sultanpepa said:

 

Got to agree with you. On the face of it, and I know it's only 23rd, this month has been a bit of a wash out. Zoom count is awful with CTR at 0.29, I've two little PU sales and obviously still no news access. 😖

Same here, except my zooms have gone up in the past week.

[NYCat]

2 hours ago, Marb said:

This month is pathetic. I can hardly be bothered with the tedious 10 keyword selection when my images are passed by QC as I know they will go into a big black hole. 

 

I love your frogs. You should put the scientific name in all your flora and fauna. People do search that way.

 

Paulette

[andremichel]

2 hours ago, Colblimp said:

My sales are way up this year - very happy! 

How are your stock sales when you exclude live news?

 

Best to compare like for like. 

[njene]

Not that I’ve ever had great sales, but my sales this year are a lot less than last years - although I have to say that the average price for each sale has been quite good 

[Shergar]

On 19/04/2019 at 13:18, Betty LaRue said:

I’ve definitely noticed fewer sales per month over the past year. A rare good month now and then. My zooms are healthy. Makes me wonder if they are being stolen.

Hi betty,

 

I thought your sales had improved since you edited your keywords, has that not continued? Im slowly working through mine and Im hoping that it will help my sales.

 

 

Shergar

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, Shergar said:

Hi betty,

 

I thought your sales had improved since you edited your keywords, has that not continued? Im slowly working through mine and Im hoping that it will help my sales.

 

 

Shergar

They did improve. But whenever I worked them over was awhile ago. It seems at least the past 6 months, anyway, sales have declined. That said, working mine over has resulted in sales of old images. But life circumstances have kept me from uploading on a regular basis. I have a firm belief that uploads every week seems to help my images come up higher in searches. I’ve done good to manage a few once or twice a month for quite a while. During the time I was adding 80-100 a month was best for sales.

And during the time I have had less output, everyone else has uploaded a LOT of images, so competition is fierce. 

 

If my family can stay healthy, I just might be able to get myself in gear again. Here’s hoping. So keep on fixing your tags. It does help. But while you do, be steady with adding images.

Betty