Serious Questions that needs serious answers!

[Aaron]

22 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

" Does that bar actually state the actual discovery of the images?"

 

No, it's misleading in the regard. An image that has long been buried in the depths can still have high "discoverability". Being able to see how many times individual images have been viewed would be a welcome and much more useful feature. Personally, I think that ranking is the most important driver of how "discoverable" an image is -- i.e. the higher an image is ranked, the higher up it will appear in customer searches.

Ok thanks

[John Mitchell]

2 hours ago, Aaron said:

Ok thanks

 

The only time I pay any attention to the discoverability bar is when tagging "concept" images and abstracts, backgrounds, and the like. It's probably best to have as many keywords as possible with these types of images. I've no proof that it actually helps, though.

[Aaron]

Yeah I am going to less worry about that and more worry about content in the image that needs tagging. Before I missed read your comment and had to edit it. But I am going to try to follow the standards everyone is doing. What and/or who then where so the search results come back to the first part and focus on tagging words that are of the image.

[meanderingemu]

On 27/09/2019 at 19:19, M.Chapman said:

 

You need to be very careful with this sort of testing. I recommend using brand new images that have never been sold or zoomed. I have evidence that if an image has been previously zoomed using the same keyword search term as you are using in your test, it is very likely be promoted in search results. This can confuse the results considerably.

 

Mark

 

 

Hi Mark.

 

I just tried another one, with 2 recent images that have never been searched on based on myAlamy, and the one for my worse Pseudonym appeared first...  So pseudonym impact is inconclusive on search rankings.  i might actually start a new separate thread to discuss Pseudonym 

[flavio massari]

For non mother tongue english photographers, keywording can need some help from some tools available on the web (but this is not automatic keywording), and I don't think is a bad practice if you review the result

 

About the green bar, what you think about using composite keywords of 2 or 3 words, repeating the single words used in the keywords field? 

For example, I use Amalfi, coast, coastline, but also Amalfi Coastline, AMalfi coast, and I reach the green bar this way.

Do you think it is an useless process?

 

[M.Chapman]

2 hours ago, flavio massari said:

For non mother tongue english photographers, keywording can need some help from some tools available on the web (but this is not automatic keywording), and I don't think is a bad practice if you review the result

 

About the green bar, what you think about using composite keywords of 2 or 3 words, repeating the single words used in the keywords field? 

For example, I use Amalfi, coast, coastline, but also Amalfi Coastline, AMalfi coast, and I reach the green bar this way.

Do you think it is an useless process?

 

 

Alamy can and do change the search algorithm from time to time. Ignore trying to reach the green bar, just use relevant words and phrases. The best way to find out what's currently happening is to do your own testing, it only takes a few minutes over several days. as follows;

 

Make change to tags

Wait 24 hours for database to update

Check image position in search results

Repeat

 

Mark

[Marianne]

I think that pseudos don't matter as much as they used to.

 

Last week, I had two zooms from a batch of 10 night city photos of a major southern city that I uploaded in June, on two different but similar searches. One was in my primary pseudo with a current CTR of .72 (CTR > 1.0 last week when the search was done) and the other is in my old live news pseudo (CTR 0.28 😞).  Both show up in "Creative" and neither have been viewed or zoomed before.

 

The one in the low ranked pseudo was zoomed in a search where the buyer looked at only 200 photos; the other in a search where they looked at 900. The searches were for the city and state with an additional general term and each one showed up on page one for the search. Surprisingly, the high-ranking pseudo image was in the third row and the low-ranking one was the very first photo. 

 

The 2 images are also on page 1 for "Relevant" though the total number of images jumps a lot, with the rest from that shot spread among the first few pages. Not sure why they were split up - I think I had my old Live News set as the default and forgot to move that one photo - but it doesn't seem to have made any difference since search rank in both "Creative" and "Relevant" seems to take your entire portfolio into account.

 

Interestingly, all 10 from the shoot are clumped together and buried on page 7 when I search under "New."  Moreover,  the pseudo makes no difference at all since in the "New" search they appear in the exact same order that they do on my Alamy Image Manager page. So, it may be that when a client searches for "New" images, rank doesn't seem to matter at all.  Incentive to upload regularly. 

 

Re Keywords: They are in the green but < 50 tags, used all 10 supertags. About 20% of my images are in the orange - more would be but my old images have tons of tags from the old triplicate system. I've been trying to limit my tags to about 30-40 for new uploads. 

 

 

[Aaron]

8 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

 

Alamy can and do change the search algorithm from time to time. Ignore trying to reach the green bar, just use relevant words and phrases. The best way to find out what's currently happening is to do your own testing, it only takes a few minutes over several days. as follows;

 

Make change to tags

Wait 24 hours for database to update

Check image position in search results

Repeat

 

Mark

That is just to much wasted energy and time which I don't have all the time. I don't want to stir things up but I have to be honest. I uploaded photos of a parade on Shutterstock. They all got sold. I made $300 all of it was editorial use with extended license agreement. I don't know if enough people in media design or outlets or businesses know that much about Alamy or using Alamy. I may have started out wrong on here and I still need to fix things but I have no CTRs but views. I have been changing things and still nothing. So I am just tired of continually trying when things are not happening. Alamy may work for some but not for many. To much is going on here, to much is moving around. Alamy is not so widely known in the design world maybe more in other countries and editorial is not being noticed as much on here either. What I have came to learn from people who are successful, they majority of people in European countries. I will keep the photos I have  on here and fix them from time to time. But they will not be exclusive anymore. I been using L.A. Photography pseudo and still nothing. If I upload the same photos on here what I have uploaded on Shutterstock and I get more sells from them than on here. Then something is going wrong. Either I or like I said not widely known in the design field, that is how I see it. Thank everyone for all your help.    

[M.Chapman]

59 minutes ago, Aaron said:

That is just to much wasted energy and time which I don't have all the time. I don't want to stir things up but I have to be honest. I uploaded photos of a parade on Shutterstock. They all got sold. I made $300 all of it was editorial use with extended license agreement. I don't know if enough people in media design or outlets or businesses know that much about Alamy or using Alamy. I may have started out wrong on here and I still need to fix things but I have no CTRs but views. I have been changing things and still nothing. So I am just tired of continually trying when things are not happening. Alamy may work for some but not for many. To much is going on here, to much is moving around. Alamy is not so widely known in the design world maybe more in other countries and editorial is not being noticed as much on here either. What I have came to learn from people who are successful, they majority of people in European countries. I will keep the photos I have  on here and fix them from time to time. But they will not be exclusive anymore. I been using L.A. Photography pseudo and still nothing. If I upload the same photos on here what I have uploaded on Shutterstock and I get more sells from them than on here. Then something is going wrong. Either I or like I said not widely known in the design field, that is how I see it. Thank everyone for all your help.    

 

OK. I think the main issue maybe that you're expecting fast sales on Alamy. It looks from your Avatar info that you only joined in Aug 2019 and have uploaded over 5,000 images but are expecting sales already? (Apologies if I've got that wrong). Alamy isn't like SS. On SS images are paid for as soon as they are downloaded and sell for low fees. On Alamy many customers have accounts that allow them to download images and they only pay later if they actually use the image. Some of the bigger fees on Alamy come from magazine and book usages. An author may already have selected and downloaded some of your images and is busy writing their book or article. If, and when, the article or book is finally published the customer will declare that they have used the images and invoices will be issued by Alamy.  This may take months or even years, but the fees are typically much higher. Alamy is a long game which can be very discouraging when starting out. The key things to watch, when starting out on Alamy, are shown in Alamy Measures for your images.

 

1) Are you getting views? If so this shows that customers are interested in the images containing the same tags/captions as yours and that your image placement is high enough that their thumbnails are being seen. I've got 4,500 images on Alamy and get 1,000 views per week. I'm not saying that is a good or bad, I simply quote my numbers so you can compare.

 

2) Are you getting zooms? Zooms do not indicate sales, but do indicate that customers have taken a closer look at some of your images. Zooms show that the content of your image is of interest to them. It's another good sign. I typically get 5 zooms per week. So my CTR is around 5/1000 = 0.5% which is close to the Alamy average. I wish it was better. I probably have too many similars which get views but only one gets zoomed. The best (most efficient/successful) contributors on Alamy have really tight collections of excellent images of a diverse range of subjects and places. If you're getting views but no zooms then check your keywords are sensible (look at Alamy measures, you can see what the customer was looking for and which of your images they saw). Also look at other contributors images that come up for the same search term and see if you can spot why they didn't choose to look more closely (zoom) yours.

 

If you are getting healthy views and zooms, sales are very likely to follow, but you need to be patient.

 

Mark

[Marianne]

@Aaron US editorial can sometimes do better elsewhere but it needs to sell a lot more often to do so. In the past couple of years, I started feeling the same way you do and so uploaded some editorial images both here and to another site, with varying results. I still upload the bulk of them to Alamy. 

Some examples: $40 for 65 downloads of one image vs. $20 net for 1 download on Alamy.  Seven of an annual event, $46 for 93 downloads vs. $43 net for 1 download on Alamy, so just one sale here earned me nearly as much as almost 100 elsewhere. Another where Alamy was way on top: $54 for 151 sales vs. $200 net for only 4 sales.  But during the 2016 elections, none of my Live News images of Hillary Clinton taken at an event were licensed here, but on another site I made about $50 with a handful of those images, 60 downloads, as well as seeing images of her taken as long ago as 2006 sell. (I made much more back in 2006 with those shots but that's a different issue).

 

Single sales here can pay off faster.  I uploaded a simple sign on Alamy that has been licensed a few times, earning me over $60 net for one sale ($125 exclusive image), with two additional smaller sales bringing my total to about $75 net. ... but not always: Other signs uploaded to both sites, $117 for 146 downloads vs $5 net here for 1 sale; but $42 for 64 sales elsewhere vs nearly double that, $78 net here for only 2 sales.  As these examples show, I could pick and choose images to argue that one site or the other is better for US editorial images.

 

I guess my take away is to spread your images out, especially as you are from the US. If I was in the UK I might think very differently.  

 

Most important though, don't give up on Alamy. 

 

Editorial sales are their strong suit and Alamy is quite well known in the US editorial community - Alamy has licensed my US images to US magazines such as Coastal Living and Vogue, and to US newspaper groups around the country.  I've had single editorial images licensed here for as much as $400 ($200 net) and even this year had one for $245 (distributor so I only made $85 but I'm glad that neither image was available at lower priced sites).  

[Aaron]

On 06/10/2019 at 01:46, M.Chapman said:

 

OK. I think the main issue maybe that you're expecting fast sales on Alamy. It looks from your Avatar info that you only joined in Aug 2019 and have uploaded over 5,000 images but are expecting sales already? (Apologies if I've got that wrong). Alamy isn't like SS. On SS images are paid for as soon as they are downloaded and sell for low fees. On Alamy many customers have accounts that allow them to download images and they only pay later if they actually use the image. Some of the bigger fees on Alamy come from magazine and book usages. An author may already have selected and downloaded some of your images and is busy writing their book or article. If, and when, the article or book is finally published the customer will declare that they have used the images and invoices will be issued by Alamy.  This may take months or even years, but the fees are typically much higher. Alamy is a long game which can be very discouraging when starting out. The key things to watch, when starting out on Alamy, are shown in Alamy Measures for your images.

 

1) Are you getting views? If so this shows that customers are interested in the images containing the same tags/captions as yours and that your image placement is high enough that their thumbnails are being seen. I've got 4,500 images on Alamy and get 1,000 views per week. I'm not saying that is a good or bad, I simply quote my numbers so you can compare.

 

2) Are you getting zooms? Zooms do not indicate sales, but do indicate that customers have taken a closer look at some of your images. Zooms show that the content of your image is of interest to them. It's another good sign. I typically get 5 zooms per week. So my CTR is around 5/1000 = 0.5% which is close to the Alamy average. I wish it was better. I probably have too many similars which get views but only one gets zoomed. The best (most efficient/successful) contributors on Alamy have really tight collections of excellent images of a diverse range of subjects and places. If you're getting views but no zooms then check your keywords are sensible (look at Alamy measures, you can see what the customer was looking for and which of your images they saw). Also look at other contributors images that come up for the same search term and see if you can spot why they didn't choose to look more closely (zoom) yours.

 

If you are getting healthy views and zooms, sales are very likely to follow, but you need to be patient.

 

Mark

 

On 06/10/2019 at 02:02, Marianne said:

@Aaron US editorial can sometimes do better elsewhere but it needs to sell a lot more often to do so. In the past couple of years, I started feeling the same way you do and so uploaded some editorial images both here and to another site, with varying results. I still upload the bulk of them to Alamy. 

Some examples: $40 for 65 downloads of one image vs. $20 net for 1 download on Alamy.  Seven of an annual event, $46 for 93 downloads vs. $43 net for 1 download on Alamy, so just one sale here earned me nearly as much as almost 100 elsewhere. Another where Alamy was way on top: $54 for 151 sales vs. $200 net for only 4 sales.  But during the 2016 elections, none of my Live News images of Hillary Clinton taken at an event were licensed here, but on another site I made about $50 with a handful of those images, 60 downloads, as well as seeing images of her taken as long ago as 2006 sell. (I made much more back in 2006 with those shots but that's a different issue).

 

Single sales here can pay off faster.  I uploaded a simple sign on Alamy that has been licensed a few times, earning me over $60 net for one sale ($125 exclusive image), with two additional smaller sales bringing my total to about $75 net. ... but not always: Other signs uploaded to both sites, $117 for 146 downloads vs $5 net here for 1 sale; but $42 for 64 sales elsewhere vs nearly double that, $78 net here for only 2 sales.  As these examples show, I could pick and choose images to argue that one site or the other is better for US editorial images.

 

I guess my take away is to spread your images out, especially as you are from the US. If I was in the UK I might think very differently.  

 

Most important though, don't give up on Alamy. 

 

Editorial sales are their strong suit and Alamy is quite well known in the US editorial community - Alamy has licensed my US images to US magazines such as Coastal Living and Vogue, and to US newspaper groups around the country.  I've had single editorial images licensed here for as much as $400 ($200 net) and even this year had one for $245 (distributor so I only made $85 but I'm glad that neither image was available at lower priced sites).  

 

 

I am not getting no zooms just views. My stuff does show up on Alamy and on google search which is how the organizers found my SS photos even though I sent them my smugmug site. But they told me they didn't receive the email which I could have made more but they brought them off of Shutter stock. Which has me questioning, do people want to pay a decent price or the very bare minimum? Either way, as I said. I am going to fix my photos on here and hope to get some sales. But will not make any of my photos exclusive anymore to Alamy. I am not sure if what I shoot is actually interesting or editorial worthy. I say that because most of my sport action photos of stock car, dirt bike, and ATV racing. They rather purchase directly then from a stock site or ask for contributing photos. I know this because I am apart of AMA, UMA, IRA motorsport networks. So I just don't know if other editors are finding my stuff interesting. It is just the stuff I mainly photo shoot other than events. I know Alamy pays out way more but again I just feel that what I shoot is not worthy for the editors that are connected with Alamy.  

[sooth]

.

[meanderingemu]

Just now, sooth said:

for the average general purpose portfolio, just have to be patient.  when i started, i was trying to figure this out--still am--and didn't figure anything will sell, left it alone. then a few things sold, and my interest picked up again, so i started devoting a lot more to it in terms of quantity and quality. it's not a get rich quick scheme unless youre part of that group with special portfolios of stuff that's in high demand.   also, the website is open to all so you do get a lot of noise and stuff getting uploaded so you do have to have something that is more unique, and higher quality than the other stuff to stand a chance. 

 

patience is one part, but it still requires work.  Just uploading a load of image and praying the right person falls on it seems counter-productive.  OP even stated he relies on outside search engines to sell his stuff, that he sells elsewhere at a cheaper price.   To me uploading 1000 best images and optimising for Alamy search, is much more efficient than 5000 with hope and pray , especially if at same time you hurt your own Alamy rating, creating a self fulfilling prophecy that Alamy is inferior.   

 

 

[sooth]

.

[meanderingemu]

1 minute ago, sooth said:

At the end i casually mention... "also, the website is open to all so you do get a lot of noise and stuff getting uploaded so you do have to have something that is more unique, and higher quality than the other stuff to stand a chance. "

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

😀

 

you are right.  and some people come on forum asking questions, but don't really want answers other than the one they already had. 

 

As on example search "Corvette 1960s Wisconsin" Four page of results, not one of the car identified, most not event from 1960s ( you would actually get same results for 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s. 2010s ), so loads of hits no views.  and these all added after asking, why am i not selling?

[sooth]

7 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

😀

 

you are right.  and some people come on forum asking questions, but don't really want answers other than the one they already had. 

 

As on example search "Corvette 1960s Wisconsin" Four page of results, not one of the car identified, most not event from 1960s ( you would actually get same results for 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s. 2010s ), so loads of hits no views.  and these all added after asking, why am i not selling?

 

it makes it much much harder for buyers to look for what they need, wastes their time.   noise and non related images also in a way led to live news being restricted to a few as the feature was being abused i believe; made it really difficult for the rest of us who got caught in the crossfire and which really desired that option, now closed off.

[Aaron]

9 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

😀

 

you are right.  and some people come on forum asking questions, but don't really want answers other than the one they already had. 

 

As on example search "Corvette 1960s Wisconsin" Four page of results, not one of the car identified, most not event from 1960s ( you would actually get same results for 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s. 2010s ), so loads of hits no views.  and these all added after asking, why am i not selling?

Odd thing is, that they are being downloaded on other stock sites. 

 

I have nothing against Alamy, I am just pointing out facts. When search around on the net, all I see is shutterstock or other stock sites being mentioned or used. On social media when stock sites are being marketed and advertised all I see is shutterstock. When I search on youtube for videos, not many or hardly any videos about or experience or sellings with Alamy. More with the other sites. When I search on google for experiences all I see is the other sites being talked about even with google images. People are posting their sale results. So I just don't know if Alamy is being marketed as much as it is in the USA. I seen users on here from other countries have better results than those in the USA. On other stock sites I see it is better here in the USA then in other countries. Again I am not trying to tare down Alamy, I am just pointing out what I see. Also based on google's information about Alamy: " Alamy is a British privately owned stock photography agency launched in 1999. Its headquarters are in Milton Park, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom" and SS is in the US. So I am just stating that just maybe, SS has a better lead in the US than alamy does which is why some have not heard of it or have found use of it. Also if I have not stated this before, when I worked with a design team in my state of Wisconsin for websites and graphic design. We used SS and bigstock sometimes getty but not always and few times with adobe stock. So Again, what I shoot and tag may not be the relevant to customers with Alamy. 

 

I am not going to remove my photos, I will fix them from time to time. But I just don't see the effectiveness in the USA. Most users on here are in the European countries. Thus Alamy has better exposure there then in the USA. Also for people that state about the News networks. As I have stated before. Most news networks have their own photographers and videographers. USA Today Network who I freelance from time to time with, which I 100% know they only use photos from their own photographers because well... they are being paid to either freelance or work directly with them. We do go under background checks, we don't just accept any photo from anyone off the street. That is policy. 

 

Again I don't dislike Alamy but there has to be a understanding between what I shoot and what is considered as editorial worthy. I can shoot bugs and insects and make great tags, But that doesn't mean the customers on Alamy are looking for that. If I posted about the flood last year on here. I don't really expect that to sell that well but when I did put them on SS and getty every news outlet picked them up. Yes my photos were on Wisconsin TV news networks. It is just a give and take. I may have to wait for some time. So be it, I make money in other means than I here. I am just trying to make some cash from all the photos in my cache on my HDs.

 

So don't worry I am not leaving, I am just not waiting forever. Time is money.  

[geogphotos]

12 minutes ago, Aaron said:

Odd thing is, that they are being downloaded on other stock sites. 

 

I have nothing against Alamy, I am just pointing out facts. When search around on the net, all I see is shutterstock or other stock sites being mentioned or used. On social media when stock sites are being marketed and advertised all I see is shutterstock. When I search on youtube for videos, not many or hardly any videos about or experience or sellings with Alamy. More with the other sites. When I search on google for experiences all I see is the other sites being talked about even with google images. People are posting their sale results. So I just don't know if Alamy is being marketed as much as it is in the USA. I seen users on here from other countries have better results than those in the USA. On other stock sites I see it is better here in the USA then in other countries. Again I am not trying to tare down Alamy, I am just pointing out what I see. Also based on google's information about Alamy: " Alamy is a British privately owned stock photography agency launched in 1999. Its headquarters are in Milton Park, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom" and SS is in the US. So I am just stating that just maybe, SS has a better lead in the US than alamy does which is why some have not heard of it or have found use of it. Also if I have not stated this before, when I worked with a design team in my state of Wisconsin for websites and graphic design. We used SS and bigstock sometimes getty but not always and few times with adobe stock. So Again, what I shoot and tag may not be the relevant to customers with Alamy. 

 

I am not going to remove my photos, I will fix them from time to time. But I just don't see the effectiveness in the USA. Most users on here are in the European countries. Thus Alamy has better exposure there then in the USA. Also for people that state about the News networks. As I have stated before. Most news networks have their own photographers and videographers. USA Today Network who I freelance from time to time with, which I 100% know they only use photos from their own photographers because well... they are being paid to either freelance or work directly with them. We do go under background checks, we don't just accept any photo from anyone off the street. That is policy. 

 

Again I don't dislike Alamy but there has to be a understanding between what I shoot and what is considered as editorial worthy. I can shoot bugs and insects and make great tags, But that doesn't mean the customers on Alamy are looking for that. If I posted about the flood last year on here. I don't really expect that to sell that well but when I did put them on SS and getty every news outlet picked them up. Yes my photos were on Wisconsin TV news networks. It is just a give and take. I may have to wait for some time. So be it, I make money in other means than I here. I am just trying to make some cash from all the photos in my cache on my HDs.

 

So don't worry I am not leaving, I am just not waiting forever. Time is money.  

 

 

It seems that you might be better off at Shutterestock.

[Marianne]

9 minutes ago, Aaron said:

Again I am not trying to [sic] tare down Alamy, I am just pointing out what I see. Also based on google's information about Alamy: " Alamy is a British privately owned stock photography agency launched in 1999. Its headquarters are in Milton Park, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom" and SS is in the US.

 

Alamy has had an office in Brooklyn for about 10 years now. They also send many from their British team here for PhotoExpo each fall. Photo editors from major US magazines have been licensing images from Alamy since before I started with them in 2008.

 

I have a small portfolio here, a little over 1000 images, yet Alamy has licensed multiple US images for me from NY, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Florida, California, Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, Maryland, and Rhode Island - and last week I had a couple of zooms on some images from Kentucky (and NY State and Arizona - today, one from Connecticut). These all included searches for those states.  I've never been to Wisconsin, but I imagine that if I had images from there, Alamy would license them too. In fact, they've licensed about half a dozen shots I literally took in my suburban US backyard to buyers from the US and Canada, as well as from the UK. My images from Alamy have been licensed to many other countries as well: Russia, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Norway, and Brazil - and that's just from skimming my sales pages quickly. Slightly more than half my sales are to European countries, but 90% of my images are taken in the US and the vast majority of those are editorial, with nature a close second. 

 

If you have ties to US newspaper groups, then shooting directly for them makes sense, but the bottom line is, it doesn't matter where you are from, you can sell images here, but you need to realize that given the prices and the fact that it is not a subscription site where buyers also download images they don't actually use, you will have fewer downloads, but as I mentioned in my earlier post, you can earn the same from one or two average priced licenses here as you can from 100 downloads on a micro. 

[Aaron]

11 minutes ago, Marianne said:

 

Alamy has had an office in Brooklyn for about 10 years now. They also send many from their British team here for PhotoExpo each fall. Photo editors from major US magazines have been licensing images from Alamy since before I started with them in 2008.

 

I have a small portfolio here, a little over 1000 images, yet Alamy has licensed multiple US images for me from NY, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Florida, California, Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, Maryland, and Rhode Island - and last week I had a couple of zooms on some images from Kentucky (and NY State and Arizona - today, one from Connecticut). These all included searches for those states.  I've never been to Wisconsin, but I imagine that if I had images from there, Alamy would license them too. In fact, they've licensed about half a dozen shots I literally took in my suburban US backyard to buyers from the US and Canada, as well as from the UK. My images from Alamy have been licensed to many other countries as well: Russia, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Norway, and Brazil - and that's just from skimming my sales pages quickly. Slightly more than half my sales are to European countries, but 90% of my images are taken in the US and the vast majority of those are editorial, with nature a close second. 

 

If you have ties to US newspaper groups, then shooting directly for them makes sense, but the bottom line is, it doesn't matter where you are from, you can sell images here, but you need to realize that given the prices and the fact that it is not a subscription site where buyers also download images they don't actually use, you will have fewer downloads, but as I mentioned in my earlier post, you can earn the same from one or two average priced licenses here as you can from 100 downloads on a micro. 

True! One thing I do realize. Is that Alamy has less restrictions then others. Because why do I need a press pass for every sporting event? I am either invited, I can photo shoot and contribute 10 photos back, I can photo shoot and sell photos directly, or I am a hired photographer. I never signed or had to ask for a press release form to get rights to sell. That makes no sense. That sounds like to me that photos on SS are being sold as commercial still. I uploaded photos to a demo derby event which I was invited out to and told I can sell photos. Than SS denied all of them???? Sent me information about needing press pass for editorial use??? I would need the press outlet I am working for, need the organization to sign a press release to allow photos to be used as editorial, have main organizer head sign a waiver for allowing me to photo shoot the event. I would need forms or Emails stating all of that. WTH??? Even when I freelance on my own at times as my own photojournalist. I still need all of that. So certain events I will upload onto Alamy still and make them exclusive butt with other stuff. They will not be Exclusive.

[Marianne]

3 minutes ago, Aaron said:

True! One thing I do realize. Is that Alamy has less restrictions then others. Because why do I need a press pass for every sporting event? I am either invited, I can photo shoot and contribute 10 photos back, I can photo shoot and sell photos directly, or I am a hired photographer. I never signed or had to ask for a press release form to get rights to sell. That makes no sense. That sounds like to me that photos on SS are being sold as commercial still. I uploaded photos to a demo derby event which I was invited out to and told I can sell photos. Than SS denied all of them???? Sent me information about needing press pass for editorial use??? I would need the press outlet I am working for, need the organization to sign a press release to allow photos to be used as editorial, have main organizer head sign a waiver for allowing me to photo shoot the event. I would need forms or Emails stating all of that. WTH??? Even when I freelance on my own at times as my own photojournalist. I still need all of that. So certain events I will upload onto Alamy still and make them exclusive butt with other stuff. They will not be Exclusive.

 

I think you are misunderstanding what you need. For certain press events, especially sports, the venue will require that you have a press pass even to take editorial images. When that is the case, you just need to show that you had a press pass. A press release is not the same as a model or property release. A press release is a written statement sent by a PR firm or a venue to the media telling them about the event.

 

In any case, that other site you mention used to have a "behind the red carpet" deal where you could apply and they would help you get a press pass if you didn't have a media outlet you were shooting for. Then you had to license those images exclusively with them for two years. I'm comparing two press events that had limited news appeal, but led to secondary editorial sales even 7 or more years later.  So, on the first press event they worked with me on, one image appeared in several editions of a travel book. They licensed other images from that event for me dozens of times, including to other book publishers, for a total of 81 sales.

 

Alamy Live News also helped me get press passes to a few events including one back in 2012. This one was licensed this past summer, 7 years later, for a book about Connecticut:

 

 

 

Alamy did not require these images to be exclusive, though I didn't put them on the micros.

Anyway, even though this set was not a great success for me on Alamy, I still made as much from 4 very small editorial licenses here from shots that I mostly took when I was horribly seasick (the best was only $50)  as I did from 81 licenses of my shots from that other editorial event on the other site.  And that event was in NYC - this one took place in Niantic and New London, Connecticut - two small towns/cities. 

 

I netted less than $75 from those 4 sales on Alamy, but fine art sales more than compensated me for my hard work. Many of the images have been in galleries - in fact, a gallery in New York "discovered" my work on my web site and invited me to show those photos. This was not one  of the fine art photos, obviously  - but check out  CMB50M  ( https://tinyurl.com/yyfr7z3u ) I made well over $1,500 from three fine art photos I could not have taken without that press pass Alamy Live News helped me to get (two taken from a boat at sea that I was invited to sail one, and one at the opening press conference). And I don't have to worry about stock sales of those photos interfering with my fine art prices since these images are all RM, a choice no other major agencies I'm with let me make. 

 

Averaging all my sales going back to 2008 when I started here, and including a bunch of piddly NU sales where I netted less than a dollar each, I netted an average of $28.40 per sale, compared to 82 cents per sale on that other site since 2010. So basically, the average sale here nets me slightly more than an extended license there.  To be fair, I have a third as many images there and have earned much more there then I do here, but I also license images directly to high end clients which I would not put on micro sites, and those licenses I believe make up for what I'm losing from not distributing my images more widely. No one has come to Alamy to buy as license for less, while I have had people ask me about images and then go to that other site and license them for peanuts. So it's not easy to decide what basket to put my apples in at times, as there are so many variables. But on average I need to sell 34 images on the other site to make as much as I do from selling one here.