Simon Lane Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Hi John. Nothing to do with ants amusing as it may be, but I too have not had a single sale in February. I cannot remember the last time in any month I had no sales by the 25th of the month. I have one particular image that sells at the very least, twice each month. Nothing at all from this image this month. From 8 sales in December, 9 sales in January which is par for the course, nothing at all in February, I'm wondering if this is coinciding with the sale of Alamy this month. Are we suddenly competing with 50,000,000 images from elsewhere? Any further thoughts welcomed. Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alamy Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 6 hours ago, Matt Ashmore said: As a general point of feedback, it would be handy if the sales details detailed the fees applied (e.g. novel use sale, distributor sale, customer used a special voucher, etc) so that we're not left scratching out heads as to why our portion of the sale is not 40/50% of the sale price. Don't quite follow? Other than distributor sales, none of those other scenarios translate to anything other than 40% (non exclusive), 50% (exclusive). The % rate is always listed in your balance of account. Alamy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meanderingemu Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 4 minutes ago, Alamy said: Don't quite follow? Other than distributor sales, none of those other scenarios translate to anything other than 40% (non exclusive), 50% (exclusive). The % rate is always listed in your balance of account. Alamy Aren't Affiliates also a different % Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alamy Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 5 minutes ago, meanderingemu said: Aren't Affiliates also a different % Affiliate commission is written and listed out next to the sale entry within balance of account. Best Alamy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meanderingemu Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 1 minute ago, Alamy said: Affiliate commission is written and listed out next to the sale entry within balance of account. Best Alamy Don't quite follow? The statement was that the info was not needed in the sales details since the only one that was out of our control was the 30% for distribution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alamy Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 5 minutes ago, meanderingemu said: Don't quite follow? The statement was that the info was not needed in the sales details since the only one that was out of our control was the 30% for distribution. Without going round in circles here, the original quote was: "As a general point of feedback, it would be handy if the sales details detailed the fees applied (e.g. novel use sale, distributor sale, customer used a special voucher, etc so that we're not left scratching out heads as to why our portion of the sale is not 40/50% of the sale price." None of these scenarios should cause confusion on the commission split. For any sales type that affects commission rate, the sales type is listed in balance of account. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Any comments on the apparent sales downturn Alamy ? (to get back to the original topic) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Ashmore Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 1 hour ago, Alamy said: Don't quite follow? Other than distributor sales, none of those other scenarios translate to anything other than 40% (non exclusive), 50% (exclusive). The % rate is always listed in your balance of account. Alamy When I download a sales report, I see (amongst others), the fields: Total Sale Total Deduction Net Due What I would like is a breakdown of how the total deduction was calculated. Did I lose 50% or 60% (yes, I know I can lookup whether my image was exclusive or not). Was a distributor involved in the same... and if so, how much was deducted to pay them? Was there a deduction because the buyer followed an affiliate link? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 (edited) Things have come back to life for me this week with some decent sales showing up. The cliff doesn't look quite as ominous as it did a week ago... Edited February 25, 2020 by John Mitchell 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alamy Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 1 hour ago, Sultanpepa said: Any comments on the apparent sales downturn Alamy ? (to get back to the original topic) There has been no sales downturn. We're seeing strong growth in volume and revenue across the board. 1 minute ago, Matt Ashmore said: When I download a sales report, I see (amongst others), the fields: Total Sale Total Deduction Net Due What I would like is a breakdown of how the total deduction was calculated. Did I lose 50% or 60% (yes, I know I can lookup whether my image was exclusive or not). Was a distributor involved in the same... and if so, how much was deducted to pay them? Was there a deduction because the buyer followed an affiliate link? All of this information is viewable in the "Balance of Account" section of your dashboard against each sale. Thanks Alamy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 3 minutes ago, Alamy said: There has been no sales downturn. We're seeing strong growth in volume and revenue across the board. Thanks Alamy A change in the algorithms then maybe? A number of people have experienced a rather sudden drop off over the last month or two? 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 I have one small distributor sale, around Feb. 11th. I assume my subjects aren’t in demand this past few weeks. It happens. The answer is to up my game. If I can’t do that, then accept what is happening, even if it gives me a sour stomach. I will ponder on what I can do to up my game. Alamy, thank you for letting us know sales are happening as usual. Even if not for me. I’ll live. Betty 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thyrsis Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 (edited) 17 hours ago, Simon Lane said: From 8 sales in December, 9 sales in January which is par for the course, nothing at all in February"...... You're getting 8 or 9 sales a month from 909 images?? Impressive! Edited February 26, 2020 by Thyrsis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andremichel Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 13 hours ago, Sultanpepa said: A change in the algorithms then maybe? A number of people have experienced a rather sudden drop off over the last month or two? November $664 December $748 January $749 February $250 😩 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riccarbi Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 (edited) 12 hours ago, Thyrsis said: You're getting 8 or 9 sales a month from 909 images?? Impressive! From what I see in his port, Simon is an excellent architecture photographer. There are not many of them on Alamy, honestly. Edited February 26, 2020 by riccarbi 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mac Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 I've had 6 sales this month from 1,782 images, my best so far. I'm happy with that 😀 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thyrsis Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 1 hour ago, riccarbi said: From what I see in his port, Simon is an excellent architecture photographer. There are not many of them on Alamy, honestly. Yes, some good stuff there - quality not quantity! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 19 hours ago, Sultanpepa said: A change in the algorithms then maybe? A number of people have experienced a rather sudden drop off over the last month or two? More likely just that the *business* is doing very well, owing to the logarithmic increase in number of images & photographers submitting them. But then of course all the individuals will continually do less well as their share of the sales goes down. Individual months and reports from a dozen or so togs on this forum really mean very little, even though it can, at times, appear conclusive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkK Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 1 hour ago, losdemas said: More likely just that the *business* is doing very well, owing to the logarithmic increase in number of images & photographers submitting them. But then of course all the individuals will continually do less well as their share of the sales goes down. Individual months and reports from a dozen or so togs on this forum really mean very little, even though it can, at times, appear conclusive. Valid point. As I go on 3/4 months without a sale (after always having a couple sales at minimum for years), I started to look into possible reasons. One of the areas I used to have photos at the top of the first page were knocked down a lot by photos from the Everett collection. I looked and saw that the collection was over 1 million photos! No way to compete with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 12 hours ago, losdemas said: More likely just that the *business* is doing very well, owing to the logarithmic increase in number of images & photographers submitting them. But then of course all the individuals will continually do less well as their share of the sales goes down. Individual months and reports from a dozen or so togs on this forum really mean very little, even though it can, at times, appear conclusive. Although that maybe the case it does seem strange that those togs who have largish portfolios have also all of a sudden 'fallen off the cliff'. However if would be churlish of me if I failed to mention that I had an influx of Guardian sales drop in today which made February more presentable even if remuneration still leaves a lot to be desired. So on to March shortly hoping for a medium to large sale which seems like an eternity in coming. $5-10 seems like my staple diet at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Caram Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 On 26/02/2020 at 01:33, Simon Lane said: Hi John. Nothing to do with ants amusing as it may be, but I too have not had a single sale in February. I cannot remember the last time in any month I had no sales by the 25th of the month. I have one particular image that sells at the very least, twice each month. Nothing at all from this image this month. From 8 sales in December, 9 sales in January which is par for the course, nothing at all in February, I'm wondering if this is coinciding with the sale of Alamy this month. Are we suddenly competing with 50,000,000 images from elsewhere? Any further thoughts welcomed. Simon Great folio BTW Simon...Great images of the style / subject matter that current buyers want will sell..stating the obvious but yes there's plenty of competition and sheer bulk of image numbers up for licence ....i guess one also needs to have lots more saleable images to win more sales...Yes we are all competing with those very large collections of images... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riccarbi Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 (edited) 22 hours ago, Thyrsis said: Yes, some good stuff there - quality not quantity! This is an important point, something that deserves to be discussed further. I'm pretty sure that a "sustainable growth" strategy for both Alamy and us, as contributors, might be to reduce the number of photographs available on Alamy and, at the same time, improve their "median" artistic and technical quality, at least for not-breaking-news subjects. I always try to do not upload ten pictures of same subject from ten slightly different points of view, as well as pictures that lack good composition, exposure, and so on. Yet, I'm aware that not all images I uploaded in the last years are equally good and saleable; I shoud remove from my port all those photos I honestly deem worse than my acceptable average. At the same time, I think that 160M pictures on Alamy are too many. This pushes server costs upwards, makes progressively difficult for customers to find a good image quickly, and depresses prices down to MS levels. Edited February 27, 2020 by riccarbi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andremichel Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, Sultanpepa said: However if would be churlish of me if I failed to mention that I had an influx of Guardian sales drop in today which made February more presentable even if remuneration still leaves a lot to be desired. I am also finally seeing some sales. 4 small $5 sales and 1 good one $175. So maybe thay are just running late in reporting them this month due to disruption caused by the merger. The month isn't over yet, so there's hope for a further late flurry. Edited February 27, 2020 by andremichel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 1 hour ago, riccarbi said: This is an important point, something that deserves to be discussed further. I'm pretty sure that a "sustainable growth" strategy for both Alamy and us, as contributors, might be to reduce the number of photographs available on Alamy and, at the same time, improve their "median" artistic and technical quality, at least for not-breaking-news subjects. I always try to do not upload ten pictures of same subject from ten slightly different points of view, as well as pictures that lack good composition, exposure, and so on. Yet, I'm aware that not all images I uploaded in the last years are equally good and saleable; I shoud remove from my port all those photos I honestly deem worse than my acceptable average. At the same time, I think that 160M pictures on Alamy are too many. This pushes server costs upwards, makes progressively difficult for customers to find a good image quickly, and depresses prices down to MS levels. After careful attention in the first instance by individual togs the technical aspect should be ensured by QC. Other qualities - the most important here being saleability - is difficult. I have to say (and I know that many others have said the same thing over many years) is that I am often surprised by some of my photos which sell here. It world take a very good team, working for many months/years, to be able to edit what's already here successfully. Going forward, it might be an option to add saleability to QC, but would increase costs - perhaps substantially. And I think I can guess who works bear those costs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riccarbi Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 (edited) 35 minutes ago, losdemas said: After careful attention in the first instance by individual togs the technical aspect should be ensured by QC. Other qualities - the most important here being saleability - is difficult. I have to say (and I know that many others have said the same thing over many years) is that I am often surprised by some of my photos which sell here. It world take a very good team, working for many months/years, to be able to edit what's already here successfully. Going forward, it might be an option to add saleability to QC, but would increase costs - perhaps substantially. And I think I can guess who works bear those costs! I am aware that to define concepts such as "quality" and "saleability" could be quite difficult and, possibly, futile. Furthermore, many, like you and me, have sold photos that "I would have never thought I could really sell". Again, no "quality-team" can really tell what photos will be sold and what will be not. What I'm talking about is some sort of "self-restraint" attitude by us contributors. To have 10K photos on Alamy, you know only 3K of which are really unique, instead than only having the best ones, leads to a marginally higher number of sales, I suspect. Yet, the contributor has spent a lot of time downloading, developing, converting, keywording, and uploading a so large number of pictures. Maybe just to sell a couple of those 7K "extra photos" in one month for ten bucks overall. Is it really worth the effort? Edited February 27, 2020 by riccarbi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now