John Mitchell Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 1 hour ago, Martin L said: As a new contributor I would love to know why existing contributors think they have got all the bases covered and I have nothing to offer ? You're obviously a very skilled wildlife photographer. Best of luck on Alamy. BTW, I think the main concern was with Alamy's current strategy -- which is confusing to some contributors -- during these difficult times, not so much with increasing competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Harrison Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 45 minutes ago, Martin L said: have you thought I might not be new to stock? Beautiful pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin L Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 21 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said: Beautiful pictures. Thanks. Sorry to the op for hi-jacking his thread, I'll back out now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morrison Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 2 hours ago, Martin L said: have you thought I might not be new to stock? My mistake... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 4 hours ago, Martin L said: Sorry John, might be new to Alamy but have you thought I might not be new to stock? Anyway thanks for the welcome, reading some of the comments from 'other' existing contributors just stank of arrogance. If they are worried about more competition maybe they should up their game. Just in case you misinterpreted my comment, It's not a fear of competition on my part, nor is it an attack on new contributors - I just scratch my head when a business that is trying to make money during the pandemic advertises for new contributors who, while they may bring in money some time in the future, right now the deluge will only take up the time of their already limited and overburdened staff rather than advertising to get the attention of new customers for increased revenues. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin L Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 On 8 May 2020 at 08:46, Marianne said: they are out looking for yet more weekend shooters I apologise if I misinterpreted you but the comment above didn't sound over complimentary to new contributors hence my initial reaction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 (edited) 13 minutes ago, Martin L said: I apologise if I misinterpreted you but the comment above didn't sound over complimentary to new contributors hence my initial reaction We all recognise that it is literally Alamy's business but we are provided with a forum and are free to discuss ( within generous limits). The issue under discussion here is the waiting time for QC at a time of depleted staff when adverts have been placed actively inviting applications. There is also the point about these new applicants being offered favourable commission terms for an introductory period while existing contributors have had their commission cut on non-exclusive images, and a squeeze on which images can be marked as exclusive even when they are only on Alamy. Nothing personal, but there is also the ongoing issue of Microstock RF being accepted on Alamy. As I said that is Alamy's business, we don't necessarily have to like everything that happens, and appreciate the fact that we can discuss what we want here ( within generous limits). More, and ever more, competition, with falling fees ( yes personally I do blame micros in this) means less and less to go around. It is hardly surprising that there are moans about that. And I don't think it is fair to describe that as stinking of arrogance. Edited May 9, 2020 by geogphotos 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin L Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 You may have the last word 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 On 07/05/2020 at 23:35, M.Chapman said: However, with sales taking so long to occur, and then to report, most new contributors won't get 100% on many actual sales anyway. Mark That crossed my mind as well. Something to consider is that the attrition rate for new contributors appears to be higher than it used to be, which is perhaps one reason Alamy placed the ad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) 8 hours ago, John Mitchell said: That crossed my mind as well. Something to consider is that the attrition rate for new contributors appears to be higher than it used to be, which is perhaps one reason Alamy placed the ad. And no doubt the advert was set up months ago before the pandemic hit. Given the target readership of that particular magazine you can understand the logic. It's hard to know about the attrition rate. Given how easy it is to locate images through Google Image search it crossed my mind that some with images on microsites might be using Alamy partially in the hope of direct sales but also to attract traffic via Alamy to their images elsewhere. It took about 30 seconds to find Martin L's pictures on two major stock sites at much lower prices. Edited May 10, 2020 by geogphotos 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin L Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 You forgot to put your normal 'nothing personal' in front or has your opinion now changed to a more personal attack? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) 6 minutes ago, Martin L said: You forgot to put your normal 'nothing personal' in front or has your opinion now changed to a more personal attack? Just my opinion. It is not personal at all. It is a generalised comment. And a statement of fact about how easy it is to find images using Google and other reverse search engines. How is that an 'attack'? Edited May 10, 2020 by geogphotos 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 Ian, you also have photos on other sites? Come on guys, someone needs to drop this. Less arguing, more photographing (or keywording!) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Steve F said: Ian, you also have photos on other sites? Come on guys, someone needs to drop this. Less arguing, more photographing (or keywording!) Yes, and I have experienced the same thing. A search on Alamy and no sale. Then a dreaded 'Premium Access' sale for pennies at XXXX Images. There is a difference in that the advertised price at XXXXX is WAY higher than at Alamy so there is a level of knowledge there acting as a filter. But buyers are clearly not stupid and know their way around the internet and stock pricing. As I say I am fairly sure that it happens. Alamy takes images from wherever it finds them and that is what has allowed it to grow so huge. But if it wants to attract and maintain the interest of individuals it might want to think about how it can keep contributors content rather than losing them and needed to advertise for more? In any case the word gets around - the best form of advertising is always word of mouth. And as a point of interest I went non-exclusive in 2012 only as a response to Alamy cutting commission and my revenue graph nose-diving. Edited May 10, 2020 by geogphotos 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) And as another point of interest it is not me dishing out the red arrows 😁 Edited May 10, 2020 by geogphotos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morrison Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 46 minutes ago, geogphotos said: And as another point of interest it is not me dishing out the red arrows 😁 Erm... is it even possible to give ourselves a red arrow? I must investigate the possibility next time I write nonsense... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) On 07/05/2020 at 14:14, Nature Seb said: Of course have I sent e-mails to customer service, about once every week. Never get a reply. Seems like a very passive customer service. Sad to see. You are lucky to have had a reply from Alamy on this forum to your problem. I, a regular contributor of long standing, on the other hand have been waiting over five weeks for a batch of images to pass, or fail, QC. Despite mentioning this in other threads and sending an email to CS I have heard nothing back. I did ask for reasons in my first email in a nice way and yes I new that emails would not be answered as quickly as usual so sent another with James name in the subject line on 8th and am waiting to hear back from him. Allan Edited May 10, 2020 by Allan Bell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 9 hours ago, John Morrison said: Erm... is it even possible to give ourselves a red arrow? I must investigate the possibility next time I write nonsense... At the moment, I don't think this is possible. However, it would be a useful forum feature. I'd also like to be able to give myself a pay raise. 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 9 hours ago, Allan Bell said: I, a regular contributor of long standing, on the other hand have been waiting over five weeks for a batch of images to pass, or fail, QC. Maybe they've got stuck or lost in the system? Why not try submitting again? Sometimes that seems to dislodge something. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 17 minutes ago, M.Chapman said: Maybe they've got stuck or lost in the system? Why not try submitting again? Sometimes that seems to dislodge something. Mark Or perhaps send a small batch of new images to see if that clears the logjam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 13 hours ago, M.Chapman said: Maybe they've got stuck or lost in the system? Why not try submitting again? Sometimes that seems to dislodge something. Mark 13 hours ago, John Mitchell said: Or perhaps send a small batch of new images to see if that clears the logjam. Thank you both Mark and John. After the first batch had become stuck I did send another batch at Spacecadet's suggestion to try to push it through. Now that one is stuck in QC too. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 On 10/05/2020 at 11:51, Allan Bell said: You are lucky to have had a reply from Alamy on this forum to your problem. I, a regular contributor of long standing, on the other hand have been waiting over five weeks for a batch of images to pass, or fail, QC. Despite mentioning this in other threads and sending an email to CS I have heard nothing back. I did ask for reasons in my first email in a nice way and yes I new that emails would not be answered as quickly as usual so sent another with James name in the subject line on 8th and am waiting to hear back from him. Allan Further to my post above I have heard back from James with reference to my problem and he was going to get someone to look at it. That was 12.05pm. Seven minutes later I had the standard email saying "Good news your submission has passed QC" Thank you very much James for your time in this matter. Allan 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCat Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 Yea! I hope you get more stars too before too much time goes by. Paulette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 7 minutes ago, Allan Bell said: Further to my post above I have heard back from James with reference to my problem and he was going to get someone to look at it. That was 12.05pm. Seven minutes later I had the standard email saying "Good news your submission has passed QC" Thank you very much James for your time in this matter. Allan Very pleased to hear this. 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 (edited) 32 minutes ago, Allan Bell said: Further to my post above I have heard back from James with reference to my problem and he was going to get someone to look at it. That was 12.05pm. Seven minutes later I had the standard email saying "Good news your submission has passed QC" Thank you very much James for your time in this matter. Allan Probably not really your style, Allan, but sometimes a wheel has to squeak. Well squoke. Edited May 11, 2020 by spacecadet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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