Hello Everyone

[Stuart artyography photography]

Hello,

 

Stuart here from the UK,

 

Not easy to get photos setup ready to sell and searchable.

All tags completed, waiting for the magical server update to make them searchable.

Whats the frequency of selling stock on here and what are people doing right on the promotion side to keep the sales up?

 

Cheers

Stuart

[Steve F]

Hi Stuart,

Not easy compared to...? Are you on other agencies?

 

Frequency of selling stock here used to be about 1 per month per 1000 pictures in your collection, but Alamy has grown its collection considerably in the last few years. There's a wide variance in that figure for individuals - depends what you shoot, e.g. just stock or live news, what type of stock images, quality of pictures/concepts etc. Personally I sold 69 last year, with a collection of approx. 2700 images.

 

Promotion? - this is stock, there's not much promotion you can do. If you're promoting your imagery on social media etc., I would assume you have your own website for selling your images, rather than selling on a stock site. Consensus here seems to be to do regular uploads to get regular sales. People do sell images that have been up here for years, but some clients just look at the latest imagery.

 

Anyway, welcome!

 

Steve from the UK

 

 

[Stuart artyography photography]

49 minutes ago, Steve F said:

Hi Stuart,

Not easy compared to...? Are you on other agencies?

 

Frequency of selling stock here used to be about 1 per month per 1000 pictures in your collection, but Alamy has grown its collection considerably in the last few years. There's a wide variance in that figure for individuals - depends what you shoot, e.g. just stock or live news, what type of stock images, quality of pictures/concepts etc. Personally I sold 69 last year, with a collection of approx. 2700 images.

 

Promotion? - this is stock, there's not much promotion you can do. If you're promoting your imagery on social media etc., I would assume you have your own website for selling your images, rather than selling on a stock site. Consensus here seems to be to do regular uploads to get regular sales. People do sell images that have been up here for years, but some clients just look at the latest imagery.

 

Anyway, welcome!

 

Steve from the UK

 

 

Cheers Steve,

 

I've never gone professional with my photography before. Yes I did all the professional qualifications in my youth, worked as a lab tech for 10 years. But never soild any photos in my time. Always met with people who wanted my talent for free because they could do it themselves for £3.50 at Boots (back in the day) and now everyone has a smart phone camera. So we're kind of fighting a loosing battle. Photography lost its exclusivity to the trade decades ago.  I've read this forum and there's loads of people not even sold anything and its not down to the quality of work either.

 

Never used an agency website before and its not exactly layed out in an understandble format. I may as well me in MS Office.

 

Thanks for your help

 

Regards

Stuart UK

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, Steve F said:

People do sell images that have been up here for years, but some clients just look at the latest imagery.

Every year I license pix from every prior year, back to 2009. There's only ever been one exception- I didn't license any from 2010 last year.

Edited March 9, 2021 by spacecadet

[Steve F]

Just now, Stuart artyography photography said:

Cheers Steve,

 

I've never gone professional with my photography before. Yes I did all the professional qualifications in my youth, worked as a lab tech for 10 years. But never soild any photos in my time. Always met with people who wanted my talent for free because they could do it themselves for £3.50 at Boots (back in the day) and now everyone has a smart phone camera. So we're kind of fighting a loosing battle. Photography lost its exclusivity to the trade decades ago.  I've read this forum and there's loads of people not even sold anything and its not down to the quality of work either.

 

Never used an agency website before and its not exactly layed out in an understandble format. I may as well me in MS Office.

 

Thanks for your help

 

Regards

Stuart UK

 

Hi Stuart,

OK, that makes things clearer. Well.... people that have done stock for years definitely remark that the glory days are gone and even I've noticed a drop in fees over the last 5-6 years. When I started uploading images on Alamy in 2015, I think they had about 45 million pictures. Now it's 250 million and also greatly increased for all the other agencies out there! THere are a lot of stock images sold, but competition is intense and it's open to more hobby photographers these days.

 

If you know what you're doing, you don't need to worry about image technical quality so much, but more about the subject or concept you're trying to portray. I think one of the hardest things for me when I started stock was to start shooting subjects that I previously ignored and to actually try having people in my landscapes rather than waiting for them to be people free.

 

If you've got any questions, then the Forum is full of helpful people.

 

Ha ha, yes, I've had the old "I can't see why you'd need a proper camera when you've got a mobile", and "could you just do a couple of photos of these e.g. wine bottles for me quickly"...

Steve

[Stuart artyography photography]

58 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Hi Stuart,

OK, that makes things clearer. Well.... people that have done stock for years definitely remark that the glory days are gone and even I've noticed a drop in fees over the last 5-6 years. When I started uploading images on Alamy in 2015, I think they had about 45 million pictures. Now it's 250 million and also greatly increased for all the other agencies out there! THere are a lot of stock images sold, but competition is intense and it's open to more hobby photographers these days.

 

If you know what you're doing, you don't need to worry about image technical quality so much, but more about the subject or concept you're trying to portray. I think one of the hardest things for me when I started stock was to start shooting subjects that I previously ignored and to actually try having people in my landscapes rather than waiting for them to be people free.

 

If you've got any questions, then the Forum is full of helpful people.

 

Ha ha, yes, I've had the old "I can't see why you'd need a proper camera when you've got a mobile", and "could you just do a couple of photos of these e.g. wine bottles for me quickly"...

Steve

The haydays of photography were definately between the 1930s and including the 70s. 

60s it probably exploded with the pop culture scene.

Now people are saturated with images. Something that would be highend snobery almost, is now saturated with mobile phone trivialties. Bit like the consept of engaging with the process of purchasing and listening to vinyl records. Todays offerings don't have the same unique experiences. Photography is just a Mcds.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Stuart artyography photography