Hello, I need help with what I'm actually earning

[alwac]

Hello, I am new to Alamy. I only made a few sales, I don't quite understand the count of these sales:
Balance carried forward: $ 5.54
Total sales: $ 34.08
Commission / fees: - $ 21.38
Total payments to you: 0.00 USD
Balance carried forward: $ 18.24
Cleared balance: $ 17.20
Next payment date: Not due

in the end what do i earn above

because when I go to the main page of my account it marks me:
Current cleared balance: $ 17

when I am told that I have sold 5 photos for $ 45

that worries me.
Thank you for your answers

[Sally]

1 hour ago, alwac said:

Hello, I am new to Alamy. I only made a few sales, I don't quite understand the count of these sales:
Balance carried forward: $ 5.54
Total sales: $ 34.08
Commission / fees: - $ 21.38
Total payments to you: 0.00 USD
Balance carried forward: $ 18.24
Cleared balance: $ 17.20
Next payment date: Not due

in the end what do i earn above

because when I go to the main page of my account it marks me:
Current cleared balance: $ 17

when I am told that I have sold 5 photos for $ 45

that worries me.
Thank you for your answers

What you earn and what your cleared balance is are two separate things. Cleared balance is simply what’s available once the client has paid up. Not the same as what has been invoiced.

[alwac]

so my winnings are $ 17? What is the $ 45?

[AlbertSnapper]

It looks like that after the commission, you have $17.20 that is yours (cleared balance).

When the cleared balance is $50 or more, then Alamy will pay it to you.

Balance carried forward is what is owed to you, but first Alamy must be paid by their customer to be able to pay you.

 

 

[AlbertSnapper]

The $45 might be the gross amount, before commission.

[alwac]

ah yes I understand better me in total I have this: Total sales: $ 34.08, but for the moment I only have $ 17.20 the rest I will have when the customer has paid Alamy.

[NYCat]

It might help if you look at all the individual sales to see what the price was and what the Alamy commission was and which sales were cleared and which are waiting for payment from the client. Just looking at the summary can be confusing.

 

Paulette

[Mrrrky]

20 hours ago, AlbertSnapper said:

It looks like that after the commission, you have $17.20 that is yours (cleared balance).

When the cleared balance is $50 or more, then Alamy will pay it to you.

Balance carried forward is what is owed to you, but first Alamy must be paid by their customer to be able to pay you.

 

 

What, but then the hell are those customers paying for those photos? They just buy and pay...when?

[NYCat]

It occurs to me that people may not know where to look for detailed information. On the Dashboard click on Account Balance. Then set the date for a reasonably long period of time. On top is the summary but as you scroll down you see each individual sale, the Alamy commission, the commission to any distributors and whether or not the amount has been paid to you, or cleared, or uncleared. It's a good idea to try everything on the Dashboard so you can see all the information available to us.

 

I suspect Mrrrky may be with other agencies that don't report sales until AFTER they have cleared. Alamy reports them right away. If something hasn't cleared after four months you can contact Alamy.

 

Paulette

[Steve F]

22 hours ago, alwac said:

ah yes I understand better me in total I have this: Total sales: $ 34.08, but for the moment I only have $ 17.20 the rest I will have when the customer has paid Alamy.

Hi,

You seem to be missing that stock photo agencies take a cut of any sales - to pay for hosting the website, taking and processing payments, advertising to clients etc. Your total sales value is the gross value that Alamy has charged clients, before Alamy takes its cut. Note also that Alamy reports what it has invoiced clients, not the money it has actually received - if the client subsequently doesn't pay, you don't get paid. And clients don't pay straight away. So your current cleared balance will always lag behind the declared due amount to you.

 

If you go on your Alamy Dashboard, you can then click on Download Sales Report. Here you can see the total fee charged to the purchaser by Alamy, the deduction by Alamy / Alamy + Distributor, and then the due amount to you.

 

 

[thijsdegraaf]

Thank you all for the explanation. It was not clear to me either.
That's because Shutterstock and Adobestock only pass on the price at a sale, where all costs have already been deducted.

[Steve F]

On 09/04/2021 at 08:05, thijsdegraaf said:

Thank you all for the explanation. It was not clear to me either.
That's because Shutterstock and Adobestock only pass on the price at a sale, where all costs have already been deducted.

 

It occurred to me after I wrote my answer that people might be used to seeing a different payment model with another agency. Glad it's clear now.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Steve F

[meanderingemu]

On 09/04/2021 at 03:05, thijsdegraaf said:

Thank you all for the explanation. It was not clear to me either.
That's because Shutterstock and Adobestock only pass on the price at a sale, where all costs have already been deducted.

 

technically they do NOT pass on price of a sale- they may be getting 20 times more than you and you wouldn't know, Alamy is the one that does, and then tells you how much they charge for the service

[thijsdegraaf]

On 10/04/2021 at 21:52, meanderingemu said:

 

technically they do NOT pass on price of a sale- they may be getting 20 times more than you and you wouldn't know, Alamy is the one that does, and then tells you how much they charge for the service

I know and I agree.
There is a lot of speculation and grumbling about this lack of clarity on the Shutterstock forum. Especially since the introduction of the 10 cents as the lowest payment after May last year. The reason I signed up with Alamy.
But it remains confusing if you are used to only seeing the price that you get.
Maybe also because English is not my spoken language, I did not fully understand the Balance of account.

[thijsdegraaf]

4 hours ago, Chuck Nacke said:

My God, 

 

I can not believe that people do not read and understand the Terms of a library before they contribute thousands of images.

 

I would also hope that Alamy's terms are available in more than just English?

 

Charles

My God,
What an arrogant answer. I thought this forum was there to help people and not kick the floor.
If this is the mentality on this forum I will not come here anymore. It must be frustrating for you guys to listen and answer my stupid questions, explanations.

Edited April 18, 2021 by thijsdegraaf

[Steve F]

7 minutes ago, thijsdegraaf said:

My God,
What an arrogant answer. I thought this forum was there to help people and not kick the floor.
If this is the mentality on this forum I will not come here anymore. It must be frustrating for you guys to listen and answer my stupid questions, explanations.

 

There's a wide range of people and opinions on here, same as any other online place.

[thijsdegraaf]

Indeed, there are less nice, arrogant people everywhere.
I was looking for clarity on payment and found this topic. I thought it was neat to add a thank you note and explain why I was confused (presumably just like the questioner)
When I get the answer from this gentleman that he is surprised that there are still such stupid people. And that is considered normal. Then I have something like I should have not put a thank you here. That would have saved a lot of annoyance.

Edited April 18, 2021 by thijsdegraaf

[Steve F]

15 minutes ago, thijsdegraaf said:

Indeed, there are less nice, arrogant people everywhere.
I was looking for clarity on payment and found this topic. I thought it was neat to add a thank you note and explain why I was confused (presumably just like the questioner)
When I get the answer from this gentleman that he is surprised that there are still such stupid people. And that is considered normal. Then I have something like I should have not put a thank you here. That would have saved a lot of annoyance.

 

Thijs, there is always the potential for disagreements online, try not to let it bother you so much, there's more important things in life. No one is saying it's normal, it's just a reality. 👍

[NYCat]

3 hours ago, thijsdegraaf said:

Indeed, there are less nice, arrogant people everywhere.
I was looking for clarity on payment and found this topic. I thought it was neat to add a thank you note and explain why I was confused (presumably just like the questioner)
When I get the answer from this gentleman that he is surprised that there are still such stupid people. And that is considered normal. Then I have something like I should have not put a thank you here. That would have saved a lot of annoyance.

 

If you hover your cursor over someone's name you will get the choice to "ignore user". You will no longer see posts from that person (unless someone else has quoted them). I think we all find the occasional annoying person here. Steve F is someone who spends lots and lots of time helping people so he is definitely the other side of the coin.

 

Paulette

[meanderingemu]

14 hours ago, thijsdegraaf said:

I know and I agree.
There is a lot of speculation and grumbling about this lack of clarity on the Shutterstock forum. Especially since the introduction of the 10 cents as the lowest payment after May last year. The reason I signed up with Alamy.
But it remains confusing if you are used to only seeing the price that you get.
Maybe also because English is not my spoken language, I did not fully understand the Balance of account.

 

 

I agree with you that the presentation could be improved, but  i actually don't think  the "Account Balance" section was ever expected to be a tool to know sales amount, and how much I pay Alamy for the service.  The Sales report provides me all the information.  

 

 

i am just always surprised how people are satisfied with other systems that lack transparency, just because it is perceived "simpler"

 

[thijsdegraaf]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

 

If you hover your cursor over someone's name you will get the choice to "ignore user". You will no longer see posts from that person (unless someone else has quoted them). I think we all find the occasional annoying person here. Steve F is someone who spends lots and lots of time helping people so he is definitely the other side of the coin.

 

Paulette

Hi Paulette,
I am a newbe, but I know Steve is very helpful. He already helped me when I couldn't figure out how to install my Paypal. (Chuck, that was really stupid of me)
I'll just answer him here, why Chuck's behavior bothers me, but appreciate him very much. I think he knows that.
What bothers me is that Chuck gets likes and nobody tells him that there is another way. I am new to the forum and thought of coming more often. Maybe in turn I can help someone identify insects, which sometimes happens on Shutterstock. My hobby:  www.tuin-thijs
But I better not do that.

Edited April 18, 2021 by thijsdegraaf

[thijsdegraaf]

45 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

i am just always surprised how people are satisfied with other systems that lack transparency, just because it is perceived "simpler"

 

On Shutterstock, there are a lot of dissatisfied people about this lack of clarity.
Now that I know how it works, I am satisfied with the report at Alamy. 🙂

Edited April 18, 2021 by thijsdegraaf

[Steve F]

10 minutes ago, thijsdegraaf said:

Hi Paulette,
I am a newbe, but I know Steve is very helpful. He already helped me when I couldn't figure out how to install my Paypal. (Chuck, that was really stupid of me)
I'll just answer him here, why Chuck's behavior bothers me, but appreciate him very much. I think he knows that.
What bothers me is that Chuck gets likes and nobody tells him that there is another way. I am new to the forum and thought of coming more often. Maybe in turn I can help someone identify insects, which sometimes happens on Shutterstock. My hobby: http: //www.tuin-thijs.
But I better not do that.

 

I don't think it's worth getting involved in arguments with people online. And that includes calling out things you don't agree with - there will always be people that you disagree with, or have a different approach to interacting with other people. I might say I'm not happy with someone's post if it directly involves me, but I wouldn't want to take it any further.

You have the option to report posts on the Forum and you can ignore people. And generally in the years I've been on here, it's a pretty good atmosphere. There's the odd bit of sniping, but nothing major. The other thing to think about, is that you're missing all the body language and tone when you're writing to someone generally. This can easily lead to misunderstandings and people coming across in a certain way that they don't intend. Not to say that people can't just be direct and impolite etc., but I hope you get my point.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Steve F

[thijsdegraaf]

28 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

I don't think it's worth getting involved in arguments with people online. And that includes calling out things you don't agree with - there will always be people that you disagree with, or have a different approach to interacting with other people. I might say I'm not happy with someone's post if it directly involves me, but I wouldn't want to take it any further.

You have the option to report posts on the Forum and you can ignore people. And generally in the years I've been on here, it's a pretty good atmosphere. There's the odd bit of sniping, but nothing major. The other thing to think about, is that you're missing all the body language and tone when you're writing to someone generally. This can easily lead to misunderstandings and people coming across in a certain way that they don't intend. Not to say that people can't just be direct and impolite etc., but I hope you get my point.

I understand what you mean. Thanks for any help Steve. I will no longer be on this forum.

[spacecadet]

19 minutes ago, thijsdegraaf said:

I will no longer be on this forum.

A shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater for all the help you can get because of one forthright post. Chuck has a direct way of expressing himself sometimes but it doesn't prevent his being a useful contributor. He doesn't always suffer fools gladly. And no, that doesn't mean anyone thinks you're a fool, it's another English expression.

 

 

[MizBrown]

1 hour ago, thijsdegraaf said:

Hi Paulette,
I am a newbe, but I know Steve is very helpful. He already helped me when I couldn't figure out how to install my Paypal. (Chuck, that was really stupid of me)
I'll just answer him here, why Chuck's behavior bothers me, but appreciate him very much. I think he knows that.
What bothers me is that Chuck gets likes and nobody tells him that there is another way. I am new to the forum and thought of coming more often. Maybe in turn I can help someone identify insects, which sometimes happens on Shutterstock. My hobby:  www.tuin-thijs
But I better not do that.

 

A lot of questions are repeats, which tends to mean that people who patiently answered the question two years ago may be finding the repetitions annoying. 

 

Alamy's reporting and payment processes never seemed unclear to me -- they take a commission and that's not unlike any other commission type agency from art galleries to literary agents.  They report the total they're billing the client, what they take out, and if sub-agencies/distributors take out their own cuts.  You get money credited to your balance when Alamy is paid and takes its deductions.  When the account balance (money owed you) is $50 or more, you get paid at the first of the upcoming month. 

 

Any agency that doesn't tell you what they billed the client and what percentage they're taking out and which only pays you your percentage of a sum you never see when they're paid leaves themselves a lot of financial wiggle room.   Also, the photographer knows that an image was invoiced but not paid for and can check with Alamy about possible collection efforts, or check on line to see if the image was used under an appropriate license. 

 

 

11 hours ago, Chuck Nacke said:

I would also hope that Alamy's terms are available in more than just English?

 

The contract pages says that in case of discrepancies between German language version and English, the English language version takes precedence.