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So Who's Joining Me in the Silver Club Next Month


Jill Morgan

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I haven't had a sale since March, where I had 3 sales.  the grand total for those 3 sales was $8.15.  The ones before weren't much better.

 

I am preparing to move to the basement and get my paltry 20% of .15 cents for any rare sale that comes up in the future.  Have lost total interest in uploading anything, never mind putting in the effort to do any image editing.  Sales just aren't worth the work involved.  Maybe I'll just run around and shoot everything I see, upload them all unedited and slap in some keywords.  Couldn't do any worse than I am now.  A couple of hundred images of empty farm fields. Think that will get me some sales?

 

I'll put the coffee on for the rest of the silver shooters out there.  Do you think we will make enough to pay for the coffee?

 

Jill

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8 hours ago, Sharon said:

I'm afraid I'll be there too.  Waiting with fingers crossed and bated breath to land another reasonable sale to get me over the top... time is running out.. haven't had a sale since April... thinking about that now, I re-entered distribution in April and no sales since... hmmmm!

 

I've experienced a steady decline in distributor sales over the past couple of years. Don't know why. I had one (Turkey) this month, and it was the first in a long time. Best of luck.

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11 hours ago, Steve Valentia said:

I missed the contract changes. My income from Alamy is so low, I obviously didn't need to know. Just read it now, but I'm very confused by the 'exclusive' rate. From what I can gather, there's no point in being exclusive (I am) unless you make $25000 a year (I don't). 

 

And if you gross under $250 you drop to Silver which is 20% commission - so that will help you understand the drift of Jill's tongue in cheek post about how she has lost interest/motivation.

 

The drop to Silver is going to hit people at the start of July ( I think). 

 

As you say there is no point in being exclusive - the only 'plus' is that Alamy will pursue infringements on exclusive images ( though many would prefer to do so themselves in any case).

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Hello Jill,

 

I don't think I'll be joining you in the silver room this year. A trio of modest value sales in the last month have hauled me over the threshold of the Gold room. However, these few unusual sales have been the exception to my wider experience this year of maintaining sale quantity but a with vastly reduced revenue.

 

So please keep a place warm for me. I expect to be with you all too soon.

 

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I have a bigger problem with Gold, because it means a 20% cut from what we used to get. Silver may seem like another 50% cut from Gold, but you "only" lose those addional 50% up to the first image per year that gets you over the §250 mark. At that point you will probably have sold images for $250 to §300, as sales over $50 are quite rare these days. So your total loss in Silver compared to Gold will be likely not exceed $60 per year. Gold however means that you will lose 20% of your cut in years with $250 to $25,000 in sales. So in theory Gold could cost you $2,000 per year for example, if you had sales for $20,000 within a year. That is why Gold is a much bigger problem than Silver.

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10 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

You're right, POD sites are now saturated with images as well. My print sales aren't what they used to be, but they are still enough to justify contributing. Personally, I don't like the current trend towards "arty" hyper-saturated colours and heavy HDR that you now see on these sites. However, apparently a lot of people do. Most of my sales are of fairly regular images, some of the same ones that have licensed here. A few of my black and white images have done OK as well.

 

I think 'black and white' is doing a bit of a comeback. Certainly a couple of my black and white Grenfell images have had some interest (and they weren't particularly well done when they were taken - I have improved since then).

 

I'm certainly going to explore these different styles now, which I think I will enjoy.

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2 hours ago, Skyscraperfan said:

I have a bigger problem with Gold, because it means a 20% cut from what we used to get. Silver may seem like another 50% cut from Gold, but you "only" lose those addional 50% up to the first image per year that gets you over the §250 mark. At that point you will probably have sold images for $250 to §300, as sales over $50 are quite rare these days. So your total loss in Silver compared to Gold will be likely not exceed $60 per year. Gold however means that you will lose 20% of your cut in years with $250 to $25,000 in sales. So in theory Gold could cost you $2,000 per year for example, if you had sales for $20,000 within a year. That is why Gold is a much bigger problem than Silver.

 

But it is what it is ... maybe best not to overthink it it (?). Instead perhaps look at other ways of promoting your images (?). I doubt Alamy  (and PA as a whole) will be reconsidering their business model.

Edited by BidC
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1 hour ago, BidC said:

 

But it is what it is ... maybe best not to overthink it it (?). Instead perhaps look at other ways of promoting your images (?). I doubt Alamy  (and PA as a whole) be reconsidering their business model.

 

I won't be joining the silver club, but we all need to determine if there might be a demand for an image before clicking the shutter, now or later, and increase our topical images. Every little effort helps, but not numbers of images that are unlikely to sell. We can look at Alamy's customers search terms to guide us, but no easy task. Yes, promoting images if you find a successful way that doesn't take up all your time/resources. Margaret, do you still shoot Live News? Even that is suffering from low value sales for web use. I've only been back shooting news for a short while, everything counts.

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1 hour ago, sb photos said:

 

I won't be joining the silver club, but we all need to determine if there might be a demand for an image before clicking the shutter, now or later, and increase our topical images. Every little effort helps, but not numbers of images that are unlikely to sell. We can look at Alamy's customers search terms to guide us, but no easy task. Yes, promoting images if you find a successful way that doesn't take up all your time/resources. Margaret, do you still shoot Live News? Even that is suffering from low value sales for web use. I've only been back shooting news for a short while, everything counts.

 

If you meant me, yes, I still do live news. But rarely due to other commitments, and travel costs. News outlets where I live are owned by news-quest (hyphenated in case I'm not supposed to write it ..). They only use freebies, or pics taken on a reporter's phone. I haven't much time at the moment to be imaginative (as regards weather, for example), and again travel costs play into that.

You are right.  .. my last LiveNews sale earned me 0.60p (a £1.50 sale) (and the worst of it was that it was a decent image - one of my favourites in the set). To be honest, I'd have rather given it away, but I've moved on from that now, and am looking (as ever) at improving my technique, and making sure I am happy with my own images, more than anything.  

 

I do take a lot of child portraits (when I have opportunity), but I'm very unsure about running a business doing that. It may just spoil the fun of it.

 

Do you still file LiveNews ? I would say, to earn most, the images need to be unique - seeing things others may not, that type of thing, and presenting a unique angle perhaps (whilst still being accurate as regards the story). But thats just my own assessment based on competing with the number of images filed from places where news is ripe. I could very well be wrong - a client who has bought into a package may still purchase at a steal.  [Oddly enough, and by means of some sort of confirmation, I received an email just now from another news outlet which seemed to make a similar assessment]

 

Edited by BidC
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I have $19 in my cleared balance which means with the penny sales we are getting now it is going to take forever to reach the $50 limit on payout.

 

In view of this I believe that Alamy/PA in fairness should reduce the payout limit to $25.

 

Allan

 

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33 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

I have $19 in my cleared balance which means with the penny sales we are getting now it is going to take forever to reach the $50 limit on payout.

 

In view of this I believe that Alamy/PA in fairness should reduce the payout limit to $25.

 

Allan

 

 

I've always thought that at the end of the year,  Alamy should do a full payout for whatever is in everyone's balance.

 

That way smaller contributors can collect their money, instead of Alamy making interest on all those accounts.  Same with the other micros as well.  With such small payouts, they must have a lot of money that sits and makes interest for them.  Other people's money.

 

Jill

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Forgive me if somebody has already said the following (I can't quite bear to read through all the above or the thread on the new web page or the last legs thread - life support might be more appropriate). 

 

It would have been much fairer to all if the boundary between "silver" and "gold" was based on number of images sold, itself based on the average sale price on first day of the year in question. So the date was July 1st 2021 and the average sale at that time was $25, then twelve sales in the subsequent year would keep one floating on gold (I think the boundary is $275 so £300 would clear the bar). I won't be going down this year but next year it is quite possible at the rate of my sales right now. Given how little I make anyway I won't be tearing my hair out (not even the latest silver bits) nor am I likely to be making a big effort to shoot or upload more saleable content.
 

The way this is going (should one drop into the Silver category) reminds me of the frog in the well problem that my old maths teacher used to give the class as a problem. The frog is say 10 metres down at the bottom of a well and each day he (or she maybe) moves half the remaining distance. So day 1 he moves up 5 metres, the next day 2.5 metres and so on - how long will it take him to arrive? 

Edited by MDM
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30 minutes ago, MDM said:

Forgive me if somebody has already said the following (I can't quite bear to read through all the above or the thread on the new web page or the last legs thread - life support might be more appropriate). 

 

It would have been much fairer to all if the boundary between "silver" and "gold" was based on number of images sold, itself based on the average sale price on first day of the year in question. So the date was July 1st 2021 and the average sale at that time was $25, then twelve sales in the subsequent year would keep one floating on gold (I think the boundary is $275 so £300 would clear the bar). I won't be going down this year but next year it is quite possible at the rate of my sales right now. Given how little I make anyway I won't be tearing my hair out (not even the latest silver bits) nor am I likely to be making a big effort to shoot or upload more saleable content.
 

The way this is going (should one drop into the Silver category) reminds me of the frog in the well problem that my old maths teacher used to give the class as a problem. The frog is say 10 metres down at the bottom of a well and each day he (or she maybe) moves half the remaining distance. So day 1 he moves up 5 metres, the next day 2.5 metres and so on - how long will it take him to arrive? 

 

Forever.

 

Boundary is $250 gross.

 

Allan

 

Edited by Allan Bell
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53 minutes ago, Martyn said:

 

It signed up as a tadpole and just got its first $3 sale ...

 in all fairness I think my first sale was around that, and I waited 3yrs or so to get a first payout. Naturally now I have more images, and am better at the whole tagging thing (etc) things then changed.

 

[I'd say there would be a point at which the frog could make a leap for safety. But, not being an expert on these matters, nor how long it can live without any food, I'm not sure how many days it would take to get there (or realise that it could) .... ]

 

 

 

 

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32 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

It's interesting to note that no one has started a "So who will be joining me in the Platinum Club next month?" thread yet. 😁

Tried that but it was quickly locked by Alamy as spam 😁

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4 hours ago, MDM said:

It would have been much fairer to all if the boundary between "silver" and "gold" was based on number of images sold, itself based on the average sale price on first day of the year in question. So the date was July 1st 2021 and the average sale at that time was $25, then twelve sales in the subsequent year would keep one floating on gold (I think the boundary is $275 so £300 would clear the bar). I won't be going down this year but next year it is quite possible at the rate of my sales right now. Given how little I make anyway I won't be tearing my hair out (not even the latest silver bits) nor am I likely to be making a big effort to shoot or upload more saleable content.

 

Agree, probably as that would mean I would stay in 'Gold' :) .

Or take it even further, a percentage of images sold per size of port. That would provide a good measure of a well curated, sellable, efficient port which would go a long way to this....... 

 

8 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

I won't be joining the silver club, but we all need to determine if there might be a demand for an image before clicking the shutter, now or later, and increase our topical images. Every little effort helps, but not numbers of images that are unlikely to sell. We can look at Alamy's customers search terms to guide us, but no easy task. Yes, promoting images if you find a successful way that doesn't take up all your time/resources. Margaret, do you still shoot Live News? Even that is suffering from low value sales for web use. I've only been back shooting news for a short while, everything counts.

 

My average has been not much more than $10 and with a small port,( I have only just got to 800 images recently, most of the year it was about 500) I would have to license an impossible percentage of my port per month to get near the tip over point.

On the other hand maybe my images are just rubbish and don't deserve the top bucks.😄

Edited by Martin L
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5 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

I've always thought that at the end of the year,  Alamy should do a full payout for whatever is in everyone's balance.

Book publishers and agents pay out as little as  $1.26 annually.  They make money on the float between payments in and payments out, but not more.   So this is doable. 

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On 23/06/2022 at 16:35, Skyscraperfan said:

I had to search a while to find my current commission model. It is at the dashboard at the account settings tab. This year could be my first one with sales below $250 because I had heavily restricted my images last year when the commission was lowered to 40%. 40% commission are completely unacceptable. When the commission goes even further down, I will hide my photos even more until the commission change is reversed.

The new model is a mean psycho trick: People who still achive the gold level will see that as a success, even though the commissions are lower than a year ago.

 

If you go silver it seems to me that it’s self inflicted. I doubt your ‘protest’ even registers with Alamy and it certainly isn’t going to change anything. What will your next move be if the commission rate drops further in the future.... hunger strike?

The new model isn’t a psycho trick, it’s a broken promise.

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It is not self inflicted. Nobody should accept a commission below 50%. In a way that is a negative commission at it means that others will make more money than you from the photo. So I will find a way that makes sure that this will no longer happen.

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10 hours ago, Skyscraperfan said:

It is not self inflicted. Nobody should accept a commission below 50%. In a way that is a negative commission at it means that others will make more money than you from the photo. So I will find a way that makes sure that this will no longer happen.

 

I suspect the counter argument would be that without the words and the presentation on a web site or in print, nobody would be looking at a photograph.

 

The grunts who do the photo searches and layout and the rest of all that probably believe writers and photographers have the fun parts.  Adobe programmers and camera designers probably believe they do most of the hardest work. 

 

At least we're not paying to be displayed or printed.  

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Jill, I'm so sorry to your bad news. I can't check now, of course, but I remember that your photo work has gotten better and better and what you do is hard work. So this is bad news for us all.

 

I'm still doing okay, with my number of sales okay but gross down that 10%. I hope you and all the folks above the frosty line recover. My son is one of you. 

 

Edo

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