A sobering thought

[John Mitchell]

I feel that I've done quite well on Alamy over the years all things considered. However, it occurs to me that I'm increasingly being kept afloat by repeat-sellers. In fact, almost all my sales these days are of images that have previously sold, many times in some cases. I haven't done the math, but I'm guessing that only about 10% (at best) of my collection actually licenses on a regular basis. The vast majority of my photos now just gather dust. I'm wondering how my situation compares with that of other long-time contributors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by John Mitchell

[Harry Harrison]

5 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

The vast majority of my photos just gather dust.

Would this to be down to the algorithm(s) used though, simply promoting sellers over non-sellers over time.

[John Mitchell]

22 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Would this to be down to the algorithm(s) used though, simply promoting sellers over non-sellers over time.

 

Yes, that's most likely a big factor. Non-sellers just get pushed to the bottom of the ever-growing mountain of images.

Edited March 22, 2023 by John Mitchell

[Harry Harrison]

23 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

Non-sellers just get pushed to the bottom of the ever-growing mountain of images

....and so resolutely stay non-sellers!

[John Mitchell]

13 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

....and so resolutely stay non-sellers!

 

Exactly, my dear Watson. 🕵️‍♂️

[Dave Richards]

I’m certain that about 90% or more of what is in my port is garbage and will never sell. That said I am sometimes surprised when some obscure image does get licenced. I treasure my repeat sellers; all too few unfortunately.

[Allan Bell]

23 minutes ago, Dave Richards said:

I’m certain that about 90% or more of what is in my port is garbage and will never sell. That said I am sometimes surprised when some obscure image does get licenced. I treasure my repeat sellers; all too few unfortunately.

 

I treasure all my images. It's just that nobody else seems to.

 

Allan

 

[gvallee]

I have only a handful of repeat sellers, one being Steve Irwin as there are regular articles about him. Unfortunately, as it's for newspapers, it licenses for peanuts.

 

Let's not forget the 'Date taken' filter which can send our old pics into oblivion.

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by gvallee

[John Mitchell]

6 hours ago, gvallee said:

I have only a handful of repeat sellers, one being Steve Irwin as there are regular articles about him. Unfortunately, as it's for newspapers, it licenses fod peanuts.

 

Let's not forget the 'Date taken' filter which can send our old pics into oblivion.

 

 

That's interesting. Given that so many of your "Outback" images are so unique, I would have thought that you have a wealth of repeat-sellers. No doubt the "date taken" filter does send a lot of our images to the bottom of the sea. However, I'm surprised at the long shelf life of many of my older images.

[John Mitchell]

7 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I treasure all my images. It's just that nobody else seems to.

 

Allan

 

 

Buried treasure, then? 🏴‍☠️

[gvallee]

1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

 

That's interesting. Given that so many of your "Outback" images are so unique, I would have thought that you have a wealth of repeat-sellers. No doubt the "date taken" filter does send a lot of our images to the bottom of the sea. However, I'm surprised at the long shelf life of many of my older images.

 

I have a couple of Outback repeat sellers, one is a popular upmarket tourist destination recently published in NatGeo, yeah!!, and the other one is of the desert bloom. Otherwise, as much as I love the Outback, there isn't much demand for it as it's not readily accessible and is less touristy. I suppose the market there is of 4x4 cars showing all the bells and whistles going up a sand dune for those 4x4 magazines.

 

My photos of iconic Ayers Rock have been pulled by Alamy, verboten. This being the number one tourist destination in Oz, they had potential. Beaches are a lot more saleable but I don't go there much. 

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by gvallee

[Vincent Lowe]

4 hours ago, gvallee said:

My photos of iconic Ayers Rock have been pulled by Alamy, verboten. This being the number one tourist destination in Oz, they had potential. Beaches are a lot more saleable but I don't go there much. 

 

 

Really?  How bizarre - put 'Ayers Rock' in the search box and you get 7312 results

[gvallee]

17 minutes ago, Vincent Lowe said:

 

Really?  How bizarre - put 'Ayers Rock' in the search box and you get 7312 results

 

I know I know, which makes it even more frustrating. Perhaps they'll get deleted in the next sweep?

[Robert M Estall]

Ir has always been the case that as little as 5% of stock will sell. The problem being that no one can safely identify that 5%. In the past, I used to see various libraries to whom I had contributed try to edit out the "dead wood". I was convinced they almost always got it wrong!

[Allan Bell]

6 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Buried treasure, then? 🏴‍☠️

 

Fortunately they do not seem to be buried as when I search for my images as in the roll of a customer they are generally on the first two pages.

 

Allan

 

[Ed Rooney]

 

I find that location matters greatly, as does subject. NYC still sells for me, even though I've not been there in 5 years. I didn't choose Liverpool as a place to settle -- various events along the senior nomad trail have led me here. But my stuff snapped in Liverpool sells too. Cop car closeup design snaps are Liverpool repeat sellers for me. But they go for pocket change. And other signs.

 

Please, Lord, don't make me capture more signs. Yet I do. 🤪

[spacecadet]

33 minutes ago, Robert M Estall said:

Ir has always been the case that as little as 5% of stock will sell. The problem being that no one can safely identify that 5%. In the past, I used to see various libraries to whom I had contributed try to edit out the "dead wood". I was convinced they almost always got it wrong!

That's probably about right for me, but that figure doesn't exclude repeat sellers, which have been about 20% since 1/1/22, but about half this YTD.

I've never deleted an image because I thought it wouldn't sell. That's not my job. But I don't think I have much dross.

Edited March 23, 2023 by spacecadet

[Inchiquin]

15 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Yes, that's most likely a big factor. Non-sellers just get pushed to the bottom of the ever-growing mountain of images.

 

It could equally be that the customer sees the image published somewhere and goes to Alamy specifically to license it.

 

I also have quite a lot of repeat sellers though I haven't done the maths to see what proportion of my sales are repeats.

 

Alan

[Alex Ramsay]

Of this month's sales, most are repeat sellers, some dating back as far as 2007 when I began with Alamy - of the first-time sales, the most recent was shot almost exactly a year ago.

 

Alex

[VbFolly]

About 5% of my images have sold overall, so I guess I'm about average on that figure.

Looking at my sales so far in 2023, 70% are first time sellers. I do add quite a lot of images each year though, so that is bound to play a part.

[Flo Smith]

My sales seem to come from all over the shop, with some repeat sellers. I think they have changed the contributor back office and keywording area majorly twice from what I can remember. So for some of us who have been on here a long time, we've had to redo the keywords to fit the new system especially with the supertags, which is quite a bit of work. I only did mine quickly when they changed it just to get it to go green! You've all probably done all this and maximised your stuff. I've never really had time to do it properly until now, so I'm going in! 

[wiskerke]

8 hours ago, Vincent Lowe said:

 

Really?  How bizarre - put 'Ayers Rock' in the search box and you get 7312 results

Maybe they all have releases?

Here's the Media Guide on Uluru.

And this is the Media Guidelines with the permits and releases explained.

 

wim

 

edit: guides and links mixed up

Edited March 23, 2023 by wiskerke

[John Mitchell]

Case in point -- four new sales (very welcome) popped up today, three of them repeat-sellers, including my first $$$ one of the year.

 

I'd be toast without those dependable repeats. 😬

[gvallee]

55 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

Maybe they all have releases?

Here's the Media Guide on Uluru.

 

wim

 

The problem is that to get a permit, you have to declare the pics intended usage. We don't know that.

I doubt the pictures on Alamy have a permit, it's probably just ignorance or taking the chance.

[John Mitchell]

2 hours ago, Flo Smith said:

My sales seem to come from all over the shop, with some repeat sellers. I think they have changed the contributor back office and keywording area majorly twice from what I can remember. So for some of us who have been on here a long time, we've had to redo the keywords to fit the new system especially with the supertags, which is quite a bit of work. I only did mine quickly when they changed it just to get it to go green! You've all probably done all this and maximised your stuff. I've never really had time to do it properly until now, so I'm going in! 

 

If your sales are coming from all over the place, I think that is probably a healthier situation than being overly dependent on repeat-sellers. I too have spent a lot of time trying to keep up with the various keywording changes over the years. However, a lot of my older images still need more work. It can be tough to find the motivation, though.