Do you get period of absolutely nothing?

Dave Colman · March 29, 2023

As the title says, I know we are likely to have ups and downs but do you get periods when sales just die?
This was my first site to use for stock and I am still going back through to redo all my tags etc but everything was going fine until October last year and since then no a bean. My ctr has stayed the same and I am getting plenty of views but no sales.
Nothing has changed with my upload, they are frequent and dare I say, other sites are ticking over so I thought really strange I have dropped off the radar so to speak.

spacecadet · March 29, 2023

Simple answer- you don't have enough images to get through periods when they're not being looked for. I didn't get sales every month until I had something close to my current numbers.

I don't know about the depth of your port because I haven't looked, but maybe you need to think about variety.

It's possible you haven't been submitting long enough to know what your average should be- I had few sales in my first two years.

Some while ago we reckoned that you could expect one sale/month/1000 images, not far from my own figures. That would put you on around 15/year, assuming your port is varied, with not too many similars. But that was when Alamy had many fewer images. It may still apply to established contributors, but it might be much lower for new entrants.

Edited March 29, 2023 by spacecadet

John Mitchell · March 29, 2023

If those "other sites" are microstock agencies, then you'll notice a big difference here. Periods of inactivity are common on Alamy, at least that's what I find, especially these days. I can go a couple of weeks with zero sales reported, and then they will start trickling in.

Michael Ventura · March 29, 2023

21 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

If those "other sites" are microstock agencies, then you'll notice a big difference here. Periods of inactivity are common on Alamy, at least that's what I find, especially these days. I can go a couple of weeks with zero sales reported, and then they will start trickling in.

The same for me. I get draughts but when the rain comes, it's not flooding, just the garden variety showers.

Alexander Hogg · March 29, 2023

I was going to leave Alamy last November and delete the account but got 6 sales in between November and February Nothing this month but not uploading as much as I should to make any difference The images I have so far aren't as varied yet but will change during the course of the year

Hope you get a few more sales but our numbers of photos will have to increase quite a bit to get regular sales

Dave Colman · March 29, 2023

Thanks for the replies, probably my sales are like buses for arrival. I know images can be topical and with a lot of mine from my time in China the interest might come and go.
I will stick with it and continue uploading, was just wondering as it's my first lull.

John Mitchell · March 29, 2023

1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said:

The same for me. I get draughts but when the rain comes, it's not flooding, just the garden variety showers.

Yup, I was lucky enough to have a small downpour one day this month, but usually the weather report is "clouding over later in the week with a chance of showers." ☔

Edited March 29, 2023 by John Mitchell

Jansos · March 29, 2023

Although it has been bucketing down in London this evening, I'm having a bit of a drought this month on Alamy. It's not quite the Atacama Desert yet but not far off. Usually get a steady drizzle but for the last two weeks +, zilch.

gvallee · March 29, 2023

It's the monsoon season here in Cairns and so far, I've had a shower of 17 sales this month, not bad for me.

But last year, I had a blank month which hadn't happened for years. So we never know.

Chuck Nacke · March 30, 2023

For me Licenses, I don't sell images, have ticked along pretty steady. So far 2023 has been slower on Alamy than I would like and

the license fees are way too low in my opinion, but they do tick along,

I also have to disagree with getting the number of images online up vs. the quality and file info or captions and keywords. It is the

image and context that make images licensable.

Chuck

Pav · March 30, 2023

On 29/03/2023 at 17:45, Dave Colman said:

As the title says, I know we are likely to have ups and downs but do you get periods when sales just die?
This was my first site to use for stock and I am still going back through to redo all my tags etc but everything was going fine until October last year and since then no a bean. My ctr has stayed the same and I am getting plenty of views but no sales.
Nothing has changed with my upload, they are frequent and dare I say, other sites are ticking over so I thought really strange I have dropped off the radar so to speak.

Do you get period of absolutely nothing? No.

Broad Norfolk · March 31, 2023

I feel frozen out! With only a few hours left of this month I have no licenses. This hasn't happened since prior to 2017 and I thought things were recovering a bit last month.

Phil · April 10, 2023

There is a general expectation of about 1 sale per month for every 1,000 images you have online here.

That has been pretty accurate for my small portfolio. At least it was up until late Nov 2022. For all of 2021 and first 11 months of 2022 I had regular license sales almost each month.

But it all came to a screeching halt in late Nov 2022. Almost 5 months now - nothing zero zip nada. Wonder what broke? Maybe economies heading into recession?

phomme · April 11, 2023

There are months where I make no sales, and the next month I make a few sales, a lot of my sales seem to come in at the end of the month.

wilkopix · April 12, 2023

On 29/03/2023 at 17:45, Dave Colman said:

As the title says, I know we are likely to have ups and downs but do you get periods when sales just die?
This was my first site to use for stock and I am still going back through to redo all my tags etc but everything was going fine until October last year and since then no a bean. My ctr has stayed the same and I am getting plenty of views but no sales.
Nothing has changed with my upload, they are frequent and dare I say, other sites are ticking over so I thought really strange I have dropped off the radar so to speak.

Yep, I know how you feel .... no sales so far this month. Seems to be a worrying trend that my sales are dropping to the level of 2003 when I only had a handful of images. My CTR has dropped to the lowest since it's inception. Like you, elsewhere seems to be ticking along quite nicely with a fairly healthy upward trend. I really want Alamy to do well as I've been with them for a long time.

Chris1603 · April 13, 2023

Sorry to go off topic, but where and how to find my CTR rank? Cannot see it anywhere, only QC thing of three stars?

Steve F · April 13, 2023

Alamy measures on your Dashboard

Steve F · April 13, 2023

On 29/03/2023 at 17:45, Dave Colman said:

but do you get periods when sales just die

Dave, no. Between 10 to 25 sales on average a month. Quite variable as I've got a small portfolio. I'd expect it to be even more variable for a 1600 image portfolio.

Marianne · April 13, 2023

4 hours ago, Steve F said:

Dave, no. Between 10 to 25 sales on average a month. Quite variable as I've got a small portfolio. I'd expect it to be even more variable for a 1600 image portfolio.

I was randomly checking out people's latest portfolios on here and I'm jealous - you have a Star Trek stamp!

My portfolio is around the same size as the OP's. I've been averaging 3 licenses a month for the past 6 months, so okay for my small portfolio, however, I'm concerned that views have varied widely for the running month from 780 to 1300, the lowest they have been for several years. Sometime in around 2019, my average monthly views dropped from around 2000 to an average of around 1200, which was concerning, and this recent huge drop has me worried again. For the past 30 days it's down to 780 - I don't remember when it was ever that low. Hopefully it's just a blip and will go back up, unlike the last drop from which my portfolio still hasn't recovered. I know views don't cover all buyers, but it's frustrating to see my portfolio get less and less exposure.

My images were in the Creative Collection until the latest revamp, so I shouldn't be surprised that views dropped. Sales are steady and even for one word searches by state name, I have a handful on page one for much of my portfolio, so I'm till getting exposure when people are looking for the places I'm most likely to photograph.

I'm wondering if the drop in views is due in part to cleaning up my keywords. I've gone in and deleted a lot of filler words like sky, and deleted phrases that cause potential false hits when they weren't entirely necessary, so fewer views could be due in part to fewer false hits. My number of Zooms are as strong as ever. and more of them are actually leading to sales.

My portfolio has been roughly the same size for a few years. Though I've averaged roughly 2 sales a month for the past few years, during that time I've had dry spells of several months, then it would pick up and I'd get a run of sales to bring the average back up. And my only UK images are from vacation snaps on a trip to Edinburgh in 2007 when I'd never even heard of stock photography, an advantage you have over me as a UK photographer. So, @Dave Colman don't despair.