How was your 2013?

[Ed Rooney]

I wonder how the net amounts would look if we deducted expenses, especially for travel? 

[Guest]

Gross of 275 sales - not too bad but the revenue was down from previous years. Added only a few (100 or so) this year and have reached the tipping point of not seeing Alamy as part of my future. I am minded that since the 1980s, Alamy is my only agency which has cut my commission rates, even when others took over agencies....they respected legacy rates. That's been  a massive issue regarding revenues, for me.

 

Last two quarters have shown a steady decline in sales balance, it's showing me that Alamy, for me, is not a worthwhile (profitable) agency. I won't subsidize Alamy work from my other agency income. Have started to cherry-pick some work to be moved and will leave what doesn't compromise other places. So not the Tom Mackie solution! Selling a back catalog is one thing but non-profit new work is not on the agenda.

 

Overall stock income has been up in 2013, photography income has also risen considerably and looking forward to a busy 2014.

 

Recently rather flattered to find an agency had copied very, very closely one of my best sellers - so that was highlight of the year.....along with the 'annoying moment' of the year.

 

2014 plans, I need to move from my current 3D software to another one for greater productivity - so watching tutorials is high on my 'to do' list.

[John Mitchell]

Not as good as 2012 -- had a similar number of sales in 2013 but gross earnings were down. I had 95 sales in 2013 for about $6255 gross. Net earnings will of course be way down this year due to the drop in % commissions. Glad I didn't completely give up my day job.

[DavidC]

01 January 2013 to 31 December 2013 (295 sales) $13542.38 gross from about 5,000 images on Alamy.

 

Forgive my griping - the Scheming Newspaper Deals are the real killers - there is no reason whatever for the silly arrangements that allow a single sale to be used for every newspaper title in a group in every type of media for the same single sale fee - the managing editors really saw this one coming and now progressively the online versions become 'paid for' and therefore profit making. There was talk about a re-think of the newspaper deals which also produce those silly $7 fees under a different well considered arrangement - and now some webdesigners have obtained a deal which allows them to sublicense images to numerous clients for a single tiny license sale - but then forgive me - I may have mentioned all this before - a number of times.....lovely company, lovely people but they are contributing to the industry problems by deals which I feel are not well thought through.

 

SRA's for the last year for copyright infringments exceed the Alamy gross. They won't chase up 'third party uses' but it really is worth doing so.......again, they just do not seem to understand that my loss is also their loss perhaps they are just too nice........

[John Mitchell]

I wonder how the net amounts would look if we deducted expenses, especially for travel? 

Good question. I only managed one major trip in 2013, to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. I've started making a few sales from that foolhardy venture, but it's going to take a long time to recupe my expenses, even though I flew on air miles and wrangled some hotel deals in exchange for photos and articles. It was worth it, though, if only to escape Vancouver's soggy winter gloom.

[Inchiquin]

My best year ever. Number of sales up by 100% over my previous best year (2010), income up by 50%.

 

Alan

[wiskerke]

202 sales for a total of just over 10.500 (gross)

 

- including 46 NU for $87.05 total

 

16 sales (not NU) were under $10 - from developing countries like  India, Italy and the UK.

 

I had 11 refunds:

 

1 real refund (may still come back in the future)
3 sold later for the same amount
5 sold later for (total) $349.97 less
3 sold later for (total) $156.86 more

 

7 from/to Worldwide
2 from/to World English Language
1 from/to United States
1 from/to Poland

 

wim

[Chuck Nacke]

2013 was not as bad as I had expected, but it was not as good as I would have liked....

 

Coming up on ten years with Alamy I am about to have 1,000 images live and online.

This year brought in 60 licenses for a gross of a bit shy of $4,000.00. I am a firm believer

in "LESS IS MORE" and I select what material that I upload to Alamy as carefully as

I am able to.

 

Since most of my material is News or News Feature material from the 80's and 90's I am

quite happy with the licenses that Alamy has made.  After over 20 years in the photo agency

business I don't see a better option that Alamy.

 

Happy New Year to all and looking forward to 2014

[dov makabaw]

My sales are barely up this year overall but I have not done the calculation over my main pseudos so it may well be better, I hope.

 

My average sales value has increased from $59 per image to $65 per image, including NU's, so that is a welcome improvement, hopefully a trend to be continued.

 

dov

[Pearl]

2013 started really well with numbers of licenses well up during first 4 months but has flatlined since then, mainly due, I believe, to the ever increasing Creative collection in which I only have a small presence.  Ended up with 449 licenses (after deducting the 18 refunds and corresponding sales) for a gross of just over $26,000 which includes a couple of four figure sales.  I think this is up on 2012 but I didn't actually make a note at the end of last year.

 

I would really like to feel positive about 2014 but, apart from the couple of four figure licenses, the last few months have been disappointingly average.

 

Anyway, I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.

 

Pearl

[Robert Convery]

I've been comparing this year to last year.

 

2012 104 sales highest $238 average $45 gross

2013 165 sales highest $180 average $30.5 gross

 

2012 total $4673.28 gross 2013 $5028.41 gross looks like an improvement of about 7.5%

However looking at the net figures 2012 $2752.47 2013 $2515.46 I made less this year.

 

I added a few hundred images during the year, so I'd like to see my income go up even though I do this for fun.

 

Cheers,

Rob

[Peter Jordan]

I hesitated to add to this thread yesterday in case another sale came through overnight, and one did so now I know the figures.

 

During the year I added 1311 images with no QC failures. Of these additional images 9 were sold in 2013.

 

Final tally (excluding refund)  for 2013 was 76 sales for $3427 gross  ($1644 net)

This compares with 74 sales for $3625 gross ($2135 net) in 2012

So about $198 less gross  yielded $491 less net.

 

My only refund was a shot of the interior of my local supermarket licensed to USA for $44 and then refunded, only to be resold to Brazil for $37 for what appeared to be the same usage..

 

The first few months had a great many low value “Editorial website” sales,  but more recently prices seem to have firmed up.

 

Thanks Alamy! - No gripes from me I am happy with my progress.

[Inchiquin]

 

Craig and Bryan, why don't we team up and become professional quiz players

 

 

You could appear on Eggheads as The Alamisers. I'd join you but the odds are stacked too heavily against the challengers. I prefer quizzes where you stand at least some chance of winning.

 

Alan

[Bryan]

 

Craig said: For 2014 I am going to re-keyword my whole collection and spend time researching in depth the content of each image, I have already started this process and I am seeing positive results in searches and learning an awful lot more about the subjects I have photographed.

------------------------------------------------

Bryan said: I may be in a minority here, but I also enjoy the research involved with key wording.      

 

 

Craig and Bryan, why don't we team up and become professional quiz players I know all about Gatso speed cameras, British and French tunics of the 1815 Napoleonic war and Upper Paleolithic cave paintings (not that it will be of any use I rely on your knowledge of all other subjects )

 

    

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

You wouldn't want me in your team. Most days I do the Times and Guardian concise crosswords, but rely heavily on the Internet for the factual answers. When memory was dispensed, they forgot about me 

[Jools Elliott]

I would dearly love Alamy to be producing the kinds of sales that I get elsewhere.

 

Roughly:

 

Big G: $17500 gross for 2013 (waiting on the 20th jan for dec's sales). Up from $2900 in 2012.

Alamy: $456 gross for 2013. Up from $268 in 2012.

 

Hmmmmmmmm!!!

 

Very very frustrating here at Alamy. Personally, I would like Alamy to do the keywords and give me 50% and for images I don't want to keyword they give me 60%.

 

Are keywords failing me here? I don't know but even Shutterstock outperformed Alamy sales wise.

 

Answers on a postcard gratefully received

[stipe]

Well, I was on Getty till I got 14 USD (10€!) for one-page size photo published on a Lonely Planet guide. That was enough to convinced me to say bye bye "Big G".

At least, with Alamy I never seen such a ridicolous payment amount for one-page publishing and outside the newspapers scheme.

[Arletta]

Big G: $17500 gross for 2013 (waiting on the 20th jan for dec's sales). Up from $2900 in 2012.

Alamy: $456 gross for 2013. Up from $268 in 2012.

 

I'm only interested. May I ask? What % of income do you get from G.? Is this 17,5k yours or before % with agency? As I know they give 20% for author, is it true?

 

And here, everybody is talking about earnings but before % share with agency and the truth is, this is not your income

[ManWay]

And here, everybody is talking about earnings but before % share with agency and the truth is, this is not your income

 

 

Gross figure is before any deductions. From Alamy our net income is 50% of this - or 30% if sale is from distributor.

[Craig Yates]

 

 

Craig said: For 2014 I am going to re-keyword my whole collection and spend time researching in depth the content of each image, I have already started this process and I am seeing positive results in searches and learning an awful lot more about the subjects I have photographed.

------------------------------------------------

Bryan said: I may be in a minority here, but I also enjoy the research involved with key wording.      

 

 

Craig and Bryan, why don't we team up and become professional quiz players I know all about Gatso speed cameras, British and French tunics of the 1815 Napoleonic war and Upper Paleolithic cave paintings (not that it will be of any use I rely on your knowledge of all other subjects )

 

    

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

You wouldn't want me in your team. Most days I do the Times and Guardian concise crosswords, but rely heavily on the Internet for the factual answers. When memory was dispensed, they forgot about me 

 

 

Count me in but you will have to wait until I have finished key wording all my images, probably sometime in July.   What about Jeff G his head must be bursting with knowledge.

 

Regards

Craig

[John Mitchell]

 

And here, everybody is talking about earnings but before % share with agency and the truth is, this is not your income

 

 

Gross figure is before any deductions. From Alamy our net income is 50% of this - or 30% if sale is from distributor.

 

I haven't had enough courage to calculate my net income for 2013 given that one-third of my sales were through distributors. Still, our slice of the pie is considerably bigger than what other agencies dish out, which speaks well for Alamy IMO.

[Guest]

But even that is not your income, real income is the profit you make - shoot expenses are not being mentioned, even the CODB is not being mentioned....and those pesky taxes as well.

 

When I look at my real income per image from Alamy, I have to ask myself if adding images will make me money - sales are for show, profits for dough.

 

 

 

Big G: $17500 gross for 2013 (waiting on the 20th jan for dec's sales). Up from $2900 in 2012.
Alamy: $456 gross for 2013. Up from $268 in 2012.

I'm only interested. May I ask? What % of income do you get from G.? Is this 17,5k yours or before % with agency? As I know they give 20% for author, is it true?

And here, everybody is talking about earnings but before % share with agency and the truth is, this is not your income

[Lynn Palmer]

With barely six months of data I can't compare to prior years like the rest of you.  I pushed to post my first 1600 images in 2013, but based on my views and zooms (or lack of them) I know I need to go back and improve my keywords.  In October/November my average CTR was just below Alamy's while my total CTR was quite low.  In December I had a bunch of zooms that boosted my total CTR to 0.70 but for some reason my average CTR dropped to 0.36...it's all quite confusing for a newbie.

 

Most importantly though, I made my first sale early in December for a net of $30.  It was an image that was zoomed 3 or 4 times over a three month period.  Overall, I'm tentatively optimistic for 2014.  Hopefully I will sell enough to make the threshold for a payment in 2014.

 

Happy New Year!!

[cbimages]

I only ever keep track of the net result, for 2013 up a few hundred $$ from 2012. Net RPI for 2013 also up slightly from 0.66 in 2012 to 0.75 in 2013. Best net result was $5.21 from a micro.

[Robert Brook]

A good year. A bum year.

 

Bum Year

 

2013 was the year that I finally realised that travelling around the UK shooting stuff no longer makes sense, either aesthetically or financially.  It’s beginning to feel like a completely gormless activity.  The UK has been covered.  The editorial market is in very poor shape, especially in the UK.  Even agencies that are both functioning and working for photographers as well as clients (not Alamy) are giving declining returns for this sort of work.  The economy may well recover, but this market won’t. 

 

 

Good year

 

Getting some good promotion over in Washington State. Getting the hang of still-life work of a kind that should generate substantial profit.  Have discovered a new way of generating location based imagery using multiple frames*. Am looking forward to signing up with one or more agency not based in the UK, possibly Germany.  I am so impressed with the attitude to photography over in Seattle that I am tempted to have a go at the big G, even though that might be a bit out of my comfort zone (currently only submit to G via distribution schemes).

 

*Nothing to do with HDR

[Arletta]

2013 Alamy net $$ = 96% 2012 Alamy net $$

despite ~10K more images 2013 vs. 2012;

(50/50 net $$ "negative effect" kicked in starting ~April 2013, reflected in graph below)

Jeff, maybe you have to re-keyword all your images?

 (joke )