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Putting up a number is meaningless unless you include the word "gross" or "net." 

 

Bq, $1 per image gross is not far off the mark . . . and $1 per image net would not be far off the mark either. With your 272 images you are obviously testing the waters. The stock world moves too slow for that level test. 

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My $ per image per year gross is $2.44 for 2013

 

Keep in mind, when comparing to Getty or any other agency edited outlet, those tend to be much more tightly edited portals.  

With Alamy, we are in control of our numbers, for the most part, and so how much you get per image per year has a lot to do with 

how much you edit your collection...as well as quality and relevance to photo needs of course.

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Sorry - 50 cents is net - yes considering all the time involved it's really not worth adding more but leave in what I have

If we were talking net income (can be a somewhat depressing subject), I would estimate only about $0.60 an image for me last year since I had a lot of distributor sales.

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Yes, no interest now in more uploads. Somebody will say - yes but if you have a rare shot you will make $. Got news for you - hard to get rare shots are also selling for a pittance. And how many rare shots do most photographers get?

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Don't get me wrong - alamy is a great company with excellent staff and CEO. It's just not worth the time anymore! 50 cents a year per shot - considering the time to shoot process upload and keyword. Those of us that did this some years ago when you could make good money have many 1000s in agencies and the work is done and we're not likely to delete them because of that work!

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Sorry - 50 cents is net - yes considering all the time involved it's really not worth adding more but leave in what I have

If we were talking net income (can be a somewhat depressing subject), I would estimate only about $0.60 an image for me last year since I had a lot of distributor sales.

 

 Why would you calculate gross? Isnt it about what ends up in your pocket?

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Sorry - 50 cents is net - yes considering all the time involved it's really not worth adding more but leave in what I have

If we were talking net income (can be a somewhat depressing subject), I would estimate only about $0.60 an image for me last year since I had a lot of distributor sales.

 

 Why would you calculate gross? Isnt it about what ends up in your pocket?

 

Because it's easier to do and less depressing. Actually, nothing ends up in my pocket because it's all already spent -- i.e. there's a big hole in my pocket.

 

If you're averaging $1 per image net, you are doing very well. Time to do some more uploading perhaps.

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1. If I ever bothered making any effort for less than £1 net then I have departed from the real world - and that's for out-and-about editorial work.

2. Studio - not involving anything more than minimum costs or releases: £3 net bare minimum, aim for £10-£15

3. More considered work involvolving travel, releases, checking for logos etc: a lot more, but I will take risks because currently it shades into 4 and I am on a learning curve.

4. Personal work - well obviously I do that whether I sell it or not, but would not place anything I really liked with a stock agency unless it is going to be promoted.

 

I could easily dump a few thousand images on Alamy and boost my income, but they would be rubbish, and assuming photography is both a profession and a vocation, then I ought to behave accordingly.

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And what if you deducted your travel expenses, Kumar? 

 

I remember when I was with Tony Stone and earned about $1 a month per image . . . net.  "The past is another country. People do things differently there." -- paraphrase from the opening page of The Go-Between

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Gross numbers mean nothing imho. It could well be 30% of that number. Sorry, but reporting gross numbers is not telling the story. But of course everyone is free to give the number they feel comfortable with. I am not disputing that.  :)

 

As for doing well here. No I dont think I do well here . I made 4 dollar in 6  months. Its the odd extremely rare good sale that gets me to 1$ per image. Shutterstock gives me 3.5$ per image per year. So uploading there makes a lot more sense then uploading here, no? When I upload to Shutterstock, I actually see my sales and downloads increase, when I upload to Alamy I see my CTR, Sales and views drop to ZERO. 

 

Anyhoo, its all just my opinion, I could be missing something. Also dont want to start a debate on micro vs macro. I just sharing my experience. 

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Old stock adage about RPI, it's not really significant to compare unless you have a large enough sample - 1000 images being the usual criteria (Tom Grill's benchmark so worth using).

 

Also, like most stuff....it's slightly meaningless unless you compare apples with apples. ROI for a shoot is really the only way to look at your stock, especially across agencies.

 

It's meaningless for me to compare my work here with my work on Getty or Corbis etc, yes I get much better results from them but the standard of work I have with them is significantly higher (in stock terms).

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At my rate of shooting I struggle to produce more than 10 usable images a day.  That’s fifty a week.  If I earned $1 pipy (net not gross) that works out at $50 dollars per year for a week’s work.  The most I can therefore expect to earn, given falling sales and prices is around $300 for a hard week’s work, most of it arriving in several years time.  That is around £180.  Deduct fuel, snacks, shoe leather etc and it could drop to as little as £100.  And that’s an optimum working week.

 

If my pipy drops to $1 gross, then I am really up the creek.  I now have to produce 100 usable images week to earn the same, and really something above 400 images a week to have a proper income.  That works out at over 20,000 images a year, given present conditions in the industry.  What if Alamy think it would be a fun thing to drop the contributor share to 40% or my ranking collapses due to all the rubbish I am piling in?

 

If this is how it is, then the crowd-sourced stock business is unsustainable in the long run.  

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