No longer for me....

[krutopimages]

As much as I hate to admit it, Alamy was a mistake I made....maybe my stuff was not up to the standard I thought. I have found the selection method perhaps the most frustrating practice I have ever encountered. Amazing thing, both my wife and I have sat on $49.00 & $49.50 outstanding waiting for one more sale for months before we are entitled to a payout- Alamy will justify this of course....but there are other agencies that do not freeze or fail maybe 50 plus uploads because maybe one does not meet their criteria!!! It's a rort and I for one have had enough.

Good luck to all contributors....but I do hope others voice their dissatisfaction with a company that is so frustrating....imagine how many contributors are sitting just below the "$50" magical amount for some pathetic payout and how Alamy benefits by never letting you achieve a menial goal.

Edited November 2, 2023 by krutopimages
misspelt

[Sultanpepa]

On 02/11/2023 at 23:33, krutopimages said:

As much as I hate to admit it, Alamy was a mistake I made....maybe my stuff was not up to the standard I thought. I have found the selection method perhaps the most frustrating practice I have ever encountered. Amazing thing, both my wife and I have sat on $49.00 & $49.50 outstanding waiting for one more sale for months before we are entitled to a payout- Alamy will justify this of course....but there are other agencies that do not freeze or fail maybe 50 plus uploads because maybe one does not meet their criteria!!! It's a rort and I for one have had enough.

Good luck to all contributors....but I do hope others voice their dissatisfaction with a company that is so frustrating....imagine how many contributors are sitting just below the "$50" magical amount for some pathetic payout and how Alamy benefits by never letting you achieve a menial goal.

 

I understand your frustration having sat on $49 myself (thinking conspiracy is hard to resist) but it's unfair to suggest that Alamy/PA deliberately prevent you from achieving the $50 bucks threshold, especially when you have so few images on sale. Perhaps you and your wife would have been better with a single account and shared the spoils once paid. However we all have to make choices and if your choice is to leave then so be it. I'm sure I speak for most in wishing you farewell and good luck.

 

Dougie.

[Steve F]

Sorry it's been frustrating. But very very small collection.

 

And payouts? https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/17182-how-was-your-october-2023/

 

[Inchiquin]

I'm going to be brutal, I'm afraid. With 233 images among 350 million, you're probably lucky to have made $49 in sales.

 

Alan

[Rebecca Ore]

On 02/11/2023 at 17:33, krutopimages said:

As much as I hate to admit it, Alamy was a mistake I made....maybe my stuff was not up to the standard I thought. I have found the selection method perhaps the most frustrating practice I have ever encountered. Amazing thing, both my wife and I have sat on $49.00 & $49.50 outstanding waiting for one more sale for months before we are entitled to a payout- Alamy will justify this of course....but there are other agencies that do not freeze or fail maybe 50 plus uploads because maybe one does not meet their criteria!!! It's a rort and I for one have had enough.

Good luck to all contributors....but I do hope others voice their dissatisfaction with a company that is so frustrating....imagine how many contributors are sitting just below the "$50" magical amount for some pathetic payout and how Alamy benefits by never letting you achieve a menial goal.

 

Well, bye.   The advice you were given in the other thread will be useful to someone.   The reality is that Alamy expects its contributors do do their own Quality control.   Some photos are rarer and harder to get access for than other.   It takes around 1,000 photos up for most people to see fairly regular sales.  Rates under Alamy/PA have ranged from a couple of dollars to around $90 US for what I've sold since rejoining, so that's a range between microstock to well above microstock.   My guess is that other agencies that accept whole uploads without much or anything in the way of QC are also selling for bulk subscription prices all of the time, or most of it.

 

Some of us had bank accounts that charged for wire transfers, so when the bank takes $20 for the transfer as a minimum, I'm happy not to have smaller than $50 US payments coming through (this was a Nicaraguan bank; I've since switched to another country bank).   B. No matter what Alamy sets as the minimum for payout, someone will be just under it and will fuss.  The minimum for payout has been higher at Alamy, though the percentage to the photographers was higher.    I believe it went from higher to $50 around the time I joined for the first time.

 

I recommend Adobe's new noise reduction AI for photos that get bounced for shadow noise.  

 

When PA bought Alamy and changed the contract, some of us bailed then.   I was one of them.  I came back.   I've looked at other options and they worked less well than Alamy/PA. 

 

The comments on the other thread were about captions and keywords, and learning how to get photo editors to find your work.   Roughly three ways to handle this -- shoot rare things with previous unsuccessful searches; shoot the best photograph of things everyone has photographed; and caption for both general and specific searches (double flowered African violets, not just African violets).  Make sure everything you have in the caption and keywords is in the photograph. 

 

 

 

 

[MagicMax]

On 04/11/2023 at 02:20, Sultanpepa said:

 

I understand your frustration having sat on $49 myself (thinking conspiracy is hard to resist) but it's unfair to suggest that Alamy/PA deliberately prevent you from achieving the $50 bucks threshold, especially when you have so few images on sale. Perhaps you and your wife would have been better with a single account and shared the spoils once paid. However we all have to make choices and if your choice is to leave then so be it. I'm sure I speak for most in wishing you farewell and good luck.

 

Dougie.

knowing how long it would take to reach the firs payout (for me it was 3 years and 11 months), looking back now, I could not honestly recommend to anyone to try his/her luck in this rather specialized field of "stock photo" selling that Alamy represents. or think about it twice! but that's just me. the same photos easily sell on other stock sites and frequently. mind you, mostly for pennies only. but still it gives you a tiny bit of "encouragement" that your/my photos are not totally useless. here it feels like that while no sales for months. then suddenly comes a pretty decent sale. but they are far and between. just the nature of the site I suppose. I am only saying that selling here is only for the most stubborn type to endure the long waiting. and I am stubborn apparently : ).

[Inchiquin]

On 26/11/2023 at 05:11, MagicMax said:

 

the same photos easily sell on other stock sites and frequently. mind you, mostly for pennies only. but still it gives you a tiny bit of "encouragement" that your/my photos are not totally useless.

 

 

Personally, I get no encouragement at all from knowing that my photos are only worth pennies.

 

Alan

[Alexander Hogg]

9 minutes ago, Inchiquin said:

Personally, I get no encouragement at all from knowing that my photos are only worth pennies.

 

Alan

Totally agree with you 

[Sultanpepa]

1 hour ago, Inchiquin said:

 

Personally, I get no encouragement at all from knowing that my photos are only worth pennies.

 

Alan

 

Not for me either. Anything less than $5 net and I'm disgruntled. It cost money to make stock images no matter how good they are.

[MagicMax]

8 hours ago, Sultanpepa said:

 

Not for me either. Anything less than $5 net and I'm disgruntled. It cost money to make stock images no matter how good they are.

well. obviously it's extremely annoying to see a 10 cent "sale". but a particular photo may sell for 10 cents, and for $50 on the same day! happened to me. and it's a net 50, not deducting 70% fees. a different approach obviously. but I do get your point, trust me. it hurts to see the 10 cents! fully agree. to be honest, I contemplated closing my account(s) several times, just to prevent of taking advantage of my work by anyone. but then I thought about it, and since I already had put in the time and effort, might as well cash in the 20-30-50 bucks without further efforts and it would be foolish of me to cut the branch under myself.

[Chuck Nacke]

On 02/11/2023 at 19:33, krutopimages said:

As much as I hate to admit it, Alamy was a mistake I made....maybe my stuff was not up to the standard I thought. I have found the selection method perhaps the most frustrating practice I have ever encountered. Amazing thing, both my wife and I have sat on $49.00 & $49.50 outstanding waiting for one more sale for months before we are entitled to a payout- Alamy will justify this of course....but there are other agencies that do not freeze or fail maybe 50 plus uploads because maybe one does not meet their criteria!!! It's a rort and I for one have had enough.

Good luck to all contributors....but I do hope others voice their dissatisfaction with a company that is so frustrating....imagine how many contributors are sitting just below the "$50" magical amount for some pathetic payout and how Alamy benefits by never letting you achieve a menial goal.

As much as I hate to admit, Alamy is a library that licenses images primarily for publication or editorial use and any professional client searching for images needs to know the Who, What, Where and Why before licensing an image.  From the few images that I looked at of yours (few on first page) there is not enough information accompanying the image.  In my opinion, your images are good and covering a subject that there should be a demand for, but your captions do not give detailed information.   I've been in the photo agency, library business for decades and Alamy for nearly 20 years and I am mostly very happy to be a contributor to Alamy.   I also do not for a second believe that Alamy is or ever has held a few dollars from any account in order to not have to pay a contributor.  If I thought that or had any reason to believe that to be the case I would be gone from Alamy in seconds.  

 

Chuck (still the original one and still here)

[Colin Woods]

The payments are handled by a computer. There is no-one individually checking the accounts and holding out on paying.  If you were on $49.99 you would still not get paid. A penny more and you would. It just works like that.

[Ed Rooney]

 

Nice images, Krutop.

 

But with just 233, you are not really in the game. And you'll find that many of the issues you mention have to do with digital stock, not just Alamy. Good luck.

[kimba]

On 02/11/2023 at 16:33, krutopimages said:

... imagine how many contributors are sitting just below the "$50" magical amount ...

 

That has happened to me as well, and since I am in the US I've had the luck of the exchange rate changing before the end of the month. 

 

At least, that's what I assume it was that pushed me over the 50 mark. 

 

I also agree with the others about the number of images you have. I was uploading to Alamy off and on for four years before I made one sale, and then I made only that one sale that year. I think I may have reached or almost reached a 1000 images at that point. 

 

If you are having a difficult time getting through QC, try loading a single image, wait for it to clear QC, then upload another, etc until you see what is passing and what isn't. This might help you get back on track.

 

Edited November 29, 2023 by kimba
Additional Comment:

[Marianne]

I didn't see the other thread but took a look at your portfolio. Some very nice interesting photos but I have no idea where in the world they were taken since you don't have any country information in the caption or keywords. I've gone months with a couple hundred dollars owing, and only $48 cleared. It's extremely frustrating. But it's not a reason to leave. Presumably you read the contract and you knew what the rules were when you joined. And TBH, you're lucky editors found at least some of your work given the paucity of information in your metadata. It sounds like you've been given this advice before. Best of luck - there are other agencies with different rules - and most judge an image on its content, sharpness, metadata, and whether they think it has a chance of selling - so Alamy is really easy in some respects. One agency was taking up to 2 months to review images for a while this year when. for years before, review time had  been a few hours to maybe a couple of days. You might want to see what your options are before you jump ship. 

[gvallee]

All, you're wasting your time, the OP hasn't logged on since his post on 3rd Nov. Looks like he's gone for good. 

[Inchiquin]

27 minutes ago, gvallee said:

 

All, you're wasting your time, the OP hasn't logged on since his post on 3rd Nov. Looks like he's gone for good. 

 

 

That doesn't necessarily deter me from replying because the response might be useful to others.

 

Alan

[gvallee]

5 minutes ago, Inchiquin said:

 

That doesn't necessarily deter me from replying because the response might be useful to others.

 

Alan

 

True. It's just sad that people are trying to help and he seems to have just slammed the door. Why bother posting then. 

 

[Steve F]

27 minutes ago, gvallee said:

 

True. It's just sad that people are trying to help and he seems to have just slammed the door. Why bother posting then. 

 

 

I don't think he wanted help, it was a frustrated 'quit rant'...

[Chuck Nacke]

18 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

True. It's just sad that people are trying to help and he seems to have just slammed the door. Why bother posting then. 

 

Sorry, but could not resist:  "Hope it did not hit him on the way out...."

Gen,  I do agree with helping others though.

 

Hey its ski season.

 

Chuck

[gvallee]

4 hours ago, Chuck Nacke said:

Sorry, but could not resist:  "Hope it did not hit him on the way out...."

Gen,  I do agree with helping others though.

 

Hey its ski season.

 

Chuck

 

I didn't explain myself very well, as usual. I meant why did he bother to post if he was going to just slam the door and not read anything. It makes me sad for you good people trying to help.

 

Happy skiing! 31C here today, no chance of snow!

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by gvallee

[Alexander Hogg]

1 hour ago, gvallee said:

Happy skiing! 31C here today, no chance of snow!

Snow arrived here in Edinburgh Scotland last night Brrrrrr Wish I was back in Australia

[gvallee]

1 hour ago, Alexander Hogg said:

Snow arrived here in Edinburgh Scotland last night Brrrrrr Wish I was back in Australia

 

Sitting under our awning with a couple of frozen G&T. Not that I'm twisting the knife...

 

[Alexander Hogg]

2 hours ago, gvallee said:

Sitting under our awning with a couple of frozen G&T. Not that I'm twisting the knife...

I'm coming back ASAP 

[Inchiquin]

3 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

Sitting under our awning with a couple of frozen G&T. Not that I'm twisting the knife...

 

 

Bad timing. These days I can't afford to buy a bottle of gin just for the occasional G&T, but yesterday I spotted some gin & tonic flavour chocolate in my local store. Unfortunately, although the chocolate is nice it doesn't really taste of anything and I wouldn't have known it was meant to be G&T but for the label 🤕

 

Alan

[StokeCreative]

3 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

Sitting under our awning with a couple of frozen G&T. Not that I'm twisting the knife...

 

ouch