Allan Bell Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 My views have dropped by about 30% too. Must be a general trend at this time of year. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Yates Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 My views have also dropped but zooms have clocked up which has built my CTR from a low of 0.23 to 0.88. Regards Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 We seem to be increasingly in a fast everything society, few are prepared to spend time over anything. They want their fix NOW; food, entertainment, reading all in easy bite size lumps. I think that is the problem with stock agencies. Both customers and contributors want quick results and are not prepared to work or wait - it has become a commodity like fast food and priced accordingly. However there are exceptions; think about those seeking slow food, slow travel and I recently met slow reading, an in-depth magazine that was about spending time over the content, words and especially pictures, not a quick throwaway. I have already embraced slow, food and slow travel so perhaps now is the time for slow photography and writing. I am going to be getting deep in to the story rather than the easy, quick snap shot. Problem is how to earn from it but I have some ideas but it will not be using traditional mass stock agencies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 My views have dropped by about 30% too. Must be a general trend at this time of year. Allan My rolling month views are down but then that period includes Christmas and New Year holidays....would be amazed of they weren't down significantly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jools Elliott Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 We seem to be increasingly in a fast everything society, few are prepared to spend time over anything. They want their fix NOW; food, entertainment, reading all in easy bite size lumps. I think that is the problem with stock agencies. Both customers and contributors want quick results and are not prepared to work or wait - it has become a commodity like fast food and priced accordingly. However there are exceptions; think about those seeking slow food, slow travel and I recently met slow reading, an in-depth magazine that was about spending time over the content, words and especially pictures, not a quick throwaway. I have already embraced slow, food and slow travel so perhaps now is the time for slow photography and writing. I am going to be getting deep in to the story rather than the easy, quick snap shot. Problem is how to earn from it but I have some ideas but it will not be using traditional mass stock agencies. I agree that we are a society that "wants it now". However, the fact that all other agencies are generating regular sales except Alamy is depressing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Hey, Martin: Have you noticed that we are two guys with white beards who are smiling? I'd like to know what the hell we're smiling about? We are smiling because because we continue to survive the vicissitudes of life and that is enough. We have been here before one way or another and know we can "pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again". As popular songwriters ? I was a music major at university. I once had a single out on Decca records. As far as my earnings went It was in step from my earnings from stock photography. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 You do realise that we are going to want to hear it, don't you, Ed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 We seem to be increasingly in a fast everything society, few are prepared to spend time over anything. They want their fix NOW; food, entertainment, reading all in easy bite size lumps. I think that is the problem with stock agencies. Both customers and contributors want quick results and are not prepared to work or wait - it has become a commodity like fast food and priced accordingly. However there are exceptions; think about those seeking slow food, slow travel and I recently met slow reading, an in-depth magazine that was about spending time over the content, words and especially pictures, not a quick throwaway. I have already embraced slow, food and slow travel so perhaps now is the time for slow photography and writing. I am going to be getting deep in to the story rather than the easy, quick snap shot. Problem is how to earn from it but I have some ideas but it will not be using traditional mass stock agencies. I agree that we are a society that "wants it now". However, the fact that all other agencies are generating regular sales except Alamy is depressing. It is not just Alamy, other large agencies are selling generic stock at prices down at microstock level as I know to my cost. from at least one. I am considering specialist niche libraries with distinctive styles and/or markets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jenkins Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I have a fairly small number of shots here on Alamy and therefore, although slowly building it up, have no expectations of great things.That said, even those have all but vanished. Very few views, currently two, and no sales since ...(a while ago). I subscribe to the view that 45Mn photos whilst offering a very wide and varied selection, also, to a degree, works against itself. so, what do I do? What I always do. Carry on...............!! It costs me little (I don't shoot stock for a living) so my minimal returns aren't drowned in cost. Head->Brick Wall->Head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addict Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Alfonso over at AGE sees several agencies going belly up this year and some others being absorbed by corbis or getty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Alfonso over at AGE sees several agencies going belly up this year and some others being absorbed by corbis or getty. That's not surprising....I've been with AGE for almost two years....have yet to license an image. Am represented by 3 other non-exclusive agencies and the results are very close to being similar - either low sales or ridiculous royalties. I do OK with another agency but it's like investing in the future in that I'm not paid for about a year after the image is used. It's a sign of the times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valestock Posted January 16, 2014 Author Share Posted January 16, 2014 Wow, I haven't check for some time and my thread became popular. Thanks everyone for replying, I have read a lot of interesting comments... Some quick consideration: - Now I am pretty sure I have been screwed by the Alamy ranking system. My sales, views and zooms dropped in the last 6 months or so while I kept uploading... - I did not expect mounds of sales, just an even slight month to month or even year to year increase in sale, like I notice with my portfolios on FAA and microstock. Here things are declining instead improving. It is really a pity... - Is not true that I have a lot of similar images, I think my port is pretty diversified. - Yes, I should probably dedicate more time to Descriptions but, come on, that is not the matter here. I did not complain when I used to get 2-3 sales a month with 2,000 pics online. I was hoping for 4-5 with 3,000 and it did not happen. Description was never my strong point... - What to do next? Keep uploading, sure, but for how long before getting discouraged and forget about it? That is the real deal? How to invest the little time I have? Alamy used to be my number one pick but unfortunately is betraying my expectations... I wish they had a more fair ranking or a random system or whatever, I am not a technician. Probably they see a return in this system and it works for them. Cheers, Val Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 For a library with tens of millions as long as they get the sale it does not matter who the contributor is. For Alamy their concern will be to ensure that the most salable pictures are displayed first, so new stuff is neither here nor there except in the New tab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valestock Posted January 16, 2014 Author Share Posted January 16, 2014 I agree, Martin...there is very little care of the individual Contributors and their work, unfortunately...that how it goes. I feel my portfolio is buried and is very hard to get visibility with this system, so I will probably hang on but look for other ways.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 - Is not true that I have a lot of similar images, I think my port is pretty diversified. Hmm really...from page one of your search results. Very close and you could crop one from another to get same effect. Virtually the same image? B/w version, client can do that. Crop one from other. Just a few examples of many. The point is that each time your images come up in a search your CTR takes a hit because of this. You mentioned your rank sank.....well this doesn't help. Remember that Alamy doesn't rank you, it's clients that are doing that via Alamy's system. With so many images on line here, you have to do all you can to catch the eye of a client and also to work the system as well as you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Brook Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 What I notice about your port is that most of the images are essentially record shots, often cramming in a huge amount of information: buildings, architectural styles, people, crowds etc. Even the close-up shots look very busy. Colours are often very good, and some pictures might look great blown-up to a large size. But you are actually missing a lot of opportunities. Take the first ones of Cuba for example. You could have got much closer to that guitarist, probably with the crowds in the street out of focus. And then with the wall behind which looks quite interesting. If you had gone in, sat down, struck up a converstion with someone you might have got some cracking shots. As it is it's hard to see the point of this one Here you have gone in close, but given the number of desperate looking dogs in Cuba, why shoot this one in this, in this light? The first thing I notice is the shadow, then the dog having a lie-down after a stonking meal of Pedigree Chum. More generally, in a country that is wide open for interpretation, why limit yourself to the kind of shots that most tourists will be taking anyway? And similarly in other places? However good they are, the market is saturated several times over. ________________________________________________________________________________ Just for the record: Havana Residential area of Trinidad (Cuba) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addict Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 On a 160.00 sale my net was less than 50 after comm and distributor comm - not good less than 30 percent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 On a 160.00 sale my net was less than 50 after comm and distributor comm - not good less than 30 percent As one who regularly receives distributor sales I certainly know the negative feeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addict Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 My views and CRT way down as well as sales - I think that the micros are getting more and more sales. One of my other agencies is selling my RM images pennies .o6 - .16 they say for phone pics or whatever. I get this long list of sales that add up to 4 dollars or so. I don't honestly know what the sales are for but they're not making any $ either on them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 For a library with tens of millions as long as they get the sale it does not matter who the contributor is. For Alamy their concern will be to ensure that the most salable pictures are displayed first, so new stuff is neither here nor there except in the New tab. Martin, for some reason your comment is viewed by one sad, anonymous tosser as so outrageous that they gave you a red arrow . . . sheesh . . . Fixed with a greenie. dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Smart Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 For a library with tens of millions as long as they get the sale it does not matter who the contributor is. For Alamy their concern will be to ensure that the most salable pictures are displayed first, so new stuff is neither here nor there except in the New tab. Martin, for some reason your comment is viewed by one sad, anonymous tosser as so outrageous that they gave you a red arrow . . . sheesh . . . Fixed with a greenie. dd Actually, I make a point of negating uncalled for red arrows so those "sad, anonymous tossers" will eventually give up or have the courage to out themselves! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 For a library with tens of millions as long as they get the sale it does not matter who the contributor is. For Alamy their concern will be to ensure that the most salable pictures are displayed first, so new stuff is neither here nor there except in the New tab. Martin, for some reason your comment is viewed by one sad, anonymous tosser as so outrageous that they gave you a red arrow . . . sheesh . . . Fixed with a greenie. dd Actually, I make a point of negating uncalled for red arrows so those "sad, anonymous tossers" will eventually give up or have the courage to out themselves! Same here Sheila, and sometimes I like to draw attention to idiocy, as in this case :-) As for your wishes, I think the chances of them finding the courage to out themselves is approaching nil . . . still, apparently it makes for a "good" forum . . . hehehe . . . hahahaha . . . sorry . . . dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 On a 160.00 sale my net was less than 50 after comm and distributor comm - not good less than 30 percent As one who regularly receives distributor sales I certainly know the negative feeling. I had two more $115+ distributor sales today - and was again left with nearly nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 On a 160.00 sale my net was less than 50 after comm and distributor comm - not good less than 30 percent Not much, I know, but it's not less than 30%, it is 30%. $48. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 My views and CRT way down as well as sales - I think that the micros are getting more and more sales. One of my other agencies is selling my RM images pennies .o6 - .16 they say for phone pics or whatever. I get this long list of sales that add up to 4 dollars or so. I don't honestly know what the sales are for but they're not making any $ either on them Probably they made a deal with a phone company or whoever and got a generous payment for doing so, which they don't share with the suppliers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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