Ed Rooney Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 There's a couple of Greenies for my Aussie pals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 You do realise that we are going to want to hear it, don't you, Ed? Knock yourself out, Mark: http://www.cdandlp.com/item/2/0-1111-0-1-0/1074690997/eddie-rooney-tonight-is-my-night-to-cry-put-together.html Billboard called me "the boy with a tear in his voice." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Thanks for that Jeff, have a green one! But tell Mr Blitzer I am rather attached to the face and beard/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 There's a couple of Greenies for my Aussie pals. You do realise that we are going to want to hear it, don't you, Ed? Knock yourself out, Mark: http://www.cdandlp.com/item/2/0-1111-0-1-0/1074690997/eddie-rooney-tonight-is-my-night-to-cry-put-together.html Billboard called me "the boy with a tear in his voice." I'm impressed. I was still playing with my Meccano set in 1957. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Nothing to be impressed about, John. Fifties rock was possibly the worst music ever produced by man (and the women didn't help either). But just before that, in my teens, I was a pretty good post-bebop trumpet player. I have to get back to writing my blog so I have someplace to stick all this trivia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Nothing to be impressed about, John. Fifties rock was possibly the worst music ever produced by man (and the women didn't help either). But just before that, in my teens, I was a pretty good post-bebop trumpet player. I have to get back to writing my blog so I have someplace to stick all this trivia. Yes! I've been very mildly pestering you to do exactly that for a while now :-) dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 You do realise that we are going to want to hear it, don't you, Ed? Knock yourself out, Mark: http://www.cdandlp.com/item/2/0-1111-0-1-0/1074690997/eddie-rooney-tonight-is-my-night-to-cry-put-together.html Billboard called me "the boy with a tear in his voice." Hmmmm . . . "tear" . . . as in "tear the paper" . . . ? dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Nothing to be impressed about, John. Fifties rock was possibly the worst music ever produced by man (and the women didn't help either). But just before that, in my teens, I was a pretty good post-bebop trumpet player. I have to get back to writing my blog so I have someplace to stick all this trivia. Have to agree with you there, although some 50's music was fun. I was a bit too young for it really. My teenage angst began with the Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Rollin' Stones etc. in the early 60's. Some of their early stuff was pretty sappy as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizair Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Ed. I too look forward to you updating your blog. Nice writing about ordinary stuff. Wasn't there an old TV show that claimed that there are a "million stories in the naked city". I'm sure you have experienced a few of those. I've only visited NY once, for a day. But what a vibrant city! Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Ed. I too look forward to you updating your blog. Nice writing about ordinary stuff. Wasn't there an old TV show that claimed that there are a "million stories in the naked city". I'm sure you have experienced a few of those. I've only visited NY once, for a day. But what a vibrant city! Ken Between the two of us, Ken, we might have a chance here. Will be visiting NY in a couple of months, so looking forward to it. dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Brook Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 "I've only visited NY once, for a day. But what a vibrant city!" Funilly enough Ken, so have I. I remember it being very hot for early September when I came ourt of the plane at Newark. That was Sept 10th 2001. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valestock Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Strengths are abandoning me....keep uploading but views are half of one year ago, 1 zoom in the last month and of course 0 sales for 2 months or so.. Alamy is the only agency where the more I upload the less I get.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Yates Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Strengths are abandoning me....keep uploading but views are half of one year ago, 1 zoom in the last month and of course 0 sales for 2 months or so.. Alamy is the only agency where the more I upload the less I get.... If it makes you feel any better. My 12k of images have given me 26 zooms in the rolling month and 4 sales. Regular growing sales have declined for me since September onwards Regards Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Todd Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Strengths are abandoning me....keep uploading but views are half of one year ago, Me too. It feels like swimming against the tide and the ocean is getting bigger all the time. My new RX100 images are still stuck in QC so it looks like I have a fail. I won't upload any more and will just tinker with the keywords on the ones I have to see if I can improve my lot here. I have a few ideas for new income streams so I'm going to concentrate on them for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Strengths are abandoning me....keep uploading but views are half of one year ago, 1 zoom in the last month and of course 0 sales for 2 months or so.. Alamy is the only agency where the more I upload the less I get.... I have much the same problem. The more effort I put in the lower the returns. I don't get any comfort that I am not alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Brook Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Strengths are abandoning me....keep uploading but views are half of one year ago, 1 zoom in the last month and of course 0 sales for 2 months or so.. Alamy is the only agency where the more I upload the less I get.... Then upload less and get more. A few cracking shots will always trounce a pile of so-so ones that anyone with an index finger and a basic sense of composition can take (probably most of the world's population) - provided they are based on some market research. If your other agencies are any good they will provide that for you, or your editor/AD will guide you. Alamy provides some useful info in Measures, and is essential for those without access to other research methods/systems. A small portfolio near the top of the rankings will earn more than a much larger one in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 That is all very well but once you are in the CTR doldrums even fabulous new images keyworded to perfection will rarely get seen so it will be almost impossible to climb back to the level where images appear on the first couple of pages. Just think about the maths. I am coming to the conclusion that a new account with my best (quality and researched) images may be the only answer. But in that case might I better advised to work with an edited, and possible niche, library that is already positioned more upmarket? Difficult after 12 years with Alamy but I have to do something as even carefully edited images have produced no benefits. I am now down to 15% of the peak despite 100% more thought and effort in 2013. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Strengths are abandoning me....keep uploading but views are half of one year ago, Me too. It feels like swimming against the tide and the ocean is getting bigger all the time. My new RX100 images are still stuck in QC so it looks like I have a fail. I won't upload any more and will just tinker with the keywords on the ones I have to see if I can improve my lot here. I have a few ideas for new income streams so I'm going to concentrate on them for now. I'm actually having one of my best months ever on Alamy. However, I too have a batch that has been "Awaiting QC" for a bit too long for my liking. Haven't abandoned all hope yet, but I may be joining you in the dunce's corner by the looks of it. Catch 22 strikes again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Brook Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 That is all very well but once you are in the CTR doldrums even fabulous new images keyworded to perfection will rarely get seen so it will be almost impossible to climb back to the level where images appear on the first couple of pages. Just think about the maths. I am coming to the conclusion that a new account with my best (quality and researched) images may be the only answer. But in that case might I better advised to work with an edited, and possible niche, library that is already positioned more upmarket? Difficult after 12 years with Alamy but I have to do something as even carefully edited images have produced no benefits. I am now down to 15% of the peak despite 100% more thought and effort in 2013. Where you have a lot of similars (examples: superbikes, the Hemlock stone, Spiers & Boden) or you have gone heavy on certain subjects (architectural details and parts of buildings old and new) did you ascertain that there is any demand for these subjects? And if there is did you check out what is already on supply? There are now whole subjects ranges that have been lost to microstock, while being oversupplied by the traditional sector (food, flowers, all well-known tourist venues, buildings etc etc) and the only way in is to approach these as creative/commercial subjects, with everything that that entails. There are also plenty of subjects not being oversupplied: inside hospitals, education, major industries, social issues, and many others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Robert I agreee with some of your points but do not think I have not given it some considerable thought. However I still challenge the popular view that Alamy is about numbers. In the last 6 months with another, new to me, agency I have made about the same as I made in 2013 from Alamy with less than 20% of the number of images; that is just on the sales that have cleared, there are other sales still to be reported from that period. So I am not totally unaware of what works. Superbikes were a news submission and I have made several sales of them elsewhere. Who knows what demand there is - even AoA is historical and often topical (i.e news related). AoA picks up a lot of searches, relatively few zooms and a tiny smattering of sales so is of limited value especially as it is not downloadable (77k pages for 2013). So analysis is guess work as it is almost impossible to visualise the data it contains. Picking up on Jeff Greenberg's comment, some of these items represent niche coverage so one would hope the occasional search would throw them up. Many of the examples cited as being under supplied require special access which I do not have, or have any interest in seeking. I have started to shoot some topical business related stuff for another agency and we will see how that goes. I agree that many subjects have been lost to microstock (many sales here on Alamy and other major agencies are as low) and my view is that editorial stock, and much news, is in its dying days. Prices will continue to decline as crowd souring continues to grow. I still believe there are niches away from the mass market and that is where I have been applying my efforts. It is only a matter of time before Alamy accepts phone pictures (they do for news I believe and they end up in the main archive). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Brook Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I think you are doing the right thing, Martin, by moving into what I would assume is the edited sector (agencies that edit/art direct). Alamy was good in its day. It helped wake up a sleepy industry, and still works for some. Many photographers will vote with their feet. If Alamy doesn't do something about it's declining RPI then that could be a stampede**. Getty/Corbis turn over around a billion, Alamy 2.5% of that figure. Many smaller agencies supply them and can offer a much better RPI - insofar as a direct comparison can be made between edited and unedited collections. ** Perhaps settle down and accept that it will never be anything other than a mid-sized firm and do something about all the images that nobody wants. For starters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Ed. I too look forward to you updating your blog. Nice writing about ordinary stuff. Wasn't there an old TV show that claimed that there are a "million stories in the naked city". I'm sure you have experienced a few of those. I've only visited NY once, for a day. But what a vibrant city! Ken Christo mio! I had no idea so many of you were reading my blog! Being very very Irish, I could have chosen being a dodgy priest, a drunk or a writer. I chose the later. John, would you believe I was the PR photog in NYC who was paid to follow both the Stones and the Dave Clark Five? Much better music, come on! (I'll exempt Elvis from all criticism, and Bob Dylan and Louis Armstrong.) Shel, you say potato and I say potato. Back on subject: What we keep doing here is "proving" theories with anecdotal evidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 I hardly upload anything nowadays to Alamy, I just don't seem to be able get the motivation, with sporadic low sales, low fees, and lately iv'e had a few QC fails (probably linked to low motivation) and the pain in the a*** wait for a month before you upload again (sometimes I do have something to upload) No sales for 2 months CTR 1.13, Views 443, Zooms 5 Terry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Jeff I agree entirely with what you are saying. My point is that I do not believe you can climb back up the ranking and therefore significantly improve sales if you are below the median (and difficult from there) by either throwing numbers or quality editing at Alamy. So the frequent advice to newcomers and those with smallish portfolios to add more images is flawed, if CTR is low and you add more of the same, it will stay low. Same on quality because if your CTR is low (median or worse) you are unlikely to get enough views/zooms to shift the CTR upwards. Even if it is possible then it will be very slow during which income will be minimal. The one exception is, as you say, if you can understand what subjects, keywords and images will be in demand going forward (if that is possible on a consistent basis) then one might just move up the ranking but I wonder if such photographers might be better represented by other agencies with greater market presence and focus. I think for newcomers it may be almost impossible to move to the top of the pile (unless Alamy is promoting their work individually direct to possible clients). Jeff, how many of the top 100 earners on Alamy do you reckon joined in the last 2-5 years? I suspect few if any. My last comment on the matter - too depressing to keep thinking about it. Onwards and upwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Brook Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 So the frequent advice to newcomers and those with smallish portfolios to add more images is flawed, if CTR is low and you add more of the same, it will stay low. Same on quality because if your CTR is low (median or worse) you are unlikely to get enough views/zooms to shift the CTR upwards. Even if it is possible then it will be very slow during which income will be minimal. The one exception is, as you say, if you can understand what subjects, keywords and images will be in demand going forward (if that is possible on a consistent basis) then one might just move up the ranking but I wonder if such photographers might be better represented by other agencies with greater market presence and focus. I think for newcomers it may be almost impossible to move to the top of the pile (unless Alamy is promoting their work individually direct to possible clients). I wrote the following a while ago: How to enter stock and be a happy camper from the start? shoot, shoot and shoot even more. Develop your photography skills and master Photoshop after many years photographing and gathering lots of experience, browse your archive select at least 4000-5000 of your best and most commercial images keyword and turn them into Jpegs copy to external harddisk send harddisk(s) to agency/agencies and then ..... upload more and more images in small batches Decided to skip step 1 to 6 and go straight for step 7 ......????? Fine by me Just don't moan about poor sales So, for newcomers: DO NOT START WITH 150 images, but upload in one go 4000-5000 images of a great variety of subjects, meaning thus thousands of very different saleable subjects (you can upload similar ones at a later stage). This way, you can get almost daily sales from the start because you have thousands of fishing lines (=DIFFERENT subjects) in the water. Remember you start with a medium ranking. It's up to you to keep feeding the beast and MAINTAIN that ranking around Alamy's average CTR. YOU CANNOT DO THAT by first submitting 100 pictures, two months later adding another 50, a couple of months later another 50, and so on. You'll have guaranteed very few sales and see your ranking go down the drain >> images thrown back in search results >> no sales. Trick is NUMBERS, NUMBERS, VARIETY, VARIETY, VARIETY and QUALITY. Cheers, Philippe I don't think all this shouty stuff gets us anywhere, Phillipe. It has been pointed out, that in commercial/creative photography this is nonsense. Buyers generally don't want pictures taken ten years ago, they wan't them done this year if possible. Even a lot of editorial photography dates quite quickly. Even researchers sourcing textbook material would rather have people kitted out for 2014 rather than 1990, if they appear in photos. It has also been pointed out that many photographers are now choosing not to go down the hack route, but try to get their work placed in premium collections, where the returns per image are vastly greater than what anyone could hope to make here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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