Guesty Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Hi guys just wondering how long it took and how many images you had uploaded before your first sale? I'm far from prolific and don't see myself add giving up the day job, but I'd just like a single sale to say that I have done / been published. Would be interested in all your experiences. Kind regard, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 The short answer is it largely depends on the number of images you upload, and it needs to be many, many more than you would expect on a microstock site. Your first sale could be tomorrow but it's not terribly likely. Look expectantly when you have many hundreds of images in your portfolio. The topic crops up quite frequently so trawl through the forum, especially the Ask the Forum section. Search for "How long until" for one such discussion. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 From memory of the many, many times this is asked, you can pick a number anywhere between 12 and 2,000. dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 500 and 4 months. Another 300 and 6 months for the next. That was more than 4 years ago. Now it would be more and longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Once I started to upload regularly and in any volume at all, I had the first sale reported after about 1 year with around 750 online (last June), though the sale had actually been made about 3-4 months prior to that with around 550 images online. Then only another 18 days until the follow-up 2nd sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gaffen Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I joined Alamy in July 2005, when images were still being submitted on CD's! My first sale was In October 2006. By which time I had managed to get about 230 images in my portfolio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynn Palmer Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I started uploading to Alamy last June and my first sale came in early December (6 months and 1619 images). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Still searching for the first one. Joined late July last year, but have been slow adding images. But as many here mention, your notification of a sale is usually quite a few months after it was actually purchased. Patience is a virtue here. Jill Edited to add: I think your dog profile is a French Mastiff, or Bourdeaux Dog. Always helpful to have the breed in the keywords if you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonnieC Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 First sale was about 1 year with about 150 images. In fact I'd actually given up the stock idea when I by chance I checked and there was a sale!! I was amazed. Then another and then another. IMO don't get discouraged or too impatient just keep on working. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Jordan Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I passed initial QC on 25/10/2005. First sale 01/05/2006, when I had 144 images on sale. This is meaningless in terms of today's market as Alamy had (as I recall) only about 3 million images on sale then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guesty Posted February 27, 2014 Author Share Posted February 27, 2014 Cheers Guys. Looks like I have quite a bit to go. Best get out shooting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I was super lucky in that I made my first sale within less than a month of my first submission. But that was back in 2007. Things are very different now, I'm sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Holmes Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 My first sale was last summer, about 8 months after my first submission, and with around 100 images on sale. I started getting zooms after about 1 year, with around 200 images for sale, and am eagerly anticipating a second sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulstw Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I got my first sale after only 100 images. It was a news image right enough. Been getting one the odd month here and there since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Baigent Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Hiya Hi guys just wondering how long it took and how many images you had uploaded before your first sale?I'm far from prolific and don't see myself add giving up the day job, but I'd just like a single sale to say that I have done / been published.Would be interested in all your experiences.Kind regard,Mark The main factor is the type of images. Please take this as me trying to be helpful. One of your images is commercial DN45AB RM, the rest are nice pics but not especially commercial. How often do you see photos of children in magazines, books and newspaper compared to squirrels. DN45AB could be used in education material, stories about literacy, home education, the joy of reading, libraries, boys against girls etc That gives you one commercial image against 45 million, don't panic many of us started in the same position. Of course your first sale will be a squirrel now :-) Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guesty Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 Hi Mark, Thanks for your opinion, I'll take it in the spirit it was given. I think I understand what you mean about good the commercial nature, or lack there of, some of my images. Though I have to say that this month two of those squirrel shots have over 12,000 views (CTR 5.87 - whatever that means) with no views for my daughter reading! I think I'll need to have to keep thinking "commercial" while I'm out and about. I only photograph for fun, so I'm not really in any rush! Thanks for looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guesty Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 Hi Mark, Thanks for your opinion, I'll take it in the spirit it was given. I think I understand what you mean about good the commercial nature, or lack there of, some of my images. Though I have to say that this month two of those squirrel shots have over 12,000 views (CTR 5.87 - whatever that means) with no views for my daughter reading! I think I'll need to have to keep thinking "commercial" while I'm out and about. I only photograph for fun, so I'm not really in any rush! Thanks for looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 That's not 12,000 views just for your 2 images, it's 12000 views on all of Alamy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guesty Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 Ha ha ha. There was me thinking my squirrel shots were going viral !!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 The figure to look for is 'your views'. 'Total views' will be the 12000 figure. If you have 2 images you could only have 2 views per search. If either was zoomed 'your CTR' would be 50, or 100 for both. 5.87 is the percentage of views which were zoomed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guesty Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 Thanks spacecadet. Still very new to this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I'll let others answer your sales-timing question . . . but if you want to sell pics of dogs you need to be accurate with breeds in both English and Latin. Or also in French, as with that large brown French mastiff, the Dogue de Bordeaux. The black and white dog is a Border Collie not a Collie. If you don't get your key wording right you won't have to worry about sales. Welcome to the Show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 The best advice for you is from Ed. In answer to your original question, Alamy has never "sold" an image of mine. I contribute my images to Alamy so that they can be licensed and I've been happy with Alamy licensing the use of the images that I have online with them, currently 1,019. My first license with Alamy was during my first year as a contributor and at the time of that first license I had less then 300 images available on Alamy. Currently with a few over 1,000 available, Alamy has created almost 400 licenses from the images that I have with them. In 2014 there are many people with the ability to make images, but luckly few with the ability to make outstanding images along with well researched and written captions and keywords. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guesty Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Thanks for identifying the dogue de bordeux Ed, I'd not seen one before and had no idea what it was. Lovely looking animal though. I'll start thinking "comercial" and get out snapping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windmillskies Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Hi All Been watching the posts and am new to the forum, so this is my first post. I don't believe there's a magic number of images or how long you've been with Alamy, if you've the right image and it's keyworded properly it'll get picked up - it's just luck then if it fits what people are looking for. I signed up with Alamy in July '13, have around 450 images uploaded and made 7 sales so far, with other images zoomed. That said I could go the rest of the year without making a sale or having an image zoomed - but I sincerely hope not!! Best Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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