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How long/how many images before your first sale?


Guesty

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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

 

Having a varied selection of attractive, appealing (esp. at thumbnail size) and saleable images (as you have) always helps!  Well done on your sales so far (many more to come, I'm sure) and welcome to the forum :).

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  • 3 weeks later...

As you will see from my profile details, I have a paltry 134 images currently on sale, but managed 6 sales before I reached the 100 figure. Having said that, I haven't had a sale in over a year... I don't think there's a formula, but one thing is certain: the folk who are making serious money with Alamy have THOUSANDS of images on sale and probably upload dozens of new ones every week.

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I was well over 1,000 before my 1st sale,  a lot depends on subjects,  i think also where you are located,  i have noticed in the how was your sales for the past month topic, many of the success stories come from the U.K. and the U.S.,  also don't forget near on 50 million images here, in 2 words ( strong competition).

 

Paul.

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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!

 

Glad to help, Guesty. If you don't know the breed of a dog, you can post the image here in the forum and ask for an ID. Members do that all the time with dogs, cars, plants and other things. Good luck. 

 

And Brit-gent: Your pictures look good . . . but Paul has outlined the reality of stock in 2014. 

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And Brit-gent: Your pictures look good . . . but Paul has outlined the reality of stock in 2014. 

 

 

Thanks, Ed. I'm under no illusions, but even an occasional sale adds spice to my favourite hobby. There's no doubt I have a long way to go to develop that commercial/stock mentality and eye for a sellable picture. Hanging around on the forums has got to be a good start. Should have done it the day I uploaded my first picture, but there you go.

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You can view anyone's collection here by just clicking on the number next to images to get a feel of what people do. 

 

I want a little Golden pup! I love all dog, even the Chinese crested hairless, but Goldens are my favorite big dog.  :)

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Hi Guesty, I've been a member and uploading for 13 months.  My first sale took six months and 1600 images. I knew I needed to make some changes so I've been lurking on the forums, listening to advice by the old hands and changing up what I shoot.  My zooms are finally starting to come more regularly but sales are still few and far between.  This month (July) I've consistently equaled or beat Alamy's Average CTR every day and even made another sale.  I'm still hopeful that sales will pick up in the coming months.

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Started in 2007 and sold a couple within months with about 60 uploaded, thought it was easy, but then came the Doldrums and very little until 2010 when I started to upload some serious quantities of stuff.

 

I remember another helpful experienced contributor gave me some advice very similar to what Mark has said to you, and I started to do research on what sells - see All of Alamy, and looking at photos in papers and magazines. If you do a few shifts on the "Have you found any Alamy images" thread you will quickly get a feel for it.

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  • 1 month later...

But isn't this kinda strange? What about Alamy's search algorithm? Is it for nothing?! Anything abotu popularity or how many views one images gets within the first days after upload?

 

Usually just in my opinion it shouldn't be about how many images you have in your portfolio but depending on creativity, uniqueness and so on.

 

So is it really "impossible" to have one photo uploaded the other day and a sale within the next days or at least weeks, if a photo is really outostanding and what customers are looking for instantly?!

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But isn't this kinda strange? What about Alamy's search algorithm? Is it for nothing?! Anything abotu popularity or how many views one images gets within the first days after upload?

 

Usually just in my opinion it shouldn't be about how many images you have in your portfolio but depending on creativity, uniqueness and so on.

 

So is it really "impossible" to have one photo uploaded the other day and a sale within the next days or at least weeks, if a photo is really outostanding and what customers are looking for instantly?!

 

It does happen. People have reported sales within a day or two, or even hours, of uploading. But competing with 50+million it is always going to be as rare as winning the lottery. News of course is diffierent.

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  • 2 weeks later...

570 images out of 50 million, that's 0.00001% or there about - if an image turns up in a search it means I've got some of the keywording right, if it's zoomed it might be what people are looking for and a sale is just great. Even if I added another 1000 and no-one else did anything I'd have 0.00003%. More chance of my football team playing in the Champs League!

 

Martin

 

www.windmillskies.com

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But you're not really competing with 50 million.  You're competing with the other images that turn up in a customer's search for a particular topic.  There might be thousands of other images to compete with if it's a well-covered topic, or perhaps just a few if it isn't.   Your odds could be pretty good in the latter case.

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But you're not really competing with 50 million.  You're competing with the other images that turn up in a customer's search for a particular topic.  There might be thousands of other images to compete with if it's a well-covered topic, or perhaps just a few if it isn't.   Your odds could be pretty good in the latter case.

Couldn't agree more.  In my very limited experience - 6 sales to date - I've not been competing with 50 million.  I've been competing with 20; 66; 0; 3 (all mine); 29 and 4 other images.  That narrows down the odds.  It does depend on good keywording, of course, and buyers searching for specific subjects - but that's what they do on Alamy.

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