MaryBethBueno Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I am so excited to finally start contributing here on Alamy. I am an extremely goal-oriented person, however, and am wondering what the consensus is for photographers- how many images did you have keyworded and passed before you started seeing sales come in on a regular basis? 10? 100? 1000? Just wondering as I am trying to put myself on a quality-image schedule to make time for that DREADED keywording! ugh!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpole Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 i have 238 images no sales yet been on Alamy about 2 months Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryBethBueno Posted June 8, 2013 Author Share Posted June 8, 2013 Thank you Salisbury! I looked at them.... adorable duckling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Varies but consensus is you need around 3000 images loaded before regular sales appear. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Azure-images Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zigzagmtart Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 It only takes one, if you have the right one. But quantity is important for regular sales. You need a variety of images, well shot, well keyworded of subjects that buyers are looking for. Simple, really. Difficult to put a number on that question as everyone's images are different. But I'll agree with the above, you won't see a lot of sales without several 1,000 images. I used to hear people saying expect $1.00 per online image per year. Very subjective and wildly varying from contributor to contributor but that's the number quoted. It might be less than that now as prices keep falling, I have no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I got my first sale some two years ago with about 100 images online. Now I have over 1000 but still regard it as a good month if I get any sales at all. The figures being suggested of needing several thousand images for regular sales chimes pretty well with my experience so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I saw the first "license" of one of my images by Alamy after having less than 200 images available on-line with Alamy. I do not sell images nor would I allow Alamy to "sell" one of my images, unless A LOT OF MONEY was involved, since nobody appears to have offered Alamy “A LOT OF MONEY” Alamy has only licensed my images. I still have not made it to the over 1,000 images on-line with Alamy, but I do see an average of over 60 licenses per year. While many disagree with me, I believe that it is much more important to upload fewer (more carefully selected) images than to upload everything with the idea that "You never know what will sell." I also pay a lot of attention to my IPTC (caption and keywording) information and to current events in the news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semmick Photo Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 I had my first sale of net 219 dollar after a few months with 60 images online. It was considered a lucky shot and wasnt supposed to expect anything like that to happen again with such a small portfolio. I am close to 400 images now, and I have had 8 sales total since starting in July 2012. Gross $612.90 - Net $315.98 I have a mix of RM and RF here, but never sold a RM license. I only use about 7-10 accurate keywords to prevent being punished on ranking. Basically, $0.80 cent per year per image on average. If you look at Shutterstock, I netted $2,321 in one year with twice as many images. Thats 2.90 dollar per year per image. Good luck regardless, any sale is a sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gaffen Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 In my experience Stock is a numbers game, topic and image quality are, of course, important, but its the size of your portfolio that really counts towards regular sales! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneWay Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 I sold my first image for $300 after I had 300 images on Alamy (when the commission was 65%...sigh). Best prices for me have come from educational publishers - go to your local library and see what images are found in school textbooks, in all subject areas. Worst prices have been from newspapers. I shoot a wide variety of subjects; realize a lot of money can be made shooting images from around your own home and within a two-block radius. At one time, I tried to emulate Jeff G, but got burned out in two days. Shoot, process, submit, and keyword at a rate that you are comfortable with. Sales will come. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dlmphotog Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 MaryBethBueno, There is no "Magic" number when you start to see sales. I have noticed for me it takes about a year before images I have uploaded start selling. Keywording is a pain but very citical for succsess. I notice the image you have of the two boys playing in the stream does not have a detailed location or the the name of the stream. Best of luck, David L. Moore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryBethBueno Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Thank you all!!! I was thinking around the lines of 1000-3000 for a first goal to put for myself.... It's the keywording that gets me- but I will dutifully trudge on! Thank you for the replies. I noticed someone mentioned lifestyle pictures being a high commercial value? If so, that is where my focus is already- so that's a good thing? This is my first time venturing into stock, and I want to do a good job. I left out the River location because I thought perhaps that was TOO exact but will input it tonight, because David L Moore mentioned it would be a good thing! Any tips/stumbling blocks I should watch out for? Thanks again! It's great everyone is so friendly here. Great atmosphere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Azure-images Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulstw Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 I was just over 100 images when I sold my first editorial. A week later and I sold another pic of my boiler lol. I don't get many views, and I have added 400 images in the last month. I have two zooms out of 400 images and 2 sales. Nothing award winning there, however, content and keywaording is king. Sometimes it's hard to keep going. the effort you put in to get images up there, the hours you spend shooting, then editing, puts people off, and then there's the adverse effect of the people around you when you're sitting in front of a computer all night keywording. There's more to all this than a catalogue of images in my view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryBethBueno Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Oh my! What on earth sold for 60000? That must have been something extraordinary! Good for them. Thank you so much for the tips. I will now spend good time re-keywording to get rid of terms like "team" if it doesn't fit! (blush.) I am too used to keywording for website/blog hits... this is new, and I so appreciate your feedback! Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Noyce Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Thank you all!!! I was thinking around the lines of 1000-3000 for a first goal to put for myself.... It's the keywording that gets me- but I will dutifully trudge on! Thank you for the replies. I noticed someone mentioned lifestyle pictures being a high commercial value? If so, that is where my focus is already- so that's a good thing? This is my first time venturing into stock, and I want to do a good job. I left out the River location because I thought perhaps that was TOO exact but will input it tonight, because David L Moore mentioned it would be a good thing! Any tips/stumbling blocks I should watch out for? Thanks again! It's great everyone is so friendly here. Great atmosphere! Don't think 'trudge' it's the keywording that gets your image in front of potential buyers. We're all photographers so the photography aspect is a given. The effort you put into keywording will pay more dividends than the effort you put into taking pictures. Having said that I also hate keywording but you have to do it and do it well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryBethBueno Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Well, Peter, when you put it that way... maybe I will try to use more of the analytical side of my brain while keywording. No trudging- it's a balance act. Like you said, it IS important. I majored in journalism, so I'll just pull those skills back into commission! Such a balancing act, though, trying to figure out the best "word imagery" without being too creative and dooming the pictures to the basement because they have not been clicked on. You all are amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryBethBueno Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Aw, thank you Philippe! That made my morning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dlmphotog Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 MaryBethBueno, >any tips... For key wording I like to start with the description/caption and try to articulate the 5-Ws, Who, What, Where, When and Why. Once I have a descriptive "description/caption" I then copy and paste the "description/caption" and chop it up for Keywords. I use a word processor (MS Word) when I write description/caption/keywords so I have spellchecking and a dictionary-thesaurus for American and United Kingdom English. I like to add description, caption, keywords and copyright info to the metadata of my RAW images so this information goes “downstream” when I convert them to JPGs. Hope this helps, David L. Moore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jenkins Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 I would say around 2 to 3,000 (I have yet to get there) before any reasonable return starts. It is also important to consider what your pics are of, how they are taken. Being semi serious, you may need a load of around 0.5 million of the eiffel tower before one MAY sell, but if you have original and unique pics of less obvious or obvious but originally seen/photographed subjects they may well start a lot sooner with a lot less pics up here. I lapsed for a few months - bit of an illness - but am now back putting new work forward, with a much greater emphasis on people, and different ways of shooting subjects already covered. Ironically, whilst my pics have increased, overall activity against my work has decreased. Probably because I am not contributing at the same % increase as the whole of the Alamy portfolio of all our pics?How long was that piece of string? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryBethBueno Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Wow, time and again I'm hearing around/about 3000. Now, that is a big number- a number that signifies commitment, but in all honesty- it's not unattainable, and that excited me! You know what I really appreciate? It's the attitude here on the forum, the helpfulness and encouragement. It could so easily be a competitive bitter-fest, but I am pleased to sense a bit of camaraderie and friendship. Thanks, everyone! I do shoot mainly lifestyle, mostly with model releases, and am located in the southern US (think cactus, cattle, and dirt roads), so hopefully that's a need here on Alamy. We will see! Would love to hear ideas about different shoots I should plan. I know a huge commercial base for this company is in the UK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneWay Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Try searching All of Alamy. Click on the header "Sales" and it will list images in order of most sales. You can use the search terms for these best sellers to get hints about how to keyword your own images, as well as get ideas of subjects to shoot. Alamy is based in the UK. Always be sure to keyword images with UK spellings as well as North American, and search for terms other than North American for things like truck - lorry, potato chips - crisps. Also, put singular and plural versions of nouns if more than one is in image: car - cars Good keywording is the key to sales. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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