Repeat sellers?

[John Mitchell]

I can't help noticing that the majority of my Alamy sales these days are repeat sellers, and I'm wondering how many others find this to be the case -- i.e. repeat sellers form the backbone of their Alamy income.

 

BTW, I'm definitely not complaining. I'm very happy that I have images that continue to lease over and over again without my having to do anything.

[Brian Yarvin]

True with Getty, but not Alamy.

[Stokie]

I've sold my best seller 28 times through Alamy

 

John.

[Michael Ventura]

Yes, for sure. I have maybe about six pix (or photos from the same shoot) that seem to do all the heavy lifting.

[John Mitchell]

I just had an image lease for the fourth time during the past year. I sure wish that my latest offerings could do as well.

 

And, same here, those repeat sellers tend to be ones for which there is little or no competition.

[Bryan]

Had a solid repeat seller, not great money, but a regular earner. Sales dried up about a year ago.  Reason, loads of competition recently entered the ring. More recent shots tend to be preferred, all else being equal, perhaps.

 

I am finding it is rarely the case these days that I have a unique zoom, other than when an image is selected by its code, there are generally several of us scrambling for the business.  Sign of the times I guess.

[Robert Brook]

Not here. Elsewhere: had two sales reported today: one image that has now sold 18 times, and the other 7 times since 2013, mainly via distribution.

 

My bargain with the stock world: unless there is a good chance of repeat sales for an image conceived as a stock mimage, then I don't bother. I work on other projects. What's the point with current fee levels? As it happens I have occasional, but very good sales from personal/other work. Not repeats. But can earn the same from one sale as say 20 repeat sales of the kind of generic image that does sell frequently.

[Guest]

Repeat sellers are always going to happen for the reason they were chosen for their first sale...they do exactly what the client wants. Subsequent clients will hopefully see the same merits in the image.

 

I also suspect that here, you get images used by newspapers that tend to be used repeatedly simply because they were used before...maybe held as downloads and simply re-used within their systems.

 

I find I will get a rash of repeat selling elsewhere as the new image hits the decent placements on the commercial sites...last month one image sold 9 times and another 8.... been on line for a few months so now bedded in across all distribution.

[John Mitchell]

Yes, repeat sellers are certainly the most valuable images from a financial POV. That said, my highest sales ($400+) have tended to be one-trick ponies. Can't recall ever having a newspaper repeat sale. But then I'm not a member of "the scheme," and so I get few newspaper licenses. 

[wiskerke]

My best seller on Alamy has now sold 27 times or so and counting. No distributor sales and all for pretty decent sums. There's lots of competing images, some of them even my own. But they only see a sale like once a year.

Another one getting lots of sales, but mainly distributor sales.

However my best selling image ($$ wise) still only sold once.

 

wim

 

edit: John, yes the scheme pay outs may be low, with loads of rip-offs by Russian; Chinese; Indian; Turkish; Greek or Arab sites, but the total in th end does mount up.

So I'll remain in.

[SFL]

My best seller on Alamy has now sold 27 times or so and counting. No distributor sales and all for pretty decent sums. There's lots of competing images, some of them even my own. But they only see a sale like once a year.

Another one getting lots of sales, but mainly distributor sales.

However my best selling image ($$ wise) still only sold once.

 

wim

 

edit: John, yes the scheme pay outs may be low, with loads of rip-offs by Russian; Chinese; Indian; Turkish; Greek or Arab sites, but the total in th end does mount up.

So I'll remain in.

 

Wim,

 

Do you mean by this that a lot of infringements follow (by these countries' sites) after an image is sold within uk newspaper scheme?  I am curious as I am not in the UNS.

 

Sung

[SFL]

Yes, repeat sellers are certainly the most valuable images from a financial POV. That said, my highest sales ($400+) have tended to be one-trick ponies. Can't recall ever having a newspaper repeat sale. But then I'm not a member of "the scheme," and so I get few newspaper licenses. 

 

I am not in the uk newspaper scheme (yet?) but there has been one particular image used a few times by mainly Daily Mail for a not bad sum.

 

I have other few repeated sellers but they seem to go quiet after a while.

 

Sung

[Armstrong]

Yes, repeat sellers are certainly the most valuable images from a financial POV. That said, my highest sales ($400+) have tended to be one-trick ponies. Can't recall ever having a newspaper repeat sale. But then I'm not a member of "the scheme," and so I get few newspaper licenses. 

 

I think that being in the Newspaper Scheme would be beneficial to your overall Alamy Rank...In that even small sales improve it. IMHO that should have a benefit of benefiting your whole portfolio.

[SFL]

 

Yes, repeat sellers are certainly the most valuable images from a financial POV. That said, my highest sales ($400+) have tended to be one-trick ponies. Can't recall ever having a newspaper repeat sale. But then I'm not a member of "the scheme," and so I get few newspaper licenses. 

 

I am not in the uk newspaper scheme (yet?) but there has been one particular image used a few times by mainly Daily Mail for a not bad sum.

 

I have other few repeated sellers but they seem to go quiet after a while.

 

Sung

 

Edit: wrong spells

[SFL]

Mistake.

[AlbertSnapper]

Repeat sellers....... I find some of the boring shots of important buildings- ie.images of UK hospitals, law courts etc., are good for repeated uses in the UK newspapers. Low fees but they add up.

If you're passing, then take the photo.

[Robert Brook]

If I look at where most of my revenue comes from I deduce quite a distinct pattern.

 

Repeat sellers I consider images that will sell several times a year if not most months, something I have only got into recently.  They are invariably simple, generic images, with good lighting, often copy space, and you don’t have to stare at them to work out what they mean.  You will probably think of at least ten ways in which they might be used, from straight commercial to straight editorial.  They can be photographs or illustrations. But ... you need a good distribution network to realise their potential, which is where Alamy is lacking.  My guess is that they won’t have great longevity.

 

Then there are the solid sellers, that may sell once, twice, three times a year for a long period of time.  Some of mine have been selling for between 15 and 25 years.  Some of these I actually like (and I’m hard to please) and wish the current market would allow me to do more.

 

Finally there are the handful of image I really like, never intended as stock and not engineered for commercial use.  Well, not surprisingly, many of these are not even sellers, let alone repeat sellers.  On the other hand, when they do, and it’s usually just once, they often go for somewhere between the high hundreds and low thousands.

 

Work that out if you can

[AlbertSnapper]

 

Finally there are the handful of image I really like, never intended as stock and not engineered for commercial use.  Well, not surprisingly, many of these are not even sellers, let alone repeat sellers.  On the other hand, when they do, and it’s usually just once, they often go for somewhere between the high hundreds and low thousands.

 

 

Yes, placing images that aren't 'stocky' in to stock can be rewarding. Especially if they are repeat sellers.

[giphotostock]

Without doing actual statistics, I'd say 10-30% are repeat sellers in editorial (10% at Alamy, 30% elsewhere), and maybe 50% commercial.

 

I see the same pattern as Robert noticed above, there seems to be "polular" images that sell several times each months after they hit the commercial distribution network, but often not for decent amounts per sale. That trend starts to trail off after some months. Then there are repeat sellers that sell monthly, for decent amounts and for several years.

 

Overall, noticeably more than 50% of net income comes from images that sold more than once.

 

Bottom line: if I do not see a real potential for repeat sales, I do not bother shooting. Just today, there were 2 zooms of a particular ski lift in St Anton. Fisrt zooms in 9 years. Why did I bother pressing the shutter, not to mention doing all the post-processing, keywords in categories, buttons and drop-down menues on Alamy?

 

For more recent studio work, the images are conceived, thought out, worked on individually - most are repeat sellers.

 

GI

[wiskerke]

 

My best seller on Alamy has now sold 27 times or so and counting. No distributor sales and all for pretty decent sums. There's lots of competing images, some of them even my own. But they only see a sale like once a year.

Another one getting lots of sales, but mainly distributor sales.

However my best selling image ($$ wise) still only sold once.

 

wim

 

edit: John, yes the scheme pay outs may be low, with loads of rip-offs by Russian; Chinese; Indian; Turkish; Greek or Arab sites, but the total in th end does mount up.

So I'll remain in.

 

Wim,

 

Do you mean by this that a lot of infringements follow (by these countries' sites) after an image is sold within uk newspaper scheme?  I am curious as I am not in the UNS.

 

Sung

 

 

Yes, sometimes staggering amounts, like 5 pages in google image. Mostly the usual suspects: White House; The Fed, that sort of thing.

Usually it follows a pattern: one blog or news site picks it up and then within a day or two lots of others in the same language or of the same political color will follow. Some of mine are really popular on the far right in  the US. All non paying of course, because everything is free, right?

 

wim

[John Mitchell]

Yes, for sure. I have maybe about six pix (or photos from the same shoot) that seem to do all the heavy lifting.

 

I have series of about a dozen images that resulted from a couple of enjoyable hours of shooting. After seven years on Alamy, there are still miraculously no other images of this locale. One of these images has licensed three times in the past few weeks. They often sell for good prices and are not particularly time-sensitive, so they should keep on generating income. I guess there is still something to be said for scarcity, but you've really got to look for it these days -- i.e. scarcity is getting scarcer.

[Lynne]

My best seller in terms of numbers of sales, has sold more than 70 times and also brought in other money from chasing infringements. However my best sellers in terms of licences in excess of $1000 have only ever sold once, sometimes you just happen to have taken what someone wants! I have a number of other repeat sellers but not on the same scale as the 70 plus sales one, unfortunately!!

 

 

Lynne

[John Mitchell]

 

 

My best seller on Alamy has now sold 27 times or so and counting. No distributor sales and all for pretty decent sums. There's lots of competing images, some of them even my own. But they only see a sale like once a year.

Another one getting lots of sales, but mainly distributor sales.

However my best selling image ($$ wise) still only sold once.

 

wim

 

edit: John, yes the scheme pay outs may be low, with loads of rip-offs by Russian; Chinese; Indian; Turkish; Greek or Arab sites, but the total in th end does mount up.

So I'll remain in.

 

Wim,

 

Do you mean by this that a lot of infringements follow (by these countries' sites) after an image is sold within uk newspaper scheme?  I am curious as I am not in the UNS.

 

Sung

 

 

Yes, sometimes staggering amounts, like 5 pages in google image. Mostly the usual suspects: White House; The Fed, that sort of thing.

Usually it follows a pattern: one blog or news site picks it up and then within a day or two lots of others in the same language or of the same political color will follow. Some of mine are really popular on the far right in  the US. All non paying of course, because everything is free, right?

 

wim

 

 

Yikes! That doesn't sound very appealing, on both the infringement and the political (sorry) fronts.

[Marianne]

More than 50% of the images that Alamy has licensed for me are repeat sellers. I had a couple this year that I licensed from my own website and Alamy then licensed for me within a week or two later - and a few where I sold a print via FAA or Crated and then got an Alamy license shortly afterward which was fun - these were all images I really like. Some have been licensed twice in a row - say for web and print or on a book cover and inside - so I counted those as one unless they have been licensed again elsewhere. I also noticed that some online travel sites use my images frequently - I love it when they are RM and they need to license them again  but sometimes I'll do a google search and find a page worth from the same online magazine - properly licensed as RF so they keep using them.those same images have been licensed a few times by Alamy and by other agencies or by me directly too.  I'm guessing that the ones Alamy licensed for me get repeats because they show up high in searches.

 

My best sellers are a real mix - from standard journalistic images of urban buildings to lots of lighthouses and seaside images to concept shots, so there is really no pattern, although happily most of my best sellers are images that I am proud of. 

[Phil Robinson]

Certainly in the past most of my sales came from a reliable group of repeat sellers, but I'm noticing it less now.

Having said that, there are a couple that keep selling regularly but I'm finding the trend to be more towards recent images.

That may just be due to a change in the way I work, doing more news and everyday people in the street stuff rather than studio work.

 

Not surprisingly the images that do keep selling tend to be in areas that aren't covered so well on Alamy - and I get sales from similar pics of the same subject I took in the same shoot.