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Income for the first time, how much is the upload pictures?


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Do you mean how many images were on sale before my first licence?

If so, about 450 in 2009. In those days the minimum payout was $250 so I didn't get a payment until I had about 1300 up. Nowadays you only have to wait until $75 has cleared but there are a  lot more images.

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Uploading is a gradual process for me, and it took about a year and 700 or so images before the first license.

Perhaps if I had a "good nose for pictures which are in demand" it would have been sooner. I'm still trying to get a handle on what stock image buyers want.

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Hello Bo

 

In Europe there is a huge interest in China, its industry, business, politics, and social issues, and its pollution.  As most sales are likely to be over here or in America, these are the subjects to concentrate on.  

 

Here in England there is a particular fascination with the massive scale of your industrial revolution, because we once had one of those (the very first, in fact).  Nowadays we prefer to be a theme park. 

 

Good luck

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As Robert suggested, living in China is probably a big advantage for you, Bo. If you can find some gaps to fill in Alamy's China coverage, you might see some income fairly soon. Checking Alamy Measures / All of Alamy could  help you identify some needed subjects. Good luck.

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Hi Bo,

I joined Alamy in October, 2012, uploaded 50 photos in November, 2012, had my first sale on December 9th, 2012. It sold again in February, 2013. Last year in 2014, I had about 1,000 for sale and had 57 sales, so I averaged about 5 sales per month. Of course everyone's collection is different. Good luck!

 

war-protest-white-crosses-are-us-soldier

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When I started submitting to Alamy in late 2007, I literally started making sales immediately. Fortunately, I had some images that filled gaps in Alamy's collection at the time. However, that was then (six million images on Alamy) and this is now (60+ million images).

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At the other end, it took me 17 months to make my first sale. I was into nature, birds, butterflies, bees, which is a hard sell here. Although my first sale was of a hummingbird. I also didn't understand an image with people in it could be sold editorial. I deleted a lot of good images that had a decent chance of selling before I finally understood I didn't need releases.

So I'd advise you to understand the kinds of images that only can be sold RM, and understand which kinds of imagery are worthy of getting a release.

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Thank you all!

Have a question consulting predecessors:

At present, all the photos I choose is RM - E, also don't know right or wrong?In order to improve our income,How to choose the RM and RM - E ?

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Do you mean, how do you select RM, or how do you deselect RM-E?  If it is the latter you might have to contact member services.  Or with 35 images, just delete and re-submit.

 

There is little point in being exclusive here since even with the best, most saleable work, you won't sell many compared with the best exclusives.  As it is, nearly all the work I have here I have elsewhere, and consequently double my income.  Were I putting my best work here, I could probably distribute to several other agencies and quadruple my income. 

 

As has been pointed out, the thing to aim for is to achieve a high ranking.  If you can supply imagery that editorial buyers want and is in short supply, then you will achieve that.  Check Alamy and all the major agencies to see what coverage of China there already is.  Keep an eye on what the current stories are as far as Western media buyers are concerned.  For example: a chap called George has just been doing the rounds, hoping the Chinese will help him rebalance our economy ( http://tinyurl.com/qbgp97b ).  This is just one of many illustrations of the kind of interest the UK (and European media) currently have in your country.

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"A little tip for those who want to start anyway: keep shooting till you have about 10,000 images (=stock) and then submit IN ONE GO. You'll sell right away (if you have the right images) and money is the motivation that keeps you going. Of course, none of the young guys have got that patience ^_^
Now, with those peanut prices, the stock business has - more than ever - become a numbers' game!"  Phillippe

 

Well, there is a photographer here (not a direct Alamy contributor, but works with one of those agencies that help to keep Alamy afloat) with a lot less than 10000 images, who earns a decent professional salary for his work (but a lot of that will go into paying assistants and running state-of-the-art studio).  He probably earns more than most here just from Alamy, and that will represent a small percentage of his earnings.  The work he does is broadly specialist, has a great appeal to the editorial market but every image can be used commercially.  And believe me, there others making this sort of money.

 

I recently started afresh.  I jettisoned a lot of useless baggage (only realised it was useless when it was gone).  I no longer supply agencies such as Alamy with anything other than occasional casual work.  I learned how to use some very challenging software. I study some quite difficult topics (for my aging head).  The consequence of this is that the rpi of my new work is shooting up, not going down, and is already way beyond anything I could earn as a generalist here, even as a top ranker.  Another way to go would be to work with a good commercial agency and take regular briefings, but I have got used to my independence.

 

Creative young people coming in now will at least not be burdened with baggage.  If they study the market, look at who is selling what where, and from where, be prepared to jump through a few hoops in order to get into right agency, get in with a good editor/AD, they will find there are earnings to be made without having to churn out thousands of images. 

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It's like the music or film industrie, Robert. You talk about the Robert de Niro's and the Bob Dylan's. I talk about Average Joe who wants to make some money with his pictures. I try to keep their feet firmly on the ground and not give them false hope that they'll earn decent money with a handful of pictures of which there are thousands to compete with."

 

If an average Joe, like me, Phillipe, takes the trouble to analyse this marketplace, they may find that their situation improves greatly.  Many people fail, or underachieve, because they don't value learning and the acquisition of new skills, or they think they are average, and ask the wrong questions, listen to the wrong people.  How many people here take advantage of the amazing resource we now have for studying photography, i.e looking at photography and thinking about it, not just stuff here, but at other agencies, commercial photographers' websites, the best documentary photography, new media, great personal sites?  How big is anyone's bookmarked list of visual resources? 

 

Even the proud owner of a Reliant Robin has to put gas in the tank to get going.

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Forgive me for asking, Robert. But if your situation improved so much - apparently elsewhere - why do you spend your precious time here, placing and keywording about a thousand images? The same goes for some other contributors who promote constantly how much they make elsewhere. Why are they "waisting" their time here?

Just wondering ....!

Just ................ wondering.

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

In the past 18 months I have uploaded about 25 images.  Phew!      

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Forgive me for asking, Robert. But if your situation improved so much - apparently elsewhere - why do you spend your precious time here, placing and keywording about a thousand images? The same goes for some other contributors who promote constantly how much they make elsewhere. Why are they "waisting" their time here?

Just wondering ....!

Just ................ wondering.

Cheers,

Philippe

 

In the past 18 months I have uploaded about 25 images.  Phew!

So, what are you doing on this forum?

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

 

For the sake of the 1000+ I didn't remove? 

 

Actually this is a very good forum.  I like it. 

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Actually, Phillipe, I do plan to do more photography for myself, personal projects or just for the hell of it, and this is where I see Alamy is relevant.  More and more I see that people posting here are essentially lovers of photography, not doing it primarily for money.  The reason I put a lot of stress on earnings is because I need the money to do the work I really want to do.  So if and when I get the time I expect that I will be uploading quite a lot more work here.  Looking at it in this way I see Alamy for what it is: a place where a lot of talented people happen to have placed their work.  But let's not fall for the myth that this is where the money is made in stock photography.

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I am a middle aged, starting out, part timer shooting mostly wildlife. To hasten my first sale is it effective to email magazine editors directly with a couple of low res watermarked samples and directing them to alamy? The question I suppose is will it help short and long term by self promoting and refering to alamy to avoid the website running, sales side of the business.

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I am a middle aged, starting out, part timer shooting mostly wildlife. To hasten my first sale is it effective to email magazine editors directly with a couple of low res watermarked samples and directing them to alamy? The question I suppose is will it help short and long term by self promoting and refering to alamy to avoid the website running, sales side of the business.

 

No.  Picture editors have all the wildlife they need at the touch of a button, and probably get irritated by the number of email promos they get, especially ones that refer them back to stock sites.  If you have something unique to sell, that isn't currently available on stock sites, or not least on any of the main ones, and is the kind of thing a particular magazine might use (because that's the kind of theing they do use) then a carefully thought out promo might work, and you should be able to charge a lot more than a stock site would charge.

 

I once made a lot of sales on the back of a single A6 card.  But it was a carefully thought out card.

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