Is it possible to win at the Alamy game?

[giphotostock]

 

How to win Alamy (specifically) game? I am not sure there's an actionable recipe that many can follow. I've decided many years ago NOT to quite play it, but play elsewhere with non-Alamy images. If you want to play non-Alamy game, spend time on Geoff's links (as part of a bigger market study), choose a well-paying market segment and specialize. Non-Alamy images pay so much better than Alamy images. Moreover, non-Alamy images net 40x on G. than they net on Alamy (personal data - same set of images). The answer is clear to this contributor. Your mileage may vary.

GI

I'm with several nature specialist agencies in France, the UK (very well known one with a high reputation) and the Netherlands. And the pro and semi-pro photographers at my little agency submit their images also to different specialists. Those specialists ALL have a very hard time, prices have plummeted there as well since 2008 and by far most sales are done via subagencies leaving very little for the photographer.

I'm not traveling anymore to Costa Rica or risk my life being eaten by a bear in Alaska. I not even spend a day - two miles from my home - in a hide waiting for a bird that probably doesn't show up. And you know why .....? Because it ain't worth it.

I used to specialize. Only did nature, but now I shoot a lot greater variety: lots of travel (only own country and neighbouring countries) and everything from old wooden box-beds to the interior of ballistic missile submarines.

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

PS: "Moreover, non-Alamy images net 40x on G. than they net on Alamy (personal data - same set of images)" I thought G was exclusive?

 

Just to avoid confusion: by Alamy images I mean typical "found" images. And yes, there are contributors who do well on Alamy (youself, Jeff Greenberg, KM, etc). I am not sure though that many can execute on the same approach. As to specialization, it certainly needs to be on a money-generating area. If wildlife does not bring sales, then it's a bad area to specilize on.

 

As to the same set of images, as Robert already pointed, aggregators do place the same images with many agencies, G, C, Alamy, etc etc, no exclusivity for them.

 

GI

 

Edit: Corrected definition: by Alamy images I mean typical "found" images

[Lisa]

Hi Dougie,

I have 13 episodes now on YouTube to help Stockimo photographers find inspiration. I think you might get some fun and creative ideas if you watch them for your Alamy stock collection. For 2014 I had 1,000 images on Alamy which sold 5 per month. I now have closer to 2,000 images and sold 10 photos last month. With G I have only 500 for sale, but I consistently have been averaging 1 sale per day, month after month, with a tiny portfolio. I don't play the large numbers game and I am winning. To answer your question, Alamy's rate of 50% and those textbook $ales make a 'winning' combination.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZGYGQJ7QfHvau3ckXUeXog

[Betty LaRue]

 

 

 

I did a search for images of my home town. I noticed another agency has dumped 18,000 odd pictures in there. Page after page of searching and I've yet to find one image of mine now and I've went through 14 pages so far. I thought I had finally seen one of mine but upon clicking on it, not only was it not mine but it was wrongly captioned as a miners statue instead of a firefighters statue. I've got a fair dose of the blues now. I don't feel I can win with Alamy if I can't even get an image of my home city up on the first few pages.

 

 

Just a suggestion...If you put "%your home town"" in the search box in Alamy Measures ..All of Alamy you will see what things or activities in your town are being searched.

 

Paulette

Oh, good grief! As usual somebody shows something simple to do and I mess it up.

Measures...check

All of Alamy..check

Search box..check

Type in %Oklahoma City

Get nothing

 

Can't see what you are doing from here. Leave it on the default which is , for me, one entire month.... the little circle on the far left clicked. Then type in the search box and click GO. I get three results for Oklahoma City and over a page for Oklahoma.

 

Paulette

Too bad you couldn't see what I was doing. (Wrong, lol)

Using the wrong search box on my iPad. Went to my Mac and found the right one. As I said, I can always find the wrong way first. I got 3 results.

[Robert Brook]

Wildlife still brings many sales but my point was that specialists are not necessarily the places where to look for the money. Those days are over - at least - in the nature and wildlife department.

Of course, there are lots of specializations - and sure - some will make lots more money than others. But that's like comparing surgeons with postmen. Anyway, "nature" is the field I'm interested in, not "fashion" nor "medical science" nor "Formula 1 racing"

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

 

There is no reason why we should be prevented from doing the work we are really interested, Phillipe.  After all, I spend quite a bit of time in empty streets and on industrial estates at night - subjects not on any lists of in-demand subjects that I am aware of.  But then ... perhaps my interests are so peculiar that I don't have any competitors, for I have had some good three and four figure sales, mainly via one of the corps.  I also do work for the market, but keep it separate - and make sure to experiment as much as possible to keep it interesting (to me, that is, so I don't die of boredom).

[Sultanpepa]

Hi Dougie,

I have 13 episodes now on YouTube to help Stockimo photographers find inspiration. I think you might get some fun and creative ideas if you watch them for your Alamy stock collection. For 2014 I had 1,000 images on Alamy which sold 5 per month. I now have closer to 2,000 images and sold 10 photos last month. With G I have only 500 for sale, but I consistently have been averaging 1 sale per day, month after month, with a tiny portfolio. I don't play the large numbers game and I am winning. To answer your question, Alamy's rate of 50% and those textbook $ales make a 'winning' combination.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZGYGQJ7QfHvau3ckXUeXog

Those figures make good reading. I have watched one or two of your vids. You've reminded me to go and watch some more.

[ChrisC]

I did a search for images of my home town. I noticed another agency has dumped 18,000 odd pictures in there. Page after page of searching and I've yet to find one image of mine now and I've went through 14 pages so far. I thought I had finally seen one of mine but upon clicking on it, not only was it not mine but it was wrongly captioned as a miners statue instead of a firefighters statue. I've got a fair dose of the blues now. I don't feel I can win with Alamy if I can't even get an image of my home city up on the first few pages. 

Just did the same search, 98,000 Liverpool, none of mine in the first 20, but I guess nobody just searches "Liverpool", however if they search "Liverpool Everyman" there are only 134 and one of mine appears 7 rows down under Creative and Relevant, the Guardian have used it twice.

If "Liverpool Music" is searched, some of my photos of the band Ride appear, but none of them have sold, so as I said on another thread, (I think Arterra) said one of the only stock things I understand, you need a load of images on, like the added agencies, to have continuous sales.

[wiskerke]

liverpool                               48

liverpool skyline               15

liverpool docks                   13

liverpool waterfront         11

tate liverpool                     10

Liverpool Crown Court         9

liverpool city centre         8

liverpool street station   7

Albert Dock liverpool         5

liver building liverpool   5

liverpool street                   5

liverpool one                         4

liverpool city                       4

liverpool lime street         4

cavern club liverpool         4

liverpool aerial                   4

LEEDS LIVERPOOL CANAL         4

liverpool port                       4

liverpool river                     3

liverpool town hall             3

 

If you're not on that first page, look through the 8 pages of the current year of AoA for %Liverpool% and take your picks/pix.

Oh before you do that check the amount of views too. If there are too many in front of your images, leave those subjects be as well.

 

wim

 

edit: formatting

[ChrisC]

liverpool                               48

liverpool skyline               15

liverpool docks                   13

liverpool waterfront         11

tate liverpool                     10

Liverpool Crown Court         9

liverpool city centre         8

liverpool street station   7

Albert Dock liverpool         5

liver building liverpool   5

liverpool street                   5

liverpool one                         4

liverpool city                       4

liverpool lime street         4

cavern club liverpool         4

liverpool aerial                   4

LEEDS LIVERPOOL CANAL         4

liverpool port                       4

liverpool river                     3

liverpool town hall             3

 

If you're not on that first page, look through the 8 pages of the current year of AoA for %Liverpool% and take your picks/pix.

Oh before you do that check the amount of views too. If there are too many in front of your images, leave those subjects be as well.

 

wim

 

edit: formatting

Thanks for that Wiskerke, now I understand a bit more, I also know I need to cut my metadata down for Alamy, for a lot of what I photography, it's me general metadata, but that is totally irrelevant to Alamy, so that might help my rating.

 

I don't really bother to photograph Liverpool, but of the categories you show above apart from Liverpool, I have photos of two others categories, one I am on the first page, the other I'm on page 17, none of which have had any sales in the last year.

[Brian Humek]

You piqued my interest so I had to check Dallas, TX (next door to where I live) and I found one of my shots on the front page. But that definitely isn't winning at the Alamy game   .  I've never sold that photo, don't think it's ever been zoomed in the 3 or 4 years it's been online. It's just a picture of a sign for the Dallas Holocaust Museum. Not much need for that image, I guess.   

 

I did notice that most of the images on pages 2 and 3 are of Olympic athletes which were in Dallas for a media campaign before the 2012 Olympics.  

[wiskerke]

Google figured it out for me - did not take a lot of math classes either.

The solution according to Google

One of the conclusions: it's a bike. Clever. Great analogy!

Think about it:

Not everybody can be Eddie Merckx; but there may be an Armstrong for a while.

It's about balance; all can learn and it's best to learn when young.

It's cheap and for the masses, but you can spend a fortune on a bike.

It's highly efficient. Anybody can and almost anybody will ride at some point.

Sometimes a whole huge country decides they rather drive a car.

Most that drive a car would never ride a bike. Maybe only just for fun.

 

And I could probably go on and on and fill a sort of forum on the errr... interwebs.

 

wim

[Ray]

I've just stumbled across this discussion and find it fascinating and instructive. Great contributions from some of the most knowledgeable contributors on Alamy. I periodically re-assess my options and strategy in this market and it is clear there are a few successful paths that can be taken, each with their own caveats. Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.