2015 Alamy Poll

[John Mitchell]

Responses to the "Review of 2015" thread are all over the map, so I thought that a bare bones poll based solely on actual sales and revenue numbers might give a clearer (if simplistic) picture of how forum members did on Alamy in 2015.

 

N.B. Messy but important details can be posted in the "Review of 2015" thread.

[Martin P Wilson]

Best year for me on all fronts since 2011 by quite a margin; especially as I put no effort into it!

[losdemas]

Good idea, John.

 

Difficult to answer. I had almost exactly the same revenue as 2014 BUT I had to add 5500 new images to reach that amount. So, is that "about the same" or is it "somewhat worse"?

Cheers,
Philippe

 

Purely "in terms of sales and revenue": regardless of other factors, I'd say.

 

So in your case, I would have put "about the same".

[John Mitchell]

Difficult to answer. I had almost exactly the same revenue as 2014 BUT I had to add 5500 new images to reach that amount. So, is that "about the same" or is it "somewhat worse"?

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

I thought those messy details might be best left in the "Review of 2015" thread. In terms of concrete numbers, it sounds as if you did "about the same."

[John Mitchell]

Good idea, John.

 

Difficult to answer. I had almost exactly the same revenue as 2014 BUT I had to add 5500 new images to reach that amount. So, is that "about the same" or is it "somewhat worse"?

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Purely "in terms of sales and revenue": regardless of other factors, I'd say.

 

So in your case, I would have put "about the same".

 

Great minds think alike.

[John Mitchell]

Best year for me on all fronts since 2011 by quite a margin; especially as I put no effort into it!

 

So "much better" would be the one to click by the sounds of it.

[John Richmond]

Much better for me - I've voted accordingly - but the results will be skewed as it's only my second year as a contributor and I've doubled my portfolio during 2015.

[Brian Jannsen Photography]

Difficult to answer. I had almost exactly the same revenue as 2014 BUT I had to add 5500 new images to reach that amount. So, is that "about the same" or is it "somewhat worse"?

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

I'm with Philippe - I ticked 'about the same.'

 

But the results are;

 

Number of sales - up .0395%

Gross amount - down .0013%

Net amount - up .0662%

 

Really close numbers - but to achieve it I had to add 25% more images...

 

Maybe it should be more of a loss - but it's New Years Day, I feel optimistic! 

 

Brian

[Sultanpepa]

I think Arterra is correct. It is difficult to answer that particular question. Maybe the question should have been "Did you make more money than previous years?" Otherwise there's too many considerations to take into account. So far I'm undecided. I'll give more thought and answer poll later.

[vpics]

Not an easy answer. Sales up by more than 100%, revenue down by about $1000. This mostly it has to do with a large commercial sale that wasn't carried over into 2015. :-(

[John Mitchell]

I think Arterra is correct. It is difficult to answer that particular question. Maybe the question should have been "Did you make more money than previous years?" Otherwise there's to many considerations to take into account. So far I'm undecided. I'll give more thought and answer poll later.

 

I'd have trouble answering that one. My previous years are starting to look like a roller coaster. This poll is something of a "no brainer." All you have to do is look at the numbers for 2014 and 2015.

[Avpics]

Much better for me, largely due to more emphasis on my part to live news

[Lisa]

Number of sales up, but revenue stayed the same. (Vote= stayed the same)

[Bhandol]

Much better for me too in 2015 with revenue up 32% from previous year.

[Lastrega]

I've voted 'much better' because I joined in 2014 and I got my first sales in 2015.

[cbimages]

I voted about the same as my net RPI in 2014 was .50 and in 2015 was .48

[fotoDogue]

Somewhat worse. 

 

Number of sales was down slightly more than 10%

Gross Revenue was down slightly more than 10%

[Bryan]

I wonder if the results are somewhat skewed as only reasonably enthusiastic folk will be forum regulars and taking part in the voting.

 

From personal experience I feel more highly motivated to engage with Alamy if I have had some success in the sales front.

 

Given the way that the market is heading, I find it odd that we appear to have a majority of positive replies here (including mine - which was probably the result of a large increase in my port size).

 

I think that the descriptive thread on this topic is more revealing and maybe closer to the truth. Lies, damn lies etc

[Joseph Clemson]

I've chosen 'about the same' though my number of sales was much higher but my revenue was much less, skewed by a single very good sale in 2014. 

[Sultanpepa]

Ok given that I had a strong growth in sales that was partly due to an increase in image upload I'm basing the result on revenue. My graph shows growth but not as strongly as in 2014 so I can only deduce that "somewhat worse" is the best way to sum up.

[christian58]

let me put it like this and I quote another very famous contributor. With all these non quality conscious buyers around, everyone should be doing great, but we are not. So where does this leave us?

[John Mitchell]

Just my two cents, but I think we should add up "about the same" and "somewhat worse" to get a more realistic comparison. I would call that category "somewhat disappointing" 

Don't forget we all added many pictures during 2015 thus expecting - logically - MORE sales and revenue (what didn't happen in my case).

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Yes, "somewhat disappointing" does make some sense. Perhaps it would make those of us in the "much worse" category feel "somewhat better." I increased my collection by about 600 images (not really a lot, I know, but it's all relative) during 2015, and I still slipped on a banana peel.

[John Mitchell]

I wonder if the results are somewhat skewed as only reasonably enthusiastic folk will be forum regulars and taking part in the voting.

 

From personal experience I feel more highly motivated to engage with Alamy if I have had some success in the sales front.

 

Given the way that the market is heading, I find it odd that we appear to have a majority of positive replies here (including mine - which was probably the result of a large increase in my port size).

 

I think that the descriptive thread on this topic is more revealing and maybe closer to the truth. Lies, damn lies etc

 

You may have a point. Have to say that I too am surprised by the number of positive replies. It would be enlightening to hear more from the silent army of Alamy contributors who never post on the forum, but that probably won't be happening.

 

The "Review of 2015" thread definitely gives a more complete picture, but I thought that it might be interesting to attempt to remove some of the subjectivity. The poll is what it is, I guess, just another inevitably flawed way of looking at things.