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I am confused: over 600 pics and no sales at all


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Maybe I'm the only one but after taking a look at your photos I think your portfolio is very "microstocky". I'm not seeing a good reason why potential buyers should get this kind of images on Alamy. 

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Deleted - Decided to keep my nose out.  :)

 

Geoff.

 

I can read minds, you know  ;) I was thinking the same  :D LOL  :lol:

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

 

 

I was intentionally leaving the questionable comments to you Philippe, as I also read your mind and realised you were thinking the same thing, so thought I'd let you get red arrows instead.  :D:P

 

Geoff.

 

 

 

Get your tin foil hats on lads, they're coming to read your minds. B)

 

Allan B

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 (Try booking up hotels and buses from abroad when you dont have a CPF  it can take days.)

 

 

 

It is hard enough when you have a CPF, as I do, but hey, I have booked a hotel recently in Copacabana using booking.com. It works very well. They convert the currency at the time of payment and I am using my US account. Works wonders and the prices are lower than if I booked directly from the hotel. 

 

As for the difficulties here, I do agree and I would not take the trip to the Olympic games to sell photos on Alamy or micro stock, it would not pay it off. In fact I am here on vacation and will conveniently leave before the games.

 

If you come to Rio to photograph , be discrete, watch your back, always have a fake wallet to give somebody who might demand it, a plan b, patience and remember that you are not in Kansas anymore. And all should be well. 

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I don't necessarily believe that one needs more images to sell, one needs images that customers want to buy, and it could be just a handful of images. Obviously if you have many images customers want, you will sell more, but 1,000 images of a subject/place no one cares about (for instance in my port I have pictures of Itaipava, Petropolis, who cares) will not help you to sell more.

 

Hi AlessandraRC,

I am a newbie here at Alamy, have been selling my images sinin a microstock agency.

I have pretty good sales of brazilian images there, so, IMO there is a lot of people looking for brazilian images.

If the number of searches for brazilian images here is small than what is missing is a stronger marketing effort of Alamy in Brazil.

I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil, BTW.

Everyday I take an elevator in my office building where I see advertising of another agency who is advertising in many places here in Sao Paulo.

I have spoken with an employee at this agency and they told me that they sell very well brazilian images, in fact, she said I should focus on that if I would work with them (which I didnt, at least for now).

I am not suggesting you move to any of those two agencies, but I am suggesting that Alamy should have a more agressive marketing approach if they want us to keep our images here to sell.

 

Let me know your thoughts about that.

 

 

My best selling image on Alamy has sold 30 times and accumulated $1564. Therefore i would not DREAM of putting it anywhere else.

and no it's not good to talk about other agencies it's a definite thread killer.

 

Regards

Craig

 

 

Hi Craig, thanks for sharing your opinion.

I understand that its not polite to mention other agencies names so I edited my post, but, for some reason, people who quoted it are still showing the first unedited text, sorry about that.

Anyway, my point was not to compare the earnings of microstock and Alamy, that´s the reason I am moving from microstock to here! 

My point was that there is a market for images of Brazil.

So, if Alessandra realized there are few views of hers brazilian images, IMO, the agency could work hard on promoting our images in the different markets as the other agencies do.

I also emphasized that this effort could also come from herself promoting hers images as I and many others here do.

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 (Try booking up hotels and buses from abroad when you dont have a CPF  it can take days.)

 

 

 

It is hard enough when you have a CPF, as I do, but hey, I have booked a hotel recently in Copacabana using booking.com. It works very well. They convert the currency at the time of payment and I am using my US account. Works wonders and the prices are lower than if I booked directly from the hotel. 

 

As for the difficulties here, I do agree and I would not take the trip to the Olympic games to sell photos on Alamy or micro stock, it would not pay it off. In fact I am here on vacation and will conveniently leave before the games.

 

If you come to Rio to photograph , be discrete, watch your back, always have a fake wallet to give somebody who might demand it, a plan b, patience and remember that you are not in Kansas anymore. And all should be well. 

 

 

Honestly, Brazil is very unprepared to receive tourists, we make their lifes quite complicated. But still I think its worth visiting us, you will find receptive people and have a great time. Its a country with History, great food, great music, a beautiful nature (beaches, mountains, waterfalls), happy and friendly people, the full package. Just have to plan ahead and study more than whane you visit other countries. And ask us, brazilians for tips, this will make your lifes much easier.

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I don't necessarily believe that one needs more images to sell, one needs images that customers want to buy, and it could be just a handful of images. Obviously if you have many images customers want, you will sell more, but 1,000 images of a subject/place no one cares about (for instance in my port I have pictures of Itaipava, Petropolis, who cares) will not help you to sell more.

 

Hi AlessandraRC,

I am a newbie here at Alamy, have been selling my images since 2005 in a microstock agency.

I have pretty good sales of brazilian images there, so, IMO there is a lot of people looking for brazilian images.

If the number of searches for brazilian images here is small than what is missing is a stronger marketing effort of Alamy in Brazil.

I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil, BTW.

Everyday I take an elevator in my office building where I see advertising of another agency who is advertising in many places here in Sao Paulo.

I have spoken with an employee at this agency and they told me that they sell very well brazilian images, in fact, she said I should focus on that if I would work with them (which I didnt, at least for now).

I am not suggesting you move to any of those two agencies, but I am suggesting that Alamy should have a more agressive marketing approach if they want us to keep our images here to sell.

Of course, you dont need to wait for Alamy to do all the effort and should promote your images yourself, using social media for instance linking to your images.

Let me know your thoughts about that.

 

 

 

Here is alamy's policy on discussing their competitors:

 

http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/2170-threads-that-promote-highlight-direct-competitors-to-alamy/

 

 

 

Thanks for the info MariaJ

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I don't necessarily believe that one needs more images to sell, one needs images that customers want to buy, and it could be just a handful of images. Obviously if you have many images customers want, you will sell more, but 1,000 images of a subject/place no one cares about (for instance in my port I have pictures of Itaipava, Petropolis, who cares) will not help you to sell more.

 

Hi AlessandraRC,

 

I have pretty good sales of brazilian images there, so, IMO there is a lot of people looking for brazilian images.

If the number of searches for brazilian images here is small than what is missing is a stronger marketing effort of Alamy in Brazil.

PS: Am I allowed to talk about other agencies here?

 

 

Threads have been locked down for this reason in the past.

 

With regards your other points, I am pretty sure there are a lot of photographers around the world who feel that their agents should be making a greater effort in the countries where they happen to be. Brazil is a great country, with great opportunities. But also can have a lot of challenges. (Try booking up hotels and buses from abroad when you dont have a CPF  it can take days.)

Alamy has chosen to go through sub-agents and whilst I cant read the thoughts of those in Abingdon I cant see that policy changing soon.

 

For those of us outside Alamy's main markets that leaves a challenge. One of my other frustrations in travelling to Brazil for the World Cup was that I knew that there was limited potential from my various agents for images of Brazil, exacerbated by travelling in just one country. And this has been born out by the lack of income from that trip. Part of the answer if I lived there would be not to just take photos of Brazil but take photos in Brazil. I have just finished editing a number of shots taken in my studio (ermmm... kitchen). They could be taken anywhere. In Brazil you do have the advantage of a very diverse population many of which like to have their photos taken. That is an opportunity. This is one of the reasons why Cape Town is popular for shoots.

 

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughs Funkyworm.

My point was that there is a market for brazilian images, as other countries,

Alessandra got to a conclusion there isn´t and I am just saying this is not true, our agency is just not exploring it, could be for many reasons, but its not.

I also pointed out that she could help this by promoting hers portfolio, after all, this is a communitiy with thousands of photographers, if all of us promote a little bit, this would make a tremendous help on promoting the agency.

 

About traveling to Brazil, as I posted above, we are very unprepared to receive tourists, very sorry about that, I wish it was different, but it is not. Best way to know the country is having a brazilian friend. I work in a south african company and receive a lot of foreigners during the year here, I guarantee you they all love the country! I am positive I make good brazilian embassadors, not spending money in expensive places, but taking them to all those hidden spots that make Sao Paulo a special city.

 

I was in Cape Town three weeks ago, BTW, lovely city.

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I don't necessarily believe that one needs more images to sell, one needs images that customers want to buy, and it could be just a handful of images. Obviously if you have many images customers want, you will sell more, but 1,000 images of a subject/place no one cares about (for instance in my port I have pictures of Itaipava, Petropolis, who cares) will not help you to sell more.

 

Hi AlessandraRC,

 

I have pretty good sales of brazilian images there, so, IMO there is a lot of people looking for brazilian images.

If the number of searches for brazilian images here is small than what is missing is a stronger marketing effort of Alamy in Brazil.

PS: Am I allowed to talk about other agencies here?

 

 

Threads have been locked down for this reason in the past.

 

With regards your other points, I am pretty sure there are a lot of photographers around the world who feel that their agents should be making a greater effort in the countries where they happen to be. Brazil is a great country, with great opportunities. But also can have a lot of challenges. (Try booking up hotels and buses from abroad when you dont have a CPF  it can take days.)

Alamy has chosen to go through sub-agents and whilst I cant read the thoughts of those in Abingdon I cant see that policy changing soon.

 

For those of us outside Alamy's main markets that leaves a challenge. One of my other frustrations in travelling to Brazil for the World Cup was that I knew that there was limited potential from my various agents for images of Brazil, exacerbated by travelling in just one country. And this has been born out by the lack of income from that trip. Part of the answer if I lived there would be not to just take photos of Brazil but take photos in Brazil. I have just finished editing a number of shots taken in my studio (ermmm... kitchen). They could be taken anywhere. In Brazil you do have the advantage of a very diverse population many of which like to have their photos taken. That is an opportunity. This is one of the reasons why Cape Town is popular for shoots.

 

 

"My point was that there is a market for brazilian images, as other countries,

Alessandra got to a conclusion there isn´t and I am just saying this is not true"

 

I totally agree with this. I license images from 23 different countries and the majority of my sales are pictures taken in Brazil. By far.

 

 

 

 

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 (Try booking up hotels and buses from abroad when you dont have a CPF  it can take days.)

 

 

 

It is hard enough when you have a CPF, as I do, but hey, I have booked a hotel recently in Copacabana using booking.com. It works very well. They convert the currency at the time of payment and I am using my US account. Works wonders and the prices are lower than if I booked directly from the hotel. 

 

WHat's a CPF?

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 (Try booking up hotels and buses from abroad when you dont have a CPF  it can take days.)

 

 

 

It is hard enough when you have a CPF, as I do, but hey, I have booked a hotel recently in Copacabana using booking.com. It works very well. They convert the currency at the time of payment and I am using my US account. Works wonders and the prices are lower than if I booked directly from the hotel. 

 

WHat's a CPF?

 

 

 

It is more or less equivalent to the social security number in US, it is an id of a person used in many situations. Foreigners dont have it.

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I can understand wanting the extra ID. Possibly Brazil has a high number of scammers trying to game the system? Yet they are losing revenue by putting CPF requirement in place.

Maybe the loss of revenue from travelers is less than what would be lost from scammers.

The only time I have to use my SS# here in the US is at a new doctor's office, (anything medical) or when buying a car. Credit card numbers are adequate for booking/charging or showing my drivers license when writing a check. Lol, I don't believe in debit cards.

But then, I've not tried to book buses.

Funny thing. Meaning the opposite. My daughter doesn't believe in credit cards, because she tends to impulse spend. She refuses to have one. Her husband does have one, but she's not on it. She does have a debit card.

She booked a cheap flight from Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado. Debit card worked. She tried to book a rental car for when she landed, but they wouldn't accept a debit card, only a credit card.

They wouldn't accept her husband's credit card, it had to be under her name. I don't know how it was resolved, but it was a huge hassle.

She's now going to get a credit card.

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I can understand wanting the extra ID. Possibly Brazil has a high number of scammers trying to game the system? Yet they are losing revenue by putting CPF requirement in place.

Maybe the loss of revenue from travelers is less than what would be lost from scammers.

The only time I have to use my SS# here in the US is at a new doctor's office, (anything medical) or when buying a car. Credit card numbers are adequate for booking/charging or showing my drivers license when writing a check. Lol, I don't believe in debit cards.

But then, I've not tried to book buses.

Funny thing. Meaning the opposite. My daughter doesn't believe in credit cards, because she tends to impulse spend. She refuses to have one. Her husband does have one, but she's not on it. She does have a debit card.

She booked a cheap flight from Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado. Debit card worked. She tried to book a rental car for when she landed, but they wouldn't accept a debit card, only a credit card.

They wouldn't accept her husband's credit card, it had to be under her name. I don't know how it was resolved, but it was a huge hassle.

She's now going to get a credit card.

 

I have no trouble renting a car with hubby's card.  Now, we rent it in his name, but we are both allowed to drive the car.  Most car rental companies allow for husband and wife to drive a rental and will charge an extra fee (usually here around $10) for a different driver.  Of course, you have to provide the driver's license for whomever is driving the car.

 

We always like to put things on his card to mass the extra points.

 

Some places will no longer accept checks.

 

Jill

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I can understand wanting the extra ID. Possibly Brazil has a high number of scammers trying to game the system? Yet they are losing revenue by putting CPF requirement in place.

Maybe the loss of revenue from travelers is less than what would be lost from scammers.

The only time I have to use my SS# here in the US is at a new doctor's office, (anything medical) or when buying a car. Credit card numbers are adequate for booking/charging or showing my drivers license when writing a check. Lol, I don't believe in debit cards.

But then, I've not tried to book buses.

Funny thing. Meaning the opposite. My daughter doesn't believe in credit cards, because she tends to impulse spend. She refuses to have one. Her husband does have one, but she's not on it. She does have a debit card.

She booked a cheap flight from Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado. Debit card worked. She tried to book a rental car for when she landed, but they wouldn't accept a debit card, only a credit card.

They wouldn't accept her husband's credit card, it had to be under her name. I don't know how it was resolved, but it was a huge hassle.

She's now going to get a credit card.

 

 

Just because anyone has a credit card does not mean they have to use it, except for hiring a car etc.

 

Allan

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I can understand wanting the extra ID. Possibly Brazil has a high number of scammers trying to game the system? Yet they are losing revenue by putting CPF requirement in place.

Maybe the loss of revenue from travelers is less than what would be lost from scammers.

The only time I have to use my SS# here in the US is at a new doctor's office, (anything medical) or when buying a car. Credit card numbers are adequate for booking/charging or showing my drivers license when writing a check. Lol, I don't believe in debit cards.

But then, I've not tried to book buses.

Funny thing. Meaning the opposite. My daughter doesn't believe in credit cards, because she tends to impulse spend. She refuses to have one. Her husband does have one, but she's not on it. She does have a debit card.

She booked a cheap flight from Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado. Debit card worked. She tried to book a rental car for when she landed, but they wouldn't accept a debit card, only a credit card.

They wouldn't accept her husband's credit card, it had to be under her name. I don't know how it was resolved, but it was a huge hassle.

She's now going to get a credit card.

 

 

I think being in US without a credit card is like walking naked on the streets...

About the ID, I am always asked for ID´s when abroad, but they accept our passport# or my brazilian drivers license, so it should be the same in Brazil.

As I said, though, I have been receiving a lot of foreigners here in several occasions and this was never an issue, but since other people are complaining, I understand this might have happened.

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I can understand wanting the extra ID. Possibly Brazil has a high number of scammers trying to game the system? Yet they are losing revenue by putting CPF requirement in place.

Maybe the loss of revenue from travelers is less than what would be lost from scammers.

The only time I have to use my SS# here in the US is at a new doctor's office, (anything medical) or when buying a car. Credit card numbers are adequate for booking/charging or showing my drivers license when writing a check. Lol, I don't believe in debit cards.

But then, I've not tried to book buses.

Funny thing. Meaning the opposite. My daughter doesn't believe in credit cards, because she tends to impulse spend. She refuses to have one. Her husband does have one, but she's not on it. She does have a debit card.

She booked a cheap flight from Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado. Debit card worked. She tried to book a rental car for when she landed, but they wouldn't accept a debit card, only a credit card.

They wouldn't accept her husband's credit card, it had to be under her name. I don't know how it was resolved, but it was a huge hassle.

She's now going to get a credit card.

 

I have no trouble renting a car with hubby's card.  Now, we rent it in his name, but we are both allowed to drive the car.  Most car rental companies allow for husband and wife to drive a rental and will charge an extra fee (usually here around $10) for a different driver.  Of course, you have to provide the driver's license for whomever is driving the car.

 

We always like to put things on his card to mass the extra points.

 

Some places will no longer accept checks.

 

Jill

 

 

In many countries they are also asking for an internation drivers license, which is an extra document translating our drivers license in many languages.

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So a foreigner can't book transport and hotels in Brazil? Extraordinary.

Maybe they have had their Brexit long ago.

 

wim

Now is my turn to ask what Brexit means.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_withdrawal_from_the_European_Union

 

wim

You are a bit right, in the old days of the military government, Brazil closed itself from the world.

Its been a very slow opening process since than, but somethings remain even 30 years later.

Its very hard to open a foreign subsidiary company in Brazil, for instance, very hard to immigrate, hard to open a bank account if you are a foreigner, the list goes on.

 

PS: wow, the vote is next 26th of June for the Brexit! How are the polls? I hope you guys keep being a part of the European Unit.

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So a foreigner can't book transport and hotels in Brazil? Extraordinary.

Maybe they have had their Brexit long ago.

 

wim

Now is my turn to ask what Brexit means.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_withdrawal_from_the_European_Union

 

wim

You are a bit right, in the old days of the military government, Brazil closed itself from the world.

Its been a very slow opening process since than, but somethings remain even 30 years later.

Its very hard to open a foreign subsidiary company in Brazil, for instance, very hard to immigrate, hard to open a bank account if you are a foreigner, the list goes on.

 

PS: wow, the vote is next 26th of June for the Brexit! How are the polls? I hope you guys keep being a part of the European Unit.

 

 

I was invited on a press trip to Brazil a few years ago, but the process involved for getting a visa was so slow and complicated (not to mention expensive) that I ran out of time and ended up not being able to go, which was a real disappointment since I was very excited about the opportunity. Hopefully things have improved since then. Mind you, it apparently wasn't easy for Brazilians to get visas to visit Canada either. I'm not sure if that is still the case.

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I have not read all of the responses, but first I will say that it is not the number of images, it is the images

and the captions and keywords.  I made my first sales quickly, a decade ago and I still have a very small

number of images available on Alamy, but I make a small number of sales regularly.  I don't have time to

shoot, prep, caption and keyword images for stock.  I'm currently making more in an afternoon making

images for paying clients than I do from sales on Alamy.  On the other hand I will say that spending

ten years scanning, retouching and captioning images for Alamy's QC has made me a much better

digital photographer.  Alamy is a useful tool, not a way to make a lot of money.  In my opinion it is

one of the few libraries left in the world that does a real job of both photographers and weekend contributors.

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I can understand wanting the extra ID. Possibly Brazil has a high number of scammers trying to game the system? Yet they are losing revenue by putting CPF requirement in place.

Maybe the loss of revenue from travelers is less than what would be lost from scammers.

The only time I have to use my SS# here in the US is at a new doctor's office, (anything medical) or when buying a car. Credit card numbers are adequate for booking/charging or showing my drivers license when writing a check. Lol, I don't believe in debit cards.

But then, I've not tried to book buses.

Funny thing. Meaning the opposite. My daughter doesn't believe in credit cards, because she tends to impulse spend. She refuses to have one. Her husband does have one, but she's not on it. She does have a debit card.

She booked a cheap flight from Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado. Debit card worked. She tried to book a rental car for when she landed, but they wouldn't accept a debit card, only a credit card.

They wouldn't accept her husband's credit card, it had to be under her name. I don't know how it was resolved, but it was a huge hassle.

She's now going to get a credit card.

 

 

 

Just because anyone has a credit card does not mean they have to use it, except for hiring a car etc.

 

Allan

Very true. My daughter had a credit card once and got into deep debt. Thus she doesn't want one. I propose she get one for special circumstances, then hand it over to her husband until one of those circumstances. Never, never carry it. Too tempting.

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