Rakesh Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 When I browse through the forum, a lot of people suggest that you need to upload as many images as possible for higher chances of sales. While I do understand that it works on the probability of your image appearing in a search and hence a higher chance of sale , what would be the other criterias for the chance of sale to be higher ?? Dont know if we can put a number, but what could be the average sale per annum for the following, according to you 1. <1000 images 2. >1000<5000 images 3. >5000<10000 images 4. >10000 images Thanks in advance for the response Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 The rule of thumb usually quoted in 1 sale per month for each 1000 images. The actuality varies greatly as contributors with selective uploads of excellent images, carefully keyworded and described can do better. Those who upload stacks of poor photos, lots of similars, ill-considered keywords or who simply duplicate what they already have on the microstock sites are likely to do much worse. The key to selling is not in the quantity but in the quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Yup quantity, quality (and that can be interpreted in various ways, e.g. fit for market, aesthetically pleasing, technically correct etc), diversity, and keywording all come to mind. It might also depend to some extent upon your strategy with pseudonyms. I only have 2, one for on sale images and another for those en route to the bin. Some folk arrange pseudos by subject matter, others by sales success etc. I don't know how the use of pseudos affects sales, and I'm not sure if there is any hard evidence available to help with this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 You can get a pretty good idea by looking at the "How was your November" (or other months) threads on this forum (for example see here) whilst also checking the number of images there are in each contributor's portfolio (appears on the extreme left). You'll find a great variation in sales/image between those the contributors that are most successful and those that are less so. Take a look at the portfolios of those that do well and you can learn a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHill Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Here's one way to look at it: 1st priority: market focus - provide subject matter, compositions etc that the buyers want 2nd priority: quality - how good the photo looks 3rd priority: quantity You need all three, but prioritise them in that order. A photo with competition-winning aesthetic quality that isn't of a subject that buyers want, won't sell. Even if you get the first two right, without quantity you'll be lucky to cover the cost of your SD cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 My collection is VERY diverse and is currently at 7000. I have very few photos taken in Europe and non taken in the U.K. in particular. I am seeing roughly an average of 2 sales per month per 1,000 in my collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Interesting question. And because it's the end of the year, let's do some bean counting. year collection / sales - meaning 1 in every xx has sold. 2005 472006 742007 292008 202009 212010 182011 162012 122013 82014 102015 92016 7 As you can see it takes a while to learn. And a capacity for learning as well. Because just piling up the same sort of images that are not selling anyway will obviously not work. What you don't know is the $$ amount. And yes there still is that lottery part too, but with how many competitors contributors? and images? - 95 million - one's chances have been diluted a bit. My jackpot moment came in 2007 with just 26 sales. Only in 2015 my income from Alamy surpassed that year. The recession obviously didn't help either. So these numbers are a small part of the whole story. wim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 The ratio has varied considerably in past years, but this year I've been averaging about two sales per month per 1000 images in my collection. I agree that "upload as many images as possible for higher chances of sales" is totally bad advice. I have created three pseudos, mainly for organizational purposes. I have no idea how having pseudos has affected sales. All of my images were taken in the Americas, and the fact that Alamy is based in the UK doesn't seem to have made any difference. It's a global marketplace now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famousbelgian Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 The one lesson I have learnt is that you CANNOT predict what is going to sell so diversity of subject is very important. I can't remember how many times a sale has come through, and I distinctly remember originally hesitating to upload the image, thinking "who is going to buy that?". Most people would probably look at my portfolio and think of most of the images "that's never going to sell". But my average sales rate is about 15-18 per month with just over 3000 images uploaded. Stock photography, it would appear, is not about beautiful images. In fact, I don't even bother uploading my "beautiful" images. Spending time improving your keywording skills is very important, the keywords are often MORE important than the image itself. I spent years running an eBay business, where I became very good at keywording the titles of things I was selling and that has really helped me keyword my images here on Alamy. Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 As of December, 2016: Alamy Stock 1,940 photos = 190 sales Stockimo iPhone 655 photos = 40 sales Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newberry Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 What about storage fees? I have a "green" account, and have been deleting images to reduce storage fees. Those of you with many images (1,000+), do you have a different type of account without per-image storage fees? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoDogue Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 What about storage fees? I have a "green" account, and have been deleting images to reduce storage fees. Those of you with many images (1,000+), do you have a different type of account without per-image storage fees? When I first joined Alamy back in 2004 or so I think I was Green because I was paying storage fees. I switched to Blue a few years ago to avoid the fees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpole Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 I am not sure what has changed something has my image views are up 300% and 4 sales by the 15th of the month is exceptionally good for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpole Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 I am not sure what has changed something has my image views are up 300% and 4 sales by the 15th of the month is exceptionally good for me. You must be the one who's benefited from the new search system. I knew there had to be someone. Geoff. Its definitely working for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Here's one way to look at it: 1st priority: market focus - provide subject matter, compositions etc that the buyers want 2nd priority: quality - how good the photo looks 3rd priority: quantity You need all three, but prioritise them in that order. A photo with competition-winning aesthetic quality that isn't of a subject that buyers want, won't sell. Even if you get the first two right, without quantity you'll be lucky to cover the cost of your SD cards. And therein lies the issue - I use CF cards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newberry Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 What about storage fees? I have a "green" account, and have been deleting images to reduce storage fees. Those of you with many images (1,000+), do you have a different type of account without per-image storage fees? When I first joined Alamy back in 2004 or so I think I was Green because I was paying storage fees. I switched to Blue a few years ago to avoid the fees. Thanks for the response. I can't find info on the Blue scheme at the contributor page, anyone have a link to where that is detailed? With Green I get 60% (I assume Blue is less?), which is nice, but the storage fees really add up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoDogue Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 I can't find info on the Blue scheme at the contributor page, anyone have a link to where that is detailed? With Green I get 60% (I assume Blue is less?), which is nice, but the storage fees really add up. My Alamy -> Account Settings (tab at top) or you can contact CR to ask about switching. Blue pays 50% with no additional fees. If I remember correctly once you switch to Blue you can't switch back. Looks like I was paying 10 cents per image, per month, when I switched to Blue in 2009. If I was still Blue, with 3000 images, I could easily wind up paying Alamy more than I make for some months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newberry Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 I can't find info on the Blue scheme at the contributor page, anyone have a link to where that is detailed? With Green I get 60% (I assume Blue is less?), which is nice, but the storage fees really add up. My Alamy -> Account Settings (tab at top) or you can contact CR to ask about switching. Blue pays 50% with no additional fees. If I remember correctly once you switch to Blue you can't switch back. Looks like I was paying 10 cents per image, per month, when I switched to Blue in 2009. If I was still Blue, with 3000 images, I could easily wind up paying Alamy more than I make for some months. I see where Green is specified under account settings, but there isn't a place there to switch; I just emailed them. Thanks for the replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rakesh Posted December 16, 2016 Author Share Posted December 16, 2016 Wow ! That's quite a response . The reason I asked the question is that currently I have around 1575 images. The fact is that I have uploaded almost 1000 of them in the last 1.5 year. And the thumb rule is something which is showing up . From 1 sale each year , when I had around 300 images , it has averaged around slightly above 1 each month for this year. Hence I was wondering if having more images would increase my chances of clocking a sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Lewis Posted December 16, 2016 Share Posted December 16, 2016 I don't contribute much as I would like due to circumstances out of my control, but, in the past 18 months I have made more from Alamy with only 84 images uploaded than from any other stock site they are on. And, that's with only four sales. I wish I could shoot and upload more. With out a doubt, Alamy pays the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricia de Courcy Ling Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 How do you know if you have a sale with stockimo? I have 40 images now. But no sales as yet thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCat Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 You have to check on the app. Paulette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManWay Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 How do you know if you have a sale with stockimo? I have 40 images now. But no sales as yet thanks Don't hold ya breath for a Stockimo sale. Next to useless IMO. The you may gat a sale for $0.16 net. They have falsified the original statement whereby they (Stockimo/Alamy) said that the minimum sale was $5 gross. Now they sell for next to nothing. I don't bother with this nonsense anymore and have never had a reply from my query about sales amounts. However. I have had a couple of sales for +$50 net. But I have 2000 odd images with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDoug Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Here's one way to look at it: 1st priority: market focus - provide subject matter, compositions etc that the buyers want 2nd priority: quality - how good the photo looks 3rd priority: quantity You need all three, but prioritise them in that order. A photo with competition-winning aesthetic quality that isn't of a subject that buyers want, won't sell. Even if you get the first two right, without quantity you'll be lucky to cover the cost of your SD cards. As a subset under market focus, there is field size. My most recent sale is from a town where there are only 134 images on Alamy. At that rate, rank doesn't matter much. Finding subjects that aren't already oversupplied with images seems as important as shooting well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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