Barbican Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 I guess this has been asked many many times. Am i doing something wrong or are my images just not up to scratch. I have been uploading images on and off for what must be a couple of years now. Not sure when i joined though. I still want to keep uploading images in the hope that i get a sale eventually but its a bit disappointing when i have had no sales in all this time. Should i be looking at having thousands of images available ,Should i be filling in the "main keywords" "comprehensive keywords" as well as the "essential keywords sections. Should i be filling in a description, location and date. I would really really appreciate a few pointers to help me create my first sale on alamy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 113 is a tiny number. I didn't have my first sale until I had abut 500 images up and my second, 1000. At best you might make a sale a year, so since you started early last year it's not unexpected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morrison Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 I would really really appreciate a few pointers to help me create my first sale on alamy. 113 pix in "a couple of years"? Try uploading this number every week or two, for a year or two... and you'll make plenty of sales. Some terrific pix (Saltburn surfer, Malham Cove, etc), though, from my own experience, the pix that sell best can be quite prosaic... rather than the beautifully-lit landscapes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gervais Montacute Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 Great photos there. When you get to 3 or 4 thousand you will do well I'm betting. Share your equipment with us. Wild guess I know, but I would say a Canon system. Love those 3 cows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kilpatrick Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 Images with variety, not similars, well processed, but often without any obvious editorial or commercial intent - that is, pictures for photographers, not for other users (photo magazine stuff). I have pictures with the same or similar subjects and they have sold, and generally they are not in such good conditions and do not use such obvious photographic technique. You have for example done a very catchy graphic effect from a Canon camera, but what's it for? And you do need to be more informative on captions - having just 'the sage' pop up as a title for a building which the entire world does not know about (only a household name in the UK and then mostly in the north) will not help editors who would like a proper caption. General comment is that your compositions are too tight. You are cropping so close to the subject that any further crop is impossible in many cases - in some cases, not even enough margin within the image for fitting different page sizes, or allowing the necessary page bleed. This greatly limits the most valuable sales like covers, full pages, spread, adverts. You need to have at least enough free space all round the image to allow the difference beween A-size and US paper size shapes, postcards and HD screen savers or full screen TV/video uses etc. No-one expects every picture to be composed to allow this, but far too many of your best pictures are cropped as tight as a camera club competition print. That is not what's needed in stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelbully Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 Hi. There is nothing wrong with you photography, or the number of photos you have online. The most important thing by far is keywording. Also Alamy has a German site, so it's worth doing keywords in various languages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelbully Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 Also, let's not forget, Alamy is a budget portal for a lot of newspapers, magazines and websites that are looking for the obscure or rare, and quite often cliche photo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandyAppleRed Images Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 My first sale took 14 months in April 2010 after starting in Feb 2009, and I reckon I had about 130 images at that time. Despite thinking I had made the big breakthrough, things still went slowly after that (only another 2 in 2010 on 350 images) but picked up when I got to around the 1,000 mark and since then I have made 2/3rds of my overall sales. I now average one a month and while I had hoped for better at the outset, I now realise from the advice and experience of others on this forum that it is a pretty decent return on a relatively small portfolio of around 1,500. Keep submitting, it will happen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCat Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 I do think some work on keywords would help. Take a look at All of Alamy in Measures to see what search terms are being used. Some contributors do best with minimal keywords but I think you can take that too far. Paulette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissie Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 Revist your keywords, there are some omissions and typos. You have some lovely pictures, not sure that you have selected the correct license type for many of the images with unreleased property. : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 I guess this has been asked many many times. Am i doing something wrong or are my images just not up to scratch. I have been uploading images on and off for what must be a couple of years now. Not sure when i joined though. I still want to keep uploading images in the hope that i get a sale eventually but its a bit disappointing when i have had no sales in all this time. Should i be looking at having thousands of images available ,Should i be filling in the "main keywords" "comprehensive keywords" as well as the "essential keywords sections. Should i be filling in a description, location and date. I would really really appreciate a few pointers to help me create my first sale on alamy. I like your images, your eye, but with just 113 pics in your collection you're not really in the game, especially since you've been with Alamy for over two years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhandol Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 How about putting the county & country on your captions, not everyone has heard of "Ribblehead", "Malham", Saltburn"..etc..etc. Some lovely pics though! Parm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 Another positive vote for the appearance of your photos, but you are limiting yourself with all of those lovely scenic views devoid of people. As has been suggested, do a search for what sells in your (also my!) area and target your photography so that it is more commercially attractive. As John pointed out, mundane, but of interest to the general public will generally do better than beautiful and artistic. if you start to get some zooms and sales from editorial use in the newspapers your rating will increase and give you a better chance of selling some of your more attractive photos for magazines and books and for more lucrative rates. I recently did some research and found an unfulfilled market requirement. On turning up to the location I was unable, for various reasons, to get the shot that I wanted, while the weather was British standard grim. Nevertheless I made the best of a pretty awful situation and the resulting image has sold twice, within a few months of it being uploaded. Finally, to add weight to what has already been said, 113 is a tiny number compared to the millions of shots available here. If you get to a few thousand and are still not selling, that's the time to worry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kuta Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 What David Kilpatrick said. Especially about the tight compositions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 I too like your photos. Some would make very attractive prints. If you haven't already, you might want to try a couple of the print-on-demand websites. I'll second the comment about skimpy captions. I think you need to add more description and specific info such as location. Also, I don't know anything about the UK market, but there seem to be a lot of photos on Alamy of similar subjects -- abbeys, hay fields, cows, etc. -- which may not have a lot of appeal to international buyers. Otherwise, just keep on uploading. 113 images is nothing on Alamy these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Baker Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 There is nothing wrong with your material and it will sell eventually. But as others say, you need much more and with more variety. Don't worry - that first sale is just around the corner and the next time you post will have that 'Hooray - I sold my first picture' header. Rgds, Richard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbican Posted August 8, 2013 Author Share Posted August 8, 2013 Well i am overwhelmed with the responses and i am very very grateful for all your input. I will take all your advice on board and get uploading images from tonight. And what David Kilpatrick said i will also take into consideration. I have been uploading content that was intended for printing and selling as my dream would be to have a gallery one day in the city of York, So this would be the reason for the tight cropping. So therefore i am going to have to think out of the box for stock photography Gervais I use a Canon 5D and 7D with 17-40, 24-70 and 24-105 lenses . I did start with an 1100d but soon i found i needed more quality equipment and the full frame too for landscapes which is what i love to do but my interest in photography does not just sit with landscape. I have just invested in a quality PC in the last couple of months as all my processing was done on a laptop so took an age to do and that's why i lost patience and did not upload that many images. Now i have the tools and just short of 30000 images just imported to lightroom its time to get them ready for alamy. Thank you for your time and thank you for your kind comments on my images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpole Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Excellent post David Kiipatrick amazed over 19k images I got a long way to go to catch you up with my 541 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jenkins Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Hi, I agree with pretty well all the good advice above and would absolutely emphasise two which have stood me in good stead. 1. where practicable, include people (maybe one with and one without) - this sends out the message "what a great place - and folk visit it too". 2. there are a few similar, eg the tiger and giraffe shots? 3. get more pics up here - if stock is new to you 113 might seem quite a haul, but in terms of a bucket of over 38 Million on offer with Alamy it's a very very small gnat's testicle in a safari park. Good luck and go for it. (ok, so it was 3!). Nick J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jools Elliott Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Echo what Nick has said. With regard image count, there is the general consensus of having at least 1000 images of a good variety before you'll see sales. In addition, I would say to upload around 50 - 100 images a week if you want to get something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulw Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Excellent post David Kiipatrick amazed over 19k images I got a long way to go to catch you up with my 541 Just wait until you come across Jeff Greenburg! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbican Posted August 21, 2013 Author Share Posted August 21, 2013 I have taken in to account all the advice handed to me and i have also been doing other research. Photographs with people in them seem to be a good option for me as i do a lot of engineering inspection too and get in to some very good locations around the country. Some of the images i have just recently uploaded are similar i agree, especially the giraffes maybe i should delete some, The tigers i thought were ok as they do show different stages of him eating. I do have thousands of images on my pc but a lot have been taken with a different approach to stock, ie they were intended to sell as prints eventually and some have been successful for me. I am learning slowly about stock and i am pursuing my first sale and hopefully in time a steady flow of sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jenkins Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Be prepared for happy monday, miserable tuesday....................etc. There is NO consistent sales pattern so you're mind set should be in it for the long haul. Good luck. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbican Posted August 21, 2013 Author Share Posted August 21, 2013 Hi Nick. Small world eh, I recognized your name as my partners friend has been on a workshop with you and i have looked over your images before. Some good stuff there. Thank you for the input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addict Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Two years ago and back i was making $24,000 US gross from my 4 agencies - in the last 12 months i have made $2400 - so go figure - is it worth it anymore yet people still get into this? But heh i'm not complaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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