Pietrach Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 It may be a bit too late, but today I decided to go with Alamy exclusively, and started deleting all of my microstock accounts. It will take some time before they are gone, but I am hoping that focusing on Alamy only with give me better returns. And the fact that the same images cannot be found cheaper elsewhere I am hoping will increase sales. What is your view on this? Have I made a mistake here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 If I went exclusive here (as it stands) I would be in the poor house and Tiny Tim would die on account of getting a sale every time I come across a hen with teeth. I am constantly uploading here but having no effect on my sales although I was getting more sales with less in my portfolio. That's my story as you may do well here if you go exclusive. I wish you all the best whatever decision you take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 Taking off duplicate images seems sensible, but if you're making returns from MS and have already done the work of uploading and keywording, I'd probably have left the non-competing ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 5 minutes ago, Marb said: If I went exclusive here (as it stands) I would be in the poor house and Tiny Tim would die on account of getting a sale every time I come across a hen with teeth. Alamy isn't an exclusive agency, but it just doesn't seem sensible to compete with yourself at much lower prices. I'm constantly uploading, 1400 this year, and am seeing an effect- 15% of this year's sales were taken this year. I wonder if it has something to do with how well the images I upload fit in with Alamy's markets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gryf Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 1 hour ago, Pietrach said: It may be a bit too late, but today I decided to go with Alamy exclusively, and started deleting all of my microstock accounts. It will take some time before they are gone, but I am hoping that focusing on Alamy only with give me better returns. And the fact that the same images cannot be found cheaper elsewhere I am hoping will increase sales. What is your view on this? Have I made a mistake here? Were you on IS as well, and if so, did you manage to close an account there? Good luck with Alamy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 5 hours ago, Pietrach said: It may be a bit too late, but today I decided to go with Alamy exclusively, and started deleting all of my microstock accounts. It will take some time before they are gone, but I am hoping that focusing on Alamy only with give me better returns. And the fact that the same images cannot be found cheaper elsewhere I am hoping will increase sales. What is your view on this? Have I made a mistake here? No-one here can tell you. It depends on your images and whether they suit Alamy's buyers. I have different pics here than on a micro site (to which I haven't uploaded for almost 18 months and counting) but I still do better there than here. But your pics might suit Alamy's buyers much better than mine do. I wouldn't make such a decision based on money alone. And remember, you'll never really know what would have happened if you had not made this decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 Understandably, you're feeling apprehensive about your move. There's good news and bad news. The bad news is moving forward with Alamy is a slow walk. It will mean hanging in there and creating a much larger collection than you have now before sales and zooms will show up. In the current world of stock, Alamy is a good agency choice. I'll wish you good luck again. Edo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pietrach Posted December 14, 2017 Author Share Posted December 14, 2017 4 hours ago, Gryf said: Were you on IS as well, and if so, did you manage to close an account there? Good luck with Alamy! Yes I do. I am awaiting their response. 20 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said: Alamy is a slow walk. It will mean hanging in there and creating a much larger collection than you have now before sales and zooms will show up. I do realise that. I set myself a goal of 1000 images portfolio and a first sale by the end of 2018 (I had two sales in 2013 and 2015 with a portfolio of 70 images, but i dont count them). The sooner the better, but i am not in a rush. I want to focus on decent images. Still need to sieve through my portfolio and remove old news images as these were unprocessed and generally poor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brasilnut Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 Quote What is your view on this? Have I made a mistake here? Yes, I think so. Better to just have left those images on there and started uploading exclusively. As spacecadet stated, you already put in the time to upload/keyword them and if they're ranked somewhat highly for some keywords then you've just lost those rankings. Quote And the fact that the same images cannot be found cheaper elsewhere I am hoping will increase sales. There's really no evidence that non-corporate buyers search for cheaper images on micros. As stated many times before, Alamy buyers and Micro buyers tend to be different market segments with only a small overlap. Anyway, good luck...overall it's a good decision since you seem to be shooting mainly editorials which caters to Alamy much more than micros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 You get out of Alamy what you put into Alamy. I have not, will not, contribute to Micros. I've been making images for publication for over three decades and Alamy is the only library that I currently allow to license my images. I am not getting "rich" but I do appreciate the monthly contribution to my bank account from Alamy. I have been very happy with the modest income from Alamy, considering the small number of images I have available on Alamy and look forward to many more years to come. I also believe that most contributors to Alamy do not pay enough attention to Alamy's market and making sure that they are uploading images that will be licensed by clients. Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inchiquin Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 15 hours ago, kay said: My view is that if you think an image may sell many many times, then micro may not be so bad, because it does add up, but equally if that same image is only on Alamy it could have sold just a few times for more in total (and it feels more rewarding) Not to mention the fact that one sale on Alamy for the same price as ten sales elsewhere means ten times fewer copies of your photo knocking around to be ripped off. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 9 minutes ago, Inchiquin said: Not to mention the fact that one sale on Alamy for the same price as ten sales elsewhere means ten times fewer copies of your photo knocking around to be ripped off. Alan Cheers to that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokie Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 9 minutes ago, losdemas said: Cheers to that! If that's a pint of 'Butty Bach' I'll drink to that!! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 18 minutes ago, Stokie said: If that's a pint of 'Butty Bach' I'll drink to that!! John Do you know, it may have been, but I can't remember! I was on a narrowboat holiday on the Mon & Brec at the time and didn't even have to worry about responsibility for keeping to the shipping lanes, so I may have slightly exceeded the recommended dosage! EDIT: Sorry for taking the thread so wildly off course: it was Stokie's fault! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokie Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 35 minutes ago, losdemas said: Do you know, it may have been, but I can't remember! I was on a narrowboat holiday on the Mon & Brec at the time and didn't even have to worry about responsibility for keeping to the shipping lanes, so I may have slightly exceeded the recommended dosage! EDIT: Sorry for taking the thread so wildly off course: it was Stokie's fault! I usually blame the beer!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Lewis Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 On 12/14/2017 at 11:42, Pietrach said: It may be a bit too late, but today I decided to go with Alamy exclusively, and started deleting all of my microstock accounts. It will take some time before they are gone, but I am hoping that focusing on Alamy only with give me better returns. And the fact that the same images cannot be found cheaper elsewhere I am hoping will increase sales. What is your view on this? Have I made a mistake here? I did this a little while back. The reason I did it was 1) I had very few images <85 spread around 4 different MS agencies from years ago and wanted to simplify my photography life & 2) I don't depend on Alamy or any other form of photography now to provide me anything more than a little supplemental income. I choose to go with Alamy because of the company mostly and the fact I can shoot editorial exclusively if I want to. Many of the other sites had severe restrictions on editorial or did not allow editorial at all. As @Chuck Nacke said, you get out what you put in. Most are not willing, or able perhaps, to put in the work necessary to make stock photography a viable business. It certainly is not easy. It involves a lot more than just taking images. The market is constantly changing and one needs to understand this an adapt, whether one likes the changes or not. I don't know enough about the stock industry and other agencies to advise on diversification. I only know that I like Alamy, their company philosophy, and their ethics. I'm sure there must be others out there, and I would probably be looking if I needed significant steady income from stock,...but I don't. BTW, my total income was in the five (5) figures for MS. I'm not bashing them nor endorsing them. How's that for a non-answer. Good luck to you, Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pietrach Posted December 28, 2017 Author Share Posted December 28, 2017 On 14/12/2017 at 19:04, Gryf said: Were you on IS as well, and if so, did you manage to close an account there? Good luck with Alamy! Got a confirmation from getty/istock that my account will be closed. Just used their contact form to start the process. Thank you everyone for their varied opinions. I am as torn as i was before but i am sticking with it... Almost. Just left my most profitable MS account, deleted duplicates and will keep it for drone and phone images from now on (whoch alamy does not accept, at least not from my devices). Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gryf Posted January 3, 2018 Share Posted January 3, 2018 After sending 2 or 3 messages using the form I'm still waiting for their reaction for some 2 months already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted January 3, 2018 Share Posted January 3, 2018 Best to make a decision you are happy with, don't second guess it and move on in the knowledge that you chose to do it. Congratulations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christian58 Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 Exclusive here?? whats the point? Alamy have got more micro-stock photographers here then micro-stock itself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 8 hours ago, geogphotos said: Yes, many micro-stockers seem to be abandoning micro-stock. I'm seeing many micro-stockers adding Alamy to their list of sites to upload to now that Alamy accepts RF-editorial, rather than abandoning micro altogether; though there might be a few of the latter (offhand, I can only think of the OP, but there may be more; also some like me who are holding historic micro ports but actively uploading to Alamy). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christian58 Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 Not only leaving now! theyve been coming here for ages. In fact Alamy made a point in their msg forum to ask microstock shooters to come here! I myself have shot lots, some 5000 pics for microstock and I believe Ian, geophotos was also into micro-stock. So anyway going exclusive seems a bit nuts really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 I don't get the exclusive part at all. My opinion is that having collections at Alamy and the micros are both important, but not enough. For many of us, the market is bigger than that. And Christian, watch what you say about Ian ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brasilnut Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 I can't think of any benefit of being exclusive on here. It's like putting all your eggs in one basket. Although there's an exclusivity button in the control panel, it doesn't translate into higher royalties, I guess it's just something to notify the client. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 55 minutes ago, Brasilnut said: Although there's an exclusivity button in the control panel, it doesn't translate into higher royalties, I guess it's just something to notify the client. AFAIK, that info isn't available to the client. Certainly, I can't see it looking 'like a buyer' on the page of one of mine with that indication. We can only speculate about what the 'exclusive to Alamy' button does - maybe it's going to do something in future (?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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