Very disappointing

[Hellonearth]

Trying to remain upbeat and posted the fact that I have reached 5000 images in the "good news" thread. However, so far this month I have had 7 sales for a nett total of $31.50. For the year to date I have 12 sales for $93.50 nett. Not something in either case to sing from the rooftops about. To say I am disappointed having worked so hard over the last 12 months in uploading photos is rather an understatement. Motivation is rapidly waning. Maybe I just do not take the right sort of photos.

 

Kevin

[York Photographer]

Looks like Saleable stuff to me. Trouble is a lot of the pictures are of subjects which are heavily shot, so they are up against a lot of competition from similar pictures, of pretty specific subjects.

Maybe try shooting more generic subject matter and keywording them, so they have more than one use? 

 

Posted by Rob Cook 

[John Mitchell]

Your images all look "saleable" to me too. These days, when it comes to travel photos, I think you really have to look around for subjects that haven't been extensively covered, which is easier said than done of course. That said, all those images that you have uploaded during the past year probably need more time to marinate before sales start appearing. Good luck.

[dlmphotog]

Hellonearth,

 

Very understandable to be disappointed with the lack of sales. I know, I have felt the same way. Disappointment can also be caused by expectations on the amount of sales revenue you "should" be making.

 

Talk about disappointing, I quit Alamy for two years, set up my own web site to sell my stock directly... I did not make a SINGLE sale! So I came back to Alamy with my tail between my legs and started from "scratch". After my two year drought making my first sale back on Alamy really motivated me again.

 

Looking at your images I did notice your descriptions are not very descriptive of the images. From what I have read on this form descriptions are becoming more important. I also know from past experience new images take about a year or so before they start to sell.

 

Hope this helps,

 

David

 

[Brasilnut]

There's no sugarcoating, it's fking tough going here

[John Morrison]

4 hours ago, dlmphotog said:

I quit Alamy for two years, set up my own web site to sell my stock directly... I did not make a SINGLE sale!

 

Yes, I prefer to share the spoils with Alamy than spend my time trying to sell stock through my own website.

 

I'm - reasonably - happy with the returns from Alamy, though I'm aware that, in future, the additions to my online folio may amount to little more than standing still, given the vast number of pix added daily. Onwards and upwards (or sideways).

[RedSnapper]

With the exception of LiveNews and other topical content, it does take time for new work to percolate through the various layers / links in the supply chain from date pf upoading to point where a sale is notified

 

Looking at the 42 licences reported  for me so far this month, not one of them has an Alamy code prefix (the letter you see at the start of the image reference) later than 'G', and the bulk are in the A-C range, meaning that they were added to the catalogue 10 years ago or so

 

 

km

[Futterwithtrees]

I have 1300 + images and growing,  uploaded over 1 year approx. 1 sale €40 gross €20 net.. I am working on the premiss of "LIVE OLD HORSE AND YOU'LL GET GRASS". My zooms have just taken a bit of a leap however so maybeeeee more to come.  

 

Don't know about Hellonearth but the prophet said "Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming"

[andremichel]

1 hour ago, RedSnapper said:

With the exception of LiveNews and other topical content, it does take time for new work to percolate through the various layers / links in the supply chain from date pf upoading to point where a sale is notified

 

Looking at the 42 licences reported  for me so far this month, not one of them has an Alamy code prefix (the letter you see at the start of the image reference) later than 'G', and the bulk are in the A-C range, meaning that they were added to the catalogue 10 years ago or so

 

 

km

 

That is extraordinary. How many images have you added in the last 10 years?

[RedSnapper]

1 hour ago, andremichel said:

 

That is extraordinary. How many images have you added in the last 10 years?

 

 

do the maths

49,000 / 12

 

km

[Matt Ashmore]

1 hour ago, RedSnapper said:

 

 

do the maths

49,000 / 12

 

km

 

Were you a GCSE maths teacher in a past life? :-)

 

[Ed Rooney]

19 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

Your images all look "saleable" to me too. These days, when it comes to travel photos, I think you really have to look around for subjects that haven't been extensively covered, which is easier said than done of course. That said, all those images that you have uploaded during the past year probably need more time to marinate before sales start appearing. Good luck.

 

As John says here, finding new subjects is very important, a mix of subjects. But I will add that it's a good idea to cover the cliche landmarks too. About 20% of my sales are captures of ordinary landmarks, nothing special, just good light.

 

The problem with many new contributors is that they submit a few hundred images, maybe even a few thousand, then they wait to see if those sell before submitting more. That's a path to failure here at Alamy. This is a long game.  And production must be consistant. 

 

Because at this point in my life, I will never be able to produce a large portfolio, I play by this rule: I spend no money on the production of stock other than a Subway fare when it's too far to walk. 

 

Edo

[andremichel]

3 hours ago, RedSnapper said:

 

 

do the maths

49,000 / 12

 

km

 

An average of 4083 images per year.

 

So (if I've understood correctly) you appear to be saying that you've had very few sales this month from the 40,000 images submitted in the last 10 years, with the bulk of your sales coming from the 9000 images loaded prior to 2008.

 

[RedSnapper]

32 minutes ago, andremichel said:

 

An average of 4083 images per year.

 

So (if I've understood correctly) you appear to be saying that you've had very few sales this month from the 40,000 images submitted in the last 10 years, with the bulk of your sales coming from the 9000 images loaded prior to 2008.

 

 

 

No.

I'm saying that none are from the last two or three years.....with a lot from the early years.

This is just two weeks behaviour; not necessarily typical. But illustratative of the extended shelf life that images can have, and the long lead-team before sales may be reported.

 

YMMV

 

6 sales today; one A prefix, two B prefix and three C prefix

 

 

km

[Southpole]

How long does it take the search engine to catalogue your image if that's the correct terminology before it is found?

[lorenza]

7 hours ago, RedSnapper said:

With the exception of LiveNews and other topical content, it does take time for new work to percolate through the various layers / links in the supply chain from date pf upoading to point where a sale is notified

 

Looking at the 42 licences reported  for me so far this month, not one of them has an Alamy code prefix (the letter you see at the start of the image reference) later than 'G', and the bulk are in the A-C range, meaning that they were added to the catalogue 10 years ago or so

 

 

km

I'm not clear about the prefixes speech ....

[John Mitchell]

Kevin, perhaps at this point, instead of uploading a lot of new images, it would be better to go back and add more detail to your captions and keywords. I've been doing this for the past few months for a lot of my older images, and it is definitely paying off in terms of views, zooms, and -- I believe -- sales.

[Rico]

36 minutes ago, lorenza said:

I'm not clear about the prefixes speech ....

The prefix is the first 2 letters of the image number (MBXXXX)

AA would be very early alamy images, MB will be the latest

Rick

 

[Avpics]

This month I've sold three Ds, one E, one G, one J, two Ks and an M. That covers a range 2013 to Feb 2018 with no Live News, with the spread just slightly weighted towards the older images but it might help to illustrate that point of having to be patient. Bear in mind that although I'm currently standing tall on eleven thousand images, that is the result of a year of whacking them out and this time last year I would have been on roughly four thousand. Most of those sales would have still come in regardless, after that lengthy period of time.

[RedSnapper]

31 minutes ago, Avpics said:

This month I've sold three Ds, one E, one G, one J, two Ks and an M. That covers a range 2013 to Feb 2018

 

 

Basically, as with me, the older images play an important role. Since you  started in 2012 you won't have any of the A-C images anyway?

 

k

[Avpics]

My earliest available image is D3GXXX dated Feb 2013 (first images failed QC and took me some time to get my act together), and that sale this month was DTEXXX from Feb 2014 which also illustrates how few images were being uploaded just those few years ago.

[John Mitchell]

My old images, especially  A-C, continue to be my bread and butter.

[Marianne]

$75 license today on one of my "B" prefix images. 

Gotta say my images here have legs. 

But other sales in the past year include C, E, F, G and K prefixes including some licensed shortly after they were uploaded, so they don't always have to percolate. 

But you have to be patient. Not sure if this applies to the OP, but as has been said here ad nauseum, people coming from a micro background where they are used to daily sales need to realize this is very different. 

[Hellonearth]

8 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

Kevin, perhaps at this point, instead of uploading a lot of new images, it would be better to go back and add more detail to your captions and keywords. I've been doing this for the past few months for a lot of my older images, and it is definitely paying off in terms of views, zooms, and -- I believe -- sales.

Yes I have been trying to do this as well in between uploading new images. Although I am not sure what more details I can add to captions, I am also conscious of not spamming the keywords.

 

I do take the point mentioned by several people here that it takes time for images to percolate through the system.

 

 Perhaps I need to be a little more patient. I am starting to see sales but the main disappointment is in fact the value associated with those sales. Last year I had no sales in the first 3 months whereas this year I had 9 followed by 7 so far this month,

 

Kevin

[spacecadet]

5 hours ago, Hellonearth said:

 

 

I do take the point mentioned by several people here that it takes time for images to percolate through the system.

 

 

More a case of it taking time for relevant searches to be made.

Surely images are as findable as they're ever going to be the day after they are tagged. I've had a sale in 4 days. It's very unusual- only in the last few years have I had many sales in the year of upload.