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Record breaking - Our best day of sales ever!

Permalink Comments (84)5 February 2007 at 15:48 by James Allsworth
Posted under Shameless self promotion

Pole Vaulter Leaping in Air at Event - Image AK1J72 © Brand X Pictures
© Brand X PicturesAs a perfect introduction to our new Shameless self promotion category we are delighted to announce that Wednesday the 31st of January was our biggest day ever in terms of sales made.

We haven’t done anything spectacular to celebrate this joyous occasion, but what we are doing, right now in fact, is giving ourselves a whacking great pat on the back. Here’s to breaking the record again very soon, Cheers!

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Add your own commentComments (84)

  1. 05 February 2007 at 15:58 Robert Stainforth

    I had my best month in January, 6 sales = $1600. Hope it lasts!

    Thanks alamy.

  2. 05 February 2007 at 18:02 colin

    Great !!
    Sold one that day.
    Love u xxx

  3. 05 February 2007 at 18:17 Peter Forsberg

    Good news. Since so many people here who are saying that Alamy is going down, that sales will be down, that there are too many images for anyone to bother to go through, I have become paranoid and now see every day with no sales as a sign of the approaching doom, perhaps not only the end of Alamy and image selling business but the world as well. Hopefully these good news will take these paranoid thoughts away and motivate photographers instead.

  4. 05 February 2007 at 18:20 Tomas Kopecny

    Peter F. - the same for me :)

    Well done, Alamy.

  5. 05 February 2007 at 18:23 Mark Scheuern

    That's excellent news. Congratulations. I've had a string of quite good months, too, so I can only hope the trend continues.

  6. 05 February 2007 at 19:59 Jeff Greenberg

    Congrats! Jan 31 good day here, too. Jan '07 marked my 31st Alamy month & my best sales month.

  7. 05 February 2007 at 20:17 tiit veermae

    good PR work in blog?

    happy, happy, happy, happy, happy! the best day, my first best sailing day, my first sail here, alamy! happy, happy, happy! my best sales month! my best sales century!

    :)

  8. 05 February 2007 at 20:49 Robert Davila

    Congrats to all those with sales! I too had a good month!

    Mark S. - I agree, let's hope the trend continues!

    Thanks Alamy

  9. 05 February 2007 at 20:57 Bill Brooks

    Congratulations. Just like Ebay, Alamy has an open platform so that photographers can create their own business. Of all the stock photo libraries, Alamy is in the best positioned to take advantage of the mass collaborative nature of the web. I think recently Getty is trying something similar, but Alamy has a 7 year advantage. To be partners with Alamy, when it's sales are increasing, is the best of all possible worlds.

  10. 05 February 2007 at 21:02 D.Dempster

    After being with Alamy for less than 1 1/2 years December has been the best month for me so far but January was a close second. I've had a run of very good months and I see nothing but better sales in the future.

  11. 05 February 2007 at 22:12 chris

    Great news. We can see the business is still alive, and that Alamy is doing everything good for us. I do not sell much, nor expensive. But I cannot complaint, as Alamy allowed me to enter the stock world. Thanks. Kepp on working! Regards

  12. 05 February 2007 at 22:35 David Kilpatrick

    I find it easy to think that January maybe was not so good - I did make a January 31st sale - then I look back at previous years and see that it's an improvement. My work tends to sell seasonally as it's mainly outdoor views.

  13. 06 February 2007 at 02:09 Michelle

    Cheers to all, Probably January is the best month for all of us. New year and best sale how wonderful :-)

  14. 06 February 2007 at 02:33 EkS

    Congratulations Alamy!

    Perhaps AlamyRank is effective after all...

  15. 06 February 2007 at 09:42 idmurray

    WOO HOO...iStock GOGOGO!..er..

  16. 06 February 2007 at 13:32 Cristina Fumi

    Best month for me as well!
    I am very happy to be here!

  17. 06 February 2007 at 15:39 Matthew Noble

    Best sales month for me too! Keep it up, and I will be able to just shoot stock without other photographic work being needed.

  18. 06 February 2007 at 21:24 Rainer Raffalski

    I, too, had a sale on January 31st. The Alamy pice calculator said € 335 for the rights sold, that is about 430 US$. And it sold for... 100 US$. That is a 77% discount.

    I cannot say I'm very happy with a sale like this. I consider it being almost a give-away, a give-away of my intellectual property.

    Sorry, nothing to be proud of, Alamy!

    Rainer Raffalski

  19. 07 February 2007 at 09:58 idmurray

    I love to hear such good news stories, the same, I'm sure, as all other Alamy contributors. But I hope that 'good news PR' isn't going to drown out discussion of more thorny, nitty gritty, issues. Before Xmas news filtered around the ether of emergency meetings being held at Alamy to sort out the 'mess' created by AlamyRank. Were these just false rumours? Was there no mess? Was there no meeting? What happened if anything? Are we to be kept in the dark about discussions at urgent meetings (if they happen)? Is everything now officially fine in the garden? I'd just like to know.

  20. 07 February 2007 at 10:18 Tony Lilley

    Great news,
    4 of my images sold in January !!
    Long may it last.

    Kind regards, Tony Lilley.

  21. 07 February 2007 at 11:57 Nick Lewis

    I must admit I have had a quiet time on the sales front recently until yesterday that is. I made a sale! I feel rather upbeat as a result and look forward to what could be a very good year.

  22. 07 February 2007 at 16:41 Ladi Kirn

    Thank you Rainer for bringing this up.
    Same here. One of my sales went for ca 65% discount!
    I wondered about this and sent an enquiry. I got a reply saying that some of the smaller sub-agencies have lower rates and that I could opt out of sales through subagencies. Of course I have that option but the question still remains: Who fixes the price- Alamy or the sub- agent? Is Alamy going to become just another microstock?
    Judge for yourself. Here are the sale details:
    Country: Czech Republic
    Usage: Editorial
    Media: Consumer Magazine
    Industry: Retail books/magazines/newspapers
    Sub-Industry: Miscellaneous
    Print run: up to 100,000
    Placement: Inside
    Image Size: 1/2 page
    Start: 06 December 2006
    End: 06 January 2007
    $ 64.17

  23. 07 February 2007 at 18:18 idmurray

    Ladi,
    I had one sale today to Russian Fed for $35. I thought Alamy had instructed all distributors not to go below $40. Is that correct? `My 45% leaves me enough for a couple of pints.

  24. 07 February 2007 at 20:03 baz keeble

    I have,nt had a sale for several months, but this is no doubt to the amount of images I have on site, this will change, I hope, when I get time to send in more pics, but the feedback I,m getting does nothing for my confidence, especially when my last picture sold for just a few quid with restrictions for 3 years

  25. 07 February 2007 at 20:07 Steven May

    Well done Alamy - I'm glad to hear of the record sales - record sales month for me too both in number of sales and gross $ value.

    I'm UK based and I see Alamy credited images in most papers and magazines I get to see - Alamy sure are a major player here.

    Overseas sales values do vary - whilst some are very low, others have been very healthy - I'm happy to accept them all. I doubt I could ever get such overseas sales left to my own skills.

    As regards the calculator sales varations - best not to even looking at it and worrying about - stock prices are not what they once were and with more competition and dilution are unlikely to rise.

    Good Luck

    Steven May
    UK













  26. 08 February 2007 at 12:51 doug Steley

    I had 2 sales on that day it made my figures for the month nearly reach my average. I had been worried after a really great December and a terrible start to January.

    I am still not really confident about the rank system but will continue to see how it goes.

    I am glad that records are being broken and obviously marketing is working well.

    I will continue to recommend Alamy to both photographers and image buyers.

    Cheers pat on the back

    Doug

  27. 10 February 2007 at 05:15 Darby Sawchuk

    I also had a sale that day. Unfortunately, that stands as my only sale in almost three months. :(

  28. 10 February 2007 at 14:09 John Peter

    Alamy Rank is remarkable. I just entered "car ferry greece" where I have 48 out of 102 entries. My first picture was 9th in the rank and most of my other 47 were shoved towards the back end. As a minimum you would have thought I would have been placed as 1-3-5 etc. as a matter of fairness. No; put the main contributor to the back and favour the odd contributor. Do you think this is fair and reasonable?

  29. 11 February 2007 at 02:35 Simon Meeds

    John, My understanding is that your first showing (9th) reflects your rank relative to the other contributors in the search results and your others are distributed below that according to the "diversity algorithm". Presumably the more contributors (not necessarily images) there are, the more distributed your images will be.

    Where your first image is placed presumably is not affected by how many of your images match the search, and why should it be? A buyer is presumably usually looking for the most appropriate single image. If they want more images from the same photographer they can always click "more".

    Whether you deserve to be 9th (rather than higher or lower) I don't know and wouldn't want to comment.

  30. 11 February 2007 at 04:40 Vittore Buzzi

    December and Jannuary was great months.
    February starts well.
    It's strange but the amount of royalty free sales start to grow. Alamy did a great job with Fotolia and Istock selling at low prices I'm surprised to see my royalty free revenue of last months...

  31. 14 February 2007 at 17:54 Geoff Kidd

    Darby,
    Had a look at your pics especially the KLCC aquarium. No reference to travel or tourism in keywording. The shots look like a tourist destination why no references to this?

    Geoff

  32. 14 February 2007 at 22:56 Richard Baker

    Wish I could join in the fun. Still to move off Zero!

  33. 16 February 2007 at 14:25 Peter Forsberg

    It would be nice to know how many of these images are actually paid for. As I myself have an ever-increasing collection of unpaid for images, this is becoming an important question. It is one thing to sell something, but getting paid for what you sold is something completely different.

  34. 16 February 2007 at 15:11 Paul Mayall

    I have just joined Alamy and find it interesting to read the various views by fellow photographers. Alamy seems to be doing well in what has always been a tough industrie, even more so now with 1000s of contributors and growing, with millions of images on the www. Yes I can see many fellow photographers getting very frustrated with lack of sales, just try and remember the massive amount of images out there, and the chances of being seen is diminishing daily, unless you are a miracle worker and can upload 1000 or more each week I would try to keep calm, don't blame Alamy and treat this end of the bussines as pocket money, the real money is in direct sales and assignments,(always has been), meanwhile lets keep supporting Alamy with goog images and keep it running for the better, somebody could be purchasing your image right now.

    Cheers all, Paul.

  35. 17 February 2007 at 14:51 matthew guillory

    I'm new to Alamy as well , just curious to those who have had a lot of sales recently what kind of images are you selling a lot of as far as content? and do you find you are selling more royalty free images or more licenced images or is it a good mix? any comment would be helpful.
    thanks

  36. 17 February 2007 at 16:43 Garry DeLong

    I am pleased but not suprised that Alamy is doing well. A year ago, many traditional stock shooters were being panicked by the microstocks; insisting that the sky was falling and that their careers were going down in flames. Instead, the microstocks seem to mostly have developed their own markets while the power consumers of stock photography have continued to prefer the more traditional image sources.
    Garry DeLong

  37. 19 February 2007 at 18:51 Rolf Brenner

    Alamy rocks! - it's that simple!

  38. 19 February 2007 at 19:42 Barney

    Alamy rocks?.... What kind of childish nonsense is that?

    Alamy is (or should be) a conduit for the distribution of still pictures.

    This thing is descending into farce.

    'Rocks'..... Good grief. Is this Rolf's excellent adventure?

  39. 19 February 2007 at 21:45 Rolf Brenner

    What's up Barney i'm just happy about my sales :-). Maybe it's childish but i don't care at all!

  40. 20 February 2007 at 06:42 Darby Sawchuk

    Geoff,

    Good catch on me missing a few keywords for those shots. When I get a chance, I will go through them and fix that up. Thanks!

    But I doubt it will change the fact that I am now averaging one miniscule sale per month where I was once had a respectable amount of income developing through Alamy... :\

  41. 20 February 2007 at 10:58 Wael Hamdan

    I hope i can get any sale this month ... i am new here.

  42. 20 February 2007 at 18:13 colinspics

    Re comment 34 by Paul Mayall.
    Spot on !!!
    Colin.

  43. 21 February 2007 at 08:34 Paul Mayall

    Blog 27#

    I had 2 sales on that day it made my figures for the month nearly reach my average. I had been worried after a really great December and a terrible start to January.

    Darby, I had a look at your site and see you have near 3000 images up, from my experience with another online site that I have contributed more than 8000 images with an average of 1 sale every 4 months, I would say that you are doing alright.
    I have also noted that other contributors with Alamy have complained about receiving low fees! yes it is a worry when you cannot set a price for your own material, I am very frustrated with archives in general online and others, it seems that buyers of stock images are having a field day in negotiating fees knowing that the archives are generally happy in making a sale at almost any price, this is why I think the prices can often be very low, its a shame that the industrie has come to this, in one of my earlier blogs I mentioned that the best sales are the one's dealt with directly, I very rarely sell a image that is not worth it's value ( and without a fight ) which tells me that a lot of the online stock buyers are looking for cheap images and are getting them.

    How do we stop this?? Easy! Alamy and all others should put a minimum fee for all images then work up from there, that way the photographers get a little more than a petty fee, or at least a guaranteed one.

    I still only have 10 images with Alamy, looking forward to my 1st sale when I have a few thousand on.

    Keep Clicking...

    Cheers all.

  44. 23 February 2007 at 08:51 anon

    "I have contributed more than 8000 images with an average of 1 sale every 4 months,"

    Would you mind giving the name of the site?

  45. 23 February 2007 at 19:48 Paul

    #44 anon

    The site is PhotographersDirect, has anybody had simular problems or experience, I am hoping Alamy can do better when I a get few thousand images up.

  46. 24 February 2007 at 12:26 Another Anon

    " I am hoping Alamy can do better when I a get few thousand images up.

    I have been with Alamy since July 1994 and now have built up to 3600 images. 74 sales in that time. plus a few others where the sales were made then refunded for whatever reason. I have to say taht I have never heard of your agency.

  47. 01 March 2007 at 12:39 Dennis

    Anon and Another Anon, may I ask what's your average sales (in US$) per year? :-)

    Over 10 year ago, I was told by a part-time photographer that he expect an average sale of US$1 per picture per year. He uses mainly medium format and sells his pictures through traditional agencies where pictures are selected and edited.

  48. 12 March 2007 at 21:16 Diane macdonald

    Hmm! I just read this blog for the first time and just can't believe what I'm reading! I'm new to Alamy, so have been trying to figure out if Alamy is really viable. I live in the US and have images with a major stock agency which very tightly edits and controls what it sells. Right now things are not quite as good as they were in past years, but I'm selling on average 150-200 images per month out of just under 900 online!! Is there anyone with my kind of experience selling anything on Alamy? Dennis, my average per picture per MONTH right now is $6 - down from about $18 per image per MONTH about 18 months ago. But, this is a full time job for me and has been for about 12 years.

  49. 12 March 2007 at 22:56 Paul mayall

    #48 Hmm! I just read this blog for the first time and just can't believe what I'm reading!

    yes I am also surprised to read such blogs, also surprised that Alamy leaves them on for all to see ( very brave )and perhaps even turn away photographers. Does anybody know of a independant blogg site that is not set up by archives so photographers can have a good winge/wynge cry etc, because I am sure that Alamy will soon put a stop to their Blog page if it feels criticized, or feel that the comments are not in their favour, Cheeeers all, Paul.

  50. 13 March 2007 at 12:45 Mike kipling

    Good to see some are doing well. My best month by far was October 2006 and sales have seriously declined since then. In fact my last sale was 28th Feb 2007 and no sales at all in March so far despite 8,500 images on line. I personally am becoming despondent as one of my much small libraries with just 1500 images on line is now outstripping Alamy re returns. Hopefully this is just a seasonal glich for me and things will pick up soon but I would also like to hear if anyone else is currently suffering a downturn. I blame AlamyRank but have been assured that is not so.

    Mike

  51. 13 March 2007 at 13:42 Jock strapp

    Re No 50

    My sales are way down this month, only 4 so far. An average for me is 35-40 per month, don't think there's much chance of that this March. Don't know what the answer is, it seems I submit more images for a smaller return. I supply a small library,which only provides to the UK market and it acheives an average of 60 sales per month! Something wrong somewhere.

  52. 13 March 2007 at 15:01 the pm

    Re No 51, I read with interest on the amount of sales that you make, it seems a lot, actually hard to believe! if you are being honest I estimate that you would be earning 3 to 4000 Dollars per month which would make you the highest paid and most succesful stock photographer in the world, if you do not mind can you tell us all how many images you have online.

  53. 13 March 2007 at 16:26 Jock strapp

    Re No 52

    Approx. 4000 images online. And the pm I do not tell porkies, which you insinuate. My best month with Alamy was $7500 not including VAT. If you think that 3-4000 dollars is a lot then I must assume you know little about stock photography. My best month ever was £18500. Please note I said pounds, not dollars.

  54. 13 March 2007 at 17:24 the pm

    Re No 52 Jock strapp you must be an outstanding photographer with some very much sort after material, I would like to see some of your work, I know 3 photographers with more than 40,000 images between them online and would only sell a 3rd of your sales, be brave and show us all why your images sell so well, I am not after a argument, just would like to know what images make one so succesful.

  55. 13 March 2007 at 18:41 Ladi Kirn

    The irritating in this "blog" of ours is that anyone can post and everyone can be ANONYMOUS.
    But some is amusing to read. Hope it continuuuuuueeeees……

  56. 13 March 2007 at 20:36 Diane macdonald

    Thanks Jock for the honest information. I'm glad that there are other stock professionals out there! Your income from stock is right in line with mine. My current earnings have dropped to around $4,000 a month recently (not with Alamy -see my last post). This drastic drop in sales is the whole reason I am exploring Alamy as another outlet. You are right! For a professional who depends on stock for a living $4,000 is not a great monthly income!! Not sure if I can afford to put my best images on Alamy yet though!

  57. 13 March 2007 at 21:02 Penny

    Many thanks to Jock and Diane for being honest, yes there are other full time pro-stock photographers out here. My sales too have dropped from $3/4000 to $300 per month (Alamy). As per Mike (50) ref Alamy Rank, I have been told the same that it is NOT Alamy Rank - hard to believe. Maybe it is the lack of editing, control, direction etc and the never ending uploading of bulk (tens of thousands) of inferior images swamping the system that has changed things. It worked once -will it come back or has it gone for ever.

  58. 13 March 2007 at 22:51 the pm

    #48 Diane Macdonald, I see that your images are being sold at a very low price and yet you claim to make so much money, ever thought that if everybody sold their images for such a low rate and royalty free the buyers would have a great stockpile of material in their data banks, therefore why would they want to buy more images unless they really have too, perhaps that is why sales are dropping, you might say fresh material is needed, yes but not every time, publishers like everybody are trying to save money, so they will re-use a image with a small photoshop alteration especially if it's royalty free, (food for thought).

  59. 14 March 2007 at 03:03 Diane macdonald

    To THE PM. How dare you use this blog to insult professionals who are only trying to help! FYI I have been in this business FULL TIME for 12 years - and you? I do not appreciate your sarcasm and insults to myself and also to Jock Strapp. You obviously did not look very closely at my images as some of them are priced at $2,700 per image for commercial use. Obviously I sell far more of the royalty free images, (sometimes a single image will sell about 10 times in month) accounting for the greater income.

    I have been perfectly honest about my earnings and about who I am and did not expect to be insulted in this manner. I'm sorry that you do not not believe me, but that's your problem. I have a clear conscience.

    Obviously, Alamy is a completely different playing field from what I am used to, and I cannot expect the kind of income I am used to getting for a few hundred images online! That's what I've been trying to find out from professionals on this blog.

    THANKS PENNY for your feedback! I think that when Alamy gets their new search engine up and running we'll see a lot of changes for the better! They have a great concept here. I think that given time this will work!

  60. 14 March 2007 at 07:28 the pm

    #59 Diane macdonald

    Sorry to have hit a nerve,I was not trying to insult youself or Jock, I was just trying to help fellow photographers understand that when the market reaches saturation point sales may slow down, and perhaps the reason for the market reaching this area so quickly. My impression from your first blog #48 was that you were selling all your images for $18 = 1000s of images at royalty free, but now I understand that you do make serious sales in the commercial area, now thats great!

  61. 14 March 2007 at 14:32 Diane macdonald

    Apology accepted! In this business we talk about return per image! You need to know this if you are to be a serious stock photohgrapher and not just an ameteur with a hobby. Return per image is your TOTAL yearly income divided by your TOTAL IMAGES offered - regardless of which ones do or do not sell. When my return per image was $18 I had 700 images online. That made my income for that year around $126,00.If you have to have 7,000 images on Alamy in order to make &126,000 your return per image is only $1.80!!! Hope this clears things up for everyone.

  62. 14 March 2007 at 16:02 the pm

    Thanks Dianne for making it clear, I have near 10,000 images spread between online archives and conventional archives and battle to see $1000 at the end of each year, people may thinking that I am a lousy photographer, I don't think so with direct sales I have 4 photobooks under my belt, 9 hardback covers plus Calenders etc, I had the chance to join Corbis years ago but declined. Kind of makes me wonder why I cannot do as well online like so many?? obviously doing something wrong, maybe photo archives are not my winning point.

  63. 14 March 2007 at 16:47 Diane macdonald

    CORRECTION for #61 & #48!!! Did anyone do the math? I was so busy trying to make a point that I missed out a zero! Divide $126,000 by 700 and you get $180 and not $18, divide 126,000 by 7,000 and you get $18! Sorry! Anyway, the bottom line is what counts in the end!

    Too bad you didn't join Corbis, THE PM. I think the secret to my "success" was getting into the business at the right time and having the right product. Perhaps Alamy is cutting edge with something here and you are all in at the right time! Who knows?

    I worked as a staff photographer at a stock agency for a few years, and developed an intuition about image psychology - the most beautiful pictures in the world may not be stock images. Alamy has thousands and thousands of beautiful images amongst all the junk - but many of them are just that - beautiful images.

    Not only do designers have to wade through all the junk, they have have to wade through all the beautiful pictures to find the stock images.

  64. 14 March 2007 at 17:07 the pm

    I agree with Dianne Macdonald, yes I am also sorry that I did not take the Corbis chance, Yes the most beautiful pictures are not always the most needed or wanted, when dealing directly with publishers I have seen some of my most oustanding images pushed aside for another image that looked average, I guess one should keep putting them online and keep everything technically correct.

  65. 14 March 2007 at 20:13 ronnie

    to the pm.
    I know jock straps pictures... wonderful travel shots... the best I have ever seen. he likes to stay in the background and just take the pictures and sell, sell and sell.
    A further comment to all about sales despite the quantity of images alamy do have, I for one am not complaining about sales, good fees and sales are up so far this last two months, and I have under 2000 images. So alamy, I might complain on some topics but not all! And long may it continue.

  66. 15 March 2007 at 00:56 Dennis

    Jock, Diane, pm, Penny ...

    Thank you for your frank opinions. There is a genuine sense and feeling of community.

    Alamy has a good business model that fills the gap between traditional libraries and RF-only libraries. But now it is time for refinements, define limits and smooth the rough edges. Otherwise, Alamy will end up with "rejects", B-grade images from serious pro's who will submit their best image to a raditional library; and "chancy", snaps and similars from amateurs.

    Only IMHO :-)

  67. 16 March 2007 at 20:37 Penny

    All interesting reading, we are not in this game for small returns, we do this for our yearly earnings, so a lot of hard work is required, so when we hear happiness shouted for one sale per month, it falls on deaf ears, and makes us wonder! I certainly agree with Dennis (66) and hope that they will smooth the rough edges. and keep the pro's happy, because without us, they will struggle.

  68. 16 March 2007 at 22:31 Paul mayall

    It seems Alamy is being blamed for the drop in sales, I am not sure if that is correct. As a new member to Alamy with only a handfull of images on this site I cannot judge Alamy, however I see that Alamy has offered 20% discounts for 5 images or more, now that tells me that Alamy can see the problem and is trying to correct it. As from my experience in selling stock I have noticed a serious drop off over the last 4 months, that is why I have joined Alamy in the hope that they can bring my sales back up, it's early days hopefully in 6 months I might start to see some sales, lets think positive and try to add informative information to this page to help each other, Cheeeers all, Paul.

  69. 18 March 2007 at 19:16 Diane Macdonald

    Right on Penny!
    Who on earth can live off the sale of one image per month? I think Alamy truly is working to make it work for the pros. It's a process, but I think they'll get there. We need to just be patient while it evolves!

    Right on Paul!
    I'm submitting to Alamy because my stock sales dropped in October. It's industry wide. The pros who have been earning a living elsewhere know this.

  70. 18 March 2007 at 22:31 Paul Mayall

    Diane Macdonald says that her Sales dropped in October, yes like most pro stock suppliers, the question is why all of a sudden ?, it seems to be with many archives, has somebody got some inside info? Cheeers All, Paul.

  71. 19 March 2007 at 07:25 Jock strapp

    Thanks to Diane ,ronnie nd Penny for their constructive comments. As most pros appear to have suffered a reduction in sales we have turned to Alamy in an attempt to reverse this trend. Perhaps we need Alamy more than Alamy needs us ! I feel the more traditional libraries have let down most photographers through lack of contact and late payment of reported sales. Perhaps another reason for reduced sales is the sheer volume of images available online. I think Alamy is trying to please everyone, this is not possible. Owing to the large number of images at Alamy an edit is out of the question but one way would be to remove all images that have not sold during the last four years. I know this suggestion might cause some controversy but I'm sure it would benefit Alamy and the professional photographers it represents. As Diane says, what use is one sale per month, a high bottom line is required if we are to 'live' and have sufficient profit to enable us to keep up production.

  72. 19 March 2007 at 08:06 Paul Mayall

    RE 71 Jock Strap), I have recently read somewhere that Getty is intending to return and delete 16 million images they might already be doing what Jock Strap is suggesting, perhaps over the years these images have not been selling so they are getty rid of the clutter, I like the idea, 4 years is a good period of time to test images. However I think that Alamy like most archives, they want the big numbers, therefore we may not see Alamy enforcing such a program until they have something like 20 million images, It would be nice to see some comments from Alamy on Jock Straps idea. Cheeers All, Paul.

  73. 19 March 2007 at 08:30 Jock strapp

    Re Paul(72) Thanks for your kind comments.
    I seem to remember in the dim and distant past that the Tony Stone Library had a masterfile of its most successful images. Not a bad idea, in fact it was extremely successful, for Alamy to consider ie Alamy Gold etc. Just a thought. Such a collection of images may show the amateurs and hobbyists what constitutes a selling image. I have friends who are always trying to win the camera club monthly competition, and then they complain that those images don't sell when placed with Alamy. I try to explain that there is a world of difference between an aesthetically beautiful picture and a commercial stock image.

  74. 19 March 2007 at 20:53 Diane macdonald

    Just received my statement of February sales from my other agency. The trend is still downward, although images in a brand new collection are doing slightly better.

    To answer Paul (#70), I think the reason is the huge glut of images that are now online. Obviously the "wealth" is now shared with a lot more people - including those who are happy to sell an image a month!

    Jock (#73), I too am forever asked to give opinions on images for stock. No one wants to hear the truth, (which is exactly as you descrobed it in your last sentance) so my answer usually falls on deaf ears! Most photographers, amateur and professional, think that their beautiful images are automatically "stock." Everyone is clammering to get in on the action right now. In the past, even the professional portrait types knew how hard it was to get a foot in the door with stock, but it seems everyone is calling and e-mailing me now asking for advice because "they would like to become stock photographers."

  75. 21 March 2007 at 09:01 ronnie

    After my last comment a while ago regarding sales ! They have now stopped and not had a sale for a while. This is not out of the norm, as I find a purge at the beginning and end of the month. I agree with Jock and others regarding the glut of images. Yes its very true we are not in this to win the camera competition, we are professionals here to sell images, pay the bills and get new material, good sellable images not happy snaps. I have been asked by countless amatures over the years ' How can I get into stock' with film it was almost impossible now with digital it's a different ball game. Soon sites will crash with the volume of images, due to the volume of unsellable images.

  76. 21 March 2007 at 10:01 Jock strapp

    Re Diane(74) and ronnie(75)
    Yep, everyone is wanting to be involved with stock. The digital camera has made it possible and with online libraries not editing the web is now full of images that would not have been accepted if produced on film.
    Long gone are the days when the skills required to understand a film's reponse to colour correction filters and when to use a polarizing filter and assess its effect. And, we had to contend with our old friend (enemy) reciprocity failure. By the way, this is not a medical condition and should not be confused with heart failure which usually occurs after patiently waiting for the opportune moment onlt o have a hearse appear in the scene, and it was 35Celsius.
    Sales have increased to 24 so far this month. An improvement but not quite up to averages as yet.
    Hope sales are good for every Alamy professional.

  77. 21 March 2007 at 10:09 Paul Mayall

    RE:75 ronnie
    How can I get into stock' with film it was almost impossible now with digital it's a different ball game. Soon sites will crash with the volume of images, due to the volume of unsellable images.

    I would have to agree, it all most seems that the only qualification needed today to supply stock images is a digital camera at 6mp or higher and some computer experience also the time to flood the market with not so saleable images therefore making it very hard for Pro Photographers to live and for picture searches to find what they require, I know that it sounds like a wynge especially to the novices but it's true. So what can be done about it to give the pro stock suppliers a chance? perhaps responible agency's might start selecting saleable pro images and put them into a class 1 area and the rest goes into class 2, just a idea, however I believe that this may happen if the picture buyers start to complain. It would be a hell of a job for the agency but something has to be done, Cheeeers all, Paul.

  78. 21 March 2007 at 20:56 Dennis

    Alamy should provide facilities to rank contributors by individual buyers. Say 0 (don't want to see) to 99 (highest). Search results can be tailored for each buyer with images from higher buyer-ranked contributors appearing higher up the list.

    Contributor should have the choice not to have their images accessible by buyers with whom they may have issues of late, none payment or distrust.

  79. 23 March 2007 at 10:30 Philippe

    Re nº 46, 74 sales in 13 years with 3600 pics online....dear, dear. I can't believe one can be happy with that sort of return... as a professional photographer, that is. I would try another outfit if I were you or perhaps look more closely at my material to find the reason why it doesn't sell. I sincerely hope it gets better for you.

  80. 01 May 2007 at 10:16 John

    Reading these comments, I must be doing fairly well with under 500 images. My concern at the moment is with accounting. I'm not sure why all the cleared balance is not being paid when it's well over the payment threshold, instead some is being carried forward to the next month. Anybody else experienced this?

  81. 20 June 2007 at 23:50 aussie

    interesting to read all the income information provided here, I have always been curious as to how other contributors fare. seems only fair therefore that I share my own alamy experience. I have been a contributor for the past 3 or 4 years gradually increasing my collection up to its current level of 12000. I have so far sold for 160,000 USD so have an average of over 10 USD per image, hard to work out because of the gradual ramp up of images... On average I sell for about 4000 USD per month give or take a 1000.
    I am also with a "larger" library where I have only 700 images, with this library my income is about 2 -3 times that of alamy which gives you some idea of their established customer base. And for all you who complain about the number of images at alamy this "larger" library has 80 million images!
    So my 700 odd are certainly a very small fish a very large pond. I have however noticed a down turn with both libraries of about 40% in the last couple of years. Microstock? I am a travel photographer by the way. Congratulations to alamy on all their and our success!

  82. 27 June 2007 at 17:34 Jock strapp

    Re No81 Cheers cobber(hope you are Australian)and thanks aussie for your very interesting facts.

    You are certainly doing quite well. I have been with Alamy approx. two and a half years and acheived a current sales total of USD108300 with 4100 images. My sales seem to be increasing, last months sales were USD8000 and this month USD5000, give or take a few dollars. Whether this level can be maintained is questionable. I submit on a regular basis, trying only to submit what I consider to be saleable images. Like you aussie my work is 99.9% travel, but with the ever diminishing fees currently being acheived and the escalating cost of travelling I wonder how much longer travel photography can remain commercially viable.





  83. 04 February 2008 at 21:24 Soren breiting

    Thanks for the honest contributions - and sorry to read most of the posts so late. But I have a few things to add that might be helpful for the future success of stock photographers that take action if Alamy makes it possible.

    As we all know – and what is really well documented by some of the professional contributions to this string – the income from stock is a numbers game, but it is also a game of hitting the needed type of pictures at the right time (Thanks Diane Macdonald to emphasize that.)

    The third factor is to be found.
    Alamy is now well found for a few top keywords like ‘stock photography’ and ‘stock photos’ if a customer search in Google.

    This is fine, but Alamy needs to show up for thousands of longer keywords too, the so called long tail keywords, like a search in Google as

    Hi res stock photo of sheep with lamb in Mongolia

    People who don’t know Alamy and who might not be so used to search for stock photos might use a seach engine to find the right kind of picture. There is an enormous potential to get in touch with new clients and to better compete with the cheap agencies by being much more open for that kind of searches.

    Just for the first two days of this month people had used more than 2.000 different keywords to find my own main photo site. So, can you imagine how big a potential we should have for Alamy for the benefit of all us photographers?

    There will be a number of technicalities to obtain that, and that isn’t for this post, but I will just mention that one main thing is to have a proper amount of relevant focused text on all possible searched web pages. And to make sure that all dynamic pages are constantly being indexed.

    Acclaimimages , see e.g. http://www.acclaimimages.com/search_terms/cat.html is to my knowledge one of the best performing agencies in that respect even if they are using but a little text on each page now ( I am not associated with them in any way).

    The other thing that would help is an ability to customize the Alamy search box we all have available to limit the search for just our own pictures. It would help a lot, if we could add a headline, and say 300 words of text to make it unique from each of us.

    (Just to follow the honest style of the previous posts I can add that I am only part time in stock photography, but has been that in around 30 years and have sold my pictures in small quantities to most countries ‘except countries south of Sahara’. I have a few stock photos in Alamy and at an older well performing international stock agency and in a Danish picture agency as well).

    Thanks for reading.

    Soren Breiting
    Denmark

  84. 06 March 2008 at 15:30 Joejoe

    Acclaim Images doesn´t perform well. With 200,000 images they sell images for 30,000$ per month thats poor! They earn mony with google ads on their site.

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