Quote from: Dook on November 03, 2014, 08:25

The same like the others - keywords. Just accept the keywords brought in with IPTC. Now you have time consuming process, which is why I haven't uploaded half of my portfolio yet.
I'm happy that you recognized the problem. If you implement it right your collection will grow significantly.

If you want Alamy to be like every other microstock site expect them to compete on price just like all the other microstock sites.  I for one would like to see Alamy continue as something different.  If spending a few seconds arranging your most relevant keywords means that you can't make money then my guess is your images aren't worth uploading in the first place.

Who are you to tell me that my images are not worth uploading?
I expressed my opinion.
Just give me a break, go quote somebody else.

Quote from: Dook on November 03, 2014, 08:59

Quote from: tickstock on November 03, 2014, 08:36

Quote from: Dook on November 03, 2014, 08:25

The same like the others - keywords. Just accept the keywords brought in with IPTC. Now you have time consuming process, which is why I haven't uploaded half of my portfolio yet.
I'm happy that you recognized the problem. If you implement it right your collection will grow significantly.

If you want Alamy to be like every other microstock site expect them to compete on price just like all the other microstock sites.  I for one would like to see Alamy continue as something different.  If spending a few seconds arranging your most relevant keywords means that you can't make money then my guess is your images aren't worth uploading in the first place.

Who are you to tell me that my images are not worth uploading?
I expressed my opinion.
Just give me a break, go quote somebody else.

You said you haven't uploaded because of having to do some extra work keywording.  If that little bit of extra work (so that your images show up in the relevant searches) discourages you from uploading then it seems to me like your images probably aren't worth uploading in the first place.  If they are going to sell then it's worth the time and effort if they aren't going to sell then it's not.

It is not little bit of extra work for me. That's what I think and the thread is started by Alamy asking us what we think about the matter.

Batch assignment of photo info - how many people, whether a photograph, digitally modified, type of license, that sort of thing on the last page - would be a big help, so we don't have to do it for each similar image individually.

Correctly reading IPTC info also would be good - now it often doesn't read in the titles or puts them in the description field instead.

Change the essential keywords to a number rather than character count - e.g., first 5 or 8 keywords rather than 50 characters - and either take the first few automatically and/or display them all and allow the essential ones to be chosen easily, either drag and drop or just by a click.

Thanks for asking and please ignore the squabbling by our colleagues.

Stop all these keywords categories
Commas between keywords for multi words keywords
Ftp for everybody
An upload system like the Photodune one (all by ftp included the releases)

+ eps - vector eps is old > pdf

Dook, from the last couple of threads, I understand he likes to insult people for the sake of argument. ShadySue and UnclePete will agree.

From my 10+ sales I had last month 90% were under $10.

My average is $31 NET. I would prefer to sell fewer for more. I only have RM at Alamy.

One of the strongest collections in the past for alamy was travel photography. Now, at least for the most known places you can find great images on micro.

And when you have an image which nobody else has - do you want to sell that for SS prices ? Suppose the image is not something which is likely to sell in volume.

allowing to mark  images as "RF + no release available" would be good.

No thanks. Most editorial content does not sell in the sorts of numbers which justify RF from the artists perspective IMO. RF is for images which sell often. Micro stock and subs makes no sense for occasional sellers which, nevertheless, have value.

If a picture is only likely to sell occasionally then RF pricing (especially micro and subsciption) is not sustainable IMO. And editorial is not typically a volume model. Also - RM allows photographers to impose restrictions on use.

I agree with keeping the keyword tiers. It's one of the best things alamy has despite the work it requires. At least we can choose the most relevant ones and limit the spam.

I agree with this. I think it gives Alamy a better opportunity to rank what is most important. I wish it were the norm.

Vectors... Or did that happen already?

yeah, vectors -also ftp will be a nice touch too.

Quote from: StockPhotosArt on November 03, 2014, 08:54

One of the strongest collections in the past for alamy was travel photography. Now, at least for the most known places you can find great images on micro.

And when you have an image which nobody else has - do you want to sell that for SS prices ? Suppose the image is not something which is likely to sell in volume.

Those type of images are very rare nowadays. But sure, if it's something unique that has a potential for a huge commercial sale than putting it as RM on alamy is a solution.

But the most probable thing to happen is for you to have a distributor sale for certain markets that will give you peanuts because miraculously all sales for that market are 1/8 of page in an educational book for 5.000 copies...  And a 90% discount on top of that...

Since alamy doesn't have premium collections to protect those unique images "your" unique image receives the same treatment as a photo of Big Ben on cloudy day.

In 2013 my averaqe sale was around $33 (my cut). In 2008 it was $109. This year I believe it will be lower than 2013 and despite being my worst year (except 2007) in terms of incomes and I've been more than once in the top 500 of contributors.

Considering that most images sell on alamy once, with few exceptions, and that on SS it will sell multiple times including "on demand" and "single downloads" after sometime, you may earn more on SS (plus other micros) than on alamy alone on some images. Even in what I thought was alamy's forte.

I still upload to alamy and don't plan on giving up despite I'm terribly unmotivated because I like the agency (possibly the fairest of all I contribute to) and it still represents a large portion of my income. But I'm having more and more problems understanding the difference between markets in the stock industry.

Quote from: bunhill on November 03, 2014, 12:29

And when you have an image which nobody else has - do you want to sell that for SS prices ? Suppose the image is not something which is likely to sell in volume.

Those type of images are very rare nowadays.

I don't think that they need to be. I think we have the opportunity to predict editorial trends - i.e. the things which are going to be a story sooner or later. And the microstocks are rubbish for that sort of specific content.

Eg. I've got one image which has done 7 RM sales because the company involved keeps trending. I am not going to pretend that this is my typical score rate --- but I took the picture based on a hunch and because I could see in my mind what picture would work - the same as I might place a bet or buy a stock ... and I think if I was less lazy and applied myself better I would be coming up with more of those.

Those 7 RM sales would not have bought me lunch on microstock RF editorial. Especially considering that some of those sales were repeat usages which I would not have been paid for.

Dook, from the last couple of threads, I understand he likes to insult people for the sake of argument. ShadySue and UnclePete will agree.

Thank you for your support.

Dear Alamy,

whatever you'll change after this thread I want you to know that I really appreciate your move, your interest in what your contributors want. This is unusual and you're doing that not first time. For me you are the only one (+ SS edited mine) honest and trust worth agency that respects authors.
Keep it going and I wish you (us) all the best! You rule!

Agree!

Keywording/titleing on Alamy is one of the reasons I often left already approved images for a week or two not preparing them for sale. It's too complicated to separate keywords in to three fields. I like Zazzle at this point - you just select and click 10 keywords/phrases from all bunch and they automatically became essentials. You can unselect and change them later. Beside this the system should read and understand phrases from IPTC.

Also, the system don't read IPTC titles- they somewhere disappear. I edit batch on ACDSee and maybe I should put a title on Headline or Description fields, but then other agencies don't see or don't understand..

I have no reproofs to uplaoding system, but would very appreciate FTP.

Thanks a lot and all the best!

The most important change is to reject only bad pictures, not whole batch of submit images. All other agencies work in this order. Don't waste yours and our time, please!