Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Novel Use = Nominal Payment. Alamy's low fee system

It was six years ago when I signed up with Alamy, the stock photography website.

I remember not too long afterwards it passed the 10million figure for images available to buy. If you're reading this anytime after April 2013 Alamy will have passed the 40million mark).

Shortly after signing up I sold a photo, of a black pug to be used on the cover of a 1,000 print-run calendar in Japan, for just over $600 USD.

One of the most recent images I have sold - shown here - was sold under the Novel Use scheme. For $1 USD.

Alamy markets itself on its great rates for photographers - it used to be 60per cent royalty rate in the photographers favour but is now 50per cent. But some hidden charges (such as Alamy Distribution Commission*) mean you never see the payment you're expecting after they take their cut.

So what is Novel Use?

Alamy themselves explain it like this:


We use the Novel Use collection when we are entering into deals that require a high degree of flexibility and are usually a departure from our core business. However, sometimes we may also work with familiar customers but in new and different ways as their businesses evolve.
If this all sounds very vague, I'm afraid that is intentional because the entire scope for Novel Use sales is impossible to define. New revenue opportunities present themselves as emerging businesses find a need for imagery and as technology continues to develop.
Our previous communications on Novel Use include the line below; your reaction to which should be the key driver behind your decision to sign up or not.
If you sign up to the Novel Use scheme you are giving Alamy permission to sell your images at any price and by any method we feel is appropriate.


Some of Alamy's contributors have discussed Novel Use on its own forums:

Frankfitz said in April 2012
'I recently withdrew from the Novel use scheme as it is simply not worth it. I had a 0.50 cents sale for an image which does not even cover the cost of charging a camera battery. Neither did it make any contribution to the other costs associated with getting to a location. That sort of very low fee is insulting to the professionalism of both photographers and Alamy and neither party can make any reasonable reuturn. Is it not time to scrap the Novel use scheme as the only people who benefit are buyers? Moreover, the amount of information supplied for a Novel use sale is derisory so photographers cannot be assured that their images are not being used by organisations which they may have ethical or moral objections.' 

Pkphotos said in reply:
'if you want to operate as a charity by all means opt in to novel use. Otherwise it has no place as a sales option on alamy.'

For my own $1 image, I would love to know how it was used. So if anyone sees it on a billboard, postcard or sticker, let me know.

*Alamy Distribution Commission is a further 15-20per cent charge. As far as I can tell, it does not apply to Novel Use.
** Signing up for Novel Use is optional for all contributors. Withdrawal can be done every April. Don't ask me why.

Monday, April 01, 2013

A very quick guide on how to move a website name from one blog to another

WWW.COM.CO.UK.NET

Quick guide this.

It's because Posterous is closing that some of you may have to move your lovely domain name from there to a new blog. Possible new destinations are Wordpress (best found by searching for 'wordpress blog') or Blogger.

This is how to switch your .com or .co.uk etc domains from Posterous to Wordpress (other switches should be similar):

In Wordpress go to Dashboard > Store > domains 

Click on: Add a domain (which you already own). This costs 13 dollars.

Then log on to the website where you registered your domain (this will be 123reg, GoDaddy etc).

Look for the DNS link, click on it and change the nameserevers boxers (there will probably be two of them) to: NS1.WORDPRESS.COM and NS2.WORDPRESS.COM 

And you should be done (apart from maybe having to do a save in Wordpress).

Bye and apologies for being so dull.