No Sales. What can be the issue?

[KODAKovic]

Hi all,

i became an Alamy contributor since Feb 2016, now i've 3500 pics, 10700 views , 17 zooms but no... sales!

While i'm trying uploading different topics in quantity , what do you suggest me to focus on? Better keywording, Better quality, Wait 1 year to start seeing sales?

 

What else?

Thanks in advance

[KODAKovic]

Following some advices, i also managed to put some fashion pics to my secondary pseudo to increase ranking.

[Joseph Clemson]

Five or six months is a relatively short time to make sales here as buyers often have long lead times. Your keywords are very often not relevant to the image and look to be identical from one image to the next in some cases. Some images look under-exposed on my monitor, but others may be better placed to comment on this.

 

I'm amazed that you've managed to get 3500 image up in the short time you've been here. I find that by the time I process the image and caption and keyword my images carefully and thoroughly, I am lucky to get 10-15 acceptable images in a day.

[spacecadet]

Florence, Venice and Valencia are three of the most over-catered subjects you could choose. I have had 174 images of Venice up since 2010 with one sale. However I have one sale out of 49 in Treviso. Get out of town or find unusual subjects. I have comparatively few London images, proportionally quite a few sales, but not of tourist sites.

Not many of your images actually illustrate something. You need variety. And yes, you have a lot of clogged shadows.

[NYCat]

More on keywords. Just looking quickly I noticed FWAA8W because there is a woman looking at the wine bottles and I think images that include a person doing something are more salable. Yet you do not have woman or person in your keywords.

 

Paulette

[fotoDogue]

I don't understand why photographers so often use the word "Beautiful" in their keywords.  Don't we all think our images are beautiful?
After all, beauty is subjective and it seems like a waste of keyword characters. Wouldn't it be better to use that limited space to describe the photo more accurately?

[MariaJ]

You've received some valuable constructive comments about keywording, that's the first thing I would work on with your existing images. 

 

But for future uploads, perhaps try to focus less on the quantity of images, and to be more selective in the images that are chosen to be uploaded.  Choose only the best ones from a particular shoot. Too many similars can hurt your rankings, and also some images within a shoot are just better than others.  Think about which ones would be most likely to chosen by a customer to illustrate an article, etc., and don't include ones that aren't good illustrations of whatever you're trying to cover.  e.g. I think G1EC6Y and G1EC4A don't really capture the subject well, and it's a bit unclear as to what the subject is.

 

Maria

[AlessandraRC]

I don't understand why photographers so often use the word "Beautiful" in their keywords.  Don't we all think our images are beautiful?

After all, beauty is subjective and it seems like a waste of keyword characters. Wouldn't it be better to use that limited space to describe the photo more accurately?

 

 

I have been thinking about that also and I don't think I have used that word lately. The same goes for "delicious". Not sure how a picture can be delicious. Or if someone will look for a non-delicious cake. 

 

As for the original question, I don't know the answer for. I have been around a little longer (Dec 2015), have 1/10 the number of images, 13 zooms, no sales.  Have you checked in Alamy measures if people are looking for keywords that are present in your "most important keywords" field? Checking that has enlightened me a little.  

[Ed Rooney]

 

I don't understand why photographers so often use the word "Beautiful" in their keywords.  Don't we all think our images are beautiful?

After all, beauty is subjective and it seems like a waste of keyword characters. Wouldn't it be better to use that limited space to describe the photo more accurately?

 

 

I have been thinking about that also and I don't think I have used that word lately. The same goes for "delicious". Not sure how a picture can be delicious. Or if someone will look for a non-delicious cake. 

 

As for the original question, I don't know the answer for. I have been around a little longer (Dec 2015), have 1/10 the number of images, 13 zooms, no sales.  Have you checked in Alamy measures if people are looking for keywords that are present in your "most important keywords" field? Checking that has enlightened me a little.  

 

 

 

Spot on. Subjective terms should mostly be avoided. About 110 years ago there was a detective on TV who used to say, "Just the facts, Mam." 

[fotoDogue]

Spot on. Subjective terms should mostly be avoided. About 110 years ago there was a detective on TV who used to say, "Just the facts, Mam." 

 

 

Whenever I see a photo captioned "a beautiful woman" I pause for a moment and wonder is this woman truly beautiful? For some, she may be. For others, not so much.

 

For what it's worth, "Beautiful Woman" returned over 2 million results. "Ugly woman" only returned about 2500.

Just plain "Woman" returned nearly 7 million results.

[Ed Rooney]

I'm not sure these writers did a lot of keywording, but here you go:  

 

“Adjectives are frequently the greatest enemy of the substantive.”

– Voltaire

 

“[i was taught] to distrust adjectives as I would later learn to distrust certain people in certain situations.”

– Ernest Hemingway

[Alexandre Fagundes]

 

Spot on. Subjective terms should mostly be avoided. About 110 years ago there was a detective on TV who used to say, "Just the facts, Mam."

 

Whenever I see a photo captioned "a beautiful woman" I pause for a moment and wonder is this woman truly beautiful? For some, she may be. For others, not so much.

 

For what it's worth, "Beautiful Woman" returned over 2 million results. "Ugly woman" only returned about 2500.

Just plain "Woman" returned nearly 7 million results.

There you go.

I will focus on ugly people pictures and be rich!

[Alexandre Fagundes]

Hi all,

i became an Alamy contributor since Feb 2016, now i've 3500 pics, 10700 views , 17 zooms but no... sales!

While i'm trying uploading different topics in quantity , what do you suggest me to focus on? Better keywording, Better quality, Wait 1 year to start seeing sales?

 

What else?

Thanks in advance

Hi I have 3290 views and 18 zooms, getting close to 4000 images.

If you have 10000 views and 17 zooms (3 times more views than I have, but the same amount of zooms)

It might mean that you have some misleading keywords or uninteresting images so people view your images, but dont zoom (or buy).

I didnt look at your portfolio yet, sorry, but for the comments of the others seems like you should take a look at your keywords first.

[Gruffydd]

Better keywords, yes. And better quality - by which I mean better lighting, exposure and composition, but also being more selective of the subjects you shoot and of the images you choose to upload.

 

I think your earlier uploads were better than your most recent stuff - perhaps you have sacrificed quality in an effort to get a bigger portfolio.

 

It's only a 'numbers game' as far as making decent amounts of money. Quality will always trump size!

[Gruffydd]

I don't understand why people keep saying that quantity doesn't matter  Of course it matters! 

I used to be a hardcore wildlife photographer. By starting to shoot also flora and landscapes - and in a later stage also travel (landmarks & cityscapes) - I greatly expanded my archive ........ and my sales. The more subjects you cover, the more sales. To me, that's just plain logic 

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

But you didn't expand your archive at the expense of quality, and I think that is at the heart of the OP's question. He has been a member since February and has four times as many images as me but isn't making any sales. Why is that?

[Gruffydd]

 

 

I don't understand why people keep saying that quantity doesn't matter Of course it matters!

I used to be a hardcore wildlife photographer. By starting to shoot also flora and landscapes - and in a later stage also travel (landmarks & cityscapes) - I greatly expanded my archive ........ and my sales. The more subjects you cover, the more sales. To me, that's just plain logic

 

Cheers,

Philippe

But you didn't expand your archive at the expense of quality, and I think that is at the heart of the OP's question. He has been a member since February and has four times as many images as me but isn't making any sales. Why is that?

 

Depends on what he has already in his archive. I started right away with 15,000 images and add 20-80 images per day (depending on the research I have to do). Adding new work doesn't necessarily mean adding recently shot images. It takes time to caption and keyword "old" stock according to Alamy's requirements. But - of course - there are photographers who force themselves to shoot a certain number of images on a daily or weekly basis in order to build as quickly as possible a large archive from scratch. Those pictures usually look like hastily taken snapshots done without much thought and with little or no post-processing (not to mention poor captions and keywords done without any decent research). No wonder those images sell badly because they can't compete with what's already on-line ...... for the same price

A beginning stock photographer should look at Alamy's archive and do a search for subjects he/she covers. And then ask the very important question - "If I were a customer, which image would I buy? My own?" If not - because you find way better ones - then one shouldn't wonder why their sales suck

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

 

I agree, Philippe!

[Jill Morgan]

Numbers are important as long as the images are quality, well processed, properly keyworded and have a market.  It's numbers for the sake of numbers that can actually bring your sales and zooms down by lowering your CTR due to thousands of views of irrelevant, badly keyworded and poorly processed images. I used to submit more than necessary and felt compelled to go out and shoot something.  Now I just shoot when there is something worthwhile and have learned to cull out more than I did before.

 

The dark images may be due to a poorly calibrated monitor.  My first submissions were all dark until I switched from using a TV to a calibrated monitor.  Although bringing out shadows could fix many of them.

 

Jill

[RedSnapper]

Spot on. Subjective terms should mostly be avoided

Why?

 

1300 searches last year include the word 'beautiful'

 

km

[KODAKovic]

Thanks all for the kind advices

I don't have a calibrated monitor, this is one thing i have to do quickly. My images are JPGs OOC processed with VSCO LR presets which enhanced dark areas and contrast.

I love the final effect but i didn't consider most whites are gone so they're not suitable for stock actually.

For keywording / quantity i agree with your advices, i focused on quantity without considering all the right things you said, all correct.

I don't know really how it's possible to manage 100k+ pics with PP , keywording, uploading , move all keywords from LR fields to Alamy fields. Your workflow is wonderful for my skills.

My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset, i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data.

[Jill Morgan]

Thanks all for the kind advices

I don't have a calibrated monitor, this is one thing i have to do quickly. My images are JPGs OOC processed with VSCO LR presets which enhanced dark areas and contrast.

I love the final effect but i didn't consider most whites are gone so they're not suitable for stock actually.

For keywording / quantity i agree with your advices, i focused on quantity without considering all the right things you said, all correct.

I don't know really how it's possible to manage 100k+ pics with PP , keywording, uploading , move all keywords from LR fields to Alamy fields. Your workflow is wonderful for my skills.

My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset, i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data.

 

 

RAW doesn't use up that much and if you don't want them, shoot in RAW, do your PP in RAW then convert to a JPG.  You could simply delete the RAW image if you so wanted to but would end up with a much better JPG than out of camera.

 

I don't use presets as every image is different, so outside of the standard ""Remove CA" and lens adjustments, each image is done individually.

 

If you can't invest the time to upload quality images, then you will probably have a difficult time competing in the almost 80 million image sea that is Alamy.

 

Jill

[spacecadet]

My RAWs are only actually about four times the size of jpegs. Lightroom is much faster for batch processing . Most people use a basic import preset which saves a lot of time.

[Betty LaRue]

 

Thanks all for the kind advices

I don't have a calibrated monitor, this is one thing i have to do quickly. My images are JPGs OOC processed with VSCO LR presets which enhanced dark areas and contrast.

I love the final effect but i didn't consider most whites are gone so they're not suitable for stock actually.

For keywording / quantity i agree with your advices, i focused on quantity without considering all the right things you said, all correct.

I don't know really how it's possible to manage 100k+ pics with PP , keywording, uploading , move all keywords from LR fields to Alamy fields. Your workflow is wonderful for my skills.

My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset, i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data.

 

 

 

RAW doesn't use up that much and if you don't want them, shoot in RAW, do your PP in RAW then convert to a JPG.  You could simply delete the RAW image if you so wanted to but would end up with a much better JPG than out of camera.

 

I don't use presets as every image is different, so outside of the standard ""Remove CA" and lens adjustments, each image is done individually.

 

If you can't invest the time to upload quality images, then you will probably have a difficult time competing in the almost 80 million image sea that is Alamy.

 

Jill

I echo what Jill said. The road you are taking is that you have thousands of poorly shot and developed images on sale that won't sell, that is if they ever could be found because of the bad keywording.

Instead of the generally accepted one sale a month per 1000 images, you will do well to have one sale a month for 5000 images.

 

You seem to be determined to add images at an unreasonable speed, refuse to shoot raw, refuse to give any individual attention to each image, and refuse to believe that 100 carefully shot, developed and keyworded images is worth 1000 of what you are presently uploading.

The people here giving you advice are doing their level best to guide you in the correct way of doing stock, in spite of your being a competitor. Continuing on the way you are doing it, you could have 10,000 images and be fortunate to make a handful of sales a year.

Take a look at Philippe's portfolio. He has thousands of images, but he's added those over years. They are beautiful images that have had careful attention. If you had 3500 of his images in your portfolio, you'd already be seeing enough sales to make you happy.

Betty

[John Mitchell]

After years of going RAW, I experimented recently with JPEG shooting. It didn't take me long to go back to RAW.

 

Today's cameras can produce excellent JPEGs, but they are no substitute for having RAW files to work with. I also found that shooting JPEG didn't really save me much time. RAW processing doesn't take very long for most images. Shooting RAW+JPEG can also be a workable option. I do this in some instances.

 

We now live in a quantity and speed-obsessed world. Time to slow down IMO. There's already too much of just about everything imaginable out there.

[Alexandre Fagundes]

Thanks all for the kind advices

I don't have a calibrated monitor, this is one thing i have to do quickly. My images are JPGs OOC processed with VSCO LR presets which enhanced dark areas and contrast.

I love the final effect but i didn't consider most whites are gone so they're not suitable for stock actually.

For keywording / quantity i agree with your advices, i focused on quantity without considering all the right things you said, all correct.

I don't know really how it's possible to manage 100k+ pics with PP , keywording, uploading , move all keywords from LR fields to Alamy fields. Your workflow is wonderful for my skills.

My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset, i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data.

Sorry Kodakovic, but this is a professional business for the best photographers so you need to do your best (you are competing against millions of images).

That means a good camera, RAW files and a good processing software.

Yes, you will need to invest time and have tons of HD space not to mention SD/CF cards in your camera to fit the extra memory.

And besides that lots of time studying and perfecting your processing skills.

[KODAKovic]

If i look at "your images" stats let's say "last month" i could estimate 85% of my images are "properly" viewed.

I mean, they're viewed for the right keywords, keywords which well describe that image.

As some of us said, i need to work btw on keywording since there are many pics on my port which are too quickly batch edited with similar captions or keywords.

Therefore, 10k views are a lot . For i.e. i've 270 views last week for the keywords "poor children" which are two words i've used for quite all my Africa last trip.

Most of my Africa images describe children doing something where "poverty" is the main key to read the image, so i batch edited my images adding "poor children". Is it a bad approach?

For RAW+JPGs since i shoot on Fuji there's a strong debate on the forums because OOC images have properly WB, exposure, gorgeous film simulations applied and it's not easy to prefer the RAW approach while camera does a fantastic job in seconds, 90% without any need of PP.

Some of my images are dark because i re-applied a LR filter after an in-camera film simulation preset and that enhanced too much dark areas and overall contrast.

I probably need tweaking my shooting workflow also.

I'm positive, so after your precious advices i believe working better on keywording and PP could lead quickly on some sales by the end of the year. I'll also try to better select my images, more carefully without similars and only the quality images.