John Mitchell Posted May 12, 2017 Author Share Posted May 12, 2017 And I thought that April was the cruellest month -- only one sale (a PU) showing on the board so far this month. But it is only the 9th... If your misery needs company, I'll throw myself in. After great first three months (average 10 sales, $800+), my April sale dropped to two PUs for $30! Now this is almost half way through May, I have ONE sale, for $25. Views and zooms are consistently good, total CTR over 0.9 four months in a row. I wonder what I did to get into Alamy's dog house? This is WAY beyond normal fluctuation. Similar pattern here. However, an OK (by today's standards) direct sale trickled in today, so I guess it's not time to panic just yet. Hopefully, we're just seeing a spring slump, not the beginnings of another new normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 Had a $73 sale today and an iPhone sale yesterday. Thanks Alamy! ;-) wim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arletta Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Oh how I wish I had the reason to write more in positives than beeing negative... This year is a disaster so far. Views and zooms are ok, much better than ever before, but it doesn't pay my bills. Sales are occassional, which is not normal for me. They used to be regular I feel like my collection stuck in some black hole where clients can get no in and if they do, it's just an accident. Not motivating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Oh how I wish I had the reason to write more in positives than beeing negative... This year is a disaster so far. Views and zooms are ok, much better than ever before, but it doesn't pay my bills. Sales are occassional, which is not normal for me. They used to be regular I feel like my collection stuck in some black hole where clients can get no in and if they do, it's just an accident. Not motivating. I feel the same way Arletta. I think its a combination of the new algorithm and some businesses going elsewhere for their images. Add to that the influx of smaller agents distributing their images through Alamy and it suddenly becomes much harder for the likes of you and me to see regular sales. You're right, it is hard to stay motivated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stipe Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Unfortunately, I think you're absolutely right! I think its a combination of the new algorithm and some businesses going elsewhere for their images. Add to that the influx of smaller agents distributing their images through Alamy and it suddenly becomes much harder for the likes of you and me to see regular sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 13, 2017 Author Share Posted May 13, 2017 Unfortunately, I think you're absolutely right! I think its a combination of the new algorithm and some businesses going elsewhere for their images. Add to that the influx of smaller agents distributing their images through Alamy and it suddenly becomes much harder for the likes of you and me to see regular sales. Yes, it looks like a whole new ballgame. Time to put the thinking caps back on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickfly Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Disaster time, CTR through the floor, non relevant images beating mine to page one... time to give up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 13, 2017 Author Share Posted May 13, 2017 Disaster time, CTR through the floor, non relevant images beating mine to page one... time to give up? Do you blame "discoverability" -- i.e. people packing images with too many keywords / tags? P.S. I should add that I'm not noticing the irrelevant images phenomenon -- at least it doesn't seem to be a big problem -- with my collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Richmond Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Pretty good so far. 6 sales in to date for reasonable money, zooms doing well, CTR well above the Alamy average. Because a lot of my stuff is seasonal I think I'm benefitting from the 1000+ shots I uploaded last year. Their time has come round. Now, if only some of those elusive PU sales would drop in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpics Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Had a $100 sale on the second on May but it was cancelled and turned into a $40 one. Not a happy bunny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kuta Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Disaster time, CTR through the floor, non relevant images beating mine to page one... time to give up? Do you blame "discoverability" -- i.e. people packing images with too many keywords / tags? P.S. I should add that I'm not noticing the irrelevant images phenomenon -- at least it doesn't seem to be a big problem -- with my collection. I concluded early on that "discoverability" was irrelevant and haven't tried to "improve" mine. In real-world searches on my admittedly modest number of subjects, I rank very well, at least as well as before AIM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christian58 Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 Pumping in lots of irrelevant keywords just to gain discoverabillity is not a good idea. Search placement on the contrary is everything. Having said that its very slow. I also believe its got to do with what kind of buyers an agency can attract. I joined another trad agency 6 months back, very specialized in my genre and they have sold more in these 6 months then Ive done here during 5 years!!. Fair enough I have a much bigger portfolo there but still its horses for courses, specialized agency or sort of run of the mill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 You could call it slow, but that implies some kind of movement. Sales have dropped by over 50% this year, none so far this month. I was getting ten to twelve sales per month last year. This year has just died. I can't see the point in revisiting my portfolio in response to the new AIM or search algorithm when we barely understand it, and there is no guarantee of rewards, let alone improved rewards. It seems the game is no longer worth the candle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabbro Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 After a little whining last week, two fair priced sales dropped in over the weekend. So they said, " Squeaking wheels get the grease". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickfly Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Disaster time, CTR through the floor, non relevant images beating mine to page one... time to give up? Do you blame "discoverability" -- i.e. people packing images with too many keywords / tags? P.S. I should add that I'm not noticing the irrelevant images phenomenon -- at least it doesn't seem to be a big problem -- with my collection. I'm not sure John. I started to go through my legacy images and 'get green' when they first introduced the new AIM by trying to maximise the keywords, and, because captions on general stock pictures weren't important before, I also tried to improve my older captions, BUT, I have found the AIM to be clunky, slow and hard on my eyes and time, so, I have almost given up bothering. I will have more time in winter to re-start the tedious work of checking keywords captions etc, as I know some of my earlier subs were very badly keyworded! I won't actually give up, and in fact I will try even harder to improve my images (which might be the real problem) when I have more time to invest. A new RX100 MK3 is on it's way to me to improve my stock volume, and a drone is waiting to be collected, with a view to going commercial when, and if, I can afford the necessary qualification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Very slow May. One sale. Zooms trickling in, one every few days. I'm not used to seeing it this slow. I often get a clump of zooms every week, and usually 4-7 sales a month. Disheartening. Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Woods Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 I too am having a grim May. After four bumper months, May is really poor. Just as I was about to go and put down the deposit on my Aston Martin. June is usually pretty good for me, so we'll see next month. Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabbro Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Another sale this morning. So whining DOES work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Zooms are at an all-time high and a sale popped in this morning - PU so nothing to get excited about, but I'm hoping the zooms where mine were the only images zoomed mean I'll see a good run of sales this summer. Still battling vertigo (since November) so nothing new to upload, have to work on getting more older images online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Still slow, only 4 sales this month including two distributor leases, but a $199 direct sale arrived today. Things looking a tad better ( assuming no refund tomorrow...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 Another sale this morning. So whining DOES work! That's good to hear. Still Deadsville here, but I'll keep whining... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Up to a whopping two sales for the month....pretty much just crickets chirping in my May Summary of Sales report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Myford Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Only activity this month has been the refund of April's sale. So not so much slow, more going in reverse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
York Photographer Posted May 16, 2017 Share Posted May 16, 2017 On par volume wise, but much better averages after opting out of Newspapers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 To be fair all the sales I have had here are files I have on microstock sites. Since I have been uploading exclusive images here I have not sold any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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