In need of motivation bigtime

[Ace]

Firstly sorry for the boring negative post i am about to write.

 

Started growing my Alamy portfolio just over 3 years ago.

Last year had built up to 10/12 sales per month.

Averaged 6,000 monthly view figure and 30 monthly zooms

So far this year,

Monthly average views 1500 - 2,000

Monthly zooms 3

 

Hence sales less in number this year so far. 

Can things pick up again from here ? Don`t know.

 

Where did it all go wrong please ?

 

 

[Sultanpepa]

And same here.  No motivation now although I'm still trickling uploads.

[Ace]

And same here.  No motivation now although I'm still trickling uploads.

 

 

Me too but as you say, its a trickle compared to before. 

I also appreciate i should be asking Alamy for guidance.

After all, i didn't change anything my end. 

[Archaeo]

Me too... :-(

 

Never expected to make much at this game but not a single sale in 2017 so far!

Didn't do too badly last year.

 

Martyn

[Ed Rooney]

The last two months are the best for sales I've ever had. I'm also confused . . . what am I doing right?

[Sultanpepa]

The last two months are the best for sales I've ever had. I'm also confused . . . what am I doing right?

It probably stands to reason that there must be people gaining where others are losing out. Like the others I wish I knew why. If it's poor ranking I'd like to know that. If it's an algorithm process I'd like to know that too. It feels like playing pin the tail on the donkey at the moment.

[Joseph Clemson]

I'm really well down on sales too with only one sale in the last three months - a mere fraction of what I was achieving last year. The only thing which has changed is the Alamy search engine. 

 

My response is to laboriously work through my existing images to make sure the keywords are as good and relevant as possible under the new tagging regime, and that the caption and keywords avoidd false positives as far as possible. I hope this will help, but there is no sign of it translating into zooms or sales so far.

 

I will be processing and uploading some new images, but it's hard to feel encouraged to do so when things here have gone downhill so far and so fast. 

 

I feel for the OP and all the others in this particular boat. 

[Broad Norfolk]

Yes Geoff, the 'ranking' issue concerns me too. I know it's been mentioned before, but some of us have had their rankings reversed since the inception of the new search engine. My previously highest pseudonym was in the top 10 and now lounges one page from the bottom. I wonder if this is why my sales have now dried up despite a number of years of hard work to get up there. Ok, I appreciate that others may be 'winning out' but last year was my best in 11 years with Alamy both in terms of sales and revenue. It's just a good job that all my eggs are not in one basket.

The other point that concerns me is the quality of images now apparently coming to the fore. Could this be the result of the new search engine? Our job is to supply quality images, Alamy to sell, and Clients to find what they are looking for AND in quality. The harder it is to find quality the less likely we are to achieve sales. This should be of high concern.

That's my thoughts.

 

Jim  

[mickfly]

I mentioned elsewhere I was getting the average one licence per thousand on my port of 5,000, but the last three months have been dire.

 

Five sales in January, then one in Feb and March, with ZERO so far this month!

As reported sales are usually a few months behind the actual usage I at least know that some I spotted (using reverse image search) will show up in months to come, but it's very disheartening so I don't have any motivation to offer to Ace.

[John Mitchell]

I can't help noticing that most of the people responding in this thread are based in the UK. Could it be that the UK market has changed or become over-saturated with images?

 

Just a thought...

 

P.S. I don't know anything about photo sales in the UK. Very few of mine are to that market.

[Allan Bell]

I can't help noticing that most of the people responding in this thread are based in the UK. Could it be that the UK market has changed or become over-saturated with images?

 

Just a thought...

 

P.S. I don't know anything about photo sales in the UK. Very few of mine are to that market.

 

 

6.00pm ( 18.00hrs) here in the UK. We are all awake and at our computers, laptops, pads, etc.

 

The rest of the world sleeps.

 

Allan

[Bill Kuta]

Well, with regard to motivation, I've always found that new gear gets me out the door!

 

Note:  Solution may be incompatible with reduced sales.

[John Mitchell]

 

I can't help noticing that most of the people responding in this thread are based in the UK. Could it be that the UK market has changed or become over-saturated with images?

 

Just a thought...

 

P.S. I don't know anything about photo sales in the UK. Very few of mine are to that market.

 

 

6.00pm ( 18.00hrs) here in the UK. We are all awake and at our computers, laptops, pads, etc.

 

The rest of the world sleeps.

 

Allan

 

 

I'm awake, sort of...

 

Don't a lot of UK contributors depend on the newspaper sheme for regular sales? How is that going?

[John Mitchell]

Well, with regard to motivation, I've always found that new gear gets me out the door!

 

Note:  Solution may be incompatible with reduced sales.

 

True enough. I'm contemplating buying a lens that I can't really afford. Once I see the bill, I'll no doubt get motivated...

[NYCat]

I just passed QC for my first submission since February. So now I am in Image Manager hell. What a way to discourage us. I did more in keywording in Lightroom than I used to do but still want to add more. I thought I'd use that nifty new way of selecting two images and clicking on the grey keywords that I want on both images. So I chose an image I uploaded in February with a new one of the same subject. I had only clicked a few new keywords before I got the "You have 50 tags on one of your images" so I couldn't do any more. Of course, it's the older image that is full but the new one could use more. Arrrgh. I guess I should do everything in Lightroom.

 

Paulette

[Joseph Clemson]

I can't help noticing that most of the people responding in this thread are based in the UK. Could it be that the UK market has changed or become over-saturated with images?

 

Just a thought...

 

P.S. I don't know anything about photo sales in the UK. Very few of mine are to that market.

 

Changes in the market and over-saturated supply would be characterised by a gradual change. What many here are experiencing is a sudden and considerable decline in sales, which happened at the same time Alamy changed their search engine. It is almost inconceivable that the two things are not linked.

[Ace]

Well, with regard to motivation, I've always found that new gear gets me out the door!

 

Note:  Solution may be incompatible with reduced sales.

 

I like this idea Bill. But sadly i already have `loads of stuff` ;-)

 

Am still excited by new gear though !

 

Just had another 40 pics accepted which, when i look at excite me. So uploading new stuff is still fun.

largely i upload around other shots that i have sold. A very varied range as always. People doing things as `Jeff` is always saying.

But to drop my views by 60+% has been a major shock.

Obviously zooms then crash.

Even if only one in 3 for me results in a sale its still confusing at this present time.

 

I have always keyworded honestly. Whats the point in adding words of stuff that's not there.

Maybe its coincidence but i see some very poor keywording. maybe i`m just looking out for it now ?

 

I also lost a fair few Mail, Metro sales and although the income is negligible, maybe it has affected my ranking !   Dunno ?

 

Keep adding more i guess, but its confusing to hear of many suffering currently.

 

OK. I`m not going to rant anymore. Just get on with it   

[Betty LaRue]

I just passed QC for my first submission since February. So now I am in Image Manager hell. What a way to discourage us. I did more in keywording in Lightroom than I used to do but still want to add more. I thought I'd use that nifty new way of selecting two images and clicking on the grey keywords that I want on both images. So I chose an image I uploaded in February with a new one of the same subject. I had only clicked a few new keywords before I got the "You have 50 tags on one of your images" so I couldn't do any more. Of course, it's the older image that is full but the new one could use more. Arrrgh. I guess I should do everything in Lightroom.

 

Paulette

That is the bugaboo of this system. The worst of all. It is crippling any possibility of making this process speedier. I hope it's on the slate for a future fix. That would be HUGE.

Betty

[John Mitchell]

 

I can't help noticing that most of the people responding in this thread are based in the UK. Could it be that the UK market has changed or become over-saturated with images?

 

Just a thought...

 

P.S. I don't know anything about photo sales in the UK. Very few of mine are to that market.

 

Changes in the market and over-saturated supply would be characterised by a gradual change. What many here are experiencing is a sudden and considerable decline in sales, which happened at the same time Alamy changed their search engine. It is almost inconceivable that the two things are not linked.

 

 

Got it. I would feel demotivated too if I had seen a sudden decline when the new engine was introduced. As it is, the first three months of 2017 were good for me. I averaged roughly 12 sales per month (better than my average 10 / month in 2016). April has been really slow, however, with only three sales in my hat so far. I am hoping that it's is just a "slump" month -- they happen now and then -- because zooms, CTR, etc. remain healthy. However, with so many new contributors climbing on board and so many new images being added daily, it's impossible to predict what is going to happen.

 

I find that when I'm seriously demotivated, going out and shooting just for the fun of it and not thinking too much about possible sales can really help. This is not a great business plan, I know, but life is more than money.

[spacecadet]

I just passed QC for my first submission since February. So now I am in Image Manager hell. What a way to discourage us. I did more in keywording in Lightroom than I used to do but still want to add more. I thought I'd use that nifty new way of selecting two images and clicking on the grey keywords that I want on both images. So I chose an image I uploaded in February with a new one of the same subject. I had only clicked a few new keywords before I got the "You have 50 tags on one of your images" so I couldn't do any more. Of course, it's the older image that is full but the new one could use more. Arrrgh. I guess I should do everything in Lightroom.

 

Paulette

The system knows which image has the 50 tags, so it should let you add the non-common tags to the image which has fewer. I've just checked and it does work.

[spacecadet]

 

I just passed QC for my first submission since February. So now I am in Image Manager hell. What a way to discourage us. I did more in keywording in Lightroom than I used to do but still want to add more. I thought I'd use that nifty new way of selecting two images and clicking on the grey keywords that I want on both images. So I chose an image I uploaded in February with a new one of the same subject. I had only clicked a few new keywords before I got the "You have 50 tags on one of your images" so I couldn't do any more. Of course, it's the older image that is full but the new one could use more. Arrrgh. I guess I should do everything in Lightroom.

 

Paulette

That is the bugaboo of this system. The worst of all. It is crippling any possibility of making this process speedier. I hope it's on the slate for a future fix. That would be HUGE.

Betty

 

You can now cut down on the tag count by merging the less important ones. I've used it to depopulate some 50-plus tag sets. But it's not for bulk use.

[mickfly]

 

Don't a lot of UK contributors depend on the newspaper sheme for regular sales? How is that going?

 

 

I used to get newspaper scheme sales every month. Then around 2 or 3 months ago a couple of them (Metro and Daily Mail I think) stopped using Alamy, so those dried up. I've had the odd one with other newspapers (Sun, Telegraph, Times) but not much any more. It's all dried up because although my views are fine, the images I tag to appear higher for particular searches as they're more relevant, are not appearing before my less relevant ones. That's the way it will stay until Alamy hold their hands up and admit that supertags are not working for many of us.

 

Geoff.

 

We can guess why the Daily Mail gave up using Alamy.

[Joseph Clemson]

 

 

....I find that when I'm seriously demotivated, going out and shooting just for the fun of it and not thinking too much about possible sales can really help. This is not a great business plan, I know, but life is more than money.

 

 

I must remember to mention this to my bank manager...  

[NYCat]

 

 

I just passed QC for my first submission since February. So now I am in Image Manager hell. What a way to discourage us. I did more in keywording in Lightroom than I used to do but still want to add more. I thought I'd use that nifty new way of selecting two images and clicking on the grey keywords that I want on both images. So I chose an image I uploaded in February with a new one of the same subject. I had only clicked a few new keywords before I got the "You have 50 tags on one of your images" so I couldn't do any more. Of course, it's the older image that is full but the new one could use more. Arrrgh. I guess I should do everything in Lightroom.

 

Paulette

That is the bugaboo of this system. The worst of all. It is crippling any possibility of making this process speedier. I hope it's on the slate for a future fix. That would be HUGE.

Betty

 

You can now cut down on the tag count by merging the less important ones. I've used it to depopulate some 50-plus tag sets. But it's not for bulk use.

 

 

Thanks for that suggestion. I know I can go back to the newer one and add tags but that is just more typing and I would hope to just click on grey ones. That's what won't work as soon as you hit the 50 mark on the older image. I don't even know if I'm making sense at this point. I have six more to finish keywording and I'm giving up for now. I used to do massive copy and paste in the old system so subjects I had already done were a cinch. I know I need to knuckle down in Lightroom and do my synonyms and hierarchies but I haven't been in the mood.

 

Paulette

[Ace]

 

 

I can't help noticing that most of the people responding in this thread are based in the UK. Could it be that the UK market has changed or become over-saturated with images?

 

Just a thought...

 

P.S. I don't know anything about photo sales in the UK. Very few of mine are to that market.

 

Changes in the market and over-saturated supply would be characterised by a gradual change. What many here are experiencing is a sudden and considerable decline in sales, which happened at the same time Alamy changed their search engine. It is almost inconceivable that the two things are not linked.

 

 

Got it. I would feel demotivated too if I had seen a sudden decline when the new engine was introduced. As it is, the first three months of 2017 were good for me. I averaged roughly 12 sales per month (better than my average 10 / month in 2016). April has been really slow, however, with only three sales in my hat so far. I am hoping that it's is just a "slump" month -- they happen now and then -- because zooms, CTR, etc. remain healthy. However, with so many new contributors climbing on board and so many new images being added daily, it's impossible to predict what is going to happen.

 

I find that when I'm seriously demotivated, going out and shooting just for the fun of it and not thinking too much about possible sales can really help. This is not a great business plan, I know, but life is more than money.

 

 

Agree there John. Fair point. More to life than money.