Colblimp Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 So I'm a Professional Photographer based in West Cork, Ireland and I specialise in Commercial, Weddings, Portraits, Events and Tuition. I started with Alamy a couple of weeks ago after I spoke to a fellow professional photographer friend about the agency. My initial submission of 4 images was accepted so I've been slowly uploading pics to the site. My biggest problem is keywords, what on earth does one type?! Additionally, I'm a bit stuck with the licence bit - would someone please give me some pointers? If anyone needs any photography advice, please give me a shout - I love to help where I can! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCat Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 There has been a lot of discussion lately in the forum on keywords and captions. I don't have time to dig them out right now but we have a search function and you can search also on Google including the words Alamy Forum. Check the blog and go into Alamy's instructions to us about keywords. Don't take shortcuts. The keywords are very important to getting your images seen. You have very nice images. Paulette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Images containing property should not be marked as RF unless you have releases. So apart from, possibly, your landscapes, most of your images should be RM. Member services may be able to change the licence type for you, you can't do it yourself, but you may have to resubmit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Hi and fáilte. I think you are generally along the right track with your keywords - they seem relevant, accurate and contain the essential info. You might want to add the keyword "Irish" as well as Ireland to the relevant images as that comes up at times (e.g. Iriah landscape). I always also give the location info as it is always relevant in my images. However, the location field is no longer searchable so I do this simply to provide the info to a potential buyer. It used to be searchable but would bring up all sorts of spurious results and Alamy wisely made it non-searchable. So it is important to put the locality info, if relevant, in the keywords as you have done. Searches on specific locations can definitely help get your images seem. But don't give up the weddings just yet. I got $7.90 gross for the image below under the newspaper scheme in 2014. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 Thanks for your kind comments and advice, guys. I'll look at the RM/RF thing now. Another question, how long was it before you all made your first sale? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 There were far fewer images then. I'd expect it to take far longer now, but about 4 months with about 500 images up, then another 6 for the second, by which time I had about 1000. Nowadays it's unusual to make a sale in the year the image was taken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Ashmore Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 For me it was 7 months (I first uploaded in April and first sale was November last year) with about 600 images. I'm still waiting for my second sale... But I guess it depends on how good your images are, home many images you upload, how unique (i.e. how much competition for the subjects photographed) and desirable your images are and how good your keywording is. I am a hobbyist having some fun however while you describe yourself as a professional... your pictures are definitely better than mine and I guess you'll probably take and upload images fast that I do if you are taking them every week as part of what you do for a living... so I'd suspect you'd get a sale much quicker than me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davey Towers Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Hi Col, I'm a "newbie" on here to. Like Matt I'm also just a hobbyist and the great fellow contributors on here give excellent advice whenever you need it. I'm not expecting any sales this year however the best advice I was given, again by a fellow contributor, (Bryan), was not to get despondent if you don't make a sale. Just keep going and smile . Welcome and good luck. (Nice images by the way) Regards, Davey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Welcome to Alamy - As Paulette said, search Alamy's own advice for keywording and licence suggestions. As a starter, if an image has people or any part of people in it then it cannot be RF unless you have signed Model Releases for all the people/parts of people in the image. Same with images that have property in them unless they are buildings in the middle to far distance will need property releases if they are to be RF (ie an image which is of a general cityscape or street view probably does not need a PR to be RF, but an image consisting of mainly just one building would). All images without releases can be sold as RM unless they fall into a small range of properties eg National Trust properties taken from within the NT grounds, when Alamy (and the NT itslef) prefers them not to be sold at all. regards Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Many contributors have NT images (and sales) here but they don't advertise the fact or put NT or anything like it in the keywords. Not a problem for you at home, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 For me it was 7 months (I first uploaded in April and first sale was November last year) with about 600 images. I'm still waiting for my second sale... But I guess it depends on how good your images are, home many images you upload, how unique (i.e. how much competition for the subjects photographed) and desirable your images are and how good your keywording is. I am a hobbyist having some fun however while you describe yourself as a professional... your pictures are definitely better than mine and I guess you'll probably take and upload images fast that I do if you are taking them every week as part of what you do for a living... so I'd suspect you'd get a sale much quicker than me. Ah Matt, I've just looked at your images and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them! I'm shocked you've only made one sale so far with the amount and quality of images you have on Alamy. If I'm honest, the future's not looking very bright for me in terms of sales, but we'll keep shooting, uploading and praying! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 A few sales a year is par for 700 general images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 A few sales a year is par for 700 general images. Oh dear, was expecting more than that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Ashmore Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 For me it was 7 months (I first uploaded in April and first sale was November last year) with about 600 images. I'm still waiting for my second sale... But I guess it depends on how good your images are, home many images you upload, how unique (i.e. how much competition for the subjects photographed) and desirable your images are and how good your keywording is. I am a hobbyist having some fun however while you describe yourself as a professional... your pictures are definitely better than mine and I guess you'll probably take and upload images fast that I do if you are taking them every week as part of what you do for a living... so I'd suspect you'd get a sale much quicker than me. Ah Matt, I've just looked at your images and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them! I'm shocked you've only made one sale so far with the amount and quality of images you have on Alamy. If I'm honest, the future's not looking very bright for me in terms of sales, but we'll keep shooting, uploading and praying! You're very kind! .. maybe I'm too critical of my own images but my plummeting CTR might suggest otherwise. But I'm OK with this. But I suspect Mark hits the nail on the head in the post above.. I think volume is a big issue for me. There have been some big threads previously on these forums about the importance of having a big enough volume of images if you want to make and significant number of sales. You just need to see how many images the likes of Mark and Kumar (both commented further up in this thread) have to see how many images are really needed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 For me it was 7 months (I first uploaded in April and first sale was November last year) with about 600 images. I'm still waiting for my second sale... But I guess it depends on how good your images are, home many images you upload, how unique (i.e. how much competition for the subjects photographed) and desirable your images are and how good your keywording is. I am a hobbyist having some fun however while you describe yourself as a professional... your pictures are definitely better than mine and I guess you'll probably take and upload images fast that I do if you are taking them every week as part of what you do for a living... so I'd suspect you'd get a sale much quicker than me. Ah Matt, I've just looked at your images and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them! I'm shocked you've only made one sale so far with the amount and quality of images you have on Alamy. If I'm honest, the future's not looking very bright for me in terms of sales, but we'll keep shooting, uploading and praying! You're very kind! .. maybe I'm too critical of my own images but my plummeting CTR might suggest otherwise. But I'm OK with this. But I suspect Mark hits the nail on the head in the post above.. I think volume is a big issue for me. There have been some big threads previously on these forums about the importance of having a big enough volume of images if you want to make and significant number of sales. You just need to see how many images the likes of Mark and Kumar (both commented further up in this thread) have to see how many images are really needed! CTR? How do I see how many images people have sold? It's all new to me! In terms of volume, I suppose I should be aiming for over 1,000 images ASAP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Sales per image vary greatly. Kumar's is far higher than mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Thanks for your kind comments and advice, guys. I'll look at the RM/RF thing now. Another question, how long was it before you all made your first sale? I joined on 3/11/2008. My initial 4 images were accepted 6/11/2008. Unfortunately I was a slow learner and had many fails in the early days. My first sale was 18/2/2011 with around 480/490 images on line. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 CTR? How do I see how many images people have sold? It's all new to me! You cannot see how many images others have sold. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Crumbs, I don't think I'd have waited 2 1/2 years for a sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 CTR? How do I see how many images people have sold? It's all new to me! You cannot see how many images others have sold. Allan Thanks. I thought you could. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Ashmore Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 CTR? How do I see how many images people have sold? It's all new to me! CTR - Alamy themselves define this as...: What is “CTR” ? CTR stands for “Click Through Rate” which is the number of zooms divided by the number of views, multiplied by 100. You can see this in the 'All of Alamy' under 'Alamy Measures' on your 'My Alamy' page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted January 13, 2016 Author Share Posted January 13, 2016 CTR? How do I see how many images people have sold? It's all new to me! CTR - Alamy themselves define this as...: What is “CTR” ? CTR stands for “Click Through Rate” which is the number of zooms divided by the number of views, multiplied by 100. You can see this in the 'All of Alamy' under 'Alamy Measures' on your 'My Alamy' page. Thanks, Matt, I'll take a look now. I'm still learning about the whole Alamy thing, but it's very exciting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Crumbs, I don't think I'd have waited 2 1/2 years for a sale. I was not waiting for a sale as I was busy doing other things. But when it came I was quite elated. Speaking about CTR my ranking with Alamy has always been low despite re-managing keywords and pseudos. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Welcome! I started averaging about one sale a month once I hit 700 images, so don't be discouraged. But I've been on here for years so my images have probably built up a decent ranking, I think the longer you're here the better chance your images have of appearing higher in searches. I've been very slow with uploading as I've got about 800 now so don't do as I did - your aim to hit 500 or 1000 images this year is a good one. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted January 13, 2016 Author Share Posted January 13, 2016 Welcome! I started averaging about one sale a month once I hit 700 images, so don't be discouraged. But I've been on here for years so my images have probably built up a decent ranking, I think the longer you're here the better chance your images have of appearing higher in searches. I've been very slow with uploading as I've got about 800 now so don't do as I did - your aim to hit 500 or 1000 images this year is a good one. Good luck. Hi Marianne and thanks for the contribution! Your words are very encouraging, I'll never give up! I am determined to upload 100 images per month, so far I'm on track. What's good is, it's forcing me to get out with my camera more often, rather than just shooting when a job comes up. My love for photography is back again, rather than just treating it as a job! Bring it on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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