Hi From Oklahoma

[Stephanie L Bishop]

I'm Stephanie and I live in northeast Oklahoma.  Had my submission accepted in May and just had my first set of 25 photos approved the other day.  I just finished adding captions and keywords and all photos are showing as for sale but not showing up in the searches I have performed.  I am wondering why?

[NYCat]

The updates happen once every 24 hours so try again tomorrow.

 

Paulette

[hdh]

Hi Stephanie, 

Welcome to Alamy and the forum! 

I can already see your images, when clicking on the number of images under your forum name (Despite showing a count of 3 at the moment). 

They are also searchable - I used the alamy ID K5YY8E and it correctly came back with your sunset picture. 

 

cheers

[Southmind]

Hi Stephanie, I'm new here too (even if I signed up in 2014, I slept all this time ...)  Your files are online after 24 h . 

Welcome on board !

[Martin Carlsson]

Hi Stephanie and welcome! Good luck with everything and don't hesitate to voice any queries you might have - the forum is filled with wonderful eager beavers ready to help.

[Allan Bell]

 

Welcome from England Stephanie.

 

Allan

 

 

 

[Stephanie L Bishop]

Thank you everyone!  I see my images are for sale now.  I am looking forward to this new adventure.  I have had some photos accepted on other stock sites and have even had a few sales, but this is HUGE to me!  Want to do well here so any critiques and constructive criticism will be appreciated.  Thanks, again!

[Matt Ashmore]

I really like your pictures Stephanie.

 

Quick word of advice.. if your picture has more than one of something in it then include the plural version of the word. For example, your pictures of horses where there is more than one horse in the picture... you have the keyword "horse" but not "horses". So if someone searches for a picture of "horses", your images would not be returned in the search results.

 

The title of a couple of the horse images says that that the mustangs are "wild"..  the first word that popped into my head when I saw the image was "freedom" or "free".. those mustangs look so happy and carefree! And as they are "wild", they would also be "free"... so "free" and "freedom" might be good concept related keywords to add.

[Hai Nguyen]

Welcome Stephanie!

 

Enjoy being on Alamy 

 

Hai

 

[Stephanie L Bishop]

On 9/13/2017 at 12:17, Matt Ashmore said:

I really like your pictures Stephanie.

 

Quick word of advice.. if your picture has more than one of something in it then include the plural version of the word. For example, your pictures of horses where there is more than one horse in the picture... you have the keyword "horse" but not "horses". So if someone searches for a picture of "horses", your images would not be returned in the search results.

 

The title of a couple of the horse images says that that the mustangs are "wild"..  the first word that popped into my head when I saw the image was "freedom" or "free".. those mustangs look so happy and carefree! And as they are "wild", they would also be "free"... so "free" and "freedom" might be good concept related keywords to add.

Thank you for the advice!  Sometimes when I'm trying to think of keywords, I forget the obvious.  I will try to take more time when I am keywording my photos.

[Stephanie L Bishop]

On 9/14/2017 at 01:17, GS-Images said:

I see that you don't have any images of cows? One of the unspoken rules here at Alamy is that every contributor needs at least one cow photo. It's just a common decency thing that everyone should show that they respect cows..........Ok ok just ignore me, I'm nuts. 

 

Your images look nice, no real problems there. Like Matt says though, watch tags and captions. Take your image of daylilies as an example - K5YWBP

 

Try to cover all the options, rather than just calling them day lilies. You have the common name too in the tags but also add other options, including singular/plural, and always the scientific name both in the tags and caption. I'm not a flower expert (I'm trying to learn to be!) so I'll take it that you have the ID of "surprise lilies" correct.....

 

day lilies, daylilies, day lily, daylily, orange daylilies, daylilies in summer, surprise lily, magic lily, resurrection lily, lycoris squamigera, surprise lilies, magic lilies, resurrection lilies, lycoris squamigera

 

Get the idea? I haven't listed all the tags I'd use, but that's just an idea of some I would add. It's always worth doing a Google search once you know what something like a plant or animal is, so you can see alternative common names used for it (wikipedia is very useful for this too). That's how I came up with those I listed. 

 

Hope this helps,

Geoff.

Thanks, Geoff!  I actually DO HAVE some images of cows!  And I will be uploading them soon.  Hopefully, they will be worthy of inclusion to the Alamy cow gallery.

 

Thank you for your advice with keywording!  This is one area that I struggle with.  I never thought about googling the subject - duh!  Definitely will add this step to my workflow.

[Betty LaRue]

Welcome, Stephanie, from Oklahoma City. Lived in Ponca City for years. 

On the keywording thing, you don't need to list a personal phrase like "summer vacation" although it probably won't hurt, but say, travel, tourism.

Dont forget equine, equines, mare, mares, for your horses.

Sometimes Wikipedia is a good source for scientific names if you know the common name of something.

For instance, American Robin will give you Turdus migratorius.   

Just type in: Wiki American Robin, and you'll see a link.

if you have images on micro, you'll do better here if you don't have the same images there and here. A lot of buyers will do searches and buy the image where it's cheapest.

I really like your images. They are colorful, well-exposed with good PP.  Just realize that on Alamy, to compete you need to build up a lot of images in your portfolio before you start seeing sales.  Very different than on the micros.

Hang in, work hard, good things will happen. Eventually! 

Betty

Oh, also put location in your caption. Like Tallgrass Prairie, Oklahoma, USA.

Then in your tags, Tallgrass Prairie,Oklahoma,US,USA,U.S.,U.S.A.,United States,North America 

Images shot in town, list the town in front of the rest.

[Stephanie L Bishop]

2 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Welcome, Stephanie, from Oklahoma City. Lived in Ponca City for years. 

On the keywording thing, you don't need to list a personal phrase like "summer vacation" although it probably won't hurt, but say, travel, tourism.

Dont forget equine, equines, mare, mares, for your horses.

Sometimes Wikipedia is a good source for scientific names if you know the common name of something.

For instance, American Robin will give you Turdus migratorius.   

Just type in: Wiki American Robin, and you'll see a link.

if you have images on micro, you'll do better here if you don't have the same images there and here. A lot of buyers will do searches and buy the image where it's cheapest.

I really like your images. They are colorful, well-exposed with good PP.  Just realize that on Alamy, to compete you need to build up a lot of images in your portfolio before you start seeing sales.  Very different than on the micros.

Hang in, work hard, good things will happen. Eventually! 

Betty

Oh, also put location in your caption. Like Tallgrass Prairie, Oklahoma, USA.

Then in your tags, Tallgrass Prairie,Oklahoma,US,USA,U.S.,U.S.A.,United States,North America 

Images shot in town, list the town in front of the rest.

Thank you Betty!  Nice to meet another Okie!  I do have images on other micro sites, but have not made much money.  I was thrilled when Alamy accepted me!  And I realize that I will have to have several hundred images in my gallery before I can expect to see results. 

 

Thank you for the keywording/captioning tips.  Always appreciated!

 

I see you've been at this for a long time.  Is this your only income from photography?  I hope you don't mind my asking, but just roughly, how much do you earn from your stock sales?

I would love to make photography my only job, but for now, I have to work full-time in retail to pay the bills.  I get out and shoot when I can, but struggle with time management.  Hopefully, one of these days, I can quit my day job and focus on my photography full-time.

 

Thanks again for the advice!

[Betty LaRue]

No, I don't submit elsewhere. When I first started, I tried micro, but then I read how micro was killing stock prices and quit and joined Alamy.  Peanut sales felt like giving my hard work away.

Yes, I've been at it a long time, but my port is relatively small to pull in a decent income.  But it does pay for equipment and some spending money! I also have other demands on my time, and the past year or two have brought circumstances making it hard for me to get out and shoot.

Not sure, but I think one would need 100,000 or more images to live on the income.

Nobody will really reveal their income here, sorry.   About the most one can glean is when the full-time photographers with huge ports mention that's all they do, but they still don't reveal income.

You need to be a realist. Generally the rule of thumb is about one sale a month per 1000 images. Some months I average more, some less. Try to offer a wide range of subjects, instead of shooting the same things over and over. You can shoot people doing things, harvesting, cooking, playing...in other words, lifestyle. Releases are good but not necessary to list Right Managed.

 

Prices have fallen in the past few years. When I first joined, it was common to get $80-300 a license. And my biggest sale was $700.   While the good price can still come in, it's more rare now.  Most fall well below $100, or even $50.  That's the influence of the micros. Period.

This is an age old argument, discussion, debate....I'm just stating my own personal view for whatever it's worth. Pennies? 

Good luck.

Betty

[NYCat]

I would suggest that you keep in mind ways other than stock for making money. Photographers do many things  --  weddings, school photos, etc. I think most people who are making a living as photographers are doing assignments of one kind or another and stock is only a sideline.

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

Very true, Paulette.  I did some senior pictures and engagement pics.  One wedding. I could have got into that pretty deep because I was asked a lot. I mostly said no. It made me too nervous!  I was afraid of not pleasing, although I did. It takes a lot of confidence to do it, but basically I march to my own drum, not someone else's.

I always admire those who hire out for having the guts. 

Betty

[NYCat]

Yes, weddings are so hard because you can't reshoot. Most regular wedding photographers have someone else shooting as well in case of problems with their images so one way to get started in that business is to try to be the second shooter with an established photographer.

 

Paulette

[Guest]

Hi