lorenza Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Goodmorning everyone. I'm a bit 'demoralized. I started with alamy in April 2017. Currently I have a little more than 3000 images, 45 zoom and 9 sales (high and low). Since June I have not seen any sale or zoom. Do not be discouraged anyway, I keep loading. Up until now I have only had one refusal, exactly the first one, and then all the lots always accepted. Is my discouragement right to you? I do not have high expectations and I do not want to create them. I'm just trying to figure out if I can improve or if I'm doing something wrong. Some of you will surely tell me that, by uploading my images to another agency, I compete with myself and consequently my probable sales are lower. Surely there is a logic in this opinion, and certainly it is so. I can think that my portfolio is not very attractive. I try to correctly index my images following this forum, where I always find an answer and a help. It is also possible that, being my images, only and exclusively made in Italy, their market is reduced. Is this according to you my consideration ??? I'd like to read your considerations. Thanks and have a nice day everyone. lorenza (from Italy - 13.52) P.S. sorry for the language, I used the google translator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobD Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Hi Lorenza. One thing for sure there is absolutely nothing wrong with your images. However some of your key wording is a little lacking. An example: image PBA2N1 the key wording seems to concentrate on the interior of the natural history museum but nothing about the main focus (in my opinion ) of the image, the skeleton. What is it? no words like exhibit, skeleton, scientific name etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Ciao Lorenza! I think your photos are good solid stock worthy photos. Your captions seem good too. I think it is mostly due to the fact that you joined Alamy relatively recently, a year and a few months ago. For those of us who joined early on, like ten or more years ago, we were able to establish a good ranking....in other words the images appear in the first few pages during a buyer's search. I do think you will need to give it more time to see positive results. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_rabe Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said: Ciao Lorenza! I think your photos are good solid stock worthy photos. Your captions seem good too. I think it is mostly due to the fact that you joined Alamy relatively recently, a year and a few months ago. For those of us who joined early on, like ten or more years ago, we were able to establish a good ranking....in other words the images appear in the first few pages during a buyer's search. I do think you will need to give it more time to see positive results. Michael What is this ranking you mention? I would think the only thing that should factor into a clients search results is relevant results, based on info, not jacked up by some ranking based on how long someone has been a contributor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brasilnut Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Ciao Lorenza, You have really well-executed images of the beautiful region of where you live (Trento). I would suspect that the reason why you're having such few sales is that there's not so many buyers looking for such specific images. Keep in mind that many of the Alamy buyers are UK-based editorials. Perhaps they'll feature the nearby Dolomites. The wine stuff is good for generic microstock type images and I'm sure they sell regularly should you be duplicating. I would suggest going for and searching for a more specialist Italian agency for Italian buyers. Buona fortuna! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Hello Lorenza, You have some great stock photos you have a good eye for composition etc so it's not the quality of your shots. I too would be a little demoralized it's human nature. I do agree with BobD about keywords, for example the photos of Basil the one word missing that came to mind is "herb" "herbs". I do understand the challenges of english as a second language does put a person at a disadvantage when keywording. Also rightly or wrongly I tend to write my descriptions and titles as complete sentences thinking that Google might rank them better than a collection of keywords as titles. Time is the big thing with stock photography and consistent regular uploading does go a long way to help. When sales are low for me I try and push myself to upload more. Lastly do remember that the summertime June to September is a slower period for sales. So perhaps you could spend sometime looking at your portfolio and trying to optimize your keywords and descriptions, remember to keyword for British and American English words and spellings. I wish you every success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domf Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Hi Lorenza, one of the reasons that you may have lower sales is that you have too many similar photos, for example M3P6GD "Wine bottles in a Milan bottle shop" has another 7 similar stock images which are very difficult to tell the difference between them, and you have many other photographs which are too similar so rather than a portfolio of 3367 images you have effectively probably less than 1000 different images. The other disadvantage of having too many similar images is that it will affect your CTR adversely. My suggestion is to be more ruthless in your editing and select the best 2 photos rather than use all 8 photos of the same image. Good luck and keep uploading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearl Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 33 minutes ago, chris_rabe said: What is this ranking you mention? I would think the only thing that should factor into a clients search results is relevant results, based on info, not jacked up by some ranking based on how long someone has been a contributor... The ranking is not based on how long a person has been a contributor but on how well their images have performed during that time. The intention was to bring the best images to the front of search results. Being with Alamy for many years has given the opportunity to attain a good ranking and therefore a good search position. However ranking seems to be less of a factor nowadays which is why we are seeing some fairly awful (imo) images coming up early on. Pearl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 36 minutes ago, Pearl said: The ranking is not based on how long a person has been a contributor but on how well their images have performed during that time. The intention was to bring the best images to the front of search results. Being with Alamy for many years has given the opportunity to attain a good ranking and therefore a good search position. However ranking seems to be less of a factor nowadays which is why we are seeing some fairly awful (imo) images coming up early on. Pearl Thanks Pearl for clearing that up, my statement was over simplified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 3 hours ago, domf said: Hi Lorenza, one of the reasons that you may have lower sales is that you have too many similar photos, for example M3P6GD "Wine bottles in a Milan bottle shop" has another 7 similar stock images which are very difficult to tell the difference between them, and you have many other photographs which are too similar so rather than a portfolio of 3367 images you have effectively probably less than 1000 different images. The other disadvantage of having too many similar images is that it will affect your CTR adversely. My suggestion is to be more ruthless in your editing and select the best 2 photos rather than use all 8 photos of the same image. Good luck and keep uploading. Agree with this. On the first page of your port there's 5 pictures of what looks like a greenhouse in which apple trees are growing. I'd delete 4 as they're all very similar. Excessive similars could well be part of the problem. Don't give up hope, the sales will come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 You could also just be going through a rough patch. I'm in a very similar situation to you - I have a similar number of pictures and my last sale was a low value one on July 2nd! For me, last year was similar - the first six months were OK, then everything died. This year, I matched last year's volume of sales and income by the end of May, now everything has *completely* dried up again. Welcome to Alamy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 I would agree with the above - your images are fine - good stock photos - maybe worth trying to cut down a little on the "similars", and also varying your shooting position, but generally I think they are very good. Also your keywording is generally OK. Persevere! You will make sales I am sure Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Late summer and January have always been periods with less sales for me. Kind of in between the seasons for my sales. Books, etc. have been dealt with before the holidays. Something you have to live with being a non UK or US supplier. On the positive side good earnings have been cleared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Mi dispiace sentirlo, Lorenza. Your images are very good, and you seem to be doing everything right, yet no sales. That is demoralizing. But I don't think Alex is right, that's there is no buyer interest in your part of northern Italy. And you have pictures of Venice, food and wildlife too. This is a long game we're playing. It can take a few years of continuous involvement before Alamy begins to pay off to contributors. It was like that with my collection. Now I have steady sales each month. Forza! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 If I were a new contributor these days, I think that I would be a bit demoralized as well. When I started with Alamy ten years ago, my images began licensing right away. It was a huge incentive to keep going. I have a feeling that for younger, new contributors the decision about whether or not to stick with stock photography isn't quite as easy as it used to be. It's an even longer game now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 I have 1743 pretty eclectic images here and I am very demoralized. Looking like another blank month for me so far. Your images are very good and should be selling. I wish you all the best anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorenza Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 A good morning to all of you. Your intervention has given me some ideas to improve and in any case review my portfolio, which I will definitely do. I'm sorry if I'm here just now, a period a bit dark for me ... Thank you all with a virtual kiss! And surely I will keep you informed of my progress. My philosophy is this: shoot, have fun, learn and everything that goes is fine and above all not have great expectations! I think it's the best thing ... Nothing must give stress .... This attitude of mine is also due to the fact that it is not my job, it is not the source of my livelihood .... Here in Italy (in northern Italy) it is a beautiful sunny day. A happy day to all and thanks ..... lorenza (9.59 am.m.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Take one example- Venice. Venice is very over-exposed here but even I've had sales from there. Only a couple and it took 5 or 6 years (come to think of it, one was actually Treviso). But they do come. To be fair I do have a reasonable rank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starsphinx Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 21 hours ago, John Mitchell said: If I were a new contributor these days, I think that I would be a bit demoralized as well. When I started with Alamy ten years ago, my images began licensing right away. It was a huge incentive to keep going. I have a feeling that for younger, new contributors the decision about whether or not to stick with stock photography isn't quite as easy as it used to be. It's an even longer game now. 6 hours ago, Marb said: I have 1743 pretty eclectic images here and I am very demoralized. Looking like another blank month for me so far. Your images are very good and should be selling. I wish you all the best anyway. I hear both of you on this. I am new and know this was never going to be a quick thing but there are certain things it is easy to get the jitters about - I am starting to get concerned about zooms (ie with 360+ searches I do not have one zoom). My intended solution? Get out and get more photos to upload. Unfortunately, life is doing quite a good job of muscling in this solution at the moment but like I said I have known from the start it was not going to be quick so I will be able to put this into practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 I keep hearing the mantra of keep uploading, it’s a slow process etc etc etc. The thing is, sales are getting fewer and further between, and less money each sale. There are some who blame microstock but only yesterday I got a single image sale at microstock for just over $25 which is considerably more than my last 6 individual sales at Alamy. Of course I continue to upload here, especially exclusive editorial images, but as it stands the outlook for me at least isn’t great. I just hope things improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 On 20/08/2018 at 09:00, lorenza said: Here in Italy (in northern Italy) it is a beautiful sunny day. See, you have an advantage over me for starters. Overcast here as usual. Good luck; onwards and upwards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KODAKovic Posted August 25, 2018 Share Posted August 25, 2018 On 8/20/2018 at 10:05, spacecadet said: Take one example- Venice. Venice is very over-exposed here but even I've had sales from there. Only a couple and it took 5 or 6 years (come to think of it, one was actually Treviso). But they do come. To be fair I do have a reasonable rank. Treviso could sell, Venice is quite impossible. It's like comparing a small town nobody knows with the international landmark everybody know (and photograph). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlmphotog Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 Ciao Lorenza, Your stock photography looks very nice with lots of subjects and locations. I would reccommend making a new pseudonym for a collection of your photographs either by location or subject matter, such as "Lorenza - Agriculture" or "Lorenza - Italy"... This can help to shuffle your images in the rank order and hopefuly raise your rank. Hope this helps, David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 11 hours ago, KODAKovic said: Treviso could sell, Venice is quite impossible. It's like comparing a small town nobody knows with the international landmark everybody know (and photograph). But I have had sales from both. Not the "landmarks" but details- subjects with less than a page of results. We can all find them. One was a local sale to Italy but the other was in a US museum catalogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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