Sales??

[John Morrison]

I've given up trying to find meaningful patterns in my sales figures. Even with 22,000 pix at Alamy, there are inexplicable fluctuations. My lull was in midsummer; sales seem more bouyant now...

[Perry]

Sales are average for me, but revenue. price per image tjeesus. double digits (after the comma😑) So disappointing that I started to lurk around at the "dark side".

I am not aiming at an income here, but boy what is going on with these mini sales here. 

 

 

[Doc]

14 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Interesting. My sales and income have gone in the opposite direction -- i.e. significantly upward -- during the past three months. July and August were two of my BME and September is looking good (above average) as well. Strange how this works. There appears to be no rhyme or reason.

John - good to hear others are doing well!

 

Kind regards

 

Kumar

[Stokie]

Sales are 68% (108) and income 59% ($2,674) of 2018 figures.

 

This year is my 4th best for sales and 6th best for income out of 13 years. 

 

John.

[Aaron]

I am not going to try to argue with anyone. There are some points made and need some correction. Since Alamy is mostly a photo editorial website, I just have to focus on doing things in that way. I have done editorial work before and still do time from time. I do see there are others I have came across that have a very and I do mean very huge photo collection. That I know of and they are independent photojournalist and how they placed headlines and tags is basically the same as I used to do it before I came on here. For the head line start with city, state and date and brief to strong description of what is going on in the image or batch of images. Add location and event information in the tags so that Alamy can archive the photos based on heading content and tags to location and event. That is how I am seeing all of this. If I am wrong please do correct me. But I saw from full time independent photojournalist that is how it is being conducted.  

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

Although I've been a member for a long time I've only seriously been uploading for about the last year - (other life stuff got in the way back in 2007).  So I'm actually quite pleased with the sales I've made this year considering the small number of images I have compared to others.  Great to see others that are doing so well, it kind of does show that you need to be in it long term and hopefully I will be...😄

 

Carol

[John Mitchell]

6 hours ago, Doc said:

John - good to hear others are doing well!

 

Kind regards

 

Kumar

 

Thanks, Kumar. I have a feeling that it's just part of the roller coaster ride that we're on -- i.e. what goes up must come down, and vice versa.

 

All one can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. 🏂

[Colblimp]

On 24/09/2019 at 07:06, Aaron said:

I am doing something wrong

Yep.  Looking at the first page of your port shows you have far too many similars.  One pic of pumpkins would suffice as all three look pretty much the same.  Additionally, the pics are very flat with colours which don't 'pop'.  The singing dancers is the same - too many pics, as are the band, stars and stripes and football match.  No wonder you have such a big port in such a small amount of time!  Cull, cull, cull!

[Joseph Clemson]

16 hours ago, Aaron said:

I am not going to try to argue with anyone. There are some points made and need some correction. Since Alamy is mostly a photo editorial website, I just have to focus on doing things in that way. I have done editorial work before and still do time from time. I do see there are others I have came across that have a very and I do mean very huge photo collection. That I know of and they are independent photojournalist and how they placed headlines and tags is basically the same as I used to do it before I came on here. For the head line start with city, state and date and brief to strong description of what is going on in the image or batch of images. Add location and event information in the tags so that Alamy can archive the photos based on heading content and tags to location and event. That is how I am seeing all of this. If I am wrong please do correct me. But I saw from full time independent photojournalist that is how it is being conducted.  

 

Hello Aaron, 

 

I think you have the right approach on your caption, although the formal editoral location/date style is not an absolute requirement for Alamy ulness you are submitting through Live News. However, I would urge you to take note of what has been written by other contributors on keywords. Over time, loose keywording has a known and dramtic negative impact on a contributors position in the search ranking. If your CTR drops much below the Alamy average, (currently 0.6) you may struggle to get your images seen by the buyer.

 

Any keyword which is not central to the subject of the image risks getting that image returned in a search for which it is not relevant. Each time that happens, and the searcher does not zoom it because it is irrelvant, your CTR and your search ranking take a small hit, all of which drives down your visibility in searches.

 

Using your image WWA4KB to illustrate what I mean. It contains keywords: beautiful, cheerful, cheering, crowd cup fans,  flag, friends, friendship,  goal, happy,  isolated men, portrait, smiling. None of these are relevant to that particular image and will create false positives. A person searching for 'happy girl' or 'cheering crowd' is not looking for that image. Tight, concise and accurate keywording is essential to success at Alamy.

 

If your CTR is low, you might consider creating a new pseudonym which will start afresh with a median ranking. Put in this your best images, carefully selected with few similars and with tight, relvant  keyword control on each image. If you have a lot to upload, you should see this new psuedonym have the success which is escaping you on your present portfolio.

 

In all honesty, I'm writing this not only to help you, but in the hope that many other contributors who have fallen into the same trap will read it and modify their approach. It may not be the case with yourself, but many new contributors come here from a microstock background where a scattergun approach to keywording is commonplace. Not only does that approach not work at alamy, it can bt positively harmful to one's hopes of success.

 

Good luck with your work. You clearly have the skill as a shooter, you just need to adjust your approach when sat in from of the screen for the post-processing. 

[meanderingemu]

17 hours ago, Aaron said:

I am not going to try to argue with anyone. There are some points made and need some correction. Since Alamy is mostly a photo editorial website, I just have to focus on doing things in that way. I have done editorial work before and still do time from time. I do see there are others I have came across that have a very and I do mean very huge photo collection. That I know of and they are independent photojournalist and how they placed headlines and tags is basically the same as I used to do it before I came on here. For the head line start with city, state and date and brief to strong description of what is going on in the image or batch of images. Add location and event information in the tags so that Alamy can archive the photos based on heading content and tags to location and event. That is how I am seeing all of this. If I am wrong please do correct me. But I saw from full time independent photojournalist that is how it is being conducted.  

 

 

One of the great feature of Alamy, is they treat their contributors as adults.  No one will tell you that your caption is wrong, no one will reject your image because there is too many similar, because you put it in the wrong category..  This is all your choice here. 

 

So yes your captioning in fine, however writing "September 26, 2019." i just used over 12% of my allocated characters in my description for something that i have not seen used in any of my search results (i buyers want a date, they seem to use that feature from the Exif data, and if i think date is actually relevant (14 july in France for example) i'll use it in caption.  Actually date could give you more issues with false hits than anything.  Say your Football match was on July 14, now it will appear to all people looking for that celebration 

 

The one thing i noticed is you seem to use the same caption and keywords for set of images, regardless what is in the images.... For example Your series on Fond du Lac christmas lights, you have images of an illuminated bridges, with no mention of it anywhere (same for the band stand, the river...)

 

 

One last comment, there is a lot of input on this wonderful forum, go through it, and decide what you want to make of it.  I totally had to change my approach after a good read.  Now this morning i had to figure if i was ok with getting a search hit for "Rocky and friend" for my "Girl and a rocky beach with her friends"  (answer is Yes, image is a multicultural mix so friends was important), but my hit of "Barn side" for just a close up of Barn wood on side of a Barn, No and removed the word Side, which added nothing to the image, and would only be used for someone looking for a full barn side in my view. 

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Apparently it's a strategy that comes from the MS sites.

The inclusion of irrelevant keywords comes from the same.

 

 

i would say it's coming from MS "gurus" and youtube sensations than the sites, with actually no proof if it's efficient. 

[meanderingemu]

Just now, LawrensonPhoto said:

Don't really care, for $0.33 (or less) they can do what they want 🤣

 

i think anyone misleading people for their own gain needs to be called out.  but that's maybe just me.🤔

[meanderingemu]

2 hours ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

What's that suppose to mean

From my observations you can tell who has come to alamy from a background in MS, most have poor key-wording and tons of similars

I do agree that that has been changing though on the MS sites

 

 

 

sorry, meant against the people who on MS who are actually being there given wrong advice by pseudo experts, sorry if my phrasing in English was convoluted. 

[Aaron]

7 hours ago, Joseph Clemson said:

 

Hello Aaron, 

 

I think you have the right approach on your caption, although the formal editoral location/date style is not an absolute requirement for Alamy ulness you are submitting through Live News. However, I would urge you to take note of what has been written by other contributors on keywords. Over time, loose keywording has a known and dramtic negative impact on a contributors position in the search ranking. If your CTR drops much below the Alamy average, (currently 0.6) you may struggle to get your images seen by the buyer.

 

Any keyword which is not central to the subject of the image risks getting that image returned in a search for which it is not relevant. Each time that happens, and the searcher does not zoom it because it is irrelvant, your CTR and your search ranking take a small hit, all of which drives down your visibility in searches.

 

Using your image WWA4KB to illustrate what I mean. It contains keywords: beautiful, cheerful, cheering, crowd cup fans,  flag, friends, friendship,  goal, happy,  isolated men, portrait, smiling. None of these are relevant to that particular image and will create false positives. A person searching for 'happy girl' or 'cheering crowd' is not looking for that image. Tight, concise and accurate keywording is essential to success at Alamy.

 

If your CTR is low, you might consider creating a new pseudonym which will start afresh with a median ranking. Put in this your best images, carefully selected with few similars and with tight, relvant  keyword control on each image. If you have a lot to upload, you should see this new psuedonym have the success which is escaping you on your present portfolio.

 

In all honesty, I'm writing this not only to help you, but in the hope that many other contributors who have fallen into the same trap will read it and modify their approach. It may not be the case with yourself, but many new contributors come here from a microstock background where a scattergun approach to keywording is commonplace. Not only does that approach not work at alamy, it can bt positively harmful to one's hopes of success.

 

Good luck with your work. You clearly have the skill as a shooter, you just need to adjust your approach when sat in from of the screen for the post-processing. 

 

6 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

One of the great feature of Alamy, is they treat their contributors as adults.  No one will tell you that your caption is wrong, no one will reject your image because there is too many similar, because you put it in the wrong category..  This is all your choice here. 

 

So yes your captioning in fine, however writing "September 26, 2019." i just used over 12% of my allocated characters in my description for something that i have not seen used in any of my search results (i buyers want a date, they seem to use that feature from the Exif data, and if i think date is actually relevant (14 july in France for example) i'll use it in caption.  Actually date could give you more issues with false hits than anything.  Say your Football match was on July 14, now it will appear to all people looking for that celebration 

 

The one thing i noticed is you seem to use the same caption and keywords for set of images, regardless what is in the images.... For example Your series on Fond du Lac christmas lights, you have images of an illuminated bridges, with no mention of it anywhere (same for the band stand, the river...)

 

 

One last comment, there is a lot of input on this wonderful forum, go through it, and decide what you want to make of it.  I totally had to change my approach after a good read.  Now this morning i had to figure if i was ok with getting a search hit for "Rocky and friend" for my "Girl and a rocky beach with her friends"  (answer is Yes, image is a multicultural mix so friends was important), but my hit of "Barn side" for just a close up of Barn wood on side of a Barn, No and removed the word Side, which added nothing to the image, and would only be used for someone looking for a full barn side in my view. 

 

 

Again thank you, I am going slowly over my images and making changes. But it will take time. This is not the only thing I do. I freelance 24/7 for outlets, organizations and many groups in and out of Wisconsin. So I am trying to get to all my images. It will take time. I am placing the dates and location because it will give more deep description on where and when it the photo was taken. That is the only reason why I am doing it. Hope things change.