Alamy rank

[will perrett]

 

I'm aware that a contributor's rank is not normally made public by Alamy; nevertheless I have a question!  I've been an active contributor for about 3 years now, with a portfolio of over 10,000 images, and a QC rank which has been 3-stars for nearly all that time.  My sales have been steady for a couple of years, averaging 4/5 sales a month.  Recently however sales have dropped badly, and when I search for my images, I'm often struggling to find them, as they are buried, often many pages down the search engine.  I pretty sure my tagging is up to scratch.  So my question is: how can I try to improve my ranking?  Any hints and tips to get my images more visible would be really appreciated.  My pseudonym is will Perrett, by the way!

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, will perrett said:

 

I'm aware that a contributor's rank is not normally made public by Alamy; nevertheless I have a question!  I've been an active contributor for about 3 years now, with a portfolio of over 10,000 images, and a QC rank which has been 3-stars for nearly all that time.  My sales have been steady for a couple of years, averaging 4/5 sales a month.  Recently however sales have dropped badly, and when I search for my images, I'm often struggling to find them, as they are buried, often many pages down the search engine.  I pretty sure my tagging is up to scratch.  So my question is: how can I try to improve my ranking?  Any hints and tips to get my images more visible would be really appreciated.  My pseudonym is will Perrett, by the way!

 

Have you loaded more new images to Alamy lately?

 

Allan

 

[spacecadet]

6 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Have you loaded more new images to Alamy lately?

 

Allan

 

Yes, he has. Ws and 2As on the first page.

[Allan Bell]

Just now, spacecadet said:

Yes, he has. Ws and 2As on the first page.

 

That is not the problem then. But Hey! A lot of us seem to be hitting a turndown.

 

Allan

 

[will perrett]

Hi Allen

 

Yes: I'm uploading 80 - 100 images each week.  Got a big back catalogue!

 

Will

[NYCat]

I certainly can't see anything wrong with what you are doing. Are you making your supertags basically the same as the caption? That seems to help in my experiments. Your captions are sort of bare bones so maybe try adding some more of what you have super-tagged into the caption.

 

Paulette

[will perrett]

Thanks, Paulette.  I'll address my supertags and captions (though I often run out of caption space!)

 

Will

[Jill Morgan]

How's your CTR?  Do you have a lot of similar images where the image may not be the same, but a lot of the keywords would be, causing a lot of extra views?

 

Jill

[will perrett]

Yes, I fear that may be a problem.  I've been uploading, thinking that it's a numbers game, and that I should add as many as possible.  Similar images and similar tags in too many cases I reckon...

Will

[Ed Rooney]

Even though you have been with Alamy since 2006, you said you've been active for just three years. Problems for Alamy contributors rarely involve just one thing. I think both Jill and Paulette are right. But I also think it might take longer than three years to find your place. 

 

A few more thoughts about rank:  my own rank on most subjects is high. That is images of mine often show up on Page One or Two in a test search even with a large number of images on Alamy. How did I bring that about? Unfortunately, II have no idea. Well, maybe some idea.

 

I try never to upload more than two or three similars of a subject. We need to learn to edit our own work. If I go back to the same subject (landscapes, landmarks, street), and the light and the situation are different, I do not think of what I get as similars. 

 

I don't spend a lot of time guessing what buyers want. Instead, I upload images I like that suggest a viable stock caption. 

 

Good luck, Edo

Edited October 15, 2019 by Ed Rooney

[Stokie]

3 hours ago, David Pimborough said:

 

I wouldn't say your subject matter is not the problem as you have a large and varied portfolio.

 

I'd just watch the urge to add fluff in the keywords for example who really cares that a pine tree in a shot happens to be a maritime pine

for example in this shot there are too many keywords describing the tree(s) but you missed the obvious ones Europe, European etc.

 

Adding stuff like sailing holiday location? Perhaps? But would a buyer see it the same way?

 

 

 

 

Just avoid the temptation to add keywords that don't really matter to the image as it can harm your search ranking

I agree with the premise of not adding keywords of things that aren't in your picture, but in this case I would include the type of tree as it is fairly prominent in the image. Having said that, I can't think that any one looking for a picture of a maritime pine would be too interested in this one.

 

I always try and describe what the picture is about (imagine telling someone that can't see your photo what it is all about) and put that in your caption. Then pick most of the words in the caption as tags (keywords) with the most relevant being supertags. In this case I would have maritime pine as just a tag, not a supertag.

 

John.

[Bryan]

After a few years of steadily rising sales and income, I have seen a reduction in both, although more specifically income. So I also need some answers!

 

Looking at your work Will I am seeing a good variety of subject matter from numerous interesting locations, but, in addition to the more obviously commercially attractive work, I am also seeing quite a few similars and a number of, in particular landscape, shots that are rather bland. Pruning might help, but who knows, the game is changing all the while.

Edited October 15, 2019 by Bryan