Worledit Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 Hello everyone! So, title speak itself. I've been contributing to Alamy for almost a year, not exclusively. And I've just got a download so far. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Here is the link to my portfolio: https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/486506.html Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morrison Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 The first pic I looked at is captioned ‘Ancient white castle located at the top of a mountain’. One of the tags is ‘famous place. But the obvious questions are unanswered. Which castle? Which mountain? Which region? Which country? On some shots I saw irrelevant keywords (which do not describe anything in the picture); on others you’ve missed out some of the words which buyers might need, to locate your pix. You have plenty of saleable pix, but I’d suggest revisiting the captions and keywords… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gaffen Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 David, A year is not long in the stock industry, as it takes a considerable time to get noticed, particularly in a large agency like Alamy, with many thousands of photographers contributing, and millions of images to choose from. I have found stock to be a numbers game, with the more images you have online in your portfolio, the more chance you have of selling. It is not only about numbers, of course, its also about what you shoot. My advice is to cover a wider range of subjects, people photography is always important, so is variety. Topics in the public eye, news related issues, politics, celebrities, etc. Another good strategy is to get known in one or more specialist areas or subjects. So clients know where, or who to come to, for certain images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worledit Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 (edited) First of all, thanks for answering Jonh! 21 minutes ago, John Morrison said: One of the tags is ‘famous place. But the obvious questions are unanswered. Which castle? Which mountain? Which region? Which country? This castle is not famous, That is something I labeled it for it to sell. It is somewhere in the middle of the south of Spain. But no buyer is going to look for that specific castle, that's for sure. That's why I didn't write the names. I said it was in Spain though. 21 minutes ago, John Morrison said: On some shots I saw irrelevant keywords (which do not describe anything in the picture); on others you’ve missed out some of the words which buyers might need, to locate your pix. You have plenty of saleable pix, but I’d suggest revisiting the captions and keywords… Good point!, I try to complete the 50 keywords, not very accurately tough. Is location that important? My problem is that living in a country such as Spain I don't get that many Spanish buyers, And those that buy my images abroad don't look for images from a specific region of Spain, they just like some of my images and buy it. I am just asking because I don't pay attention to location as you have pointed out... 18 minutes ago, John Gaffen said: David, A year is not long in the stock industry, as it takes a considerable time to get noticed, particularly in a large agency like Alamy, with many thousands of photographers contributing, and millions of images to choose from. I have found stock to be a numbers game, with the more images you have online in your portfolio, the more chance you have of selling. It is not only about numbers, of course, its also about what you shoot. My advice is to cover a wider range of subjects, people photography is always important, so is variety. Topics in the public eye, news related issues, politics, celebrities, etc. Another good strategy is to get known in one or more specialist areas or subjects. So clients know where, or who to come to, for certain images. Thank you Jonh, LOL I just checked your names just to be sure. I know it is a number game, appreciate your pieces of advice. I am just surprised by my stats here. Because I had understood Alamy was one of the big stock agencies. And as far as I am concerned, it seems like it is not, at least it doesn't work that good for me. Maybe because bad keywording and captioning as Jonh above mentioned... Edited September 26, 2019 by Worledit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morrison Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 3 minutes ago, Worledit said: But no buyer is going to look for that specific castle, that's for sure. For sure??? 4 minutes ago, Worledit said: those that buy my images abroad don't look for images from a specific region of Spain, they just like some of my images and buy it. Well... they're not going to find your images in the first place, if you don't supply the appropriate keywords! Instead of criticising Alamy, you really need to review your keywording strategy. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worledit Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 3 minutes ago, John Morrison said: For sure??? 99% sure. It is not even a castle LOL. 5 minutes ago, John Morrison said: Well... they're not going to find your images in the first place, if you don't supply the appropriate keywords! Instead of criticising Alamy, you really need to review your keywording strategy. Wasn't my intention to criticize Alamy. I know is by far the agency that treats best their contributors. I'm just speaking about my stats here. Btw, my keywording is the same in other agencies that work pretty good for me. I just took a look at my keywords and I don't think is bad at all. Am I blind? 😭 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morrison Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 Just now, Worledit said: Btw, my keywording is the same in other agencies that work pretty good for me. I just took a look at my keywords and I don't think is bad at all. Am I blind? 😭 Not blind... but you're not listening. You ask for "suggestions and advice", but then disregard it. Look at your portfolio from the point of view of prospective buyers. How can you help them to find your pictures? Your current strategy isn't working, but you're reluctant to review your keywording. I'm done: off to take some pix... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VbFolly Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 I think you have some great photos which are saleable at Alamy. I agree with John that the captioning and keywording needs to be improved. I think the main problem is that you try to include 50 keywords - this comes from the Discoverability feature, but it is very damaging to your CTR and rank when irrelevant keywords are added. It has been discussed on the forum quite often, and most people agree that it is much better to include fewer relevant and accurate tags. For example, you have an image of a black dog (RF5405), but include keywords like electric tower, which is a small background element. Buyers looking for an electric tower don't want an image of a dog! Other keywords for this image are railway, train, tracks, transport, but there is no railway, train, etc, in the photo, so these inaccurate tags need to be deleted. You also have sunrise and sunset - only one is true. Locations are very important, but not dates unless it is a news event. I noticed an error in your captioning of the Forbidden City photo - this is in China not Vietnam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Myford Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 Most of Alamy's customers are picture editors/researchers, who are looking for specific subjects, not just "pretty pictures". They will search for those specific subjects, and expect accurate captions. Adding false information to "make it sell" won't go down well here. (And John is not spelt Jonh: make errors like that in your keywords, and again your pictures will not show up in results.) 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worledit Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 48 minutes ago, VbFolly said: I think you have some great photos which are saleable at Alamy. I agree with John that the captioning and keywording needs to be improved. I think the main problem is that you try to include 50 keywords - this comes from the Discoverability feature, but it is very damaging to your CTR and rank when irrelevant keywords are added Really interesting. I'll take a look at some of my useless keywords, Thanks!! 45 minutes ago, DJ Myford said: Most of Alamy's customers are picture editors/researchers, who are looking for specific subjects +1. Guess I will have to work on my locations. Thank you! 11 minutes ago, David Pimborough said: Get your keywords right and alter any incorrect titles that way your images will stand a chance of selling. Also you said "Ancient white castle located at the top of a mountain" then you said " 99% sure. It is not even a castle LOL. " Looks like a castle doesn't it? Or is it a hotel? Or stately home? Wow, dindn't notice those. thank you for noticing them. Regarding the castle, it is situated in an agriculture field, and altough currently is a private house, it belonged to a count. I guess you are all right. It is also important to properly keyword and caption images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokie Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 Do some research about the 'castle'. You must know the location and what the mountain is named? Then see if you can find the name of the property and maybe the former owner (the count) and include all these in your tags. Don't try to get to 50, as others have said, only include relevant ones. So you end up with "****** castle, the former home of Count ******, built on top of ****** mountain, Murcia, Spain, Europe" for the caption and include all the underlined words as supertags and the rest as tags, plus building, house, home and any other words that actually describe whats in the photo. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meanderingemu Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 1 hour ago, Stokie said: Do some research about the 'castle'. You must know the location and what the mountain is named? Then see if you can find the name of the property and maybe the former owner (the count) and include all these in your tags. Don't try to get to 50, as others have said, only include relevant ones. So you end up with "****** castle, the former home of Count ******, built on top of ****** mountain, Murcia, Spain, Europe" for the caption and include all the underlined words as supertags and the rest as tags, plus building, house, home and any other words that actually describe whats in the photo. John and bonus, even someone that just wants a random castle on a hill would still find it. I'm curious, is OP worried that having additional info would lead to not selling the picture because it wouldn't be random/anonymous anymore? i know i have a few of such image, and I think i even have KW like "generic" "could be anywhere" but i still have the specifics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 (edited) With your animals (shot in captivity), do a sitewide search on each species and see the competition you're up against. Then ask why a buyer would choose to buy yours rather than theirs. (Hint: You seem to have quite a lot of pics with bits of wings etc chopped off randomly.) Edited October 1, 2019 by Cryptoprocta 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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