Suddenly, sales decreased horribly.

[Onuchcha]

Dear fellows, 

I am Jahangir Alam Onuchcha from Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

Its been a long time as a contributor, since 10 Mar 2016 I started contributing. 

My Portfolio: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/onuchcha.html

I have earned more than a thousand dollars from Alamy so far. My sales were medium, but some were sold every month.

But September 2019 to April 2020 my Alamy sale is too low, and it's horrible, only 2 sales (16$).

I did not understand. At first I thought it was normal, at the same time my other agency is selling well.
I am waiting, wait, and wait...

What can I do? 
Those are my Alamy experienced fellows I want to know your experience. Please fellows help me. 

 

Stay HOME and be Safe.

Thanks

 

[geogphotos]

I very much enjoyed looking through your pictures. Don't know what you can do to get more sales. 

 

Can you advertise yourself more to potential buyers? 

[sooth]

.

Edited October 19, 2023 by sooth

[Onuchcha]

Dear geogphotos,

Thank you so much!

I really don’t know what I can do after this long wait? 

My sales were good. But what happened in the last 5/6 months!

How can I advertise more potential buyers, I still don't know!

Can you share any advice or ideas please?

 

[Onuchcha]

Dear Sooth,

Thank you so much Bro!

Ohh no, I didn't think like you.

I think this observation of yours will be very useful to me.

 

 

[geogphotos]

2 hours ago, Onuchcha said:

Dear geogphotos,

Thank you so much!

I really don’t know what I can do after this long wait? 

My sales were good. But what happened in the last 5/6 months!

How can I advertise more potential buyers, I still don't know!

Can you share any advice or ideas please?

 

 

 

What was your normal pattern of sales - mainly in Asia or global? 

 

Have you contacted potential buyers within Bangladesh? Is the economy going through a bad time in Bangladesh?

[geogphotos]

I haven't looked past the first few pages of your images so haven't checked all of them. 

 

I wonder if there might be demand for images that relate to global issues such as the environment, health, education, housing, women's issues, religion, flood management, population pressures and population control policies, poverty, ethnic minorities etc 

[geogphotos]

One more comment from me, and I do really like your images, but you do have a very large number of 'similars' which will be dragging your images down in the search order. Maybe the effect of that has really started to hurt you over the last six months. 

 

Finally, I am not saying that I am any sort of expert but if I was you I would try to cover subjects which relate to socio-economic and environmental issues and problems.

 

Your images make me really want to visit Bangladesh, they show how beautiful and interesting it is. A lovely country,

 

But maybe buyers globally are looking for subject matter which is more hard-hitting even if this would not be showing the best side of Bangladesh.

[Steve F]

Hi Onuchcha,

+1 to what others have said above. You've got some really great pictures of your country, full of colour and life.

 

You've got LOADS of similars Like 28+ pictures of white chrysanthemums on the first couple of pages that are all essentially the same. This will not help your ranking. I do often do multiple pictures of the same subject myself, vertical and portrait format, different angles. But this wouldn't leave me realistically with more than 3-5 shots. Also, 'deserted Chittagong road', you've got 6 photos that are essentially the same.

 

Keywording - you've mentioned Coronavirus in the captions of some recent pictures which is good, but not others, e.g. the sanitizer pictures. It might help to put Covid 19 in the captions too. And some photos say "vigilant campaig" at the end of the caption. You've lost the end of the word campaign, and 'vigilant' is not likely to be a word that is searched in this context (can't imagine 'vigilant' or' vigilance' being searched much at all to be honest). Public health campaign would be better.

 

Good luck!

Steve

 

 

[Onuchcha]

Dear geogphotos,

My normal pattern of sales is mainly global. 

Bangladeshi image buyers are not used to on online image buy and sales platform. 

 

The issues you see in my portfolio have been sold many times over the last few months at my other photo agencies. And this is confusing me. See some links:

https://medium.com/world-of-opportunity/how-can-bangladeshs-micro-small-and-medium-businesses-thrive-a0c2cd6f32cd

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/hundreds-dying/77084/

https://sourcingjournal.com/topics/labor/bangladesh-garment-manufacturers-exporters-association-digital-wage-system-182281/

https://www.modaes.com/entorno/coronavirus-la-crisis-en-china-tensa-el-sourcing-de-bangladesh-a-las-puertas-del-monzon-es.html

https://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/bangladesh-govt-slashes-source-tax-on-exports-to-0-25--252756-newsdetails.htm

https://www.parool.nl/wereld/hrw-naaiateliers-in-bangladesh-zwaar-geraakt-vanwege-corona~b2334266/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

 

 

[Steve F]

4 minutes ago, Onuchcha said:

Dear geogphotos,

My normal pattern of sales is mainly global. 

Bangladeshi image buyers are not used to on online image buy and sales platform. 

 

The issues you see in my portfolio have been sold many times over the last few months at my other photo agencies. And this is confusing me. See some links:

https://medium.com/world-of-opportunity/how-can-bangladeshs-micro-small-and-medium-businesses-thrive-a0c2cd6f32cd

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/hundreds-dying/77084/

https://sourcingjournal.com/topics/labor/bangladesh-garment-manufacturers-exporters-association-digital-wage-system-182281/

https://www.modaes.com/entorno/coronavirus-la-crisis-en-china-tensa-el-sourcing-de-bangladesh-a-las-puertas-del-monzon-es.html

https://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/bangladesh-govt-slashes-source-tax-on-exports-to-0-25--252756-newsdetails.htm

https://www.parool.nl/wereld/hrw-naaiateliers-in-bangladesh-zwaar-geraakt-vanwege-corona~b2334266/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

 

 

 

Hi Onuchcha, great pictures that you've sold! How does your CTR compare to the Alamy average?

[Onuchcha]

2 minutes ago, Steve F said:

CTR

Sorry dear what is CTR?

 

by the way Thank you...for more details advise to me.

Edited May 2, 2020 by Onuchcha

[Steve F]

2 hours ago, Onuchcha said:

Sorry dear what is CTR?

 

If you're on your Contributor Dashboard, go to Alamy measures near the bottom. You'll see your CTR and the Alamy average.

 

CTR stands for “Click Through Rate” which is the number of zooms divided by the number of views, multiplied by 100. It only counts zooms from particular clients of Alamy. If you do lots of irrelevant keywords for your images or have lots of similar images, they will show up in searches, but will not be zoomed. This will drop your CTR rank. If you have a lower CTR rank, your images will get pushed back by Alamys algorithms to the back of the search pages.

 

Steve

 

By the way, 'dear' is something used colloquially in certain parts of the UK by women to address people. It sounds very strange coming from a non native speaker.

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by Steve F

[Onuchcha]

Dear Steve,

Do you know anything about this subject?

I lost one of my most important Hard drive, which includes lots of my important photos that I uploaded to the Alamy site.

Can I download some of my pictures from Alamy site?

I think you can understand that's the matter...I will not get my picture in any other way except Alamy site.

Now Alamy's permission is the only and last hope.

 

Can It Possible Steve?

[Steve F]

Sorry, no idea, you'll have to email Alamy and see what they say. I know it doesn't help, but the moral of the story is to backup in at least 2 places...

[Onuchcha]

6 minutes ago, Steve F said:

dear

Ohh...sorry for that.

 

And, Last month average CTR on Alamy: 0.59  

Average CTR : 0.12 

 

[Steve F]

Okay, this is the answer to your original question. I haven't looked at your keywords, but the amount of similars is probably having a major impact on your CTR.

Steve

 

p.s. no worries, your English is very good.

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by Steve F

[geogphotos]

37 minutes ago, Onuchcha said:

Dear geogphotos,

My normal pattern of sales is mainly global. 

Bangladeshi image buyers are not used to on online image buy and sales platform. 

 

The issues you see in my portfolio have been sold many times over the last few months at my other photo agencies. And this is confusing me. See some links:

https://medium.com/world-of-opportunity/how-can-bangladeshs-micro-small-and-medium-businesses-thrive-a0c2cd6f32cd

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/hundreds-dying/77084/

https://sourcingjournal.com/topics/labor/bangladesh-garment-manufacturers-exporters-association-digital-wage-system-182281/

https://www.modaes.com/entorno/coronavirus-la-crisis-en-china-tensa-el-sourcing-de-bangladesh-a-las-puertas-del-monzon-es.html

https://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/bangladesh-govt-slashes-source-tax-on-exports-to-0-25--252756-newsdetails.htm

https://www.parool.nl/wereld/hrw-naaiateliers-in-bangladesh-zwaar-geraakt-vanwege-corona~b2334266/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

 

 

 

 

Perhaps these buyers prefer the low prices at the other agency. 

[Steve F]

6 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

Perhaps these buyers prefer the low prices at the other agency. 

 

Meaning you might be hurting your sales on Alamy by having the same images available for cheaper elsewhere.

 

... there's arguments for this both ways on the Forum.

[spacecadet]

7 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

Perhaps these buyers prefer the low prices at the other agency. 

As geog says, you are competing with yourself at a lower price point.

[Onuchcha]

Ohh..Steve, i think i understand. Each agency has a different rules of sale system and i am still learning. 

Ok, Let's see what happens ...

[Ed Rooney]

I too enjoy looking at your pictures, Mister O, and seeing Bangladesh. Here's something not so good I've noticed while scanning your pages. 

 

You have too many similar shots. And they are very similar. There are times I would have liked to see you using a lens that is not so wide. 

 

Good luck with future sales and stay safe.

 

Edo

[Onuchcha]

Ed Rooney,

It is my good fortune to be able to show you my country with my pictures. And really I am very frustrated because of my ignorance.

I misunderstood that giving buyers more options would increase my sales. Alamy's QC never warned me about that and that it should have done.

Ok, I also learned...

Rooney, In this case, I will delete some pictures of the same form? Or, what if I sort my Alamy portfolio page?

Another thing I have learned is that in the last 4/5 years, it was wrong for me to give time to Alamy alone. 

Non-exclusive is more than good for exclusive to me. 

 

Please Rooney be safe with your family.

 

Onuchcha

[Steve F]

30 minutes ago, Onuchcha said:

Ed Rooney,

It is my good fortune to be able to show you my country with my pictures. And really I am very frustrated because of my ignorance.

I misunderstood that giving buyers more options would increase my sales. Alamy's QC never warned me about that and that it should have done.

Ok, I also learned...

Rooney, In this case, I will delete some pictures of the same form? Or, what if I sort my Alamy portfolio page?

Another thing I have learned is that in the last 4/5 years, it was wrong for me to give time to Alamy alone. 

Non-exclusive is more than good for exclusive to me. 

 

Please Rooney be safe with your family.

 

Onuchcha

 

Hi Onuchcha,

Yes, there's a lot of rules of thumb which you only discover through experience and through reading the forum. However, on the 'How to sell images' page, there's a PDF giving guidelines on how to pass QC and avoid getting rejected. One of them is 'excessive similars - Series of similar images with almost identical compositions or only slight differences':

https://www.alamy.com/contributors/alamy-how-to-pass-qc.pdf

 

Your best bet is deleting some photos. It takes 6 months though for them to disappear off the system. You could ask Alamy nicely to help, but I suspect they're too busy at the moment with Covid-19.

 

I think the Alamy Portfolio page is more for if you have a social media presence on Facebook or Instagram, or if you meet clients face to face. I don't think the vast majority of Alamy's clients will ever look at your Portfolio Page.

 

Non-exclusive - there's arguments for both. I don't have time to contribute to other agencies and I don't like the idea of the potential to buy my images cheaper elsewhere, but yes, lots of people are successful when they spread themselves around.

 

Stephen

 

p.s. I know you haven't asked for an English lesson, but I worked in Dubai for a while and got called Mr Stephen a lot and I'm a civil engineer so I'm a bit pedantic! So, you should be using people's first names on the forum, so Ed, or Steve (Stephen). If I talked to my bank or got a phone call from a business, they would be calling me Mr Frost (using my family name). Stay safe too!

 

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by Steve F

[meanderingemu]

some questions,

do you upload the same Caption and keywords to all the agency you use? I notice you have many incomplete caption. 

Why do you always include the date the image was taken in the caption, when it is likely not really relevant, but uses 8-10% of your allowed characters?

 How much time do you spend on tagging your Alamy images, how often do you compare search results in My Alamy to make sure you are not getting unwanted false positive?

Edited May 2, 2020 by meanderingemu

[meanderingemu]

58 minutes ago, Onuchcha said:

Ed Rooney,

It is my good fortune to be able to show you my country with my pictures. And really I am very frustrated because of my ignorance.

I misunderstood that giving buyers more options would increase my sales. Alamy's QC never warned me about that and that it should have done.

 

 

 

 

QC is not about babysitting contributors, it's about making sure the images uploaded meet technical standards.  You are responsible for what you offer to the client.  You are free to offer more option- it is your choice, Alamy is just here to distribute your product.