Its official - as of 18 October 0.0 CTR

[Semmick Photo]

What can I say, its not encouraging at all. No more zooms, no more sales, nothing. It has stopped dead. Plenty of views though, but views dont butter my sandwich.

 

When was the last rerank? And when is the next one?

 

If I have this correct, a low CTR will push you back in the search. I am guessing a 0.0 CTR puts my images in cast iron chest, welded shut, with a rusty chain and lock, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench and guarded by Poseidon himself. 

 

I have been told my images arent the problem. Any ideas of how to change my luck?

 

Appreciate any insight.

 

PS: If its about adding more images, I find that hard to digest. It feels unnatural of adding images to a portfolio that doesnt sell.

PPS: I am not out for an argument, its a genuine question/concern, please be nice

[Reciprocity Images]

 

What can I say, its not encouraging at all. No more zooms, no more sales, nothing. It has stopped dead. Plenty of views though, but views dont butter my sandwich.

 

When was the last rerank? And when is the next one?

 

If I have this correct, a low CTR will push you back in the search. I am guessing a 0.0 CTR puts my images in cast iron chest, welded shut, with a rusty chain and lock, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench and guarded by Poseidon himself. 

 

I have been told my images arent the problem. Any ideas of how to change my luck?

 

Appreciate any insight.

 

PS: If its about adding more images, I find that hard to digest. It feels unnatural of adding images to a portfolio that doesnt sell.

PPS: I am not out for an argument, its a genuine question/concern, please be nice

 

Had a very quick look through your images and they seems decent enough- there are certainly some very saleable images...

 

But no, 488 images is not a large enough portfolio to expect regular zooms, and certainly not regular sales... Get that number close to 2,000 and you can expect a few zooms a week and few sales a month with the same quality of images.

 

I agree though that it's had to keep hacking away with no results, but at the same time you can't expect results without the pain first. It comes down to a business decision as to weather it is worth it or not for you to make that effort. 

 

-Jason

[Semmick Photo]

Thank you Jason, what I dont understand is that I have 12 sales in my first year (July 12-July 13) on my portfolio, with less images. Ever since July this year, it all stopped, even with adding 200 more images. Thats why I am thinking a rerank in July may have caused the drought and I cant seem to recover from it. 

[Pearl]

A re-rank is due any day now.  The last one was 31st July

 

Pearl

[Jose Elias]

You have good images, but with only 488 photos, many of them a variation of the same theme such as the flag-faces, it's very hard to have views/zooms/sales unless you were supplying a very specific and rare niche.

[John Morrison]

If its about adding more images, I find that hard to digest. It feels unnatural of adding images to a portfolio that doesnt sell.

 

Hang on... you've got this the wrong way round! Your pictures aren't selling... because you haven't got enough...

[Craig Yates]

I would not worry I had regular growing sales up until September and not one sale since out of nearly 12k of images.
It could be a  drought before a downpour that's my optimistic view.

Regards
Craig

[John Morrison]

down poor

 

Freudian slip?

[Reciprocity Images]

Thank you Jason, what I dont understand is that I have 12 sales in my first year (July 12-July 13) on my portfolio, with less images. Ever since July this year, it all stopped, even with adding 200 more images. Thats why I am thinking a rerank in July may have caused the drought and I cant seem to recover from it. 

 

To me that only shows that your images are indeed salable- you need only increase the quantity while maintaining the same quality. Otherwise, you may well experience ups and downs, some months with (many) sale(s) and some months on end with nothing. My experience on Alamy starting out with a small collection was similar. Now, with over 2,000 images on sale, I have constant monthly sales (knock on wood) and my views and zooms (usually) increase proportionately to the amount of images for sale...

 

I do agree however, that Alamy rank does play a significant factor- and that every three months or so, there are large up or down swings in terms of views/zooms (and of course sales are heavily related to both of those factors).

 

-Jason

[Craig Yates]

 

down poor

 

Freudian slip?

 

Indeed John it's also the state of today's weather. (corrected downpour)

 

Regards

Craig

[Duncan_Andison]

 

Best advice I can give: upload till you reach 3000 images and THEN look back to see if they sell.

Uploading a handful (yep, 488 is not even a drop in Alamy's ocean) of images and waiting to see which way the wind blows, is the worst you can do. Remember new contributors start with a medium rank. If after a while (dunno how long it lasts) - you don't get any sales - you get pushed further down the line. The way you do it now (AND many others with limited stock), will only frustrate you. Don't forget that other contributors aren't sitting still. They add loads of new material burying you under even deeper if they have a successful CTR. And what do you do? You just sit there watching how your ship sinks deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper ....

Pull yourself together , grab that camera and get out shooting a great diversity of subjects. Take your time to add well thought over captions and keywords and submit to different non-exclusive agencies spreading your changes and keeping you motivated.

 

Cheers and good luck,

Philippe

 

2nd this. Started uploading May 2012 and reached about 1200 by Mar 2013. Since then added another 3,500 and it's only really been the last couple of months that I'm seeing a better flow of sales. Including the creative account (that I closed when they changed things...added the creative button thing), I've had about 32 sales, not many under $30 and a few nice text book sales. Hopefully this will continue to increase.

 

Before I started working seriously on a Micro port in Aug, I was uploading about 6-800 a month (from March this year) but now this has dropped to about 400p/m as I split time on the two ports. The stats I keep clearly show increase of sales came in about 3 months after my surge towards the 3k mark, just hoping it continues... I would like to have about 8k images by next Mar.

[Semmick Photo]

Guys, I appreciate your feedback. My image creating process is not that fast. I dont shoot like a machine gun. I shoot more creative then editorial. Adding another 2500 images to get sales, is going to take me at least 3 years. Thats a long time to see a return, and will it be worth it? I am really on the fence here. I could add another 500 and see how it goes. I just wonder why my images stopped selling as of July and why my CTR has dropped to 0

[Jose Elias]

Guys, I appreciate your feedback. My image creating process is not that fast. I dont shoot like a machine gun. I shoot more creative then editorial. Adding another 2500 images to get sales, is going to take me at least 3 years. Thats a long time to see a return, and will it be worth it? I am really on the fence here. I could add another 500 and see how it goes. I just wonder why my images stopped selling as of July and why my CTR has dropped to 0

 

In my case I also saw a big change in January, and comparing to 2012 I'm seeing an almost 50% drop without any apparent reason since the increase in the number of uploaded images to alamy wasn't big enough to dilute my portfolio.

 

Last month things seemed to return to used to be the normal, and I'm expecting to see what is going to happen this month.

 

This leads me to think that something happened from alamy part that may have changed the search results affecting my portfolio exposure. Maybe the Commercial Collection selection?... So, you may have been affected by the same thing who knows...

[Duncan_Andison]

Guys, I appreciate your feedback. My image creating process is not that fast. I dont shoot like a machine gun. I shoot more creative then editorial. Adding another 2500 images to get sales, is going to take me at least 3 years. Thats a long time to see a return, and will it be worth it? I am really on the fence here. I could add another 500 and see how it goes. I just wonder why my images stopped selling as of July and why my CTR has dropped to 0

 

I guess it is just as possible that next month you can end up with a glut of zooms etc. With a smaller portfolio the peaks and troughs will be more obvious. 

 

While the vol of images you're able to produce is lower and with the success you are having with the micros, keep that as your main priority and add images here when the opportunity presents itself. Split your time 70/30 or 80/20 between the two ports and don't worry about sales here to much, they will come once your port size has increased in size and variety. At the same time the port that is bringing in the most money will be growing faster and more likely to allow you to spend more time building up both ports quicker in the future. 

 

Think of the images here as cash for a rainy day, you're not expecting to use it or benefit from it now or the near future but later on once you have saved enough 

[Semmick Photo]

Thanks Duncan, that sounds as good advice. 

[StephenAllen72]

I am having the same problem but I am uploading as many as possible at the moment and will see how that works out. I too have a full time job and this is more of a hobby so it will take me a while. I will just try to enjoy the ride and hopefully get a few sales in between.

 

I wish you luck!

[Semmick Photo]

I am having the same problem but I am uploading as many as possible at the moment and will see how that works out. I too have a full time job and this is more of a hobby so it will take me a while. I will just try to enjoy the ride and hopefully get a few sales in between.

 

I wish you luck!

 Getting images on Alamy is extremely time consuming, it cost more time then on any other agency. I want to enjoy this as much as possible too, but I do need to see  a return. I was seeing sales and zooms increase, as I added more images, which kept me going. But when sales and zooms all of a sudden come to a halt, when I am constantly adding images, then the fun, the reward and the logic to add more images, is gone. 

[Ace]

Dear Semmick,

 

I have been uploading photos for about 18 months par time alongside a full time job.

I must admit it took me a while to find my way around the site and business.

I have steadily added about 1900 images.

First sale was after 300 uploads then the next sale came about 700 images.

I understand one thing, you need varied good quality images.

Yours I am sure are fine.

But I am selling pictures I uploaded a year ago and I have taken the attitude that the more varied pictures I have on here the more sales come through. It's taken a while but through a higher volume of uploads I can now see more zooms. Only 25% of my zooms become sales which is kind of exciting because I get sales I didn't know about !

 

That 'excites ' me to upload more !!!!

 

You might think 488 is enough but 'for me ' I feel I need more.

My aim is to shoot little but often. Some weeks I have more time.

But I hope to have a minimum of 2,000 per year part time which is easily achievable.

Who knows, when I have 10,000 Alamy may have over 50 million by then.

 

The choice is whether we think it's worthwhile ?

For me I think it is.

 

Best wishes and good luck to you.

Adrian

[Dave R]

Hi Semmick

 

Your plight is one that is felt by most of us from time to time. One of the problems with access to your sales and statistics on a daily basis is that you tend to look every day, other day, or week and this can be both encouraging and discouraging in equal measure. Years ago you sent you tranys off to the library they would sell them over a year at the end of the year you got a cheque if they all sold on the same day or one a week all year round it didn't matter as you didn't know you'd keep shooting in optimism submitting when you had enough to send in a batch and thats how it worked.

 

This year I had 3 months without a sale prior to that one or two a month then 2 months selling 4 a month. This month quiet again so far but I'm uploading about 800 more shots in the hope as others have said more variety and volume will make the difference. Time will tell.

 

One other thing I add is that the more you submit the more you realise that the shots you think will sell often don't and the things you think why am I bothering with this end up selling you just can't second guess what some one somewhere wants.

 

Stick with it Dave