No sales on Alamy - and I sale on other sites

[dumalaaleksander]

Hi all,

 

Just a quick question: I have no sales on Alamy (around 600 views), and using the same (very small - just over 400 pics) portfolio, I have around 20 sales on two other sites.

20 on each of them.

Because by portfolio is very small and exists just over half a year, I do not expect many sales, but at least one sale would be nice.

My pics can be found (I guess) using my email: dumala.aleksander@gmail.com or the link https://www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?pl=1&plno=1121409

Can someone guide me, please, what makes Alamy get me no sales, while I get a couple of sales on two othes sites, every month?

 

Regards

Alex

Edited October 4, 2023 by dumalaaleksander

[Mr Standfast]

Customers often search for images using google and then buy the cheapest.

 

Are your images cheaper on the other sites?

 

?

[spacecadet]

It was always possible to sell one's product at different prices- think of high-end portraiture and schools or event photography- but that was in the days of differentiated markets. On the internet, with identical product, there's no such thing. So with the same images on microstock you are just competing with yourself at a lower price point.

 

[Steve F]

Captions are searchable by clients. Your captions are far too short. Aside from that, clients will be reading captions on search pages by hovering over an image. If they're looking for e.g. a certain place and neither the place nor the country is mentioned in the caption, they will probably move swiftly on to one of the hundreds of other images available.

Include the Latin as well as the common name of plants, insects and the location (including the country). Some helpful links:

https://www.alamy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Captions-and-Tags-checklist.pdf

https://www.alamy.com/blog/tips-for-your-captions-from-the-sales-team

https://www.alamy.com/blog/captions-and-tags

 

Try to make use of all 150 letters available to you in the caption. Include British and American spellings, e.g. color and colour. You should include what you can see in the image and any extra wording to try to make an image more saleable, e.g.:

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/16942-images-sold-in-august-2023/?do=findComment&comment=344625

[Jacek]

I have also slightly over 400 pics . Most same croped different way. No sales , only 80 views. This doesn't worry me  except ZERO zooms . All exlusive on Alamy. Another pictures ( worst in my opinion ) I sell on another stock for one $ - from time to time.

Today 8 views " Sand Martin " one of them 2RKXD3H and still NO zoom.  My CTR is 0,00 

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Jacek

[Steve F]

4 hours ago, Jacek said:

I have also slightly over 400 pics . Most same croped different way. No sales , only 80 views. This doesn't worry me  except ZERO zooms . All exlusive on Alamy. Another pictures ( worst in my opinion ) I sell on another stock for one $ - from time to time.

Today 8 views " Sand Martin " one of them 2RKXD3H and still NO zoom.  My CTR is 0,00 

 

 

Hi Jacek,

You have many many similars, so you actually have more like the equivalent of 100 unique images - which is a drop in the ocean. You are also not making full use of the 150 characters in your captions. Locations are not included. Captions are searchable by clients; you don't provide a location or much information so if there's several hundred images of your bird species on Alamy, why would a client choose yours? E.g. have you taken a picture of a migrating bird at the end of its migration? If yes, say so.

 

Finally, nice pictures. But how do your bird pictures compare to others on Alamy? Are they similar or better? Worse?

 

Hope this gives some ideas. Good luck,

Steve

Edited October 19, 2023 by Steve F

[Jacek]

35 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

 

 

But how do your bird pictures compare to others on Alamy? Are they similar or better? Worse?

 

 

Dear Steve , This is my concern. ZERO zooms means most probably another pictures are better . 

[Steve F]

1 minute ago, Jacek said:

Dear Steve , This is my concern. ZERO zooms means most probably another pictures are better . 

 

Hi. Not necessarily, maybe no one is buying images of these particular birds. But I don't know. Search for one of your birds on the Alamy website and see what other contributor's images look like.

[Jacek]

2 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Hi. Not necessarily, maybe no one is buying images of these particular birds. But I don't know. Search for one of your birds on the Alamy website and see what other contributor's images look like.

Right, many thanks

In  case one day will sell my first picture it can be visible in system witn even 3 months dalay ? 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Jacek

[Steve F]

1 minute ago, Jacek said:

Right, many thanks

 

It may also help to find out where bird images like this are published. E.g. bird magazine publications. What do their images look like? How are the images described/captioned? What's selling?

[Steve F]

13 minutes ago, Jacek said:

In  case one day will sell my first picture it can be visible in system witn even 3 months dalay ?

 

Some clients can take 3 months to report to Alamy, yes. It won't show up until Alamy invoice the client for the image. Some clients take even longer than 3 months! (or don't report at all. Except you will find it hard to go for an infringement when you are on multiple stock sites).

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Steve F

[NYCat]

1 hour ago, Jacek said:

Dear Steve , This is my concern. ZERO zooms means most probably another pictures are better . 

 

I think your photos are fabulous. I don't think quality is the issue. One issue, unfortunately, is that bird photos don't sell much on Alamy. Are you getting a lot of views? The views will tell you whether people are seeing your birds and could indicate whether captioning and keywording are good. Go to the first page of a search for a type of bird you shoot and look at the captions and keywords to see what might have made those images show up on the first page. I get my images on the first page, I think, due to how well my polar bears sell so I have a good sales record. I've only sold a handful of bird photos and behavior seems to have something to do with it. I'd use "behavior" in keywords if the bird is doing anything. Also, as Steve says, location. Anything you put in caption and make a supertag is likely to show up higher in results. You should definitely put the Latin name in the caption and keywords as a supertag. I think buyers search animals by Latin name. Gen also has lots of wonderful bird photos and she doesn't report many sales either. I wonder if there is a specialty agency that buyers use??? I don't mean to discourage you. I really admire your work.

 

Paulette

Edited October 19, 2023 by NYCat

[Jacek]

38 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

I think your photos are fabulous. I don't think quality is the issue. One issue, unfortunately, is that bird photos don't sell much on Alamy. Are you getting a lot of views? The views will tell you whether people are seeing your birds and could indicate whether captioning and keywording are good. Go to the first page of a search for a type of bird you shoot and look at the captions and keywords to see what might have made those images show up on the first page. I get my images on the first page, I think, due to how well my polar bears sell so I have a good sales record. I've only sold a handful of bird photos and behavior seems to have something to do with it. I'd use "behavior" in keywords if the bird is doing anything. Also, as Steve says, location. Anything you put in caption and make a supertag is likely to show up higher in results. You should definitely put the Latin name in the caption and keywords as a supertag. I think buyers search animals by Latin name. Gen also has lots of wonderful bird photos and she doesn't report many sales either. I wonder if there is a specialty agency that buyers use??? I don't mean to discourage you. I really admire your work.

 

Paulette

Many thanks.  I have only 85 views ( but not to much pictures ) and CTR 0.00 due to lack of zooms  . If CTR is realy  important to be visible    can be  one of the reason low views and the circle is complete , I realy must advance " "behavior", thks. I am not discouraged  , Its my hobby .  I am patient and belive one day ...

 In the meantime I have send email to Allamy to check if my account is working properly.

Edited October 19, 2023 by Jacek

[Rebecca Ore]

5 hours ago, NYCat said:

I wonder if there is a specialty agency that buyers use???

 

Over the decades, birds mostly don't change colors and body plans within their species, so a good photo of a Cooper's Hawk taken 50 years ago on film that's been scanned is still a good photo of a Cooper's Hawk (I have a raptor book that is all scanned film photos).   Not the same with Mini Coopers where model year may be important.   Color morphs tend to be either loss of dark pigments or excesses of dark pigments.

 

There may be a specialist agency.   Check the photo credits in a general bird book with photos rather than drawings.  

 

The third thing is drawings are better for bird IDs than most photos.  All my general bird books use drawings.   I've seen some just awful photo bird books.

 

 

[gvallee]

12 hours ago, NYCat said:

 

I think your photos are fabulous. I don't think quality is the issue. One issue, unfortunately, is that bird photos don't sell much on Alamy. Are you getting a lot of views? The views will tell you whether people are seeing your birds and could indicate whether captioning and keywording are good. Go to the first page of a search for a type of bird you shoot and look at the captions and keywords to see what might have made those images show up on the first page. I get my images on the first page, I think, due to how well my polar bears sell so I have a good sales record. I've only sold a handful of bird photos and behavior seems to have something to do with it. I'd use "behavior" in keywords if the bird is doing anything. Also, as Steve says, location. Anything you put in caption and make a supertag is likely to show up higher in results. You should definitely put the Latin name in the caption and keywords as a supertag. I think buyers search animals by Latin name. Gen also has lots of wonderful bird photos and she doesn't report many sales either. I wonder if there is a specialty agency that buyers use??? I don't mean to discourage you. I really admire your work.

 

Paulette

 

True. Birds are difficult to sell. This made me check and I was shocked to realise that I have over 4,200 images of birds. Out of which 180 sold. That's over 20 years at Alamy. Here is my lightbox of sold birds if it helps.

 

https://www.alamy.com/search/lightbox/892581.html

 

 

[Jacek]

4 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

True. Birds are difficult to sell. This made me check and I was shocked to realise that I have over 4,200 images of birds. Out of which 180 sold. That's over 20 years at Alamy. Here is my lightbox of sold birds if it helps.

 

https://www.alamy.com/search/lightbox/892581.html

 

 

Dear Gvallee, that worries me. That can explain low views. Your birds pictures are fabulous . I admire  BB5DND, ARYWJM, A0C4FM

[gvallee]

2 hours ago, Jacek said:

Dear Gvallee, that worries me. That can explain low views. Your birds pictures are fabulous . I admire  BB5DND, ARYWJM, A0C4FM

 

Thank you Jacek. These three were all taken in different countries. At the height of my bird addiction, I used to travel all over the world to photograph them. I never recouped the cost of any of these trips but it was never the goal. Each location was a great experience, I brought back many stories and recollections. Adventure was always round the corner.

 

These days, I have cycles: birding, insects, spiders, back to birding again. It would be criminally lazy of me not to photograph birds around me as we are spoilt with their beauty and variety in Australia. Plus you get to meet great people with fhe same hobby.

 

Good luck with yours!

 

[Rebecca Ore]

15 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

True. Birds are difficult to sell. This made me check and I was shocked to realise that I have over 4,200 images of birds. Out of which 180 sold. That's over 20 years at Alamy. Here is my lightbox of sold birds if it helps.

 

https://www.alamy.com/search/lightbox/892581.html

 

 

Mostly exotics.  Many birds doing things.   And, yeah, Red Tailed Hawks have a wider range of color morphs than most birds.  

[M.Chapman]

On 04/10/2023 at 12:06, dumalaaleksander said:

Can someone guide me, please, what makes Alamy get me no sales, while I get a couple of sales on two othes sites, every month?

You need to add the species (and ideally latin name) into the captions of your bird images. If the bird is the main subject of the photo make sure you add the same as supertags too. This will improve the chances of them being seen by making them appear higher in search results for a particular bird species.

 

Mark

Edited October 21, 2023 by M.Chapman

[Pav]

On 04/10/2023 at 12:06, dumalaaleksander said:

Hi all,

 

Just a quick question: I have no sales on Alamy (around 600 views), and using the same (very small - just over 400 pics) portfolio, I have around 20 sales on two other sites.

20 on each of them.

Because by portfolio is very small and exists just over half a year, I do not expect many sales, but at least one sale would be nice.

My pics can be found (I guess) using my email: dumala.aleksander@gmail.com or the link https://www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?pl=1&plno=1121409

Can someone guide me, please, what makes Alamy get me no sales, while I get a couple of sales on two othes sites, every month?

 

Regards

Alex

Hi Alex,

 

It is quite difficult to sell low quality snapshots on Alamy website. I know from experience what agencies are looking for here. The pricing + quality of your photos make the number of your sales. On the 'other' sites where the pricing is close to $.10 there would be better chance for the buyer to decide, but I still doubt it. I would recommend to start with "Photo critique" section, and I'm not sarcastic here. Your images need a bit more of processing, quality improvement.

 

Pav

[Rebecca Ore]

Also, what species/varieties of vegetables  are grown in greenhouses before planting in fields?  The other thing is to see what Polish photos people have already contributed to Alamy.   I find that photographing churches where I live is pointless because every one with a decent camera who comes down here photographs churches.  I have two photos of rehab work tenting on Leon's main cathedral.   If anyone does a history of the cathedral, I've got the restoration project blue plastic and scaffolding shots.   On agriculture, what are the crops?   Are they export crops? For the domestic market?    For architecture, best photo horizontal, best photo vertical, maybe with higher contrast and normal contrast. 

 

I see people looking for coffee cupping photos.  I'm in Nicaragua.   I have to get access to get ones of people actually doing the cupping tasting, and rating.   Haven't gotten around to it.  What Polish subjects do people look for (All of Alamy)?   What Polish subjects that are searched for are not well represented in Alamy's collection?   Monuments to famous Poles?  Typical tourist restaurant?   

 

One of my books was translated and published in Poland many years ago.  Zabaukie Gai, if I'm remembering correctly.  Gaia's Toys.

[dumalaaleksander]

On 23/10/2023 at 08:15, Pav said:

Hi Alex,

 

It is quite difficult to sell low quality snapshots on Alamy website. I know from experience what agencies are looking for here. The pricing + quality of your photos make the number of your sales. On the 'other' sites where the pricing is close to $.10 there would be better chance for the buyer to decide, but I still doubt it. I would recommend to start with "Photo critique" section, and I'm not sarcastic here. Your images need a bit more of processing, quality improvement.

 

Pav

I do realize, that my photos are not the ones, that could compete with proffesional-made images. I still have a lot to learn in terms of providing the best content.

BUT

Not long after my forum post I sold two pictures. Theese surely are not groundbreaking, when you look at them. Just technically "not bad". Check them out for yourselves:

https://www.alamy.com/image-details-popup.asp?Imageid=72FF22D0-1E18-4BE9-9254-E4637A21AF22

https://www.alamy.com/image-details-popup.asp?Imageid=319CD5F5-A45B-47E3-AD1A-E6C342498433

I mean... all I can say about those two is that they are sharp enough, bright enough, with little noise. Nothing else. Just pictures. I have a lot of better ones on sale. Still, theese are the only ones to be sold.

I really do not get it  

[Steve F]

1 hour ago, dumalaaleksander said:

I do realize, that my photos are not the ones, that could compete with proffesional-made images. I still have a lot to learn in terms of providing the best content.

BUT

Not long after my forum post I sold two pictures. Theese surely are not groundbreaking, when you look at them. Just technically "not bad". Check them out for yourselves:

https://www.alamy.com/image-details-popup.asp?Imageid=72FF22D0-1E18-4BE9-9254-E4637A21AF22

https://www.alamy.com/image-details-popup.asp?Imageid=319CD5F5-A45B-47E3-AD1A-E6C342498433

I mean... all I can say about those two is that they are sharp enough, bright enough, with little noise. Nothing else. Just pictures. I have a lot of better ones on sale. Still, theese are the only ones to be sold.

I really do not get it  

 

Hi Aleksander,

Congratulations on your first sales! Most of my image sales are not of pretty scenes, or technically amazing - they are just of subjects that clients want. 'Better' or 'worse' is not really a thing (although a certain minimum quality is necessary).

 

Ok, I'm going to be direct as you're asking again - please take this in a positive sense. You are not having much success on Alamy due to a number of factors.

• You are keyword spamming, this will hurt your CTR - see point 3: https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/16969-ill-jump-in-no-matter-what-it-does-to-my-confidence/?do=findComment&comment=344671
• Your portfolio is tiny. There are arguments for having a very conentrated high quality portfolio, but seeing as you're not sure exactly what will sell, I would advise trying to make your portfolio as diverse as possible (whilst still maintaining the quality).
• You have rendered a large portion of your portfolio unsellable with poor captioning. You have not taken on board my first post above about captions. Example:

highway intersection by night with lights blurred - Image ID: 2PP4PCR there are tens of thousands of images similar to this - why would a client buy yours? It's not a particularly pretty image, so what concept are you trying to illustrate? Where is it? Road? Country? City? What theme - government transport ministry or traffic flow in the city or the city economy or...?

trees in a park in winter - Image ID: 2TAYKAR again, not an amazing picture, but more importantly where is it? What park, what tree species? Why would anyone buy this image? 

spring in a rural area - Image ID: 2PR1BD3 there are over 1 million search hits on Alamy for spring and rural. Where is it????? You haven't mentioned the name of the river or the fact that there are people fishing. Why would anyone buy this image, you have not given them a reason to license it.

seedlings in a greenhouse being prepared for planting in the field - Image ID: 2PR1A4Y I could see this selling, if it was captioned better. Where is it? What type of seedlings, what crop? What month are the seedlings growing in?

Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland - 12.04.2023: A person wearing orange high visibility jacket performing maintenance work on railtrack - Image ID: 2TAYKMM YES!!! We have the location, and a much better description. Exact date is not really necessary as this is presumably not live news - you could just say in the winter or in December. You could also have added that it was a concept shot in relation to e.g. the poor maintenance of railtracks in Poland by the network operator.

 

These will never sell without better captioning and/or better choice of subject - Alamy clients are looking for specific places and/or concepts. Questions you should be answering are Who, What, Where, Why When. If you just want to sell generic shots of something, they better be at least as good as the better images out there.

 

Look again at my first post above and the image I licensed of Barclays bank. Maybe the buyer just wanted an image of Barclays bank logo. Or maybe they wanted an image of Barclays bank specifically in Farnham. Or maybe they wanted an image illustrating 'mortgage deals'. I haven't checked, but I've increased my chances of a sale with the caption.

 

More generally, we've all got limited time. If you can't think why someone would license an image, ask yourself if it's worth the effort of taking it, editing, uploading and keywording. If you don't have an idea of what will sell, keep a look out for published stock images, they are everywhere.

 

What is in the news a lot in Poland at the moment? What images can you take that illustrate this?

 

I hope this helps, best of luck,

Stephen

Edited January 15 by Steve F

[Steve F]

On 23/10/2023 at 19:23, Rebecca Ore said:

Also, what species/varieties of vegetables  are grown in greenhouses before planting in fields? 

 

exactly

[Phil]

On 19/10/2023 at 05:26, Jacek said:

This doesn't worry me  except ZERO zooms

 

 

Don't expect that zooms are always needed for sales.   In many instances sales occur of an image with no zooms.

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

6 hours ago, dumalaaleksander said:

https://www.alamy.com/image-details-popup.asp?Imageid=319CD5F5-A45B-47E3-AD1A-E6C342498433

Could be explained if buyer searched:
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/weather-observation-station-poland.html

 

yours is top ranked; not saying this was actual search, but...

yours is near top in other similar searches, too...