losdemas Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Despite increasing zooms and sales. Down from 14 to 23????? Allan Welcome. Says it all, really. My BHZ up, sales and zooms lousy, your BHZs down, but sales and zooms stonking. It's just a game we play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stipe Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 When re-rank is going to affect (if) your sales? Since last night's updating or is just the result of a trend started previously? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 It is odd. The last few months have been pretty awful on the whole and my best pseudo is down a few places, but still page one - my others seem to have improved by several pages. I'm sure there's a logic to it in there somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Baigent Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 See above, the bhz search is comparing all those images with bhz as a key word, so any old image (or new!) will do! John. Ta muchly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I don't use BHZ but my test searches seem unchanged. Could that be because I am at rock bottom and can't sink any lower? Only 3 zooms in last month but I did rejig my pseudonyms a few weeks ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 My sales are down but I moved up a bit in the rank (using BHZ as a gauge). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Despite increasing zooms and sales. Down from 14 to 23????? Allan Welcome. Says it all, really. My BHZ up, sales and zooms lousy, your BHZs down, but sales and zooms stonking. It's just a game we play. A game indeed and a pointless game at that. But I still have a BHZ, and my position has moved from page 4 to page 2. Isn't that grand? But where are the sales? The only numbers and the only games I'm interested in are sales and prices . . . and those stories are very sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dov makabaw Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I had a good clean out of my main pseudos recently and I have gone up from page 5 to page 2 on all three in the re ranking. Great. Can't believe it. Unfortunately there is only one way for me to go now! dov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dov makabaw Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 In looking through the BHZ images I noticed several duplicates. Is anyone policing this? dov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan_Andison Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Steady increase, my main psued was middle of page 5 and is now middle of page 2. I'll check my others out later. Happy with that progression, provided it turns into more sales Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I don't bother anymore All I care about are SALES. Cheers, Philippe My thoughts exactly, Philippe . . . or half my thoughts, because Price is also an important number. I just did a relatively wide test search on "food nyc." Out of the 9,500 images that popped up, 12 of mine were on Page One. And most buyers would do a tighter search than that, don't you think? Alamy has stated many times that the BHZ test is all but worthless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDP Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 I'm not quite sure why people are so critical of BHZ, since it does serve a very useful purpose. Sales are obviously the only thing we really care about, but you have to accept that a good rank is essential to getting those sales. Since Alamy don't let us know our ranking, it's the best tool we have for giving some indication of how we're faring, particulary when there's a re-rank. If we move up or down, it means we're doing something right or wrong. The beauty of BHZ is that, generally speaking, everyone has complied with the "rules" and put it in the Esskeys - and thus it provides a fairly good statistical sample. If you do tests using your own words and search terms, it immediately becomes subjective. You keyworded an image and so are using phrases familiar to you - therefore, it's not surprising that you'll appear high up in a search (since word order and position are almost as important as ranking). Ed's search for "Food NYC" is a case in point. There's not been search for that phrase in the past 12 months and, when you put it in the search box on the home page, auto-completion doesn't suggest anything - indicating it's never been searched. "Food New York" has. In fact, only 91 images have "food nyc" in that order and they're always going to appear higher up in search results than images that have the two words not adjacent. Even without the quotation marks, words next to each other and in a specific order will be preferred. In the end, BHZ isn't anything but a useful and relatively objective tool to give an indication or rank and movement in rank. I would guarantee that anybody at the very top of BHZ, with a substantial quantity of images (smaller portfolios tend to yo-yo much more) will be making good sales. Ian D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CLSI Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Moved from the top of page 4 to the bottom of page 3. In other words, no real change. For the record, my bhz position has never changed much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearl Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I'm not quite sure why people are so critical of BHZ, since it does serve a very useful purpose. Sales are obviously the only thing we really care about, but you have to accept that a good rank is essential to getting those sales. Since Alamy don't let us know our ranking, it's the best tool we have for giving some indication of how we're faring, particulary when there's a re-rank. If we move up or down, it means we're doing something right or wrong. The beauty of BHZ is that, generally speaking, everyone has complied with the "rules" and put it in the Esskeys - and thus it provides a fairly good statistical sample. If you do tests using your own words and search terms, it immediately becomes subjective. You keyworded an image and so are using phrases familiar to you - therefore, it's not surprising that you'll appear high up in a search (since word order and position are almost as important as ranking). Ed's search for "Food NYC" is a case in point. There's not been search for that phrase in the past 12 months and, when you put it in the search box on the home page, auto-completion doesn't suggest anything - indicating it's never been searched. "Food New York" has. In fact, only 91 images have "food nyc" in that order and they're always going to appear higher up in search results than images that have the two words not adjacent. Even without the quotation marks, words next to each other and in a specific order will be preferred. In the end, BHZ isn't anything but a useful and relatively objective tool to give an indication or rank and movement in rank. I would guarantee that anybody at the very top of BHZ, with a substantial quantity of images (smaller portfolios tend to yo-yo much more) will be making good sales. Ian D I have never understood this negative attitude either for exactly these reasons. Well said Ian. It is the best tool available to us IMO and I find it very useful for tracking the position of my various pseudos. Any info is useful even if not perfect Pearl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynn Palmer Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I've been quaking in fear for several weeks awaiting the results of the rerank. Despite a horrific January I thankfully find I'm still on page 20. My BHZ images for two pseudos have slipped at most a row or two. I'm not thrilled but at least I'm not on page 26. Onward and upward. Reviewing and improving my keywords is now my highest priority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 I'm not quite sure why people are so critical of BHZ, since it does serve a very useful purpose. Sales are obviously the only thing we really care about, but you have to accept that a good rank is essential to getting those sales. Since Alamy don't let us know our ranking, it's the best tool we have for giving some indication of how we're faring, particulary when there's a re-rank. If we move up or down, it means we're doing something right or wrong. The beauty of BHZ is that, generally speaking, everyone has complied with the "rules" and put it in the Esskeys - and thus it provides a fairly good statistical sample. If you do tests using your own words and search terms, it immediately becomes subjective. You keyworded an image and so are using phrases familiar to you - therefore, it's not surprising that you'll appear high up in a search (since word order and position are almost as important as ranking). Ed's search for "Food NYC" is a case in point. There's not been search for that phrase in the past 12 months and, when you put it in the search box on the home page, auto-completion doesn't suggest anything - indicating it's never been searched. "Food New York" has. In fact, only 91 images have "food nyc" in that order and they're always going to appear higher up in search results than images that have the two words not adjacent. Even without the quotation marks, words next to each other and in a specific order will be preferred. In the end, BHZ isn't anything but a useful and relatively objective tool to give an indication or rank and movement in rank. I would guarantee that anybody at the very top of BHZ, with a substantial quantity of images (smaller portfolios tend to yo-yo much more) will be making good sales. Ian D I have never understood this negative attitude either for exactly these reasons. Well said Ian. It is the best tool available to us IMO and I find it very useful for tracking the position of my various pseudos. Any info is useful even if not perfect Pearl Pearl +1 Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 I had a good clean out of my main pseudos recently and I have gone up from page 5 to page 2 on all three in the re ranking. Great. Can't believe it. Unfortunately there is only one way for me to go now! dov Up to page 1. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Top of page 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 I posted this in the wrong thread: I stopped using BHZ some years ago but I juggled my pseudonyms and did a bit of keyword refining a few weeks ago so I am giving it another go. The result is I am at about 80% down the pages - all 4 images from different pseudonyms are in a block of half a dozen images on page 21 (which explains my lack of sales and zooms). Is there less ranking weight by pseudonym and more by contributor or even image than we thought? With new (median) pseudonyms could that be where the median scores range with the randomisation element of search results? Seems wide. I will take another look at my ranking tomorrow (when caches have cleared) to see if I can get a a feel for how the algorithm mixes up equal ranks when displaying the results. Yet when I search on real single keywords I am halfway down the first page on some of my main pseudonyms. Seems to suggest that individual images may be weighted. Whatever is happening it implies that the Alamy Rank algorithm is complex and no single action is likely to influence a contributor's signiificantly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gillis Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Dropped a few places but remain in the top half of page 1. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reimar Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Rank as expected, using BHZ in only esskeys, 120 images/page, and RM only. Top psuedo down from page 2 to 4, new images at the average page 20, and B images where they belong (page 25 out of 25). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famousbelgian Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Finally made it to page 1 ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panthera tigris Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 I am still sceptical. I am top of page 3 out of 26. My current CTR is 1.09 but I make many less sales that most here, only partly because I am in a small niche. I am lucky if I make 2 sales per month, more likely 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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