Fiona Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Hello I'm new to Alamy and still trying to feel my way around. I'm wondering whether it's a good idea to submit a bridal styled shoot to Alamy. I don't really understand how the search ratings work; if I submit images and they don't sell, will that make it harder to sell my other images? The thing is, up till now I've submitted bridal shoots to blogs for free as a way to advertise my wedding business. But sadly these days they produce very little in the way of business and I feel like I'm just providing them with free images. Which is wrong on many levels! Do Alamy sell this kind of image, where there is a theme to the images and they go together as a set? It's a lovely set; based in Cambodia and involving images in a ruined temple and underwater. So far I haven't made any sales from the images I've put on Alamy, so all tips gratefully received! thank you in advance Fiona Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
York Photographer Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 There are plenty of wedding/bridal pictures on here, I've sold a few over the years. Worth a shot, you never know. Make sure you've got model releases and permission from the venue to sell them commercially. As for the Cambodian images, again worth a go, its the only way you'll find out if there is a market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiona Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 Thanks Rob! Model release yes, permission from the Cambodian temple, no... How does it work with the Alamy search engine? Is it better to have fewer images that sell, or as many images as possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
York Photographer Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Your alamy rank is determined by the ratio of zooms (when a potential customer clicks on one of your images to preview it), too the number of times your images are displayed in search results. Volume alone won't help your rank, its favors quality over quantity. What you need is a diverse collection that is tightly edited (not too many similars) to get a decent ranking. When I mentioned permission from the venues, I was referring to the wedding stuff, not the travel stuff (although if you can get permission for the travel stuff, it wouldn't hurt) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inchiquin Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 How does it work with the Alamy search engine? Is it better to have fewer images that sell, or as many images as possible? All depends on the pictures really. There are photographers on Alamy who do very well from a small (few hundred), tightly focused collection, but there are others (one other?) who do very well from 100k+ images. I think the answer is to just keep uploading as much good material as you can and see where you go with it. Also read the forum, pick up the names of people who do well, and look at their portfolios. Also read the "Have you found any Alamy photos..." threads. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreign Export Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Fiona it's highly unlikely that you will make any sales from 16 images- when there are nearly 50m here As for what sells - a lot does and it's very wide ranging As said above- worth concentrating on getting a few hundred tightly edited high quality images on alamy- and then assess your return Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I didn't make a sale until I had several hundred uploaded. Then it was slow, and steadily trended up until the past year. These days sales are hard to come by. I've been getting a couple or three a month only. And that's with over 2700 images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I made my first sale after one month with 53 images uploaded. I now have almost 1,000 images uploaded with 47 sales. So with only 16 images for sale, that is going to be hard for you to make a sale. I'd suggest yes, you should upload wedding photos, especially if you have model releases. I would imagine that wedding photos would be very popular. I say 'go for it'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Fiona, how come some images in your collection don't have titles? Key wording is as important as the images themselves here, and leaving out the titles won't help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert M Estall Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Your shots stand a reasonable chance but very unlikely as a set. The basic concept of stock sales is that they sell individual shots. On Alamy the search engine will deliberately spread your shots out among results. For a subject like brides or weddings the search result will find so many images, that a set would be very hard to spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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