The Alamy Blog - what would you like us to write about?

[Alamy 190]

Hopefully you're all regular readers already, but if not, here's a link to the Alamy Blog and more specifically, the posts marked "for contributors". 

 

At least 2 posts a week get added and we're open to suggestions for future topic posts. If there's anything you'd like us to explore, explain, interpret or investigate for a future blog post, let us know. We'll read all replies and suggestions in this thread and where possible will put together the relevant blog posts for you in the near future.

 

Cheers

 

Alamy 

 

PS - you can also tweet suggestions to @alamycontent or using the hashtag #alamyblogideas

[wiskerke 2,703]

Stuff that attracts buyers ;-)

 

10 best; most awesome; most weird; highest; lowest; cats; more cats; some dogs; even more cats. You know the click bait. (Because that is what you need.)

This may not attract new buyers per se, but when you have their attention, maybe explain how to find all those awesome images by giving a couple of keyword examples for each picture.

 

wim

[Gina Kelly 125]

I love the posts about what buyers want, and current trends.

[John Mitchell 3,403]

I love the posts about what buyers want, and current trends.

 

Me too. More of these, please. I'd also like to see posts about what buyers don't want.

[Sultanpepa 877]

Examples of good/efficient keywording. Something I constantly struggle with as I'm sure many others do too.

[famousbelgian 104]

10 best sales of the previous month with some background information / history how they came about perhaps?

[Lisa 9,457]

I think it would be fun if you highlighted some of the largest sales of the month, like an Alamy photo used on a billboard, on a book cover, movie poster, ad campaign, etc. Alamy Live News does a great job of publicising when they have photos in the newspapers on Twitter. Would be great if Alamy Stock/Stockimo showed how some of their largest sales were used on the Alamy blog.

[Panthera tigris 75]

1) Leading togs (by sales) you represent in each genre - i.e. your top 5 wildlife togs, top 5 food togs, etc, etc

 

2) New trends

 

3) what Lisa said above

 

4) Strange customer requirements you have been able to satisfy from the collection

 

5) a breakdown of the collection into specific areas (i.e. wildlife, food, lifestyle natural, garden, etc, etc) showing were you are strongly inventoried and were you would like to boost inventory

[NYCat 1,676]

What concepts are most often searched for. The best keywords for concepts.

 

Paulette

[Edd Westmacott 5]

It would be great if you could post a Stockimo grid of sales!

[dustydingo 763]

What concepts are most often searched for. The best keywords for concepts.

 

Paulette

 

For me, the absolute pick of the bunch so far!

 

In my experience "concepts" offer a substantially greater chance of higher license fees than "editorial" as they're more likely to be used in other-than-run-of-the-mill editorialising.

 

And maintaining the commercial potential, original representations of concepts would offer substantially greater chance of higher license fees than copying what has already been done--if you want to see how others have approached particular concepts, a list of them would help guide your own research.

 

So yes please, a list of the most researched "concepts" would be very helpful--thank you Paulette :-).

 

dd

[Jools Elliott 229]

+1 Philippe!

 

It's alright saying you have 50 odd million images but we all know that the collection is not curated. And it's not just us it's buyers too! That is not a good thing I'm afraid.

 

I know it should come down to self-editing but a lot of the time this isn't done.

 

Personally, I have nearly 5000 images. BUT I only have in my own mind around 600 or so that I happy with. The rest I can take or leave.

[Sultanpepa 877]

When is enough enough?

 

Why does Alamy accept every single picture? What's the use in offering a client 15,157 pictures of puffins or 14,083 pictures of the Taj Mahal? 

Isn't Alamy worried that being the "biggest agency in the world" will start to work in their disadvantage (beautiful pictures are often buried by tons of amateurish snapshots and pushed back to "page 45" never to be found by clients, not to mention the time they loose trying to find what they look for)

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

 

+1 Philippe!

 

It's alright saying you have 50 odd million images but we all know that the collection is not curated. And it's not just us it's buyers too! That is not a good thing I'm afraid.

 

I know it should come down to self-editing but a lot of the time this isn't done.

 

Personally, I have nearly 5000 images. BUT I only have in my own mind around 600 or so that I happy with. The rest I can take or leave.

One of the problems that materialises with curation is the idea that someone knows exactly what the customer is looking for. It could be that the perfect image for the customer is thrown out with the bath water, so to speak. Then you have to factor in keeping the stock up-to-date and relevant which in itself is a massive not to mention costly task in terms of staff needed. Do you really want to see your % cut further? Leave it as it is in my humble opinion. 

[York Photographer 7,055]

Unusual sales in term of pictures and uses.

 

I sold a picture a while back of stock cars/banger racing, which was used to illustrate fertility/sperm crashing into each other!

[Jools Elliott 229]

 

When is enough enough?

 

Why does Alamy accept every single picture? What's the use in offering a client 15,157 pictures of puffins or 14,083 pictures of the Taj Mahal? 

Isn't Alamy worried that being the "biggest agency in the world" will start to work in their disadvantage (beautiful pictures are often buried by tons of amateurish snapshots and pushed back to "page 45" never to be found by clients, not to mention the time they loose trying to find what they look for)

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

 

+1 Philippe!

 

It's alright saying you have 50 odd million images but we all know that the collection is not curated. And it's not just us it's buyers too! That is not a good thing I'm afraid.

 

I know it should come down to self-editing but a lot of the time this isn't done.

 

Personally, I have nearly 5000 images. BUT I only have in my own mind around 600 or so that I happy with. The rest I can take or leave.

One of the problems that materialises with curation is the idea that someone knows exactly what the customer is looking for. It could be that the perfect image for the customer is thrown out with the bath water, so to speak. Then you have to factor in keeping the stock up-to-date and relevant which in itself is a massive not to mention costly task in terms of staff needed. Do you really want to see your % cut further? Leave it as it is in my humble opinion. 

 

Sorry but I disagree. All you have to do is a search on a particular subject and you are bombarded with 1000s of images. Do buyers wade through all of the pages? Nope.

 

What curation has done for me elsewhere is made me think long and hard before committing to a shot. The result? Consistent and good sales elsewhere. In fact, they are choosing so much stuff I am doing lately that it's hard to send anything anywhere else!

Edited May 20, 2015 by Jools Elliott

[Doc 1,630]

What concepts are most often searched for. The best keywords for concepts.

 

Paulette

+1

[dustydingo 763]

 

 

 

Sorry but I disagree. All you have to do is a search on a particular subject and you are bombarded with 1000s of images. Do buyers wade through all of the pages? Nope.

 

What curation has done for me elsewhere is made me think long and hard before committing to a shot. The result? Consistent and good sales elsewhere. In fact, they are choosing so much stuff I am doing lately that it's hard to send anything anywhere else!

 

Jools, you are of course correct that you can be bombarded here with 1000s of images or a particular subject . . . but . . . Alamy ain't no orphan in that regard, and is often (due to different biases in their collection) better than some other lofty competitors.

 

Some random examples:

 

"fitness elderly people" . . . G*: 27,907, Alamy: 5,134

 

"teenagers hanging out" . . . G*: 73,503, Alamy: 6,030

 

"Eifel tower": . . . G*: 7,377, Alamy: 2,010

 

It's easy to find contrary examples--"London Eye" for example has 10x the number at Alamy than G* (buyers still have to wade through thousands of curated images at G*), but my point still stands: it is a much less cut-and-dried situation than many believe, and the assumption that only Alamy has this problem, if "problem" it truly is, is demonstrably false.

 

dd

Edited May 21, 2015 by dustydingo

[Robert Brook 361]

But buyers have the option of selecting just one collection, or filtering out all editorial imagery.  Similarly at the other place: buyers looking for textbook material will most likely find it by searching a particular collection, if looking for a certain kind of book cover, another.  Budget buyers can go to one spot, ADs at major ad agencies, another. 

[wiskerke 2,703]

 

 

 

Sorry but I disagree. All you have to do is a search on a particular subject and you are bombarded with 1000s of images. Do buyers wade through all of the pages? Nope.

 

What curation has done for me elsewhere is made me think long and hard before committing to a shot. The result? Consistent and good sales elsewhere. In fact, they are choosing so much stuff I am doing lately that it's hard to send anything anywhere else!

Jools, you are of course correct that you can be bombarded here with 1000s of images or a particular subject . . . but . . . Alamy ain't no orphan in that regard, and is often (due to different biases in their collection) better than some other lofty competitors.

 

Some random examples:

 

"fitness elderly people" . . . G*: 27,907, Alamy: 5,134

 

"teenagers hanging out" . . . G*: 73,503, Alamy: 6,030

 

"Eifel tower": . . . G*: 7,377, Alamy: 2,010

 

It's easy to find contrary examples--"London Eye" for example has 10x the number at Alamy than G* (buyers still have to wade through thousands of curated images at G*), but my point still stands: it is a much less cut-and-dried situation than many believe, and the assumption that only Alamy has this problem, if "problem" it truly is, is demonstrably false.

 

dd

 

 

Eiffel Tower: a mere 32,137 on Alamy

(and yes, I'm guilty of 1 too)

 

wim

[dustydingo 763]

 

 

 

Sorry but I disagree. All you have to do is a search on a particular subject and you are bombarded with 1000s of images. Do buyers wade through all of the pages? Nope.

 

What curation has done for me elsewhere is made me think long and hard before committing to a shot. The result? Consistent and good sales elsewhere. In fact, they are choosing so much stuff I am doing lately that it's hard to send anything anywhere else!

Jools, you are of course correct that you can be bombarded here with 1000s of images or a particular subject . . . but . . . Alamy ain't no orphan in that regard, and is often (due to different biases in their collection) better than some other lofty competitors.

 

Some random examples:

 

"fitness elderly people" . . . G*: 27,907, Alamy: 5,134

 

"teenagers hanging out" . . . G*: 73,503, Alamy: 6,030

 

"Eifel tower": . . . G*: 7,377, Alamy: 2,010

 

It's easy to find contrary examples--"London Eye" for example has 10x the number at Alamy than G* (buyers still have to wade through thousands of curated images at G*), but my point still stands: it is a much less cut-and-dried situation than many believe, and the assumption that only Alamy has this problem, if "problem" it truly is, is demonstrably false.

 

dd

 

 

Eiffel Tower: a mere 32,137 on Alamy

(and yes, I'm guilty of 1 too)

 

wim

 

 

hehehe . . . hey, it was late, I was tired, trying to do too many things at once :-)

 

The point (slightly thus lessened for the esteemed tower), is that you have to wade through thousands of images for more popular search terms regardless of whether it's Alamy or G or C etc etc (especially if, as some here maintain, you're not on the first couple of pages of results you're sunk).

 

dd

[dustydingo 763]

But buyers have the option of selecting just one collection, or filtering out all editorial imagery.  Similarly at the other place: buyers looking for textbook material will most likely find it by searching a particular collection, if looking for a certain kind of book cover, another.  Budget buyers can go to one spot, ADs at major ad agencies, another. 

 

Indeed they can Robert, I certainly do not disagree.

 

It's equally true that skilled searchers can also use Boolean functions to drastically narrow down searches, regardless of where they search, without having to traverse the complexities of learning (and retaining) which G collection has what. Even the pretty basic strategy of using multiple keywords cuts through the sheer mass of images to make it all a tad more manageable.

 

For example, how many results would you anticipate for the following search here at Alamy?

 

                                              "eiffel tower" young lovers

 

Even amongst the 32,000 images of the Eiffel tower wim found , a clever buyer would only have to wade through 41 images. G, as you would expect based on their particular "direction", have over 300.

 

So again, it ain't just Alamy.

 

Aside from this discussion, if that simple example doesn't blast out several strong messages to any contributor about portfolio content and the treatment of individual images . . .

 

dd

[Doc 1,630]

I would like you to please write about the changes to the search engine as of 1/4/15, the reasons for that and the (intended) effects of them

 

Thank you 

 

Kumar

[MircoV 180]

Hello Alamy,

 

For newcomers it could be good to write about RM and RF. What are the differences. When you advice RM and when RF. How RM-Exclusive works etc.

 

Mirco

[Marianne 585]

I love the posts about what buyers want, and current trends.

+1

These are very helpful. 

I also like the idea about 10 best and others that will attract buyers. 

[Marianne 585]

Hello Alamy,

 

For newcomers it could be good to write about RM and RF. What are the differences. When you advice RM and when RF. How RM-Exclusive works etc.

 

Mirco

+1

This would also be helpful for "old-timers" - I often struggle to decide whether an image would be more likely to be licensed as RM or RF and would love to know the advantage of RM-exclusive, since I have many images that, for all intents and purposes, are exclusively on Alamy although I haven't made them "exclusive" there - e.g. Do exclusive images rank higher in searches?