Ahmad Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 I kept uploading images, checking how many zooms an image (very few) and no more sales ever since Sep 2015!Whats going on ?Ahmad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 You don't have enough images for regular sales and have a lot of similars which reduces the effective size of your collection. Ten nearly identical images of spices, for example. Two or three would be enough, one a portrait. 25 of a bridge. Dozens of the Blue Mosque to compete with the 33,000 already here. You might expect rather less that one sale per month per 1000 images in a varied collection- yours is probably only about 2 or 300 really. So one or two sales a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Have to agree with Mark about too many similars -- i.e. you would be wise to do some pruning. It's really tough to make sales these days. As discussed in other threads, an image has to really stand out from the crowd or be of a scarce subject in order to license. What's going on is that the collection is growing exponentially. The days of "it's amazing what sells" are long gone, unfortunately. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Have to agree with Mark about too many similars -- i.e. you would be wise to do some pruning. It's really tough to make sales these days. As discussed in other threads, an image has to really stand out from the crowd or be of a scarce subject in order to license. What's going on is that the collection is growing exponentially. The days of "it's amazing what sells" are long gone, unfortunately. Good luck. Not really "unfortunately," John. I'm happy not to see the word "dross" in the forum anymore. Ahmad, the suggestions Mark and John have given you are spot on. In addition, you're not really in the game. You have to shoot and upload regularly, which you are not doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpics Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 I kept uploading images, checking how many zooms an image (very few) and no more sales ever since Sep 2015! Whats going on ? Ahmad Don't ask! Delicate matter Cheers, Philippe LOL. May definitely feels like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 Agree with the above about too many just alike images. Another thing, perhaps you can shoot more people. Families interacting, women cooking. Mothers or fathers with children, people doing their jobs, having fun, etc. but when you shoot them, only choose two or three of the best to upload. You don't need releases to sell the people images RM. I'm not sure whether the people in your country resent having their pictures taken without their consent. But there are ways to get around it if it doesn't go against your principles. Get a small but good camera, like a RX100 mk3. One with a flip out screen works best. Or a Fuji, or some other good brands. You can hold it at waist level, use the flipped out LCD and act like you are fiddling with the camera while in fact you are shooting pictures. Or you can obviously appear you are aiming the camera at a rooftop or doorway until a person quits looking at you, then quickly get the shot. Use family members and friends. I probably just opened up a can of worms about privacy. The thing is, every country has its customs, opinions, and ideas, then a wide range of opinions within those countries. You do what you are comfortable doing. As a woman living in the US, specifically my state, people never seem to mind when I'm out and about with my camera, and I don't have to employ sneaky methods while shooting people. That said, I mostly stick to family members. Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 I kept uploading images, checking how many zooms an image (very few) and no more sales ever since Sep 2015! Whats going on ? Ahmad Regardless of the numbers of similars etc, most of your subjects are ones which are rarely going to be wanted by clients - outside of some specific locations like Petra. Picures of sand ripples are not really wanted by buyers, remember you need to be providing images which clients want to use, therefore you need to look at what is actually being used. Travel locations do get used but the competition is intense - everyone on holiday is a stock photographer. As Betty said, far too few images with people...where they/their actions are the main content. You are far more likely to sell an image of Petra if you have a tour group as a significant part of the image as an example. Same for the solar farm, too many images of just solar farms, too few images of techicians etc in relation to the solar panels. Yes it takes more effort to get those shots but business/industry sells better than travel. There will be a lot of interest in images of business people in the Middle East for example, you just need to look at what global stock needs are...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 There will be a lot of interest in images of business people in the Middle East for example, you just need to look at what global stock needs are...... Exit lane of a road tunnel in Dubai anyone? Yes, please, said an ME business intelligence website. BTW your Istanbul images don't say which mosque- is it the Suleimaniye ? Buyers want to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlessandraRC Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 If you go on "my alamy" and under "alamy measures" click "all of alamy", you get a spreadsheet where you can search for important keywords in your images and check how many customers were looking for similar things. For instance, I have a few photos from Davis, California. When I type in "Davis California" in the term search field, and set the date from May 17, 2015- May 16, 2016, I see that there were 13 searches for these two words together or in conjunction with other words within the last year. These searches generated roughly 500 views and out of these there were no sales. And yet, there are 13,373 pictures in the database that use those two keywords. What I am trying to get at is, depending on what you are trying to sell, it is possible that you will not. I have searched for several combinations of keywords that apply to my images and I see the same pattern: few searches, and few, if any, sales. I now understand part of the reason why I don't sell anything here. A pattern that would tell me that my pictures suck would be to see many sales generated from my main keywords, none of which, of course, from me. That does not mean that my pictures do not suck, but I have found out that I am trying to sell pictures that Alamy customers are not interested in. I advise you to do the same. I guess I will start trying to photograph Northern food. What do you guys eat upper there in the Northern Hemisphere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 ...These searches generated roughly 500 views and out of these there were no sales. .. Just like your own Alamy Measures, sales only show if they occurred within the same search. If a customer bookmarked an image and came back and bought it later, it wouldn't show up as a sale. I have sales which were zoomed months before they were sold. I have sales which were never zoomed, because Measures only counts activity of the bigger buyers. Also, remember to search % Davis as well as Davis. If a searcher searched on x Davis, that wouldn't show up in Measures if you looked for activity on Davis, but if they searched for Davis x it would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 I now understand part of the reason why I don't sell anything here. A pattern that would tell me that my pictures suck would be to see many sales generated from my main keywords, none of which, of course, from me. That does not mean that my pictures do not suck, but I have found out that I am trying to sell pictures that Alamy customers are not interested in. I advise you to do the same. I guess I will start trying to photograph Northern food. What do you guys eat upper there in the Northern Hemisphere? Since you only have 332 images in a sea of 74 million, I wouldn't be expecting too many sales just yet. And last time I checked, California is in the Northern Hemisphere. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.