Jump to content

discoverability.....sos...sos..


Recommended Posts

Good morning all...

 

went to Monday morning check in,  to find I am now on the new arrangement of editing etc etc.

 

From the forum content, many of you have been on this awhile.

 

I thought I would grasp it quite easily....big mistaken assumption!! :(

 

Is there an instruction video from Alamy I could access.

 

I think I am going to need a "Dummy's guide"

 

At present I will stop sending in new submissions though I have work waiting for transmission.

 

And try an concentrate on getting my "Orange" bar up to GREEEN on discoverability on a few images.

 

I cannot quite discern what basic idiot steps I need to take to progress.

 

Anyone out there that can give me first pointer?

 

Thank you very much

 

Sparks

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All it indicates is that you have filled in all optional fields and have a large number of keywords.. so it's essentially encouraging keyword spamming which will harm your CTR (although whether CTR makes a difference nowadays is unknown).

 

General consensus is to keyword normally and ignore the colour of the discoverability bar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The links to the video and instructions are in most of the previous threads on the subject.

 

My advice is - don't panic and start changing anything yet - it's too early.  You don't need to go 'Green' as your existing images are just as 'discoverable' left as they are.

 

The new Image Manager is easier to grasp than it first looks.

 

My CTR and zooms are going up daily and I haven't made any changes.

 

Nearly everything you will need to know is already discussed on the forum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Stokie...

 

read first page of thread....and I think I may get a better handle on progressing if I submit a very small new submission and see where I go "from Scratch" with the images

 

Sparks!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Stokie...

 

read first page of thread....and I think I may get a better handle on progressing if I submit a very small new submission and see where I go "from Scratch" with the images

 

Sparks!!

 

Good idea with the small new submission. New images are quite easy to keyword/tag, it's your old or legacy images that you might have problems with!

 

Good luck!

 

John.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If discoverability = number of keywords then my attitude to keyword spamming can easily be summed up in the fact that I have 1 image with good discoverability and 3587 with poor discoverability. It doesn't seem to stop my images from coming high up in the searches under which I would want them to be found.

 

Alan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Me too, as of this morning, for the new IM members club.

 

Like just about everybody, I suspect, was alarmed to only have 11 images with discoverability 'in the green'

 

Played around with a few of them and it does seem that it is entirely and only down to the total number of tags. Over 40 needed.

 

Deleted some duplicate tags; immediately dropped into the orange.

 

So, started adding tags to some of the 'oranges.'

 

Result - it's not long before you start running out of inspiration (you will or should have added all the decent keywords first time round) and you start adding crap just to make up the numbers.

 

Can't be right, surely? Just creating spam, will result in pointless views, what about CTR. etc etc etc

 

Somebody mentioned concensus is to ignore discoverability. Sounds about right, but if so, Alamy seems to have expended a lot of effort on a pretty pointless exercise (at least the discoverability part of it anyway).

 

Am I missing something?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The video is available on the Help button of the new IM. The manual/userguide http://www.alamy.com/myupload/help/AIM-InstructionManual.pdf.

 

I too joined the ranks of recruits to the new IM today. My problem is that I don't have the Filter or Search Buttons which are meant to be at the top of the central panel. Anyone else have this problem?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like other contributors to this thread I just got the new image manager this morning.  100% poor discoverability (3633 of 3633 images).  That undoubtedly accounts for my appalling sales record of only 169 sales since my first one in June 2014  ;)

 

I suspect that, like many others, I'll be ignoring discoverability.  I've never seen the point of keyword spamming and, in my case, most of my recorded searches are looking for specific plants, insects or places.  I suspect I could quite easily get away with even less keywords to still get a similar level of views and zooms.

 

Other than that the new Image Manager doesn't look too bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have just tweeted Alamy to ask about this. It seems that no matter how many sections I complete (including uploading model releases and checking some restrictions), I still get poor discoverability. If it's down to the number of keywords, I would suggest that "less is more" and this is what I understand Alamy to have encouraged over the 12 years I have been with them.

 

I would definitely like to see some clarification on this.

 

UPDATE: I added 41 tags to some images and the discoverbility bar went to green (around 75%). I think this is a great shame and a possible flaw in the system. Essential keywords were no more than 50 characters, far less than 40 words. Why should we need to increase the tags if it's not warranted to get "green" discoverability. This is only likely to reduce the CTR rate and flood the buyers screens with spam images.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have just tweeted Alamy to ask about this. It seems that no matter how many sections I complete (including uploading model releases and checking some restrictions), I still get poor discoverability. If it's down to the number of keywords, I would suggest that "less is more" and this is what I understand Alamy to have encouraged over the 12 years I have been with them.

 

I would definitely like to see some clarification on this.

 

You can easily test this yourself.. take one of your images, complete all of the "optional fields" about number of people, releases, etc.

Then add a number of meaningless tags and keep adding them until you see your discoverability turns green. You can then delete all of the meaningless tags again once you have your answer!  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I have just tweeted Alamy to ask about this. It seems that no matter how many sections I complete (including uploading model releases and checking some restrictions), I still get poor discoverability. If it's down to the number of keywords, I would suggest that "less is more" and this is what I understand Alamy to have encouraged over the 12 years I have been with them.

 

I would definitely like to see some clarification on this.

 

You can easily test this yourself.. take one of your images, complete all of the "optional fields" about number of people, releases, etc.

Then add a number of meaningless tags and keep adding them until you see your discoverability turns green. You can then delete all of the meaningless tags again once you have your answer!  :)

 

See my post above Matt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have emailed alamy to find out why i have 19,000 images that are fine & over 8,000 that have poor discoverability as from today. When i click to look at the images it says untitled subject, but all my images have titles on the main website.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good afternoon ALL...thanks for all replies ...Makes interesting reading.

 

Sent email to Member services and Corin gave clear instructions to access video.

 

Go to Alamy

 

Log on

 

see blue box lhs "Alamy Image manager"

 

click...

 

 

 

go to "help"

 

and "overview help video pops up"

 

click and enjoy....

 

 

"starter for 10" !!! if you know uk tv!

 

regards

 

Sparks!     ...---...   :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too got the new IM today. Thankfully with only just over 1000 images on sale I haven't got too much work to do compared to others. I have 156 showing as Green but when I tidied up the keywords (removing duplicates and errors) they are all dropping down to Amber / Orange. But presumably it's still better to do that? I.e. better to have fewer / streamlined keywords and 'iffy' discoverability rather than spamming keywords just to get a Green. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[1] Stop worrying about going 'green' - get out in the fresh air and move forward taking new images.  Read through all the threads heavily discussed by early takers - all (well most anyway :) ) the answers are there.

 

[2] I've not made any changes and my images are selling at normal counts, my zooms are zooming and my acr has rocketed.  Don't waste time changing things until it's all settled down.   Return to comment [1]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi All

 

I now have the new IM and have many with low discoverability which i am not really concerned about having read this thread, what does concern me having gone through several is that the captions have been removed causing me a lot of extra work.

any clues as to why they have been removed.

 

Liam 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Stop worrying about going 'green' - get out in the fresh air ..

 

Great advice. This is the most positive thread I've read on the subject of new MI. No longer am I worked up into a sweat about my 5,000+ oranges. They're not the only fruit.

 

Rgds,

Richard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi All

 

I now have the new IM and have many with low discoverability which i am not really concerned about having read this thread, what does concern me having gone through several is that the captions have been removed causing me a lot of extra work.

any clues as to why they have been removed.

 

Liam 

I've noticed it with location, try clicking on the caption box and see if the text appears. You could confirm it's still there with a general search from the Alamy homepage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, today I find that four of my 'poor discoverability' files easily show up in a search for The Queen Walking.

Three were photos of random passengers walking in Queen Street Station, and the other was a Uganda Kob walking in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

I'm quite prepared to bet that the potential customer didn't want to see any of these images in their search results.

 

Actually, looking at the search results, a LOT more tweaking of the search algorithm is urgent, even for 'relevant'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.