A summer gift

[KODAKovic]

Hi all,

today i'm gonna give you a gift since i've read many complaining on this forum about what is selling and what is not.

I found this site on a training i just followed.

http://research.picworkflow.com/

It's based on micro market analisys (look at the result sites considered) but it's very useful also for Alamy photographers and videomakers (like me) in my opinion since most of us are taking shots of cities and editorials.

Try entering "london camden" and you'll find it's a better profitable option than "london bridge"for i.e.

As explained on the site any topic with a ranking above 20-25 is sellable for top shots while 100-200 is fine for medium level shots.

Hope to have given a really useful tool today... i feel good to have shared this

 

Let's see how many greenies this produces lol

[KODAKovic]

ok, it seems everybody know what to shoot in order to sell

've a nice shooting then lol

[MariaJ]

Interesting site, thanks.

 

Maria

[wiskerke]

On 8/4/2017 at 10:31, KODAKovic said:

Hi all,

today i'm gonna give you a gift since i've read many complaining on this forum about what is selling and what is not.

I found this site on a training i just followed.

http://research.picworkflow.com/

It's based on micro market analisys (look at the result sites considered) but it's very useful also for Alamy photographers and videomakers (like me) in my opinion since most of us are taking shots of cities and editorials.

Try entering "london camden" and you'll find it's a better profitable option than "london bridge"for i.e.

As explained on the site any topic with a ranking above 20-25 is sellable for top shots while 100-200 is fine for medium level shots.

Hope to have given a really useful tool today... i feel good to have shared this

 

Let's see how many greenies this produces lol

 

Yes it's an interesting tool.

Why greenies? Isn't this just PicNiche? I have not looked at it for years.

(If you use the search function, you'll see that the first time this has been mentioned is January 2014.)

 

wim

[KODAKovic]

Wim mine is not a keywording tool.

It's a tool which gives a realtime ranking of how much sellable are some keywords.

It gives us an idea of what to shoot so what will sell.

[spacecadet]

It's what is left of PicNiche. The keywording tool shut down a few years ago. It was quite handy.

[wiskerke]

26 minutes ago, KODAKovic said:

Wim mine is not a keywording tool.

It's a tool which gives a realtime ranking of how much sellable are some keywords.

It gives us an idea of what to shoot so what will sell.

 

Yes and it's pretty old and has not been revised since. When we discussed it here it had been around for a while already.

If you're new to stock it can be frustrating to see how saturated the market is. For that it's a perfect tool.

If you're an old hand at stock the same applies. So for that it's a good tool too. ;-)

 

Actually it is a keyword tool and it has been designed as a keyword tool. The nice thing is that all such tools, including AoA have a flipside: they show how often a subject has been searched and how well it has been covered. Because AoA offers much more data, it is capable of more as many of us here have discovered.

 

wim

[Reimar]

I had a quick look at the tool and must say I don't get it.  Keywords with a low score are more of a niche that aren't searched much, but I'm thinking my images in that niche may have a better chance at selling due to less competition.  I have the same problem with AoA.  I don't know what to do with it.  Wim, could you give me an example of how you would use AoA for your work?  I guarantee at least my one greeny.

[Reimar]

Thanks Philippe.  So if you see a lot of zooms for "St Peter's Church Ghent", you would be more inclined to go out to shoot this?  But you probably already did. 

 

Maybe it's because I don't find this type of result much of an incentive, or a way to get excited about a picture opportunity.  I know this is a business (of sorts), but I generally start with a subject and then see what interests me or could make a useful picture.  These stats leave me cold (and confused about what exactly the buyer wanted).

[Bryan]

In my early days here I used AOA to find what was selling and made a deliberate effort to include those subjects. It worked in so much as I started to get Newspaper sales almost immediately. Not so easy now, sooooo much competition. Further, my few big buck sales have been of the most unexpected subjects, things that I just happened upon and was interested in shooting. 

 

I still think it's worth using AOA, particularly when shooting in a new location and more generally in choosing keywords, although, with experience, you get to know what many of those subjects/phrases are going to be.

[KODAKovic]

Well, AoA has some limitations as far as i know:

1) refers to a max of 1 year

2) doesnt report a full analysis because it's only Alamy based

3) from point 2) it doesn't take in a right consideration the fact that many Editorial pics could be found on micro like IS, SS which accept this category

4) is based on a proprietary algo which consider only Alamy itself

5) it's based only on images and not video. I know many stock producers made the switch to ONLY video so they probably produce contents for that media therefore an Alamy only-pictures-photographer doesn't know that particular content could be sellable by images also

6) .... ('ve to think more... it's only 9.30 sunday morning here )

7) (found one more) if a customer didn't make a search here it doesn't mean that content is interesting (see point #2)

[wiskerke]

On 8/6/2017 at 09:37, KODAKovic said:

Well, AoA has some limitations as far as i know:

1) refers to a max of 1 year

2) doesnt report a full analysis because it's only Alamy based

3) from point 2) it doesn't take in a right consideration the fact that many Editorial pics could be found on micro like IS, SS which accept this category

4) is based on a proprietary algo which consider only Alamy itself

5) it's based only on images and not video. I know many stock producers made the switch to ONLY video so they probably produce contents for that media therefore an Alamy only-pictures-photographer doesn't know that particular content could be sellable by images also

6) .... ('ve to think more... it's only 9.30 sunday morning here )

7) (found one more) if a customer didn't make a search here it doesn't mean that content is interesting (see point #2)

 

Yes that's mostly true. However we are on Alamy here and contributors here are probably more interested about what to send to Alamy. even when they may be submitting to other outlets as well. There they will probably fret about what to send to those.

 

@1  Yes one of my gripes too. There's a solution though: download your main keywords or your main places once a year and merge them.

 

wim

[wiskerke]

On 8/5/2017 at 20:28, Reimar said:

Thanks Philippe.  So if you see a lot of zooms for "St Peter's Church Ghent", you would be more inclined to go out to shoot this?  But you probably already did. 

 

Maybe it's because I don't find this type of result much of an incentive, or a way to get excited about a picture opportunity.  I know this is a business (of sorts), but I generally start with a subject and then see what interests me or could make a useful picture.  These stats leave me cold (and confused about what exactly the buyer wanted).

 

Let's go back to Philippe's tips for a moment.

First of all, I would download all searches for %Ghent% and for Gent (the Belgian Dutch and German name of the city) and Gand (the Belgian French name of the city).

What to do with it depends on your rank. If you have a good rank, you can shoot anything you like. Including general cityscapes that you would keyword just: Ghent, Gand, Gent, Belgium. Or whatever general keywords you're normally using.

However if an image like that is unlikely to land on page one, but on page 2 or 3 I would include at least one landmark or something specific, like Gentse Feesten, which is the city's annual festival. Page 1, 2 or 3 is still good rank for a subject that brings up 15,023 images in a search.

However If your rank is less than stellar, I would use AoA differently: change the order using Views; least views first. Now make a list of everything under 100 and shoot those.

If you don't think you'll be returning within say a year or two, shoot the rest as well, just don't upload those until your rank has improved.

 

All this applies if are going to Ghent anyway.

If you have to choose which city to go to, Bruges or Ghent, or if you're wondering whether to go at all, first check the UCO of both cities. Then check if cumulative terms still point to Bruges. For that set the list to alphabet and make clusters of the same subject. Score those. Leave searches out that are probably done by the same researcher:

bruges belfry SUMMER
bruges belfry SUMMER SWAN

counts for one.

Meulenaere bruges
Muelenaere bruges

also.

Euro star bruges is nonsense: there is no Eurostar train station in Bruges or a Eurostar train to Bruges nor a Eurostar train in Bruges. Discounted.

However If you can find a way to connect Bruges and Eurostar in one image, you will have a winner. Because Eurostar does advertise tickets to Bruges and Alamy clients do search for Eurostar in combination with all sorts of destinations with or without a Eurostar connection.

So you have to at least drill down to this level.

 

My guess: Ghent and Bruges might bring you one or two sales each per year. Not enough to warrant a ticket to Belgium from the UK.

 

Now try this for Brussels (Brussel; Bruxelles).

5 pages with views under 100.

Some decent UCO. (Not good UCO, for that take a look at Amsterdam or Paris.)

 

Would I buy a ticket to Brussels?

Hmm that depends on the quality of my images: will my images look at least as good as the rest on the page. Is my style current? My photography skills: can I bring back good images when circumstances are less favorable?

Would I take a detour to shoot all three cities? Absolutely.

Don't forget to include anything generic Belgian or Belgium one can shoot in either city.

However check AoA before uploading. To check your own rank for a search: just wipe all keywords from a recent image that has not sold yet. Attach all keywords of the image you're planning to upload. Wait a day and check where it has landed.

 

wim

 

 

[Brasilnut]

Ah yes, Picniche. Very handy tool but according to the developer (which I have been in contact with), it's been unfortunately disabled for some years so I wouldn't trust the latest results. 

 

He's gone on to develop quite handy tools like (although it's for Micros only and I appreciate it won't appeal to many people on here):

 

https://www.picworkflow.com/

 

Lately, I've been using a quite handy keywording tool which also gives the average $ of sales per keyword, so in a way it's like Picniche and it's 100% up to date:

 

https://www.keyword.io/tool/stock-photo-research

 

I wrote a review of it here on my blog  - https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2017/08/01/keywording-stock-images-with-help-from-keyword-io-tool/

 

Alex

 

 

 

[KODAKovic]

Thanks Alex,

i'll use it as a keywording tool.

Picworkflow use a "combination" of words to give their interests from buyers becaue it's different if you type "milan duomo" or "milan duomo sunset".

The 2nd will be nicher of course.

[Reimar]

Wow Wim.

Now I know why you do so well with a smallish port.  My photo research is in the minor leagues by comparison.  Thanks for some tips.

 

Probably nothing warrants a trip to Belgium from Canada in the stock business anymore - but I'm likely to go just because I want to.  And then let the chips fall where they may (a fair bit shorter than yours, but some income nonetheless).

 

 

[losdemas]

29 minutes ago, Reimar said:

Wow Wim.

Now I know why you do so well with a smallish port.  My photo research is in the minor leagues by comparison.  Thanks for some tips.

 

+1

Couldn't agree more. As ever, some very generous insights from wim. Deserves all his success. 

 

EDIT: when I said, couldn't agree more, I meant that my research is in the minor leagues, too!  

[KODAKovic]

+1 Wim, thanks for your tips

[wiskerke]

Thank you, but come on guys don't overdo it ;-)

Most of it comes from others on this forum, or from collaborating with other forum members.

Keeping some sort of record now and then helps.

 

wim

[Gennadii Rybalov]

19 hours ago, Brasilnut said:

Ah yes, Picniche. Very handy tool but according to the developer (which I have been in contact with), it's been unfortunately disabled for some years so I wouldn't trust the latest results. 

 

He's gone on to develop quite handy tools like (although it's for Micros only and I appreciate it won't appeal to many people on here):

 

https://www.picworkflow.com/

 

Lately, I've been using a quite handy keywording tool which also gives the average $ of sales per keyword, so in a way it's like Picniche and it's 100% up to date:

 

https://www.keyword.io/tool/stock-photo-research

 

I wrote a review of it here on my blog  - https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2017/08/01/keywording-stock-images-with-help-from-keyword-io-tool/

 

Alex

 

 

 

Maybe it helps someone, but in my opinion it's not profitable to pay $ 0.8 for keywords that by the way are on other similar resources, I checked a few pictures of mine and got about the same result.
With regard to my portfolio, it is not difficult to calculate the amount necessary for all images, and the payback period is unpredictable ...