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From your experience, how many pages do you think buyers flip through before they buy an image? Do they ever go past the first 2 or 3 pages for topics that have a few thousand images?

 

In other words, how do I bring my images from, say, page 12 to the first few pages?

 

I'm guessing there is no simple answer and maybe some might not want to give their 'secrets' away?

 

Any help is much appreciated, I'm yet to make any sales here (I realise I only have a small number of images at the moment which probably doesn't help.)

 

Thanks

 

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You can look at Alamy Measures (keep it simple and just look at 'your images' and you can get an idea of how many files buyers look at - sometimes they look at a couple of thousand and don't zoom (and I'm dying to know what they were looking for, especially if I have a few results for the search - what did they want that I might be able to supply?) Some only look at one page.

Here's a page from my Alamy Measures for between Friday and yesterday:

views.jpg

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I usually assume that buyers that look at thousands of images, but don't zoom any, are putting them in lightboxes.  I think they quickly scan the page, click on the lightbox icon on any that catch their eye, then go over the choices more closely after.  Images zoomed from a lightbox don't get recorded as zooms.

 

When you come to Alamy, you start with a medium ranking.  This can be tough as now that there are so many images, that can still put you a few pages back.  I get on page one for for a lot of my searches, even those with thousands of results.  Correct captioning, good keywording with no irrelevant keywards will help the most.  If using irrelevant keywords that will only bring down your CTR and contribute to your ranking being decreased.

 

Jill

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4 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

I usually assume that buyers that look at thousands of images, but don't zoom any, are putting them in lightboxes.  I think they quickly scan the page, click on the lightbox icon on any that catch their eye, then go over the choices more closely after.  Images zoomed from a lightbox don't get recorded as zooms.

 

When you come to Alamy, you start with a medium ranking.  This can be tough as now that there are so many images, that can still put you a few pages back.  I get on page one for for a lot of my searches, even those with thousands of results.  Correct captioning, good keywording with no irrelevant keywards will help the most.  If using irrelevant keywords that will only bring down your CTR and contribute to your ranking being decreased.

 

Jill

 

It's too bad we don't get a record of images being zoomed after being put in a  lightbox.

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7 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

I usually assume that buyers that look at thousands of images, but don't zoom any, are putting them in lightboxes.  I think they quickly scan the page, click on the lightbox icon on any that catch their eye, then go over the choices more closely after.  Images zoomed from a lightbox don't get recorded as zooms.

Thanks for that info, I had no idea.

Like Maria says, I wonder why we don't have a column for images put into lightboxes?

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Well, shock.

Looking at the above chart from my Friday/Sunday Measures in my main pseudo, I noticed that there was a search on 'tractor' [RM] who looked at 2300 files.

I have a pseudo with nothing but a group of 52 vintage tractors taken at a rally, all RM, all with the keyword 'tractor', yet not one was even viewed.

So, 52 tractors and not one is positioned in the top 2300 on a search for 'tractor'.

I'd better not answer questions about improving ranking. :-(

 

I have no idea if that confirms the idea that too many of one subject hurts your rank, or if there's some other explanation I know nothing about. (For the OP, Alamy rank is per person/pseudo, not per image. That can be good, but as a knock-on effect, it can have poor consequences in searches.)

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1 hour ago, Cryptoprocta said:

Well, shock.

Looking at the above chart from my Friday/Sunday Measures in my main pseudo, I noticed that there was a search on 'tractors' [RM] who looked at 2300 files.

I have a pseudo with nothing but a group of 52 vintage tractors taken at a rally, all RM, all with the keyword 'tractor', yet not one was even viewed.

So, 52 tractors and not one is positioned in the top 2300 on a search for 'tractor'.

I'd better not answer questions about improving ranking. :-(

 

I have no idea if that confirms the idea that too many of one subject hurts your rank, or if there's some other explanation I know nothing about. (For the OP, Alamy rank is per person/pseudo, not per image. That can be good, but as a knock-on effect, it can have poor consequences in searches.)

 

Is "tractors" - plural - one of your keywords?  If this was the search term, and all your keywords are singular "tractor", as you seem to be implying, there's your answer.

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1 minute ago, CM photo said:

 

Is "tractors" - plural - one of your keywords?  If this was the search term, and all your keywords are singular "tractor", as you seem to be implying, there's your answer.

Sorry, my mistake. As seen in the screenshot, the search term was 'tractor', not 'tractors'.

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18 hours ago, Cryptoprocta said:

You can look at Alamy Measures (keep it simple and just look at 'your images' and you can get an idea of how many files buyers look at - sometimes they look at a couple of thousand and don't zoom (and I'm dying to know what they were looking for, especially if I have a few results for the search - what did they want that I might be able to supply?) Some only look at one page.

Here's a page from my Alamy Measures for between Friday and yesterday:

views.jpg

Thanks, so just so I understand it right, in the example above if we take the second row, does that meant that:

They searched for 'sun studio Memphis', looked at 100 images and zoomed twice. Out of those 2 were your images and one of the zooms was for one of your images? 

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13 hours ago, MariaJ said:

 

It's too bad we don't get a record of images being zoomed after being put in a  lightbox.

17 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

I usually assume that buyers that look at thousands of images, but don't zoom any, are putting them in lightboxes.  I think they quickly scan the page, click on the lightbox icon on any that catch their eye, then go over the choices more closely after.  Images zoomed from a lightbox don't get recorded as zooms.

 

When you come to Alamy, you start with a medium ranking.  This can be tough as now that there are so many images, that can still put you a few pages back.  I get on page one for for a lot of my searches, even those with thousands of results.  Correct captioning, good keywording with no irrelevant keywards will help the most.  If using irrelevant keywords that will only bring down your CTR and contribute to your ranking being decreased.

 

Jill

Thanks Jill. Irrelevant tags bring down your ctr, it's this because you'd have more views but no zooms? 

 

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20 minutes ago, Ambrosiniv said:

Thanks, so just so I understand it right, in the example above if we take the second row, does that meant that:

They searched for 'sun studio Memphis', looked at 100 images and zoomed twice. Out of those 2 were your images and one of the zooms was for one of your images? 

Yes, that's correct.

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3 hours ago, Ambrosiniv said:

Thanks Jill. Irrelevant tags bring down your ctr, it's this because you'd have more views but no zooms? 

 

Yes, the more views you have without zooms your CTR goes down.  That is why it is not wise to include words that a buyer would never use to search for your image.  CTR is only one of the factors that can affect your rank in where your images are seen by buyers.

 

Jill

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Quote

Do they ever go past the first 2 or 3 pages for topics that have a few thousand images?

 

I suspect they don't, and therein lies your answer. In fact, therein probably lies the answer for most of us. If you want to have above average sales, there is little point uploading images to Alamy of subjects that are already well and truly covered ... sure, once you have an excellent ranking, perhaps you will sell a few of them, but success nowadays means finding a niche or a series of niche areas. 

 

Do your searches before you go out and shoot, then shoot what you can't find (or find very little of). Easier said than done, I know, but then I think we can all agree Alamy is not easy anymore ...

 

Marc

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1 hour ago, famousbelgian said:

 

I suspect they don't, and therein lies your answer. In fact, therein probably lies the answer for most of us. If you want to have above average sales, there is little point uploading images to Alamy of subjects that are already well and truly covered ... sure, once you have an excellent ranking, perhaps you will sell a few of them, but success nowadays means finding a niche or a series of niche areas. 

 

Do your searches before you go out and shoot, then shoot what you can't find (or find very little of). Easier said than done, I know, but then I think we can all agree Alamy is not easy anymore ...

 

Marc

 

1 hour ago, famousbelgian said:

 

I suspect they don't, and therein lies your answer.

Clearly, some do.

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My only sale to date was an image of Sydney Opera House when I only had about 50 images.  Definitely a popular subject, but I still got a sale.  I think it's worth remembering that some buyers will search using the new tab, which is what I think happened for me.

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On 10/3/2017 at 03:34, Cryptoprocta said:

Well, shock.

Looking at the above chart from my Friday/Sunday Measures in my main pseudo, I noticed that there was a search on 'tractor' [RM] who looked at 2300 files.

I have a pseudo with nothing but a group of 52 vintage tractors taken at a rally, all RM, all with the keyword 'tractor', yet not one was even viewed.

So, 52 tractors and not one is positioned in the top 2300 on a search for 'tractor'.

I'd better not answer questions about improving ranking. :-(

 

I have no idea if that confirms the idea that too many of one subject hurts your rank, or if there's some other explanation I know nothing about. (For the OP, Alamy rank is per person/pseudo, not per image. That can be good, but as a knock-on effect, it can have poor consequences in searches.)

 

From that screenshot it looks like 3 of your tractor images were viewed,  it seems.

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7 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Can you define 'views' 

Do you have to click on an image on the page of say 100

 

and

 

Once clicked, if they click on preview I take it this counts as a zoom? 

 Easiest way to understand views and zooms is the outline given by Alamy in "My Alamy" ... "Your Images"

 

views.jpg

 

:)

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1 hour ago, MariaJ said:

 

From that screenshot it looks like 3 of your tractor images were viewed,  it seems.

These were general shots with tractors in them from my main pseudo.

None of those which are in my tractors-only pseudo were viewed.

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12 hours ago, Tannachy said:

My only sale to date was an image of Sydney Opera House when I only had about 50 images.  Definitely a popular subject, but I still got a sale.  I think it's worth remembering that some buyers will search using the new tab, which is what I think happened for me.

 

Anytime images are of cityscapes or places, buyers usually do want the lastest ones as skylines change so often.  I try to remember to put the year the pic was taken images of urban environments as they can be searched that way.

 

Jill

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1 hour ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Now I need to figure out how to get more images showing up on the first few pages!

Take this with a pinch of salt (given my tractor pseudo failure noted above), as you should question and test all advice, however:

Sales are probably the most important factor in improving your rank.

You have 139 files, nice enough, but not particularly unique, and lots are 'arty' rather than stocky.

You are currently a micro-drop in an ocean of millions of files.

All you can do is produce the best files you can, keyword them the best you can, and try to find things buyers might want that isn't already supplied in abundance.

I looked at two random files to see your keywords.

One was of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Your keywords were IMO very clean, and you'd included some valide keywords I wouldn't have thought of. Good.

Then I looked at #JYAY26, tulips at Keukenhof.

First thing, you'd have a vast advantage if you know the name of the cultivar - that would immediately put you into a small, focussed search. But you'd have to be certain you were correct.

Second, and this is open to debate: I'm not convinced about agriculture, farm, farming or fields, but you should definitely have horticulture and garden. Easter? dubious, though I realise tulips are often grown and sold around Easter. Flower market it is not.

 

It's a patience game: I had over 800 pics and nine or ten months before I had my first sale, and that was something very specific that there are few competing files for.

 

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Put crudely, ranking seems to depend on two main factors, CTR and sales.  A higher than Alamy average CTR implies that your image views are being translated into zooms at a rate better than the normal contributor.  Of course, you still need to get views - and that depends both on keywording and the competition.  Searches which yield few images but include your own are more likely to provide you with zooms than those which yield thousands of images.  In other words, find the gaps to increase your chances of getting zooms in the first place.  And then fill those gaps with a diverse collection of high quality shots.

 

Hopefully, zooms then generate sales.  Two provisos here.  Not all sales come from zooms - about 50% in my case - and zooms do not automatically result in sales.  In my own case it's about 1 sale per 4 zooms. Once sales start your ranking will, hopefully, start to improve.  The rate of improvement is probably dependent on both volume and average return from the sales but only Alamy know for sure (and they're not telling).

 

It's been said earlier in the thread that a good technique is to find a niche or niches where competition is less but demand is good.  Easier said than done, but my own experience bears this out.  I started with Alamy in Jan 2014 and have concentrated on one niche area (botanicals, especially garden plants and cultivars, the more obscure the better) to build my Alamy portfolio.  It's an area I know a lot about and for which there is considerable demand worldwide.  There's also a lot of competition.  Go to the Flowers, Gardens & Plants Category and there are 5,474,865 images on Alamy.  But there is a lot less competition for specific plants or cultivars once you stray out of the commonplace.  Take Clematis balearica 'Freckles'.  Regularly searched for, there are only 27 images on Alamy, 2 of them mine.  Result: 5 sales in the last three years.  I could give many other examples.

 

It's been hard work to build a diverse portfolio but it has enabled me to sell 285 images to date.  My ranking is now very good and my rolling average CTR is 1.  Because i sell I get more sales.  It also means that I can now extend myself into other areas in the knowledge that, because I enjoy a good ranking, my images will appear high up in searches.

 

 

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