Sagging CTR?

[Guest]

I'm still waiting for takeoff 

 

[Betty LaRue]

6 hours ago, Atko said:

I'm still waiting for takeoff 

 

[Perry]

On 27 October 2017 at 20:54, Russell said:

Is it just me or did anyone else notice a dramatic fall in CTR after the system/update problems last week?

 

I am rarely above the average CTR. Way below. But looking at it. It never really affected my sales volume.

[Southmind]

I am making the plane 

[Martin P Wilson]

On 29/10/2017 at 09:55, regen said:

 

Since 2014 sales have exactly doubled but prices have fallen by 70% only just starting to hold their own this year. If prices had remained buoyant then I would have been encouraged to upload again.

 

Regen

My experience is similar and it is a year since I uploaded, and only intermittently in the two years before that.

 

Sales are holding up but the revenue is down at 50%.

[spacecadet]

27 minutes ago, Martin P Wilson said:

My experience is similar and it is a year since I uploaded, and only intermittently in the two years before that.

 

Sales are holding up but the revenue is down at 50%.

The lack of new material may be responsible for that. I've had a good deal more "new" sales recently than ever before. The averages are somewhat better for the recent material so that my overall average is only down about 30%.

Your reasons for not submitting are well known, but you're seeing the effects. You've decided not to run to stand still. I'm still jogging along.

[losdemas]

23 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

The lack of new material may be responsible for that. I've had a good deal more "new" sales recently than ever before. The averages are somewhat better for the recent material so that my overall average is only down about 30%.

Your reasons for not submitting are well known, but you're seeing the effects. You've decided not to run to stand still. I'm still jogging along.

 

I believe that you're probably right. Personal circumstances have meant I've only been able to upload a very few images in the last 12 months. There are several things at play here, but I've always believed that regular uploading adds significant weight to ranking. I am aware that others have reported differing results recently (no uploads in years, yet maintaining decent sales), but I think that this is more likely far from the norm. I personally have experienced a slow, steady decline in the past few months and remain convinced that a return to regular uploads would (after a spell of time) see a return to regular, reliable sales. I'll let you know next year!  

[Betty LaRue]

4 minutes ago, losdemas said:

 

I believe that you're probably right. Personal circumstances have meant I've only been able to upload a very few images in the last 12 months. There are several things at play here, but I've always believed that regular uploading adds significant weight to ranking. I am aware that others have reported differing results recently (no uploads in years, yet maintaining decent sales), but I think that this is more likely far from the norm. I personally have experienced a slow, steady decline in the past few months and remain convinced that a return to regular uploads would (after a spell of time) see a return to regular, reliable sales. I'll let you know next year!  

I agree wholeheartedly.  I ignored uploading at one time while concentrating on POD. My sales suffered, my placements dropped.  When circumstances get in the way, it’s not that hard to take 5 images, pp them, and upload at least once a week.

Once I began doing that, everything eventually fell back in place.

Sometimes circumstances still rear ugly heads, but then I’ll for sure get something uploaded every other week. Much prefer weekly, though. That’s when I consistently attained first page placement. Who knows, maybe one image a week would do it. What I did was this when my life got difficult.

 

Shoot 15-20 images. Upload 5 at a time, once a week. You have 3-4 weeks covered from one tiny shoot. When life events settle back to normal, then you would upload those 15-20 at once.

And yes, you could miss a possible sale of those waiting. I find if I’ve taken a 3 image set, portrait, horizontal, closeup or whatever, I can upload one of those in the beginning and I will have that subject represented.. The others will eventually join it.

You won’t sell as many if buyers have to drill deep to find them.

My two cents.

Betty

[losdemas]

1 minute ago, Betty LaRue said:

I agree wholeheartedly.  I ignored uploading at one time while concentrating on POD. My sales suffered, my placements dropped.  When circumstances get in the way, it’s not that hard to take 5 images, pp them, and upload at least once a week.

Once I began doing that, everything eventually fell back in place.

Sometimes circumstances still rear ugly heads, but then I’ll for sure get something uploaded every other week. Much prefer weekly, though. That’s when I consistently attained first page placement. Who knows, maybe one image a week would do it. What I did was this when my life got difficult.

 

Shoot 15-20 images. Upload 5 at a time, once a week. You have 3-4 weeks covered from one tiny shoot. When life events settle back to normal, then you would upload those 15-20 at once.

And yes, you could miss a possible sale of those waiting. I find if I’ve taken a 3 image set, portrait, horizontal, closeup or whatever, I can upload one of those in the beginning and I will have that subject represented.. The others will eventually join it.

You won’t sell as many if buyers have to drill deep to find them.

My two cents.

Betty

 

As usual, two very worthwhile cents.  Thanks Betty.

[Betty LaRue]

26 minutes ago, losdemas said:

 

As usual, two very worthwhile cents.  Thanks Betty.

You are welcome. 

[John Mitchell]

I try to upload a batch every week in order to keep the wheels greased. However, next year, I might be out of commission for 6-8 weeks due to a hip operation, so I'm going to hopefully be able to amass a pile of images that I can, as Betty suggested, use to spoon-feed the beast a handful at a time while I'm recovering. Good advice, for sure.

[Betty LaRue]

John, when the time comes, take your meds, do the exercises and kick butt! 

[John Mitchell]

15 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

John, when the time comes, take your meds, do the exercises and kick butt! 

 

I'll also have a few thousand old images to kick around -- i.e. that have keywords that need repairing and augmenting. Sometimes procrastination can be a good thing.

 

I wonder if going back and reworking tags, etc. helps maintain ranking at all. It may not be as important as uploading regularly, but at least it does show that someone is still awake at the helm. It's probably (?) better than having no activity at all on your account. 

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

 

I'll also have a few thousand old images to kick around -- i.e. that have keywords that need repairing and augmenting. Sometimes procrastination can be a good thing.

 

I wonder if going back and reworking tags, etc. helps maintain ranking at all. It may not be as important as uploading regularly, but at least it does show that someone is still awake at the helm. It's probably (?) better than having no activity at all on your account. 

I would think so. 

On another note, I took a quick and dirty look at my images in AIM, and best I can tell, I have mid-2008 to mid 2009 legacy images left to do.  I’ve been working on them like a madwoman. 25-75 every day recently.

must...visit...2009...right...NOW! 

[Lynn Palmer]

Goodness gracious, I just went one month without a single zoom?? My CTR has been decent up until now but it's plummeting. I wonder if it's time to pack it in here.

[Betty LaRue]

Hang on, Lynn. Not sure if zooms are crippled for some of us. Although I did get one today. Maybe the searchers are consuming holiday images instead of the usual fare.

[Rick Lewis]

On 10/31/2017 at 19:32, Lynn Palmer said:

Goodness gracious, I just went one month without a single zoom?? My CTR has been decent up until now but it's plummeting. I wonder if it's time to pack it in here.

 

Same boat here.  My CTR went from .91 to .67 in October.  No sales in Oct after two sales the month before.  I just need more images.  

[Lynn Palmer]

Thanks Betty, I can't remember the last time I went a month without a zoom. Hopefully this will pass soon.

 

Rick, I feel your pain!

[Robert Shantz]

I had a CTR of 0.99 for October, which is very close to my best since mouse overs were introduced.

 

My CTR has historically been extremely variable.  I think it has more to do with who is doing the search -- some buyers seem to zoom frequently while others don't.  I've had something like a 100 views on a general search term without a zoom -- as part of a search of 10,000 photos without any zooms.  And I just had 6 zooms out of 19 views on one search when only 100 photos were viewed with a total of 8 zooms.

 

As long as my images continue to be viewed at a reasonable rate, I don't worry too much about CTR or rank.

 

Robert

 

[Allan Bell]

 

My CTR seems to average 0.38 over the year with one at 1.12 but generally below 0.5.

 

I have not carried out any re-keywording/tagging on my legacy images and seem to be getting more zooms from them (B,C,D and G's) than the later images.

 

Allan

 

 

[andremichel]

15 hours ago, Lynn Palmer said:

Thanks Betty, I can't remember the last time I went a month without a zoom. Hopefully this will pass soon.

 

Rick, I feel your pain!

 

Just a suggestion, how about adding keywords 'rotten' and 'apple' to your rotting apples images? 

 

Andy

[Lynn Palmer]

On 11/2/2017 at 12:55, andremichel said:

 

Just a suggestion, how about adding keywords 'rotten' and 'apple' to your rotting apples images? 

 

Andy

Good idea, had the plurals but overlooked the obvious.

[Betty LaRue]

Zooms still plummeting.  Very strange.  It’s like nearly all buyers are mousing over now.

[Ed Rooney]

I have an alphabetical list of things I worry about.  CTR is not on that list. 

[Jill Morgan]

I don't think it is as important as we think it is.  As long as sales are coming, then I think that supercedes everything else.  My CTR this year has been steady around .38, and sales have been good.  

 

Jill