5 Sales in two years on Alamy

[spacecadet]

I hope you're still here, OP,  after all the discouragement, but you did ask.

With all your similars- 30 pix of a kitten?- your true port size is more like 250 than 2500. 5 sales in 2 years is in the ball park for  250.

As others have said you have too many of the snapshot variety- looking down on children instead of being at their eye level, that sort of thing- and your processing is very hit-and-miss.

Your keywording is actually quite decent- it's your choice of shot and subject that needs work. Reduce all your images to a one-word description-and think about how many distinct subjects you have- a dozen or two? I have hundreds. All the non-specialists here do. It's the only way to get regular results in search for a general collection.

[Colblimp]

11 hours ago, Futterwithtrees said:

Elaine I know how you feel. I have been doing stock photography for about 10 months now and have a modest portfolio. Just cant get a breakthrough with Alamy but will keep trying. I do have more or less the same portfolio with a microstock agency and have had a couple of hundred downloads in that time. Chicken feed by comparison to what some earn on Alamy but without the sales I would have lost heart by now. I haven't the courage to go exclusive with Alamy and that may well be affecting my sales.I am 70 and I just love the challenge but my portfolio may well not be good enough but I think it compares to many that I have viewed. So all the best and keep at it.  i hope you dont mind my contribution as ii don't want to cause a distraction to your thread.

 

You have nice images and your portfolio is certainly good enough.  I've many images of Cobh in my port, too, what a beautiful town!

 

One thing, which is only small but it might help, most of your captions start with either 'A' or 'The'.  Delete those words at the start of your captions, no need for them and apparently using them does affect your image visibility.  Also, watch out for similars.  Good luck!

[gvallee]

35 minutes ago, Colblimp said:

 

You have nice images and your portfolio is certainly good enough.  I've many images of Cobh in my port, too, what a beautiful town!

 

One thing, which is only small but it might help, most of your captions start with either 'A' or 'The'.  Delete those words at the start of your captions, no need for them and apparently using them does affect your image visibility.  Also, watch out for similars.  Good luck!

 

Can you expand on this please? I don't recall reading anything about it. 

While 'the' has no effect on searches, 'a' definitely has.

 

Gen

[Colblimp]

4 minutes ago, gvallee said:

 

Can you expand on this please? I don't recall reading anything about it. 

While 'the' has no effect on searches, 'a' definitely has.

 

Gen

 

OK, my bad.  I'm convinced I read somewhere 'The' has an effect. 

[gvallee]

5 minutes ago, Colblimp said:

 

OK, my bad.  I'm convinced I read somewhere 'The' has an effect. 

 

We can easily test it:

Red hat = 223,578

The red hat = 223,578

A red hat = 47,653

 

Well worth remembering. I didn't use to tag with 'a', now I do.

 

Gen

[ACC]

20 hours ago, MircoV said:

 

Also dont forget that you work is already spread to 80 other agencies through Alamy if you are opted in. So do indeed some good keywording and your images will appear on relevant searches in Alamy and on the distributors. 

 

Mirco

Hi Mirco - how can I see if I’ve opted in to multiple agencies? Does that happen by default or do I need to do something to my account? 

[NYCat]

2 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

We can easily test it:

Red hat = 223,578

The red hat = 223,578

A red hat = 47,653

 

Well worth remembering. I didn't use to tag with 'a', now I do.

 

Gen

 

That's really interesting but I wonder how useful it is. It seems that not very many people search with 'a' but if they do you have an advantage. Do you find that there are a lot of searches with 'a' in your measures? Or am I missing something.

 

Paulette

 

[efk11]

A big thank you to you all for your insightful, useful and genuine feedback.

 

Just for some context, my children are much older nowadays (for those asking about selling photos of my daughters), I guess I'm a bit romantic about it all and believe we should all share the delights of our lives with the world and not leave them on some dusty laptop somewhere and for the girls to have too in years to come

 

 As you can see a lot of the photos date back to 2006, I own hundreds of thousands of them. I have always been one of those annoying people that won't put the camera down so getting through them is a massive task, never mind taking new ones!

 

Whilst there are plenty of posed, there are plenty in the moment too which are definitely lacking on Alamy but I was curious if Alamy was more a market for scenery and things than people (non posed at least) and hence my original question, am I at the wrong party ?? :-)

 

So this is a hobby for me but at the same time would love to see some sell. Anyway I love nothing better than to spend hours on photoshop so its all good!

I will take all of your feedback and run with it!!

 

Thanks again

Elaine

 

 

 

[Cryptoprocta]

2 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

We can easily test it:

Red hat = 223,578

The red hat = 223,578

A red hat = 47,653

 

Well worth remembering. I didn't use to tag with 'a', now I do.

 

Gen

 

But the Col's post on this subject specificed 'the' and 'a' at the beginning of captions, not tags, affecting visibililty.

I'm sure a large proportion of my pics are captioned 'A(n) X doing Y at Z', or at least start with start with 'A' or 'An'.

[gvallee]

8 hours ago, NYCat said:

 

That's really interesting but I wonder how useful it is. It seems that not very many people search with 'a' but if they do you have an advantage. Do you find that there are a lot of searches with 'a' in your measures? Or am I missing something.

 

Paulette

 

 

I can't see how in this cut throat market, any little bit of knowledge would not be taken advantage of. 

I have seen searches for 'dog on a beach'. I had such pix, thing is they were only tagged as 'dog' and 'beach', hence not seen. Missed opportunity. I felt not just a little frustrated. I now make the effort to also include 'in' and 'on' where applicable.

If I'm given the chance to make more sales, I'll take it for sure.

 

Gen

[NYCat]

Thanks for the information, Gen. I know we are advised to make our captions into proper sentences and that would certainly make 'dog on a beach' more sensible than 'dog on beach'. Something to keep in mind.

 

Paulette

[gvallee]

7 hours ago, Cryptoprocta said:

 

But the Col's post on this subject specificed 'the' and 'a' at the beginning of captions, not tags, affecting visibililty.

I'm sure a large proportion of my pics are captioned 'A(n) X doing Y at Z', or at least start with start with 'A' or 'An'.

 

I know but captions are searchable aren't they? There is even a theory (untested by me, so don't know if true) that if a word appears both in caption and tag, the image appears higher up in searches. If true, having 'a' in caption and tag would affect visibility. Hence my reply.

 

Gen

[gvallee]

8 minutes ago, NYCat said:

Thanks for the information, Gen. I know we are advised to make our captions into proper sentences and that would certainly make 'dog on a beach' more sensible than 'dog on beach'. Something to keep in mind.

 

Paulette

 

I find the Forum invaluable for this kind of information. I learnt it from a thread years ago on the old forum. I'm just passing it on for those interested. Thank you good people!

 

Gen

[Rick Lewis]

On 10/30/2017 at 08:27, efk11 said:

I have thousands of photos dating back years mainly of family life and times in Ireland.

More recently I have focused on expanding my portfolio to try to appeal to an "Alamy Audience" as my sales are

disappointing. 

 

Thanks to all your wonderful advice on here,  I have spent lots of time on keywording and photoshop etc and changing between

RF and RM etc  but no improvement.

 

Perhaps I should also try moving to another site ? Can anyone recommend a second Stock Site as I read regularly about many of you securing 

monthly sales with average to small size portfolios,  so I'm at a loss as to what I am doing wrong despite having a good amount of niche photos.

 

thanks

Elaine

 

 

Elaine, I've only had 6 sales since 2008!  O.K., I haven't really put many images up until recently, but in my view, the only way you fail is if you quit.  Keep going, read these forums and listen to the wonderful advice from these more experienced stock photographers here.  I have learned a great deal in the last few months, just reading the forum.

 

I never really shot editorial stock, seriously, before this year, and it isn't as easy at it would seem.  Keep reading, learning and shooting.

 

Rick

[Rick Lewis]

On 10/30/2017 at 08:27, efk11 said:

I have thousands of photos dating back years mainly of family life and times in Ireland.

More recently I have focused on expanding my portfolio to try to appeal to an "Alamy Audience" as my sales are

disappointing. 

 

Thanks to all your wonderful advice on here,  I have spent lots of time on keywording and photoshop etc and changing between

RF and RM etc  but no improvement.

 

Perhaps I should also try moving to another site ? Can anyone recommend a second Stock Site as I read regularly about many of you securing 

monthly sales with average to small size portfolios,  so I'm at a loss as to what I am doing wrong despite having a good amount of niche photos.

 

thanks

Elaine

 

 

Elaine, I've only had 6 sales since 2008!  O.K., I haven't really put many images up until recently, but in my view, the only way you fail is if you quit.  Keep going, read these forums and listen to the wonderful advice from these more experienced stock photographers here.  I have learned a great deal in the last few months, just reading the forum.

 

I never really shot editorial stock, seriously, before this year, and it isn't as easy at it would seem.  Keep reading, learning and shooting.

 

Rick

[Rick Lewis]

On 10/30/2017 at 08:27, efk11 said:

I have thousands of photos dating back years mainly of family life and times in Ireland.

More recently I have focused on expanding my portfolio to try to appeal to an "Alamy Audience" as my sales are

disappointing. 

 

Thanks to all your wonderful advice on here,  I have spent lots of time on keywording and photoshop etc and changing between

RF and RM etc  but no improvement.

 

Perhaps I should also try moving to another site ? Can anyone recommend a second Stock Site as I read regularly about many of you securing 

monthly sales with average to small size portfolios,  so I'm at a loss as to what I am doing wrong despite having a good amount of niche photos.

 

thanks

Elaine

 

 

Elaine, I've only had 6 sales since 2008!  O.K., I haven't really put many images up until recently, but in my view, the only way you fail is if you quit.  Keep going, read these forums and listen to the wonderful advice from these more experienced stock photographers here.  I have learned a great deal in the last few months, just reading the forum.

 

I never really shot editorial stock, seriously, before this year, and it isn't as easy at it would seem.  Keep reading, learning and shooting.

 

Rick

[Rick Lewis]

On 10/30/2017 at 08:27, efk11 said:

I have thousands of photos dating back years mainly of family life and times in Ireland.

More recently I have focused on expanding my portfolio to try to appeal to an "Alamy Audience" as my sales are

disappointing. 

 

Thanks to all your wonderful advice on here,  I have spent lots of time on keywording and photoshop etc and changing between

RF and RM etc  but no improvement.

 

Perhaps I should also try moving to another site ? Can anyone recommend a second Stock Site as I read regularly about many of you securing 

monthly sales with average to small size portfolios,  so I'm at a loss as to what I am doing wrong despite having a good amount of niche photos.

 

thanks

Elaine

 

 

Elaine, I've only had 6 sales since 2008!  O.K., I haven't really put many images up until recently, but in my view, the only way you fail is if you quit.  Keep going, read these forums and listen to the wonderful advice from these more experienced stock photographers here.  I have learned a great deal in the last few months, just reading the forum.

 

I never really shot editorial stock, seriously, before this year, and it isn't as easy at it would seem.  Keep reading, learning and shooting.

 

Rick

[Rick Lewis]

Sorry all for the multiple posts!!!  Browser issues!!!  Ugh....

[ChrisC]

On 30/10/2017 at 21:14, Cryptoprocta said:

I hope you're clear with Disney?

" Professional photographers with professional cameras or recording equipment, who are visiting Walt Disney World Resort with the intent to take photographs or recordings of people, Walt Disney World Resort properties or icons for professional purposes must make prior arrangements with Walt Disney World Resort Media Relations. "

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_GB/faq/parks/restricted-personal-items

Disney are very well known for being protective and litigious about their brand. That would explain the apparently-surprisingly-few images on  of Disney World etc.

I thought that straight away, I worked on a Cirque De Soleil job about 10 years ago and took a couple of snaps for the company I worked for to use on Facebook/Twitter within about 20 mins of them going online, our office had an e-mail saying if we didn't delete them then their  lawyers would be taking action.

Disney are supposed to be just as hard edged about their property and any images being used of it

[lisah2006]

On 10/30/2017 at 16:30, John Mitchell said:

 

Do you check Alamy Measures / All of Alamy to see what customers are currently looking for in your part of the world? It can be a big help sometimes. Good luck.

I just did this and much of it is related to celebrities. I'm not in luck as I don't photograph celebrities.