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We are now in Wichita staying with our daughter and son-in-law.  Our household goods won’t be here until next Tuesday, but we do have the keys to the house. The trip was foggy/rainy, then turned into thunder-sleet and hail at the end. We are living out of bags for now. For 4 nights, I operated on 3-4 hours sleep a night since I and my family packed up into the wee hours. 3-4 am and up again by 7 am. I’ve never been so tired and hurt so much.

 

I logged on to Measures today and was surprised to see how many zooms I have and how high my CTR is. This after a couple of months of dismal numbers. I’m hoping these numbers soon translate into a few sales.

I'm only posting to give hope to others who also have had low numbers.  It’s a strange business.  The tide goes out...the tide comes in. I’m hoping for a sustained high tide.

Meanwhile, I need to book a contractor for improvement estimates on the new/old house, buy an electric clothes dryer, get the flooring guy out for measurements. And remember to take pictures of it.

Life might become normal in 6 months. 

Betty

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54 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

We are now in Wichita staying with our daughter and son-in-law.  Our household goods won’t be here until next Tuesday, but we do have the keys to the house. The trip was foggy/rainy, then turned into thunder-sleet and hail at the end. We are living out of bags for now. For 4 nights, I operated on 3-4 hours sleep a night since I and my family packed up into the wee hours. 3-4 am and up again by 7 am. I’ve never been so tired and hurt so much.

 

I logged on to Measures today and was surprised to see how many zooms I have and how high my CTR is. This after a couple of months of dismal numbers. I’m hoping these numbers soon translate into a few sales.

I'm only posting to give hope to others who also have had low numbers.  It’s a strange business.  The tide goes out...the tide comes in. I’m hoping for a sustained high tide.

Meanwhile, I need to book a contractor for improvement estimates on the new/old house, buy an electric clothes dryer, get the flooring guy out for measurements. And remember to take pictures of it.

Life might become normal in 6 months. 

Betty

 

My sympathies are with you Betty it is a tiring and stressful time.

 

I am looking forward to the time I will have to move as both an adventure and a major upheaval and disruption to my life.

 

Allan

 

Back to the thread. I have not had a zoom since 1st February. Views OK though.

 

ITMA

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

We are now in Wichita staying with our daughter and son-in-law.  Our household goods won’t be here until next Tuesday, but we do have the keys to the house. The trip was foggy/rainy, then turned into thunder-sleet and hail at the end. We are living out of bags for now. For 4 nights, I operated on 3-4 hours sleep a night since I and my family packed up into the wee hours. 3-4 am and up again by 7 am. I’ve never been so tired and hurt so much.

 

I logged on to Measures today and was surprised to see how many zooms I have and how high my CTR is. This after a couple of months of dismal numbers. I’m hoping these numbers soon translate into a few sales.

I'm only posting to give hope to others who also have had low numbers.  It’s a strange business.  The tide goes out...the tide comes in. I’m hoping for a sustained high tide.

Meanwhile, I need to book a contractor for improvement estimates on the new/old house, buy an electric clothes dryer, get the flooring guy out for measurements. And remember to take pictures of it.

Life might become normal in 6 months. 

Betty

 

Hooray, Betty. Congratulations on the new house. Moving is awful, dreadful, disturbing, exhausting. I've been in my new apartment for a year and a half and it was just last week that I emptied the final box -- with framed prints that needed to be hung on the wall. Felt so good to carry that last cardboard box out of here.

 

Paulette

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3 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I logged on to Measures today and was surprised to see how many zooms I have and how high my CTR is. This after a couple of months of dismal numbers. I’m hoping these numbers soon translate into a few sales.

I'm only posting to give hope to others who also have had low numbers.  It’s a strange business.  The tide goes out...the tide comes in. I’m hoping for a sustained high tide.

Meanwhile, I need to book a contractor for improvement estimates on the new/old house, buy an electric clothes dryer, get the flooring guy out for measurements. And remember to take pictures of it.

 

 

I like the tide analogy, very appropriate for this game!

 

Hope you get sorted ASAP, isn't moving house rated as one of the most traumatic things that most folk encounter.

 

One thing though, we bought a canopy to sit out in the garden with some protection from the elements. Not sure how useful it has been for that, but it's the bees knees for drying washing, you hang stuff out and forget about it, secure in the knowledge that, if the rains come, it won't get wet.

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Hope things return to normal on the home front soon, Betty.

 

My CTR has been rising steadily since I started going back and reworking and repairing tags on old images. It is currently holding steady at 0.66, highest that it has been for a long time, and I'm showing 45 zooms for the "rolling" month, 11 during the last seven days.

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8 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

I like the tide analogy, very appropriate for this game!

 

Hope you get sorted ASAP, isn't moving house rated as one of the most traumatic things that most folk encounter.

 

One thing though, we bought a canopy to sit out in the garden with some protection from the elements. Not sure how useful it has been for that, but it's the bees knees for drying washing, you hang stuff out and forget about it, secure in the knowledge that, if the rains come, it won't get wet.

Yes, Bryan, traumatic. I was born and raised in Oklahoma, and except for my husband’s Air Force hitch, have always been in the state.  I’m an avid Oklahoma football fan, listened to Sports Animal (A call in and opinion show) every day on the radio. 

I’m just 160 miles north of where I lived, 60 miles from the Oklahoma border, but here they talk about Kansas sports. My radio station is no longer available to me. 

I’m an Okie transplant now.

But I will adapt. I always do to new situations. I do the breaststroke rather than kicking and screaming.

 

Thanks John, Paulette.

I will be getting my computer back online March 1, so maybe I can again process images.

Betty

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1 hour ago, GS-Images said:

 

My CTR would be better now, but with having a higher rank than I used to have, I'm seeing searches that bring up so many of my images that the CTR plummets. Someone recently searched for "UK", unhelpfully, and I've had several searches bringing up over 100 views with no zooms! Anyway, according to Alamy, CTR makes very little difference (not sure of the exact phrase they used without checking) to our AlamyRank, so I think that as long as we're getting SOME zooms to show some interest in our images, the CTR isn't very important.

 

Have a nice Weekend folks,

Geoff.

That’s good to hear. As I have been growing my portfolio fairly quickly over the last year, my CTR has taken a dive,  but my rank remains at 3 stars. I get lots of views and reasonably regular zooms, and it does seem that relevant images are appearing reasonably high up in searches.

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Just now, spacecadet said:

Or not. My single star never made any difference. Nor did the second one.

I don't know what you have to do to get three- 65 passes in a row isn't enough evidently.

 

One star only yet my uploads pass QC well within 24 hrs. Sometimes only a few hours.

 

Allan

 

 

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1 hour ago, GS-Images said:

 

Hi Sally. The 3 stars you have are only for your QC rank, nothing else. It just gives you higher priority if Alamy have lots of updates to go through.

 

Geoff. 

Ok, so I have clearly misunderstood. QC rank is different to Alamyrank? And how does one know what one’s Alamyrank is, or is that hidden?

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1 hour ago, GS-Images said:

 

That does seem a bit rough after 65 passes. I've failed twice since starting at Alamy in 2010, at least 2 or 3 years ago now (twice in a row, strangely!). I don't know how many batches I've uploaded since the fails but lately I've been going a bit loopy with uploading so much, so it's likely to be more than 65.

 

 

 

Yes, QC rank is based on your uploads and failures, although from what Mark said about, it doesn't make any real difference to how long it takes Alamy to check batches.

 

Nobody knows their AlamyRank other than Alamy, but you can sometimes get a good idea simply from looking at search results. That isn't accurate though of course, and in fact could be misleading due to all the factors at play (some known, some unknown to me) with image placement. Some of us used to use something called BHZ, which is where we would put BHZ (a random thing a contributor once came up with that wouldn't be searched for by a customer) in one of our RM images as a supertag (used to be in the Essentials field before AIM), and the position that image appeared in gave a rough estimate of our rank compared to others who were doing the same thing. That was frowned upon by Alamy, but I never understood why because it always gave a very good idea of things, and was consistent. Since the search engine changes over a year ago though, it's all become rather irrelevant so is probably no longer a good way of knowing our AlamyRank compared to others, although I still believe it gives a vague idea (the same images still appear highest like they always have), as long as you only put BHZ in one RM image in one of your pseudos, and don't repeat it in any other tag.

 

Probably best not to bother to be honest, but that's what we used to do.

 

Geoff.

Thanks for the fulsome explanation. I will just have to rely on having good saleable images (I certainly have a better idea about this than when I started) and comprehensive tagging.

 

Yes, even with 3 QC stars, images generally pass around 5-6.00pm the next day, or at that time on a Monday if uploaded on a Friday. There have only been one or two instances when they were passed in the morning of the day after upload.  I wonder if extra stars are earned from regular uploads, as I generally upload several times a week.

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3 hours ago, GS-Images said:

 

 

 

Some of us used to use something called BHZ, which is where we would put BHZ (a random thing a contributor once came up with that wouldn't be searched for by a customer) in one of our RM images as a supertag (used to be in the Essentials field before AIM), and the position that image appeared in gave a rough estimate of our rank compared to others who were doing the same thing. That was frowned upon by Alamy, but I never understood why because it always gave a very good idea of things, and was consistent. 

Geoff.

The BHZ ‘game’ was invented by a member of the old Alamypro forum  - a contributor forum in the days way before Alamy started this one.

Been trying to remember his name......

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20 hours ago, gvallee said:

Hang on in there Betty, I'm sure there will be nice surprises round the corner when you least expect them.

 

Sending you good vibes and energy.

 

Gen

Thank you, Gen. We need good vibes to knock out the stomach bug running through the family. Not me, knock on wood, so the vibes/energy must be working!:D

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I never really pay much attention to my CTR but this post made me look.

 

On the rolling 1 year screen on the dashboard my CTR is .46 which is about what I remember it being whenever I bothered to look before.  However, if I click on My Images the screen there shows a CTR of .31 for the rolling 1 month.  And looking at the chart on the dashboard my CTR has ranged from a high of .70 in August of 2017 to a low of .08 in November of 2017.  It has since crawled back up to  .31. 

 

I uploaded steadily in June and July of 2017 but health and work got in the way and I uploaded nothing from 31 July 2017 through 29 December 2017.  Since then I have been uploading on a steady basis again.

 

Just curious if I should be worried about the wide swings?  Or the relationship (if any) between my CTR and my uploads?

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4 hours ago, Zigzagmtart said:

I never really pay much attention to my CTR but this post made me look.

 

On the rolling 1 year screen on the dashboard my CTR is .46 which is about what I remember it being whenever I bothered to look before.  However, if I click on My Images the screen there shows a CTR of .31 for the rolling 1 month.  And looking at the chart on the dashboard my CTR has ranged from a high of .70 in August of 2017 to a low of .08 in November of 2017.  It has since crawled back up to  .31. 

 

I uploaded steadily in June and July of 2017 but health and work got in the way and I uploaded nothing from 31 July 2017 through 29 December 2017.  Since then I have been uploading on a steady basis again.

 

Just curious if I should be worried about the wide swings?  Or the relationship (if any) between my CTR and my uploads?

 

I'm firmly of the opinion that regular uploads have a beneficial effect, though I have no firm evidence to support this. It has been said that a generally steady graph is best, rather than wild swings (rather like life, really)! I honestly don't know: others here go into all this far more deeply than I do!  Ultimately though, surely the only things that matters is the bottom line - your sales?  If these are good, then who gives a monkey's uncle about CTR?!

 

Purely out of interest, though: my dashboard CTR over the last 13 months has gone between 0.34 and 0.96, averaging out at 0.65.  Zooms seem to count more for me than many others have reported: about 50% of my zooms result in sales - ironically though, my best sales values never seem to have been zoomed and always take me by surprise!  I'm not in the UK Newspaper Scheme, am signed up to limited distribution markets, currently average around 2.5 sales/month here - and drink tea in the mornings! ;):lol:

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On 2/24/2018 at 01:46, GS-Images said:

Long time to chat Betty, I hope things settle down with your move quickly.

 

I'll join the party if that's ok and post my recent zooms for the same time periods. Since the re-rank late last year my views have shot up and zooms have mostly followed them to match. I do often find the same as others, that I'll have a period of no zooms followed by a period of higher than average zooms. In the past few days the wonderful and very pretty zoom fairy has visited me while I sleep and left me quite a few, which was kind. I've left her a box of chocolates to say thanks.

 

24th Jan - 22nd Feb

46 zooms

CTR: 0.58

 

Last 7 days

16 zooms

CTR: 0.90

 

This month so far

35 zooms

CTR: 0.60

 

For a bit of fun I checked zooms for all of February 2017 - I had just 7. March was 10, April was 10.

 

I hope sales will soon start to appear to match my higher zooms. My CTR would be better now, but with having a higher rank than I used to have, I'm seeing searches that bring up so many of my images that the CTR plummets. Someone recently searched for "UK", unhelpfully, and I've had several searches bringing up over 100 views with no zooms! Anyway, according to Alamy, CTR makes very little difference (not sure of the exact phrase they used without checking) to our AlamyRank, so I think that as long as we're getting SOME zooms to show some interest in our images, the CTR isn't very important.

 

Have a nice Weekend folks,

Geoff.

Glad to see your tide is high, Geoff.  Feels good to know all the work you’ve put in is paying off. That said, I put in loads of work, had high zooms, good sales, then everything tanked around the holidays. Like I said, this is a strange business. Nothing about it, at least for me, is steady.

Betty

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44 minutes ago, JeffGreenberg said:

 

Don't know reason for move, but some tips to keep from being outsider...

 a. its pronounced WITCHi-taw = KS city, not WATCHi-taw = OK mountains

b. its pronounced r-KANSAS River in KS, not ARKAN-saw River like everywhere else

c. "Kansas isn't the same without Livgren" is NOT about the state, its about the band

(yes, I lived there -- Lawrence in '74-75 -- & met Kerry via common friend)

You do have the insight, all right. I’ve always known how to pronounce Wichita. Partly because it was mentioned by our weathermen on tv, and partly because our daughter lives here. 

But you got me on the river. I assumed it was R-Kan-saw like in Oklahoma. But I always knew R-Kansas City (Arkansas City) close to the border was pronounced like that. I assume they still have Ark-a-la-la on Halloween.

I do like it here. Lots of birds flying about. I hope to see some bald eagles. I spent time today hunting up furniture stores and getting lost. But I always found my way out of a pickle. Last evening I went to gas up my car. Got where I was going just fine. Took a scenic drive in the country before finding my way back. I’ve always had trouble reversing directions!! :huh:

Betty

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