andremichel Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Hi, For medical reasons I haven't shot any new stock for a couple of months nor submitted anything to Alamy. Over this period my zooms have been in freefall. I don't know if that is a coincidence or not. How is everyone else's rolling zooms total for the month? Are they going strong or are you seeing a significant drop also? I may be wrong but I suspect Alamy may have implemented something that aggressively pushes you back in the search order if you slow or stop submissions. My zooms peaked in October 2017 at about 95 for the month (at the time I had been submitting heavily for several months). They have now just touched a pathetic 41 this month, with no zooms at all the last few days. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Ashmore Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 I would think that views would be more indicative of whether you are being impacted by an algorithm or not.. whether a viewed image is zoomed or not is entirely out of Alamy's control and more down to the buyer's view of whether your image stands out in the crowd or not. But Alamy's search engine mechanics will dictate how many of your images are returned in search results and therefore zoomable. It has been suggested before that being active as a contributor has an impact on your standing in search results and to my mind, this makes sense. It would be one way to 'reward' active contributors for their efforts. Certainly if Alamy has an algorithm that in any way prefers newer images, not being active in uploading and therefore not having newer images could well put you at a disadvantage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 I had a hip replaced in January and have only just started getting back to submitting new images. My zooms and sales held steady, but I made sure to submit a few images (old and overlooked ones mainly) every week or so while I was recovering. P.S. This month has been slow for both zooms and sales so far, but things seem to be picking up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 1 hour ago, John Mitchell said: I had a hip replaced in January and have only just started getting back to submitting new images. My zooms and sales held steady, but I made sure to submit a few images (old and overlooked ones mainly) every week or so while I was recovering. P.S. This month has been slow for both zooms and sales so far, but things seem to be picking up. I hope you are more hip than ever John . Wishing you the best. I am due for a new knee....not looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said: I hope you are more hip than ever John . Wishing you the best. I am due for a new knee....not looking forward to it. Thanks. I'm an old hipster from way back. Knees are apparently more complicated that hips, but it's worth it, especially when you consider the alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andremichel Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 16 hours ago, John Mitchell said: My zooms and sales held steady, but I made sure to submit a few images (old and overlooked ones mainly) every week or so while I was recovering. Maybe I need to do the same, i.e. go back through my old images and submit a few every week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobD Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 It's the opposite for me. I have just started submitting again after a couple of years break and my zooms this month have dropped to practically zero, so I don't think the two are related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 36 minutes ago, andremichel said: Maybe I need to do the same, i.e. go back through my old images and submit a few every week. Who knows if adding images regularly actually helps improve things. I just thought it was a good idea to cover all the bases. That said, my CTR is currently one-half of what it was last month. May has not exactly been a hot month for zooms so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 6 minutes ago, John Mitchell said: Who knows if adding images regularly actually helps improve things. I just thought it was a good idea to cover all the bases. That said, my CTR is currently one-half of what it was last month. May has not exactly been a hot month for zooms so far. I think Alamy tweaked the search slightly at the end of last month - I have a notion that someone posted a thread to that effect which didn't run for very long. I have just experienced a golden period of several months where I was getting a CTR of around 1.0, but this month it has dropped to less than the Alamy average, and I think it is something Alamy has changed rather than just a statistical blip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DickJ Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 I just started resubmitting after a year's pause waiting for the new editor and keyword values to settle down. My zooms and sales were my second best last year. Dick Janzig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MandyD Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 1 minute ago, Joseph Clemson said: I think Alamy tweaked the search slightly at the end of last month - I have a notion that someone posted a thread to that effect which didn't run for very long. I have just experienced a golden period of several months where I was getting a CTR of around 1.0, but this month it has dropped to less than the Alamy average, and I think it is something Alamy has changed rather than just a statistical blip. I think it does...all of a sudden my photos were showing higher in the results and I can attribute it to anything other then consistent uploading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Hatton Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Don't think there is any connection I have been submitting regularly and my zooms have almost come to a standstill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpics Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 I once had a big dip in zooms just as I was uploading loads. Don't think there's a correlation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MandyD Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 true, but rather I think I have more zooms then I did simply because my placement went higher....you guys who submit regularly and have consistent sales are already in the top search rankings, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sally Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 51 minutes ago, Joseph Clemson said: I think Alamy tweaked the search slightly at the end of last month - I have a notion that someone posted a thread to that effect which didn't run for very long. I have just experienced a golden period of several months where I was getting a CTR of around 1.0, but this month it has dropped to less than the Alamy average, and I think it is something Alamy has changed rather than just a statistical blip. That is helpful to know. Every month this year I’ve had a sale in the first week of the month. Nothing so far, and searches and zooms are way down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windmillskies Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 I echo the sentiments of others about the lack of zooms - they've fallen flat after a really good run of months, which perhaps makes it more noticeable. Martin www.windmillskies.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cecile Marion Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 4 minutes ago, Sally said: That is helpful to know. Every month this year I’ve had a sale in the first week of the month. Nothing so far, and searches and zooms are way down. This is exactly my experience, (and I’ve been uploading lots of pics recently, too). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 1 hour ago, Sally said: That is helpful to know. Every month this year I’ve had a sale in the first week of the month. Nothing so far, and searches and zooms are way down. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months. I had a terrible 2017 for zooms and sales, while some other contributors were commenting how well they were doing. From early 2018 my zooms and sales recovered, to the extent that I have more revenue in the first five months of 2018 than the entirety of 2017. It seemed to me while browsing the forums that some of those who did well while I languished in the foothills seemed to suffer some decline when my outlook was improving. I suspect whatever change was made five months or so ago has now been reversed, fully, or partially and the swings and roundabouts are now leaving me behind again. One thing these experience is telling me is that while good shooting, captioning and keywording are absolutely essential if one is to have any hope of thriving here, at the end of the day success or failure requires the beneficent smile of the Alamy gods too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 I'm showing only 19 zooms for May compared to 39 for the same time period (April 1-15) last month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariaJ Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 I'm also showing a significant drop this month compared to last month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 My zooms are up and down, but not one sale this month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Richmond Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 39 zooms so far this month against 24 for the same period last month (my best ever month for zooms {59}). So an increase for me, and CTR up to 1.50. Of course, it could all go belly up for the rest of the month so no chickens have been counted yet. Only 1 sale so far this month but the first fortnight is often slow for my images so not worrying yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gvallee Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 In 2015/2016, I didn't upload for 8 months while I was on the road. Zooms and sales remained the same. Then sales picked up because I added several thousands. One thing I noticed though is that recently, say in the past year, I have been selling lots of older pictures/scans uploaded years ago. Why is that so, I can't explain. Zooms are low this month but I have 12 sales, of which only 1 is direct. All others are PU/Presentation/Distributors. A curious month. Gen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 I've actually been submitting a bit more recently and my zooms are still poor. CTR is poor again this month. I've noticed though that if I don't get good sales by the middle of the month then I can resign myself to only small newspaper sales at the end of the month. It's very unusual for me to get good sales reported at the months end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MandyD Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 again....should be looking at views and not zooms...higher placement gets you more views, whereas the customer still controls the zooms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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