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Author Topic: First submission has been accepted  (Read 8616 times)

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« on: October 17, 2017, 09:58 »
0
I recently signed up to Alamy and just now received an e-mail from them, stating that my first three images have been accepted. After playing around with microstock for the past two years, this will be my first venture into midstock. Now, Ive got to familiarise myself with Alamy's unique key word system.


Brasilnut

  • Author Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock & Blog

« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2017, 12:47 »
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Good luck! Need to play the long game with Alamy but I think it's well worth the wait.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2017, 13:05 »
+3
I recently signed up to Alamy and just now received an e-mail from them, stating that my first three images have been accepted. After playing around with microstock for the past two years, this will be my first venture into midstock. Now, Ive got to familiarise myself with Alamy's unique key word system.
It's not the keywords that are the problem (but they don't have stemming, which might be what you meant), it's trying to hit the wee stars to make supertags that's the big problem.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2017, 15:08 by ShadySue »

« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2017, 21:36 »
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Good luck! Need to play the long game with Alamy but I think it's well worth the wait.

Oh yes Ive read many times that sales are few and far between on Alamy. I know I'll have to be patient.

It's not the keywords that are the problem (but they don't have stemming, which might be what you meant), it's trying to hit the wee stars to make supertags that's the big problem.

Ive read about the stemming. When I type in keywords on the microstock sites, I'm very specific in using words that relate to the subjects in the image. For example, if there is one person featured, I'll never include "people." I will include "person" as well as the gender of that person.

I'm actually very hesitant about using supertags after reading the forums. Some actually say that supertags have the opposite effect to what they're intended to do - that they'll push images considerably downwards in search results. One guy did a test - noted that his image could be found on page 3 or thereabouts. After adding supertags, the image dropped about 20 pages in search results.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2017, 04:31 »
0
It's not the keywords that are the problem (but they don't have stemming, which might be what you meant), it's trying to hit the wee stars to make supertags that's the big problem.

Ive read about the stemming. When I type in keywords on the microstock sites, I'm very specific in using words that relate to the subjects in the image. For example, if there is one person featured, I'll never include "people." I will include "person" as well as the gender of that person.
I try to be a clean keyworder too, but sometimes stemming is relevant, e.g. exercise and exercising etc. Also if someone searches on 'cats', do they mean they definitely want more than one cat, or do they want to see all available cats? Of course, we can't read buyers' minds, but if they want to see all available cats and we have just keyworded 'cat', our file won't be seen*. Which is probably irrelevant in cats but could be relevant in a less populous search.
*then of course, if they definitely wanted to see cats plural, our 'cat' would annoy them.

Who can work out what buyers want? One of the most popular searches in the past month was v. Yup, the letter v, sic. Of course, that may be needed occasionally, but to be one of the most searched for keywords  ???

Quote
I'm actually very hesitant about using supertags after reading the forums. Some actually say that supertags have the opposite effect to what they're intended to do - that they'll push images considerably downwards in search results. One guy did a test - noted that his image could be found on page 3 or thereabouts. After adding supertags, the image dropped about 20 pages in search results.
That was certainly the case from my own tests in the few weeks/months after they were introduced. It may be that that has changed, though the search algorithm changes so often you could drive yourself nuts adjusting for one iteration then finding it had changed again.
For example, the old problem of having a pic of Joe Bloggs and Jane Doe showing up in searches for Joe Doe, Jane Bloggs and Doe Bloggs seems to be far cleaner on my test search than it has been for about a year; however, about a year ago it was clean, then went polluted again (Joe Doe etc still appear, because the search splits phrases, but now pushes them down to some extent.)

BTW, there are a few people on their forum who are such great Alamy fans (disclaimer: I'm only submitting to Alamy at the moment, but may get back to FAA soon) that they believe absolutely everything Alamy tells them without checking it out, and quote it as gospel, and get miffed when others post the results of actual checking.  ::)

Good luck!
« Last Edit: October 18, 2017, 05:55 by ShadySue »

« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2017, 05:01 »
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Something really weird is going on at the Alamy forum. I'm being logged out every few seconds. I keep signing in repeatedly only to be logged out a few seconds later.

Brasilnut

  • Author Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock & Blog

« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2017, 05:03 »
0
Quote
Something really weird is going on at the Alamy forum. I'm being logged out every few seconds. I keep signing in repeatedly only to be logged out a few seconds later.

Yes, re-occurring issue.

namussi

« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2017, 08:04 »
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Something really weird is going on at the Alamy forum. I'm being logged out every few seconds. I keep signing in repeatedly only to be logged out a few seconds later.

North Korean hackers have been tasked to steal stock photos

« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2017, 12:35 »
0
North Korean hackers have been tasked to steal stock photos

Lol you're probably right.

« Reply #9 on: November 23, 2017, 04:51 »
+1
Hi dragonblade. Congratulations on having your images accepted! I am sure you will quickly become accustomed to the process and the user interface. My consultancy work with Alamy prior to the launch of the new Image Manager last Nov, involved user testing. I am therefore directly informed on best practise for this particular system. The process will naturally differ from other systems, platforms and search engines that you may have uploaded to before. That said, it is a logical process, and the key advice I have for you is as follows:

1. Apply relevant keywords (even if fewer than 50)
2. Nominate 10 "Supertags" per image
3. Add a keyword and an 'Optional' tag for number of people (as this optimises freetext search as well as allowing customers to filter within search results). For example, if you add 'two people' but don't add an Optional tag for '2 People' then a customer searching on 'tourists on beach' will not be able to filter within the results to find only those with '2 People' and so visibility/access to relevant images will be prevented
5. As to the first point here, this is a much longer conversation and is perhaps one for another time.

Alamy is an innovative and tech-based agency, and the algorithm will constantly change. As such, a successful keywording methodology will also adapt and take note of changes within the search engine. The more direct input/insight you have into this the better qualified you are to recommend a successful keywording strategy.

I hope this provides some assurance - all the best with your new Alamy venture! 

« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2017, 10:04 »
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I think you would have gone mental trying to keep up with Alamy's keywording suggestions if you had a lot of files. remember the use of [ ] tags? I think I added them for a while but it became clear they weren't actually using them.

It is a long game there, but in my case it has been worth it.



 

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