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Author Topic: How many keywords does everyone use at iStockphoto?  (Read 13044 times)

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« on: September 03, 2007, 19:49 »
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I usually use around ten keywords, and I also use a keyword suggestion tool.

Link to the keyword suggestion tool:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/


« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2007, 20:00 »
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I typically use between 30 and 40.

Dunno if it matters, but I purposefully arrange them. Because of the CV, some of the keywords I use to describe an image on IS aren't used on that same image on other sites.

« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2007, 20:41 »
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I also typically use 30 - 40.

I use phrases quite a lot, like 'cardboard box' or 'christmas gift'.  The IS CV recognises these instantly.  Fotolia and BigStock also recognise them.  DT, SS and StockXpert split up all the words and I have to input them again manually.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2007, 20:52 by hatman12 »

« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2007, 20:51 »
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I suppose I also average between 30 and 40.  In a few images I surpassed the 50 maximum keywords and had to delete some of them.

Regards,
Adelaide

« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2007, 13:35 »
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wow I typically use between 10 and 15, looks like there's something else to improve upon as well as taking more and better photos.


« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2007, 14:40 »
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Do you need more than 10 or 15?  My best selling photo on istock has 15.  I have a dog house that has sold 68 times with just 8 keywords.  I could add another 40 but that would use up my time and might annoy people who were not looking for a dog house.

When I started there, I tried to put in as many keywords as possible but now I use a lot less.

« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2007, 15:29 »
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The amount of keywords obviously depends a lot on what the image contains as well as the complexity of the marketplace.

« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2007, 07:42 »
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Do you need more than 10 or 15?  My best selling photo on istock has 15.  I have a dog house that has sold 68 times with just 8 keywords.  I could add another 40 but that would use up my time and might annoy people who were not looking for a dog house.

When I started there, I tried to put in as many keywords as possible but now I use a lot less.

I often wondered about that myself. Let's say, there is a portrait of a pretty woman in a magically looking forrest surrounding. Is there point in adding keyword "magic"? How probable is it that a buyer includes this word in his search? Or, if it's an attempt to make the net broader in hope that someone looking for an image of a magician at work stumbles on woman's portrait and likes it - does that happen or he just gets irritated? I guess someone buying photos could shed the light

« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2007, 10:59 »
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Lets learn from the best  ;):

This weeks top 10 sellers on IStock (http://www.istockphoto.com/most_popular.php)

have respectively 43, 39, 43, 35, 37, 27, 40, 33, 32, 28 keywords.

« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2007, 11:16 »
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I don't know if that tells us much bjorn... there are too many factors involved in photo's popularity, not sure keywording can be singled out like that as a deciding or even significant factor. Sharpshot's experience in a post above is different, just simple directly relevant keywords were enough to make photo a good seller (obviously it was a good photo to begin with)

« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2007, 11:44 »
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With all due respect and nothing personal, but sharpshot's best shot sold 124 times in roughly 1 year (i would sign for it). But the top selling images i referred to sell that much in one week.

I guess the only way to find out is if you double or half your keywords and look over a longer time what happens.

I think that if you add more general keywords like 'email' or 'contact' to  sharpshot's top image, sales will go up.  Once again, learn from the best, look at how general and objective their keywords are.

Just my 2 cents...

« Reply #11 on: September 05, 2007, 12:09 »
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Yep, I agree.

Keywording is the only tool you have to market your image, and you are handicapping your income by not paying it the close attention it deserves. The only restriction I place on keywords is that they must be relevant to the way I want to market the image.

So go ahead, limit yourself to some arbitrarily finite number of keywords, it's nobody's loss but your own.

« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2007, 13:07 »
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"Contact", OK... but "email"? Wouldn't it be really pushing it? By the standars being established aacross the sites, this one would seem like a keyword spam to me if used for the photo of a mail post box. What am I missing?

« Reply #13 on: September 06, 2007, 15:23 »
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i know i need to work on my keywords, i just do not know how you can come up with that many words for one photo :-\

« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2007, 15:42 »
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"english", "england", "united kingdom", "royal mail", "post box", "mail box", "postage", "posting", "classic", "delivery", "antique", "quaint", "bright red", "colourful", "old", "classic design", "typical", "icon", "fifties", "sixties"......... and perhaps even "postman pat" (joke)........

« Reply #15 on: September 06, 2007, 16:08 »
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I will add a few more keywords and see what happens.

« Reply #16 on: September 06, 2007, 16:28 »
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Choosing keywords is a big problem, and as sharply points out however good or bad the image sometimes it's the keywords that make the sale or not.  Visibility is everything.

The problem is trying to think like a buyer.  In sharpshot's postbox image it would be easy to just think that buyers are looking for a picture of an English postbox and leave it at that.  But actually, a buyer might be searching for something that is 'typically English' which is a different kettle of fish altogether.  Given that most of the agencies are based in America, the 'typically English' search is likely to be much more popular than 'postbox'.

« Reply #17 on: September 06, 2007, 18:33 »
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Inspired keywording work, hatman!

« Reply #18 on: September 06, 2007, 19:57 »
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That's a good point hatman. Adds different dimension to keywording.

PS. May I add "Going postal" to your impressive list of suggestions?  ;D (Not sure if this joke is internationally understandable or specific to US)


The problem is trying to think like a buyer.  In sharpshot's postbox image it would be easy to just think that buyers are looking for a picture of an English postbox and leave it at that.  But actually, a buyer might be searching for something that is 'typically English' which is a different kettle of fish altogether.  Given that most of the agencies are based in America, the 'typically English' search is likely to be much more popular than 'postbox'.

« Reply #19 on: September 06, 2007, 23:11 »
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Whenever I see good keywording, I'll from now on say something like "He pulled a hatman on those keywords", "He made like hatman with it", or "Wow, that image has been totally hatmanned!"
« Last Edit: September 07, 2007, 09:50 by sharply_done »

« Reply #20 on: September 07, 2007, 10:33 »
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This would be a good place to ask a question.  I have a photo of a woodpecker.  It has the keyword Toucan.  It is obviously NOT a toucan.  Toucan is not in my IPTC data.  Toucan is not visible in my edit photo profile, nor in any of IS suggested keywords.  Where is this word coming from?  Anyone know how I can delete it?  I tried their forum today but was bumped out, IS seems a little unstable today.

« Reply #21 on: September 07, 2007, 11:23 »
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Pixart - if you link to the photo here I'll look at it. The most likely thing is that one of the disambiguated terms maps to toucan.

« Reply #22 on: September 07, 2007, 11:30 »
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Thanks YY, I appreciate you trying to help.  I'm getting a 503 error now at IS but I will check back again this afternoon, if I can get back on IS later.

« Reply #23 on: September 07, 2007, 15:01 »
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Here's the link.  I was able to remove median nerve when it updates.  I just don't want to get busted for spamming over the toucan part.

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=3515684

« Reply #24 on: September 07, 2007, 20:33 »
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Here's the link.  I was able to remove median nerve when it updates.  I just don't want to get busted for spamming over the toucan part.

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=3515684

I finally got a chance to look (IS is now back up minus forums) and I can't see what it is. I would sitemail keywords about it so they can get it fixed.


 

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