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Topics - jareso

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1
I just wonder how many keywords is in your opinion acceptable by search engines per image preview page on personal portfolio website?
I am thinking that I will completely remove keywords from my images that I showcase on my personal web and instead I will focus even more on natural text such as focus on long description describing photos.

What do you think, is it good to completely remove keywords from large image preview pages?
By large image preview page I mean this, for example:
http://www.jareso.com/photo/131/southern-side-of-famous-orava-castle-slovakia/

I know that long descriptions displayed near photos work very good for me, as I mentioned in this article of mine:
http://www.jareso.com/blog/how-to-rank-better-in-serp-with-personal-portfolio-website/

But those (unnatural) keywords on preview pages bother me a little bit.
Maybe if I remove them completely, my website could be ranking perhaps even better.

Now I have quite a lot of keywords on my large image preview pages, such as 50 or even more keywords. I think that it is too much keywords actually. But the question is whether to remove them completely, and have only image title and description there, of to keep a few keywords?

Google webmaster's guidelines says that no unnatural/isolated text (read: keywords) should be displayed on page.
Thus if I wanted to strictly to follow those guidelines, I should completely remove all keywords from near my images.

What is your opinion. How much keywords is safe in your experience?
No keywords, or 5, 10, or 20 keywords? How much?

I am just wondering, I know that there is probably no exact answer, because ranking of website depends on many on-site and off-site factors as a whole.
But anyway, all kinds of opinions are welcomed here.  ;)

2
I consider to generate and place really HUGE large image preview pages for every stock image available on my personal portfolio website, in the way shown on this sample localhost screenshot:
http://www.jareso.com/temp/jareso_com_screenshot_large_preview_photo_268_sample.jpg

The main reason why I consider something like that are naturally possible SEO benefits.

Theoretically, large *.jpg images should rank better in search engine result pages (SERP) than images that are smaller in size.
You can see it when you perform image searches in search engine like Google. Higher resolution images are usually positioned higher whereas lower resolution images are buried down in SERP.

For now, *.jpg image previews on my personal portfolio website are quite small, such as here for example, it is just 400 x 547 pixels, that is too small:
http://www.jareso.com/photo/268/entrance-to-the-strecno-castle-slovakia/

That small preview resolution is not sufficient enough for proper ranking in SERP in the way how I imagine it should be. I mean, the thing that bothers me the most is that stock agencies over-rank my personal portfolio website in image SERPs, and all of that with help of my own images I uploaded to them.

I strictly believe that author's personal portfolio website should always rank better than any other source where his/her images are available online for sale, how I noted it here at MSG some time ago:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/selling-direct/author's-personal-website-should-always-rank-better-than-agencies!-shouldn't-it/msg328165/

No, I am not that much naive to think that out of nowhere suddenly my little personal portfolio website will rank better in SERP than those big stock agencies.
But I want to at least try it! :o
(I am very stubborn person when it comes to these things.)

Let's take a look at that castle image I have given as an example here. On my personal portfolio website that *.jpg image has just 400 x 547 pixels in size. So naturally that when it comes to searches in SERP it is over-ranked with the same image, but in much higher resolution available. Stock agencies do it in the way that they offer preview image, approx. 500 pix x 500 pix on their stock image preview pages, but than they usually link from that image to much higher resolution image, which they call "compositional preview", "image zoom", or whatever. Those "image zooms" are usually available in much higher resolutions than simple image previews are. Such as they are over 1000 pixels on each side.
So agencies do more or less exactly what Google image guidelines suggests.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016?hl=en

It suggests that, when there is smaller preview image available on webmaster's website, than - if possible that smaller image should link much higher size of-the-same-image if such image is available.

Google tries to serve user who is searching for images in Google Images, in the best way, so naturally it picks one at a time image of that kind, to be shown in SERP. So only one image (only one image of the same image) is chosen to be shown, and most of the time it seems to be the highest resolution one.

OK than, if it is only size what does matter. :)

Why not to put HUGE *.jpg preview images on personal portfolio website to possibly over-rank any other source where that particular image can be available online?!
According to Google guidelines and even probably according to reality Google should choose that image the biggest one - to be shown in image SERP.

I mean, agencies do have big "compositional preview zooms" on their image preview pages, but those "compositional preview zooms" are still usually much smaller than original resolution of image.
For example, highest resolution "compositional preview zoom" image of my castle image (given here as an example) is available online at DepositPhotos. It is 768 x 1024 pixels in dimensions, and as expected that DepositPhotos "compositional preview zoom" is usually chosen by Google to represent (various image searches for) that particular image, and thus that DepositPhotos "compositional preview zoom" *.jpg image ranks usually the best in Google image SERP (for that particular image).

So, OK. But 768 x 1024 pixels is not that big!

What if I generate "compositional preview zoom" for my personal portfolio website, that will be much bigger in dimensions than any other "compositional preview zoom" available online at stock agencies, (or available online anywhere else)?!

I mean, from this large image preview page, where image is only 400 x 547 pixels in size:
http://www.jareso.com/photo/268/entrance-to-the-strecno-castle-slovakia/

I will link to my "compositional preview zoom" page, such as this one on the screenshot:
http://www.jareso.com/temp/jareso_com_screenshot_large_preview_photo_268_sample.jpg

Where that particular image will be available for example in 2449x3265 pixels, which is original dimension of that image actually.

Now I ask, what will (or should) happen?!

According to Google guidelines, my "compositional preview zoom" *.jpg preview image that will be avaleable on my personal portfolio website should be chosen by Google as representative image of that kind, because it will be MUCH bigger in dimension, than any other (same) image available online anywhere else.

So *** theoretically *** it should over-rank any of the stock agencies in image SERP, shouldnt it?
(*) That is what I want to try. That's why I consider this - to try it, and to see what will happen, and of course to rank in the best possible way with my personal portfolio website.

What do you think about that.
Share what are your opinions, or whatever.

I will probably try it anyway, just to see it myself, because I like SEO experimenting very much!  ;D

3
Shouldn't be in the ideal world (utopia) author's personal website always ranking much better in SERP (Search Engine Results Page) than any other website, such as stock agencies were he might be also showcasing his images online?!

I believe YES! Pity that search engines didn't see it this way too ... :-\

Actually, I am not sure why I am writing this here now.
It was simply the first thing that came to my mind when I woke up this morning. ::)

I believe that in ideal world there should be some authorize tool available on side of search engines, such as in Google's Webmaster tools, where author (photographer, illustrator, etc.) could authorize his personal website (his own online store) as main source where his works are available for sale.
After that his images showcased on his personal website should always rank much better in SERP than his images that are available at stock agencies or in any other online place.

Because he is author of those images, thus naturally his own personal website should be treated as the main, and the original source of his works!
Shouldn't it be this way?!

4
Initially I intended to write these suggestions of mine to one of those Symbiostock threads, just as a short reply to posts questioning about personal website SEO.
But how I was writing my reply, text of my reply got bigger and bigger, so I changed my mind and decided to put it to separate thread here.

My suggestions are concerned and applicable on most types of personal portfolio websites in general, not only on Symbiostock type of website.
(Through I am fan of Symbiostock idea!)   

So here are my suggestions that I consider crucial when developing any type of personal portfolio website.
I believe these can possibly increase website traffic picked from search engines for almost any type of portfolio website!

1.) Unique on-site text, titles, descriptions and keywords!
If possible try to use unique on-site text. Especially unique titles, descriptions and keywords of your images. Surely this requires some time and effort put to rewriting/rekeywording of your images, but it will help you with better ranking in online waters full of those "big" agencies.

2.) Long image descriptions!
Try to use long descriptions for your images whenever possible. By long descriptions I mean descriptions that are at least 200-300 source words long! Of course text must be, more or less, relevant to image.

More on-site text can increase likeness that you will match people's searches for word(s) or phrase(s) contained in your description. Thus it will mean increased traffic for your website picked from search engine and increased website traffic ALWAYS means raised chances of bumping into some buyer(s)! Yes of course, most of people that you will pick from search engines by those long descriptions will not be image buyers (for now). For example, they can be people who are just looking for something that is mentioned in description of your image. But the more visitors you pick the bigger your chances will be to finally find some buyer(s).

This is game of numbers and probability!

Simply: More traffic is always good for your website, even if those visitors are not image buyers at the time when they are picked.

Through, initially, they maybe not image buyers looking for purchasing of your images - right at that exact moment when they are searching for some keyword(s) or phrase(s) - they will be always at least quasi relevant visitors to your website, because your website will contain titles, descriptions, keywords that will be, more or less, relevantly describing what can be directly seen on your images, or indirectly describing some story behind what can be seen on image. Such as on photo of castle with it's history in description, etc.

For example: Someone may be initially searching just for information about history of Orava castle in Slovakia, history that is mentioned on large image preview page in long description of some of my Orava castle photos, that my portfolio website contains. But later this person may decide that not only text contained in description, but also images of Orava castle she saw on website will be suitable for flyer she wants to create for her family owned guest-house, as a small presentation brochure, which will showcase all nearby attractions for tourists and thus possible visitors of her guest-house. This is just one of many real life examples, that happened to me in the past and the story behind of how this customer found my website was revealed to me when that lady contacted me through form on my website and we further communicated together.

You never know who your visitors are and why they are searching for what they are searching at that time. They can change their mind later (thus become image buyer(s)), suddenly recall of your website and your images they saw there at time of their last visit, come back, trying to contact you about purchase, or purchase your images directly.
(Depending on how your website is setuped. Whether you sell directly from your website, or just showcase your work, etc.)

But again, the more traffic the better! This is always true! Even if it is quasi irrelevant traffic - quasi irrelevant in terms that it may be consisting of non image buyer(s) at that time, but people sill quasi relevant to content seen on image. Anyway there is always chance that visitor who was not interested in purchasing images may became interested later some time in the future.

Here are some examples of what I mean by long descriptions for images:

http://www.jareso.com/photo/73/water-sawmill-in-kvacianska-valley-slovakia/
http://www.jareso.com/photo/69/budatin-castle-in-zilina-slovakia/
http://www.jareso.com/photo/131/southern-side-of-famous-orava-castle-slovakia/
http://www.jareso.com/graphic/106/energetically-efficient-car/

3. TONs of language versions!
And now my favorite way of increasing traffic. Translations, translations and translations! Offering your content in many languages is the easiest, yet the most effective way, how to harmlessly multiply (rise) traffic of website many times! Translations can artificially expand count of image preview pages contained on your website. Preview pages that will be indexed by search engines as new, original and unique content, because translated text is not considered duplicated content in terms of SEO! Imagine that you have for example 1000 unique images in your stock portfolio which means only about 1000 large preview image pages that can be indexed on your website by search engines. That is very low number in huge waters of internet content.

Of course you, as no doubt very talented and creative stock artist, can say to yourself that you will work even much harder and that way you will make even more and more new quality creative stock works, photos or illustrations, to expand your portfolios and so the counts of new images that will be added on your website.
Yes, that is of course very right way of thinking! But honestly, unless your are not some big stock factory, it is very slooooow way go! (Through, creatively it may be right way!) But, how much new content - content that can be put and indexed on your personal website as large image preview pages are you able to produce a day, a week, a month?
Few tens, maybe one hundred images, maybe even little more, or so, but that is still not enough.
Too slooooow results!

You need to pick traffic, bump into some buyers, rise chances for your sales right now, right here! Not after some years of long waiting! So I suggest something faster, something that can be started right now and done faster (than production of new content) - translations!
(Of course you may still produce new content throughout working on your translations.)

Translate your images that are contained on your website in form of on-site text (text around your images, you need to look at it from point of view of search engine's bot reading your website) to as much languages as possible! And than you will see something! ;)

I mean translate titles, descriptions and keywords of your images to lets say 50 languages and all of sudden you will have huge portfolio with big amount of virtually new content! Let's count together now on our example of 1000 unique images in portfolio, 50 languages X 1000 images equals 50 000 large preview pages with virtually unique content new virtually unique images for your website!

That is nice, isnt it?

That is something to feed endless stomach of search engine with! Amount of 50 000 large preview pages (on website of average unknown artist) that is count that can be almost compared to size of smaller stock agency! Imagine how much people will such count of 50 000 image preview pages pick from search engine results pages (SERP) once when all of those 50 000 large preview pages will be indexed and properly ranked by search engine! And that can be only the beginning! There are more languages in the world than 50, so artificially expanding it to 100 000 or more large preview pages is possible.

Remember! This way of approach is absolutely legitimate and it is in compliance with terms of search engine's webmaster guides!
Translations are not considered duplicated content in terms of SEO, they relatively easily create new content for your website!
(Artificial, but still legitimate content!)

Little secret! <- Most buyers dont search in English for images they want to purchase!
It is the main factor why translations should be done for every (personal) portfolio website!

Most of people and so those much wanted image buyers search internet for images in their own mother tongue!
Not in English language!
To assume that image buyers search for images mostly in English is totally WRONG!
It is the most common mistake that English speaking webmasters make!
 
Really, no matter how strange it may be, but believe it or not, it is like that! Most image buyers dont use English when searching for images!
Dont get me wrong. They may be very good speakers of English, but if they have choice of using their own native language they do so! Almost always!

If your website doesnt contain that particular language, it will be not indexed in search engine for those targeted keyword(s) or phrase(s) and thus you will loose possible image buyer(s), just because you will not satisfy their need for mother tongue!

Remember you need to pick your visitors first, this is crucial bring them to your website from search engine's result pages if you fail here, the possible buyer will be lost for you!
That is probably not what you are looking for. Or is it?!??

As I already mentioned, he may be very good speaker of English! Definitely good enough speaker of English, that after he will land on your website, he will be able to further communicate, for example through contact form on your website, with you about the details of his purchase, or other things concerning your images, etc.
But if you loose him in first part of chain, crucial moment of picking him from search engine, no other parts of chain will follow!

5
I am a new user of Olympus E-M5 (OM-D) mirror-less micro 4/3 camera with exchangeable lenses. I purchased it just recently as a kit with M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-50mm 1:3.5-6.3 EZ lens, FL-LM2 kit flash and HLD-6 power battery holder. I am hobbyist photographer and I must say that I am very satisfied with this new camera of mine. It fits my needs perfectly.
I am Olympus user since 2006 and thus I have various Zuiko lenses, Olympus E-500 DSLR camera and other equipment. With this new E-M5 I also received Olympus MMF-2 as a free bonus to this purchase. It is four thirds lens adapter to micro four thirds lens adapter. So now I can mount any Zuiko four thirds lens directly on E-M5 via this adapter, which is great!

But I face one problem when using Olympus EC-20 Tele Converter 2,0x on E-M5.

When I mount for example this configuration on E-M5:
[E-M5] > [MMF-2] > [Olympus EC-20 Tele Converter 2,0x] > [Zuiko Digital ED 70-300mm/1:4.0-5.6 EZ-7030]

It doesnt seem to work. :(

All I can see in viewfinder is black screen.
Remember E-M5 is mirror-less camera so what is seen in viewfinder is actual image captured by sensor with settings applied to it.
Problem is that aperture seems to be left unrecognized and it shows in menu "-.-".
No matter what exposure setting I choose and which program (M, S, A, P, iAUTO).
It shows ONLY black screen in viewfinder.
(Without any change, not even when the lens is targeted into intense light source.)

All parts of equipment are in great condition and without any problems or malfunction.

For example, when I mount this configuration on my old four thirds DSLR Olympus E-500 camera:
(Without MMF-2 adapter, which is of course redundant in this case.)
[E-500] > [Olympus EC-20 Tele Converter 2,0x] > [Zuiko Digital ED 70-300mm/1:4.0-5.6 EZ-7030]
It works just fine and everything runs as expected. Is makes 140-600mm (equivalent of 280-1200mm on a 35mm full frame camera).

Or when I remove teleconverter from the previous configuration of E-M5, such as:
[E-M5] > [MMF-2] > [Zuiko Digital ED 70-300mm/1:4.0-5.6 EZ-7030]
[E-M5] > [MMF-2] > [Zuiko Digital 40-150mm/3.5-4.5]
[E-M5] > [MMF-2] > [Zuiko Digital 14-45mm/3.5-5.6]

It also works without problems and everything runs as expected.

So it seems that problem is when MMF-2 and Olympus EC-20 Tele Converter 2,0x are used together. I realize, as also EC-20 manual book tells, that it is not possible to use for example two Olympus EC-20 together. But MMF-2 is not tele converter, it is just adapter.

Had anyone of you experienced similar problem?
Do you have any suggestions or solutions?
Or is it absolutely impossible to use MMF-2 with Olympus EC-20 Tele Converter 2,0x? ???

I am not sure if anyone will answer. I realize that E-M5 (OM-D) is quite new camera and thus probably not many people use it.
But maybe someone experienced similar problem on Olympus PEN systems, which I guess are quite similar to E-M5 in their nature.

It is not really that crucial problem for me, because I can still use Olympus EC-20 Tele Converter 2,0x and Zuiko Digital ED 70-300mm/1:4.0-5.6 EZ-7030 on my old E-500 camera.

But I would be much happier if I could use it also on my E-M5...

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas.  

6
It is some time since I decided, that I will create some kind of online self promotion photo/graphic portfolio website for myself but I always delayed and delayed it, thinking that I will create it at some other time. But these days when I read here at MSG about self-promotion by personal website and things like that, it gave me some initial impulse to try it also myself. ;D

So finally I started to play with it little bit. It is far from finished I like to do web on the fly ;) with some vision, but with will to change things, if some new ideas came to my mind through natural development / thinking process.

I created it keeping in mind these main aims / ideas of "promotional" personal website.

1. Common / typical aim why would one want to have a personal website. I think there is no need for explanation.

2. Possible promotion of my own photo/graphic portfolio to catch some buyers for my images. I.e. Boost of own sales. But because I am just an amateur / hobbist photographer (and I must say, I like it this way and do it for fun mostly!  ;D), I know that my photos will hardly attract many buyers / visitors.

3. But in case of unsuccessful attracting of buyers for my photos, there is still a chance to indirectly catch some (new) buyers through referral. I.e. they could not be willing to buy my own images, but when being attracted by keywords and stuff on my website, they still can end as a possible stock buyers.
And same concept applies for new possible contributors.

So for now I created these "promotional" sections of my website:
Catalogue listings:

Listing of my photos:
http://www.jareso.com/photo_catalogue.php?type=stockphotos&pg=5

Listing of my Stock Graphics:
http://www.jareso.com/graphic_catalogue.php?type=stockgraphics&pg=1

Also listing of my 3D Models if you want to take a look:
http://www.jareso.com/3dmodel_catalogue.php?type=lowpoly&pg=1

Not all of my stock photos / graphics are listed there for now. I placed there just some (80) to see how it will work. When I will have more time I will probably add more. It is really slow process of adding those photos (because there is need to use my own previews generated from my original files) + filling info / data manually to my db one by one. There is no easy way how to automate this process, filenames of my photos on my backup external HDD where I store my photos, dont correspond to names on agencies, etc. ... also ID for referral link construction is needed for every image. There is no simple way how to do this in batch. Only to manually locate those images, one by one visualy by sight and filling what is needed ... and this is really, really slow.
But I am lucky that I have just few hundreds of photos online. :D
(I dont want to imagine how it would be if I had thousands and thousands of photos, like some other people here.)

So caching data is slow Maybe you ask yourself, whether it cannot be powered by some API, such as DT API for example, to simplify things ...
No, cannot (in most cases). Dreamtime API is great piece of thing that is no doubt, but legally it is just too restrictive, to be used on a personal website. Because websites powered by DT API need to be exclusively bound to promote only DT (with only just a few exceptions such as Pixmac) and thus that is something that would be just too restrictive on personal website. Logically, I on my personal website want to have a freedom to mention also other places and agencies where I sell my stuff, although DT is no doubt my favorite agency.
Also not all of my photos are accepted by DT and also I dont sell my graphics there...

So back to project, I created also bigger preview pages. Just for photos and graphics for now.
(For 3D models maybe later)

Example of larger preview page in case of stock graphic
http://www.jareso.com/graphic.php?img_id=10

Example of larger preview page in case of stock photos
http://www.jareso.com/image.php?img_id=55

I decided that in case of stock photos I will link all possible buyers to the DT. With a few exceptions in the case of photos that were refused by DT, but were accepted somewhere else. DT is by all means my favorite agency as I said + they also have a great referral program so choice is easy here.

But I dont sell my graphics at them, so in case of my stock graphics I will link to YAYMicro and maybe also to GraphicLeftovers.

So thats what I wanted. Just to share ...
Any comments, whether negative or positive are welcome of course.

7
Off Topic / Amazing color photos taken 100 years ago!
« on: August 24, 2010, 06:53 »
Today surfing the net, I came to this article about one photographer, that made about 1900+ color shots of the Russian Empire about 100! years ago. He used technique of combining 3 separate BW plates, shooting these 3 expositions at short time interval with plates filtered by red, green and blue filter.

Article with some photos:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html

I am amazed when looking at these quality, beautiful and high dynamic color images that were photographed 100! years ago really amazing it is like using time-machine I feel like in a dream :) when I am looking at this old-time color images of forgotten places and people. They look like they were photographed just some minutes ago ...

Very interesting, so I thought I will share it with you

More are also here:
(Dont foget also to enlarge those previews - they are really high res! :) )
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/sever.html
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/stred.html
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/batumi.html
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/gruzie.html
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/artvin.html
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/dagestan.html
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/buchara.html
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/samarkand.html
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/hladova_step.html
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/ostatni.html

8
DepositPhotos / New public profile page at DP
« on: July 10, 2010, 02:13 »
DepositPhotos has now a public profile page where you can upload your photo or avatar + share some information about yourself if you want such as website, where are you from, occupation etc.

It is also possible to see there info about sales, levels and more so you can check anyone this way.

(If this is already well known thing than sorry. ;D - I found it just recently.)

Mine is like follows:
http://depositphotos.com/view_profile.php?id=1002040

9
I am working/playing little bit with Dreamstime API (Alliances and Partnerships  program) and their referral program and this is what I created so far. :)

StockPhotos.it (English version)
StockPhotos.sk (Slovak version)
StockPhotos.cz (Czech version)

Although it is already online, I am still working on it. (This is an very early version.)
My aim is to create catalogue of stock photos, vectors, illustrations and computer graphics grouped by various categories and criteria + include some articles in future about selling, buying, etc.

My aim is NOT to create another full functional agency with direct buying ability, shopping cart, direct download, etc. (I mean if somebody is interested in purchasing commercial or downloading free image he/she has to go to the source agency and register, buy, download etc. there)

Aim of this project is simply to drive traffic to Dreamstime to bring new buyers. And of course (I have no reason to hide it) also to earn some $ for me through their referral program.

I am sure that soon or later someone of you guys would have found out about this project, so I am writing prior to it, to clear any confusion what is this project about. I just wanted to let you know, thats all. Check it out! ;)

10
GLStock / GraphicLeftovers - Pricing
« on: March 19, 2010, 02:24 »
I have a question regarding pricing of images at GraphicLeftovers. I am totally new to that site but to my big surprise I had sale (5$) yesterday just few minutes after my file was approved! That made me very happy and one thing came to my mind. What about rising prices to maximum? (20$) What do you think? Do buyers on this site "look at prices" or they really "dont care". My point is that I am little bit afraid to raise prices because that could lead to no sales. I am unsure anyway. Any thoughts and opinions would be appreciated. How does pricing affect sales there?

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