Author Topic: Shutterstock's 'Keyword Trends' (Read 5446 times)

Microstock Posts · « **on:** July 12, 2011, 13:14 »

This is pretty neat. I like what they are doing with their 'Darkroom'.

http://submit.shutterstock.com/darkroom/keyword_trends.mhtml

http://buzz.shutterstock.com/keyword-trends-tool

"Keyword Trends is the first tool of its kind in our industry, and represents a big step forward in sharing information with our contributors. You can use it to help plan when to create content (be it vectors, video, or photos) and make decisions about when to upload seasonal content.

When you visit the tool for the first time, you’ll see five boxes at the top. Enter any search terms into those boxes. Or, click on the suggested keywords in the left-hand column, which are personalized based on your portfolio. The page will draw a line graph showing the relative popularity of those keywords over time."

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #1 on:** July 12, 2011, 13:49 »

I saw and used the tool but have no idea how it works for analysis? Without more information ... numbers, etc ... how does it work?

Microstock Posts · « **Reply #2 on:** July 12, 2011, 13:56 »

Quote from: WarrenPrice on July 12, 2011, 13:49

I saw and used the tool but have no idea how it works for analysis? Without more information ... numbers, etc ... how does it work?

They are not giving the figures, but just the trends. Just type in the boxes, the keywords of your choice, then hit search and you can see when those keywords are most sought after. The word Sunset is most sought for in January and Sex is most sought after in December, by a long way.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #3 on:** July 12, 2011, 14:26 »

Aha... I just did it again. Love It!!!

PS: I changed the 3 month default to one year and watched it really do its thing.

leaf · « **Reply #4 on:** July 12, 2011, 14:31 »

here's a blog post I just wrote about it
http://blog.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-keyword-trends-2/

leaf · « **Reply #5 on:** July 12, 2011, 14:33 »

Quote from: Microstock Posts on July 12, 2011, 13:56

Quote from: WarrenPrice on July 12, 2011, 13:49
I saw and used the tool but have no idea how it works for analysis? Without more information ... numbers, etc ... how does it work?

They are not giving the figures, but just the trends. Just type in the boxes, the keywords of your choice, then hit search and you can see when those keywords are most sought after. The word Sunset is most sought for in January and Sex is most sought after in December, by a long way.

haha.. funny search terms. I'm guessing those spikes are rather due to low search volume than actual spikes. If you do a search for mother or better yet, christmas you'll see a 'real' spike.

Shutterstock has said that the data from before January 2011 is based on only sampled data. The data after 2011 is based on all the search data they have so it is much more accurate. The graphs generally also show this as most of the results are pretty jagged before 2011 and smooth out after jan. 2011

Amos Struck · « **Reply #6 on:** July 12, 2011, 14:33 »

I also reviewed the new Keyword Trends Tool, in German, which can be found here:
http://www.fotos-verkaufen.de/news/das-neue-keyword-trends-tool-von-shutterstock-im-test.html

I really like that they care about their photographers, this is getting really rare the the microstock industry.

gaja · « **Reply #7 on:** July 12, 2011, 15:23 »

First impression: love it!

But why can you still not sort by most downloaded in the Image Gallery Stats? It had been temporarily disabled for a long time now.

rubyroo · « **Reply #8 on:** July 12, 2011, 15:38 »

Oh this is VERY useful. Yet another reason to love Shutterstock. I don't know if they ever read MSG, but thank you Mr Oringer and the staff at SS

Yes Gaja - I'm missing that sort option on the gallery stats too. Hope they'll fix it soon.

jsnover · « **Reply #9 on:** July 12, 2011, 16:55 »

I like it in theory, but it seemed to get stuck after one or two keywords - I could add more but it never graphed them and if I deleted the ones I entered (including the first two it did graph) it kept the graph anyway.

Closed the tab and tried again - it only graphed one keyword before giving up (one of the ones I tried to add the first time around, so I know the problem isn't the particular word).

I think there must be bugs, or perhaps bugs with Firefox on the Mac?

rubyroo · « **Reply #10 on:** July 12, 2011, 17:00 »

@ Jsnover - I think that's the kind of info they really want while things are in Beta phase.

On the left of the screen, you should see a green feedback link. You can use that to report the kind of issues you're experiencing.

klsbear · « **Reply #11 on:** July 12, 2011, 19:20 »

Quote from: rubyroo on July 12, 2011, 17:00

@ Jsnover - I think that's the kind of info they really want while things are in Beta phase.

On the left of the screen, you should see a green feedback link. You can use that to report the kind of issues you're experiencing.

I'll give them my feedback too - I'm not getting any graph lines. I tried entering Christmas, Thankgiving, and Pumpkin just to see if maybe it had been the words I was entering but I'm still not seeing graph lines. Windows XP and IE8

sarah2 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 14, 2011, 01:12 »

I'd be more impressed of they abandoned new toys and concentrated on getting the search/lost images problems sorted!!!!

pancaketom · « **Reply #13 on:** July 14, 2011, 01:46 »

I guess this will be more useful when they have a full years worth of data. Still it is interesting although with new files not really getting the sales they did (and not showing up for a while?) it might be less useful to try to time your uploads.

I'd rather they get the sales stats sortable though.

and having search and indexing working 100% of the time would be even better.

danhowl · « **Reply #14 on:** July 17, 2011, 12:16 »

I can't get the Image Gallery Stats to work. Getting that working again would be as much or more helpful than the Keyword Trends.

somethingpretentious · « **Reply #15 on:** July 17, 2011, 12:45 »

Its pretty much useless in its current form. A Y-axis without any scale means that you can only see if the trend is upward or downward, but you can't see how much its up or down. What may visible look like a huge increase for one keyword could only be a 0,1% increase, whereas what looks like a small increase for another keyword may be 200% increase - there is just no way of knowing... ANY abitrary scale would make this tool very useful.

qwerty · « **Reply #16 on:** July 17, 2011, 17:51 »

yes a scale would be good, you can "normalise" the values by keeping one of the same keywords in eg money,business etc to give some idea relative changes

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #17 on:** July 17, 2011, 19:48 »

Quote from: klsbear on July 12, 2011, 19:20

Quote from: rubyroo on July 12, 2011, 17:00
@ Jsnover - I think that's the kind of info they really want while things are in Beta phase.

On the left of the screen, you should see a green feedback link. You can use that to report the kind of issues you're experiencing.

I'll give them my feedback too - I'm not getting any graph lines. I tried entering Christmas, Thankgiving, and Pumpkin just to see if maybe it had been the words I was entering but I'm still not seeing graph lines. Windows XP and IE8

That's an easy one. Get Google Chrome (FREE) or FireFox (free) and dump IE!

Also you might consider IE eradicator, that wipes it off your computer. Kind of like removing a virus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Internet_Explorer

Microstock Posts · « **Reply #18 on:** July 18, 2011, 01:17 »

Quote from: RacePhoto on July 17, 2011, 19:48

Quote from: klsbear on July 12, 2011, 19:20
Quote from: rubyroo on July 12, 2011, 17:00
@ Jsnover - I think that's the kind of info they really want while things are in Beta phase.

On the left of the screen, you should see a green feedback link. You can use that to report the kind of issues you're experiencing.

I'll give them my feedback too - I'm not getting any graph lines. I tried entering Christmas, Thankgiving, and Pumpkin just to see if maybe it had been the words I was entering but I'm still not seeing graph lines. Windows XP and IE8

That's an easy one. Get Google Chrome (FREE) or FireFox (free) and dump IE!

Also you might consider IE eradicator, that wipes it off your computer. Kind of like removing a virus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Internet_Explorer

Yeah, I have no problems using this on Firefox and and Chrome. IE has been behind the times for years. They were the first, so there is no need for them to be innovative or making sure that everything runs ok, as they still have plenty of users by the mere fact that people have always known them and often people are hesitant to change. Kind of reminds me of istock. I do have all three browsers on my laptop and it's rare that something won't work in all three browsers.

XPTO · « **Reply #19 on:** July 18, 2011, 02:43 »

Hi,

Does anyone know if the search trends are only from buying costumers, or include all searches, including contributors and thieves?

Because if it includes the last two the results are meaningless. I've made some researches and found that the highest spike in some of seasonal searches are very close to the date itself, which doesn't look like a "normal" behavior for designers since they search images in advance.

pancaketom · « **Reply #20 on:** July 18, 2011, 10:54 »

I think the web usages can be much closer to the actual event than the print usages that can be months in advance.

Still, if it includes contributors it could also be skewed by people who just uploaded images checking to see if they have showed up yet (before the event).

I would like to see some sort of relative scale on there. Otherwise you have to put in another term to compare your search to.

daveh900 · « **Reply #21 on:** July 24, 2011, 19:10 »

I have found it useful to always use one of the keywords that has performed well for me as a comparison when looking at new search words. For example, my best selling image at Shutterstock so far uses "xxxxxx" as it's main keyword. If I want to see how well other keywords are performing, I'll compare with "xxxxxx". You don't need hard numbers to see how two words compare.

SC · « **Reply #22 on:** July 25, 2011, 09:23 »

Quote from: XPTO on July 18, 2011, 02:43

Hi,

Does anyone know if the search trends are only from buying costumers, or include all searches, including contributors and thieves?

Because if it includes the last two the results are meaningless. I've made some researches and found that the highest spike in some of seasonal searches are very close to the date itself, which doesn't look like a "normal" behavior for designers since they search images in advance.

I asked this of SS staff and was told it only takes into account searches by logged in buyers -