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Author Topic: How am I doing on Alamy?  (Read 30609 times)

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« Reply #25 on: October 09, 2009, 11:27 »
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I am a bit annoyed that Alamy search is picking keywords inside composed keywords.

For instance, a search for "american airlines" resulted in two of my images showing.  I have the keyword "airline" in them, but not american.  I have however "south american" in my keywords, and I guess that's where the "american" was picked. 

I wonder if such false results may affect my ranking, as my images were obviously not what the buyer wanted.
Not only that, but the Alamy search is still picking works out of the description. For instance, yesterday I had a view on one of my images under a search including Christmas.  The buyer would rightfully have been annoyed at it being there. Christmas isn't one of the keywords, but it is relevant in the description, so I had it there.
I still get this too. 


« Reply #26 on: October 09, 2009, 12:45 »
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Some things mentioned here about RM/RF sales ratio and series do not apply - at least for me.

So far I'm selling far more RF at Alamy than RM maybe 10/1 ratio. So to say that RM is the way to go at Alamy is nonsense. It only depends on your portfolio - not the agency.

Screw their ranking system. A buyer is looking for an image and will look as long as necessary until he finds it. If you have that image with adequate keywords you will get the sale period.

I sold abstract images where it's sometimes hard to find keywords and yet buyers found them.

@ OP - You're still far away from the photographers that upload 20 images of the same subject with minimal framing changes. I don't think it's too bad in your case.

You definitely need to get more images online. Come back once you have 2000 images with them, then we talk about sales.

Thanks for the input. So should I stick with mixing the RF/RM or decide on one or the other for each set of images?

Perhaps one can still find a 'niche' in RF or RM in Alamy. Are your sales mostly from returning customers?

2,000 images eh? The uploading and keywording is gonna take me a while, I'll try my best.

Cheers,
PTLee

« Reply #27 on: October 09, 2009, 13:01 »
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Thanks for the input. So should I stick with mixing the RF/RM or decide on one or the other for each set of images?

Perhaps one can still find a 'niche' in RF or RM in Alamy. Are your sales mostly from returning customers?

2,000 images eh? The uploading and keywording is gonna take me a while, I'll try my best.

Cheers,
PTLee

Success in the stock image industry (by whatever measures) doesn't happen overnight. It takes hard work and dedication over a longer period of time.
Walk this road for 3 or 4 years with consistent new imagery and you'll see what I mean.

You also will always improve your quality and style - things you can't do without.

Most importantly: Use correct keywords. Buyers/researchers are (mostly) not idiots. If they have a concept in mind they also know how it could be visually conceived so they can come up with some keywords on their own. Stupid example is not to use the word "friend" in an image of a dog (although he might be man's best friend...). The buyer would know to look for a dog...

I'd suggest not to mix RF/RM of one subject like you did with the Hoover dam. I'd leave them all RM unless you have the RFs on the Micros.

That's just my opinion and some might suggest otherwise.

« Reply #28 on: October 09, 2009, 13:19 »
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Success in the stock image industry (by whatever measures) doesn't happen overnight. It takes hard work and dedication over a longer period of time.
Walk this road for 3 or 4 years with consistent new imagery and you'll see what I mean.

You also will always improve your quality and style - things you can't do without.

Most importantly: Use correct keywords. Buyers/researchers are (mostly) not idiots. If they have a concept in mind they also know how it could be visually conceived so they can come up with some keywords on their own. Stupid example is not to use the word "friend" in an image of a dog (although he might be man's best friend...). The buyer would know to look for a dog...

I'd suggest not to mix RF/RM of one subject like you did with the Hoover dam. I'd leave them all RM unless you have the RFs on the Micros.

That's just my opinion and some might suggest otherwise.

Points noted, and many thanks.

Cheers,
PTLee

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #29 on: October 09, 2009, 16:01 »
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deleted
« Last Edit: October 10, 2009, 10:31 by ShadySue »

« Reply #30 on: October 09, 2009, 16:11 »
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About RM/RF.  I put as RF things that are very generical.  Places, identifiable landscape, specific animals and plants, these I set as RM.  I can't say if this strategy is good or not.

After suddenly having many RM images of mine in FP put on hold becuse they were RM and should perhaps be RF, Elena told me that "buyers" (one or more, I can't really say) complained of images set as RM that appear as RF elsewhere (not mine, just in general).  I'm guilty, as some of what I have as RM are for sale as RF at Shutterpoint, although once an image sold as RM, I remove it from SP; if it sells as RF at SP (not happening lately), I remove it from other sites where it's RM and reupload as RF.  But then, of course, a buyer who sees images in two places with different licenses can not know this.

« Reply #31 on: October 09, 2009, 23:48 »
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Some things mentioned here about RM/RF sales ratio and series do not apply - at least for me.

So far I'm selling far more RF at Alamy than RM maybe 10/1 ratio. So to say that RM is the way to go at Alamy is nonsense. It only depends on your portfolio - not the agency.


If you look at their Quarterly Statement, for the last ten Q's the tendency of RM/RF ratio has been a slight increase of RM over RF from 3:1 to 4:1.  I agree it depends on the buyer and the portfolio, but it is pretty obvious that most Alamy buyers are getting RM images.

http://www.alamy.com/contributors/statements/default.asp


« Reply #32 on: October 10, 2009, 08:13 »
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Some things mentioned here about RM/RF sales ratio and series do not apply - at least for me.

So far I'm selling far more RF at Alamy than RM maybe 10/1 ratio. So to say that RM is the way to go at Alamy is nonsense. It only depends on your portfolio - not the agency.


If you look at their Quarterly Statement, for the last ten Q's the tendency of RM/RF ratio has been a slight increase of RM over RF from 3:1 to 4:1.  I agree it depends on the buyer and the portfolio, but it is pretty obvious that most Alamy buyers are getting RM images.

http://www.alamy.com/contributors/statements/default.asp


I'm not ignoring that Alamy makes their money this way and I'm just writing about my RF/RM sales ratio.

All I'm saying is that one can still make money at Alamy solely with RF although their main market is RM.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #33 on: October 10, 2009, 08:54 »
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Thanks for the input. So should I stick with mixing the RF/RM or decide on one or the other for each set of images?

You need to decide on one of the other for each set. Someone who has paid for exclusive use RM would rightly be annoyed to see 'similars' on sale as RF. (Not all RM is sold as exclusive use, but the possibility is there.)

FWIW, I have no sales on Alamy so far - 542 pics uploaded since April.
In my first six months at istock I had 306 dls/$218, and 206 uploads.
Doesn't prove much, as both collections have increased exponentially since then.

« Reply #34 on: October 10, 2009, 11:54 »
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Thanks for all your views everyone. Really appreciate it.

In terms of buyer behavior and preference, what would a buyer be thinking if they specifically wanted and RM image instead of a similar subject/image sold as RF? Since RM does not necessarily mean exclusiveness anyway.

Cheers,
PTLee

« Reply #35 on: October 10, 2009, 12:49 »
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Thanks for all your views everyone. Really appreciate it.

In terms of buyer behavior and preference, what would a buyer be thinking if they specifically wanted and RM image instead of a similar subject/image sold as RF? Since RM does not necessarily mean exclusiveness anyway.

Cheers,
PTLee

Many things.

Amongst others the buyer can inquire about if the image he (she) wants is being used by somebody else during the time period the buyer wants it.

In RM the buyer pays for the type of use and the time period. Time is an important factor. Many agencies require their RM images to be exclusive anyway.
At Alamy not necessarily. If it comes to commercial RM the buyer is likely to ask about exclusivity even thouh it's not marked exclusive at Alamy.

That's the big advantage of RM that the use of an image can be somewhat controlled or monitored.

Commercial RM also usually involves high cost shoots. Therefore the photographer needs to rake in more $$$ than getting a couple hundred bucks for an RF image. RM images can sell at rates between $2000 to $9000 per use. In some instances the same photo can be used for a campaign where it requires multiple licenses so it can be licensed 2 or 3 times netting several thousands for each license.

Imagine selling the same picture as RF for a one time $200 in your pocket...

But the market is huge and the RM needs go from a spot size newsletter image (netting $12) to exclusive high gloss magazine covers (more than $12  ::) ).

You need to test the waters.

*license prices may vary

Ha, I almost forgot: Take any RM/L image at Alamy and use the price calculator top see how time and usage types affect the pricing!
« Last Edit: October 10, 2009, 12:51 by click_click »

« Reply #36 on: October 10, 2009, 21:57 »
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@RT
Do you have same (RF) portfolio at MS and Alamy

Kone


i think that is very bad for alamy business.

RacePhoto

« Reply #37 on: October 12, 2009, 12:30 »
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I am a bit annoyed that Alamy search is picking keywords inside composed keywords.

For instance, a search for "american airlines" resulted in two of my images showing.  I have the keyword "airline" in them, but not american.  I have however "south american" in my keywords, and I guess that's where the "american" was picked. 

I wonder if such false results may affect my ranking, as my images were obviously not what the buyer wanted.
Not only that, but the Alamy search is still picking works out of the description. For instance, yesterday I had a view on one of my images under a search including Christmas.  The buyer would rightfully have been annoyed at it being there. Christmas isn't one of the keywords, but it is relevant in the description, so I had it there.
I still get this too. 

What do people want the search to do, be psychic?  ;D

If you have the same individual keywords on Micro sites, the images will also show up. Keep in mind that word order and proximity will effect the placement of your images in an Alamy search result. Use the Essential keywords to your advantage. Put keywords that belong together as close as possible and the most important, after the Essential, as first in the Main box.

If two words are in the keywords, they will appear when someone does a search. Considering the above, where they appear in the search can be controlled.

Keep in mind the objections to photographers names being searched, when some people want their names to be searchable. I used the Description for not so important keywords, so they would rank lower, and then people who pasted a thesaurus and encyclopedic descriptions complained because of bad matches, so I had to go and re-keyword over 12000 images.  >:(

The "connected words" and [distinctive phrase] feature for Alamy is not operational at this time. Who knows if it will ever be. I still do names "FName LName" just in case, but what if someone search for D. Snover, instead of Diane Snover, did I just put myself out of a match? I'd rather have pictures show, that be eliminated for some tiny reason. Don't forget location is searched as well as date, which can help people find your specific photos.

In other words, nothing is perfect.

« Reply #38 on: October 12, 2009, 16:22 »
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RacePhoto,

Alamy announced that the description would not be used in the search anymore, but still is.

Also if a keyword is inside " ", it should be considered as an expression only, right?  That's why the search should not have found american inside south american.

RacePhoto

« Reply #39 on: October 13, 2009, 01:19 »
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RacePhoto,

Alamy announced that the description would not be used in the search anymore, but still is.

Also if a keyword is inside " ", it should be considered as an expression only, right?  That's why the search should not have found american inside south american.

Nope, nope and yes.  ;D

Description is not searched. I tried my photos that had subject names only in the descriptions and after the change, none appeared. If it changed back, then I'm wrong and re-keyed 1200 images for nothing. I used that field for subject identities making them low in the search, but there if someone searched for a proper name of the subject.

They never activated the expressions and filters yet.

Yes any two matching words anywhere (in the example you used of two words) in any of the Essential, Main, Comprehensive, Location or Caption will appear in a search. The search looks at all of these fields, but weights the results according to importance.

If you are bored put a word like "Xmpfhg" in your description of one photo, and wait a few days, maybe a weekend, until things are re-sorted. Then search for it. You should get no results.


 

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