MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => Adobe Stock => Topic started by: Alatriste on April 04, 2008, 08:57

Title: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: Alatriste on April 04, 2008, 08:57
I have a spanish account in Fotolia and until now I was uploading images with weywords in Spanish. It was supposed that its engine does the translation.
Now they allow to upload english keywords.
I have realised that almost all my sales have been done by european customers (german, france, spanish, italian...)
With this problem, Fotolia is my 5th earner what isnt aint bad but for a reason I dont know Im missing opportinities in the english spoken market.

Any experiences or thoughts with this?
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: Peter on April 04, 2008, 09:38
I have USA account, and also selling to Germany and France mostly.
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: vphoto on April 04, 2008, 10:25
USA account, and sales mostly Germany and France.
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: tdoes on April 04, 2008, 11:08
My account is a English (USA) account and I have alot of Eurpean sales.  I would guess about 55-60% of my sales are to European customers.
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: MikLav on April 04, 2008, 11:38
yep, similar experience for me
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: anonymous on April 04, 2008, 15:16
ditto...it seems that the European firms are comfortable and happy dealing with them.
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: Leo Blanchette on April 04, 2008, 15:22
We have no control over who gets what right? Do I have to opt in for different countries to have access?
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: ACS on April 04, 2008, 16:20
USA account, selling to Europe +1
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: Alatriste on April 04, 2008, 18:20
Very interesting... if they grow in the english language market their sales should increase a lot I think
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: madelaide on April 04, 2008, 19:41
I have a spanish account in Fotolia and until now I was uploading images with weywords in Spanish. It was supposed that its engine does the translation.
Now they allow to upload english keywords.

Trebuchet, when you do this (English keywords in the Spanish site), don't you lose keywords?

I did this once, although not using a Brazilian account.  By default www.fotolia.com takes me to the Brazilian site.  I uploaded there and chose keywords in English.  All seemed fine, but I noticed later that some keywords were missing.  All were non-English words - names of places in this case, such as Rio de Janeiro, Guanabara, Botafogo. 

I can't tell however if these keywords were missing as I uploaded or only after submission. I only noticed it after approval. I don't believe the inspector would remove these keywords, so it must have been some automated thing. I was going to resubmit this image in the English site were I have my account.

And yes, I also have a lot of sales to European countries.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: ParisEye on April 05, 2008, 00:19
I encountered the same problem : my photos of Annecy (a french town) lost the "annecy" keyword even though it was the first one ! I suppose it's because they don't accept any keyword which is not already in their dictionary as I read here on another thread. That means most of the towns around the world.

Now, if you type "Annecy" on the french site you get thousand of photos for "année" (year) which must be the closer word in their dictionary to the one you are looking for.
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: Alatriste on April 05, 2008, 03:45
I have a spanish account in Fotolia and until now I was uploading images with weywords in Spanish. It was supposed that its engine does the translation.
Now they allow to upload english keywords.

Trebuchet, when you do this (English keywords in the Spanish site), don't you lose keywords?

I did this once, although not using a Brazilian account.  By default www.fotolia.com takes me to the Brazilian site.  I uploaded there and chose keywords in English.  All seemed fine, but I noticed later that some keywords were missing.  All were non-English words - names of places in this case, such as Rio de Janeiro, Guanabara, Botafogo. 

I can't tell however if these keywords were missing as I uploaded or only after submission. I only noticed it after approval. I don't believe the inspector would remove these keywords, so it must have been some automated thing. I was going to resubmit this image in the English site were I have my account.

And yes, I also have a lot of sales to European countries.

Regards,
Adelaide

I havent try if some words dissapear. I just put english keywords only in the last batch and it is pending approval.


Do you think if you change the language to english, you will be reviewed in english or supported by english team?
I think that if you have an account (or they moved to it) in the brazilian site you are "locked" to it but not sure about this.

Id like to change from spanish fotolia because of this problem and support people (they are not very kind...)
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: madelaide on April 05, 2008, 11:43
Trebuchet,

There is no advantage to migrate to the Brazilian site, if they let me do it, because anyway the business is run in USD (images are even sold in USD, and not in Brazlian money) and they don't pay locally.

It's curious what happened in this only attempt, because those non-English keywords are not erased when I upload to the US site.  So it seems that somehow, when we're using a different language than that of the local site, some sort of vocubulary check is done.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Im selling photos in Fotolia only to european buyers
Post by: Alatriste on April 05, 2008, 18:33
I had made some test and now I am more confused.
Mystery in Fotolia...

I opened fotolia Usa, Spain and Germany

and made the following searches trying to find this image:
uploaded to the spanish site, keywords in spanish

http://es.fotolia.com/id/6563327 (http://es.fotolia.com/id/6563327)

Search 1
In spanish, fotolia spain, search for:
noche, puente, río, agua, luces, ciudad, arquitectura, luz,
My image is found

Search 2.
In spanish, fotolia US, search for:
noche, puente, río, agua, luces, ciudad, arquitectura, luz,
0 images found

Search 3.
In spanish, fotolia Germany, search for:
noche, puente, río, agua, luces, ciudad, arquitectura, luz,
0 images found

Search 4.
In english, fotolia Spain, search for:
night, bridge, river, water, lights, city, architecture, light, (same words as spanish taken from the info of the image)
0 images found

Search 5.
In english, fotolia US, search for:
night, bridge, river, water, lights, city, architecture, light,
4 images found. But none is MINE!!!!!!!

Search 6.
In english, fotolia Germany, search for:
night, bridge, river, water, lights, city, architecture, light,
1 image found. not mine.

Search 7.
In german, fotolia Spain, search for:
Nacht, Brücke, Fluß, Wasser, Lichter, Stadt, Architektur, Licht, (translated in Altavista´s Babel fish from english)
0 images found

Search 8.
In german, fotolia US, search for:
Nacht, Brücke, Fluß, Wasser, Lichter, Stadt, Architektur, Licht,
1 image found. Not mine

Search 9.
In german, fotolia Germany, search for:
Nacht, Brücke, Fluß, Wasser, Lichter, Stadt, Architektur, Licht,
25 images found. First is mine

Last Search.
In english, fotolia US, search for:
night, bridge, river, water, lights, city, architecture, light, tourism, travel, reflection, road, blue, steel, structure, dark, building, construction, ocean, sea, urban, illumination, landscape, scene, monumental, plentzia, spain, north, basque, country, boat, calm.
(all the keywords in my image)
2 images found. NOT MINE.
I clicked in one of the images. Its keywords are:
aerial architecture attraction boat boats bridge bridges building buildings city cityscape eiffel europe european evening france french illuminated illumination landmark light lights night nightlife nighttime panorama panoramic paris reflection reflections river roof roofs rooftop rooftops scenery scenic seine shore skyline stone street streets tourism tower travel traveling vacation view water

I dont like the conclusion I take and this is the answer to why I only sell photos to european customers.
My image couldnt be found in fotolia US.
Should I think that NONE of my images can be found there?

I ll continue making some test...