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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: marcopolo on September 05, 2006, 20:37

Title: Do categories help sales much?
Post by: marcopolo on September 05, 2006, 20:37
Sometimes I put minimal effort into the categories, when I am in a hurry only putting in as many as I have to sometimes. How many here max out the categories at every site, including StockXpert which doesn't make you use categories at all? Do you think that it helps sales much? Has anyone experimented to see if it does?
Title: Re: Do categories help sales much?
Post by: maunger on September 06, 2006, 06:13
Well, since most sites have categories we can make an assumption that it does... however LO has decided to go without them completely so we'll see how that goes for them. IS doesn't have them as a main way to search any more (not at least on their main screen tho you can get to them from individual images) so maybe we'll eventually see the death of them.
Title: Re: Do categories help sales much?
Post by: CJPhoto on September 06, 2006, 06:40
Featurepics also got rid of them after a while (always optional) so I wasted a bit of time there.
Title: Re: Do categories help sales much?
Post by: dbvirago on September 06, 2006, 07:31
I did an informal poll a few months back asking designers to respond how they search for photos. The unanimous answer was keywords, not categories. But there was a discussion on SS shortly after that, where the opposite opinion was stated. Personally, I don't spend any more time on categories than I have to.
Title: Re: Do categories help sales much?
Post by: marcopolo on September 06, 2006, 14:59
That kinda confirms what I have been thinking
Title: Re: Do categories help sales much?
Post by: Quevaal on September 06, 2006, 22:14
At IS, there's a lot of categories, and I've found that when browsing and selecting categories, it helps me think of more keywords.
(Btw. IS is waiting for photographers to actively use the categories, before making them public.)

Title: Re: Do categories help sales much?
Post by: Amanda on September 06, 2006, 23:22
Well I almost never use categories when looking through stock photos - mainly because most of the time I already know what image I need and can be as specific or as vague as I want to be with keywords.