I have recently jumped into the world of Stock Photography. I've been attempting it for a few years, and now I'm finally in!
The trouble is, I think my portfolio is not too visible. Several of my images have been online for about 2 weeks now, and I have only a handful of views (and definitely no downloads).
I don't know if it will help, but I was wondering if you could spare a few minutes to click on my photos. Maybe the extra views will help the photos get noticed by potential buyers? I really don't know, but it's worth a shot!
(It could just be that my photos are no good, and this is nature's way of telling me so, ha ha!)
Anyway, thanks to anyone who's willing to help. :-)
done.....you've got some really nice shots on there. I don't really "know" - but i would presume it will take a little while before you start seeing view and purchases.....2 weeks is not long.
I can say this to you, I have had my photos on stock sites and while they were accepted only a handful were ever purchased. After alot of research what I discovered was that what I photograph is not stock material. It is not that your pictures aren't good, they are however there is a completely different mindset for stock. I have not been able to convert my thinking to stock photography, it is a completely different animal than regular photography. I wish you luck but do not get discouraged if the images don't sell.
@nancy65 Thank you for your reply. You are correct, it can be totally different than artistic photography. I've been trying to think more in terms of advertising, marketing and simple subjects on plain backgrounds.
The popular images I've seen on stock sites are always very well exposed and have sharp focus, so that is something I've been working on as well. They also seem to be highly saturated which is not my personal preference, but hey...if it sells...
Anyway, I will keep at it, but I do think the extra views help. :-)
Unfortunately, view count alone doesn't generally help a photograph's likelihood to sell, for the simple reason that it is so easy to manipulate by doing things like this.
Buyers will generally be searching by keyword, so it's important to make sure you have all the possible relevant keywords against your image -- with some agencies this is your responsibility, and with some this is theirs, but either way it needs to be done.
After that, stock agencies will generally display photos by how well they've sold previously (so if you search for 'apple', the higher-listed photos will often be those which sold more). This is a bit unfair on new photos, but equally from a business perspective (of the agency), it makes the most sense. Again, this is why it's important to make sure your photos are well-keyworded -- you want to make sure that if someone searches for some unusual combination of words that describes your image, they find it -- that way, when they buy it, your image will also rise against more common keywords, increasing the chance of future sales.
If these companies have contributor forums, it's well worth taking a browse through them -- often other more-experienced contributors will have figured out ways to increase the likelihood of a photo selling with that agency, and, as on communities like this, they can often be willing to share that information to help others. Each agency will have a different way of ranking photos, and different things that you might be able to do to improve your odds.
I would also agree that two weeks is a very short time to be looking for sales, especially given the relatively small number of photos you have up. Getty doesn't even report sales until the month afterwards -- I assume all of your companies report sales immediately, otherwise maybe you could have sold things without knowing yet?
@abirkill That all makes sense, thanks Alexis. I will check out the forums and see what I can find out.
I was really just trying to increase traffic to my images -- a little shameless self-promotion couldn't hurt, and I know I wouldn't be the first to do it! ;-)
I will give my keywords a think and see how I might adjust them to increase traffic that way. I will also try to be more patient. Thanks for your help.
I looked at all of them. Very nice collection of images you have there. I might have too look into this stock photography thing a little more. thanks for all lthe info.
I was also thinking about tags, and I see that Alexis has addressed that. For example your picture of the baseball and glove is not tagged with sport, sports, game, etc....
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Thank you for your help!
The popular images I've seen on stock sites are always very well exposed and have sharp focus, so that is something I've been working on as well. They also seem to be highly saturated which is not my personal preference, but hey...if it sells...
Anyway, I will keep at it, but I do think the extra views help. :-)
Buyers will generally be searching by keyword, so it's important to make sure you have all the possible relevant keywords against your image -- with some agencies this is your responsibility, and with some this is theirs, but either way it needs to be done.
After that, stock agencies will generally display photos by how well they've sold previously (so if you search for 'apple', the higher-listed photos will often be those which sold more). This is a bit unfair on new photos, but equally from a business perspective (of the agency), it makes the most sense. Again, this is why it's important to make sure your photos are well-keyworded -- you want to make sure that if someone searches for some unusual combination of words that describes your image, they find it -- that way, when they buy it, your image will also rise against more common keywords, increasing the chance of future sales.
If these companies have contributor forums, it's well worth taking a browse through them -- often other more-experienced contributors will have figured out ways to increase the likelihood of a photo selling with that agency, and, as on communities like this, they can often be willing to share that information to help others. Each agency will have a different way of ranking photos, and different things that you might be able to do to improve your odds.
I would also agree that two weeks is a very short time to be looking for sales, especially given the relatively small number of photos you have up. Getty doesn't even report sales until the month afterwards -- I assume all of your companies report sales immediately, otherwise maybe you could have sold things without knowing yet?
I was really just trying to increase traffic to my images -- a little shameless self-promotion couldn't hurt, and I know I wouldn't be the first to do it! ;-)
I will give my keywords a think and see how I might adjust them to increase traffic that way. I will also try to be more patient. Thanks for your help.