The Training Manual-Keywords
Take a page from the training manual of any microstock site and spend the next photo foray applying the advice. Check out the competition. Look the best selling photographers in the categories you want to be selling images in. Imitating best sellers is a good way to attract the attention of qualifying administrators who screen images every day from the volley of submissions received.
See how shots that look similar to your in tone and them are keyworded. Look at the category placement. Have you placed your item in the wrong category? Imitating best sellers in the category submission department might help too. These users know which markets are active and might bring the highest rate of return. take a page from their book and test out some new keywords.
Review your labeling and image tagging rules. Are they idiosyncratic enough to make customers miss your work? Would changing things around when you upload your files bring new customers and new micropayment opportunities? tags usually map to that label in the network of files in that microstock site’s seach engine database.
Review the feedback that has been included in your image rejections, if you have any. If you have more specific questions, visit the Microstock site’s community or find one online. Log into your microstock site and see which images have been most viewed. Compare the tagging conventions and keywords you used for those submissions.
The keyword faux pas stumps a lot of micrstock photographers simply because there is so much work to be done prior to the gallery or microstock submission upload, the user simply relies on the random prinicple that the customer will ultimately find the image most matching what they want by “microstock karma”. Not so, my friend. careful tagging of images is critical to micropayment site success.
A good keyword strategy when submitting keywords is to avoid using your own name, your user name, a user name of some site you own or work on, a user name or website word promoting you and not the common denominator qualities of the image, or other verboten systems that confuse the search value.
using keywords to tag images is the one time the thesaurus function should really be used. You might be surprised at the associations for your main keywords and image tags you omitted due to distraction, normal working procedure, or haste.
