“BHZ” and how to measure or find your Alamy Rank
photo credit: Jef Poskanzer
So you’re underway with selling stock photography on Alamy. You’re getting some views and some zooms so you’ll have an Alamy Rank. How do you know what your Alamy Rank is ? How can you improve it?
PP shows you how to easily compare your Alamy Rank to others.
Finding your Alamy Rank. Before we can improve it we have to find it!
We’ve previously learnt that Alamy don’t tell us our Alamy Rank. There is nowhere in the contributor screens that says “Your Alamy Rank is XX”. This is because your rank position will vary with each search made by a buyer. Your Alamy Rank puts your images relative to other people’s images which are returned in any given search.
Thus your Alamy Rank in real terms will vary on each and every search.
I’m not a mathematician, but I do know that in any given formula, if you want to compare something to something else its useful to have a constant. The constant in this case is going to be the search term itself.
The search term BHZ was thought up by one of the contributors on the Alamy Forum. He realised that the letters BHZ used as a word had no hits in the live collection - i.e. searching for BHZ returned nothing. He figured that if a number of contributors used this search term and placed the BHZ word in the same place everyone would be able to see where they stood in comparison to others. A small easy to follow set of rules were drawn up.
Here’s how to play the Alamy Rank BHZ game:
1) Select one of your “L” (Rights Managed) images (do not select an RF image - see Note 2) and click Edit image to get to the Edit image screen where you update keywords etc.
2) In the Essential Keywords field write BHZ as the first word in the field
3) Save your changes to the edited image
4) That’s it - all done!
Note 1: Only ever add BHZ to one rights-managed (L) image for each pseudonym you have. If you have more than one pseudonym this is a good way of comparing them to each other and other contributors. Remember: its the pseudonym and not the image that is subject to Alamy Rank - so there is absolutely no use adding BHZ to more than one L image per pseudonym.
Note 2: Do not add BHZ to RF images. RF images are treated differently by Alamy Rank and the Diversity Algorithm. RF images do not give a true picture of your Alamy Rank.
When will I see the changes and how do I measure my Alamy Rank?
1) Wait at least 24 hours until the next database refresh. Your new BHZ image will then be searchable.
2) From the Alamy search box enter BHZ and select “L” images only (because despite simple instructions some people have put BHZ into RF images - doh!)
3) The search will return all images keyworded as BHZ including yours. Look at the total number of images returned and scroll down and page through to find your position (you’ll need to count and should be able to recognise your own image of course!)
Make a note of your position (and of your other pseudonym positions too) so you can see how changes to your collection affect your Alamy Rank over time.
There are (at time of writing) 950 “L” images so one can assume 950 pseudonyms playing the BHZ game! While this is only a fraction of Alamy’s total contributors, it is a good enough sample to give you an idea of where you stand relative to others.
How often does Alamy Rank update?
Alamy say every 100 days based upon your CTR and sales and other performance over the past 300 days. Remember, you are measuring your performance compared to everyone else, not against an Alamy scale!
Next post we’ll have a look at the factors involved in increasing (or decreasing!) your Alamy Rank.
PP
Hi –
I’ve just discovered your site in the last couple of weeks (from the Alamy Forum). And, I am paying attention. As you already must know, it is extremely valuable. Thank you.
My question is this — does it matter WHICH image you add BHZ to? I mean should it be the one that has the most Views or one that has had none? Does it matter at all?
Thanks.
Clair
Hi Clair,
Thanks for your nice words!
No, you can choose any “L” image. Just add BHZ as detailed above to the essential keywords field of ANY “L” image, but only ONE image for each pseudonym you have. It does not matter how successful that image is within your collection.
PP
Hi, thanks for posting this very useful technique.
Do you happen to know what constitutes a view or a zoom? what i mean here is ‘viewed by whom?’ Do you have to be a registered, logged-in client to have your views counted? Otherwise, surely people could manipulate their CTR% by searching and zooming their own pics…
cheers, David
Hi David,
A zoom is recorded when a thumbnail is clicked by a certain set of buyers as pre-defined by Alamy. Presumably these are people with multiple sales records; account customers etc. i.e. regular buyers.
A zoom is not registered by anyone else clicking a thumbnail (else we’d all be doing it…..!!!)
PP
“your Alamy Rank in real terms will vary on each and every search”
This is simply wrong. Your rank does not vary on each and every search.
Hi Alex,
Depends how you look at it.
Your *Alamy assigned rank* is only changed every 100 days or so. That’s known.
But for each search you do, depending on the competition’s Alamy Rank your placement will vary. You may be “ranked” 5 for “dolphin wearing sunglasses” (with four others of higher Rank above) and 505 for “UK” (with 504 others with a higher Rank above) etc etc.
It all depends who else has images with the same keywords as yours that are returned for the same search.
So as far as I see it on a day to day basis in real terms (because they are the only terms that matter) your Alamy Rank gives you a placement which is *always* relative to the competition and changes on a search by search basis.
PP
Of course the placing of your images varies depending on what else is out there but that doesn’t mean that your rank is changing.
You say: “There is nowhere in the contributor screens that says “Your Alamy Rank is XX”. This is because your rank position will vary with each search made by a buyer.”
That is not the explanation why Alamy don’t tell us our rank. They don’t tell us because they choose not to, but every contributor has a fixed rank that doesn’t change until the next re-rank.
About BHZ: It is a poor indicator of how well you rank because it obviously does not include those that do not “play the game”. And those that play and those that don’t are not “equal”. Most of the highly ranked contributors do not bother with it (eg Jon Arnold, Art Kowalsky); so by playing BHZ you may be flattering yourself that you are doing better than you actually are.
If you want to compare yourself with other forum obsessives then it’s fine, but to get a truer picture then do a broad search (like UK, USA, PEOPLE) and see how well you fare.
Yes I agree, Rank is fixed. I think we’re shooting at this from different ends though. I’d love to know my Rank. But I’m not going to find it easily.
Because BHZ is a fixed search then at least it shows me where I am on a re-Rank compared to others (currently about 1200) playing the same game. I can see if I go up or down.
The trouble with doing a generalist search like “people” is you’ve no way of knowing where “people” is in the competitions kw sets (essential, main, comp) etc. So any reading of position from that is flawed too. BHZ stipulates essential field only. Of course people don’t follow instructions which is why we hav 40 odd RF images marked BHZ!! :)
There’s no perfect way to do this. But for me BHZ is better to gauge my own Rank yo-yo than other method’s I’ve tried.
PP
This should be extended to RF images as well (so one RF image and one L image per pseudo). Anyone can restrict the bhz search to one or the other. Plus, there are plenty of contributors/agencies who only submit RF.
I’m pretty sure RF was not included because of the way Alamy’s diversity algorithm promotes RF images above their natural punching weight, so there’s a spread of RF in among the many RM.
An RF BHZ would work though via the filtering. Good point.
PP