My opinion seems to change quite a bit about Fotolia. I must not be the only one because both customers and contributors seem to have a lot to say about Fotolia too. Some of it isn’t very kind either. With all that said, I thought it would be nice to organize my reviews and articles about Fotolia all in one place.

First Impression
My first impression of Fotolia was fairly positive, but I wasn’t earning a whole lot there.

Second Review
I started earning a lot more at Fotolia, so I decided to give it a second review.

Pricing Change
Fotolia simultaneously raised prices while lowering royalties. The change ended up working for me, but a lot of members weren’t pleased about the reduced royalty.

Vector Pricing Change
In a complete head scratching move, Fotolia slashed prices for vector files. This caused me to just stop uploading there.

What’s New?
Not too much for me. Fotolia is holding strong as my number 4 micro site, but I haven’t uploaded any of my new files since their vector pricing change. They haven’t re-priced my old files (which is good), so I haven’t had to consider deleting anything.

Right now, I’m not a big fan of Fotolia, but who knows… my opinion will probably change, again.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2009 Cory Thoman.

Sorry to anyone that was trying to post comments. I was trying out WP-SpamFree to block spam comments. Well, it blocked spam, but it blocked everything else too.

Anyway, the comments are back open, so feel free to gab away.

Also, if anyone has a recommendation for a spam blocking plugin, that would be helpful. Thanks!

I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the different services I use. This review is for 123RF, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site.

123RF was a late entry for me in the microstock game, but it quickly became competitive with Big Stock Photo and Fotolia. That being said, it is still on the lower tier of earners.

Although earnings are the main reason to join a site, they aren’t the only reason. The site is fairly easy to use. It doesn’t have FTP upload for illustrations That makes the uploading process a little more time consuming, but not as bad as the champion of tedious uploading, iStockphoto.

Overall, 123RF is a steady stream of income. If you’re looking for another small source of income, then you might want to check it out . If you are looking for a big earner, then you may want to skip this site.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the different services I use. This review is for Big Stock Photo, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site.

Big Stock Photo is in the lower tier of earners. My lower tier earners include 123RF, Fotolia and Big Stock Photo. To put it in perspective, all 3 of the lower tier sites income combined doesn’t even equal the income from StockXpert (4th on my monthly earnings list). On the bright side, Big Stock does earn me money every month and I have received payouts.

Overall, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from trying out Big Stock Photo. I would just keep your expectations low for earnings.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

If you are interested in adding a more textured look to your computer illustrations, you may want to take a look at the book, Crumble, Crackle, Burn.

The book is a hardcover book with a variety of color illustrations from 55 different artists. The book also comes with a DVD which contains texture files used in all the illustrations. The DVD doesn’t have any tutorials, but has five psd layered files. The layered files really let you see how the files are created. I wish there were a few more on the DVD.

Overall, I think the book is really good and I look forward to playing around with the texture files.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the different services I use. This review is for Fotolia, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site.

I see many photographers that have a fair amount of success on Fotolia. It seems to rank fairly high in percentages of their earnings. As an illustrator, I can’t say I’ve had much luck on Fotolia. I earn money every month on the site, but I don’t think I’ve ever made more than $20 in a month.

Other than not earning much, the only real complaint I have about Fotolia is their vector format. Fotolia accepts vector files, but they want them as svg’s. Most sites use eps format, so converting images is a time consuming process. Setting up an action script in Illustrator is probably the best way to convert the files.

Overall, I can’t really recommend Fotolia, but I wouldn’t really discourage anyone from trying it out. Your images may sell better than mine. For me, I’m just not sure it was worth the effort to upload my files.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I wanted to review some of the different services I use. This review is for StockXpert, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site. There aren’t any membership fees for artists to join.

I think StockXpert is one of the better lesser known agencies. It flew under my radar for a while, but when I joined I was pleasantly surprised. It quickly became my fourth best earner. It left Big Stock Photo and Fotolia in its dust and never looked back. I don’t think it has the consistent traffic that iStockphoto and some of the other bigger stock sites have, but it has nice royalties when you do get sales.

Overall, I think StockXpert is worth the time to upload to. My question is whether the site will continue to grow and become a bigger player in the microstock industry or stay right where it is.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I wanted to review some of the different services I use. This review is for Dreamstime, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site. There aren’t any membership fees for artists to join.

Dreamstime is my definitive number three. I don’t make as much money on it as I do on Shutterstock and iStockphoto, but it also considerably out earns StockXpert, Fotolia and Big Stock Photo.

Dreamstime is fairly easy to use. You can FTP the jpegs, but have to manually add vector files. The uploading process is a little buggy in Safari, so I usually use Firefox. One feature Dreamstime has that the other sites don’t have is showing keywords searched on downloaded files. It is nice to see those more obscure terms you keyworded in pay off.

Overall, you may not earn as much at Dreamstime, but it is definitely worth the time to contribute to.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I wanted to review some of the different services I use. This review is for Shutterstock, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site. There aren’t any membership fees for artists to join.

Shutterstock works a little differently from other microstock sites. It is only subscription based which means that subscribers pay a monthly fee and can download a set amount in the month. This is different from other sites that let the buyers purchase files as they need them. The royalties are lower in a subscription service, but the downloads are a lot higher. This model seems to work because Shutterstock is often my monthly top earner.

My favorite thing about Shutterstock is the upload process. They offer FTP upload for vector files. It is quick and easy to upload and keyword your files. I usually upload all my files there first. iStockphoto may be the stock king, but Shutterstock definitely has the best upload process.

So if you’re not morally opposed to selling stock, then I would recommend checking out Shutterstock.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the different services I use. This review is for iStockphoto, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site. There aren’t any membership fees, but there is an application review. It is basically to make sure your work meets their standards.

There are many microstock agencies out there, but iStockphoto is considered to be the king. What makes it the king? Money is one factor. Many artists earn the most from istockphoto. Another reason is community. iStock has the best forum community of all the microstock sites I’ve been on. Artists help each other out with technical questions, critiques and more. The customer service is also very attentive which is always a positive.

Overall, If you want to test the waters in microstock, iStockphoto is the place to start.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.