Review of the Microstock Fotolia
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Microstock Fotolia or Fotolia, and recently Adobe Stock – is a relatively young international French photo bank, operating since early 2005. You may ask, how can it be young if it has been operating since 2005? I agree that its experience is quite solid, but the leading photo banks appeared even earlier. Therefore, compared to the leading microstocks, Fotolia is indeed a relatively young microstock.
However, despite its youth, Fotolia (Adobe Stock) operates quite steadily and almost always ranks among the top three highest-paying microstocks.
Exam for Fotolia
The Fotolia (Adobe Stock) photo bank is usually recommended for all beginner microstockers to start working, as there is no entry exam for Fotolia, and the inspectors of this photo bank are quite lenient during the moderation of submitted works.
Fotolia accepts images with a minimum size of 4 megapixels, so keep that in mind.
What sells on the Fotolia microstock?
On this microstock, you can sell photographs in JPG format, 3D visualizations, and vector illustrations in EPS format (in a zip archive along with JPG).
Selling images at the photo bank is conducted under the following types of licenses:
- Royalty Free (RF)
- Extended Royalty Free (ExtRF)
Image prices range from $1 to $80 for standard royalty-free and from $20 to $200 for extended royalty-free. In addition, the Fotolia microstock has established a ranking of photographers based on their sales levels.
Accordingly, the earnings of a photographer or designer on Fotolia (Adobe Stock) depend on their rank and the type of license.
Earnings are a percentage of the sale price, and the percentage level is tied to the rank.
| Number of sales | Symbol | Rank |
| Up to 100 |  |
White |
| From 100 to 1,000 |  |
Bronze |
| From 1,000 to 10,000 |  |
Silver |
| From 10,000 to 25,000 |  |
Gold |
| From 25,000 to 100,000 |  |
Emerald |
| From 100,000 to 250,000 |  |
Sapphire |
| From 250,000 to 1,000,000 |  |
Rubis |
| More than 1,000,000 |  |
Diamond |
As seen from the table above, the more sales, the higher the rank at Fotolia (Adobe Stock). In the next table, you can see what payment is set for which rank on the microstock:
| Maximum sale price | ||||||||||
| Rank | Percentage of deductions | Standard license | Extended | |||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
| White | |
30 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 20 |
| Bronze | |
32 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 50 |
| Silver | |
34 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 100 |
| Gold | |
36 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 32 | 150 |
| Emerald | |
38 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 200 |
| Sapphire | |
40 | 6 | 12 | 24 | 30 | 36 | 42 | 48 | 200 |
| Rubis | |
42 | 7 | 14 | 28 | 35 | 42 | 49 | 56 | 200 |
| Diamond | |
44 | 10 | 20 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 200 |
So, the commission level on Fotolia ranges from 30 to 44 percent of the sale price of the image.
How to Withdraw Earnings from Fotolia?
The money earned on the microstock Fotolia can be received through transfers via electronic payment systems Moneybookers and PayPal (this process takes from 15 to 20 days), and you can also withdraw money from Fotolia using a personal check (mailed, which can be cashed at almost any bank).
The minimum payout amount is only 50 dollars. Among leading stock sites, the microstock Fotolia (Adobe Stock) has one of the lowest minimums for cashing out, which is encouraging since it can take a long time for beginners to reach the first minimum, when they want their money quickly.
A Spoonful of Tar in the Fotolia Barrel
I have detailed how good Fotolia is, but it’s essential to mention a small downside. To withdraw money from Fotolia for the first time, you will need to send them a scan of your international passport.
Alternatively, for those without the specified document, you can ask relatives or friends to share a scan, but then you will need to register on the microstock Fotolia under their name, and the check will be issued in their name.
However, once you start withdrawing money through the payment systems Moneybookers or PayPal after the money is withdrawn from Fotolia and credited to your wallet, you can send it to your account details. So, the tar wasn’t all that unpleasant.
This article is also available for reading in the following categories: About Microstocks, Fotolia
It seems to me that Fotolia is some kind of scam; let’s start with the fact that until you pay for points or a subscription, you can’t upload anything, and the photographer cannot understand whether he meets the professionalism standards or not. The uploaded photos are apparently checked by a robot because the reason for rejection is always the same (the formula) – allegedly many defects, lack of focus, excessive processing, and the photo check takes at least 3 days. I understood that the check for plagiarism only includes photos from this site because I downloaded a very high-quality photo from the internet, uploaded it to Fotolia, and it was rejected for lack of focus, even though this photo featured a city view (there is no focal object, in principle). The site has an unclear interface. Upon initial registration, I could not find the link to the “Author Zone”; I found it by chance on the forum. As a result, not a single photo was accepted, and I spent 11 dollars.
Honestly, I am very disappointed with Fotolia. I sent photos there that sell on Shutter, particularly a texture – brown leather. Everything is clear, the color is perfect, no lighting issues, 15MB.
They rejected it. They write some nonsense:
* Out of focus/blurred image
* Excessive/insufficient exposure
* Image cropping
Do not crop the object/background too close to the edge of the image.
* Colors too saturated or insufficiently saturated
* Unbalanced contrast
* Noise/Pixels
* Interpolation issues
* Issues with effects
Use effects with caution (buyers often prefer to add effects themselves).
* Size issue
The image size must be between 4 to 50 megapixels.
It’s pure idiocy! How can you crop too close to the edge? What size issues are there?
If it continues like this, I might delete my entire portfolio((
Fotolia seems more like a scam than a honest stock agency. They look for good shots worldwide, then reshoot them themselves (through their photographers) and sell them to end users. Your works just get rejected. In Russian.
I can’t say anything about that since I’m an illustrator and don’t work with photos. If you have specific facts, I’d be interested to hear them.
That makes sense)))
But in that case, is it possible to find similar sites where a foreign passport isn’t required? Or do such sites not exist?
Oh, there are such sites, but sales there are lower than on the top photobanks.
Well, that’s a bit much)) People create their own conditions to bend the rules) In my case, it’s just laziness stopping me from going to the passport office)))
Well, if someone is just starting out and passport fees are an issue, it could be a problem. Again, the standard processing takes some time, during which you can already start earning. So why waste that time?
Can you do that on all photobanks?
Yes. Moreover, some don’t even require a passport.
Of course, it’s better to be honest, but life is such that sometimes you have to bend the rules. 🙂
So, if you use someone else’s passport, can you use your own e-wallet? And does it matter that they are registered to different people?
Yes. To work with a photobank, you can use someone else’s passport, but register the account in Bookers in your name.
Sorry if this is not the right place, but how can I contact the site admin?
Check the email at https://microstock.top/reklama-na-bloge/