Three Reasons to Avoid Using Fotolia for Microstock

In this day and age of photography, many photographers and illustrators have started using microstock agencies to sell their images. One such agency is known as Fotolia, and it is having serious problems. In this article, I will cite three of these problems.

Technical Glitches -

Fotolia has been having problems with their website ever since they launched a new version of their site. This new version was supposed to address some of the problems that the old version of the website had. One example of this would be slow speed. Unfortunately, this new version only increased the amount of problems that Fotolia's website has.

The speed is just as bad as ever if not worse. Also, numerous image files were lost, customer support has been overwhelmed with complaints; etc. After Fotolia switched to their supposedly faster servers, their website basically was down for almost an entire week(if not longer).

This was disastrous for both the company, potential image buyers, and image sellers. More than likely, a large amount of Fotolia's clients and customers switched to different microstock agencies after this fiasco. And who can blame them.

Digital Watermark -

All microstock agencies have a digital watermark, which reduces the likelihood of images being stolen. Most watermarks are some type of logo that covers a portion of the image, and they usually allow the potential buyer to get a fairly good idea of what the image looks like.

However, Fotolia's watermark is way too small. Basically, there is just the copyright symbol(the "c" with the circle around it) and the name Fotolia scattered about the image in tiny black letters. This makes the watermark very ineffective against image theft. It would be easy for even a novice Photoshop user to clone out Fotolia's pitiful attempt at a watermark.

Social Security Number -

No microstock agency that I have encountered will ask you for your social security number unless you sell over six hundred dollars worth of images. The IRS doesn't require companies to submit tax information about their clients until they reach this six hundred dollar figure. However, Fotolia apparently decided that they should force their sellers to provide them with their social security number even if they haven't surpassed the six hundred dollar figure.

What's even worse is the fact that you are required to submit your social security number via an unencrypted page. This makes it a lot easier for someone to view your social security number, which increases the likelihood of you having your identity stolen.

As you can see, Fotolia isn't one of the better microstock agencies. In the past, it had a lot of potential. However, these days it just seems to go from bad to worse. Hopefully, Fotolia will get its act together soon but don't hold your breath.