Fotolia's Booming Business Generates More Benefits

Fotolia has recently released changes to it's exclusity program.  Along with this announcement came a new way for members to make money off of files that have not been sold.  Here are the detail:

EXCLUSIVITY AND PRICING

Dear contributor,

As we announced a few days ago, Fotolia is changing the exclusivity definitions and adding a new level of exclusivity called “Total Exclusivity”.

This change will take place as early as March 1, 2009.

Total Exclusivity Status is defined as a contributor who only offers his royalty free files (images, vectors, videos) to Fotolia. It is strictly prohibitive for a Total Exclusive member to supply their creative works on other photo agencies or microstock websites.

As compensation, Total Exclusive contributors will receive many advantages like higher exclusive commissions and the ability to increase their sales prices (see charts below).

However, the Total Exclusive Contributor will retain the rights to:

- to sell their other creative works as Rights-managed files, on their own or through a company dedicated to this activity;

- to sell their works through their personal portfolio website. In such case, the website shall not offer works for free or sell other author’s works;

- to sell their works directly to an end user in accordance with an assignment or work for hire contract;

- to sell their works directly to the end user in accordance with an editorial contract;

- to sell prints of their works;

- to print and sell derivative products, including, without limitation, posters, t-shirts, clothing, decorations and the like, whether on their own or through a dedicated website. In such case, the website must not offer works for free or sell other royalty free creative works.

Procedure

Starting today Fotolia will allow you to declare your status as a Total Exclusive contributor, and once the website has been updated you will be ready to receive the benefits as a Total Exclusive contributor.

However before updating your account we encourage you to verify that all of your royalty free files have been removed from other agencies and websites as described above to be eligible for Total Exclusivity status on Fotolia. Total exclusivity may be declared in the my profile section of your Fotolia account.

While you are free to choose we do hope you will consider becoming a Total Exclusive contributor to Fotolia and wish you much success.

For more information visit: Fotolia's Website

Posted via email from stockphotograph's posterous

Free Images

Did you know that most stock photography sites give away free images? Most will have a "free images" section or "free images of the day."

Being the cheapskate that I am, I download all the free images, all the time and save them in a folder in case I should need them one day. Sort of like a virtual pack rat!

Fotolia has a great collection, which they change daily. Check them out. It's on the bottom of the page under Search Index. Click on "Free Images."

The image seen here is taken from Fotolia's free images.

Stock Photography Sites To Get Your Started

This article is take from http://cashbypo.blogspot.com.

I compiled a list of my top stock photography sites.  They all vary in different features.  I recommend checking each one out, however I suggest maximizing your profits by joins more than one if possible.  Good Luck!

ShutterStock

ShutterStock is one of the bigger microstock photography sites and has a high sell rate.  They do have a very rigid photo review process however, but once accepted you're photos will be well marketed to a large number of buyer.

iStockphoto

iStockphoto is another one of the big sites which has its upside and downside.  Thousands of potential buyers browse big sites like this, however they tend to be more picky than the smaller sites.  The registration process may take slightly longer than other sites, but once you're in and get some photos accepted you'll see the money start rolling in quickly.

Fotolia

Fotolia is a relatively new site that is causing quite a stir in the stock photography community.  They are well organized and have a quick registration process.  Although they have a moderately rigid photo review process, they do not penalize you for submitting photos that don't get approved.  Fotolia is growing and has a good customer base which translates to a high number of sales.

FeaturePics

FeaturePics has the least rigid photo review process and is your best bet for getting photos accepted.  The also have a fairly high commission rate.  FeaturePics frequently tried new ways to sell your photos and offer you the option to participate in new projects they have.  I recommend taking advantage of their new ideas, it will just boost your revenue.

123rf

123rf is right in the middle when it come to their image review process.  They accept more than most other sites on this list, but do reject a good amount as well.  I'm not too familiar with their sales volume as I just joined this site, but it won't hurt to give it a try.

These are not all of the sits out there.  I will put on a more comprehensive list in the future.  Thanks for stopping by.

Image Piracy and Severe Consequences

Those unfamiliar with stock photography sites may be wondering why anyone would choose to buy an image, when they can just search for one in Google's Image Search and just take one of those.

I recently read an extensive and well written article at StockPhotography.com. Here they explain in great details the reason buying images from stock photography sites will make your life so much easier. Furthermore, you will avoid diminishing the creative work of another artist and you will avoid the stiff penalties that can arise from what basically amounts to stealing another person's work.

Here are some of the main points the article makes:

• Pictures and images are property of their creator. Therefore, it cannot be taken or used without permission (even if it is so easy to do so in today's computer world).
• Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights were setup to encourage artist to be creative and continue to do their work knowing that it will be protected. Without these protections, artist would have little incentive to create new works of art.
• The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides greater protection to digital images. An important part of the act criminalizes removal of digital elements (such as a digital watermark) added to an image to protect copyright.
• The maximum penalty for copyright infringement has recently been raised from $100,000 to $150,000 per infringement

They also list what they consider to be "4 Incredibly Painful Mistakes."

1. "Thinking that the worst thing that can happen to you if you "steal" an image is that you can be forced to pay what you would have had to pay anyway..."
2. "Thinking, hey, let THEM prove I DIDN'T pay for the picture."
3. "Thinking to yourself, 'Hey, I'll just use Photoshop to remove all these pesky little copyright identifiers on this picture. Who's gonna know?' "
4. "Thinking, hey, I'm too "small potatoes" for anyone to care.

Check out the entire article at StockPhotgoraphy.com.