It seems Fotolia will start a subscription plan. It will pay 0.23 to 0.30 per download. For what I've read, only exclusive images can be opted out.

If deleting your portfolio is the other only chance, I think they're playing a dangerous game.

I'm seriously thinking about quitting if these are the rules.

What do you think?

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It seems that the (price) progress shown at some point last year is evaporating pretty fast now... It is like SS but five years ago... It sucks, really really sucks... I will not submit a single pic to them from now on.

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FT is just a tiny % of my revenue so I don't much care what they do. Their search function no longer works for major keywords except for recent uploads. Just not worth it to worry about, at least for me. I believe that the compensation will continue to be reduced so long as the quantity of images keeps increasing at the current rate and the sheer number of contributors rises just as quickly -- with good/bad/average images.

The only bright spot I can see is with the independent search engines talked about in other strings. That will make it easier to both find the most suitable images quicker, and will enable the upstart sites to get a huge gain in possible customers right out of the box. I have a sneaky suspicion that new sites like YayMicro may be planning such a marketing thrust through third party search engines.

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Trying to resume it :

- Fotolia announces subscriptions
- Comissions go from 0.25 to 0.32 (white to diamond) which is incredibly low nowadays
- Subscription sales don't count towards the rankings (unlike Dreamstime)
- There are no referral earnings coming from subscription sales
- There's no opt-out for non-exclusive images
- Images that are opted out are ranked lower in the search (this is not clear yet, but they did say "Images proposed in Subscription have a better visibility on the Website.")

How worse could it be?

I'm joining the crowd that doesn't upload to Fotolia and if there's no response I'm considering to remove my portfolio.

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I'm almost sure that I read --not here-- a post by Chad Bridwell of Fotolia, saying that suscripions were bread for today, hunger for tomorrow. It seems they have changed their mind.

Wow. What is wrong with that company? They treat contributors so poorly and rarely ever listen to us. When they do it either takes months and months to implement the change, or the change is so insignificant that it doesn't even matter.

I really wish I wasn't dependent on them for my living. Whenever my RM sales start kicking in with regularity, FT will be the first micro to go. I can't stand being associated with them.

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Im losing interest also.And from what the "Grapevine" says so are a whole lot of others. You guys haven't listened very well. I said a year ago that there was some major changes coming and there starting to show up. Ya don't listen. Here's the Deal just like SS and Istk. 25,000 of us could pull our ports tommorrow and it wont affect any of them in the slightest. None, Zero. withen a month we will all be replaced by new whiners and folks that will be happy with 20 cents a DL. Trust me on This Kids. we are dinasours!!!!! we die, just like the army, new fresh troops to replace us in weeks. they know it, i know it. Why dont you?. What are ya gonna do about it???

I haven't listened because I disagree. If 25,000 of us left, so would most of the buyers. They have some loyalty, don't you think they looked for your portfolio on other sites when you left Lucky Oliver? I don't think there are more than 5,000 top class photographers in the world. That is probably an overestimation. Would people wade through these new 25,000 contributors when most of the good ones have gone to sites that treat them decently?

There is still a big traditional market that I feel the microstock sites will continue eroding. We should see more buyers as the economic down turn bites and they are forced to move to the lower priced sites.

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Please , Rinder stop shooting numbers and rethink.

25,000 of us could pull our ports tomorrow and it wont affect any of them in the slightest

People who are concerned most are those who produce most , and if that number of contributor you mentioned pulled out the photos tomorrow from any site , that site could comfortably close the business , their buyers especially subscription buyers would go mad.

Next as I said before , those one that are rising the dust are the ones that produce most , and if average portfolio of 25000 of contributors that you mention has only 100 images that 2,5 millions images lost in a day.

Is it worth saying that most of serious contributors together have much more than the average of 100 images that I used , so that number would be much higher than existing number of all images in the industry.

Im ready to bet that 1000 of serious contributors united, lead by few top producers could make serious changes in this industry , and the number of hobbyists that are ready to supply their work under any circumstances and rules that any site sets could not replace them at least not in a short time.

And thats contributors wild card , "time" , if certain number of images goes away in a second , the sites would not have time to replace them before the buyers get pissed of and abandon the site.

But is always easy to say you know , be disappointed by the situation , and
and play smart one but not be ready to do nothing about it.

Sorry my friend , but all good from you that I read last few years falls in the water after this post of yours, and you were the last person I expected to talk this way , firing numbers and writing without thinking a second.

Wish you all good light

The fact that their not allowing sub's to count towards the pay tier is absolutely ridiculous - which goes in the same category with the subs pay, the new search scramble, and no pay for sub's referals. It's all ridiculous and a slap in face towards the contributors. It appears they are trying to compete using SS sub model (this is just my opinion). Regardless, ss pays me better and I get to move farther up the pay scale with my subs and my video income....so, I will be pulling most of my portfolio off of fotolia (there's only around 561 images) - the only pic's that will be left on fotolia will be the ones that SS rejected and the only new pics fotolia will get will be the ones that SS rejects. It's not that I am loyal to SS in anyway, it's that fotolia is biting the hand that feeds it. And yes, I am fully aware that this will have no impact on fotolia, but the way they are treating their contributors both financially and they way they are talking to them in forums does have a personal impact on me. I'm starting to find them rather sleezy.
Tara