MicrostockGroup

I know -- sounds like a silly question. Keywording with fotolia is the most tedious of all the sites, hence it ended up taking second place (actually 6th) in my keywording priority. So indeed I eventually left off from fotolia.

I'd like to know how Fotolia works for you guys, and if perhaps there are other ways of doing things (keywording, uploading) than what I initially found. Do they take vectors?

Are they worth the effort?

Thanks.

Fotolia's certainly worth the effort - they narrowly missed first place (behind SS) in February for me. I haven't uploaded vectors there - I did upload the JPEGs from them though, which they will accept - because I don't like the pricing.

There's no pricing based on complexity of the vector, so the simplest or the most complex is the same price - I think 7 credits. As an XL photo is 5 credits (that's the largest my 20D can qualify for at 8MP) I don't think the vector pricing works at all.

However, be aware that they recently started withholding payments unless you upload a scan of ID over an unsecure link. If they don't offer some secure option I am (sadly) going to have to close my account there. Make sure you're OK with that before you proceed.

Based on some recent tests, I have begun spending a bit more time there with keywords. too early to tell if it's worth the effort.

Third best behind SS and IS for me. And yes they do have FTP.

Most of their customers are European, so you might find that different images sell on Fotolia.

I just keyword all my images with Fotolia in mind. Other sites either keep the order of keywords (which is OK) - or re-order them as they see fit (alphabetical). This way I save myself hassle. The only problem is that with some places titles are limited to 64 characters, the description has to be a minimum of 7 words etc. - but generally Fotolia does not give me any hassle with uploading (and with acceptance, after initial problems).

This may help. Here is what I do: I pick several images that are of a similar subject, thus having similar keywords... perhaps a batch of 10

Then I create a word processing document with a list of all 10 images, titles, keywords, etc.

Then I upload these to multiple sites... no additional typing required, just copy and paste. Sites like SX allow batch editing to make this process even more efficient.