Fotolia Rejections - Thinking of closing account

[Shutterscript]

I recently started uploading my work to microstock sites and became very perplexed with Fotolia.  I submitted 10 photos to Shutterstock as part of my application and 9/10 were accepted.  I submitted the same 10 to Fotolia and only 1 was accepted.  Not only were 9/10 rejected at Fotolia, but they were rejected within 5 minutes of their submission.  I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm considering terminating my account with Fotolia rather than continuing to waste my time uploading rejections.  Any opinions on the matter?  Should I stick with them and keep submitting content or just put my efforts elsewhere.

Here are the photos I submitted to shutterstock:

newbielink:http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery.mhtml?id=252346 [nonactive]

I already have 33 downloads in 1 week from those 9 photos.

Thanks for the input.

[nativelight]

Nice images shutterscript!  Fotolia is weird.  They're very hot for some people and cold for others.  I've never done well there although I sell decently at other sites so I apparently don't have the types of images they want or think they need.  I just reached my first payout after more than a year there.  This is one of the sites I am eliminating. 

Keep in mind though that many people do very well there.  You might want to give them some time to see how they work for you.

[melastmohican]

Maybe cause they do not like landscapes or hdr?

[Shutterscript]

Well, if they don't like landscapes then I'm definitely closing my account, but only two of those photos are HDR.  Just from browsing these forums it seems like a lot of people are having bad luck with Fotolia.  I may try one more submission and if they decide to slaughter it I'm taking my work elsewhere.

[epantha]

There are "types" of photos FT doesn't want. And apparently they don't want your gorgeous location shots but there are many other sites that will be more than happy to take them. Very professional, excellent quality photos you have there.

[MicrostockExp]

Maybe they don t like HDR shots haha
I am with Fotolia for more than 2 years now, I have about half of my portfolio as exclusive since I begun with them.
I simply stopped uploading to them, no increase in earning for a year now....
I made the same money with 400 pictures than 700.... so why bother plus they rejected a lot these days. I prefer to increase with portfolio at IS it seems to pay off so far...

so it is up to u, but lot of trouble for few $$$

[fotografer]

Those shots are beautiful, they must be crazy for rejecting them.

[Peter]

hi. I love this image:



its great. I recon this one is accepted at FT? Others are nice too, but not stock, rather art.

[peep]

They are getting worse and worse. I have just got half of a batch rejected for "type" or "overabundant". If they did not sell so well for me, I would drop them this minute!

[lisafx]

First off, gorgeous images!   As everyone says, they are crazy to have rejected them IMHO. 

That said, melastmohecan is right.  They don't appear to like landscapes much at Fotolia, and in general they are rejecting a LOT of images even of the type they normally take.  Something is definitely wonky with their reviewing process the last couple of months. 

If you can manage to persevere and get some images on the site, though, the sales are pretty good.  They are tied for my third best selling site, along with Dreamstime. 

BTW, Dreamstime has very consistent reviewers and I am pretty sure they would appreciate the quality of your work.  If you don't mind the 6 month lock in they are definitely a site you should try. 

[leszek]

Fotolia is my No 6 - after SS, StockXpert, Dreamstime, 123RF and BigStock (OK, IStock is quickly moving up the ranks, but is not included in the list due to the fact that IS only started accepting my pics 3 months ago).

 Fotolia is very picky with acceptance (for reasons like the ones listed above), and rather inconsistent with rejection reasons.  At the same - it does not seem to generate many sales (probably because they managed to reject many of the images which sell very well on other sites).

[DanP68]

A string of rejections is not a good reason to close an account.  However when you consider that most MSG contributors have lackluster sales at Fotolia, then perhaps the aggravation is not worth it.

Some people swear by the sales at Fotolia.  For me, they are below 123RF and just about tied with BigStock.  Judging by our Earnings Ratings, the majority of contributors here rate Fotolia nowhere near the Top 3.  I'm going to earn over $500 this month, and only about $27 of that will come from Fotolia.  Yesterday I had over $30 of sales overall, none from FT.

If they are going to hold their contributors to very high standards, maybe it's time for contributors to hold Fotolia to a similarly high standard.

[leaf]

A string of rejections is not a good reason to close an account.  However when you consider that most MSG contributors have lackluster sales at Fotolia, then perhaps the aggravation is not worth it.

Some people swear by the sales at Fotolia.  For me, they are below 123RF and just about tied with BigStock.  Judging by our Earnings Ratings, the majority of contributors here rate Fotolia nowhere near the Top 3.  I'm going to earn over $500 this month, and only about $27 of that will come from Fotolia.  Yesterday I had over $30 of sales overall, none from FT.

If they are going to hold their contributors to very high standards, maybe it's time for contributors to hold Fotolia to a similarly high standard.

So that's who keeps voting fotolia down in the poll

I find it surprising that they are #6 on the poll.  It seems there are a lot of people who have them in their top 2 or 3, but at the same time there must be many with them quite a bit lower down.    fotolia is the #2 earner for me.  Earning 1/2 of of shutterstock earnings and 2X what the third site earns (which is dreamstime)

I have noticed though that they are getting rather picky with their acceptance and there are definitely certain types of images which are very hard to get accepted - such as landscape, and also backgrounds (probably others as well)... so if your portfolio is mainly these types you might have a hard time getting many photos online.

[Eco]

Well Fotolia is also a good earner for me. Big contest between them and Dreamstime for #3 on my earnings list. They are thus important and I will not dismiss them entirely. As with most others I also have my share of ridiculous rejections. However, I think I know now what to they will accept and what they will reject. They accept 99% of my African wildlife, but I don't even bother with landscapes anymore. Seems like they don't even give them a second glance. This irritates me because I never submit a generic landscape, but always a specific place or location, which is in high demand by safari operators in the eco-tourism industry who buy these images for marketing purposes. Some of my best sellers (with a lot of EL-sales) on Fotolia are African landscapes that were accepted before they adopted this ridiculous rejection policy.  Now I just keep these images for submission later when Fotolia will (hopefully) regain some sanity and objectivity.

[Jimi King]

Well, if they don't like landscapes then I'm definitely closing my account...

It's not that they don't like your landscapes, they look great and I'm sure FT would agree. It's that landscapes don't really sell that well on Microstock. Your portfolio on Shutterstock tells the story. Your most saleable shot there is the cloud shot (which I assume IS an HDR shot). But it's not uncommon to get something like 33 hits in a week there. Most of SS's customers are large agencies who download a load of stuff that they think they MIGHT need someday, to use up their daily quota.

It's a good barometer of sales potential elsewhere but usually an exaggerated one.

Landscapes seem to do better at Dreamstime than Fotolia. You might get a more positive response there.

[peep]

Interesting. Fotolia sells well for me. But I have been with them for a long time and managed to push through a lot of my older images which sell very well elsewhere but which would fotolia most certainly reject now. A lot of people complain about fotolia rejecting their images and not selling well. Other people are satisfied with the sales. I wonder how many of them are the old fotolia dogs (like me) who managed to upload their images BEFORE fotolia started their ridiculous reject-whatever-you-can thing. Or how many of the new clients of fotolia (who are affected by their strange rejections) are satisfied there.

[icefront]

...
I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm considering terminating my account with Fotolia rather than continuing to waste my time uploading rejections.  Any opinions on the matter?  Should I stick with them and keep submitting content or just put my efforts elsewhere.
...

I suggest to not close your account. Simply forget FL for several months and wait what will happen there.

FL it's a high earner for me, but around 3 months ago they started to reject my work as similar, type of photograph, etc. (stupid reasons), while the other sites accepted them and the images sell well.

I suggest you to wait to see what will change, at least to hear some official guidelines about exactly what they need, what they can accept.

Good luck with the other agencies!

[WarrenPrice]

Interesting. Fotolia sells well for me. But I have been with them for a long time and managed to push through a lot of my older images which sell very well elsewhere but which would fotolia most certainly reject now. A lot of people complain about fotolia rejecting their images and not selling well. Other people are satisfied with the sales. I wonder how many of them are the old fotolia dogs (like me) who managed to upload their images BEFORE fotolia started their ridiculous reject-whatever-you-can thing. Or how many of the new clients of fotolia (who are affected by their strange rejections) are satisfied there.

Made my first submission recently and had 2 out of 3 accepted.  That was encouraging so I submitted another small batch.  That batch is still in review.

I am very new to stock and don't know which way to turn.  I'm using the shotgun approach.   As most of you have noted ... I will go where the sales (if any) are good.   

[msv]

For me it's the #7 earner on 7 sites I submit to.
I don't like Fotolia and Fotolia doesn't like me.

I know, I should sort keywords by relevance, pick up right categories etc, but I'll never do that for them as long as they keep such a poor site and awkward behaviors.

Maybe someday they'll change, meanwhile I just upload and try not to care about what they say.

[fotografer]

I follow the rules for keywording and always do catagories and Fotolia has gradually  crept up into 2nd place where it has stayed for the last 3 months.  One month almost catching up with SS even though I have 50% more images on SS. 

[stokfoto]

OK they have 4million great images and don't need new images.is that the bottom line?

for the time being I decided  stop uploading May be it is just  a bored reviewer who couldn't go on holidays yet .

[stokfoto]

oops,sorry accidentally posted twice.

[Shutterscript]

Thanks for the replies everyone.  This is all helpful information.  I think I'm going to hold onto my Fotolia account for now, but hold off on submitting photos until / if they change their policy with landscape shots.  Most of the shots I take are evocative landscape shots so I suspect there's no point in submitting them.  The ones I submitted were literally rejected within 5 minutes of their submittal with the "level of aesthetic quality" as the cited reason.  5 minutes is not enough time to inspect 10 images for quality IMO, but I guess the important thing to remember is not to take these rejections personally.  I'm sure you've all received comments about how amazing some of your photos are, just to have them rejected by a microstock agency.  In the end these people really aren't looking for amazing shots or artwork, they are looking for what sells best to whatever clientele they cater to - fair enough.  Perhaps my work isn't very suited for microstock.  I may go the imagekind / fine art route instead - though sales are much harder to make with that approach. It's funny how many people will comment on the quality of my work, but how few will actually spend money on it.  I fear that making money with photography is becoming a fruitless endeavor.  Oh well, it's a good thing I love it!

Also for anyone interested, you can find all of my work here: newbielink:http://www.shutterscript.com [nonactive]

I offer free downloads for personal use - creative commons license.  Enjoy!

[lisafx]

Very nice offer on the free downloads Shutterscript!  I would rather pay for your work though. 

What pay per image sites has the Faneuil Hall Christmas Tree been accepted at?  It's gorgeous and would make a really beautiful Christmas card IMHO. 

[bravajulia]

Don't worry about the rejection, on fotolia you can resubmit some day after and you will be accepted maybe because another person is checking your photos. In Istock a rejection lower your rating, you lose more time than a week and one of 15 chance to upload for every rejection you have, and some time the reason are very silly, take a look at this one