I just found a statement on a forum at Fotolia stating that the free section has been moved to a site called Pixmotor.com.   For the time being, or something like that.  I went to Pixmotor, and there are no ads at all.  Just a search box on the home page.

I asked on their forum, but thought I'd check in here.  Does anyone know anything about this?  Photographers made money off of DLs from the free section based on the ad revenue.  No ads, I presume no revenue.

Any thoughts?

The free section seems to be back.

The payout system is interesting because it is based on the number of dfferent visitors that download your photos as a ratio to the number of different visitors to the free section that day, then that ratio is used against that day's share of the pre-sold monthly advertising income.  So a 31-day month with the same amount of ad sales will have less to pay out per day than  a 30-day month.  And three downloads from the same visitor only get you one visitor credit.

It sort of makes sense.  As a come-on for new buyers, the number of new buyers counts.  And advertisers are interested in the number of visitors, not the number of downloads.

I presume that was sarcasm.  I have no insight,  With insight I would be able to figure out my rejection e-mails.  And I'd have more than two sales.

I found this info on a post in the forums.  Someone asked, an aswer was given, and then the transfer notice was dropped in the middle of the answer.  A bit strange, I thought.

At least the payment strategy for free images makes sense to me.  Unlike some things on the microstock sites.