About microstock» fotolia

Become a video producer with Flixtime

Elnur — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:39:27 +0000

Fotolia CEO Oleg Tscheltzoff continues with his web projects, and this time it is Flixtime.com – “a free site where users create custom, production-quality videos”. Here is an article from Fotolia Blog.

Flixtime: Transforming web users into video producers

Flixtime debuts a free site where users create custom, production-quality videos. Anyone with images, videos, and text can use Flixtime’s software to create, share, and download free 60-second videos on www.flixtime.com. Nearly two years in the making, Flixtime launched worldwide February 22, 2010.

Users create high-resolution videos on www.flixtime.com using their own photos and videos, or by choosing from a library of royalty-free images provided by Fotolia. AudioMicro also provides users with a selection of award-winning tracks, sound effects, and stock music. Flixtime videos are easy to produce with state-of-the-art technology that integrates the user’s choice of music, text, images, and videos. All Flixtime video productions can be used both for personal or independent commercial use.

“We have been getting more and more demand from users who want a tool that easily creates stunning videos by using images and text. Companies from all over the world have video needs, whether for websites, projects, or presentations. Until now, production costs were very high,” says Fotolia and Flixtime CEO Oleg Tscheltzoff. “Just like we democratized stock images on Fotolia by offering images for under $1 USD, we have made videos accessible and affordable to countless companies. Instead of investing tons of money in equipment, talent, and a location to produce videos, our users can simply use their content, or the images and music provided by Flixtime, to create the videos they envision.”

Visitors to www.flixtime.com create a free account and then follow three simple steps to create custom videos.

Ryan Born, CEO of AudioMicro says, “We are very pleased to partner with Flixtime to provide the music for such an amazing technology. With just one click, Flixtime users can bring energy and emotion to their videos by adding music. We’ve supplied a handpicked selection, spanning nearly every musical genre and style. With tracks for everyone, Flixtime users are sure to have the perfect soundtrack and take their videos to the next level.”

About Fotolia
Over 1.5 million people prefer Fotolia, LLC for affordable, royalty-free images, graphics and HD videos. With the introduction of the Infinite Collection, Fotolia became the first worldwide microstock organization to offer both crowd-sourced and professional images on one site. Founded in New York City in 2004, Fotolia spans the globe with websites in 10 languages and offices in 12 countries. With over 8,000,000 images to choose from, find it on Fotolia. www.fotolia.com

About AudioMicro
AudioMicro offers advertisers, music supervisors, creative directors, webmasters, filmmakers, and “YouTubers” an affordable, high-quality solution for obtaining stock music and royalty free sound effects for use in creative projects. With content purchased from AudioMicro, a movie or webisode can be scored at a fraction of the cost of a traditional music library. AudioMicro offers the largest micro stock music library, with over 200,000 tracks from songwriters, publishers, composers, record labels, and sound designers worldwide.
www.audiomicro.com
Media Contacts:
Jennifer Laraway
Director of Communications, North America
Fotolia, LLC
Direct: 1.403.708.9398
jennifer@fotolia.com
www.fotolia.com
Twitter: fotoliaUSA

Paige Schoknecht
Prequent, Inc. (for AudioMicro, Inc.)
Phone: 1.408.275.1419
paige@prequent.com
www.audiomicro.com
Twitter: audiomicro

Fotolia WordPress plug-in

Elnur — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:27:13 +0000

From Fotolia blog

NEW YORK, NY, February 2, 2010 – Microstock entrepreneurs Lee Torrens and Amos Struck, teamed up to launch the Microstock Photo Plugin for WordPress. Based on Fotolia’s most powerful API, bloggers can now instantly search from 8-million royalty-free images on Fotolia and add them to their posts without leaving WordPress. What’s even better is that the application suggests photos based on blog tags. All bloggers have to do is select the image they want and it’s automatically inserted into the post.

“Thanks to our powerful and unique API, the Microstock photo plug-in not only offers bloggers a fast and easy way to integrate attractive images at unbeatable prices, but users also have the opportunity to make money by using Fotolia images through affiliation options,“ says Garth Johnson, Executive Vice President for Fotolia, North America.

Writers can use the images for as long as they need to because when they purchase images, for as low as $1, from Fotolia, it includes a standard-use license. Plus, if bloggers enable Fotolia’s Affiliate Program, they earn Fotolia credits every time someone follows their image link, creates a Fotolia account, and downloads an image. The commissions are instant and can be used to download more images or can be converted to a cash payout after 50 or more credits are earned. For more information on Fotolia’s Affiliation Program, visit: http://www.fotolia.com/Info/Affiliation

To get started with the new WordPress plug-in, visit www.microstockplugin.com to download and install. Follow the Fotolia link to sign-up for a free Fotolia membership. Once a Fotolia account is created, set-up the login and password in the configuration in order to be able to buy and download photos using the Fotolia account. Then, activate the Affiliate Program with a click in the plug-in to earn commissions. Blogging and revenue share just got even easier.

Over 1.5 million people prefer Fotolia, LLC for affordable, royalty-free photos, vectors, and HD videos. With the introduction of the Infinite Collection, Fotolia became the first worldwide microstock organization to offer both crowd-sourced and professional images on one site. Founded in New York City in 2004, Fotolia spans the globe with websites in 10 languages and offices in 12 countries. With over 8,000,000 images to choose from, find it on Fotolia. www.fotolia.com

Media Contact:
Jennifer Laraway
Director of Communications, North America
Fotolia, LLC
Direct: 1.403.708.9398
jennifer@fotolia.com
www.fotolia.com

Fotolia growth in 2009

Elnur — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:00:36 +0000

I was going through my old emails (well.. this is 17 Dec), and came across Fotolia newsletter which shares interesting stats from Fotolia. In fact, in 2009 when most businesses were trying to survive the recession, Fotolia demonstrated impressive growth. Just look at these numbers:

New Buyers +48%

Credit Purchases +53%

Contributor Earnings +54%

Fotolia was very aggressive with their marketing in 2009 (tradeshows, magazine ads, promotions, etc), and it is great to see that it is bearing fruit. My personal earnings growth was slightly lower than Fotolia – around 32%. I actually feel that this is still a good result – number of contributors increase and competition is tougher, and growing in these conditions is not easy.

From my observations (I follow lots of industry statistics and news) Fotolia is taking a strong place behind established industry leaders – iStock and Shutterstock. When I arrived to microstocks 3.5 years ago, Fotolia was very similar to Dreamstime and Stockxpert, but now it is clearly ahead of them. In fact, for many top contributors, Fotolia is actually competing with Shutterstock. This is driven by credit doubling and tripling when climb up the ranking.

See more stats below:

Fotolia’s 2009 Top Sellers

Elnur — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:07:54 +0000

Fotolia posted the top-3 of their bestsellers in 2009. Here is what they have on their blog:

NEW YORK, NY, January 12, 2010 – Sales of $1 images continued to generate six-figure incomes for the world’s top photographers in 2009. The three best selling images on Fotolia.com accounted for nearly 10,000 downloads this past year. Images from the top three sellers range from $1 – $20 per download, depending on the size required.

“The best photographers and artists in the world upload their images to Fotolia because they know we aggressively market to buyers in 12 countries around the world,” says CEO Oleg Tscheltzoff. “Fotolia’s growth has been phenomenal, thanks to the quality and affordability of our stock imagery.”

In alphabetical order, the top three sellers in 2009 on www.fotolia.com were:

Artist: ioannis kounadeas
http://www.fotolia.com/id/10056459

Artist: Monkey Business
http://www.fotolia.com/id/8653783

Artist: pressmaster
http://www.fotolia.com/id/6202659

Source: Fotolia Blog

Fotolia at CAJ Conference

Elnur — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:29:39 +0000

Patrick Lor, president for Fotolia North America will represent Fotolia at the conference on 30 Jan in Toronto organized by Canadian Association of Journalists and the CAJ Education Foundation.

The conference focuses on skills, strategies and tactics that news organizations can start implementing immediately. It will be held on Jan. 30 at the MaRS Centre, a major innovation hub a stone’s throw from Queen’s Park in Toronto.

Other speakers at the conference:

- Jim Brady, president, digital strategy, Allbritton
Communications;former executive editor of WashingtonPost.com
- John Cruickshank, publisher, Toronto Star
- Michael Lee, chief strategy officer, Rogers
- Rachel Nixon, director of digital news, CBC News Online
- Kenny Yum, editor, GlobeandMail.com

source: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2010/05/c6484.html

Editor Comments: It is encouraging to see that Fotolia is keeping active in North America, where Shutterstock and Istockphoto traditionally have dominant market share. And Patrick Lor is just the right person for the task. He is Istockphoto co-founder, who left iStock in 2006 after Getty’s acquisition and joined Fotolia in May 2009. More about Patrick in our “who is who” section.

Fotolia San Francisco Feb 12-13

Elnur — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:25:51 +0000

Fotolia will be holding a conference “Laws of Lifestyle Lighting”, at the Fairmont San Francisco on February 12 and 13, 2010. Here is what they say on their blog:

NEW YORK, NY, January 5, 2010 – Artists with a New Year’s resolution to enhance their photography skills have an opportunity to take part in Fotolia U’s Laws of Lifestyle Lighting, held at the Fairmont San Francisco on February 12 and 13, 2010. Led by Kodak Gallery award-winner Judy Host and Institute of Visual Arts Director Eddie Tapp, this two-day intense photographer boot camp features numerous daily photo shoots, demonstrations, and individual hands-on instruction.

Photographers will apply lifestyle lighting techniques through one-on-one training opportunities. The course also covers creating exceptional lighting, how the camera captures light, the importance of lighting direction, and getting the right exposure and model expression needed for successful microstock photography sales.

Registration is limited to 30 spots and tuition is $499 US, excluding transportation, accommodation, and meals. Special Fairmont rates are available until January 30, 2010 for early registrants through jennifer@fotolia.com. To reserve a spot at the Laws of Lighting seminar, visit http://fotoliau-sf2010.eventbrite.com/

Source: Fotolia Blog

Patrick Lor – Fotolia

Elnur — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:50:35 +0000

Patrick Lor – President Fotolia North America. He is one of the Istockphoto founders, and left iStockphoto after it was sold to Getty Images in 2006. After expiration of non-compete contract with Getty Images, Patrick returned to stock photography by joining Fotolia as President North America in May 2009.

Before co-founding iStockPhoto in 2002, Patrick was a Product Development Manager at
Adobe Systems (Adobe Studios Division).

Relevant Links:

Personal Blog - http://patricklor.typepad.com/

Fotolia Announcement – Fotolia Blog

Ranking – Fotolia (wiki)

Elnur — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:04:46 +0000

Ranking – ranking used by Fotolia to distinguish contributors by their overall sales. It also determines the royalty percentage payable to photographers and starting from Emerald level, image prices.Current (Dec 2009) ranking levels are listed below:

Based on their ranking, photographers are entitled to the following contributors royalties and image prices:

Subscription sales are counted as 0.25 of traditional credit sales, i.e. 4 subscription sales will count as one credit sale towards your ranking.

Currently (Dec 2009) Yuri Arcurs is the only Rubis contributor (above 250000 sales), and Andres Rodriguez is the only Sapphire (above 100000 sales).

Relevance – Fotolia (wiki)

Elnur — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:21:03 +0000

Relevance – way of sorting images in search results at Fotolia. This is default setting (others being Creation Date, Price, Downloads, Popularity). The exact algorithm of how images are ranked in “Relevancy” is unknown.

Most microstocks have their own versions of “Relevance”. See relevant wiki artciles:

Istockphoto – “Best Match”

Shutterstock – “Most popular”

Dreamstime – “Relevancy”

Stockxpert – “Popularity”

Overall rank – Fotolia (wiki)

Elnur — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:54:12 +0000

Overall rank – Fotolia feature which shows your overall ranking against other contributors. There are debates in the microstock community as to what contributes to the rating – downloads or earned revenue.