Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Fotolia.com Review

As a blogger, I often look for new ways to make my blog stand out a little. I have to admit, I like the simple approach as a woman who will be 29 this year.

I was recently contacted by a representative at Fotolia.com who offered me a chance to use the website for free for a month. After checking the website out, I happily agreed to do so.

If you are unfamiliar with Fotolia.com, let me tell you about it!

Fotolia.com is a stock photography site. Unlike other stock photography sites, this site offers more than photographs. In addition to high resolution photographs, Fotolia.com offers, Illustrations, Vectors, and Video.

My favorite would have to be the illustrations & vectors. As I do my own photography, I am really LOVING the variety of illustrations and vectors, Fotolia.com has to offer its users! For instance, if you go to the site and type in the search bar, "cupcake" and click on "illustration and vectors", you will see THOUSANDS of beautiful high resolution images for download!

Do you like my new blog logo? (The girl)? I downloaded her as part of my free trial courtesy of Fotolia.com! :)

Fotolia offers images at rates ranging from .75 for a small image, up to $8 for an XXL (up to 15 MP image) for a single download.

I know, some people may think $8 is a lot of money, but let me remind you that, a photographer would charge WAY more for you to have a full resolution downloadable image royalty free. (I have seen photographers charge in excess of $150 for one single image).

If you are some one who needs access to multiple images, you would benefit from a subscription plan to Fotolia. You will pay a subscription fee, and pay as low as .14 cents per download. Amazing - right?

Who would a subscription plan benefit?

I can give you a really good example. When I worked in a realty office for many years, our office could have really used a site like Fotolia.com for our business. We would hire photographers all the time for use of their images on our marketing tools and campaigns. We also would order clip art that wasn't always a high resolution from online dealers for a lot more money than what Fotolia.com charges.

I sure wish this site was around when I was still working in real estate marketing - it would have saved me TIME by not having to find people for their photography services, TIME not having to scour the internet for the latest clip art Cd's, that were almost always disappointing and LOTS OF MONEY!

Fotolia.com would be an asset to ANY business (big or small) in marketing, for the use of images in flyers, websites, brochures, company letters, thank you cards, etc. The limitations are ENDLESS!

As per someone like me; the common blogger, and photographer, this website will benefit me when it comes time for doing holiday specific blogs, or fun creative blogging. The subscription services for me would not work, as I would not use as many images, but I would gladly pay $8 for a high resolution image when needed from this site!

Still not convinced on stock photography? Head on over to Fotolia.com and take a peak for yourself!

Need a little more push? HOW ABOUT A FREE 2 WEEK SUBSCRIPTION?!

YES, you heard me correctly, A FREE 2 WEEK SUBSCRIPTION TO FOTOLIA.COM!
Jenna over at Fotolia.com has GENEROUSLY provided me with THREE access codes for THREE of my lucky readers to check the site out for yourselves **FREE**!

Your free two week subscription includes up to THREE image downloads per day! Send me an email to girlxmom@yahoo.com with the subject titled "I want a free subscription". I will email the codes out to the first 3 readers who respond.

I PROMISE, you will be just as pleased with the site as I am.

Over all, I would have to say of the 2 other stock photo companies I have used in the past, Fotolia.com has a much wider selection to chose from, way better quality, pricing and a user friendly website. Check them out today, whether you are a fellow blogger, small or large business owner, or someone who would just love a nice image for your own personal use, it's WORTH the look!

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