I was recently given the opportunity to review a stock photography service: Fotolia Microstock – Royalty Free Stock Photos.  I love having the ability to mix things up in my blog posts and articles. So having text, images, and even video in my posts is very important to me.  I have a few services that I have used in the past for royalty free stock photos, and since discovering Fotolia I can definitely say that it is one that will certainly be staying on the top of my list!

Here are 10 great reasons why you’d want to use Fotolia Microstock for your blog and website images:

1. Time Savings
Fotolia services will save you time, as you are much more likely to find what you need quickly. A savings in time translates into saving money.

2. Clear Licensing Agreement
One hazard of being a designer is learning about copyright laws, restrictions and licenses. On the free photo sites, you have to read the fine print for each and every photo you use. Some photographs come with no restrictions, some are only for non-commercial use and some require the name of the photographer. You don’t have to deal with this headache on Fotolia. The licensing agreement will be the same for all photos in the license category you select, which is typically a standard royalty-free license.

3. Availability of Vector Art and Illustrations
Fotolia offers a wide variety of vector art and illustrations. Illustrated graphics can give a course a completely unique look and feel. Vector art refers to graphics that are hand drawn in a tool like Adobe Illustrator. Because they exist as mathematical renderings, they can be expanded to any size and manipulated in a vector graphics program.

4. Compelling Images
You can find photos based on a concept, emotion or theme. You can find images of people doing interesting things and images of simple single objects, images that are immediately ready to use.

5. Guaranteed Model Releases
You need the signed release of a model to use his or her photo. Model releases are guaranteed with a paid service. This is not true on a free site. That’s why I’m careful to use photographs of a person from a free service.

6. More Efficient Search
There’s nothing like typing in the search term ‘money’ and getting back photos of the Eiffel tower. This kind of poor search functionality is common on some free photo sites. On the other hand, efficient search functionality is one of the foundations of Fotolia. Fotolia has staff to tag their photos with keywords, so the results are usually more accurate. The keywords are also translated in many languages.

7. Supports The Arts
The world would only be shades of gray without the Arts. By paying for images, you’re helping photographers and illustrators earn a living. We need them.

8. Reduces Stress
When you can quickly find the graphics you like and need, it reduces your level of stress. And we all need that.

9. EASY to use
Fotolia makes it easy to find the images you want, easy to download those images, and easy to get those images into your posts.  In addition, it’s easy to get the required information to provide proper credit to the photographer.  Other services I have used haven’t been quite as easy to use in this regard.

10.  Fantastic Images
I did multiple searches throughout my review period, and I was always impressed with the beautiful images that came up.  Fotolia provides high quality professional photos that any business or blog would be proud to display in their materials and publications.

Fotolia is the first worldwide social marketplace for royalty free stock images, allowing individuals and professionals to legally buy and share stock images and illustrations. Fotolia offers the largest image bank of free and affordable royalty free photos and illustrations perfect for any medium, web or print.

Photographers and designers constantly update Fotolia with thousands of new photos and illustrations each day, while photographers and designers receive commission from each photo sold and revenue from advertising on the free section. Thanks to a collaborative online model, Fotolia is able to offer individuals and professionals (advertising agencies, press, small business, graphic artists, designers) the greatest image collection in the world for free or as little as $0.75.

For professionals who use stock photography on a daily basis, Fotolia is definitely a service to consider.  For more information visit Fotolia.com today!

Thanks to Fotolia for providing me a one-month subscription in order to review their service! No other compensation was received for this review, and as always the opinions stated are my own.