I must admit that at times I am shocked that Fotolia manages to stay on the top of the ranking charts on this site. I have so many struggle with them that I have almost quit many many many times.
Having said that however, I am also suprised they don't get more mention when it comes to sheer size. People always think of Dreamstime and Shutterstock when mentioning large agencies, but from what their site says, Fotolia is over 3 million images. Is this good or bad for photogs?
I used to think that the 1 million benckmark would kill us all, then I got on Alamy today and realized that they have 5 million images. I suppose there is still room to grow.
It has long been my opinion that it is the fringe images that will make or break a stock image agency. Woman with cell phone is easy to find, but "purple flower in vase with red marbles" is the one the someone is looking for. I wouldn't be to scared of Fotolia's 3 million images, just don't shoot things the same way as they did. Its hard to be unique, but we must if we are going to survive.