Community Guidelines

Behance site

Ok, today I spent some time looking at sites to promote my work.  I have been bookmarking sites along the way so I had a good start.  I looked into Flickr and got pretty excited about the layout and display of images.  I had seen another artist's page on Flickr and loved how his imagery was all displayed in a common place.  I wanted this for me.  Next step, set up an account and start propagating the site with all my stellar imagery.  After about  two hours of looking around, uploading, training myself and browsing around I began to question my decision.  It didn't feel right. 

No one in my household knew anything about Flickr I was on my own.  My wife asked why I would want everyone to have access to my images.  I couldn't answer her concerns.  After digging a bit deeper I found the link to their COMMUNITY GUIDELINES.  Turns out Flickr is not a site for self promotion and illustrative luster.  It's not a site for self promotion unless you are a photographer. Flickr is a site to share and exchange photographic imagery with a global community with a stealthy approach to promotion.  Flickr does not want your animation or illustration.  They just want images you have taken, have ownership to and want to share with the world.  Why you would want to share actual images with the world, I will never know.  

If only I had written this blog before wasting all of that time! I would actualy be ahead right now.  Hindsight truly is 20/20.   Lesson learned. Google your site guidelines  AND read them before looking at the site and getting inspired.

Did I learn anything from this lesson in promotion 101?  Sort of.  My next stop was Behance. Jack Pot!  Behance is a site dedicated soley to creative artists like you and me.  A site for showing the world what you do and how you do it.  Art directors yes.  Creative directors yes.  Photographers I guess they can be included as well.  Even illustrators like us can upload work and have it displayed to the global, creative community.  Sign me up!

Bottom line is:  know what you are signing up for before you get overly involved and entrenched in the process.  Just because someone else is showing work on a site does not mean he or she has read the COMMUNITY GUIDELINES.

Be safe, create daily and be attuned to change.