I checked out the iSpot today as I've been exploring more options for promotion. Has anyone used this? It's 750 dollars to put your work up there! Wow. Would love to hear your opinions.
The talk I hear is that childrensillustration.com offers the best results for the money. It's only $200 a year or something. I've heard several illos say that the childrensillustration.com site had better results than iSpot.
Lots of fun art on your blog... such a busy blogger!
I'm lost in limbo... someday I'll get my head above water.
Hi Paige- I've had my map work with them for years and have generally felt that it was worth it, although some years have been better than others. At least it's less expensive than a directory page. (They have a discount for SCBWI members, too.) But that said, I question every year whether to renew. It's so much trial and error figuring out which kind of promotion works best! Don't know if this was helpful at all...
I agree with John that childrensillustrators.com is the best money spent, at least for me thus far but it has slowed down a bit recently. I have gotten more work from childrensillustrators.com than from theispot in the past. Really until just recently, I haven't gotten much from theispot but maybe with their recent website redesign and new promotion going on it will be a different story. I did just get a decent job through theispot from Scholastic just days after theispot's new web design and promo started and I've noticed an increase in hits from them on my website stats as well.
Really, it just depends on the artist. I do think that the web is getting a lot more business from art buyers these days than before. I haven't had any luck with Picturebook, the sourcebook at all so I wonder if maybe art buyers are using the actual books a lot less than before the web portfolios came about.
John, Phyllis and Jennifer: thank you, thank you, thank you for your input on this! I think I will just stick with childrensillustrators.com for now. I've been with them since they started and this last year, I received several assignments through them. Two hundred dollars seems less of a gamble for me I guess. The thought of losing 750, however, leaves sweat on my brow.
Another way to approach it is if you have work to promote to different markets. Let's say you do editorial work along side your work for the children's illustration market. You could promote that more heavily on ispot then while you have the kid art on the childrensillustrators site. That might not be of interest to you, though, as I don't usually see (or hear) you desire to do editorial work. Not sure that helps, but it's food for thought. : )
5 comments:
Hi Paige,
The talk I hear is that childrensillustration.com offers the best results for the money. It's only $200 a year or something. I've heard several illos say that the childrensillustration.com site had better results than iSpot.
Lots of fun art on your blog... such a busy blogger!
I'm lost in limbo... someday I'll get my head above water.
:0)
Hi Paige- I've had my map work with them for years and have generally felt that it was worth it, although some years have been better than others. At least it's less expensive than a directory page. (They have a discount for SCBWI members, too.) But that said, I question every year whether to renew. It's so much trial and error figuring out which kind of promotion works best! Don't know if this was helpful at all...
I enjoy your work!
I agree with John that childrensillustrators.com is the best money spent, at least for me thus far but it has slowed down a bit recently. I have gotten more work from childrensillustrators.com than from theispot in the past. Really until just recently, I haven't gotten much from theispot but maybe with their recent website redesign and new promotion going on it will be a different story. I did just get a decent job through theispot from Scholastic just days after theispot's new web design and promo started and I've noticed an increase in hits from them on my website stats as well.
Really, it just depends on the artist. I do think that the web is getting a lot more business from art buyers these days than before. I haven't had any luck with Picturebook, the sourcebook at all so I wonder if maybe art buyers are using the actual books a lot less than before the web portfolios came about.
John, Phyllis and Jennifer: thank you, thank you, thank you for your input on this! I think I will just stick with childrensillustrators.com for now. I've been with them since they started and this last year, I received several assignments through them. Two hundred dollars seems less of a gamble for me I guess. The thought of losing 750, however, leaves sweat on my brow.
Another way to approach it is if you have work to promote to different markets. Let's say you do editorial work along side your work for the children's illustration market. You could promote that more heavily on ispot then while you have the kid art on the childrensillustrators site. That might not be of interest to you, though, as I don't usually see (or hear) you desire to do editorial work. Not sure that helps, but it's food for thought. : )
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