Boo!
Today, Play Illustration launched it's website, which is unfortunately just another online mishmash of jumbled confusion that allegedly does good things for folks like me. What I got is basically an unfindable page among hundreds of others that I can't control, can't make the way I want, can't actually run the games I'm designing on, and basically just sucks large. Reality check: I know I can't draw that good but in the big scheme of things I can at least entertain folks for a spell
The first on the scene with online illustrator promoting, as far as I recall was theispot.com, from the amazing Gerald Rapp. I like Gerald - I'm down with the guy because he's cool and I dig him, but when he showed me theispot.com I said "This is lame" - "it's a jumbled ball of confusion" and I thought to myself those many years ago, that there has to be a better way for illustrators to get a message out online in a way that doesn't suck. Lots of time has passed and theispot still seems to be the standard - Click a whole bunch of check boxes, like humor, animals, children, and you get a few hundred talents to browse through. Not only do these various online talent systems seem screwed up, they ain't cheap either. They're making serious dollars and what do they deliver? I'm not sure...
I tried out portfolios.com (sexy animated chick on the homepage probably got me...) - but it delivers zero traffic to my site - the search at portfolios.com is the same as Gerald Rapp created at theispot in the late 90's - click a bunch of boxes and get several hundred results to browse through.
I have a feeling it doesn't have to be this way, but I'll also admit that I'm not sure what the best answer is yet. One online high note is the amazing blog at drawn.ca - comes up at number five in a Google for Illustration search and maybe there's an answer there... somewhere.. . . . .