Online Equals Endless Creative Opportunities.

Ummm… wow. My guest posters are seriously putting me to shame. Enter Pip Jamieson – one of the founders of the huuuuuuugely succesful online portfolio site The Loop.You may remember Pip from an interview I did with her in the early days of yellowtrace. By the way, The Loop recently won ‘Best Enterprise’ at the AIMIA Awards (which is a really, really big deal). Congrats guys, and thank you Pip for this incredibly generous and useful post. – x dana

In 2009 my business partner and I quit our dream jobs at MTV and sunk our life savings into creating The Loop, a career networking and folio-building site for creative professionals. We wanted to create a space where creatives, including designers, artists, animators, architects, illustrators, stylists, photographers, writers, producers and more could not only promote themselves online, but also connect with that perfect collaborator, client or job.

We never believed in our wildest dreams that it would take off so quickly. Our community now numbers of 11,000, with amazing local and international companies such as Frost*, Three Drunk Monkeys, Toko, Animal Logic, SBS, Sydney Opera House, Pacific Magazines, Frankie Magazine and more using the site to find talent. The most magic part is that around 30% of the positions filled through The Loop never get advertised anywhere else, and we still get goose bumps every time we help someone connect with that dream collaborator, employer or client.

However, The Loop is just one of the increasingly diverse range of tools springing up online that creative’s can leverage to further their careers. While the discussion is often centered on which are the best sites, I think this is the wrong way to approach online engagement, as no one model fits all. Instead, I think it’s more important to build a presence across multiple platforms, where the business models, and values, of which are most closely alighted with you own.

So, with new sites springing up all the time, how do you identify which platforms are right for you?

To this end, below is a snapshot of what online tools are currently available to help you find work, make money, publish work, promote yourselves and network. This is by no means an exhaustive list of all sites, but more of an overview of opportunities.

+ FINDING WORK.

When it comes to places that creative can find work, we’ll start with the most obvious – jobs sites. Nothing new here, they’ve been around for over 10years. Seek is still the juggernaut of in the pack, bur there are more and more creative and media websites posting jobs, like Australian INfront.

Finding work on jobs boards is invariably hit and miss. Many of the sexist creative positions just never get advertised, as companies tend to be inundated with irrelevant CVs – so word of mouth still dominates as the key way to source talent.

There are also a number of freelance jobs sites spring up like Elance, Freelancer and oDesk. The models vary from site to site, but generally the way they work is that companies advertise individual projects on the site, such as designing a logo. Freelancers then pitch for that works and are hired on how competitively their services are priced, experience and previous recommendations. The great thing about these sites is that they are opening up a whole wealth of opportunities for freelancers. The downside is there is a lot of competition from developing nations, which puts downward pressure on wages, and often the quality of work can be a bit sub standard.

Finally, if you are looking for find freelance work , there are crowdsourcing competitions platforms such as Australia-based 99designs and DesignCrowd, as well as the US-based site crowdSPRING. These sites are similar to freelance sites in that companies post projects that freelancers apply for. The difference, however, is that they must pitch by submitting work.

The jury is our on these kinds of sites. There’s an argument that they’re a great way for freelancers to build up a portfolio and companies to crowd source ideas cheaply, without using an agency or hanging their hat on just on designer. On the other hand, the traditional industry is opposed to crowdsourcing, as in essence it is asking people to free pitch, and there is a huge amount of wasted resources (as the vast majority of work produced never gets used or paid for). For example, crowdSPRING says that for every project that gets posted to the site, it gets an average of 110 submissions of work.

Having said that, Australia-based DesignCrowd has tried to address this issue by remunerating some of the designers that submit work, irrespective or whether they win the project or not. The remuneration is only a very small percentage of the overall project, so whether it will continue to incentive talented creative’s to pitch remains to be seen.

+ MAKING MONEY.

A number of online tools have been developed to help creative’s distribute, sell and license their work, the most famous of which are Getty Images and RedBubble.

Getty was one of the first companies to bring photo stock photography into the digital age. It started as a portal whereby Getty would invite photographers to submit wok to the site. Companies could then browse photos and license that work for everything from print ads to editorial content to website imagery. Getty (and other similar sites such as iStockphoto, Shutterstock and loads more) has also started moving into licensing of other forms of content, such as video footage and music etc.

RedBubble also helps creatives monetize their work. The model is slightly different to Getty in that creative’s can post their designers online and sell those designs as framed prints, posters, canvas prints, t-shirts, greetings cars or a whole host of other products. In essence, it takes the hassle our of production and distribution, as creatives only need to uploads a digital version of their designs and RedBubble does the rest.

Another fantastic way to raise money is by using a host of emerging crowd funding websites that have been developed to help creatives raise capital to fund projects. Personally, I think this is a really exciting area online and there are more and more of these sites springing up all the time.

Examples of theses sites include Kickstarter and the Australian-based Pozible. These sites help artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, designers and other creatives raise money to finance their ideas and projects. So, for example, if you want to fund an art exhibition concept, you can post your idea to the community. Then, if anyone likes that idea, they can support it by pledging money to that project. In return for support, the project creator will offer rewards depending on the level of funding (e.g. tickers to the launch event), essentially differentiating the system from the normal funding process.

Another one worth mentioning is FahionStake, which helps emerging fashion designers raise money for their upcoming collections but allowing people to pre-order and purchase yet-to-be-made items.

+ PUBLISHING.

There are a whole host of free and paid sites that creatives can use to publish their work and promote themselves. These, of course, include content publishing sites such as Vimeo, YouTube and Flickr, which allow users to post video and/or images online for free with minimal hassle. There are also blogging sites like Blogger, WordPress and, probably, the most famous of all, micro blogging site Twitter. There are all excellent self-promotions tools.

Finally, you no longer have to be web savvy to create a kickass website. And personally I think, unless you desperately want to learn web programming, it’s a complete waste of time to build your own website from scratch. There are hundreds of great website templates sites out there; just do a Google search. But my favorite of all is Cargo Collective. This is a gorgeous web-building tool, specifically designed with the creative in mind. The fist 12 projects are uploaded for nothing, after which users pay a monthly fee.

+ NETWORKING & COLLABORATION.

As we all know, networking is a crucial part of any creative’s career and online is reinvention the process. I’m still a massive proponent of networking face to face, but virtual networking makes it easier to connect the dots.

The obvious place to start is the social networks like Facebook; however, using social platforms to promote your self professionally isn’t necessarily the best career move. You don’t want potential employers or clients knowing your every move and seeing your drunken shots from the weekend – I know I wouldn’t. There are also professional networking sites like LinkedIn, which are geniuses at connecting people but, in my opinion, dull as dishwater.

Finally, there are online folio sites, some free, some paid, which are specifically designed with the creative in mind. Worth a mention are US-based Behance, Carobonmade and (of course) The Loop. All are amazing hubs for inspiration and networking. I really recommend getting you work onto a number of folio sites, as even through local opportunities on the international sites are rare, they’ll help drive traffic to your other online platforms and you never know where your next creative opportunity may come from.

What I find most exciting about the wealth of online platforms now available is that they are giving creative practitioners a global stage on which to promote their work, network, attract clients and employers like never before. The flow-on effect is that more creative opportunities are simply a click away. So, if you’re looking for that next career move, get amongst it.

+ RECOMMENDED SITES.

BEST FOR FINDING WORK
The Loop – full-time and freelance jobs
Austrlian INfront– full time and freelance jobs
Freelancer – freelance jobs
Design Crowd – project work

BEST FOR MAKING MONEY
Getty Images – content marketplace
ReBubble – content marketplace
Kickstarter – crowd funding
Pozible – crowd funding
Fashion Stake– crowd funding

PROMOTING TOURSELF AND NETWORKING
The Loop – Australian portfolio site
LinkedIn – professional networking
Behnace – US portfolio site
Carbonmade – US portfolio site

[Image credits // Top three images © Steve Rura – New York based graphics designer and art director. Bottom image by yellowtrace.]