Luc Latulippe

If you know me, you know I think one of the biggest rip-offs in our field is that of paid online portfolios. You may have read my past posts about theispot. Well, here comes another.

Let me share an email I just wrote to the people who run Folioplanet. It’s in response to a promotional mailing they sent out to illustrators listed on their site (I have a free “link listing” there, not a portfolio), offering a test drive of their $449/year portfolio service. The offer is $99 for 3 months, with an option to pay $100/quarter after that if you like it. Thus, $399 at the end of the year. Considering they’re in the business of selling basically nothing, the 9% savings means nothing too.

Here’s what I had to say.

FolioPlanet people:

Shame on you. Your message below just makes me furious.

The first time I can remember ever receiving an email from you guys, and it’s to ask me to spend $400 during the worst recession we’ve had in over a hundred years?? Seriously? THIS is your plan for weathering the economic storm ahead?? Asking dirt-poor illustrators—who barely worked last year and can’t make their rent—to cough up $400 so you guys can stay afloat?

That’s like me taking money away from a pan-handler so I can go buy myself a Frappucino, because I can’t quite afford it myself right now but that handful of loose change is just what I need! I believe the expression is “What the fuck?”

Your current business model may have been “cutting edge” 15 years ago, but you’ve done squat to keep current so you’re already an internet dinosaur. Your website uses antiquated, unvalidated HTML code, offers no RSS feeds, leverages absolutely nothing in terms of advanced web technologies, nothing to even give me the impression you WANT this business to work for us, and yet you have the nerve to come to us NOW asking money!? Again: “What the fuck?”

Your single revenue stream is a closed loop, wherein YOU are the only winner. You sell an annual invisible promise to illustrators of “maybe getting some work.” These illustrators——your only customers——then sit around waiting for magical jobs, which may or may not ever come. Usually, they don’t. The following year, they decide to buy another invisible promise. Rinse, lather, repeat. We lose, you win. WE PAY TO KEEP YOU GUYS IN BUSINESS, SO THAT YOU CAN CONTINUE SELLING US ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Do you even make efforts to attract art buyers to the site? None of my clients even know you exist. Do you do anything at all to make their experience on your site meaningful? Enjoyable? Profitable?

Others have already figured out how to do what you’re doing, but better, and for free. They leverage revenue generated by targeted ads to cover their operating costs and offer free portfolios with amazing upload tools. Most also integrate job listings, which also generates revenue, again helping defer the costs of free portfolios. They make the effort to bring all the right people together——creators, buyers, and advertisers——and gives all of them a good reason to participate.
- http://krop.com/creativedatabase/ *
- http://behance.net/
- http://coroflot.com/

Please feel free to delete my listing from site. I would do it myself, but you don’t offer even that simplest of capabilities from your web panel.

Good luck this year.

Luc Latulippe

I know I’m being harsh, but I think they opened themselves up to critical public scrutiny the moment they sent this email. Consider the whole situation:

• they’re asking for money from illustrators who haven’t seen a decent job in over a year, during a recession so severe millions of Americans are losing their homes as you read this;
• they can’t provide the least bit of a guarantee or proof that this is money well-spent;
• they haven’t updated their site in years, yet are offering the same old product at essentially the same old price.

As always, I welcome your comments, arguments, and rebuttals.

* I’ve since signed up with Krop, Coroflot, and Behance out of curiosity (see the links in the footer, under “Here Too”). I’ll reserve judgement for now till things develop there.