You might or might not notice, but I’m removing all IK links from zentao.com, nakedgenius.com, zentao7.com, dlkeur.com, jam session, and some fifteen other websites where I have them loaded.   I’ve also pulled all my references to them in my paid advertising.

Why?

Because I can’t sanction them in good conscience until and unless they get their issues resolved.

What issues?  Read on.

Because I got lambasted by their failure, my customers suffered…and me too.  And IK didn’t even bother to offer to help me out of the fix.

Because there is a complete lack of regard for client satisfaction, because their website is broken and remains unfixed, because some very suspicious preferential treatment is going on over there which I’ve known about for some time.  And it is only getting worse.  Added to that, they blame other’s websites for issues that are theirs.  And they have refused to fix their very broken website, offering fluff-bunny excuses and begging for patience.  Well, I’ve been patient since May.  It is now mid-October, and still nothing has been fixed.  In fact, we have LESS usability than we had when I signed up in, what was it, February or April, somewhere like that?  Shareasale, the affiliate program, isn’t reporting hits accurately, ImageKind isn’t reporting hits correctly either.  So…until and unless it gets repaired, I’ll use them for their services, but I cannot recommend them as a valid and viable marketplace for artists. 

ImageKind is superior at printing, matting, framing, shipping, and have an excellent returns policy, but only if your art buyer can get to your art, isn’t diverted, doesn’t have their browser stall by IK’s sluggish server, and they can figure out the shopping cart.  In short, IK’s web application sucks.  And their editorial policies concerning whose art gets good billing is less than optimal — very much an “in-house” clique.  It’s a young company, so…maybe next year I can legitimately say, yes, IK is now a top notch place to have your art on display.  But not yet.

 So who will I recommend?  I recommend lulu.com for books and zazzle.com for calendars and redbubble for prints, t-shirts, and cards.  And if you want an excellent, excellent interface and wonderful interaction between artists world-wide, RedBubble.com is The Place.  Oh, yes, there’s still some politics, but not the extreme politicizing of who gets promoted you find on IK.  And as far as I can see, there aren’t a whole bunch of DMC brown-nosers and clappy-hand fluff-bunnies handing out rah-rah BS.  So, come on over to redbubble.  It’s FREE and has UNLIMITED UPLOADS.