I was a contributor for Freepik for about 3 or 4 months until my account got blocked for copyright infringement. In fact I was sad for a bit to lose my $50.00 that I earned from my months of hard work and to be strike down from having only 1 image looking very similar to another vector on a different website. They provided proof and I accepted the consequences of my actions. It was my fault for gathering inspiration from another place. I incorporated an stylish frame I really liked, and then I added my own flowers that I created myself. Big mistake. I'm totally aware of what I've done. :/
At first, I was going to go quiet. I was going to leave it there and not say a word, but then I realized that I had to get some things off my chest because my experience on Freepik drained me of my energy, motivation, and time. And it was them closing me down, that I realized that I only limited my art abilities just to fit towards their standards of what good vector art is. I will now proceed with the pros and cons for this website.
Pros
-Get paid for your vectors
-Big audience
-Fast communication
-$50 referral program
Cons
-Strict Standards for Submissions
-$0.11 per download
-Customers have to be a subscriber to download your content (means less downloads)
-Overly saturated with other designs
-Photos get less downloads than vectors
-Wait two months to get paid after meeting payment threshold
-24% withholding tax fee
-Art gets reviewed in 1 business day, but wont be on website for 20 days
-Any money you make is at risk (of course)
-Any artwork that doesn't trend immediately, expect $1.00 or less for hours of hard work.
-Auto Trace/Image Trace is tricky
-Similar submissions are sketchy
We can end it like this, but I wanted to explain the cons.
1.Strict Standards for Submissions- I felt as they any art that I created was good quality and was acceptable for the website, but I was sadly mistaken. They are pretty strict when it comes to composition, anesthetic, and so much more. If you upload, you will see what I mean.
2.$0.11 per download- It's much more than some other websites, but it's still pretty low. Imagine taking hours of time to create something really nice, only to get $0.55 for your work.
Premium vs Free- You don't get the option to be a "free" contributor. I notice all the free vectors got tons of downloads, but the premium wasn't guaranteed that much.
3.Overly saturated- Expect your art to be drowned out by other designs. Use your tags wisely.
4.Photos vs Vectors- The proof is on the website. Vectors are more needed than photos. You will waste a lot of time.
5.Payments- After you earn $50 for payoneer or $100 for paypal, you have to wait another 2 months to get paid.
6. Withholding tax- If you don't provide proof of a certain form on their website, they will take 24% withholding fee automatically out of each paycheck.
7. Art Process- You will get approved or rejected for each vector in 1 day, but you have to wait another 20 days to have your art processed onto you profile.
8. Rules- If you break the rules, even if it was extremely small, you will lose EVERYTHING.
9. Trends- It's hard to trend honestly. I had one image that successfully made me $14.00. A couple other images made close to $5.00. The rest of them were a $1.00 or under.
10. Auto-Trace/Image Trace - They have many articles about auto-tracing and accepting watercolor art. Never got accepted. Auto-trace is not favored, but they create tutorials and articles like it is.
11. Similar Submissions- I seen many artists reuse different art elements multiple times. Even though what I created was different from each other, my art was still not accepted.
Conclusion- Freepik just wasn't for me. I tried to stick it through a little longer just to see if things will be a lot better, but no such luck. Turns out I'm kicked off forever now which does benefit me to search for better opportunities. If anyone wants to try being a Freepik contributor, give it a shot. Everyone's experience will be different.
Trending Tips- These are the topics I found that trend pretty well.
-Kawaii Animals & Objects
-Floral Animals
-Watercolor Flowers
-Hand-drawn Flower Elements
-Goodbye and so long Freepik.
At first, I was going to go quiet. I was going to leave it there and not say a word, but then I realized that I had to get some things off my chest because my experience on Freepik drained me of my energy, motivation, and time. And it was them closing me down, that I realized that I only limited my art abilities just to fit towards their standards of what good vector art is. I will now proceed with the pros and cons for this website.
Pros
-Get paid for your vectors
-Big audience
-Fast communication
-$50 referral program
Cons
-Strict Standards for Submissions
-$0.11 per download
-Customers have to be a subscriber to download your content (means less downloads)
-Overly saturated with other designs
-Photos get less downloads than vectors
-Wait two months to get paid after meeting payment threshold
-24% withholding tax fee
-Art gets reviewed in 1 business day, but wont be on website for 20 days
-Any money you make is at risk (of course)
-Any artwork that doesn't trend immediately, expect $1.00 or less for hours of hard work.
-Auto Trace/Image Trace is tricky
-Similar submissions are sketchy
We can end it like this, but I wanted to explain the cons.
1.Strict Standards for Submissions- I felt as they any art that I created was good quality and was acceptable for the website, but I was sadly mistaken. They are pretty strict when it comes to composition, anesthetic, and so much more. If you upload, you will see what I mean.
2.$0.11 per download- It's much more than some other websites, but it's still pretty low. Imagine taking hours of time to create something really nice, only to get $0.55 for your work.
Premium vs Free- You don't get the option to be a "free" contributor. I notice all the free vectors got tons of downloads, but the premium wasn't guaranteed that much.
3.Overly saturated- Expect your art to be drowned out by other designs. Use your tags wisely.
4.Photos vs Vectors- The proof is on the website. Vectors are more needed than photos. You will waste a lot of time.
5.Payments- After you earn $50 for payoneer or $100 for paypal, you have to wait another 2 months to get paid.
6. Withholding tax- If you don't provide proof of a certain form on their website, they will take 24% withholding fee automatically out of each paycheck.
7. Art Process- You will get approved or rejected for each vector in 1 day, but you have to wait another 20 days to have your art processed onto you profile.
8. Rules- If you break the rules, even if it was extremely small, you will lose EVERYTHING.
9. Trends- It's hard to trend honestly. I had one image that successfully made me $14.00. A couple other images made close to $5.00. The rest of them were a $1.00 or under.
10. Auto-Trace/Image Trace - They have many articles about auto-tracing and accepting watercolor art. Never got accepted. Auto-trace is not favored, but they create tutorials and articles like it is.
11. Similar Submissions- I seen many artists reuse different art elements multiple times. Even though what I created was different from each other, my art was still not accepted.
Conclusion- Freepik just wasn't for me. I tried to stick it through a little longer just to see if things will be a lot better, but no such luck. Turns out I'm kicked off forever now which does benefit me to search for better opportunities. If anyone wants to try being a Freepik contributor, give it a shot. Everyone's experience will be different.
Trending Tips- These are the topics I found that trend pretty well.
-Kawaii Animals & Objects
-Floral Animals
-Watercolor Flowers
-Hand-drawn Flower Elements
-Goodbye and so long Freepik.