crowdSPRING

To post a project, simply click on the 'Post a Project’ link at the top of this page.

RSS is a format for publishing frequently updated content. crowdSPRING offers RSS feeds to help you monitor new projects posted on crowdSPRING. Below you'll find links to the RSS feeds on crowdSPRING. You will also find feeds on various pages whenever you see the RSS symbol as you navigate our site.
To view RSS feeds, you'll need an RSS reader. If you don't have one, you can try Google's. In Firefox, you can use the built-in RSS feature called Live Bookmark. On any page, click the RSS icon in the Status Bar and select how you prefer to receive the RSS feed.

You can visit our RSS page to see all of the feeds available to you.

Once a project has been posted, it can’t be canceled or stopped before the end date. We do this so that our Creatives know that, once they invest time and energy into contributing to a project, the project isn’t simply going to disappear. However, at the end of a project, if you have not received at least 25 entries, you can walk with a full refund - no questions asked. Of course, if you find something you like, you’re welcome to stay and buy that entry. It’s entirely up to you.

We take our role in resolving problems very seriously and we'll work hard to solve any issues that come our way. We know that disputes will arise and that's OK - but it's how we all deal with them that shows our true colors. We promise to treat everyone with respect and give them the benefit of the doubt and we ask that you do the same.

To that end, if you find yourself having an issue with another user, please (pretty please) let them know. You'd be surprised how many times just sending them a private message or posting a comment in the discussion section of a project will settle the issue quickly and calmly before anyone gets bent out of shape. Please, please, please try this if you haven't already - calling the 'cops' should always be the last resort.

If you're still unhappy though, we're here to help. Here's how it works:

First, You tell.If you have an issue with another user, see an image that someone has 'borrowed' from someone else, or see something inappropriate on the site - let us know.

Second, We help. We'll get in touch with both users and work to find a solution that everyone's happy with. In cases that require some subjective judgement, we'll also convene the Official crowdSPRING Inter-user Disputing Party Resolution Review Committee (the O.C.I.D.P.R.R.C. for short). This three-person panel will review your case and make a ruling. Sort of like The Hague - only smaller.

Third, Everyone's happy. The Beatles really had it right: life is very short and there is no time for fussing and fighting, my friend. We'll help figure out a solution that everyone can live with and we'll all go on to great things. We truly believe that people are good and we've found that we can almost always find a solution that works for everyone.

And that’s it. We try to keep it as simple as possible for everyone involved. We listen, we get involved when needed, we make judgment calls if necessary and we try hard to leave everyone smiling.

If you have any more questions about this process, don't hesitate to let us know and we'll be happy to talk it over some more if you like.

Don’t worry. If you forget your Username or password we’ll be happy to help you out. Just go to login, type in your email address and we’ll send you a note with everything you need to get back on crowdSPRING and get back to business.

For the moment we offer payment through Paypal. To see the list of countries that accept PayPal, please click this link.

In the near future, we will be adding some other ways for Creatives to be paid:

• Check
• ACH transfer (US and Canada residents only)
• Wire transfer (international residents)

You will be asked for your PayPal account info during project Wrapup and when the project is complete, you will automatically receive payment through PayPal within the next few days.

Unfortunately, once you choose a username, it can’t be changed. Your username is your unique identity and it’s how other users are able to rate you, provide you with feedback and communicate with you. By keeping usernames constant, we’re able to make sure that users can build up their reputation and stay in contact with one another.

To change your email address, simply go to the ‘Profile’ tab within mySPRING and select the ‘Account Info’ link below the tabs.

To change your password, simply go to the ‘Profile’ tab within mySPRING and select the ‘Account Info’ link below the tabs.

To create an account, simply go to the ‘Register’ page, let us know your email address and choose a username and password. That’s it!

To view the entries to your project, simply go to the ‘Gallery’ tab of your project. From there, you can click on any entry to view its details with tools for scoring and commenting.

If you don’t receive at least 25 entries to your project, you can walk with a full refund - no questions asked. Of course, if you find something you like, you’re welcome to stay and buy that entry. It’s entirely up to you.

At the end of a project, both the Buyer and winning Creative have the opportunity to rate one another on four simple attributes:

• How well did they adhere to the project schedule (timing)?
• How was their communication?
• What was your overall satisfaction?

We combine the scores on these four attributes into an overall rating that helps you to determine that user’s history on other projects.

In addition to ratings, every user’s profile also lists their Stats - how long they’ve been a member, how many projects they’ve held, how many submissions they’ve posted to other projects, etc. In combination with their ratings, these stats will help you get a more complete picture of a user’s history.

To post a project, we charge a simple 15% commission on the award(s) you decide to pay the winning Creative(s) at the end of your project. To get started, simply choose ‘Post a Project’ from the menu at the top of this page. Once you set the price that you’d like to pay for your project, we’ll show you a calculation of your total cost before you proceed. And, if you don’t receive at least 25 entries to your project, you can walk with a full refund - no questions asked. Of course, if you find something you like, you’re welcome to stay and buy that entry. It’s entirely up to you.

We will ask for certain personal information when you post a project as a Buyer or when your entry is chosen for an award as a Creative. We need this information in order to protect your intellectual property, generate contracts, and arrange payments.

crowdSPRING will never share your personal information with any third parties without your permission. So sign up today!

To give feedback to entries to a project, simply go to the ‘Gallery’ tab of your project. From there, you’ll see all your entries and you can give them both a star 'score' as well as comments. Star scores tell the Creative, on a scale of one to five, how well you like their entry. The comments you give can be much more specific and helpful by telling the Creative what you like and don’t like, how they could improve their entry and what revisions you’d like to see moving forward.

crowdSPRING takes the issue of intellectual property protection very seriously. Whether you’re interested in protecting work that you purchase on the site, wish to protect your portfolio or are concerned with posting your work on our site, you can rest assured that we do everything we can to protect you.
We provide industry-leading tools and features designed to make IP protection simple and straightforward, including:

• Free customized legal agreements for every transaction
• Digital watermarking
• Access to IPRegistry.com
• Educative materials and articles

To contribute your entry to any project, simply search the projects, find one that you’d like to contribute to and click the ‘Participate Now’ link towards the top of the page. If you don’t have an account yet, you’ll be asked to create one and then you can upload your entry. Once uploaded, check back with the project frequently to see comments from the Buyer, valuable feedback and revise your entry if necessary.

To search for projects, Creative, portfolios and even forum topics, simply type what you’re looking for into the search box at the top of this page and hit ‘return’. From there we’ll display a results list that you can sort, filter and refine however you like.

At the end of every project, a custom contract is generated that will safely transfer the rights to the work being purchased. It is entirely customized based on your project and, among other things, it takes into consideration where the Buyer and Creative are located, what kind work is changing hands, and how much was paid. From there, our system applies all the appropriate legal language and references so that both the Buyer and Creative are protected.

To get help resolving a dispute with another user, simply choose ‘Contact Us’ from the ‘Help’ Menu at the top of this page. From there, you’ll be able to report a dispute.

We take our role in resolving problems very seriously and we'll work hard to solve any issues that come our way. We know that disputes will arise and that's OK - but it's how we all deal with them that shows our true colors. We promise to treat everyone with respect and give them the benefit of the doubt and we ask that you do the same.

To that end, if you find yourself having an issue with another user, please (pretty please) let them know. You'd be surprised how many times just sending them a private message or posting a comment in the discussion section of a project will settle the issue quickly and calmly before anyone gets bent out of shape. Please, please, please try this if you haven't already - calling the 'cops' should always be the last resort.

If you're still unhappy though, we're here to help. Here's how it works:

First, You tell.If you have an issue with another user, see an image that someone has 'borrowed' from someone else, or see something inappropriate on the site - let us know.

Second, We help. We'll get in touch with both users and work to find a solution that everyone's happy with. In cases that require some subjective judgement, we'll also convene the Official crowdSPRING Inter-user Disputing Party Resolution Review Committee (the O.C.I.D.P.R.R.C. for short). This three-person panel will review your case and make a ruling. Sort of like The Hague - only smaller.

Third, Everyone's happy. The Beatles really had it right: life is very short and there is no time for fussing and fighting, my friend. We'll help figure out a solution that everyone can live with and we'll all go on to great things. We truly believe that people are good and we've found that we can almost always find a solution that works for everyone.

And that’s it. We try to keep it as simple as possible for everyone involved. We listen, we get involved when needed, we make judgment calls if necessary and we try hard to leave everyone smiling.

If you have any more questions about this process, don't hesitate to let us know and we'll be happy to talk it over some more if you like.

To report a entry you believe violates another party's copyright, other rights, or a entry that is otherwise inappropriate, simply go to the detailed view of that entry and click the ‘Report a violation’ link.

We don’t ever charge Creatives a penny. Not now, not ever. There’s no fee to be a member, there’s no fee to contribute to a project and if yours is the winning entry on a project, there’s no fee to get your money. You get 100% of the award paid to you however you like.

There are many popular data compression formats. Files are compressed to reduce the file size and also to make it easier to upload and download.

When the Buyer selects a winner on crowdSPRING, the Creative prepares the final deliverables, compresses them into a commonly used popular format (such as ZIP for PCs and SIT for Apple computers), and uploads the compressed file to crowdSPRING. We will tell the Buyer they can download the files.

ZIP is the most widely used compression format on Microsoft Windows computers. It is also commonly used on Apple and Unix computers. WinZip is one of the most popular programs for working with ZIP files on Microsoft Windows computers. Most recent versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems, starting with Windows XP, have ZIP compression available as part of the Operating System. If you are using an earlier version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, you can find a free program or purchase WinZIP by clicking here to visit a third party site.

SIT is a compression format common on Apple computers. It is less common on Microsoft Windows computers. Apple computers typically come preloaded with Stuffit Expander, which works with ZIP and SIT files. If your Apple computer does not have Stuffit Expander, you can get the current freeware version of Stuffit Expander for the Apple by clicking here to visit a third party site.

Your entry should be visible immediately after you post it. If it doesn’t appear automatically, try refreshing the page in your browser.

There are a few things you can do to make sure that your uploaded images are displayed correctly.

1. When you click to "participate now" in a project, you can download a template which you can use for your image - this will help us display your image in the best way possible.
2. Also, because the image will be displayed on RGB monitors, please make sure that the image is saved with RGB colors. You can easily do this in Adobe products by saving "for web" use. In other products, you can save to or convert to RGB colors. CMYK colors do not display correctly and we suggest you stay away from CMYK unless the buyer specifically requests images with CMYK. One benefit of "saving for web" is that the image sizes are smaller - which lets us load your image much quicker.
3. If you upload an entry and don't see it or it doesn't look right, you can always click the "report a problem" link in the footer and let us know. We'll take a look at it right away. We've had very few problems with images, but we know how frustrating it is when you upload an image and have a problem seeing it - we are here to help.

Your entry must be either a JPEG (,jpg) or a PNG (.png) file for us to display it correctly. The best size to use when creating your entry is 800x800. This will allow the image to be seen in its entirety when a user is in the Gallery (grid) view. We provide some nifty templates (AI and PSD) which you will find useful when creating your submission. You can click here to download them.

When you submit an entry to a project on crowdSPRING we ask that you reveal to the buyer information about all of the elements you used when creating it. We give you three choices to disclose whether you have used stock art or other elements:

- I created all the stuff in my entry all by myself.
- Some of the stuff in my entry was created by someone else but I have the rights to both use it and resell it.
- Some of the stuff in my entry was created by someone else and if the buyer picks it, they'll have to buy the rights.

Thats it. Simple and transparent and valuable to the buyer and to you.

Although we do not encourage Creatives to withdraw their entries we recognize that sometimes there is a reason to do so. Simply click on the entry you wish to remove to go to the detail page for that item. You will see a "Withdraw" link directly above the image, simply click on it to remove the entry. Once an entry has been removed we apply an opaque screen with the word "Withdrawn" over the image, leaving a grayed-out version of the original image in the gallery.

To create a portfolio, simply go to mySPRING and click on the ‘Portfolio’ tab. From there you’ll be able to view, add and delete and manage all the items within your portfolio.

Portfolio items should be either a JPEG (,jpg) or a PNG (.png) file for us to display it correctly. The best size to use when creating your entry is 800x800. This will allow the image to be seen in its entirety when a user is viewing your portfolio. We provide some nifty templates (AI and PSD) which you may find useful. You can click here to download them.

To post a project, simply click on the 'Post a Project’ link at the top of this page.

Under every entry you will see two star 'scores.' The stars on the left tell you, on a scale of one to five, how much the Buyer liked that particular entry. Buyers are allowed to change their star score as often as they like.

The stars on the right tell you how much everyone else liked that entry. The "Crowd" score represents the average of everyone who has voted. Members of the Crowd may also change their vote, but if they do their 'old' score will be replaced by the new one. Remember vote-rigging is not allowed...

Once you have posted a project, you may not change any of the details. Changes to the project details or requirements can be posted in the project Discussion tab. Creatives will be able to keep up with any new information you provide.

Ultimately, only you can decide how much to offer for your project but we can give you some guidelines based on what other people are offering for similar projects. Therefore, when you create a project, we’ll show you how your offer compares to similar projects in that category. Keep in mind that while you want to run your project as affordably as possible, it’s an absolute fact that the more you offer, the greater the number of submissions you will receive. In addition, we have determined some guidelines and minimums for each of the project categories.

When you create a project we will ask you for payment information. You may pay using PayPal or any major credit card. That’s it - you never have to worry abut paying your winning Creative, because crowdSPRING handles that for you. And, you’re protected by our powerful guarantee: If you don’t receive at least 25 entries to your project, you can walk with a full refund - no questions asked.

We ask that you pay for your project when you post it so that our Creatives know that you aren’t just ‘window shopping’. Once a project gets posted, Creatives from all around the world will spend time and energy contributing their ideas to your project. It’s only fair that they know that you’re a serious Buyer. However, at the end of a project, you’re still protected by our powerful guarantee: If you don’t receive at least 25 entries to your project, you can walk with a full refund - no questions asked.

Your entry feedback should be visible immediately after you post it. If it doesn’t appear automatically, try refreshing the page in your browser.

Many buyers select the winning entry promptly after their project ends. Some buyers need a little more time - often to talk to friends or others helping them make the choice - and that's OK. We do request that buyers select the winning entry (or entries, if there are multiple awards) within seven days after their project ends. We've found that up to seven days is a comfortable amount of time for buyers to decide and creatives will also be pleased knowing that a decision will be made within seven days.

You can not change the end date of a project once it has been posted. This is to protect Creatives who often are planning their own work schedules around your project and others.

When you post your project, you can pay with any major credit card. We’ll take that money and set it aside until the end of your project. At that point, if you find a entry that you like, you don’t need to do a thing - we pay the winning Creative and take care of all the paperwork. If you don’t receive at least 25 entries to your project, you can walk with a full refund - no questions asked. Of course, if you find something you like, you’re welcome to stay and buy that entry. It’s entirely up to you.

PayPal is a simple, free and fast way to send and receive money online without every giving out your credit card number. You can both pay from your PayPal account to post a project and receive funds to your PayPal account if you’re the winning Creative on a project. To learn more about PayPal and to sign up for an account, you can visit their site www.paypal.com To see the list of countries that accept PayPal, please click this link.

crowdSPRING accepts all major credit cards when you post a project. We protect your sensitive information with industry leading security practices.

To change your email notification preferences, simply go to the 'Projects' tab within mySPRING and select your preferences immediately below each of the categories.