Justyna Dorsz

Advice

Google Alerts

I set up Google Alerts with the titles of my designs to be notified when they are put on sale illegally. For example, one design that gets stolen a lot is “Overthinking and also hungry”. When thieves try to sell t-shirts with that designs, they don’t even change the title so I created an alert for phrase “Overthinking and also hungry”.

This way, I get Google Alerts as soon as Google finds out about the infringing listings. And as soon as I get notified, I can send a DMCA takedown notice so that it’s taken down immediately.

I learned about Google Alerts from Michael Essek’s blog. There are other useful guides there too.

Overthinking and also hungry - by Justyna Dorsz

DMCA takedown notice – form vs. email

My artwork is stolen so often that I need to send thousands of DMCA takedown notices each year.

To make the process as fast as possible, I use email templates. But most websites prefer to receive takedown notices via their forms. For example, every time I email a takedown notice to Etsy I receive an email asking me to submit future notices via their form.

Do they not realize that their form takes a few minutes to fill? Sending an email takes just a few seconds. I don’t want to waste my time filling out forms. I prefer to send emails wherever possible.

I can understand that Etsy prefers to receive filled out forms. They are easier to process. But I calculated that if I keep sending forms to Etsy, I will waste over a day of my life per year. And that’s just on Etsy. There are many more websites that I need to send takedown notices to.

If you need to send takedown notices, send them via email, instead of via form. Don’t waste more time than you need to.

Register artwork for $45, not $65

This is just a quick note to let you guys know that if you want to register your artwork in the US Copyright Office, then you can register it for $45. Maybe you already knew that, but I didn’t. When I was registering my first artwork I chose the Standard Application which costs $65. However, if there’s only one author, you can choose the option “Register One Work by One Author”. It wouldn’t matter that much if I only had one or two designs to register, but I have about 20.

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I hired an assistant (sort of)

For months now, I’ve been swamped with tasks that are not creative or interesting. Things like submitting my art to various social websites and online stores, creating design previews, finding where my designs are sold illegally, sending DMCA takedown notices. What I enjoy doing the most is drawing and making games. But will all those other tasks I have had little time for that.

A week ago, I sort of hired a part-time assistant. We will see how it goes. I had never thought I would need an assistant. And I am not sure I can afford one. But I delegated most of my boring tasks that I hated doing and she has dealt with them much faster than I could. And she said she liked the tasks!

Incidentally, a few days ago David Perell posted a video, “How to Work with a Personal Assistant” with some advice. If you are thinking of hiring an assistant, it’s worth watching:

Register your work

If you are an artist/designer/photographer, you likely had your art stolen and used illegally. If not, it’s just a matter of time. Every day thousands of thieves try to sell artwork they have no rights to. This is an ongoing problem, and it isn’t going away anytime soon.

But one thing that’s been changing is that more and more artists are fighting back and suing the infringers. Even if you don’t plan to sue anyone yet, you can still prepare for the future when you can invest some money in lawyers.

And the first step is to register your artwork in the US Copyright Office. You should think about it even before you publish your artwork because this way you can save a lot of money. When I started making designs, I knew nothing about registering copyright. And even when I found out about it, I still hesitated for months because I thought I couldn’t afford it..

Now, when I am finally registering my designs that are already published, I need to pay $45 for each design registration. If I’d registered them before publishing, I would have paid $85 for 10 designs.

Register your work.

Now Page

I’ve recently created my “Now” page. It’s a page that tells a bit about what I am currently working on, my most recent projects, what I am reading, etc. I took inspiration from Derek Siver’s now page.

So many people have created their own “now” pages that Derek made a website nownownow.com that collects all those pages. You can see what other people are working on and get inspired. I’ve already read about 50 profiles for fun.

If you have a website and don’t have a “now” page, consider creating it. This is a really neat idea, and people visiting your website won’t have to scroll through tens of blog posts to see what you are up to. And when you have the page, add it to nownownow.com, so others can find you. If you are unsure of what to write on your “now” page, read this explanation.

First Sale!

Someone bought a t-shirt from my new TRUFFLEPIG store!

To give you some context — I opened my store 3 days ago and have uploaded 11 designs so far. Of course, I know it is luck — someone noticed my design among thousands and liked it and bought it. But you might be just as lucky if you open your own store. The more designs you upload, the greater chance that someone will buy something from you.

It might seem like a humble start — one t-shirt sold. However, this is exactly how it was in the beginning when I opened my Fox Shiver store. I didn’t have huge sales from the start. But one by one people visited my store and bought something. I kept adding new designs, and earnings were increasing month by month. You can do the same — open an Artist Shop and add a few designs. Don’t get discouraged by a slow start. Keep making designs, and be patient.

Back to the Gym

If the person who bought the t-shirt reads this blog — thank you!

Bad output

I stumbled upon an interesting tweet by Julian Shapiro. I know it’s a few months old but I liked it so I am sharing it here in case you find it useful too:

To finally start creating good stuff you need to create a lot of bad stuff first. It applies to writing, but also to drawing —a drawing usually needs a few tries too. You draw your first idea, see that it doesn’t quite work, iterate on it, until you arrive at something good.

Finding a niche

Everyone always says you should find your niche. But it’s not easy.

Years ago, when I started making designs, I couldn’t identify just one theme to focus on. I named my store Fox Shiver because I wanted to draw a lot of foxes. But then I also drew cats, and dogs, and gloomy birds, and space. Now my store is a mess.

I’ve been thinking, it’s possible that in 10 years I will still be making designs. I like drawing, I have a lot of ideas, I have sketches that I want to turn into designs. If I keep adding all my designs to my main store, in a few years I will have, say, 500 designs. It will be difficult for anyone to find what they want. For example, if someone who loves cats searches for a cat shirt in my store, they will have to go through 350 designs of dogs, space, trees, pigs, and other topics that they have no interest in.

I’ve decided to make a separate store for some of my designs. It will be focused on cute and funny animals. I will maybe even move some of my existing designs from the Fox Shiver store.

Now I am in the process of searching for a name for my store. I am using random word generators like this one, and this one, to search for interesting and unique words. I also check word combinations using a portmanteau generator. I write down all the words I like and look for connections. Something will jump out at me soon.

Edit (15 June, 2021): My new store is TRUFFLEPIG!