Help

A quick overview on the vision and purpose of The Red Porch™

Do you want to share your creative work with friends? Maybe even make some new friends with similar interests along the way? Would you like to see the work of others and be inspired? Our goal is to help you do that. Additionally, we offer a unique collection of hand made digital art downloads for purchase that you can use in your creative efforts.

What is the point of creating a profile?

Oh, well then. The point of creating a profile is this:

  • You can upload your layouts for free. And this is an open gallery, so we welcome all of your layouts from all designers.
  • You can link to those layouts (with the image!) on another site (say, your blog for example, or in a forum post somewhere). Just look for the code to do so on each layout page.
  • You can see the full sized version of your layouts - no minimum size!
  • No limit to how many layouts you can upload - go nuts!
  • You can comment on the layouts of others.
  • You can get the comments of others on your layouts.
  • You can "friend" your friends, and keep track of anything new they add.
  • You can search and find layouts done by others and gain inspiration. (Ok, ok, you don't have to create a profile to do this, but think how much more fun it'll be to leave comments).
  • You can find and purchase great digital art from our store (ok this one is self serving, but we think (hope!) you'll find something you like.)

But other sites already offer most of that.

First, that's not a question! But you're right, some do. But are any of them as clean, simple, open or nifty to use? Well, we think we've got something pretty special here, but if we're not what you're looking for, we understand. If you'd be so kind as to share your feedback, we'd love to hear why.

But I already have my gallery posted on one of those other sites and I'm not inclined to leave them for the likes of you.

No sweat friend, we understand. When you create your profile you can just link to that gallery so others can find it when they visit your profile page.

But I'm a hybrid artist, or I do everything with paper.

Great! Scan in or photograph your work and upload your layouts, we can't wait for you to share.

How do I get started?

Go to the signup page, create an account. It takes just seconds to sign up. Once you've created your profile page you can add a link to your blog, tell us a little about you, add a photo of yourself, and upload your layouts, including tags to help others find your work.

What's all this "tag" mumbo jumbo?

Tags are just words that describe your layout (or you). Tags are what we use here to categorize and classify layouts, artists and art. Other visitors to the site then use those tags to find your work.

For example: let's say you have a layout and in your layout contains pages you celebrated your daughter's birthday, you might tag your gallery with these tags: party birthday girl. Then another mom, looking for ideas for documenting her daughter's birthday party might do a search on: birthday girl. Your layout would appear and she would find the ideas and inspiration she needs. Yipee!

Can I get free art downloads?

Didn't your mother ever tell you not to ask for free things? Yeah, mine neither. Periodically we offer free art downloads, so keep your eyes peeled (that sounds painful) to the front page of the store.

This is it? Do you have plans to do anything else?

Oh boy do we have plans. This is the tip of the iceberg, we've got many more exciting things under development now, we hope you'll stay tuned. Join our email list to stay informed.

I still have more questions.

No sweat, just and we'll help you out.