Hi Shari,
 
Sorry for the confusion.  I'm copying and pasting Mindy's reply from a similar topic.  Hope this helps.
 
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The general rule is 3 times however with some exceptions.
 
1. Age, Name and Relationship Specific cards can use the same general image/art. The design can be the same but with the specific name, initial, relationship or age/year differing and setting it apart from it's neighbor.
 
With that said, it's certainly more interesting and appealing to vary the designs by gender and age ranges. So although you can use the same design for all genders and all ages you should probably mix it up a bit.
 
2. If it's the IDENTICAL image with merely a change of text on the inside, we typically approve all for age, name, relation specific categories but only allow 3 for other categories. This is not ideal because at a glance they do look like the same card.
 
3. If it's simply a change of color on the identical design for the same category we will only allow 3. If you think customers want more of a choice simply pick your top 3 colors and put in your Artist's Notes that you'll create the card for them in any color they like.
 
4. The same or similar image/art can be used multiple times (more than 3) if the messaging on the FRONT of the card differs and designates the cards for different categories ie: Father's Day, Birthday for Him, Thank You, Birthday Dad, etc.
 
As our site matures we will likely limit the re-use of images even more. There are certainly times where our card approvers vary in their decisions to approve/reject a card. Please look to the "Please Note" section in your card confirmation emails for their notes.

Ok so I did four ... before I knew about the rule ...
 
Two were approved, one was rejected, and one is pending.  The one that was rejected is, I think, the prettiest of the four.  And I have ... what?? ... a grand total of  24 cards in my gallery ...
 
I dunno Shaun ... I'm sorta of the feeling  Shari was before you clarified the rule.
 
You can have 100 of the exact same card ... no color or desgin change or nothing as long as you change the text to say "Happy Easter Mom" "Happy Easter Dad" etc etc etc and on and on and on .... ?  How truely mindless and monotonous is that to create?  How the heck is art?
 
But you can't offer a very nice design in range of colors? And I was only trying four.  Four EASTER colors ... not most popular colors.
 
Tell me ... which offers something more unique that you don't see every single day?
 
The rule is sorta ... I'll be polite and just say ... annoying.
 
I think the color selection is a lot nicer than the same old stuff "by person" or what ever you can see in any supermarket card section and get ... "2 for one"... or at least cheaper.  Actaully a lot cheaper for a simple 5x7 card like these are.  Being able to type your own text in a card isn't really that big a selling feature especially when the choices of font and color are limited.
 
People buy what they SEE!!!!!!
 
It's the way our minds work.  They're not going to pay much attention to what you write in some note as other available options.  Why do you think sites with T shirts and other products have spent so much time making it possible for the customer to SEE every color and option on the product types?
 
At the risk of sounding repetitive, If they SEE it's available they will buy it ... if they don't they won't.
 
I think if people had a choice of the colors on my easter card it would be a whole lot nicer.  I might even sell more ... if you would give me that chance.  It's what I wanted to see in my little gallery.
 
And what are the three most popular colors ... my lavender card was rejected ... what's more Easter than lavender?    
 
I'm a little annoyed by this Shaun ... well actually I'm a lot annoyed.  I see lots of galleries on here with a ton of cards that have the exact same card texted for each member of the family ... it really gets boring.  
 
BUT
 
I, who have 24 cards total, can't have 4 for the same design in a really nice selction of colors for people to SEE  and choose from ...  
 
And if you are worried about people filling space on your site ... doesn't just changing the text fill it up even faster?
 
I don't do the mom dad sis bro grandmom grandpop stuff ... cuz I never have liked them ... I like blank note cards so I can write something personal inside ... I do cards that I would like to buy hoping some folks might SEE something nice.  Heck I'm the only one who buys my cards anyway ...
 
GCU calls us ARTISTS Shaun ... why not let us show ART ... not production, run of the mill, greeting card design.  Let us be the judge of what is artistic.
 
I'd rather someone conact me and ask me to change the text on the cover ... they won't think to ask about the color ... even if they do read the artists notes ... I've never read the artists notes and I don't really write much in them  
 
And how do I buy a card of mine that was rejected?  I want to buy my card in all four colors I posted it in to send to people.  
 
I've been real happy with GCU thus far ... but this rule ... I'm not real happy about at all.
 
I'm sorry Shaun ... I really think the rule needs to change.  I don't know what it was intended to control but I don't think it does anything to help the "artists" offer something other than the same old stuff.
 
And yes I realize I could probably get all my colors up if I change the text.  I just wanted to create 4 nice cards ... not the 50 I could have using permutations of text with the various colors and changing categories.  "Thinking of you at Easter" is nice text and on four colors makes as fine an offering as I wanted to ... it was simple and not confusing.
 
Besides I don't think I'll ever understand your categorizing at all ... it's realy only set up to to mom dad sis ... etc ... which ... like I said ... I just don't do.  Don't force me to.
     

Harry ... I understand why you and Shari and others may at first feel somewhat shifted out of joint by the Limit of 3 rule.  Your cards are beautiful and unique, and certainly deserve the highest exposure possible.  But there were valid reasons why GCU put this into effect in August 2007.  This topic was heavily discussed for several months last year ... http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1183074647/0
 
While this solution is not perfect, few things are, it certainly pushed contributors to be more creative, produce a broader variety of cards, and really helped filling up catagories that were often left wanting ... and I don't know about the others like me who have been here since the early days, but I saw a dramatic increase in sales from that time on.
 
Perhaps this is something that can be worked out using our Private Collection module ... maybe "sets" of cards can be made available under a specific catagory or sub-catagory.  I think that could be a good market potential down the road.  But I think even that would have to have some limitations on it ... ie. sets of let's say 4, 6, 8, 12, or or something along that order.  It would be interesting to hear if GCU has any plans in the future for selling boxed sets, which could open up more of a margin for artists who lean more towards general cards rather than specific ones ... and it would offer customers something they would otherwise have to leave GCU and go to another POD vendor to purchase as "gift" sets.  Just more to think about.
 
I think part of the confusion -- and upset -- on the part of contributors has to do with thinking of GCU as if it were a traditional brick-and-mortar card store.  
 
GCU operates on a completely different business model than walking into a card store or a retail store.  Again, I don't know what others see in their sales trends, but I'm willing to share this ... until Sept 07, 90% of my sales came from the reminder services ... since that time the average has adjusted to approx. 75-80% from BigDates.com, BirthdayReminders.com, etc. ... and about 20-25% directly from GCU.  I don't want to speak for GCU, but I would guess that it is hoped that GCU will eventually become a stand-alone site with mutual link ties to the affiliated reminder services.  But GCU has only been "live" for just over a year ... and by all business standards that I'm familiar with ... they've done an amazing job at marketing and increasing traffic in such a short period of time.  
 
Most shoppers, except those brought in by the artists themselves, find their way to your cards via search engine or reminder service ... and, I'm sorry because I know this is not what some of you want to hear, but the reality is that more shoppers will enter keywords that have to do with a specific occasion, holiday, age, or relationship than those who might enter SEARCH FOR:  beautiful blank cards.  
 
That's not to say that those cards won't sell well ... they have a tremendous potential for bulk sales.  But you first have to get the shoppers in the door ... and right now the majority of them come in through the reminder services.  Again strictly from my observations, we owe great thanks to those artists who have contributed hundreds of age-, relationship-, and occasion-specific cards that have brought more traffic and more sales for ALL of us.  That 10%-15% increase in GCU sales that I've seen was not brought about significantly by my contributions ... but far more greatly by theirs.  
 
One suggestion would be to go to BigDates or one of the affiliated reminder services and walk through the process as if you were a customer who had never heard about GCU.  You won't see page after page of the same image with just a change of age, relationship, or whatever ... you'll see a tremendous variety of cards related to a specific catagory.  That's what most "foot" traffic to your cards will see ... not what you as artists will see on the "Newest Cards" page at GCU.  And for what it's worth, I think that's a good thing.
 
@ Mindy ... is the idea of sub-catagories within our stores still on the wish list?  I know we virtually do have this ability now by GCU catagories, but I seem to remember a discussion about having the ability to generate our own catagories from within our stores.  If that's still a possibility for the future--and I still think it's a good one--perhaps that could somehow be worked out to give artists a bit more leeway in re-using images on their cards.  Just a thought that might be considered if it's a possibility.
 
@ Harry ... maybe you could just add a message and profile your lavendar card a bit differently from the others in the series.  I'm not sure if that would get it through approval ... admin will have to weigh in on that ... but it would definitely help broaden and increase the exposure of your beautiful cards -- I love those "window pane" cards!!! -- I'm sure they will sell well once they get a bit more exposure.  
 
Teri

Thank you for the complement Teri ... yeah they are different.  Beautiful?  ***blush blush ***  I dunno ... I just play until I get something I like.
 
Oh well ... I still didn't even get my 3.
 
Unless they are counting the St. Patty's card which I think is totally unfair.  St. Patty's cards should not count with Easter Cards and what will they do when I do the wedding card version of it.  The image just has lots of nice potential that way.  But I mostly like it with no words at all white on white or grey tones.  I like it as a use it for anything somewhat religious card.  
 
And I understand folks coming to look for specific types of cards ...
 
BUT
 
I don't really do that.  I just take and make pretty pictures and put them on STUFF.  Sometimes cards.  If it happens to seem appropriate to mention a holiday on them or put some words on them ... I'll give it a whirl ... but that really is just a coincidence.  I don't start out thinking "Wow ... I'll make an easter card today".  It starts out yeah I want to play with a silhouette of gothic lancet windows today and see what happens.  I actually cringe a little trying to put the words on them sometimes LOL  Jeeeeezzzz I'd been in real trouble if I had posted all four without any words at all.  BUT to me the cards work without the words ... maybe even better. And then sometimes ... I look at the image and say ... "yeah ... that might make a nice Easter Card."  And I was right ... this time LOL
 
I'm not sure it's on here but my favorite card of mine is just that first gothic window I posted on here just on black.  What will folks buy it for?  Wellllll ... that card with "Peace" on it is my ONLY sale here at Christmas.  Is it a Christmas card?  Obviously someone liked the idea.
 
Yes I confess I don't really sell any cards here.  But I do buy and send a heck of a lot of them.  I like the quality.  That's why I send them.  I'd still like to know how I can get the ones rejected printed for myself.  I haven't figured out how to do that.  Cuz I like them and my friends will be getting easter cards in different colors ... if I can get them printed.

Hi Harry,
You always have the option of setting a card to "Private".  This will put it in your private store and not on your main storefront nor in the GCU "population".
 
See thread on private cards:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1192215943
 
Your fourth colored card (lavender) was approved as it did differ from the other 3, no cover text.  Just so you know, your complaints did not sway us  
 
Although you find this rule annoying we are confident that our shoppers find it even more annoying paging through many like or identical images.  Months ago this became an issue and we've put a stake in the ground.  
 
We believe 3 is more than reasonable.  If you're inspired to use many colors you'll just need to pick the top 3 that you think are most fitting.  I've been holding off a faction of staff here that is determined to bring that number down to 1!  
 
The exceptions we've made to this rule are in cases where the cards will appear in different categories and are not seen side by side.  
 
Sites like GCU give artists the opportunity to run a business bypassing the middleman.  With this opportunity comes new challenges.  Your challenge is to give purpose to your art in the form of paper greeting cards.  It's not easy and it's not for everyone, but those who do it well will reap the rewards.    
 
You'll notice the top selling (bulk/best) and most popular cards are occasion specific - holidays, occasions, age specific birthdays, etc.  Only 2 cards out of the first pages (42 cards) are blank or generic cards.  Most shoppers shop with a purpose.  The age specific and relation specific cards are perhaps across the board our most popular cards.  
 
Cards with a purpose resonate best with shoppers - they hit the mark!  A Happy Easter Step Mom card will likely appeal to a shopper wanting to extend Easter wishes to their step mom, regardless of the color.
 
Good luck!
Mindy
 
PS: Perhaps Shaun doesn't like lavender    Don't hold it against him.
 
 

Hello Mindy,  
 
I just found the private gallery option today.  Nice to know that is there.
 
Purpose??  I dunno ... mostly the purpose to my stuff is to have fun ... I do it to enjoy doing it.  I'm relatively new to getting it out in the public at all and on things folks can buy and I don't really know how I feel about that.  If someone sees something they like and buys it ... that's nice.  I haven't  sold a lot, but the folks who bought, let me know they liked it ... that's nicer.  It was nice to hear Teri say it was unique.  
 
At least now I know I have places I can get cards that I like.  I use to hate buying greeting cards because I could never find anything I liked.  Now I can't stop sending them.  OK maybe it's a little arrogant to torment my family and friends with cards I've created all the time, but they seem to like it too.  Heck one year I hand painted and embossed Christmas Cards ... this is much easier ... LOL
 
I like seeing all four colors on my little gallery ... I think they are very purtty there!  Thank-you. I do appreciate that.
 
And I caught that my complaint didn't affect your use of the "rule".  I won't say anything more about it.
 
Hmmm so Shaun doesn't like lavendar eh??? Maybe I should send him an Easter Card ... LOL ... lavendar of course!
 
Just teasing Shaun.
 
Thanks again Mindy.

Quote from Gina_133039 on Mar 3^rd, 2008, 7:01pm:

 
Well after that I am sure I will ... thank-you very much Gina.
 
Most folks just think I have a swelled head ... I did have a hard time getting fitted for a hat one time ... no kidding really.  The guy was amazed at my hat size ... LOL
 
Anyway Thank you
 
And ...
 
Love your gothic vaults!