
I made
this design a few months ago based on a list that's been floating around for years (
this one), which is based on
this. Thought it needed a little sprucing-up. Thinking nothing of it, I posted it on my Tumblr and on Imgur and went on my merry way. I also made another completely different version and put it up on Zazzle because I liked it better, and this week two of the posters sold. Cool.
Well, I wondered how they'd found it so I decided to Google the phrase "how to care for introverts".
You.
Guys.
Seriously.
That blue/green design is EVERYWHERE. I had no idea that people would actually SHARE the thing! I hadn't even added my little copyright thing on the bottom (originally - I've since added it to the image on Tumblr) so the one that's going around isn't attributed to anyone, and barely anyone has linked back to the original. Today I spent a few hours writing people's sites and asking them to link back to it and most of them were happy to. I posted links where they didn't have a "contact us" option. Damage control isn't fun.
So, two things...
One, OMG I went viral! How cool is that! I'm so excited that people are talking about this list again. There's even someone who wants to work with me on making other similar posters. I am very psyched.
Two, if you EVER make anything, no matter how trivial you think it is - watermark that shit. Put your copyright info on it. Do SOMETHING to show that it's yours. This is why.