Author Guidelines

As an author participating in our Contributor Program, you should review the guidelines below, in order to understand what it takes to successfully upload and sell items through the Ultrashock Marketplace.

Submitted items will be inspected by our validator team who follow the same specifications and instructions we require our authors to conform to. When your item qualifies, it will be approved and show up available for sale to our marketplace customers. If it doesn't get approved, the validator will get back to you requesting additional changes, or will give you the reason for rejection.

1. Quality requirements

We are serious about superior quality and uniqueness when it comes to creative content. You should consider the following criteria so potential buyers will be interested in your items, which ends up as a win/win situation for both parties:

Good practice to gain loyal customers:

• Provide nice looking graphics for your item(s)
• Make sure the item is customizable, it offers great value to a customer
• Clean up your code and label/name all related library objects and files properly
• Provide in-depth documentation, so the buyer understands the item without asking for support

Reasons why an item might not get approved:

• The item has poor coding, or amateurish graphics
• The item doesn't meet any of the technical & legal requirements
• The item is very similar to already approved work by other authors
• The item is very hard to understand, or not customizable
• The item has missing or corrupted files

We may review items now and then to see if they still fit in our Marketplace. If items became outdated, do not generate sales, or don't support recent software versions, we'll give you a 30-day notice before they become inactive.

2. Technical requirements

In order to successfully upload your items, and get automated previews, every asset type has its own unique set of technical specifications & upload instructions, which can be reviewed here:

• Flash submission instructions
• Audio submission instructions
• Vector submission instructions 
• Image submission instructions

Most items will require the following:

• An 80x80px JPG thumbnail image
• A 640x260px JPG/SWF preview
• A zip file for the end user. This usually contains the original customizable source files, an editable preview file as it's being presented on Ultrashock, instructions, and any extra's you want to include for the buyer.

It's important that not only our validators, but also buyers, will have access to all your original source files (incuding source files for previews), which created the final result.

3. Legal requirements

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Author Responsibility

Any content used (including logos, photos, icons, audio, video & code) that is not created by authors submitting items which include this material, must be properly licensed for resale. With the exception of the mentioned licensed items, the submitted Flash asset must be entirely created by the author submitting this item, and they must have full legal rights to sell it through the Ultrashock marketplace.

Copyright Infringement

We respect the rights of all authors, creative professionals, and third parties, and believe that copyright infringement is necessary to understand clearly in order to avoid potential issues.

In short, the copyright holder is the original creator of a particular work (also referred to as its author).  Copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, publicly displayed, performed, or made into a derivative work of any kind, without the permission of the copyright owner or
original author of the work. Anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner is in violation of the law.

Here are a few tips to avoid potential copyright issues:

• All photos, vector art, Flash, or other items submitted that contain images which include any recognizable people must include a model release form. This is especially important when submitting images of minors. In which case, we require a model release form with parental consent. This allows the image to be used with the intention of selling it for commercial purposes.

• All photos, vector art, Flash, or other items submitted that include a recognizable building must be accompanied by a property release from a representative or property owner who allows the use of that persons property (such as a private home or private property, commercial building, business, or hotel, etc).  This allows the image to be used with the intention of selling it for commercial purposes.

• Do not submit items containing corporate logos or trademarked designs. This includes images of popular cell phones, computers, cars, artwork, buildings, bridges or monuments.

• Do not submit items that include screen shots taken from popular games created for Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo to be used for demo purposes.

• Do not submit submit items that include popular magazine covers such as Time, Forbes, or Wired to be used for demo purposes.

• Do not submit items downloaded from other stock websites which you have modified, even if you have altered the work greatly and feel it is your own creation.  This is considered a derivative work and therefore copyright infringement.

• Do not submit items which were available for free  download from a website or some alternative source, even if you have altered the work greatly and feel it is your own creation.  This is considered a derivative work and therefore copyright infringement.

• Do not submit items that were produced from tutorials either viewed or downloaded from popular educational websites such as http://gotoandlearn.com or http://www.lynda.com.

Copyright Infringement Policy

We take copyright infringement seriously and thus have implemented a strict Copyright Policy to deal with any such violations should they arise. It is important that authors review it and conform to our guidelines to avoid any potential issues relating to copyright infringement.  

Asset Library

We provide an Asset Library if you wish to avoid any copyright infringements.

4. Pricing your item

For Flash items we allow authors to define their own custom default price, starting from $1 USD. All other file type prices are automated & based on the criteria you find in the tables below.

The default price will be linked to the Standard License, and will be used to automatically calculate the optional license prices. You also have the option to offer your item for free, for promotional or demo purposes.

We retain the right to suggest and adjust the default price.

Audio filesPricing is determined by audio type, and length.

Vector filesPricing is determined by the level of detail in the artwork, and the number of separate objects included.

Image filesPricing is determined by the image resolution ($1 USD per mega-pixel). Multiple resolutions available.

5. License options

As an author, you control which licenses are available for your items. We encourage you to keep the suggested selection, as they cover most usages, and represent a wider interest for buyers, and thus generate better revenue.

Customers don't buy your item(s), they buy a license which gives them certain usage rights. It's a protection mechanism for authors in order to prevent buyers from reusing items or code or and reselling it for example. 

6. Marketing and referrals

By joining our Referral Program you can increase your commissions up to 60% & 80% on your sold items. You can even get 20% on items sold by other contributors. All you have to do is market your items and refer potentional buyers back to our marketplace.  We provide some great banners & tips to help you get started.