Detailed Ratings

Each site is rated in 3 Categories which are very important to the quality of a web site. The highest that a site can score on each is a 10. Ratings will change from time to time as Site owners make changes for the better or the worse. For more detailed ratings click here.
* paid membership	1=Avoid, 5=Ok , 10=Best Value
Web site	Terms	Feedback	Graphics	Avg.
Ashley Designz* (Paintshop Pro Site) Terms: When it comes to Terms GSG looks for a few good qualities, and this site has the qualities that will make it a great. GSG reviewed this site in earlier months (see past article pages) and it has definitely made great improvements on the Terms. This is the type of attitude and concern that customers should look for when trying to find a good site. When as site owner sees areas to improve in and makes that improvement says alot about them and their drive to be a site of quality. If I had an award for Boldest Change then this site would get it. It doesn't require a logo to be place on the site as part of being a member. GREAT JOB! Feedback: GSG has been very pleased with the feed back of this site. The tone and attitude is very positive. Customers shouldn't have any trouble with expressing their concerns or asking question. The owner seems to be very approachable. Graphics: This rating is based on the layout of the page as well as the variety of graphics offered. This is a "ball park" rating since I have not actually been able to look inside the membership area of many of these sites. Keep in mind that I compare many different sites and the competition is tough. The layout for this site is great as far as it's use of space. It doesn't try to cram everything into a small box and that makes it very easy on my eyes.	6	5	5.5	5.5
ClipArt.com (Graphic Collections Site) Terms: Very Long. The terms for this site are quite long but very clear. They cover a wide range of issues including issues that you would most likely find with online retail companies, such as International Trade Laws. Even though the terms are very long they are also very fair. When I say fair I mean that they allow you to use the graphics after you end your subscription. When you read the terms you may feel a little nervous but you have to keep in mind that as long as you follow the rules things should go really easy for you. No problem. This site avoids the mistakes that many of the smaller graphic sites make. They left align their terms, and use black text on white background. Their terms are very organized and contain reference points that would allow them to direct people to certain sections of the terms. It also allows customers to give the section number or letter that they may have a question about. This makes for great customer service. The only problem I have is that the font is a little small. There's a .5 font size difference which probably wouldn't matter if they had use a different font. But unfortunately it does so they missed out on the perfect score for there terms. Feed Back: They are very professional and very quick. I had question about the product that I'm selling and I email the site thinking that I wouldn't hear from them until the next day. I think it took them 5 minutes to respond. I either caught them at a good time or they really do respond quickly to their emails. They do have some testimonials and they were all perfect. Very few sites are brave enough to put bad feedback for people to see so I don't know if anyone has ever had problems with them. Other than that they did a good job in presenting their professionalism. Graphics: This will probably be the shortest right up on graphics. This site has almost everything and a lot of it. They have clip art, photos, Web graphics, illustrations, photo objects, fonts, and sounds. It uses a search engine in order to make finding what you need. In addition to a search engine they have an option where you can search the graphics by the color that is within the graphics. So if someone needed a few graphics that had red in it, the you can click on the color block and it will pull up graphics that have a great deal of red in it. It's difficult to compete with 6 million graphs. With what they offer I can't blame them for the high subscription price. But then again I have a free 1 year membership when I bought one of the CDs like the one that GSG is offering.	10	5	10	8.3
Country Tubes N'Stuff* Terms: This site has made a few changes since November which is really good especially for the owner. This site increased their font size but changed the font color to pink. The size increase is good but it's pink font on pink background so your eyes will feel the pain of trying to keep the text from blending into the background. I do like the left align and headings for the terms. This makes it easy to refer to specific sections in the terms in case I have a few questions about them. Other than the font color the terms are very nicely organized. The owner does a good job and explaining a few area that may cause some confusion which is good. "NO REFUNDS GIVEN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE." I still have some concern about this. No refunds given under any circumstances. This means once you buy the membership then you have lost the money even if you had not viewed the membership area. If there are program requirements to view the graphics then it should be placed at the beginning of the terms or on a separate page stating the requirements. This site does not do this. The only thing that helped the terms is that the site says they will notify you if terms are changed. This site also requires a link on the page. Graphics: The graphic layout is in order which is a plus. The page doesn't seem messy. The downside is that there is alot of pink on this page. There is pink everywhere and even the sky is pink. This will eventually give you some eye pain if you have to look at the page for a long period of time. Color contrast is so important when designing webpages.	5.5	N/A	5.7
JC's Designs* Terms: This site has a good color contrast for terms. The terms located under appropriate headings. The terms are centered instead of left align which means you'll have a little difficulty in looking for the next line. The font size of the terms is an improvement and makes it easy to see. I didn't have to buy glasses in order to read it. This site has making improvements on the terms and has improved greatly in the last 4 months. The terms on this site are definitely very fair and from first and second readings of the terms, the site owner's terms are a breath of fresh air. From what I can tell visitors should have no problem with agreeing to these terms. Overall these terms are some of the better terms that I have seen on the graphics site. The site also has the logo requirement so be prepared to add one if you join. Graphics: This site has changed it's appearance and it is now giving off a warm spring time feeling which reminds me that GSG needs to do a little spring cleaning too.	6.5	5.5	6.5.5	6.1
NutterButtercup Terms: This site does a good job with terms. The font size is large enough and the font color is black on white background. There are no headings for the terms but there are bullets. Numbers would have been better for easy reference. But the main thing is that you will be able to red them. If you are a consumer than you would want to be aware of the tone that is present in the terms. Terms should be at the least neutral and never negative. Terms are to be equal towards everyone, and when the terms sound negative it really means that the negativity is given equally to everyone. The one thing that will kill the professionalism of terms is tone of attitude. It also requests site information which is fine just as long as it doesn't include a free username and password as part of the terms. This site also requires the customer to put a link on their page. And it requires a right click, disable image too bar. Personally I don't agree with such terms since all right clicks can be worked around through a prt scr. This site is Free so there's not money to lose here. And in this case requiring a logo back to the page is a fair request. Feedback: The owner of this site has contacted with a very professionally written email. And I was impressed by the quality of her response. It's amazing how people who are always striving for improvement respond in almost the same way. I will definitely watch this site closely since there is alot of potential. I have given my highest possible rating for this site. Half of the feedback rating is on the manner in which the site owner/ owners present their professionalism. Graphics: The graphics layout is good. This time around it has a sense of a clean cut layout that makes it very easy on the eyes. The colors are of the right amount, Sometimes sites get carried away with the colors and everything is an extreme with too much pink or too much blue. This site spread the colors around. The font for the links are small and could be larger. This rating is based on the layout of the page as well as the variety of graphics offered. This is a "ball park" rating since I have not actually been able to look inside the membership area of many of these sites. Keep in mind that I compare many different sites and the competition is tough.	5	5	6.5	5.5




Not all low ratings are bad. It could be that one site has more resources available than another. There are some really nice graphic sites out there so many times it's like comparing a small business to a giant corporation. The size of the business will not affect the terms. Terms are terms no matter how big or small the business is.