# creativ.zone
> creativ.zone is a free website builder for creatives - photographers, artists, designers, and content creators. Create your personal creative portfolio with a blog, FAQ section, and image galleries.
creativ.zone provides tools for creative professionals:
- **Portfolio**: Showcase your work with beautiful image galleries
- **Blog**: Share your creative journey and insights
- **FAQ**: Answer common questions from clients and followers
- **Social Integration**: Connect your social media profiles
- **Custom Domains**: Use your own domain name
- **DeepMeta Integration**: Getty/iStock contributors can link their portfolios
---
## Main overview
On creativ.zone you can create your own beautiful personal website (a 'Zone') in a user-friendly way and if you like, all your content has social features built in: likes, comments, shares and collaboration.
Besides the generous free tier, we have paid subscriptions that allow us to maintain and develop creativ.zone. This means we don't need to sell or (ab)use your data. All content is and remains yours, 100%
Not at all. If you can create a post on instagram or facebook, you can create your own content here. No coding or design required.
Although anyone is warmly welcome to join, our advanced features are mostly focused on creatives: photographers, designers, models, bloggers, etc. The website you create is a 'Zone' in the social fabric we create, allowing interaction and collaboration.
Yes. We encourage you to just create one single Login for yourself. You can create as many Zones as you like. One for yourself and your personal interests, one for your photography and others for a group trip you organize, or your country music band.
Absolutely not. We strongly believe in coexistence and collaboration. Every service has its strengths and we'll create integrations with many other services you're already using.
## Account
Please contact us by email: info@creativ.zone. We'll immediately take care of it and delete all your data, in conformity with legislation
Yes, but this is not yet possible here at the website. Please contact us by email: info@creativ.zone
## Blog Posts
We're really thrilled to see creativ.zone members joining from across the globe.
By providing a UI in many languages we hope to lower the barrier for creatives around the world to share and participate in our ambitious project.
## Language Selector
## Why these languages?
Easy. We pulled up the list of most common languages in our website statistics and took the top 20 (in addition to American English, the site default).
We already knew we have a ton of fans in Thailand (สวัสดี!), but now we've discovered a new fanbase in Indonesia (Halo!). Adding new languages is easy now, so let us know if you feel left out.
## For those interested: some history
For the [DeepMeta](https://deepmeta.com) project, which is a privileged partner to creativ.zone, we went truly international in August 2017, supporting 8 different languages for its User Interface, later expanded to 10. Making software truly international is specialized work and requires dedication and patience.
We've learned a lot from the localization system used in [DeepMeta](https://deepmeta.com). The main challenge was the bureaucracy involved in obtaining the translations. More specifically, it was the updates that were a challenge.
Whenever we added a new feature to the software, changes were needed across the codebase. We then had to extract the new or changed phrases and send them off for translation to our localization service.
This consisted of a network of freelancers, who would then each (one translator per language) be handed a handful of phrases to translate. For the translator, these came out of context. The income they got from this did not justify spending time to get reacquainted with the software and its specific terms, resulting in inconsistent translation of commonly used terms. Next, the translations would come in by email one by one, and we had to refit them in the software. Sometimes the translator did not respect the technical requirements, and changed tags that were not supposed to be changed.
It would be fair to say that this actually posed a brake on the amount of UI rework we wanted to do for a feature. As soon as a feature was ready, we wanted to share it with our users, but the translation roundtrip had to be done first, breaking the momentum.
And this is only the software side. Changes to documentation and website content were even more of a challenge. How do you detect that 2 paragraphs were changed and 1 was added to a webpage? How do you communicate this with the translator, without needing them to re-translate all involved paragraphs again?
## Enter creativ.zone and AI
For creativ.zone translations we wanted to learn from our experience with the [DeepMeta](https://deepmeta.com) project, and make internationalization a painless process. I think we succeeded! And how...
I know... I know, as creatives, we all have an ambivalent relationship with AI. It's threatening to steal our jobs, taking the most fun part of our business (creativity) out of our hands, and yet...
Raise your hands, those of you who don't ask ChatGPT a question now and then, and be honest... more and more of us do...
The translation engine for creativ.zone was built by us from the ground up. Not because we think we're better than all those library authors who offer comprehensive localization solutions. It's because the devil is in the details. The challenge is not turning every phrase in the software and documentation into a "translatable unit", though that is a huge task, only palatable to the most patient and dedicated among us. The real problem to be solved is managing the changes and how to deal with them.
## A completely new approach
The solution we came up with is what's called a "functional approach". The framework used for the creativ.zone web app, "React", is functional as well: it starts from "state": your user data, and all the rest, including the User Interface, is just a transformation of that state. It makes something intangible, like a Sale or Upload, into a visual panel, button, or text. If the state changes, the thing you see on screen changes as well.
We've hooked the translations into this same philosophy. The moment we change a single word in the User Interface or documentation, it will result in 20 new translated versions, incorporating the new word correctly and in context.
We've been testing this novel approach for the last few weeks and are absolutely thrilled with its performance.
Very true, of course: AI translations are not perfect. But may we say that the disconnected translations we got back from our translation freelancers were flawed as well?
Not to mention the price. We are now effectively translating tens of thousands of words in creativ.zone into 20 languages. Using our original translation service, this would have cost us tens of thousands of dollars. With AI, the cost is lower than $50!
## Feedback
As with any feature in this platform, planning and developing functionality is our passion, and we deeply care about how it works for you. Languages are no different. So: does the AI translation work for you, or is it a cringy dystopian mess? Be honest and [let us know](/contact)!
Also, if you see some English text popping up that still appears to be untranslated, please [report it](/contact) as well. Thanks!
Welcome to this mysterious new corner of the internet! I'm sure you're curious about what this is all about. You're here after all ;) When you join creativ.zone, you essentially get your own "social website". Here's what this means:
## The Internet
Basically we can split up the ongoing history of the internet into three distinct periods:
- Ever since the invention of the world wide web in 1989 up to the turn of a new millennium in 2000, companies and individuals would have a thing called a "website". You either needed to have the money to hire a developer to make you one or be a geeky nerd yourself
- In 2004, the era of social networks emerged with the advent of Facebook, soon followed by YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. These platforms gained immense popularity because they empowered everyone to become creators and publishers. No longer did you need to be tech-savvy or wealthy; a simple "post, like, and subscribe" made it accessible to all. Even companies and governments shifted their focus from websites to social media, recognizing that this is where the public was. Quite appropriately, in 2006, Time Magazine's proclaims that you — users who are transforming the Internet — are the person of the year:
- Fast forward to the 2020s: we now witness a shift from ownership to "usership." We subscribe to cars, steps, food delivery, streaming services, and various other platforms that offer us additional capabilities, such as photo uploads, Twitter blue badges, ad-free YouTube experiences, personalized blogging sites, Linktree for bios, webshops, file storage, and file transfer, among others. In the process, we share our data and identities relentlessly across these services, often becoming products and mere targets for advertising purposes.
## Imagine
Just imagine having a single place you can call your own, where you can:
- Publish your data and allow others to access it.
- Be in full control of permissions and access levels.
- Effortlessly remove anything you no longer wish to share.
- Access your digital identity and data with just one sign in.
- Direct people to this space for information and interaction.
- Have everything you share or publish become part of your social network, if you like.
- Choose whether likes, comments, and subscriptions are enabled as per your preferences.
- Use your location to connect with others nearby.
In essence, this is what we call a "social website." You become the "creator," and we provide you with your very own "zone" on the network, where you can decide whether or not to connect with others. Thus, the name "creativ.zone" perfectly captures the spirit of our platform. It's all about empowering you and giving you the freedom to shape your digital presence exactly the way you desire.
## Creativ.zone - Ambitious yet Realistic
At creativ.zone, we have bold ambitions while maintaining a realistic approach:
- Ambitious, because our vision includes offering a wide array of diverse services.
- Realistic, because we have no intention of replacing dedicated services that have been around for years. We know you won't be abandoning Instagram or Youtube. Instead, creativ.zone will seamlessly integrate with these platforms. Our goal is to provide you with just the right amount of functionality for each service within your zone - your personal social website. Our unique advantage lies in having all these services perfectly integrated and easily accessible in one place: your place, where they belong.
If you find this concept still a bit abstract, we invite you to explore our [Roadmap](/features/roadmap), where you can see what we're working on and what's next..
You might notice that only a few features have been implemented thus far, but that's the nature of "Early Access", isn't it? Rest assured, we've built the platform and couldn't wait to have you onboard! That's how important you are to us.
To kickstart our journey, we've focused on developing the "Bio-site" functionality, essentially serving as the first page of your social website. The rest will follow sooner than you might think.
Thank you for checking us out, and we eagerly await your questions and comments!
Gratefully, The creativ.zone Team
Let's talk about Linktree and why it might not be the right fit for you. Linktree is an online service that helps you manage your social media and market yourself. Basically, it lets you create a mini landing page that you can put in your social media bio. That way, you can share multiple links, even on platforms that limit how many you can add.
But here's the thing: Linktree was the first, but now there are tons of copycats popping up every week. I'm talking about solo, beacons, Linkin.Bio, Taplink, Tap.Bio, Lnk.Bio, withkoji, Linkpop, superlinkme, biosites, Shorby, Bio.fm, everlinks, campsite.bio, linkpop... and the list goes on! Seriously, the naming game is getting pretty wild with Smashballoon.
With so many options out there, it's clear that people want these kinds of services, right? You bet they do!
::: info TL;DR
If you're in a hurry or well aware of the drawbacks mentioned above, feel free to jump straight to the end for our alternative solution!
:::
## 1. An extra step in your audience's journey
Imagine this scenario: You have a visitor on your Instagram profile who decides to click your Linktree link. Here's what unfolds:
- First, they get redirected to a mini-page that greets them with the all-too-familiar cookie popup, and maybe even an "agree to terms and conditions" checkbox. Annoying, right?
- Next, they're faced with a list of options to choose from, all looking quite similar. It's like that overwhelming moment when you encounter too many similar choices and your brain freezes up. They even have a name for it: "decision paralysis."
- Only after summoning the courage to click one of the links or icons do they finally reach the site you intended for them to visit. But there's a catch: not everyone makes it that far!
Unfortunately, this intermediary step introduced by Linktree and its counterparts can have a negative impact on your SEO, aka Search Engine Optimization. You know, the vital factor that helps you get discovered on search engines? Well, thanks to Linktree, the connection between Instagram and the final destination clicked by your visitor remains invisible to search engines. And guess who reaps the benefits? You guessed it—Linktree, not you!
So, before you fully embrace Linktree or similar services, think twice about the added complexity it brings to your audience's journey and the potential SEO drawbacks. After all, you want to ensure a seamless experience for your visitors while maximizing your own visibility in search engine results.
## 2. Limited visitor statistics
When it comes to these Linktree alternatives, you'll often find yourself with a meager set of statistics, and guess what? The valuable insights are usually reserved for the paying customers. You're left with just the number of clicks on each link, and that's about it. No information on the visitor's origin, their subsequent actions after clicking the link, or any other meaningful data. It's frustrating because all those valuable insights end up in Linktree's hands, not yours.
## 3. Costly Subscription for Limited Features
Take a moment to glance at your monthly credit card statement, and you might reach the same conclusion as me: an array of subscriptions devouring a significant portion of your income, month after month. It leaves you wondering if these expenses are truly worth it.
Let's be real here. Are you willing to shell out up to $39 per month just for a minuscule page that links to your Instagram and OnlyFans? It's a hefty price to pay for what seems like a simple service.
## 4. Branding Takes a Backseat
When it comes to most Linktree alternatives, you'll find that branding takes a backseat. There's very little offered in terms of customization that truly reflects your unique identity. From color schemes to fonts, logos to images, the options are often limited, even if you opt for a paid version.
Your online presence deserves to stand out and be recognizable, but with these solutions, your branding can easily get lost somewhere along the way.
So, before committing to Linktree or similar services, weigh the cost against the features provided and consider whether they truly align with your branding needs.
## So, what's the solution to all these limitations and frustrations?
The solution is right within your reach: your very own website. Yes, the concept that came to life way back in 1989. [Check out the web's history here](https://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/).
Now, you might be thinking, "But building a website requires technical skills and nerd-level knowledge!" Well, here's a newsflash: things have changed. We're now in the era of "Web v3," and the power is in your hands. With a few form fill-outs and a couple of clicks, you can have a fully functional and interactive website.
So, where do you put those precious Linktree links? Simple—on the home/landing page of your website. No longer are you limited to a few generic-looking links and icons. You can showcase anything you want: your latest blog posts, your recent image uploads, your calendar, and more.
The best part? When visitors click on a link, they stay on _your_ website. This not only enhances user experience but also catches the attention of search engines like Google, boosting your website's ranking.
Now, you might be wondering about website builders. While there are several options out there, many of them are still complex and challenging to use. How do I know? Well, if they were truly user-friendly, most of us would have our own websites by now, right? And no, I'm not referring to that neglected Wix page you set up ages ago and forgot about.
It's quite absurd that even after decades since the birth of the web, not all of us have a website. Instead, we find ourselves ensnared by the monolithic social media platforms that consume our content, emotions, and friendships, offering little in return besides a few likes and fleeting dopamine rushes.
At creativ.zone, one of our goals is to reclaim the web, allowing everyone to create and manage their own content in a single place that's easy to handle and exciting to explore. It might sound ambitious, but we stay grounded. We have no intention of replacing any of the existing services mentioned here. After all, each of them specializes in something unique that we may never offer. If you need that one killer feature, feel free to utilize those specialized platforms.
But for the rest of us who prefer simplicity and want to manage everything in one central location, creativ.zone is definitely worth a look!
Oh, and don't worry—we also understand the importance of social networks. We can't ignore their presence, and let's be honest, many of us are addicted to the social interactions they facilitate. That's why creativ.zone integrates social features like liking, commenting, and subscribing. We offer you "your social website"!
And yes, we'll have integrations with the major social networks too. After all, nobody lives on an island, and connecting different services is one of the fundamental principles of the web.
So, while our offerings may seem grandiose, rest assured that we remain down-to-earth. We have no desire to replace any of the existing services. Instead, we aim to provide a unified solution for those of us who tend to use only a fraction of the features offered by various platforms but would love to manage it all in one place.
If that sounds like you, then creativ.zone is definitely worth exploring!
## A Brief Historical Overview
AI has been in existence for several decades, often accompanied by grand promises but yielding underwhelming results. Initially, the intelligence in AI systems was heavily "programmed" by developers, leading to "narrow AI" that excelled in one specific task but failed miserably in others.
However, in recent times, significant breakthroughs have revolutionized AI into an entirely different beast. Today's AI is effectively a digital replica of the human brain, functioning in a similar manner. Just like a newborn, an "AI brain" starts as a blank slate, eagerly awaiting knowledge and skills to be instilled. Like raising a child, "training" an AI brain is a process of nurturing and education. It is fed copious amounts of data taken from the internet, creating internal connections that represent knowledge. This knowledge, like patterns in our brains, enables the AI to recognize and respond accordingly.
Thanks to major advancements in large-scale electronics, AI brains now boast an impressive number of interconnected nodes, far surpassing the capacity of the human brain. Simultaneously, these AI brains are being inundated with staggering volumes of information. Imagine having the ability to read every book ever written in any language and retain all that knowledge indefinitely!
## Wonderful and Scary
The truly remarkable - yet simultaneously unsettling - aspect of AI lies in its capacity to transcend factual knowledge. Just like our own brains, the AI brain exposes "creativity". Yes it does! When faced with difficult questions, it can engage in a form of imagination, often referred to as "hallucinating." A perfect example of this lies in the digital images generated by AI platforms like Midjourney and DALL-E. These images may deceive you into believing they are cleverly stitched fragments of pre-existing artwork "borrowed" from the internet. While it's true that the AI uses these elements, the generated images go beyond just stitching; they come to life through a genuinely "creative" process similar to that of human minds. Remember, the AI brain is essentially a replica of our own human brains.
Understanding the profound implications of such powerful AI in the years ahead is crucial. For creators such as painters, photographers, and designers, the impact will be unprecedented. Some liken this phase to the emergence of photography and its disruption to the world of painting. However, AI represents an entirely novel and alien intelligence. It's as if echoing the sentiment of the well-known song "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" (from the 1946 musical "Annie Get Your Gun").
Yet, let us not dwell on pessimism. Human-created art will always find its place and significance. Nonetheless, the advent of AI cannot be halted; we'll have to learn to "coexist" whether we like it or not. The future promises to be both challenging and inspiring as we navigate this remarkable relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence.
## The Impact of AI: Immediate Consequences
In our view, the most significant short-term challenges posed by AI are as follows:
- Flooding of AI-generated content and art on the internet, making it increasingly difficult to discover and appreciate our own authentic, painstakingly crafted creations. Even renowned artists are already grappling with this issue, and it's just the beginning. Refer to the box below for artist Greg Rutkowski's haunting experience with AI art.
- A profound erosion of trust within our society, leaving us unsure about what to believe, what's genuine, and what's fabricated. This pervasive uncertainty blurs the lines between reality and illusion, creating a crisis of confidence that affects us all.
::: info Greg Rutkowski - digital artist
"My name has been used as a prompt in AI tools that generate art more than 400,000 times since September 2022 - but without my consent. That's more than Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci!"
"The first month I discovered this, I realised it will clearly affect my career and I won't be able to recognise and find my own works on the internet. The results will be associated with my name, but it won't be my image. It won't be created by me. So it will add confusion for people who are discovering my works."
"All that we've been working on for so many years has been taken from us so easily with AI. It's really hard to tell whether this will change the whole industry to the point where human artists will be obsolete. I think my work and future are under a huge question mark."
:::
## Creativ.zone's Approach to AI-Generated Content
At Creativ.zone, we hold the utmost respect for the hard work of creatives, and it is our top priority to ensure transparency and recognition for their efforts. To achieve this, we have implemented a policy demanding the clear labeling of AI-generated content for anyone posting on our platform.
When content has been generated by AI, it must be distinctly identified as such. During the upload process, there will be a designated check-box specifically for this purpose. Failure to mark AI-generated content appropriately may result in the loss of upload rights.
Now, you might wonder, what exactly constitutes "AI-generated content"? For instance, let's consider an image where a minor imperfection was removed using a tool like Photoshop's "generative fill". We do not categorize such alterations as "AI-generated" since retouching images has been part of photography from its inception.
To set a clear guideline, we've decided on a middle ground:
::: info Guideline
Content, whether it be text, images, illustrations, etc., that was generated using AI for more than 50% of its creation, must be explicitly labeled as "AI generated" at creativ.zone.
:::
## Choose to Protect Your Art from AI
As we explored in the historical overview earlier in this post, the infant "AI brain" requires extensive data training, which raises a contentious issue: where do AI companies obtain all this data? The answer is through massive web scraping of internet pages. In their fervent pursuit of fame and fortune, regrettably, many of these companies overlook respecting the copyrights of content and art creators, using their work to nourish their AI "baby" without permission—akin to taking the baby food from _your_ refrigerator without asking.
Thankfully, creators are increasingly becoming aware of this unethical behavior and are seeking ways to halt it. While it's still early in the process, a standard has been established for marking content as "not allowed to be used for training AI."
At creativ.zone, we take this matter seriously and have chosen to label all content on our platform with "noai" and "noimageai" tags. Ethical AI companies will honor this designation and refrain from using your work. However, it's important to acknowledge that some "less ethical" entities still exist, unfortunately constituting the majority.
We'll keep exploring new methods to safeguard your intellectual property and protect your art from being exploited by AI without your consent.
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As this wild AI-ride continues to evolve and unfold in the upcoming months and years, we will update and refine this policy accordingly. We encourage you to stay tuned for further developments and adjustments as we take this exciting journey together.
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## Links
- [Full Help Center](https://creativ.zone/help-center): Browse all documentation and guides
- [Sign Up](https://creativ.zone/signup): Create a free creativ.zone account