1. The economy: as strange as it may sound, I have found that clients are very much influenced by the state of the economy. The stronger it is, the more happy they are to hire you.
2. The style: sometimes your work may not be quite the right fix for the project. That does not mean it will not be for the next one:-)
3. The taste: it’s a given, that the quality of my illustrations is superb, but sometimes people have different tastes…It’s nothing personal.
4. The pricing: a very important part… Too high…too low (is there such a thing?). Well, my pricing is very flexible (within certain standards), but sometimes when I give a quote, people just disappear. I do not get it. If you think the price is too high, please tell the artist so — there are many ways an illustration can be done, and ways to bring the price down. Just a thought.
5. The location: some clients prefer to work with local artists (I do not get it, but that’s reality)
6. All the other reasons I can not think of right now…

The only thing that bothers me a bit (apart from not getting hired:-), is not getting any reply…not even rejection:-)

I realize that Editors and Art Directors are busy people and they get too many submissions, but hey — this is a business! Send me my rejection!

Speaking of which, today I got a very sweet rejection letter from an Art Rep. Enjoy:-) :

Hello Vlad,

Thank you for sending me the link to view your illustrations. Your work is charming, whimsical and expressive. I can see that you have achieved quite a bit of success already for a diverse group of clients.

Unfortunately, I already represent several illustrators who have a humorous cartoony style and I honestly try very hard to not create much overlap in style within my group of artists. This (combined with the fact that the illustration market here in the states is a bit challenging in the last few years) has caused me to not add any new artists for quite some time. I simply have not been able to keep them as busy as I would like.

Your work is really good - I get submissions daily and yours is among the best I see. So, keep at it. I am confident that you will find a good fit for you!

Best regards,
xxx

1. greeting cards — no surprise here:-)
2. comic strips — second place!
3. construcion logos cartoons — well, that was kind of surprising… I guess I need to make more construction logos

4. hilarious gifs — still a big traffic maker
5. cartoon palm tree — there is just one palm tree illustration, but I guess people need more
6. cartoon ads — my speciality!
7. cartoon t-shirt — I will be making moreof those
8. funny cartoons — yes!
9. cartoon logo — many of those
10. advertising cartoons – as before, my bread and butter!

The following keywords are still strong and bring in a lot of traffic:
11. funny comic strips
12. funny retirement clip art
13. “gif animations”
14. cartoon magazine
15. cartoon strips
16. cartoons designs
17. cell phone cartoon
18. cell phone cartoons
19. computer cartoon logo
20. fish cartoons
21. free funny cartoon pictures cartoon characters
22. funny logos
23. funny newsletter
24. hilarious cartoons
25. hilarious flash
26. newsletter cartoons
27. angel clip art
28. animated “you are the greatest”
29. animated logos and pictures
30. animated video rates
31. animation powerpoint toons
32. answer cartoon question
33. birthday cartoons
34. carribean cartoon logo’s
35. cartoon about a cell phone
36. cartoon advertisement
37. cartoon and xray of human body
38. cartoon character for invitation cards
39. cartoon comic strips
40. cartoon crab pictures
41. cartoon furniture
42. cartoon lions
43. cartoon logo company
44. cartoon logo designer
45. cartoon logos
46. cartoon palm trees
47. cartoon picture of someone in a bath
48. cartoon picture+management
49. cartoon pictures of hawaii
50. cartoon pictures of yacht
51. cartoon rates
52. cartoon road
53. cartoon t shirt designs
54. cartoon t shirts
55. cartoon tshirt
56. cartoon with cell phone
57. cartoons
58. cartoons based in bath
59. cartoons cartoons magazine
60. cartoons characters posters on line print
61. cartoons comic strips/funny
62. cartoons for presentation
63. cartoons for tshirt design
64. cartoons logo
65. cartoons on cell phones
66. cartoons presentation
67. cell phone and cartoons
68. cell phone cartoon animations
69. cell phone images
70. chicken animations
71. clipart animations of cops
72. coca cola advertising
73. comic gif animations
74. comic strips customizable
75. comic strips pictures
76. convienence cartoons
77. cost of high school training for cartoonist
78. create anime logo
79. create cartoon ad agency
80. custom designed comic strips
81. customer service funny cartoons on efficient service
82. diet cartoons
83. easy to draw cartoon dog pictures
84. ecard free animation humor office funny
85. egreeting cards
86. electronic cards
87. evlad.com
88. fitness cartoons
89. free cartoon illustration
90. free chess piece gif humerous
91. funny articles for company newsletters
92. funny cartoon
93. funny cartoon advertisements
94. funny cartoon illustrations
95. funny cartoon sex
96. funny cartoon strips
97. funny cartoon telephone character
98. funny cartoons about marketing
99. funny cartoons for business presentations
100. funny furniture store advertisement
101. funny furniture’s cartoons
102. funny logos images cliparts
103. funny phone cartoons
104. funny presentation cartoons
105. funny shirt logos
106. funny software ecards
107. good employee cartoons
108. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=894935653
109. greeting cards samples pictures
110. hiker cartoons
111. hilarios gif animations
112. hilarious cartoon
113. hilarious characters cartoons
114. hilarious gif animation
115. hilarious gif archive
116. hilarious gif pictures
117. hornet mascot gif
118. how cartoons are created
119. humerous cartoon images
120. humerous disney cartoon pics
121. humorous logos
122. hunter +cartoon
123. illustrations
124. ironic cartoon advertising
125. lesson animations
126. http://www.linkedin.com/in/vladkolarov
127. magazine cartoon
128. magazine cartoons
129. make funny cartoons
130. management cartoon
131. person to person contact pictures or cartoons
132. pictures of a cartoon child
133. pictures of cartoon charaters
134. ping pong animations
135. ping pong cartoons
136. power point animatede cartoons
137. powered by 4images 1.7.1
138. presentation cartoon
139. presentation cartoons
140. price for the cartoon
141. professional humorous cartoons
142. proud cartoons
143. regards ecards
144. retirement graphics funny
145. tarzancartoons
146. travel agency memorable ads
147. travel agents cartoons
148. uoextreme comic gif animations
149. vlad animations
150. vlad kolarov
151. www.evlad.com
152. cartoons characters posters print on line
153. funny cartoon comic strips
154. humorous cartoons
155. palm tree
156. professional funny cartoons
157. related:www.evlad.com/presentation-cartoons
158. retirement clip art funny
159. http://www.twitter.com/evlad/
160. greeting cards pic

For now I have decided to keep the old site too (you can find it here). But if it proves to be pointless, I will remove it.

The biggest challenge is keeping this blog up to date. As you can guess, I am not much of a blogger… Perhaps I should hire an intern?