# How to promote yourself?



## Glor666 (Jun 13, 2016)

Ok I know it might sound egocentrically but I honestly dunno how. It's not like I want to be super popular and bask in the spotlight but it really is depressing for artist to know that no one is interested in what you do XD I see so many artist with over 5k watchers (WOW HOW) and I'm stuck on 100 for a year. Please don't say - "it's cause your art is shitty, practice some more". I'm pretty much aware of my skills, I'm not SUPER professional but I'm also not a begginer. It kinda feels sad when I do a commission and see how many favourites it gets on commissioner's profile while I don't even get one comment. I don't want to sound salty, I'm thankful to all my commissioners, I never saw them posting my art without credits, they are always kind and easy to work with, but it just makes me sad that people who see art in their gallery fav it and never care to visit artist. I am aware that I still need lots of work, but again, without feedback it's hard to improve. How the hell should I know that I'm doing something wrong when no one comments. 
So guys. What to do. Spam the forums with sad stories how miserable I am? (like now, lol) I just want to know if what I do is a HOT or NOT.


----------



## Niku chan ~ (Jun 13, 2016)

Lol we're on the same boat sister xD

I made some freebies on facebook and it turned out pretty well. I guess you've gotta just keep trying nwn


----------



## Glor666 (Jun 13, 2016)

I don't feel the free art thing, I mean, I'd love to give a freebie to a person who likes my art, is active as a watcher (doesn't need to buy a commission but at least comment once in a while), but I feel that there is LOTS of people who just search for raffles/freebies and then just disapear. I'd like to open a patreon for such kind of things (like, u know for $5 you could get all the WIPs I do and sketches plus a place in a monthly raffle) but I don't want people to be like.. DUH gurl has 100 watchers and is opening a patreon. She has some nerve. Life is hard sister. Life is hard.


----------



## Niku chan ~ (Jun 13, 2016)

Yup, maybe some art trades with some well known artists?
I mean I'm mostly a hobbyst so I've really never tried to do this or to promote myself proffesionaly. But I've got a coupple of friends who have done so and I think most of them just started out with requests and such >w< 

Yup it is, we the unpopular suffer lol


----------



## Glor666 (Jun 13, 2016)

If only the popular artist vere open for trades XD


----------



## lockaboss (Jun 13, 2016)

you kill the next in line


----------



## Niku chan ~ (Jun 13, 2016)

XDDD it'd give us the mortals an easier path to follow but then again, in my best friend's words "life's not fair, gotta get used to it". I think if you keep on posting your drawings you'll get there eventually! Your art is really cool so *^*/


----------



## lockaboss (Jun 13, 2016)

thank you your so nice


----------



## ZacAttackk (Jun 13, 2016)

Saaaaaame. I get so jealous and salty when someone, who doesn't even draw and just uploads art made by someone else for them, has like 10x my followers xD


----------



## Niku chan ~ (Jun 13, 2016)

Lol true, I don't mind cool writers, fursuiters, musicians etc... Having lots and lots of followers

But re-uploaders... XD just why?


----------



## Glor666 (Jun 13, 2016)

@lockaboss you're a cute troll. I warmly welcome you. I thought about killing everyone who's better than me but sadly, I don't live in Norway, I couldn't post my art from prison in here. 

@ZacAttackk I'm not even mad at them, cause it's not like they do anything wrong. They bought the art, want to show it, and even credit the artist saying nicely to visit their page, but people just dont bother. 

@Niku chan ~ Yeah, I guess I'm gonna do what I did so far, cause I love to draw and I like what I do. I just somethimes get this feeling like, I'm worst at what I do best and get this huge art block cause of that >n<


----------



## Niku chan ~ (Jun 13, 2016)

We've all had those horrid artblocks xD
I had a huge one last month until one of my father's friends (who is a famous painter in my country) told me to remember art was all about what I wanted to express, and that I should do it only if I want to do it! That kinda made me not-worry about whether people like it or mot, cause as long as I'm having fun doing it is enough *^*


----------



## lockaboss (Jun 13, 2016)

yyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy iiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmm cccccccccccccccuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


----------



## darien (Jun 13, 2016)

I'm pretty sure I've said something like this somewhere before in a similar thread on the forums- but the most important thing you can do to get noticed is be active! The more you upload your art the more time you have on the front page and the more exposure your art gets. People see something that looks interesting and they click on it for the large version, then (sometimes) browse the gallery. Even if they don't, the next time they click on something they like and it happens to be yours, they're more likely to recognize that they've seen your name or style before. Increasing your watchers isn't just about quality, but exposure.

To that end here are just a few of many additional ways you can increase your exposure:

- Have more than one art-site and link between them. Many artists have two or more accounts they upload to including but not limited to sites like FA, a DA, Weasel, FN, Tigerdile, etc and link their other art-site accounts on their profile for each site.

- Streaming is also a great way to increase your exposure, and it helps you communicate with your followers- which comes with it's own slew of benefits, not the least of which is learning what they like about your art. Popular sites for this include but arn't limited to Picarto, Twitch, ustream, tigerdile, etc.

-Hold events! Be it freebies, raffles, in-stream prizes, etc.

-Draw popular characters! Krystal, Judy Hopps, MLP, digimon, pokemon, minerva mink, sally acorn, etc. People search for the popular furry characters quite often. Which brings me to my next point.

-Tag your submissions! Tag them as frequently and accurately as you can. If you do a picture of babs bunny, you don't want to just label it with the characters name, you'll want to include tags like the type of art (digital, traditional, 3d, cell shaded, etc.) as well as any applicable tags which may include things like: bunny, rabbit, boobs, lapine, long ears, bow, skirt, pink, female, cotton-tail, and anything you may have in the background. Describing the action or pose in the scene can help too! The more appropriate tags you have for your pictures the more likely people are to come across it in related searches.

- Consider doing collaborations and trades, this is a great way to cross-promote your art with your fellow artists! Their watchers get to see your art, and visa-vera! In the case of collabs, this can also be beneficial to you as an artist in your ongoing quest to improve.


----------



## Glor666 (Jun 13, 2016)

Thanks. That's a nice piece of advise  
The thing I need to work on is for sure the amount of art I publish. I tend to be picky when it comes to what I want to show and what not. And I never did popular fanart. I do like, games I play but they aren't rly popular XD BUT DAMN I never thought about drawing Minerva. God bless you. Now I wanna draw her , why I never did that I don't know, gurl is damn cute and sexy and that is my thing.
As for streaming. Made few, posted bout them on forums/gave journals/on FA/sofury/weasyl and there was LITERALLY ONE person who came. I just feel I need to promote it more, post about it and spam like everywhere but I don't want to look like attention whore. I know it sounds like I'm one already but it feels awkward for me. Like you know, standing there waving a flag and screaming COME HERE WATCH ME PRISE ME. There is this thing, I don't want to be underrated but I also don't want to seem overweening. Do you ever get this feeling? Like the artist is trying too hard? Making you tired?


----------



## darien (Jun 13, 2016)

Glor666 said:


> Thanks. That's a nice piece of advise
> The thing I need to work on is for sure the amount of art I publish. I tend to be picky when it comes to what I want to show and what not. And I never did popular fanart. I do like, games I play but they aren't rly popular XD BUT DAMN I never thought about drawing Minerva. God bless you. Now I wanna draw her , why I never did that I don't know, gurl is damn cute and sexy and that is my thing.
> As for streaming. Made few, posted bout them on forums/gave journals/on FA/sofury/weasyl and there was LITERALLY ONE person who came. I just feel I need to promote it more, post about it and spam like everywhere but I don't want to look like attention whore. I know it sounds like I'm one already but it feels awkward for me. Like you know, standing there waving a flag and screaming COME HERE WATCH ME PRISE ME. There is this thing, I don't want to be underrated but I also don't want to seem overweening. Do you ever get this feeling? Like the artist is trying too hard? Making you tired?



Minerva is indeed quite the looker, as are a number of other often-forgotten but still very well known characters.

I personally don't care about having my art seen or not and would actually prefer to not get too much attention. As such - I'm forever pruning my gallery down, deleting older submissions, not uploading new ones, using scraps, not tagging stuff properly, etc. Don't get me wrong, I've got a few good long-term watchers who are sweet, kind, thoughtful, and even sometimes join the rare stream just to hang out- and I do appreciate them. In fact, I tend to try and reward them rather than hold events for new watchers. I also tend to remove art that gets too much attention as some of it is invariably creepers or otherwise undesirable self-entitled asshats. So while I don't get the feeling myself, I do think I can sympathize with how you must feel and I think it's perfectly natural for most people to want some form of recognition for their hard work.

If you want to grow your fanbase as far as streaming goes, having a set schedule and doing it on a regular basis (at least once a week) and sticking with it should net you better results. It'll be slow at first, but as long as you are fairly consistent with it, people will trickle in over time- some will stick around and some won't. On the rare ocassion I stream- unless it's part of a multi it's usually only 1-6 people. I'm okay with this as being in a stream with 40+ while trying to do any sort of art can get quite hectic and unimaginably distracting. Now that I'm on the topic, I should mention that multi-streaming with friends and fellow artists is another good way to increase your exposure.

Nobody starts off with a massive following- and if they do- it's because they've recently moved from another account that they had previously built up a following on. On a side note- I'll never understand people that are perpetually switching accounts. I just don't get the rationale. That said, switching accounts will almost always have an at least marginally negative effect on your following- so try not to do it too often.


----------



## Glor666 (Jun 13, 2016)

Well as I said, it's not like I try to have over 9000 watchers cause then it's just impossible to have a conection with them. I just find it hard to get any feedback, not only the watchers but also favs and comments. 
Anyway, thanks for the advise. I do agree on the part with freebies. I don't want to give them to people who just come for free art and press +watch to be taken in consideration when applying. I want to reward people who appreciate my art. I think holding raffles while streaming would be good idea. I try to schedule my streams and see if it helps.


----------



## Niku chan ~ (Jun 13, 2016)

Glor666 said:


> Well as I said, it's not like I try to have over 9000 watchers cause then it's just impossible to have a conection with them. I just find it hard to get any feedback, not only the watchers but also favs and comments.
> Anyway, thanks for the advise. I do agree on the part with freebies. I don't want to give them to people who just come for free art and press +watch to be taken in consideration when applying. I want to reward people who appreciate my art. I think holding raffles while streaming would be good idea. I try to schedule my streams and see if it helps.


 
Yup that sounds like a nice idea, if you wver want to make a stream together I'd be willing to give something out for your followers as well owo


----------



## PrismaKitty (Jun 15, 2016)

This is a pretty great thread. A lot of good advice floating around. I agree with posting as often as possible. I usually get at least 1 follower every time I post a finished piece. ( sometimes I don't, but eh, who's counting?) The only time I find it hard to do this is during school when I'm slammed with school work.
One method I've heard is effective: If you're in a great drawing mood and you draw multiple things in one day, you can split up posting the art so that you post one every  day until you run out. That way you have something being posted fairly often.
But, yeah...It is rough to see people reposting and getting way more response than the original artists. :/
I've also been meaning to do more fan art.


----------



## redhusky (Jun 15, 2016)

Think if you actually want to be know. I try to keep a low profile myself because when I did try to get some glitter I attracted nothing but crazies and flakes.


----------



## rjbartrop (Jun 16, 2016)

Some people just don't have a lot of watchers, so of course anything posted there isn't going to get much attention.  It's not a reflection on your work.  That someone thought enough of your work to hire you is no small thing.

Just being more outgoing helps a lot, though if you go around plastering links on other people's pages, that's a good way to alienate people really fast.  If they're curious they will click on your icon.  Banner ads on FA are relatively cheap, and are very good at bringing new people to your page.

However, once you have their attention, there does have to be something to look at.  I know you don't want to hear this, but there are a lot of amazing artists on FA who are also competing for attention, so you do have to bring something special to the game.   It's always worth it to cast a critical eye on your own work, and maybe see what could be done better.  Believe me, no matter how good people think they are, then can always be better.


----------



## Glor666 (Jun 17, 2016)

Well that's pretty obvious that you can always be better but as I said, feedback from others is the best way to find out what to improve. I see comments under my drawing on commissioners page but rarely in my gallery. Even plain simple "i like this i like that" helps cause what I hear is "I did good on that part must work harder on other". Luckly I still get feedback from friends and it's not "omghs you so great". 
I don't want to link my account on other's profiles cause that feels a little bitchy to me. People come there for their art not someone else's promotion. I tried buying ad but then this thing with hakers started and I didnt get any reply even  after sending reminders  I gues karma hates me. I must have eaten kitten in my previous life.


----------



## sebv2 (Jun 18, 2016)

I tried making a journal asking for requests or suggestions from people to practice and promote myself a little, but after a week no one took notice. So maybe I was promoting myself the wrong way, or not enough. I thought some of my watchers would suggest things if I made a journal, but maybe I have to promote stuff on forums or somewhere else.


----------



## Deleted member 82554 (Jun 18, 2016)

Draw porn, that'll get you popular real fast.


----------



## sebv2 (Jun 18, 2016)

Mr. Fox said:


> Draw porn, that'll get you popular real fast.



XD so I've heard, I kind of want to try that eventually, i have both fetish and non fetish characters I can use, plus people are always looking for porn of there own characters.


----------



## rjbartrop (Jun 20, 2016)

Glor666 said:


> Well that's pretty obvious that you can always be better but as I said, feedback from others is the best way to find out what to improve. I see comments under my drawing on commissioners page but rarely in my gallery. Even plain simple "i like this i like that" helps cause what I hear is "I did good on that part must work harder on other". Luckly I still get feedback from friends and it's not "omghs you so great".
> I don't want to link my account on other's profiles cause that feels a little bitchy to me. People come there for their art not someone else's promotion. I tried buying ad but then this thing with hakers started and I didnt get any reply even  after sending reminders  I gues karma hates me. I must have eaten kitten in my previous life.



Like I said, don't stick links all over other people's page, this is bad.  However, every time you comment on another person's work, or participate in a forum or a journal,  your iconis going  to be there, and people will click.   If what they find catches their fancy, they will share with their friends, and they will want to check it out too.


----------



## Glor666 (Jun 21, 2016)

Mr. Fox said:


> Draw porn, that'll get you popular real fast.


I DO DRAW PORN! There is so much porn no one care anymore baby. You need to do more than just butts boobs and dicks. And I don't feel this desperate to do rly funky kinks.


----------



## darien (Jun 21, 2016)

Going to reiterate this one- half decent art of popular characters will get plenty of attention, sometimes both good and bad. In either case that's exposure. Here's a good example- I've been working on a Renamon model for some time now, I recently held a very small raffle open only to people who were watching prior to the raffles announcement. When all was said and done I uploaded 4 images of the model to FA (and another site) and within 24 hours I had an additional 13 watchers and 78 favs FA alone, even more on another site. Now that may not seem like a lot to a popular artist, but for someone that isn't particularly good, isn't very active, doesn't have a large existing following, isn't often open for commissions, doesn't upload regularly, goes through long periods without uploading anything at all, generally doesn't tag things properly when they do upload, and often removes their submissions- that's quite a bit. Seriously, consider drawing a few popular characters if you're trying to increase your exposure. I wasn't- but the result was there anyway. 



> I tried making a journal asking for requests or suggestions from people to practice and promote myself a little, but after a week no one took notice. So maybe I was promoting myself the wrong way, or not enough. I thought some of my watchers would suggest things if I made a journal, but maybe I have to promote stuff on forums or somewhere else.


If you're looking to improve or struggling with something, good critique can be a very valuable tool, but is seldom had out of the blue. Most of the time unsolicited critique (which is rude as hell by the way) points out things the artist is already well aware of, and provides nothing useful in terms of how to do better. If you want good critique, you'll have to go looking for it. There are plenty of critique sub-forums across various sites, including this one, and while that is one avenue, another (my preferred method)is to find an artist, or several- whom are not only better than you at the type of art you do, but also willing to help you improve- be it through honest opinions and crit, redlines (more useful than any crit by itself), sharing techniques, etc. A lot can be learned simply through watching other artists work.

As far as drawing requests goes- if you don't have a lot of exposure you're not likely to get much of a response from journals. Putting that information out there in appropriate places on sites and forums, doing freebie streams, opening a requests forum thread, etc. will probably net at least some interest.



> Draw porn, that'll get you popular real fast.


Yes, sex sells- especially in the furry fandom. One doesn't have to be a porn artist to be successful(Though there can be no denying that it helps.) Many very well kn0wn and popular furry artists make porn, or at least gained a fair following drawing porn. That said, there are also plenty of people who draw porn that struggle to gain any exposure or following. You need only search FA to see that. Just drawing porn is not - by itself- a good way to increase your exposure. Plenty of people do it and they're all competing for attention. With art- being good at what you do helps a lot. so does having a niche- in the case of porn, some artists are well known simply because they draw a lot of one type of fetish, others because they draw a lot of popular/well known characters. None of these things by themselves are likely to get you a large following.


----------



## rjbartrop (Jun 21, 2016)

Don't overlook humour as a way to get attention.   Science fiction and fantasy fans  have traditionally loved to throw money at anything cute or funny, but even on FA, you'll find clean pics with massive amounts of faves and watches, just because it tickled peoples' funnybones.


----------



## darien (Jun 21, 2016)

rjbartrop said:


> Don't overlook humour as a way to get attention.   Science fiction and fantasy fans  have traditionally loved to throw money at anything cute or funny, but even on FA, you'll find clean pics with massive amounts of faves and watches, just because it tickled peoples' funnybones.


That's an absolutely great point! Myself I've commissioned a few artists for pictures of my OC flailing as a chibi or carameldansen. Humor and Cute are both great ways to get exposure.


----------



## Deleted member 82554 (Jun 22, 2016)

Glor666 said:


> I DO DRAW PORN! There is so much porn no one care anymore baby. You need to do more than just butts boobs and dicks. *And I don't feel this desperate to do rly funky kinks*.


Well that's your problem there. Your typical furfag is a sick twisted fuck, so the more vile the more attention you'll attract.


----------



## Zipline (Jun 22, 2016)

Glor666 said:


> I DO DRAW PORN! There is so much porn no one care anymore baby. You need to do more than just butts boobs and dicks. And I don't feel this desperate to do rly funky kinks.


eww, needs more stomach and legs.


----------



## sebv2 (Jun 22, 2016)

I was thinking about doing some fan art of characters from shows i like, or fan art of other artists characters. Guess every little bit helps. Humor sounds like a fun ideas well. Thanks for the tips guys.


----------



## MarshmallOwl (Jun 26, 2016)

If you have some free money, advertising is a good thing. When I got advert at FA, I got new watchers every day, about 50-70 in a month. Another way is communication. People with a lot of comments at others works, forum posts, facebook talks are more likely to get new watchers. 
Another way besides porn are fetishes. I'm not into feet, but got one commission with foot fetish and it got me few watchers both at FA and InkBunny and another two commissions.


----------



## Journeyful (Jun 28, 2016)

This takes a little bit of an investment, but it probably helps to Artist Alley at conventions. Show up with some nice prints to sell and open yourself for traditional comissions to be done on the spot. Also important to come with freebies that have your site url on them - like stickers.

Additionally, make a brand out of yourself. Your name and the websites you attach to it is effectively your business now. Make sure everything you do with them presence-wise communicates the message you want it to.

Grow a thick skull towards achieving your goals and don't allow any amount of discouragement to prevent you from continuing to peruse the road ahead. At the same time, be prepared to make some changes to your art and how you operate - if you encounter examples of people who are doing what you really want to do, don't be afraid to inject some of their DNA into your own operation. Keep your eyes open and good luck.


----------

