How do you guys get visibility?

So after about 5 months, I'm back publishing my art on social media.

Considering all my notes, I'm not that hopeful for Facebook, pages are dead weight by now unless you're posting memes, and profiles... well profiles don't fare so well with me just to keep posting art.

Tumblr is a possibility, but quite hit or miss on small amounts, Tweeter only if something is bombing... and Deviant Art is an unpopular drop in a sea of tits, watchers and groups don't really help.

How do you guys get views on your drawings?

 

Woah, lots of thoughtful advices and experience sharing!

This used to work back in the day I did Pokémon strips (which I really should go back on doing, to this day I see some people stealing it now and then).

My problem with dA groups (besides being annoying as hell to list) is that they once worked but now are dry wells of spam. Popular art barely needs it nowadays, so what you're left is competing with about 3k other pictures, used to be a fair game even so, but earlier this year I tried the groups I had which used to be popular and didn't work, would you recommend new groups?

Yeah I'm about to try drawing that browsette thing, I do remember few successes with this, but mostly on facebook.

Oh so this is true? I kinda heard of it as a rumor.

Any rule of thumbs for the forums?

Yeah, lots of marketing articles and channels say it becamea dry well after facebook tried to implement its algorithms on it. I gave it a shot by actually paying it and it was quite disappointing. Also what is the deal with jpgs? Would it be too damn hard for them to just convert it?

The ones I have don't help me anymore, recommend any?

You mean on facebook-instagram? Because I am, I think the only effective way would be if I had put the page on a more commercial profile, which is preferable to the algorithm nowadays.


Okay, time to contribute to this conversation:

Early this year facebook made a better algorithm on how to track things (AKA you know who actually saw it and not just popped up on the feed and people didn't scroll down that far to see it).

My facebook page has 558 likes, and if I leave it on their own (AKA just posting), it succeeds in growing as well as one would expect to plant apples on Venus.

I finally came back to it again and I have about the same popularity i had when I left, which is good, because it means facebook isn't trolling me like some times it actively does.

In 6 hours of posting at the best time of the day for me (midday), I got 1554 people reached, and 57 clicks.

As for interaction overall, I had 49, just keep in mind that this includes shares of my own, which were 23 of them. ANd 3 comments of mine answering people.

Facebook is, unsurprisingly, the best way to go for trends if you want quick clicklybaity things as long as you don't link anything outside their website (use comments for that).

My record on facebook was over 14k views in 2 days by doing some black panther strip well timed.

THE PROBLEM with this is that, while this is perfect for a page of memes to go more or less around this route and grow, art takes a little more polish.

You will get the likes, but commenting and more importantly, sharing, is hard.

Mostly because this reach profit comes only from group sharing. People in groups feel comfortable just looking there and rarely will share your post since they're technically already subscribed to a means to see more of you. Facebook is not exactly a place you want people to see beautiful art, they want to share what is funny.

Had I paid for it, and not did that, I would get about 700 reach in a week, note that posts die down within 3 days or so unless you're lucky.

Facebook is sometimes easy trigger discussion sometimes, but eventually people tire down on this, but groups frown upon asking for shares.

Also unlike deviant art, just because you post something doesn't mean it will even get to people that follow you.

I have little data on Tumblr and even less on instagram, I don't have anything worth mentioning.

I found google+ to be a roulette on how to get followers, if anyone can enlighten me on this I would love it because apparently the algorithm is actually interested in helping you despite having horrible statistics.

As for deviant art... I may need new groups. All what you guys said is true, for me 10, 7 years ago.

This is the highest I ever went for:

https://www.deviantart.com/tsumerai-kyon/art/shYning-pokemon-252053153

And it took me 21 groups, I think.

So yeah, it does work but if you go check my galery... it is quite underwhelming.

Also yeah I'm keeping track of all this data.

 

I draw Pokémon because I enjoy making them in the last 19 years =)

As for the giving up the algorithm thingy... just no.

I'm sorry but, I drew what I want without caring if it would get popular for a long time, and that didn't help me at all in life. I'm not giving the lecture of "you won't do what you want in life", quite the opposite, I'm doing what I want in my life, I'm drawing, and I'm writing. But I won't survive on that if I don't take it as a bussiness soon enough.

Posting here on the forum is fun, I don't expect to get 1k views here, I like Pokémon, and the community is heartwarmingly nice and shares my passion, I like talking about it. In deviant art this can be found sometimes, but not often unless you have a fanbase, going even further on social media, there is no such thing, it very easily falls into a desert with few posts, might as well not bother going there if you just draw for yourself.

Whenever you publish a work that isn't on a big company with a marketing department, being it a book, comics or whatever... the only way you can get money to survive is getting a valuable reach. Even to people that are lucky enough to just get fans as they go along, they smart up and start promoting their patreon, the shares may come naturally to them, but advertising to get revenue does not, so they smart up and say it as much as they can.

I also am doing commissions around my country, as for now, my name is not know, I cannot ask for much, nor I can say my own name will promote their work, if I could, it would make life much easier.

I don't really like sharing on groups, it is boring, but I'm doing because I do love what I make, and I think my art deserves some love, I want people to see and feel wonder, like I feel when I look for art on my own. I want my books to be read, not being some abandoned dust nobody ever heard about.

 

The way you said about focus on what I like felt like drawing Pokémon wasn't something I enjoy.

The talk about my life was done because I was sounding too much like "THIS IS NOT HOW THINGS WORK!" and all serious as if I was being an editor on Shonen jump lol

I do other styles =) I have some concept arts for my book, and I just done illustrations for a book completely out of my comfort zone. Today I also tried some lilypichu-esque style, that was fun, didn't think I could pull it off.

What is one style you think you should try btw?

 

You mean like this?

https://www.deviantart.com/tsumerai-kyon/art/Monokodai-514485136