How to Promote Your Art, Part 1

It's 2013! The apocalypse? It didn't even put a dent in our world. That's not going to stop me from calling this planet "post-apocalyptic" now. It just makes it more fun. It's also the Year of the Snake. May these words bring you and your art good fortune in the days that follow.

Three years ago today, deviantART opened up groups to the public. #The-Art-of-Smoking was founded on that very day, and today's our anniversary. It's time to celebrate! And, since the world just keeps on ticking, it's time to take the world of art to the next level. Your art! Let's talk promotions...

Why promotions are important: Here's a quick one-minute story about a little computer that could... but it didn't. 1985. Movies like "Back to the Future", "Goonies", and "The Breakfast Club". The very first "Calvin & Hobbes" comic appeared in newspapers. The first Nintendo arrived in America. Good times! The death of the great Orson Welles and the loss of Route 66. Bad times! The Macintosh computer had arrived on the scene the year before. It's monochrome display? Not the best... but it had a few fun sounds and the interface was easy to use. The IBM computer had 16 colors and it could beep. Again, not impressive.

1985 brought the Amiga 1000. 4096 colors. Count 'em! So many colors, that Andy Warhol would later refuse to use any other computer for making digital art. It had four stereo sound channels and it had a separate graphics processor for gaming even before the idea of a "video card". The games made for Amiga were only comparable to those found in arcades. To pound the last nail into the coffin, the Amiga was cheap, at about half the cost of a Mac or a PC. Half. It would require ten years for the Mac and the PC to rise to the level that the Amiga started at in 1985.

Where is the Amiga today? In all probability, you do not even know about the computer. The Mac had the famous "1984" commercial, but where was the marketing and promotions for the Amiga? Nowhere. The IBM PC had licenses with schools and other government entities, securing its future with collaboration, but who was the Amiga collaborating with? No one. Commodore assumed that the incredible qualities of the computer itself would do all the work for guaranteeing its success. They were wrong. When they realized they were wrong, they could have changed and began marketing and collaborating. Instead of changing, the company began a slow suicide, eating itself from within. That's how the best and most innovative computer of the '80s died before it could ever get started.

Don't be an Amiga: Some of you already do promotions. Consider this a "fill in the blanks" for any places where you need pointers. Others are comfortable with what they already do, and they're happy with where their art is right now. Then there are also a few of you who know you have something special to offer, and you are thirsty for ways to "break out" in the world. To you few, I say: Welcome! You've come to the right place!

I'm a musician. I've won contests, I've placed as a finalist in other contests, and I have more than eight original albums to my name. I know a lot about promotions. I'll be covering primarily promotions and branding for your core day-to-day art. However, in Part Two, I'll also touch on contest promotions, collaborations, and a few things about content.

Bookmark this article or add it to your favorites. You're going to want to come back to this. And fair warning, matey: you're going to have a lot more other bookmarks and favorites by the time you've finished reading. Come along now...

Dripping submissions - Good to the last drop: Do not submit 20 pieces of art all on the same day. If a watcher sees only one submission from you on the top of a stack, they could delete all 20 just because they do not like the one on top. You lose comments and favorites this way, as watchers will automatically make comparisons between all of your submissions. For those watchers with limited time, this avoids overwhelming them and it increases the chance that they'll keep following you. Submit one at a time. Focus.

Timing, Pt 1 - Hour by precious hour: Do you have a target audience? If not, do you know where most of your watchers are? If most of your watchers are in Europe and America, then submit art at a time when people are awake on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. 9am EST / 3pm GMT is a great time to catch those waking up in America, but before everyone leaves work in Western Europe. You also catch Honk Kong before the city sleeps. Another good time is 3pm EST / 9pm GMT. This article right here is being published before America sleeps, but in time for Europe to wake up and start reading on its smoke break. I'll share it on Facebook and Twitter at 3pm GMT tomorrow to increase exposure. Drip. Drip.

Where's your audience? And, of course, when can you commit to posting?

A word of warning. If there is a lot of competition in your type of art, and assuming you're still building your audience, it is actually better to post during "off-peak" hours when you first start out. Submitting when there is a lot of competition will drown your art in saturation, but submitting during "off" times will increases your exposure.

Timing, Pt 2 - Seize the day! Seize... one day!: Take one day of the week and make it your own. Avoid picking Monday. You don't want your art associated with "Monday Blues"... well, not unless the blues has a lot in common with your art. I've claimed Tuesday for "Tiki Tuesdays", so you can't have that day either. Wait, no... we can share. We'll split the rent. Moving on...

Yes, I am in fact saying to submit only one piece of art each week. Claim a day and make it your own. Your fans and watchers will begin to associate that day with you, and they will start coming directly to you to see the new art you post on that very same day. This spotlights your art. It also frees your time so that you can comment on other art and connect with your fans and with other artists.

Niche Groups; aka, "Location, location, location": You're reading this article. You know what a group is. This is a very focused niche group that supports smoking in the arts. When you submit here, you know that watchers are all interested in various arts that feature smoking. But what about the larger and more wide-ranging groups? The larger groups have many watchers who are there for different reasons. The larger groups also have a lot more submissions, making it easy for your art to get lost in all the others. Whatever your specialties are, find niche groups that support your art. If your art fills more than one niche, or if there's more than one group for your specialty, then submit to all of those niche groups. Our affiliate groups #smoking-art and #Smokey-Artists both support smoking in the arts. Once you submit to your niche groups, then submit to some of the larger "bulk groups" as well.

Where's the best place to find groups for submitting your art to? Right inside your favorites. Browse through your own favorites gallery and find art that is the same as (or similar to) your own art, then look to see what groups they are a part of. You will see a few groups that appear over and over. Those are the ones you're looking for. Join them, read their rules, then begin drip-submitting art to those groups.

If you have a specialty, but there's no niche group to support your specialty, then you're in luck. Start a group for it! The only thing better than finding a niche group to support your art is to found a niche group to support an entire art-form. Seek out other artists who have similar art and invite them to the group. The official FAQ entry on making groups is [Here on deviantART], but you're going to want to bookmark and read Evlydia's "Beginners Guide to Starting Groups". She deserves the DD she was awarded for her article.

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Standing out, Pt 1 - Bold coffee, black, no sugar: Before talking about comments, journals, forums, and all the other deviant networking that pushes promotions on the Net, there is a lot to be said about expressing yourself online. You can be just another voice in the crowd, or you can be yelling loudly, or you can be a unique expression that stands out. In the case of someone who blends in, you'll be ignored unless the person you are talking to does not have a large crowd around them. In the case of someone yelling, it is more likely you will be avoided. But if you stand out without needing to raise your voice, then you're going to make connections and open up conversations. That comes down to what you say, and how you say it.

deviantART supports both bold and italics, and even non-premium members can use them in comments, descriptions, and many different places. In terms of formatting, start with with just bold and italics [Here in the FAQ]. Already use these? Then step it up with underlines, strikes, different fonts, different sizes, _subscripts, ^supscripts, and with many other options. SweetDuke's "dA Guide: Text Formatting" is a priceless resource for formatting examples, as well as where different formats can be used. Adapt more and more formatting tips as you grow. Keep it readable, but keep it interesting.

Standing out, Pt 2 - Not just a pretty smiley: I'm envious of deviantART's ability to use so many different emoticons and in so many different places. Music sites like SoundCloud and Indaba are where I do most of my own promotions, and those sites feel empty and boring after seeing what you can do with deviantART. MOST of you already use smileys here. For those who have not already caught the addiction, then you need to look at the official Emoticon list. You have a link to this list whenever you're writing comments. These, however, are only the beginning. All the big emoticons you see in this journal are PLZ emoticons, everything from large letters, to smileys, to large "thank you" messages, and much more. Highlight the llama that starts this section, then copy it, then paste it into an email or a comment. You will see the code for making these. The #Moar-PLZ-Accounts group is one of the best places to find more of these. Some of the comments on the group and their journal entries have the latest and greatest PLZ emoticons. Before that group, I would reference the plz-accounts profile, and so much thanks to them for trying to organize the insanity that is PLZ emoticons. Some of the best multi-frame PLZ banners, just like the roses below, come from (and are archived by) rose1plz. Check out her profile!


٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ Standing out, Pt 3 - Advanced Smiley Coding & Interweb Imagery; aka, "ASCII": Formatting and emoticons are outstanding when you're promoting on deviantART, but you'll find little support for those when you're promoting on Facebook or other sites. ASCII art is the old school way of making yourself stand out on other sites. One of the best ASCII art articles EVER is [Here on Group #27d]. ASCII isn't for every person and every art style. As with all of these tips, take what suits you and your style, then make them your own.


Standing out, Pt 4 - Avatars n Usernames: No, not airbending. No, not "Dances with Smurfs". It's so basic, that it almost goes without mention, but update your avatar. Your avatar is your face... digitally speaking. It's how people recognize you. Make an avatar, then stick with it. Your watchers lose familiarity when you change your avatar too often. For those of you with premium accounts, consider not changing your username. People have already shared your art. They are linking to you at this very moment. Those links will lead people nowhere if you change your username. If you are going to change your username, warn your watchers with a new deviation and a journal entry, then hold a countdown. There are many different PLZ emoticons and ASCII loading bars that will make countdowns fun... and it keeps people tuned in. A part of promotions is not losing the audience you already have.

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...we will get back to comments and communications in a moment, but first...

The Digital Picture Frame: While physical art galleries are gathering cobwebs, the art scene on the Internet is literally exploding. Perhaps "exploding" is too small a word. Even people who never went to art galleries, galas, exhibitions, or museums are now being exposed to new art every single day. Rarely does anyone take a photo or a painting and frame it, then hang it on a wall in their pad. The new picture frame is the verb "frame" in its most literal sense--how you surround or enwrap your art, how you cast it or frame it, the digital content that encapsulates your art. For those of you who use borders, I'm not talking about those. I'll get to content later. I'm talking about titles, descriptions, categories, keywords, and tagging. This is one of the most important steps, and many artists skip it completely. When you frame your art properly, people searching for art are going to find you. That includes searching on deviantART, or Google Images, or Bing, or otherwise. Without a frame, those people will never find you.

Titles - What's in a name?: The most important part of the frame is the title. Use it on deviantART, Facebook, and everywhere else where you promote your art. This is the first thing Google (and deviantART) considers when running a search. Is your art emotive? Consider using emotive titles like "I Miss You", "Happiness is a Choice", etc. Is your art abstract? Use abstract titles like "Dimensions Interior" or uncommon words like "Lexicon". Do you have a flare for poetry? Then you know what to do. If you photograph landscapes, include the location in the title along with one or two descriptive words. If they relate to your art, you can use partial quotes or song lyrics. But do not submit deviations called "Untitled 4", "Scene", "photo_001", or other non-descriptives. Like your art, the title should be your own expression. "Nondescript" is the complete lack of expression, and artists might as well be hiding their art from search engines when they do this.

Categories - You want me to put this where?: You want other deviants to discover your art? Then you need to pick a category that best fits your art. Is there no category that fits your art? Cry me a river! Did you notice there's no "Digital Art > Music > Trip-Hop" category? Try being a musician on deviantART. Music's not even allowed here. Sometimes, no category will fit your art perfectly; it feels like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Pick the nearest approximation. Other deviants who search or browse the newest submissions will find you this way. Also--and this one is extremely important--you can not be awarded a Daily Deviation unless you are in the correct category. If you're still stuck on what category to choose, go to your favorites and find art that shares some similarities with your own, then look at what category they chose. THERE! That's your category.

Descriptions, Pt 1 - Openers and other pick-up lines: Google only focuses on the first 160 characters of your description. That's the text you see when you run a search on Google. That's your opener. That's where all the flavor needs to be: the location, descriptive words, who (or what) appears in the photo or painting, etc. Get specific, but keep it brief. You can categorize your art as a landscape, but search engines are blind to what is actually inside that landscape. You need to tell them. If there are trees in the landscape, and you really like these type of trees, write in your opening what type of trees they are. If you like cyprus trees, then the only way that other people who like cyprus trees are going to find your photos are if you put it in the title or the opening. Name and link to all your collaborators here. When you are on a site outside of deviantART, instead of naming your collaborators, tag them and link to their social profiles. This promotes both you and your collaborators. With credits or tags in place, you'll round out a solid opening. Everything else in the description is secondary.

Descriptions, Pt 2 - Getting personal; or, "touch me there again": After the opener, give your watchers some history about your piece of art. If you had models, make the models human with words and stories. If you really get into the technical details of a shot, then talk about the tech you used and why you used it. If you make abstract art, then you do not even need to make sense with your descriptions, but you should still have a description that deepens the mystery... or that details the symbolism surrounding your piece of art. If you're photographing landscapes, consider injecting some humor. You already wrote the real location in the opener, so why not invent some fake locations to make people laugh? "New York City, California", "deviantART HQ, Mars", etc. This is a great place for other humorous injections, such as, "After 128 days on the set, we finally had one photo worth saving." You get the idea. It grabs people, gets them reading, and they'll continue reading when they come back for more. Getting personal adds a new dimension to your art--making it more than "just a photo"; it gives your art meaning--and it adds a personal touch that is uniquely "you".

Descriptions, Pt 3 - The missing links: Imagine that you're a talent scout who works for a magazine, a website, a travel journal, or a newspaper. You search Google for art that relates to your magazine, and you find an incredible submission on deviantART. You do not know how deviantART works, so you look in the description for where this artist's portfolio or website is. What happens if they don't find anything? You don't want that to happen. Link to your professional portfolio. Also, get a step ahead and show your official contact info on your portfolio. Along with your portfolio link, include links to your other social networking sites where you promote your art. A person--professional or otherwise--who discovers your art using a search may not have a deviantART account, but it's almost certain they have a Facebook account. If you include those links, you'll keep building your audience, and you'll increase your professional visibility at the same time.

Descriptions, Pt 4 - Never underestimate the power of fluff: Favorite quotes, song lyrics, poetry snippets, math equations... fluff, fluff, fluff. Don't understimate it! You know how, when you see a quote you love, you immediately think, "Hell yes!"? Other people have the same reaction. You already have your favorite songs. Maybe you've even compiled lists of your favorite quotes. If any of those relate to your art, start using them. Some artists include quotes that are not related to their art, or they just include a few lyrics from the song they're listening to when they make the submission. Go with what feels best for you and your art, but never underestimate the power of fluff. People searching online for the quotes or lyrics you use can be introduced to your art simply because you decided to add a little unnecessary "fluff". It happens every day.

Descriptions, Pt 5 - Don't stop the music: If you work with one model on multiple shots, link to the best of those other shots in your description. The same goes for cities and landscapes. Did you ever hear a song and immediately want to hear more by that musician? Of course you have... but what song to listen to next? What if the musician suggested a few songs similar to the one you just heard? The same goes for visual arts. If you don't have a premium account, just include the links. If you have a premium account, include the thumbnails. Another option is to include links to your best pieces of art. Either keep it related, or keep it with the best, but keep it honest; do not just link to random submissions that you've made. Imagine if you heard a great hip-hop song, and then the musician told you to listen to a different type of song from a genre that you hate. Would you listen to any other suggestions that they made? Probably not. To add one final benefit to all this, these links improve your page ranking with Google. The more links to your art, the higher up on the page your art can appear in searches.

Descriptions, Pt 6 - Open for business: Some artists are against selling their art. If that's you, then skip this section. If that's not you, then you need to tell people that you're "open for business". Many artists promote their submissions, but forget to promote their prints and other merchandise. You do not want your Prints Gallery to be filled with every piece of art that appears in your regular gallery. You want to show only the best of the best in your Prints Gallery. For any submission that doesn't appear in your Prints Gallery, tell people that prints are available upon request. If you have other merchandise or an external print store, then link to those sites. If you haven't heard about dA's new Premium Content Platform, then you really need to read the official announcement [Here on deviantART]. The idea is simple: you can now sell high-res digital images, brush packs, PSDs, and more. Get on this now before everyone else jumps on it.

Descriptions, Pt 7 - To meme or not to meme?: That is the question. Make your art available for sharing and/or collaboration? Or, alternatively, try to secure it and protect your rights? These two decisions... hmmmm... they just don't play well together. You can only take one of these paths. However, that said, in the world of online promotions the non-zero sharing path is the one that's been proven to reap the greatest rewards. Whichever you choose, include that information at the bottom of your description.

Non-Zero Sum - I'm about to get memetic on this fool!: So you want to collaborate, or you're uploading stock or textures? That's excellent! Collaborators introduce you to their entire audience, and you introduce your own audience to each of your new collaborators. Be sure to include the rules or to include the link to your rules, and consider using a Creative Commons license. For example, the writings in this article are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Sound like crazy talk? That's because it is, but deviantART automates a lot of this for you. Basically, with this license, you can share some or all of these writings, and you just need to credit me (Kantiki) as the author. I ask that you link back to this article, but that's optional. What you're not allowed to do with this license is sell these writings. Dig? Cool! Moving on...

Zero Sum - My art, my rules: If you want to lock down your art and keep it near you where you can protect it, then you have a difficult road ahead of you. Anyone can take a screenshot or save an image. In Part Two of this article, I'll talk about watermarks and other safeguards that double as promotions for your art. For now, just include the Stop PLZ icons and tell your watchers that they're not allowed to use your art. However, do NOT fail the idiot check! Do not write, "you are not allowed to use my art anywhere", not unless you are going to turn off deviantART's sharing features when you submit. If you leave sharing enabled, what you are actually writing is: "To anyone who can read English, you are not allowed to share. To everyone else, you're good to go." If you fail the idiot check, it reflects bad on both you and your art. Again, part of promotions is not losing the audience you already have.

Descriptions, Pt 8 - Templates; or, "Revenge of the Clones": How you feeling? A lot of information? Let's make things easier. This one is not about promotions, but about making things easier and faster for you. Use a template for your descriptions, either with a hotkey or with a document where you copy-and-paste. Include placeholders for your opening, your personal details, your links, your fluff, and your related art. For your prints and legal content, you can write these out ahead of time and use them over and over again. Whenever you submit, just insert your template into the description and fill in the blanks. The more you do it, the easier it gets.

Keywords and visibility: You will notice that a lot of this is about visibility... about bringing people to you. We will dive into the more external promotions in a moment, but first a little more about visibility in terms of keywords. Keywords once meant a lot more to search engines. They're still used by deviantART when people are searching for art, so they're still important. Include very specific words with no punctuation. If your art is emotive, include what emotions are a part of your art. If it's a landscape, include the location with specific building names, city names, and countries. If your art is abstract, ask yourself: "If I were searching for my own art, what words or symbols would I use to find it?" Other than avoiding punctuation, the only other warnings are: avoid repeating anything that appears in the category for your submission, and limit yourself to five or six keywords.

Because this area is less important, you have some space to have fun with this. Consider creating one keyword that is unique to you and your art. It can be funny, or descriptive, or enigmatic, or just about anything. One word. The word "cloudscape" didn't even exist a while ago. The word "brickscape" probably doesn't even exist right now. I laugh every time I see "DoNotReadThis" for a keyword or as a #hashtag. If you make your own keyword, include it as a #hashtag in descriptions wherever you promote your art: deviantART, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, all. Include it before other keywords, and you'll find people will start attaching that word to your name and your art.

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...now, moving on...

Have you bookmarked this article yet, or added it to your favorites? You will need to come back and read this multiple times, and this article is not short. You know how the moon is only a short car ride away from the earth? Wait... no... it's not... it's not short at all. Neither is this article. Get clicking!

Promotions 2.0; aka, "Networking": Marketing, advertising, product placement. Those are the promotions of the old world--the world before the Internet. The new world of promotions is built on communication, interraction, and networking. Inch by lonely inch, the new world is eroding away the last remnants of the old world. Welcome!

Signatures; aka, "Off-duty promotions": When someone comments on your art, do you know if they are an artist or what type of art they make? No, and it's the same for you. Many members on deviantART are not even artists, they just love the art and the community. When someone sends you an email, do you know if they are an artist or where to find their portfolio? Nope. In all your interactions--whether talking about art, talking about politics, or just joking around--it is your signature that tells people you are an artist, what kind of art you make, and where to find your art. Use formatting, emoticons, and quotes to make yourself stand out. If you're in a contest, temporarily change your signature during the contest to link to your submission and ask for votes. Once you set up signatures in your deviantART settings and email settings, it's all automated after that. Every interraction helps promote your art.

Reciprocity; aka, "Back Scratching": What do you want from others? Favorites? Comments? Llamas? Features? Then that's exactly what you, yourself, should be doing. Search deviantART for art that is similar to your own, then change the search from "Popular" to "Newest". This is important! If you comment on popular art, your comment will be lost in the crowd of so many other comments. Find new art that you like. If you want people to comment on your art, then write comments on deviations from other artists. If you want favorites, then start building galleries of favorites. If you want critiques, then write some critiques. You give, you get.

Gratitude (and other words that rhyme with "attitude"): Follow-up with people who fav your art, and especially with people who start watching you. By doing this, you can turn a fav into a watch. The difference between a fav and a watch is an entirely different order of magnitude. Copy the link to your art from your messages, then include the link when you thank them. This can turn a fav into comments, and it can introduce your art to others, and it also reminds the person what you are thanking them for. It's easy to forget the link, but without a link, they probably do not even recognize you. Including the link reveals your aptitude for social networking. When you become so popular that it's difficult to continue thanking people for everything, at least keep thanking the ones who watch you and who fav your art (aka, "regulars"). Forgive the platitude, but you do the best you can with what you have. Your audience will understand.

Diversify your portfolio... and your submissions, and your audience: Do not just submit to deviantART. If you're on Facebook, then create an album for your art and submit there. Tumblr? Twitter? Same thing. If deviantART is your main base of operations, then direct people from other places to your gallery here. How? Upload smaller versions of your art on other sites, telling people that better quality and larger versions are available here. Don't forget the links! Save the best-of-the-best for your Prints Gallery and your professional portfolio. Google+ and Pinterest are other popular sites, but focus first on the sites where you already have a presence. After you've built the habit of sharing to your current sites, then you can expand your evil empire onto other shores. On the note of expansion, The Art of Smoking has been slowly growing [Here on Facebook]. Just yesterday, we passed 200 members. Perfect timing for our three-year anniversary! "Like" the page and share your art on our wall.

Migrations - Do not commit social suicide!: If you are expanding your evil empire, then skip this part. BUT! If you are migrating away from one site to a completely new site, then do not lose your audience. The best way to lose your watchers is to deactivate your account, then migrate to a new site without telling anyone. You need to migrate slowly. Update your watchers with journal entries and with more updates in your submission descriptions. Drip-migrate your audience across two or three months. Near the end, submit a photo or a drawing of a "10" to start a countdown, continuing the countdown until the migration's complete. Finally, do not deactivate your account. Instead, post a final journal entry linking to your new site. You will still lose some people, but the alternative is losing them all.

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That's enough for Part One. Come back to review these ideas. Share this article with others who will use it. If you haven't already added it to your favorites or your bookmarks, here's your last chance.

In the next and final part, I'll cover:
Watermarks and memetic-level art
Daily Deviations and contest-level promotions
Premium-account promotions and overcoming limitations
Journals, features, forums, and thumbforums
A focus on your art as content
Lessons learned from Bob Marley and Marlboro

Stay tuned... and happy anniversary!