Where do you advertise your maps

[rpglandmaps]

ok
so after a week of arguing with reddit moderators (not likeing them to much atm, but understand why they do what they do).

So where do you people advertise your maps etc. as most people here are great (and i meen that, love the maps i see, full of indervidal sytle etc) but you guys arn't likely to be the one to buy etc as you would just draw your own

Many thanks

[Jaxilon]

Wow, I'm surprised nobody has responded yet. It may be that most of us here are doing it for the love it it. There are a few here who work at it professionally as artists however.
I know there have been a few threads over the years that go into what it takes and what the realities are but from what I have seen myself it kind of comes down to a consistency of quality output and gradually picking up clients along the way.
As I'm not doing it for a living I don't feel very qualified to say one way or another what is effect.

I think it goes without saying they tend to have their own website and look at it as an online portfolio, so only put up your best stuff. Take good care of your clients by meeting deadlines and so forth. In that regard I believe it is pretty much like any artist trying to make it these days. The have to maintain all their internet fronts and keep putting out work.

Maybe someone like J Edward would be able to give more advice on this. Sorry I'm not more help but I didn't want you to think nobody cared. It's just likely that most here don't have a turnkey solution.
I know GamerPrinter does a lot of his own work for stories he's created and publishes but he's been at that for a while.
Torstan used to frequent here a lot and he did all the maps for Game of Thrones a few years ago as well as a map used in a Will Smith movie.
And that's about all I got.

[J.Edward]

rpgland - are you speaking more of maps for sale in digital or print form?
Or do you mean advertise yourself as a provider of mapmaking skills?
I think the answer sort of depends on the outcome you're after.

[Gamerprinter]

Well I do sell map products on DrivethruRPG, but as Jax stated, I am also a small publisher of adventures and supplements as third party support for Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games, which I also sell on DrivethruRPG. Like many cartographers, I have a gallery page of my work, where people can view them to contact me to commission maps for their projects. Aside from posting to communities like the Cartographers' Guild, EN World, the Paizo boards, and Facebook (I use to post to Google Plus, but that's gone now). Otherwise, I don't really advertise at all - I don't buy FB or Google Ads. But I've been doing this since 2008, so 11 years at it, I've built up a solid reputation among gaming fans and publishers. Commission wise, I just finished 22 maps for Legendary Games Aegis of Empires adventure path, I've got another commission scheduled for December for a small sci-fi gaming publisher for about 10 maps. In the meantime I have 2 or 3 projects of my own to work on, map, and illustrate until that time, plus I'm working on a sci-fi map object, and 3D printable set in between those projects. I just do work, post updates on my progress in FB, and move forward. I've never really advertised, per se, and don't think I ever will do more than the grass roots efforts I am doing now.

[Tiana]

ok
so after a week of arguing with reddit moderators (not likeing them to much atm, but understand why they do what they do).

Having been a forum moderator, I have very little empathy for Reddit moderators. (I think forum moderators are a significant cut above in quality for conflict management.) The reality is, 90% of them are teenagers who have no power in real life who've discovered the concept of policy and are applying it relentlessly in order to try feel like they have some control over their life which is spiralling out of control. They are not real authority figures and I've found most Redditors have sock puppets to get around stupid bans. I've been banned once by a moderator who blocked me from being able to contest it. It was a single strike failure on my part with no warning = perma ban. No respect. I have never encountered a Reddit moderator who is worth an ounce of your time or breath. Just remember to imagine a 16 year old is telling you whatever they're whining about and move on. No one likes them and either they'll realize it and become like me, a sour adult who no longer moderates because no one likes to have a child telling you that you can't say this particular word or you have to put this particular word in brackets in your title, or they become bitchy adults who think they're worthy of respect for standing in between the trolls and regular people who just wanted to have a conversation. Maybe some of them are.

This does not apply to this forum's moderators, whom I've had conversations with and view as regular fantasy map loving humans who also delete spam bots. Just Reddit. And probably Discord but I don't go there. Forum moderators tend to be a cut above Reddit moderators as they still remember how to have a conversation via text in order to moderate a situation without resorting to a ban. Reddit moderators just fap about their greatness and ban button powers and won't even try to difuse a potentially problematic situation before jumping onto the ban button. This is proof of their age. Teenagers especially don't understand conflict resolution, they're at the most emotionally heightened age of their life and love the power trip of being able to silence someone who makes them uncomfortable. A good moderator can diffuse a heatened situation with a few private messages and a gentle word in the open.

That said, I recommend listening to the advice of the moderators of THIS community since they're practiced map artists and not total asswipes.


I am a professional. A significant portion of my income is derived from map design. Absolutely some of those commissions come from this website, because there are many lurkers trying to learn to make maps, some of whom will give up and hire a pro. There are many people who are recommended the Cartographer's Guild as the first place to begin to find a map artist.

There are other forums I participate on, and my connections have thus resulted in commissions. So I put my map making information in my forum information EVERYWHERE. The forum about UFOs, the forum about webcomics, the forum about drugs... really, it doesn't matter as long as there's the potential that someone who runs RPGs or wrote a book might come across my info. I have active accounts on several other RPG related forums.

I'm pretty bad at remembering to actually post my art; I have posted my artwork on Reddit, DeviantArt, and ArtStation. ArtStation looks particularly promising as a superior version of the first two. There's a lot of really good jobs posted there for people who are more skilled and have professional experience in game dev. I could almost cry over one post, from Cyan Games, for a 3D environmental artist. I'm just not there yet, I've been doing 3D for about a week, and 3D environments in World Creator for half a year. I have the vision for it, I truly believe my environmental eye is worthy of Myst, Riven, Obduction, and would be a great addition to Firmament, but... I just don't have their 3 years of Unreal Engine game experience and all of the knowhow to take over as a project primary environment developer. Still, I think Artstation will have a place in my future direction, even if I only package and sell resources in the marketplace. Seriously though, I could cry, I have to comfort myself with the knowledge that they will make other games in the future and if I keep spending a few hours a day trying to learn 3D I'll be good e anough eventually. Man, though, they even will work with remote artists for the right one. At least I have a vague direction now. A month ago I didn't know what I was doing with myself, just floating on the top of the stream and grabbing commissions and wondering if the river will ever hit the sea.

Now let's move on to social media.

Instagram: too much of a pain in my butt to get maps onto.
Twitter: People are nasty argumentative souls. I have got a commission from Twitter, so I ignore it unless I feel like it's a right time to go on Twitter.
Facebook: I have got commissions from Facebook. Also very bitter people, not as good as forums.
Discord: I don't do Discord because I don't like realtime chatting, however, I almost got a commission one time I tried going in there and talking about myself in a strange place. Might be worth your while if you have a good spiel.
DeviantArt: I totally got commissions from DeviantArt. They kinda ruined the look of the site, ruined it for tutorials and writers, and it's impossible now to follow your comments, so I have mixed feelings, but I got a lot of earlier recognition because I had a brush set and tutorial there with a link to my site and info on how to commission me.
Reddit: i have not gotten commissions here but i share art occasionally.

Real life: I find "oh, I draw fantasy maps" is a great icebreaker which has led to SEVERAL non-fantasy map commissions via my connections. Tell people you do this, seriously. I'm thinking of making a card. If I didn't ramble about my art, I never would have gotten a $1000 museum commission for a historical map restoration. I'm not the only fantasy map maker in Winnipeg, there's one other on this forum, but I'm the only professional who's making my living off of it, so it does tend to be a great conversation piece that people remember about me. Man, I just realized I could've been Cartogra-Ti. Oh well. Fun fact, my name is actually Tiffany, but back when I made my account, my primary roleplaying game character was Tiana.

My Website: A crucial piece. Undoubtedly most of my commissions have come from having this. I don't keep secrets, I wrote a tutorial about the basic things I use to make my website show up on Google. https://cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=44675

In short, though, make the art side art focused. I see a ton of people going writing first on their portfolios. Don't. Art out, writing in the blog posts, pump with good keywords and do some research on current trends relating to fantasy maps. Make a few good sharable posts that you could link from other sites. I have a list of fantasy map generators, for example. Anything you can use to teach search engine spiders to associate you with desired search results.

I have never bought ads, but I might choose to do targeted facebook ads if I did. At the moment, sufficient business seems to come to me to keep me occupied, so I don't have to pay, just periodically go and talk about myself a bit and someone will show up.

So, I make most of my commissions via hustle, talking myself up, and making sure that search engines pick me up and associate my link with fantasy mapping and how you can hire someone to draw a fantasy map. It's not easy but it's not hard either. I do spend unpaid hours doing this side work to promote myself into the right places and I account for that in my fee for map production.

If you don't have a portfolio, I'd start by making one on ArtStation, it does seem like a very good contemporary option and having one and shoving it in front of eyes has been the main source of my commissions.

Honorable Mention: job market freelancer sites that take a commission from the amount you make.

Upwork. Would've suggested it but they charge you to be able to send a job application now. Pay 15+ cents to get ghosted? No thanks!
Fiverr. Meat market. Try if you're desperate though and do cheap work. I did get some commissions there before I got overwhelmed.
ArtistsnClients. Small customer base and everything I ever tried to do for a commissioner there somehow ended up falling through the cracks. Your mileage may vary.

[Gamerprinter]

Yes, I use both DeviantArt and Artstation, and find DeviantArt less effective, and Artstation very effective.

I don't and never have used Reddit, Twitter, really most social media platforms; Linked-in and Facebook is all that use (Google + too, but that's gone).

[Lord Zuol]

Tiana,

Wow, that's a lot of really good info. Thanks. I'm new to the site myself and was wondering what I could do to maybe turn my maps into a little side hustle. Doubt I'll ever make too much, but hey a few bucks here and there never hurts.

[Tiana]

You're welcome, Lord Zuol. Don't limit yourself before you even begin. Say, "Who knows how much I could make!" instead of setting a mental limit for yourself right from the get-go.

[JoshStolarz]

I really got my start doing commission work through Instagram in particular. It began as a simple matter of sharing progress shots of my work, and eventually, I was approached to do a map for a book. Most of my commissions since then have still come from Instagram, but I am admittedly wanting to diversify so that I'm not too dependant on the platform. I really think that regardless of where you put your work, consistency is king. Keep putting out quality work and it will get noticed.