How do you promote yourself?

[PaperGriffin]

Hi All.

This post was sparked by a conversation going on in another thread which touched on 'exposure'. While the thread was talking about people asking for free maps in exchange for exposure, it did get me thinking about how people promote themselves and/or their maps. So, if it's not too personal a question, how do people promote themselves and gain exposure?



When I think of gaining exposure there are a few options that spring to mind:

1) Social Media
For me this has been a mixed bag. Facebook does next to nothing, but Instagram has proven to be very useful.

2) Art Sites
While I have a (very) old DeviantArt account, I haven't used it for a few years now. Do people find DA, ArtStation and similar sites useful?

3) Personal Website
While I do have a personal website it doesn't focus on my maps (although I am considering giving it a revamp to give them more space). However I find my website is less how people find me and more somewhere I can direct them when they want to see more examples of my work.

4) Store Sites
I have a small store on DriveThruRPG and a Red Bubble account, but similar to my website, I find these tend to be places people get direct too after finding me.


Do you folks use similar ways of promoting yourselves? Have you found some better than others? I'm pretty new to social media so you'll notice I haven't mentioned things like Twitter, Patreon or reddit; are these worth looking into? I appreciate there is no right answer to this question, and what works for one person may not work for another, but I think it would be good to share experiences and I'm interested to hear peoples thoughts on the matter.

[Kellerica]

As someone who is slowly starting to get into making more maps professionally, this would be super useful info to me as well! Thanks for posting it, PG.

[ThomasR]

My advice : be as visible as you can and link your sites to each other (twitter handle appearing on your website, in your signature here ...). In my opinion, the real « brand killer » is Daniel Hasenbos, he could be a very good advisor on this matter.

[Falconius]

From what I gather of the guys and gals who do social media successfully is they have to maintain a constant and active presence on whatever platform it is they choose to use. This does mean focusing on one of them, not all of them, on the unfocused ones you do dumps and link to the place where your main activity is. The other thing it requires is time, the success stories seem to be successful after at least a year of doing it, if not two or more. When choosing a socail media platfomr to focus on I'd suggest the key factors are how much you yourself enjoy it, and the other is if you can use it effectively to gain attention. For instance, if you wanted to grow Youtube you'd make videos with time lapsed work, tutorials helpful hints, maybe telling stories about the place you are mapping, etc. And you'd have to post vids constantly like once a week or more. It's not exactly conducive to map illustration. And what with their insane demonetization schemes it may not be worth it (because making videos takes time and effort). If you were on Facebook, you'd have to gather a bunch of similar themed pages you like and comment and like their stuff as well as keeping your own wall very active with amusing comments and current projects and updates and all that sort of whatnot. I'm not sure Deviant Art is still conducive for this sort of thing, but I'd say if you like Instagrm try and work that system, and try to learn how to work it more effectively as you go along.

Frankly to me Social Media seems more like a PITA than it does anything else, but people obviously do have success with it.

[Bannister Nicholas]

I started with Simbi, the idea of exchanging electronically transferrable goods or services for "symbiosis points". Some authors and gamesmasters would "like" my mapping service, when I was ready to do the next map, I'd contact people in order to let them know I was available, we'd chat via message about their goal/needs, I'd draw the map, photograph it with a high end SLR camera and send them the image. Usually A3 sized.

I got a decent number of maps, practice and some followers, and I've banked around 500 simbi ($500US) that I can use for services in the site. But for me, more importantly, I have 10 'drawn' maps I can use to promote myself.

I think Patreon might be the next stage for me, but I'd need to ensure that I can pump out a map a month, or rejig their system to suit my needs. I doubt I'd make enough money to quit my day job, just pocket money to justify the time & small material costs.

A Website used to be a brochure you send people to after they're already said no, but might say yes, or want your services later..

Facebook pages are now that. They'll like it for later, so getting it out there for people to know how to contact you later is important, but like the old TV ads, it won't bring in a lot of customers, so don't pay for it.

I would probably put up some maps on Pinterest, with obvious email/links to contact you.. people will pin them, and others will find those pins as they browse, Imgur is another place that people 'browse' art and such, and they will contact you if they like what you do.

You could "use" Twitch and live stream yourself drawing maps.. that might be relaxing like bob ross.. I'd watch.. I'm trying to arrange to do that myself.

[J.Edward]

I suspect it depends on the result you are after.
There are differing approaches to different problems.
If your goal is freelance illustration, you would approach it one way.
If it is to sell your own work, it would be a different path.
It has to do with marketing to your customer base.

Not a fun subject, on the whole.
Daniel is rather good at it, as Thomas has said, and would be a good one to ask.
I'm not terribly good with the selling of my own work.
It just feels uncomfortable to me to push my stuff, as you must.
I'm much more comfortable in the freelance area, as my work speaks for me.

I am on a number of sites, for different reasons.
First, I go where the audience may be.
So that has me on platforms that I am not particularly pleased using.
But it treat every platform the same - I approach them all as individual things.
I may reuse some text, but I try not to let it feel canned, stale.
People will feel that and dislike it. They want genuine character and connection.

Each site has strengths and weaknesses. They also attract different crowds.
Some are better for discussion and chat, others are better for imagery.
Some are much better for sharing and getting your work circulated, which is a big part of the equation.
That's why it is very important to have identifying information on your images.
That way, no matter where your work gets seen, people can track you down should they want to get in touch.

I have heard some say that you should focus on just one. I don't believe that.
FB was number one for a good while, but it is on the decline.
Twitter is hot with some, but the audience is far too political, even with maps.
I just read of one guy getting hit from both sides because he wouldn't side with people on an issue being argued.
That's toxic. But there are a lot of people on twitter, so it has value for a targeted purpose.

I hear people trash DeviantArt all the time. I just laugh. I have gotten a ton of comms from there.
One of my best clients found me there. I've met and chat with great people from all over the world there.
But, yeah... it has some awful content there. shrug. It's the internet. Cesspool of the world.
Artstation gets viewed by many art directors, so is of value for freelance.

In my opinion, always have a personal website. It's the only one you control and own.
The only one that you can't get banned from, in todays trigger happy world. Theoretically.
The whole banning people thing is getting a bit out of control, so you never really know.
Not just that, it is always good to have a single place you can direct people to.
From there you can link to all your other sites and social media stuff.
It might be the old fashioned way, but it works for a reason.

I'm on a few store sites. Some are better than others.
I am on red bubble. It's ok. I've been there for years, so it's not terrible.
They don't help much for exposure really. Small income, but it's still income, so it's useful.
I haven't yet sold on dtrpg or any others. I've wanted to, but I don't like their terms.
I have considered just selling pdfs and what not on my own site.
I would need to discuss it with a tax person to understand how I would deal with foreign tax payments.
The store sites generally do that for you.

I have to get to work, but if there's any questions, I'll try to answer them.

[Falconius]

Thanks for taking the time to write all that advice Mr. Edward

I hear people trash DeviantArt all the time. I just laugh. I have gotten a ton of comms from there.
One of my best clients found me there. I've met and chat with great people from all over the world there.

I like Deviant Art a lot. Just browsing through the DD page until you build up a stable of favourites etc. I find the issue there is it seems to be lagging way behind on the technology/interface side. The other day I tried to search my folder of who knows how many favourites for one particular photograph and it took me forever (couldn't search by name). I like the atmosphere there though, ArtStation is a lot colder, and a lot more regimented, but that has value as well.

[PaperGriffin]

Thanks for the replies folks, very informative.

I used to be on DeviantArt many moons ago, but the people I followed and groups I was involved with moved on to other platforms (mostly ArtStation I believe), so I used it less and less. Perhaps it's time to blow the dust off and get it working for me again. My only issue is that I mostly used it as a sketchbook dump, so it is a bit of a mish-mash of different subjects, styles and degrees of completion.

[Meton]

This is a very interesting topic, I have been thinking exactly the same questions. Thanks a lot especially J. Edward for sharing your thoughts!

I'm also slowly starting to get professional with mapmaking and promoting yourself is something I still have to learn. I've been active only in Instagram and I think it's a really good tool. It works well with visual work, including maps. I've always thought that an own website is the next step and I'm building the site at the moment, in fact. Instagram is quite fun, I think, but I have to agree it lacks the community side and getting work circulated is not easy.

Reading this helped me realise what is the role of a website and that I really have to get to know other places. Maybe DeviantArt would be the next thing to try, it seems to be a good place.

[yaro]

This is also a topic I'm interested in, as I'm gathering more and more portfolio pieces, and I'm having a hard time figuring out where to put them all for easy viewing. I think that finding communities like this, or any of the other art communities touched upon is a good way to grow your brand. Having a website also seems like a good idea, but I would probably stick to the free ones (wix/wordpress, ect) until demand becomes high enough that having your own professional url becomes a concern.