I don’t know if a response is wanted from me of all people, but this honest post felt refreshing to read. Seeing someone say how they felt about getting feedback on hard work or at least more reblogs; usually no one says anything, but I’m certain most people feel the same as you, no one likes to feel uncared about after all. I’ve seen a few posts like it, highlighting the points like ‘Likes are great, reblogs are even better, and actual feedback is best of all.’ of course all together is the best.
To start, like the other responses in your post here, I know what it feels like. I’ve made many kinds of things on my blog as well and have tried to analyze and correlate why certain posts get more interaction than others and I only have guesses and anything from my own experience. Again, to start, I know how you feel. As for me, it’s a bit frustrating that the things I’ve made that took the least of my effort usually get more attention than stuff I put my whole, or at least most of my whole soul into. What I’ve noticed: Reposting official news, which literally takes next to no effort, gets the most notes and reblogs. Dubbing official game art on something, usually an already popular meme (especially if it’s considered funny), also gets high notes. Being an excellent artist will get you lots of notes, and even better if you can make comics or ‘memes’ with excellent art.
As far as art goes, I’ve noticed one of the only ways I can get higher(er) notes on art is if I barely try on something overly cute or chibi. Whenever I spend lots of time on something and many times, even color, it may still get less notes than if I barely tried at all on a chibi or something overly ‘cute’. So when this happens, it gives me the impression that either most people appreciate cute and simple most, or I just suck at drawing anything serious. (Pretty sure I just suck in general! XD lol)
Edits, as far as they go, I’ve noticed that the more you deviate from the original image and are able to pull it off, the more people seem to like it for some reason. Or if you are fulfilling a missing want or need for the fandom (such as editing Lysander onto one of the new illustrations)
As for writing, at least from what I’ve noticed, most people don’t want to read, unless you’re ranting about something, usually something that may be perceived as controversial or highly relatable, or the viewer is already a reader/fanfic reader/ writer/ etc. People will be caught on something that catches their eye first, many times people will scroll past text, so it’s important to make your text appealing so more people will notice it over the other walls of text in the tag. As for me, to put an outsider insight towards writing, I’m sorry to admit it, but I usually don’t spend a lot of time reading anything in the tags. That’s just me. I’m always happy to read anything anyone asks me to read, however. I don’t actually like to spend a lot of time on Tumblr anymore, I have a hard time being invested in most of anything lately, so I usually just look at what I can immediately see. (That’s just a me thing, though, nothing against anyone else, I have a lot of mental gymnastics constantly keeping me on my toes inside my head. I overthink everything.)
As for OCs or even anything, I’ll have to be a little frank, most people are a bit more self-involved. Especially for an otome series. Many people care first about their own OCs and their own stories, then usually their friends’ OCs. Then, if you’re lucky, sometimes people will open their mind to someone who’s not their’s or their running buddy’s OC, if they deem them interesting enough. Usually OCs like this don’t get a chance unless, like Jen said, there is nice art of that OC and plenty of it to stick into the minds of casual passerbys. They say that people are more attracted to people whom they see often, I assume this is a similar concept for OCs. As for your OC, and at least in my opinion, she’s been one of the more interesting and more fleshed out OCs I’ve seen. Although, that also depends on individual tastes. I’ve seen that many players in this specific fandom tend to gravitate towards average young adult women with normal lives and normal appearances, perhaps to better fit in with the setting of the game. I guess that for some, characters with more fantasy or anime inspired stories and appearances come off as cringey to some, at least in this particular fandom. (It’s why I don’t post my OC often, and when I do, it’s mostly for me. I just assume people don’t care for Puku. lol) That is what I’ve gleaned from my experience here. Of course as for more normal everyday characters, there’s nothing wrong with them, obviously, but I kind of like the idea of having more fantastical characters too. I just find it a shame when some seem to dislike characters that aren’t based off of normal, everyday, people. Long story short, I think you’ve done pretty well sharing your character in the tag often enough for people to remember her at least. Any visuals help more than text usually, sadly. Perhaps add a nice banner above your writings to capture more people’s attention. People love to see great art, but people will still enjoy seeing official art used creatively, too.
As for other factors when it comes to gaining more traffic to your posts; first let me re-iterate: People tend to be more attracted to people who are present. The more you are around the more people will come around to you and your content. It never happens instantly for people, and sometimes it takes longer than others. I wouldn’t be completely honest if I said I didn’t think there was -some- luck to it, but it can also be careful planning, too. Of course, you don’t want to be constant, or it can be annoying, but be often enough. Scheduling can help if that what you’re into, but just keeping a nice flow helps too. Also, posting at prime times helps too, barely anyone is up at 2 or 3 am, so you may not be seen at those times before your post may get covered up. Best times are after typical work or school schedules and especially around 7pm. It’s called prime time on TV for a reason. It may seem obvious, but most notes seem to come from being present in the tag, if you get more without that, you are just really popular already.
I’ve seen lots of people complain about people who care ‘too much’ about notes, but as for me, someone who spent lots of money on art school, I make content in hopes to find out what people like so that hopefully I can eventually sell my work. If I can’t properly attract an audience who will care about my work and what I want to create, then I wasted my time and money in college. I analyze these things because I need to learn how to be profitable. Sorry for derailing, but if someone is doing it for fun, sure it feels nice to get lots of notes/responses (or even just have people care), but most of all it should be done for you and for your own passion. If one still wants the care, then I think that other findings would still help.
I don’t know where I’m going with all of this anymore, I feel like I’m being too blunt here.
Also, as far as responses, besides my own, I’ve noticed most people don’t get any responses, unless provoked to do so somehow, like there is a need for something to be said. Or it’s their friend/acquaintance that they talk to. Or someone who, I guess, comes off as someone open to comments. I guess asking for comments will get some more people to be like “OH you want responses! Ok, I guess I’ll see what I can do.” It may seem obvious, but unless you know someone well enough, you don’t know how someone will react to your comment.
For example, if I felt like it wouldn’t make someone upset or if I didn’t always doubt myself so much, I would offer more constructive criticism to work that I see, but I notice that most people don’t seem to appreciate or respond well to constructive criticism, so I avoid it completely. I usually keep any responses to anything to a minimum to conceal myself as much as possible. I try to only say general comments or what I like about something. ^^’’’
Wow, I gotta go. Sorry about this long thing. I think what I wrote was weird, but it is my perception of all this, I guess. I think I may have forgotten something, but I dunno. Also sorry to dump all of this stuff on your post, but I resonate a lot with it, soo… *shrug*
I hope my findings may help you somehow. I’m going to go back to my dark corner of the internet and stuff…
origamiaround
titsay
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