I could answer this really quickly for you, but instead I’m going to take the opportunity to thoroughly cover all your questions and give some advice. Running a Simblr isn’t difficult or complicated, but diving in headfirst can be a bit tough, so let’s get to it. :)
When you’re posting pictures that you’d potentially want people to like and reblog, it’s a good idea to put your best foot forward—if you can run high quality graphics, do it. If you can’t? Don’t worry about it! It isn’t your fault if you can’t afford a beast of a computer, run a HQ mod, etc etc. I know I can’t. But do the best that you can without frying your computer.
Unfortunately, people are attracted to what is visually appealing, and low quality graphics… aren’t. But don’t let that stop you. If you can’t flaunt the flashiest graphics, make people’s jaws drop with other things: good writing, humor, CC, etc. Don’t say “I can’t make a simblr, my graphics are terrible!” before you even try.
Also—your graphics are probably better than you think they are. 95% of pictures I see on Simblr are edited to look the way they do. If, however, you can’t run anti-aliasing and all your edges are choppy and such, I suggest you look into a slight upgrade, **if your screenshots’ appearance is important to you**. My graphics card model—although nothing special, still runs most of the graphics options at full pretty well—is only $20 on eBay. Don’t feel like you HAVE to upgrade, I’m just saying it wouldn’t break the bank to do it if you have some spare cash.
To get the most bang for what you already have though, here are my suggestions:
Focus on having these options as high as possible; the rest are not that important.
Poses open up an infinite possibility of what your sims can do in-game, which can be a really huge bonus for story telling. There are simply some things the EA animations won’t allow you to do. That doesn’t mean that you NEED to use them, though. I use them in my stories pretty sparingly, and most of the ones I do use I make myself because it’s for something very specific.
I recommend you open yourself up to trying them out, but don’t rely on them. I think it shows a lot of creativity to tell a story without depending on poses as a crutch, but if you want to break the mold, go for it!
I will say this, though—using poses can be a pain, but they are really awesome for photoshoots of family photos, modeling, etc. Also, they bring a lot of variety, since at this point most everyone has seen every in-game animation a million billion times. It’s what you DO with them that’s important though, not THAT you use them, so don’t feel obligated. If you master how to use Animator, you can do some pretty awesome things without ever having to use a pose.
If it’s something you want to dip your toes into, Mura wrote an AMAZING guide a while back on using poses and animations—it will cover the basics, and more: http://muraisawesome.tumblr.com/post/37702671001/the-following-post-is-a-very-long-one-containing
Is it necessary to edit? No. Is it helpful? Sure! My graphics aren’t the greatest, so editing makes a big difference in their visual appeal. Editing helps polish photos, enhance them, make them more realistic (or less so), but:
Editing can only make a good picture better; it cannot make a bad picture good.
So what do I advise? Before learning how to edit, learn how to take good screenshots. THAT, however, is a mixture of a lot of different things, so I’m going to boil it down into this series of pictures.
Hopefully that gives you some ideas. If you’re still wanting to learn how to edit though, I have a buttload of tutorials on that—my biggest suggestion is just brightening and saturating pictures slightly. Some very very small tweaks can make a lot of difference.
However, if editing does do one thing very well, it is give your pictures a personal touch. After a while, plain screenshots can look generic—adding a little flair can help avoid that.
It can really help people visiting your blog for the first time to have everything clearly marked and linked so if they want to find something, they can. I have my blog indexed up the wazoo and is probably more extreme than necessary, but even just making sure to tag your pictures properly is good. Having a really nice, simple, clear theme can help with this, too.
5.) Keep It Clear of… Stuff
On the line of tagging pictures properly—tag your non-simming posts properly, too. Mark things that aren’t sim-related under #non sims, #personal, #saviorhide, etc. And, if you can, try to keep all that stuff to a minimal. I consider Kaleekalo my main blog so I post a lot of personal stuff here, but I recognize a lot of my followers don’t really care and don’t want to see it. That’s fine! Try not to step on anyone’s toes, and tag like a pro. It’s only polite. :)
We’re all trying to be part of the community here, so don’t pee in the punch, okay? Simblr can be a notoriously toxic and dramatic place to be, but it’s a whole lot less so if you don’t fan the fire. If you want to be a jerk, fine by me, just don’t be surprised when you lose followers or get backlash.
This is hard. I know it is. It’s so easy to become a fangirl/boy and want to emulate your favorite simblr… but I thoroughly advise that you don’t. First—it isn’t as flattering as you might think it is. Second—in a community with thousands and thousands of people, it is so easy to be lost and ignored when you don’t offer anything new and different. Don’t try to follow the crowd—BE YOURSELF.
You might get more followers trying to copy another simmer’s style, but you lose out on having your own identity if you do. It’s perfectly fine to be inspired by someone—lordie knows I’ve gotten ideas from other simblrs many many times—but never lose sight of what makes your sims and pictures special and different.
8.) Don’t Post Too Much or Too Little
This is JUST a suggestion, because a) some days you will play more than others, and sometimes you will want to take really long breaks and b) it’s your blog and YOU DO WHAT YOU WANT, GURLFRIEND. But. I admit to enjoying when simblrs are pretty consistent. Opening a flood gate of posts and drowning the dash gets some people up in a tiffy, and posting too little can make you float by unnoticed. A good solid middle ground makes everyone happy. :)
This, however, is very hypocritical advice, because I post pretty willy-nilly. I try to use my queue but I find it more frustrating than anything most of the time.
This is another bit of hypocritical advice because I like living in this little bubble world of mine, but Simblr IS a community and getting involved, telling people they inspire you, asking for help (politely), reblogging and saying nice things, all are really great things to do. Honestly, most people here want to be your friend, they’re just as scared as saying hi and being friendly as you are. If you can be brave enough to be the catalyst, do it!
All the above advice is absolutely pointless and should be immediately ignored if you are not having fun doing it (except for #6. Please don’t be a dink.) You’re doing this as a side activity for a game, so if you aren’t enjoying yourself, you’re doing something wrong and should change it immediately. Also—don’t measure your “fun” by how many likes, follows, etc you get. It takes time to build that up, and sometimes, it just won’t happen no matter what you do. Don’t value yourself based on that.
If you only ever get one follower, shower that follower with the love they deserve. Make the most of it. Find your niche and let yourself shine. Don’t waste your precious time worrying about what other people like—worry about making things YOU like. F*#% all the rest. :)
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