#but I need to return to Tumblr because tumblr is actually great and algorithms are annoying and insta is a train wreck

[andymakesgames]

Balatro-Inspired Spinning Card Tweetcart Breakdown

I recently made a tweetcart of a spinning playing card inspired by finally playing Balatro, the poker roguelike everybody is talking about.

If you don't know what a tweetcart is, it's a type of size-coding where people write programs for the Pico-8 fantasy console where the source code is 280 characters of less, the length of a tweet.

I'm actually not on twitter any more, but I still like 280 characters as a limitation. I posted it on my mastodon and my tumblr.

Here's the tweetcart I'm writing about today:

And here is the full 279 byte source code for this animation:

a=abs::_::cls()e=t()for r=0,46do for p=0,1,.025do j=sin(e)*20k=cos(e)*5f=1-p h=a(17-p*34)v=a(23-r)c=1+min(23-v,17-h)%5/3\1*6u=(r-1)/80z=a(p-.2)if(e%1<.5)c=a(r-5)<5and z<u+.03and(r==5or z>u)and 8or 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2 g=r+39pset((64+j)*p+(64-j)*f,(g+k)*p+(g-k)*f,c)end end flip()goto _

This post is available with much nicer formatting on the EMMA blog. You can read it here.

You can copy/paste that code into a blank Pico-8 file to try it yourself. I wrote it on Pico-8 version 0.2.6b.

I'm very pleased with this cart! From a strictly technical perspective I think it's my favorite that I've ever made. There is quite a bit going on to make the fake 3D as well as the design on the front and back of the card. In this post I'll be making the source code more readable as well as explaining some tools that are useful if you are making your own tweetcarts or just want some tricks for game dev and algorithmic art.

Expanding the Code

Tweetcarts tend to look completely impenetrable, but they are often less complex than they seem. The first thing to do when breaking down a tweetcart (which I highly recommend doing!) is to just add carriage returns after each command.

Removing these line breaks is a classic tweetcart method to save characters. Lua, the language used in Pico-8, often does not need a new line if a command does not end in a letter, so we can just remove them. Great for saving space, bad for readability. Here's that same code with some line breaks, spaces and indentation added:

a=abs ::_:: cls() e=t() for r=0,46 do for p=0,1,.025 do j=sin(e)*20 k=cos(e)*5 f=1-p h=a(17-p*34) v=a(23-r) c=1+min(23-v,17-h)%5/3\1*6 u=(r-1)/80 z=a(p-.2) if(e%1<.5) c= a(r-5) < 5 and z < u+.03 and (r==5 or z>u) and 8 or 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2 g=r+39 pset((64+j)*p+(64-j)*f,(g+k)*p+(g-k)*f,c) end end flip()goto _

Note: the card is 40 pixels wide and 46 pixels tall. Those number will come up a lot. As will 20 (half of 40) and 23 (half of 46).

Full Code with Variables and Comments

Finally, before I get into what each section is doing, here is an annotated version of the same code. In this code, variables have real names and I added comments:

[editor's note. this one came out terribly on tumblr. Please read the post on my other blog to see it]

This may be all you need to get a sense of how I made this animation, but the rest of this post will be looking at how each section of the code contributes to the final effect. Part of why I wanted to write this post is because I was happy with how many different tools I managed to use in such a small space.

flip() goto_

This pattern shows up in nearly every tweetcart:

::_:: MOST OF THE CODE flip()goto _

This has been written about in Pixienop's Tweetcart Basics which I highly recommend for anybody curious about the medium! The quick version is that using goto is shorter than declaring the full draw function that Pico-8 carts usually use.

Two Spinning Points

The card is drawn in rows starting from the top and going to the bottom. Each of these lines is defined by two points that move around a center point in an elliptical orbit.

The center of the top of the card is x=64 (dead center) and y=39 (a sort of arbitrary number that looked nice).

Then I get the distance away from that center that my two points will be using trigonometry.

x_dist = sin(time)*20 y_dist = cos(time)*5

Here are those points:

P1 adds x_dist and y_dist to the center point and P2 subtracts those same values.

Those are just the points for the very top row. The outer for loop is the vertical rows. The center x position will be the same each time, but the y position increases with each row like this: y_pos = row+39

Here's how it looks when I draw every 3rd row going down:

It is worth noting that Pico-8 handles sin() and cos() differently than most languages. Usually the input values for these functions are in radians (0 to two pi), but in Pico-8 it goes from 0 to 1. More info on that here. It takes a little getting used to but it is actually very handy. More info in a minute on why I like values between 0 and 1.

Time

In the shorter code, e is my time variable. I tend to use e for this. In my mind it stands for "elapsed time". In Pico-8 time() returns the current elapsed time in seconds. However, there is a shorter version, t(), which obviously is better for tweetcarts. But because I use the time value a lot, even the 3 characters for t() is often too much, so I store it in the single-letter variable e.

Because it is being used in sine and cosine for this tweetcart, every time e reaches 1, we've reached the end of a cycle. I would have liked to use t()/2 to slow this cart down to be a 2 second animation, but after a lot of fiddling I wound up being one character short. So it goes.

e is used in several places in the code, both to control the angle of the points and to determine which side of the card is facing the camera.

Here you can see how the sine value of e controls the rotation and how we go from showing the front of the card to showing the back when e%1 crosses the threshold of 0.5.

Drawing and Distorting the Lines

Near the top and bottom of the loop we'll find the code that determines the shape of the card and draws the horizontal lines that make up the card. Here is the loop for drawing a single individual line using the code with expanded variable names:

for prc = 0,1,.025 do x_dist = sin(time)*20 y_dist = cos(time)*5 ... y_pos = row+39 pset( (64+x_dist)*prc + (64-x_dist)*(1-prc), (y_pos+y_dist)*prc + (y_pos-y_dist)*(1-prc), color) end

You might notice that I don't use Pico-8's line function! That's because each line is drawn pixel by pixel.

This tweetcart simulates a 3D object by treating each vertical row of the card as a line of pixels. I generate the points on either side of the card(p1 and p2 in this gif), and then interpolate between those two points. That's why the inner for loop creates a percentage from 0 to 1 instead of pixel positions. The entire card is drawn as individual pixels. I draw them in a line, but the color may change with each one, so they each get their own pset() call.

Here's a gif where I slow down this process to give you a peek at how these lines are being drawn every frame. For each row, I draw many pixels moving across the card between the two endpoints in the row.

Here's the loop condition again: for prc = 0,1,.025 do

A step of 0.025 means there are 40 steps (0.025 * 40 = 1.0). That's the exact width of the card! When the card is completely facing the camera head-on, I will need 40 steps to make it across without leaving a gap in the pixels. When the card is skinnier, I'm still drawing all 40 pixels, but many of them will be in the same place. That's fine. The most recently drawn one will take priority.

Getting the actual X and Y position

I said that the position of each pixel is interpolated between the two points, but this line of code may be confusing:

y_pos = row+39 pset( (64+x_dist)*prc + (64-x_dist)*(1-prc), (y_pos+y_dist)*prc + (y_pos-y_dist)*(1-prc), color)

So let's unpack it a little bit. If you've ever used a Lerp() function in something like Unity you've used this sort of math. The idea is that we get two values (P1 and P2 in the above example), and we move between them such that a value of 0.0 gives us P1 and 1.0 gives us P2.

Here's a full cart that breaks down exactly what this math is doing:

::_:: cls() time = t()/8 for row = 0,46 do for prc = 0,1,.025 do x_dist = sin(time)*20 y_dist = cos(time)*5 color = 9 + row % 3 p1x = 64 + x_dist p1y = row+39 + y_dist p2x = 64 - x_dist p2y = row+39 - y_dist x = p2x*prc + p1x*(1-prc) y = p2y*prc + p1y*(1-prc) pset( x, y, color) end end flip()goto _

I'm defining P1 and P2 very explicitly (getting an x and y for both), then I get the actual x and y position that I use by multiplying P2 by prc and P1 by (1-prc) and adding the results together.

This is easiest to understand when prc is 0.5, because then we're just taking an average. In school we learn that to average a set of numbers you add them up and then divide by how many you had. We can think of that as (p1+p2) / 2. This is the same as saying p1*0.5 + p2*0.5.

But the second way of writing it lets us take a weighted average if we want. We could say p1*0.75 + p2*0.25. Now the resulting value will be 75% of p1 and 25% of p2. If you laid the two values out on a number line, the result would be just 25% of the way to p2. As long as the two values being multiplied add up to exactly 1.0 you will get a weighted average between P1 and P2.

I can count on prc being a value between 0 and 1, so the inverse is 1.0 - prc. If prc is 0.8 then 1.0-prc is 0.2. Together they add up to 1!

I use this math everywhere in my work. It's a really easy way to move smoothly between values that might otherwise be tricky to work with.

Compressing

I'm using a little over 400 characters in the above example. But in the real cart, the relevant code inside the loops is this:

j=sin(e)*20 k=cos(e)*5 g=r+39 pset((64+j)*p+(64-j)*f,(g+k)*p+(g-k)*f,c)

which can be further condensed by removing the line breaks:

j=sin(e)*20k=cos(e)*5g=r+39pset((64+j)*p+(64-j)*f,(g+k)*p+(g-k)*f,c)

Because P1, P2 and the resulting interpolated positions x and y are never used again, there is no reason to waste chars by storing them in variables. So all of the interpolation is done in the call to pset().

There are a few parts of the calculation that are used more than once and are four characters or more. Those are stored as variables (j, k & g in this code). These variables tend to have the least helpful names because I usually do them right at the end to save a few chars so they wind up with whatever letters I have not used elsewhere.

Spinning & Drawing

Here's that same example, but with a checker pattern and the card spinning. (Keep in mind, in the real tweetcart the card is fully draw every frame and would not spin mid-draw)

This technique allows me to distort the lines because I can specify two points and draw my lines between them. Great for fake 3D! Kind of annoying for actually drawing shapes, because now instead of using the normal Pico-8 drawing tools, I have to calculate the color I want based on the row (a whole number between0 and 46) and the x-prc (a float between 0 and 1).

Drawing the Back

Here's the code that handles drawing the back of the card:

h=a(17-p*34) v=a(23-r) c=1+min(23-v,17-h)%5/3\1*6

This is inside the nested for loops, so r is the row and p is a percentage of the way across the horizontal line.

c is the color that we will eventually draw in pset().

h and v are the approximate distance from the center of the card. a was previously assigned as a shorthand for abs() so you can think of those lines like this:

h=abs(17-p*34) v=abs(23-r)

v is the vertical distance. The card is 46 pixels tall so taking the absolute value of 23-r will give us the distance from the vertical center of the card. (ex: if r is 25, abs(23-r) = 2. and if r is 21, abs(23-r) still equals 2 )

As you can probably guess, h is the horizontal distance from the center. The card is 40 pixels wide, but I opted to shrink it a bit by multiplying p by 34 and subtracting that from half of 34 (17). The cardback just looks better with these lower values, and the diamond looks fine.

The next line, where I define c, is where things get confusing. It's a long line doing some clunky math. The critical thing is that when this line is done, I need c to equal 1 (dark blue) or 7 (white) on the Pico-8 color pallette.

Here's the whole thing: c=1+min(23-v,17-h)%5/3\1*6

Here is that line broken down into much more discrete steps.

c = 1 --start with a color of 1 low_dist = min(23-v,17-h) --get the lower inverted distance from center val = low_dist % 5 --mod 5 to bring it to a repeating range of 0 to 5 val = val / 3 --divide by 3. value is now 0 to 1.66 val = flr(val) --round it down. value is now 0 or 1 val = val * 6 --multiply by 6. value is now 0 or 6 c += val --add value to c, making it 1 or 7

The first thing I do is c=1. That means the entire rest of the line will either add 0 or 6 (bumping the value up to 7). No other outcome is acceptable. min(23-v,17-h)%5/3\1*6 will always evaluate to 0 or 6.

I only want the lower value of h and v. This is what will give it the nice box shape. If you color the points inside a rectangle so that ones that are closer to the center on their X are one color and ones that are closer to the center on their Y are a different color you'll get a pattern with clean diagonal lines running from the center towards the corners like this:

You might think I would just use min(v,h) instead of the longer min(23-v,17-h) in the actual code. I would love to do that, but it results in a pattern that is cool, but doesn't really look like a card back.

I take the inverted value. Instead of having a v that runs from 0 to 23, I flip it so it runs from 23 to 0. I do the same for h. I take the lower of those two values using min().

Then I use modulo (%) to bring the value to a repeating range of 0 to 5. Then I divide that result by 3 so it is 0 to ~1.66. The exact value doens't matter too much because I am going round it down anyway. What is critical is that it will become 0 or 1 after rounding because then I can multiply it by a specific number without getting any values in between.

Wait? If I'm rounding down, where is flr() in this line: c=1+min(23-v,17-h)%5/3\1*6?

It's not there! That's because there is a sneaky tool in Pico-8. You can use \1 to do the same thing as flr(). This is integer division and it generally saves a 3 characters.

Finally, I multiply the result by 6. If it is 0, we get 0. If it is 1 we get 6. Add it to 1 and we get the color we want!

Here's how it looks with each step in that process turned on or off:

A Note About Parentheses

When I write tweetcarts I would typically start by writing this type of line like this: c=1+ (((min(23-v,17-h)%5)/3) \1) *6

This way I can figure out if my math makes sense by using parentheses to ensure that my order of operations works. But then I just start deleting them willy nilly to see what I can get away with. Sometimes I'm surprised and I'm able to shave off 2 characters by removing a set of parentheses.

The Face Side

The face side with the diamond and the "A" is a little more complex, but basically works the same way as the back. Each pixel needs to either be white (7) or red (8). When the card is on this side, I'll be overwriting the c value that got defined earlier.

Here's the code that does it (with added white space). This uses the h and v values defined earlier as well as the r and p values from the nested loops.

u=(r-1)/80 z=a(p-.2) if(e%1<.5) c= a(r-5) < 5 and z < u+.03 and (r==5 or z>u) and 8 or 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2

Before we piece out what this is doing, we need to talk about the structure for conditional logic in tweetcarts.

The Problem with If Statements

The lone line with the if statement is doing a lot of conditional logic in a very cumbersome way designed to avoid writing out a full if statement.

One of the tricky things with Pico-8 tweetcarts is that the loop and conditional logic of Lua is very character intensive. While most programming language might write an if statement like this:

if (SOMETHING){ CODE }

Lua does it like this:

if SOMETHING then CODE end

Using "then" and "end" instead of brackets means we often want to bend over backwards to avoid them when we're trying to save characters.

Luckily, Lua lets you drop "then" and "end" if there is a single command being executed inside the if.

This means we can write

if(e%1 < 0.5) c=5

instead of

if e%1 < 0.5 then c=5 end

This is a huge savings! To take advantage of this, it is often worth doing something in a slightly (or massively) convoluted way if it means we can reduce it to a single line inside the if. This brings us to:

Lua's Weird Ternary Operator

In most programming language there is an inline syntax to return one of two values based on a conditional. It's called the Ternary Operator and in most languages I use it looks like this:

myVar = a>b ? 5 : 10

The value of myVar will be 5 if a is greater than b. Otherwise is will be 10.

Lua has a ternary operator... sort of. You can read more about it here but it looks something like this:

myVar = a>b and 5 or 10

Frankly, I don't understand why this works, but I can confirm that it does.

In this specific instance, I am essentially using it to put another conditional inside my if statement, but by doing it as a single line ternary operation, I'm keeping the whole thing to a single line and saving precious chars.

The Face Broken Out

The conditional for the diamond and the A is a mess to look at. The weird syntax for the ternary operator doesn't help. Neither does the fact that I took out any parentheses that could make sense of it.

Here is the same code rewritten with a cleaner logic flow.

--check time to see if we're on the front half if e%1 < .5 then --this if checks if we're in the A u=(r-1)/80 z=a(p-.2) if a(r-5) < 5 and z < u+.03 and (r==5 or z>u) then c = 8 --if we're not in the A, set c based on if we're in the diamond else c = 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2 end end

The first thing being checked is the time. As I explained further up, because the input value for sin() in Pico-8 goes from 0 to 1, the midpoint is 0.5. We only draw the front of the card if e%1 is less than 0.5.

After that, we check if this pixel is inside the A on the corner of the card or the diamond. Either way, our color value c gets set to either 7 (white) or 8 (red).

Let's start with diamond because it is easier.

The Diamond

This uses the same h and v values from the back of the card. The reason I chose diamonds for my suit is that they are very easy to calculate if you know the vertical and horizontal distance from a point! In fact, I sometimes use this diamond shape instead of proper circular hit detection in size-coded games.

Let's look at the line: c = 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2

This starts with 8, the red color. Since the only other acceptable color is 7 (white), tha means that sgn(h+v-9)/2 has to evaluate to either 1 or 0.

sgn() returns the sign of a number, meaning -1 if the number is negative or 1 if the number is positive. This is often a convenient way to cut large values down to easy-to-work-with values based on a threshold. That's exactly what I'm doing here!

h+v-9 takes the height from the center plus the horizontal distance from the center and checks if the sum is greater than 9. If it is, sgn(h+v-9) will return 1, otherwise -1. In this formula, 9 is the size of the diamond. A smaller number would result in a smaller diamond since that's the threshold for the distance being used. (note: h+v is NOT the actual distance. It's an approximation that happens to make a nice diamond shape.)

OK, but adding -1 or 1 to 8 gives us 7 or 9 and I need 7 or 8.

That's where /2 comes in. Pico-8 defaults to floating point math, so dividing by 2 will turn my -1 or 1 into -0.5 or 0.5. So this line c = 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2 actually sets c to 7.5 or 8.5. Pico-8 always rounds down when setting colors so a value of 7.5 becomes 7 and 8.5 becomes 8. And now we have white for most of the card, and red in the space inside the diamond!

The A

The A on the top corner of the card was the last thing I added. I finished the spinning card with the card back and the diamond and realized that when I condensed the whole thing, I actually had about 50 characters to spare. Putting a letter on the ace seemed like an obvious choice. I struggled for an evening trying to make it happen before deciding that I just couldn't do it. The next day I took another crack at it and managed to get it in, although a lot of it is pretty ugly! Luckily, in the final version the card is spinning pretty fast and it is harder to notice how lopsided it is.

I mentioned earlier that my method of placing pixels in a line between points is great for deforming planes, but makes a lot of drawing harder. Here's a great example. Instead of just being able to call print("a") or even using 3 calls to line() I had to make a convoluted conditional to check if each pixel is "inside" the A and set it to red if it is.

I'll do my best to explain this code, but it was hammered together with a lot of trial and error. I kept messing with it until I found an acceptable balance between how it looked and how many character it ate up.

Here are the relevant bits again:

u=(r-1)/80 z=a(p-.2) if a(r-5) < 5 and z < u+.03 and (r==5 or z>u) then c = 8

The two variables above the if are just values that get used multiple times. Let's give them slightly better names. While I'm making edits, I'll expand a too since that was just a replacement for abs().

slope = (r-1)/80 dist_from_center = abs(p-.2) if abs(r-5) < 5 and dist_from_center < slope+.03 and (r==5 or dist_from_center>slope) then c = 8

Remember that r is the current row and p is the percentage of the way between the two sides where this pixel falls.

u/slope here is basically how far from the center line of the A the legs are at this row. As r increases, so does slope (but at a much smaller rate). The top of the A is very close to the center, the bottom is further out. I'm subtracting 1 so that when r is 0, slope is negative and will not be drawn. Without this, the A starts on the very topmost line of the card and looks bad.

z/dist_from_center is how far this particular p value is from the center of the A (not the center of the card), measured in percentage (not pixels). The center of the A is 20% of the way across the card. This side of the card starts on the right (0% is all the way right, 100% is all the way left), which is why you see the A 20% away from the right side of the card.

These values are important because the two legs of the A are basically tiny distance checks where the slope for a given r is compared against the dist_from_center. There are 3 checks used to determine if the pixel is part of the A.

if a(r-5) < 5 and z < u+.03 and (r==5 or z>u) then

The first is abs(r-5) < 5. This checks if r is between 1 and 9, the height of my A.

The second is dist_from_center < slope+.03. This is checking if this pixel's x distance from the center of the A is no more than .03 bigger than the current slope value. This is the maximum distance that will be considered "inside" the A. All of this is a percentage, so the center of the A is 0.20 and the slope value will be larger the further down the A we get.

Because I am checking the distance from the center point (the grey line in the image above), this works on either leg of the A. On either side, the pixel can be less than slope+.03 away.

Finally, it checks (r==5 or dist_from_center>slope). If the row is exactly 5, that is the crossbar across the A and should be red. Otherwise, the distance value must be greater than slope (this is the minimum value it can have to be "inside" the A). This also works on both sides thanks to using distance.

Although I am trying to capture 1-pixel-wide lines to draw the shape of the A, I could not think of a cleaner way than doing this bounding check. Ignoring the crossbar on row 5, you can think about the 2nd and 3rd parts of the if statement essentially making sure that dist_from_center fits between slope and a number slightly larger than slope. Something like this:

slope < dist_from_center < slope+0.03

Putting it Together

All of this logic needed to be on a single line to get away with using the short form of the if statement so it got slammed into a single ternary operator. Then I tried removing parentheses one at a time to see what was structurally significant. I wish I could say I was more thoughtful than that but I wasn't. The end result is this beefy line of code:

if(e%1<.5)c=a(r-5)<5and z<u+.03and(r==5or z>u)and 8or 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2

Once we've checked that e (our time value) is in the phase where we show the face, the ternary operator checks if the pixel is inside the A. If it is, c is set to 8 (red). If it isn't, then we set c = 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2, which is the diamond shape described above.

That's It!

Once we've set c the tweetcart uses pset to draw the pixel as described in the section on drawing the lines.

Here's the full code and what it looks like when it runs again. Hopefully now you can pick out more of what's going on!

a=abs::_::cls()e=t()for r=0,46do for p=0,1,.025do j=sin(e)*20k=cos(e)*5f=1-p h=a(17-p*34)v=a(23-r)c=1+min(23-v,17-h)%5/3\1*6u=(r-1)/80z=a(p-.2)if(e%1<.5)c=a(r-5)<5and z<u+.03and(r==5or z>u)and 8or 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2 g=r+39pset((64+j)*p+(64-j)*f,(g+k)*p+(g-k)*f,c)end end flip()goto _

I hope this was helpful! I had a lot of fun writing this cart and it was fun to break it down. Maybe you can shave off the one additional character needed to slow it down by using e=t()/2 a bit. If you do, please drop me a line on my mastodon or tumblr!

And if you want to try your hand at something like this, consider submitting something to TweetTweetJam which just started! You'll get a luxurious 500 characters to work with!

Links and Resources

There are some very useful posts of tools and tricks for getting into tweetcarts. I'm sure I'm missing many but here are a few that I refer to regularly.

Pixienop's tweetcart basics and tweetcart studies are probably the single best thing to read if you want to learn more.

Trasevol_Dog's Doodle Insights are fascinating, and some of them demonstrate very cool tweetcart techniques.

Optimizing Character Count for Tweetcarts by Eli Piilonen / @2DArray

Guide for Making Tweetcarts by PrincessChooChoo

The official documentation for the hidden P8SCII Control Codes is worth a read. It will let you do wild things like play sound using the print() command.

I have released several size-coded Pico-8 games that have links to heavily annotated code:

Pico-Mace

Cold Sun Surf

1k Jump

Hand Cram

And if you want to read more Pico-8 weirdness from me, I wrote a whole post on creating a networked Pico-8 tribute to Frog Chorus.

[ooc-miqojak]

Given that staff is already turning this place into Tiktok by forcing us to opt out of the terrible 'tumblr live' (tiktok but worse) every 7 days, how are we supposed to trust them on this? Especially when they say stupid shit like 'people only see 25 posts' and 'those have to immediately engage you in tumblr or else'... What??? I see hundreds of posts a day - one swipe of my thumb, and I see at least 25 posts? And since I have cultivated my dash,I see what I want to see. I even use the thing that suggests what my friends are liking - but if it gets any more algorithmic than that, I don't want any thing to do with it. If I want insta or facebook/meta bs, I'll use those? There's a reason I chose tumblr!

Push notifications are part of the technological addiction problem that's happening at present - much like a slot machine, you get a little ping/buzz, and wow! Look at the notifications! Feel the rush! You're admitting that you're trying to be more predatory and addictive, guys.

"Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr."

Oh, so you're just saying the quiet part out loud, now? You'd like to encourage the addictive nature of apps? It's already an impulse to constantly check notifications on apps - as stated, that's literally the point of push notifications. (There's a documentary or two out there that discusses this.)

So you want to reinvent the wheel in changing the way the feed/dash works, despite a poll showing that over 90% of people saying they don't want that, as well as trying to make this worse version of Tumblr more addictive?

Maybe try asking the artists and 'small creators' you claim to want to help... what they want/think would help them! Instead of forcing changes on everyone that no one wants while claiming it's for our own good. Use whatever mumbo jumbo tech-talk and excuses you want, but most of us can read between the lines, on this one.

If you force me to see blogs I'm not following on my dash 'because it's outdated' to only see what I'm opted in to see, you're no better than any other social media site, and are actively removing my reason for being here! I follow tags to find new blogs! I follow other blogs with whom my mutuals interact - Tumblr has always been a bit 'build your own experience', and that's what people love! If new users want something more like Meta or Tiktok or Insta, those already exist! Tumblr isn't hard to use by any means - you just can't be lazy and expect to be spoonfed content like on other sites... and the spoonfeeding is what people say they hate anyways! So why force it?

Don't homogenize. You should be expanding on what makes Tumblr great... not cutting it off at the metaphorical knees to make it like the trash that already exists. Like, say... make the tag search function more user friendly - an actual user request that's gone ignored for years. Work on that instead of forcing things no one really needs or wants or asked for.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[sweetheartsaku]

SAKUUU CONGRATS ON 200 MY LOVE!! I say this to everybody, but I mean it more than any other time I've said it, you deserve every single one of those 200 and many, many more!! AAAAAH I'M SO SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!

you're such a genuine writer, and I could tell that the things you write are just so you, yk? 🙇🏻‍♀️ that's what makes you special over anyone and everything else!! from your short smau's to the tooth rotting sweetness of the headcanons you write, I've expressed my love for all of them because they're just so good?!?!?? AND because I could tell you're the one that wrote them and I mean that in the best way possible!! I feel like seeing the author through the pieces they write is such a genuine part of being a writer bc there's just something so real about it and idk how to explain it 😞😞 BUT WITH YOU AAAAAAH YOU'RE JUST THAT GREAT????

ANYWAY every time I see you interact with a follower or a moot by responding to their asks, just backs up my claim of you deserving the 200 and so much more ☝🏻 you're always so kind and sweet how could people NOT like you???? that's like impossible you guys c'mon now

you really are one of the best souls I've ever met on this planet and I could only hope that in my next life, or in another universe, if there is one, we know each other irl and we could spend every waking moment together</3 speaking of other lives, i really don't know what I could've done in my past life to deserve being friends with someone like you ☹️☹️ honestly I'd do anything and everything in the world just to return the kindness you've always treated me with ☹️

didn't mean to get too sappy there, woah LMAOZHAHAH BUT ANYWAY, I'M SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU AND YOUR BLOG GROW EVEN MORE!!!! I'll be with you through every milestone, darling!! know that i love you soooo much, MWAH!!<33

FRANNNSSS FRANS FRANS FRANNSNSSNSN :((((((( UWEHHHHHHHHHHHH thankyu soososososoos much soulmate </3 you too 😭 deserve anything good thing ever imaginable😭YOI ARE SO SWEET I CNAT DO THSI

ackkk thank you frans!!!!!!!!! i do try to make my fics as genuine ands authentic as possible so seeing someone recognize that makes me feel all lovely inside D: !!!! AAAA mayb i should start writing more lil smaus habent done one of those in a while 🤔nd one of my first fics u found was my shu one... maybeHAHAHA!! AHHH why is the extremely popular crazy talented writer FRANS TALKING ERMMMMM how else do u rthink i found u 😓(UR AMAZING WRITING AND MOODBOARD DUHH) i will continue to do my best!!! and write!!!!!!! in the most REAL way ever done!!!!

ACKKKK YOURE TOO NICE MY SKIBIDI FRANS </3 im js being that version of me ykyk where i can be cringe and free and all of the above and im super hapi so many ppl like that side of me bc i feel so 😓 accepted!!😣.i lOVE U ALL SO MUCH GANG GANG

WHY TEH FREAK ARE. U TALKING RN FRANS. ur actually beyond the word best bc words cant describe how epic and cool and sweet u are😤i too, hope in every life, universe and everything in between that were out somewhere having the time of our lives!!!!!! YOU DONT NEED TO DO ANYTHING TO DESERVE PPL☹️ ESP ME.☹️ we are just girls in a world yk 😔✊we were js meant to be friends for real!!!NOW. I WOULD DO NYTHING TO BE ABLE TO SEND ALL UR LOVE BACK BC U DESERVE IT SO MUCH U SWEETHEART!!!!

its okkkk pookie to get sappy in here yk safe space 🥰💗I TOO AM EXCITED TO SEE WHERE LIFE AND THE TUMBLR ALGORITHM TAKE UOMG!!! WE'LL BE NEXT TO EACHOTHER THE ENTIRE TIME WOOOO!!!!!! thanku love, expect the same !!!!<33 I LOVE U SOOO MUCH

[kleptodoodles]

🍒お誕生日おめでとう、エアリス！ 🍒 エアリス週間2021の初日です！🌼 今週毎日エアリスの絵をアップします

🍒Happy Birthday Aerith!🍒 It’s the first day of @aerith-week !🌼 Going to post Aerith doodles every day this week!

[chonkchu]

Why are so many social media/art apps downgrading?

Like Deviantart and it’s whole layout and dumb eclipse/core thing steered a lot of old users away, Instagram’s converted quality and it’s algorithm is killing artists’ reach and then Tumblr is alright but the way you can’t customize your private posts/password protect blog the way you actually want users to see because of this whole stupid strict nsfw rules (which I’m not even going for) got in the way. I had a little hope and I feel like if they brought that feature back, you’d have to pay smh

It’s so sad… during these times, I’d LOVE Google+ to return! That shit had everything these apps have and it’s so unfortunate that Google closed it down. Like there were communities, you could customize your circles (people who follow you can pick which circle they’re in and they could see the post specifically meant for that circle), there were collections which I think can be private too but you can customize the colour and organize your posts that way too. It was so easy to find people and their interests! You’d get noticed easily, even if you were starting out fresh. It was genuinely a great platform and honestly if it were return, I feel like it may top all of the apps these days and you simply just need a gmail account! I think even the team listened to their userbase fairly well for the most part.

Why must all the good things end, take me back to 2013😭

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #577

Top Ten Transformers to Turn into Lego

I'm back! All the complicated “Best Years for Whatever” are done and dusted (for now? For ever?) and I'm retreating into the safe, warm, yet metallic embrace of those lovely Robots in Disguise. And hopefully the use of the word “embrace” won’t have me slapped with a “mature content” warning like last week’s list did; I've absolutely no idea why, unless Tumblr’s bizarro algorithm look umbrage with the title of the second single the Divine Comedy released in 1998, or maybe the name of the band who sang One Week in the same year. Anyway, I'm sure nothing about Transformers can ever be filthy, so we should be okay.

Another reason – well, okay, the main reason – for talking about Transformers this week is because I'm attending a convention again. When you read this, the TF Nation “Mini-Con” is taking place in Manchester, which is lovely because I don’t need to drive for two hours or book a hotel room. It's always nice to chat to like-minded Transformers fans, browse old toys, or even possibly get a drawing or two done. So it’ll be a fun time, I would imagine.

But having written about those ruddy great warmongers from Cybertron approximately a million times in the eleven years I’ve been doing this daft blog, what else could I possibly have to say? Well, amazingly, I found quite a few things I’ve not talked about! And for today I've narrowed it down to Lego. Because for Christmas I received the frankly rather marvellous Lego Optimus Prime set, a glorious (and quite massive) kit that lets you not only build everyone’s favourite sacrificial mecha-daddy but then transform him from a robot into a truck and back again. A great big brilliant-looking rendition of Prime that is also an actual working Transformer. It's an incredible, exciting, beautiful bit of engineering. It's a great toy – or building set, whatever you wanna call Lego. And as far as I can gather, it’s been quite popular too.

And that got me thinking – surely they’re gonna try to replicate this, yeah? They're going to want to return to that well (of Allsparks) and make another Transformer out of Lego? And if they do – and I'm fairly convinced they will – then who will they pick? See, it’s not quite as easy as you might think, because there are a lot of variables to consider. And so, to celebrate TF Nation parking its Bumblebehind in my own personal stomping ground, I'm going to suggest to both Hasbro and Lego which Transformers characters would be best to turn into yet another fantastic Christmas present for me at some point in the future. Till all are one (thousand bricks)!

Starscream: Optimus Prime is a robot that turns into a vehicle, so the most sensible thing to do – one assumes – is to make another Lego kit that’s also a robot that turns into a vehicle. And if that’s the way to go, then Starscream is a perfect candidate for a number of reasons. Well, at least two: one, picking a jet instead of a truck is a nice differential; and secondly, he’s a Decepticon where Prime is an Autobot. The traditional transformation of Starscream should be (he says as someone most assuredly not any kind of engineer) relatively straightforward to replicate? Maybe? Just as Lego Prime’s transformation is very similar to how it ever was, I think probably Starscream’s could be the same. And like Prime came with some fan-favourite accoutrements, maybe Starscream could come with his cape and crown from The Transformers: The Movie?

Soundwave: another genius move would be to go for one of the other iconic TF characters. Sticking with the Decepticons – to contrast Prime once more – then Soundwave benefits from visually being a good contrast, blue to red. They share similar faces, they’re both quite boxy; it’s a good look, them stood next to each other. And again, Soundwave’s old-school transformation should be more-or-less replicable in Lego form. Except here we have the opportunity for a tremendous gimmick, because Soundwave of course has his cassettes he keeps in his chest; so maybe Lego Soundwave could come with a Lego Ravage and Lego Lazerbeak who turn into little Lego Cassettes and fit in his Lego chest! And maybe a nice big Lego energon cube too.

Grimlock: if you’re gonna pick another Autobot, you need to do something a bit different. Grimlock is, again, one of the most iconic Transformers around. He’s a big grumpy dinosaur and everybody loves him. His historic method of transformation – which has remained mostly consistent across nearly forty years’ worth of toys – is pretty straightforward once again (I guess these eighties toys had to have fairly straightforward methods of transformation, thinking about it), and I think is replicable in Lego. And, I mean, he’s a chuffing robot T-Rex, what more do you want? Oh, okay, his little accessories can be his crown from the comic and his tea tray from that one episode of the cartoon. And maybe – just maybe – we could sneak in Wheelie as an extra bonus.

Bumblebee: one thing I’ve been sort of trying to avoid is just picking a Transformer who turns into a car. I feel like it’s kind of been done already to a certain degree with Optimus, and I think that there are so many big, famous Transformers who this could apply to – Jazz, Prowl, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker; or even the likes of Ratchet and Ironhide, or Hound, or Brawn – that it would basically boil down to “here’s a robot, here’s the car, it’s like the Optimus set but a bit smaller”. However, if you’re gonna do that, then I think Bumblebee is the best choice really. He's super-iconic, almost the face of the franchise at times, so he’d be popular no doubt; and there are quite a few possibilities you could go with for his design. Personally I think it’d be really cool if they gave you slightly different parts so you could either make him a VW Beetle or a Camaro, but I doubt that’d be possible licencing-wise.

Megatron: Megatron, in a lot of respects, would be the obvious choice. After all, he’s the other guy, the rival to Optimus, the big bad of the franchise. Surely if you were going to have two, you’d pick Ops and Megs? Like you’d have Batman and the Joker, right? Well, it’s complicated. I think one of the things that’s so successful with Optimus Prime – which I imagine is a deliberate choice – is how closely it hews to the original 1984 toy. There are lots of references to it, even in the instructions and stuff. With Megatron that’s really hard for a few reasons. I mean, he’s a gun; it’d just be a lot more difficult to engineer it so he turned into a gun but also looked good as a robot. Arguably, they didn’t achieve that in 1984 (or earlier, when the toy was first designed in Japan, etc, etc, etc…). Plus there’s the fact that no one wants Megatron to be a gun anymore; it’s just not the done thing for major characters in children’s properties to actually be firearms. Plus Lego wouldn’t want you running around brandishing a prop gun; think of the headlines. So the solution would surely be to make him a tank; after all, that’s what he usually turns into nowadays anyway. Megatron is a tank now and we have to accept that. So what do you do? Turn him into a tank in a way that reflects contemporary toys? Or do you make him in effect a Lego version of the classic G2 Megatron figure? I’m not sure, but whatever choice you make is intelligent compared to the Optimus Prime figure and is full of compromises. Hence he’s lower in the list. But: I still really want a Lego Megatron.

Optimus Primal: I’m nothing if not magnanimous. Y’see, I was never massively into Beast Wars; it sort of happened after I thought the franchise had “ended” (I should have known it never ends), and when I saw it I felt “that’s not my Transformers”. But I know that loads of people love it, so they deserve some Lego fun too. And – hey! – it would tie into this summer’s Rise of the Beasts movie! So yeah: we’ve got our standard Optimus-adjacent leader-figure, except he turns into a monkey not a truck. That’s all there is to it. I’ll be honest, having never had an Optimus Primal figure, I don’t really know how he actually transforms, so I don’t know if it’s something that’s even doable in Lego, but what the hell.

Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime: Hot Rod was one of the ‘bots I was considering as “let’s just think of one that’s relatively simple and just turns into a car”. But then I thought: can we go bigger? After all, we’ve had Optimus Prime; why not feature his futuristic successor? So you have a smaller Hot Rod figure you can build, which turns into a sexy magenta racing car. But! It also comes with additional bits and bobs, so you can change his legs and arms and – lo and behold – turn li’l ol’ Hot Rod into big, strapping Rodimus Prime. Who, yes indeedy, would transform into a sexy futuristic camper van.

Scorponok: one of the cool things I thought about Grimlock and Optimus Primal is that they don’t turn into vehicles (or “stuff”) but animals. And here we have Scorponok, another much-beloved character from the history of the franchise, who likewise turns into something cool and weird. Namely a dirty great robot scorpion. And that’s more or less that; he’s another one with a fairly simple transformation scheme that’s probably replicable in Lego. However, he does have a gimmick in that he’s a Headmaster; his head turns into a little bloke called Lord Zarak. I think what would be cool here is if his head could unfold into a smaller robotic figure reminiscent of the old toy, but inside that there sits a for-real Lego minifig that looks just like Zarak as he appeared in the cartoon.

Ultra Magnus: now we’re going crazy, but just imagine it. Ultra Magnus is a huge Lego set, the Transformers equivalent of that Rivendell set they released this year, or the really big Millennium Falcon. And, like the 1986 toy, he’s comprised of an entirely-white Optimus Prime – literally the same Prime from the existing set. So you have to build that, but then! He also has his car transporter trailer, just like the old toy. And just like the old toy this trailer combines with his cab (maybe there’s a little bit more Lego jiggery-pokery to make it attach properly), and bob’s your robot-uncle, you’ve got yourself a ruddy great Ultra Magnus figure. It’d be huge, sure. But it’d be so cool.

Devastator: talking about big… I was wondering about doing a Triple Changer like Blitzwing, but this would be much cooler. It’d be a massive set once again but just incredible if they could pull it off. Yes, it would indeed feature six smaller Constructicons – I figure each one about half the size of Optimus Prime, to make this thing in any way feasible – but as well as turning from cement mixers and bulldozers and the like into robots, they also combine to form Devastator. I’m not entirely sure how this would be possible; hopefully, even if you had to remove the odd piece here and there, it could be achieved without entirely disassembling and reassembling the Constructicons, so their shapes were recognisable when Devastator was built. And there you’d have it; one of the most iconic and impressive toys of the eighties rendered in Lego form.

I am now insanely excited about made-up toys that will almost certainly never exist.

[comicteaparty]

March 7th-March 13th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from March 7th, 2020 to March 13th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is your overall marketing/promotion strategy for your webcomic?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I don't know if this counts as a strategy, but these are some of the things I do to promote my comic or my work in general. 1. Most important from what I've noticed (which I have been failing at due to stress and self-doubt lately) is to post updates to your comic frequently and consistently. It seems somewhat silly that simply putting your work out there is the best way to grow an audience, but it really is. Newly posted chapters frequently get shown on more pages and thus detected by the algorithms and potential readers. It also helps to establish trust with current and returning readers. 2. Participating in art/comic events, forums, and other comicking communities (such as this one). In a way, this isn't really marketing directly, but it is good to build connections with other creators! 3. Conventions! I actually have gotten a several new readers/followers from attending cons. It's also nice just to talk to people, get your name out there locally, and to make a little bit of money while at it. 4. Social media promotion. Tbh, this hasn't been super helpful to me, but more eyes is always a win in my book. I try to post almost every day, even if it isn't art or comic related. Having some kind of social media presence at all, even if it's small, shows people that you are working hard to connect to others. Also finding the right hashtags definitely helps with visibility.

kayotics

Overall, my strategy for marketing is to be authentic and just keep plugging my stuff. People will come if they like it. I work as a marketer for my day job, so I know what I COULD do, but I really don’t do that much since a whole marketing plan would take a lot more time than I have available to me. Some of the stuff I do otherwise: - regular updates. This ones pretty important for retaining viewers I already have. Any good marketing strategy is thinking about retaining people, not just getting new ones - self promo: this usually is on top webcomics or on social media. I get a LOT of traffic from top webcomics, and I get a good handful of people from social media. - conventions, like mentioned before, can be a great way to get people’s eyes on your stuff. I have a postcard that I hand out to people if they come by or they purchase something. - the thing I don’t do enough is post more art outside of the comic, or even just little previews. If I were dedicated to marketing, I’d be sharing sketches or illustrations on social media to grow my audience.

DanitheCarutor

Ah you know, I don't really have much of a strategy. At some point I promoted as much as I could on Twitter, adding my comic to those share/promo thread, getting in on relevant hashtag events, participating on WebComic Chat (whenever I remembered to). I've done a little promotion on forums, but there is really only so much you can do since only so many people hang out there and if your work is super niche like mine, they will pretty much avoid your promos at all cost. Lmao Other than those I don't really do much, at some point I attempted to use Instagram but the site/app is very stingy about offsite links. I also started a Facebook page, although if you don't have the money to boost your promos and don't usually have a lot going on with your comic outside of weekly updates, it won't get a whole lot of attention. I've also tried to be more active, but I'm not a good conversationalist, and I tend to be kind of a thread/conversation/mood killer so I try to avoid talking outside of Q&A prompts like this.

eli [a winged tale]

Same Dani, I used Instagram for a while too and I just don’t think the platform is a good fit for my vertical scroll comic (see exhibit 1) Twitter is a mixed bag as well and I think unless you have a solid following already, it’s hard to gain traction. What really helped was being on Webtoon’s staff pick for a couple days. I’m not sure how Tapas picked up but it’s reassuring that there’s a couple of followers gained every week when I posted regularly. So it really does sound like the first step is to have a steady update schedule (working on the buffer! Got a month’s work down today). It’s just challenging because while I could upload one page a week but on the vertical scroll sites it seems like a longer episode (6-7 pages) is valued more as a solid update. Love hearing everyone’s thoughts and hope to learn from y’all! (edited)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Consistency and con attendance were big ones for me, but something I learned worked well (and was really fun to do) was creating really fun, really dumb, non-canon bits of art every now and then. Following meme prompts or funny ideas from other people. If your comic can afford some humor being thrown its way, making people laugh is a great way to get some attention. No one needs to know the details of your story - they just need to relate to the characters/humor somehow. I had more than one person come across my dumb, meme-y ancillary art and go “Welp, I want to read your comic now.”

eli [a winged tale]

Memes to the rescue! What has been your favourite to do? And which one has surprised you in its relatability/popularity?

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Two shots of vodka.

Also that terrible sweater meme. Everyone is required to do the terrible sweater meme. People eat it up.

eli [a winged tale]

Too good

Ahh I can’t wait till I can actually write silly adult characters

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Now that you mention it, the nice thing about the terrible sweater meme is it works with a WIDE variety of comics.

eli [a winged tale]

I would love to do a meme with y’all

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

"Came for the story, staying for the sick memes"

Spring-heeled Jack

I try to post updates every friday when my new pages go up on Patreon. And then I make my big post when my tapas and website update at the end of the month. Between all that, I have little flyers that I carry with me and if I'm ever in a shop that has a little self promotion section, I plan on tacking up a flyer. I do conventions, and this will be my first convention season while actively making a comic, so flyers will be handed out then as well.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

My comic isnt very comedy-heavy, and even for the funny scenes, my sense of humor isn't compatible with most people's. So a lot of the memes out there just don't work. But terrible sweater meme doesn't have to be hilarious. It can be just cute, or even weird.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

For me, uh lmao. I sometimes make some funny strip panels and it was received well even though it's not polished for my liking lmao

Spring-heeled Jack

Keii, I feel you. I'm not good with comedy and my comic isn't meant to be funny, either, so I don't know how well a comedy meme will help me.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

overall, I try to be honest with just self promo and asking when I have a chance "Hey pls check out my comic lol"

eli [a winged tale]

Or maybe just something relatable? Seen a couple caption this on tumblr

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think instead of memes, what I'm gonna do is my characters cosplaying more well known characters from works that have some tonal similarities with my own. This isn't just for advertising purposes; it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time for myself. But I'm realizing it can serve some of the same purposes that memes do.

Spring-heeled Jack

That's extremely cute!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Keyword being "SOME" Tonal similarities... Some of them aren't very similar but have a couple of parallels, etc.

Spring-heeled Jack

Oh for sure. Even if you could find that 'perfect match', it might not be a great cosplay for them, and give too much away

Are "draw the squad" prompts still a thing? I love those

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The One White Dude and the Tiger Dude in my comic will definitely cosplay Calvin and Hobbes at some point.

Spring-heeled Jack

LOL

omg please, Keii

eli [a winged tale]

YES

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Yeah, not every comic will have super memeable humor - but whatever you can do to break down that wall between you and a potential reader and go “Hey! Look at this. Is this relatable? Do you get the reference? Etc” Is a very good bet

Also yes squad memes are PERFECT

You can boil down your comic’s relationships so simply.

Spring-heeled Jack

I have four couples in my comic so those "ship dynamic" posts might be fun

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

What are squad memes?

eli [a winged tale]

I also need to be educated about squad I mean all the memes

Spring-heeled Jack

OH MAN!! They are fun as heck. You can find templates and it's a very simple character design in the template, but the poses are super silly. And then you just draw your characters in place of those simple figures(edited)

If you google "Draw the squad" you will find a bunch

renieplayerone

Oh! Ill have to try that! These squad bases look fun!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I still have one of those I need to finish Back when I first started sharing my work, I was surprised and delighted at how quickly people shoved it through a meme filter.

Maybe that’s another thing! If marketing opportunities present themselves as a surprise, try running with them and see where they take you Within reason, of course. Never feel forced to follow anything that people respond to in a particular way. Just take it into account and see how you feel about it.

renieplayerone

(Im here to lurk on this week's question, i have no strategy and need ideas haha)

eli [a winged tale]

Omg draw the squad looks

too many to choose

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I love draw the squad poses so much TuT I wish I had more time to draw within more of them. I think I always get a little dishearten about making memes because I feel like I need to make my jokes full illustrations but I never have time for much extra content beyond ballpoint pen sketches :T

Mei

Honestly I don't have a marketing or promotion strategy for my webcomic. I make updates every week, and I post it on my twitter and kinda plug it there. I'm actually god awful at trying to make people read my comic because I'm a little bit nervous about it, to be honest. So I just sort of leave it there and see if people find it, half the time. That being said, I tried to promote it pretty hard at conventions last year. But that didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I'm hoping to make flyers with QR codes so that people can scan it, and it'll take them to the landing page/tapas for the comic. That might be a bit easier than getting them to just search the title, plus having a flyer is a nice bit of promotion if I get the opportunity?! Making memes and drawing characters in different clothes or in squad things sounds like super fun tho and I might look into that in the future

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's nice to hear everyone talk about this topic. TBH I had completely stopped promoting my comic because I got too scared of backlash, being a disappointment, etc. (Initially I'd attracted a number of people who weren't actually my target audience, and that led to some less than ideal results.) But some time last year, it occurred to me that 1) I'm making this comic for my reader self (or my "hypothetical taste twin" as I like to call it)... which means 2) I only have to appeal to people like me. So I started asking myself, "What would I have to say/do to get me to read this comic?" and that made it significantly less intimidating. I haven't actually started doing self promo (though I did start plugging my updates on Twitter at least). But most future self promo I do will be based on that ^ question.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(oh god, I was just checking out the latest update for one of the Korean webcomics I read, and the new episode is about a hikikomori... who says "I want to change, but I can't step outside because... maybe there isn't a single person out there who will understand me." THAT WAS ME but with comic promo. Well, I'm getting better and I also hope this character will, too, though knowing this comic his chances aren't so great lol...)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I hope that wasn't too awkward to share! Tl;dr I really think the "what would I have to say/do to get ME to check out my comic" is a good approach for anyone else feeling intimidated about doing self promos.

In the same vein, but on the opposite side of the coin: I'm curious to know, what were some things that got YOU to read someone else's comic?

Some of my own answers to that aren't very relevant to what we can do for our own comics: e.g. I'm Korean and when Naver has a new comic in their pro comic lineup, I may check it out. I'm also a member of SpiderForest and I check out the applicants' comics during the app season. Stuff like that aren't really good promo options that we can take. But things that may be relevant: - 'Evocative scenery shot that doesn't show the face/ doesn't focus on the face.' MY WEAKNESS. That kinda pictures feel subtle and kind of lonely to me, even if it's a group shot. And I like stories with those vibes. -Promo includes an evocative quote. Could be from the comic itself, or from something else like a classical literature or whatever. The creator of Ark (https://www.arkcomic.com/) does this sometimes and even though I'm already following Ark, those promos get my attention.

eli [a winged tale]

Definitely the art promo now that I think of it! Merch, posters, banners etc. If the art intrigues me, I definitely take a look at the site/blurb/first chapter

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I wonder if we can semi-workshop promo art at some point? Not really intensive like "change xyz" because that's not always feasible with art, but just impression feedback like, "this pictures gives me these vibes, and makes me expect this kinda story"

I would be curious to see everyone's even if we don't workshop

eli [a winged tale]

YES

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

Yesssss

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Yes please. I don‘t promo besides update notices simply because I have no clue to start.

Mei

Sometimes I get really attracted by the style of the story? I immediately started reading Wolfsbane because the art was cool and different from a lot of whta I'd seen on Webtoon up until that point. And then the story was perfect for me. What keii said about writing for yourself is right. Patrick Ness once said you should write the stories your younger self would have loved to pick up on a shelf

and I think that's a pretty evocative thing. At the end of the day, you should be enjoying what you're writing (hopefully). And if you enjoy it and you're having fun making it, that can rub off on the people reading it, or you find the people who like that similar vein of story?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(It's also 100% legit to write stories for your current self )

Mei

(oh yes 100% that's what i'm doing HEHE)

Tolkein wrote LOTR because he was like

in love with worldbuilding

was there a market for such a strange type of novel at the time? No. Definitely not. Did he write it anyway? YEAH HE DID

Deo101 [Millennium]

I really wanna do an art workshop yes.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Aight, anyone who wants an impression feedback from me, post your promo art in #art_help

Warning, my impressions may be totally off lol

Deo101 [Millennium]

Also I don't do much marketing. Mostly I try to get in with communities and learn about making comics, I just want to improve my craft. All I really do is make my updated every week, and share whatever art Ive made on my Twitter or whatever

Okay! I think I only have my cover on my phone, but on my computer I also have my banners and icon. So I'll share all those in a bit when I'm at my computer

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(off topic but I'm sick, and when I'm sick or very tired I constantly misread words. I read "my banners" as "my bananas" and I was very confused for a couple seconds.)

Deo101 [Millennium]

My bananers

Feather J. Fern

I am terrible at marketing my own work, but I am very good at marketing other people's work. I use the "you would like it for this reason" to grab people. Unfortunately I can't do it for my comic because I am bad at seeing the good in my own work oof. I am getting better at it though.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That's a really good way to do it!

And I can relate. My own hangup is a little different, but it can be extremely difficult to be brave for sure, whether in front of other people, or just in front of your own brain that constantly judges you.

Feather J. Fern

Yeah I was talking about a friend's comic and then the person I was talking to was like "Don't you write comics" and I was like "ahfoofjw yeah but don't look at them"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I was thinking a lot about the whole "it's like [well known work] meets [another well known work]" approach that was discussed earlier. And I think that could be relevant here. Like, think of something that has either influenced your comic significantly, or just happens to have some core similarities. How would you market that thing? Could you market your own thing using a similar approach -- since there are similarities?

I'd thought of a really good example to compare HoK to. Then I got sad because the said example is extremely obscure outside of Korea. But now I'm like, hey, people don't have to KNOW that work. I can do this differently. I can talk about HoK the way I could talk about it.

('it' as in the other work that's obscure outside of Korea)

Feather J. Fern

I do think that's a good fast shortcut but I don't like using it becuase the shortcut sometimes makes people angry when they don't get what they like out of those two things

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That's why I said to NOT actually bring up the comparison work

Don't name it

Just list the traits that are shared in common

Feather J. Fern

Oh sorry

I miss read

(And my name changed colours all the sudden?)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's a confusing topic, so no worries

It means you leveled up

Feather J. Fern

OWO!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Say you want to compare your work to... I dunno, DBZ, because it's got super strong aliens duking it out barehanded, blasting ki-like energy attacks, etc. Don't name DBZ. Talk about your work the way you'd talk about your favorite aspects of DBZ. "My comic has super strong aliens duking it out hand-to-hand! YEEEAH!"

OH MY GOD I NEED TO DO THIS NOW.

Feather J. Fern

Yeah! That's what I would do. (But it also helps for me that my comic has no hard reference points) but for my new comic, people are gonna compare it to Zach Bell, and Angelic Layer i think

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'm gonna write up some drafts that I will revise and tweet at a later time

Feather J. Fern

So I jsut got to you know, not promo it as such XD

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I want to do this too for a quick pitch

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Do it (shop talk or story help maybe?)

I'm writing a vomit draft for mine

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yee

Feather J. Fern

I think I will do it for Story help

(Also so I can help flesh out my new project lol lol)

eli [a winged tale]

Kei I might be suuuuper off since I read only the beginning but I sort of thought inuyasha but Korea and handsome boys

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Sometimes you don't even realize your story can be marketed as "blah meets blah" until much later down the line - I've only started realizing the number of existing properties I've absorbed unintentionally into my comic. It's not how I'd market it on a serious front, but to a friend for story help, heck yes.

But a lot of people on Twitter seem to do that strategy for PitMAD and it works great for them, so... shrug

I guess it still belongs in a "pitch arsenal," as it were

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, the one "blah" I just thought of is something I hadn't realized for all these years. But it makes so much sense now that I look at it.

eli [a winged tale]

See that’s where I got confused but I think this is what I’m gonna aim to do: - pitch to readers: inspiration but this awesome unique thing in the comic - pitch to other comic makers: the Logline - pitch to agents: comparison works if requested and longer pitch depending on their format - pitch to family: just read it plzthanksbye

renieplayerone

or alternative pitch to family: Please dear god never read this

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That's me

Oof... Writing the 'promote your comic by talking about the traits it shares with Another Person's Work,' I made myself cry, and that is definitely a sign I'm on the right track.

eli [a winged tale]

Right track is good!

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

It took me years to even think of an 'other more popular work' comparison for Children of Shadow. XD But at the same time, it's really different from the works I compare it to, so it's hard to say 'Read this if you like X or X because it has a few similarities in theme and tone, but is still very much its own thing'.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah which is why I'm not even gonna namedrop my X.

I'm just straight up gonna talk about 'My comic has [this trait]' (and X shares that trait, but no one needs to know for the purpose of that pitch)

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

To answer the weekly question... I really don't have a marketing strategy. Marketing is my achilles heel, so I generally just throw pages up and hope someone sees them. I don't really understand social media nor do I have the energy to sink tonnes of time into it, which seems to be one of the biggest requirements for being picked up by algorithms. So my marketing strategy is just.., keep making comics and talking to other creators and hope for the best

eli [a winged tale]

I think that’s still solid Capn

Ultimately you need a product to promote

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's something that helps me, because while I can talk about my favorite works done by others, I feel stuck when trying to do the same with my own. So it's basically telling my brain, 'hey, you already know how to do it with other stories. Do the same thing with your own.'

eli [a winged tale]

So true Kei

renieplayerone

thats my strategy too. best case you market it great, worst case you've made a new friend so win win :3

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

My incredibly low numbers after 14 years of making webcomics beg to differ but... maybe someday I can hire someone to help me market.

eli [a winged tale]

I’m using the comic platforms rather than my own site so... sort of relying on their algorithms. I imagine it can be harder if you just post on your own website?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Sometimes the platforms don't help much if their audience isn't into the type of comics you make

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I post on both my own website and on platforms, but the algorithms for WT and Tapas don’t seem to like me, haha.(edited)

renieplayerone

yeah same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

One of my top favorite webcomics got a front page feature on Tapas once, but it wasn't the kind of a story that gets a lot of traction there, so it still didn't get very popular. And that was in no way a measure of its quality. It is an excellent comic, just not a good fit for that particular place.

renieplayerone

I get far more views on my site, but I get way more engagement on Tapas and WT

I actually treat those two mirrors AS marketing for the main site(edited)

eli [a winged tale]

Exactly renie! Good perspective!

I never know what different platforms tailor to...

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Yeah, what Keiiii said. I make dark fantasy comics and both WT and Tapas favour romance, especially comics geared towards a female audience and drawn anime style. My comics aren’t particularly feminine and romance isn’t much of a focus, so they’re just not what that demographic is into.

eli [a winged tale]

I’ve been trying to remember how I came across my favourite comics and usually it’s through the art (interesting characters, unique dynamic style that I enjoy) and the first chapter holding promise (able to see what the character wants/will have to change into)

Romance has always been the best seller in the story world I think

Oh and most recently hiveworks and other web publishers have great recommendations too per genre

And comic conventions are always fun to meet creators. Sometimes If I feel I jive with someone I’m an instant fan

renieplayerone

I absolutely need to get better at having confidence enough to make friends at conventions x_x

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I have noticed my audience grow a bit since joining Spiderforest. They’ve helped me get a bit better at promotion, though marketing just isn’t my talent, lol.

renieplayerone

im always terrified haha

eli [a winged tale]

It’s a big step for sure renie! It took me like... three years going to VanCAF as an attendee before actually exhibiting and making friends(edited)

Mei

I know i'm late but i personally detest the 'this book is X meets Y!!', even though I get why people do it. I just wish they'd describe it to me like what if I'd never read either of those books......

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I would really love to get out to cons, they sound like a great opportunity for connecting with other creators. One of these years I’ll be able to get to one!(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah im usually kinda like "okay, well are you doing anything new or are you just doing those things :/"

renieplayerone

I exhibit with the Boston Comics Roundtable and I still havent gotten the courage XD

Mei

yeah, cons are really fun even to attend or to make friends! I find it really tough though, I'm so intimidated;;

yeah Deo... same... it's like

sure, I could pitch a story as two things. Like I don't know "The Walking Dead meets Shaun of the Dead" which is semi redundant anyway

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I only use it to give people a framework for the kinds of tones and themes they can expect from my work when I have to keep my explanation short and sweet.

renieplayerone

they should have badges that say "Hi i want to make friends but you are all so awesome its intimidating be kind"

Mei

or you know... use those words to just describe the story? It may be a personal preference, some agents LOVE comparisons

Yes renie, yes!

i'd love a badge like that like

pls talk to me i'm scare

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Sometimes a few words can’t fully describe a story as well as saying: ‘It’s a little bit like X meets X but if you add [insert unique thing your story does]’

Mei

I personally find that it depends a bit too much on people having read those books or stories before. BUT if you're pitching to an agent, they've usually read those books

so then they get a sense or vibe of like, what the genre is

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

It’s all down to preference, really. Your own and the person you’re pitching to. If you don’t want to use comparisons to describe your own work, that’s valid, but try not to dismiss people who do.

Mei

so I get it, I just don't like it personally xD I think a lot of the times it takes away from your own voice and story

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That too is part of the reason why I'm not namedropping the works

Just having my self-promo self learn from my 'promo other people's stuff' self

Mei

yeah for sure, it adds that level of excitement to your own work that you'd give to others?

eli [a winged tale]

I think a cool exercise might be to check out someone’s work here and see how you would promote it

It’s always good to see from someone else’s perspective

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

yessssss, all of my friends have been much better at promoting than I am

mostly because they have no shame regarding it but they also just... know what sounds cool

Mei

Oh i'm very good at promoting my friends' work

I sold his DnD book to a kpop stan who doesn't like DnD and doesn't play, and it was a crowning achievement

eli [a winged tale]

Like for yours I’d probably say... Manta Ray princess finds herself very much dead but is given a second chance to revive her friends and save her kingdom... just need to find someone very much living and very much not afraid of the seaghosts they have become

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

SOLID

though now I imagine Phaedra as a Manta Ray in a dress which is... not entirely untrue

eli [a winged tale]

LOL omg I haven’t even thought of that! Just thought manta Princess is a hook

Mei

Me, pointing at Cheth "I mean look at him, LOOK AT HIM and tell me you don't want to read this"

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I guess for my work I market it from four potential angles: 1) The princess is cool and has a sword, 2) The villain is the best character, 3) The environments ain't bad, and 4) THERE'S A DOG

again, you gotta know who you're talking to and what they already like

eli [a winged tale]

In a world where a fallen god became trapped in the sea, a dead princess is given a second chance to fight for her life with a mysterious sea-bitten boy and undo the sea ghost curse that plagues the world.

Dammit I repeated world

Mei

hey... the environments are GREAT

eli [a winged tale]

Yeah Lady your environment shots are

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

ok I do try BUT BACK TO MARKETING

The number of times I see someone marketing their comic with very epic-sounding descriptors or broad generalizations... then that one day where they're finally like "oh, I have a character who turns into a hamster at nighttime" and people are like 'I'M SOLD'

And then they go ".... THAT'S WHAT YOU ALL WANTED???"

often it's those little weird details that get people interested

Deo101 [Millennium]

I wanna read about the were hamster please

Mei

sometimes I think the simplest and maybe slightly silly lines are what grabs people?

when things sound TOO epic i feel a bit intimidated

eli [a winged tale]

takes notes

Mei

but if someone were to sell me a big adventure epic as "it's hamsters and they fight the forces of evil" i'd read it

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

god yes

"Four small creatures band together to defeat a great darkness overwhelming their homeland."

No.

"Hamsters fight evil."

YES

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I.... I have no idea how to snappily describe my comics. XD

eli [a winged tale]

Same... I got to kids with wings for hair then my brain short circuits

Mei

i'd say it's the way you'd tell the story to a close friend

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

The best I came up with was 'Teenagers with supernatural powers team up with woodland critters to defeat monsters' but it sounds more adventure-y and doesn't really get at the fact that it's a dark story with horror elements and everyone's mentally ill.

Mei

like they come up to you and go "what's your comic about" "oh you know, my stupid comic's about mutant hamsters that take over the world" or something

(don't call your comics stupid none of your comics are stupid they are great)

Deo101 [Millennium]

"plant man and his goth boyfriend babysitting a ton of bozos" would probably be mine then

Mei

BEAUTIFUL

i'm sold

Deo101 [Millennium]

ghsakgjhgkhkgahgk my target audience...

Mei

i do think tho like this form of comedic one-lining may not work for something dark?

Unless you go "Spooky horror about cats that become humans at night!"

would need experimentation

eli [a winged tale]

It’s a balance I think.

Kids stranded on an island with weapons explore the darkness in human nature - Lord of the Flies

Mei

ooh yeah that's a good one!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

A space explorer stranded on a foreign planet must join forces with the indigenous population and save his ship before his life support runs out.

Alternately

Small man goes to war with small carrot people

Pikmin

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) I wonder if one could describe CoS the way how people might describe Evangelion, but with magical powers instead of mechs.

Teens, monsters, mental illnesses

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Probably. Though I've never seen Evangelion, but those three words work very well.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The relationship dynamics are way different, but yeah, those three things...

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Also add trauma and cute lil animals and you have Children of Shadow. XD

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Evangelion also has trauma (though I don't know if you'd like it; this isn't a rec, just a promo discussion!) and it was refreshing to see at the time

A teen trying to fight huge monsters, even if he was doing it inside an equally huge mech, could lead to traumatizing experiences, and it was the first time I saw that seriously explored

Hmm, so I guess "teens, talking animals, monsters, mental illnesses feat. trauma" ?

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I don't know if it's similar at all, but that description reminds me strongly of Eureka 7. Wow, was that series intense,

🌈ERROR404 🌈

I really liked how the end happened - it was a nice solution to the lack of budget issue and told the story of his psyche reall well

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Though Eureka 7 was intense in a good way. I found the ending kind of unsatisfying, but admittedly I find the endings of 90% of animes unsatisfying (probably a cultural clash). But I enjoy them for the journey more than the ending.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I haven't watched Eureka 7, but the storyboard artist (one of the storyboard artists maybe?) for that anime is one of my favorite artists.

DanitheCarutor

Ah, a little late, but regarding the snappy promos I'm in the same boat as Cap'n with not knowing how to make one. At least one that would be ridiculous and totally not fitting the darker themes. I agree with all the people who have a generally hard time coming up with a pitch for their work, while having an easier time promoting other people's comics. Honestly my comic can be super boring to people who don't like pretentious, non-fantastical, angsty, character study types of stories. So it's really hard to think of a way to make it sound interesting without spoiling anything. Man! That thing when people come up to you, asking what your comic is about! Me: "Oh! Ah, it's uh, kinda sad and it has uh mental illness" -trails off with uncomfortable laughter- Them: Oh cool. -has a look of complete disinterest- Someone was actually extremely enthusiastic about the vague description of my comic, which somehow made me a mix of uncomfortable and excited.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I saw the conversation about blurbs and I just thought of one for a comic I'm working on! "An ecologist and a bird have a conversation about ethics"

I haven't started the comic yet so please send your critiques(edited)

and first impressions

(of the blurb)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"Angsty character study with a heavy dose of mental illness" <--- Could this descriptor work? @DanitheCarutor

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

kei said exactly what I was just typing

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Great minds

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

oh, i just realized i've read dani's comic

I think your description is fine?

The artsy, angsty comics I follow all have kind of short, tongue in cheek descriptions

it's hard to capture the tone of an emotional comic in one sentence so they either joke about it or make it intentionally misleading

for example Drop Out's description is something like "two friends go on a road trip" and Fritz Fargo's description is "a human dumpster fire in the 90s"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The dumpster fire one is insta-effective

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Dani, maybe make your description shorter if anything?

Something like, "An emotionally stunted alcoholic attempts to make amends"

and then follow it up with kei's line about it being an angsty character study

RebelVampire

Im not gonna stop the convo cause it is on topic. However, i do want to remind ppl these #creator_babble chats are permanently archived. So thats something to keep in mind if youre gonna workshop.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I asked before in this discord about making my own blurb better. The main critique I got was that I included too many things that I thought were interesting and unique that a new reader probably wouldn't care about. Like how the mc's powers work. But though it's unique and important to the story, it's not going to be a main reason someone reads the comic. I revised the blurb to remove extraneous info and make the tone of the comic more apparent, and I think now I didn't lose anything and made it more concise.

I think maybe agtahr could also be summarized a bit more succinctly

DanitheCarutor

Yup, you did once upon a time but said you stopped reading it a while ago. (which is totally fine, the reason is understandable.) The mix of yours and Keii's descriptions do sound a lot better than mine. Lol Thank you Fish and @keii’ii (Heart of Keol)! I've noticed people really like the word 'angst' when you describe heavy stuff. At least when I was a teenager everyone found it appealing. I'll tinker with it a bit and use Drop_Out and Fritz Fargo as a reference. Anyways, I'm going to stop talking now, don't want to bog down the main topic.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That's a good point; 'the best things about this story' and 'things that should go in its blurb' have an overlap, but they aren't always the same.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Yeah, I did but I'll probably pick it up again eventually. I remember enjoying it. If you do want to keep talking, we can move to shop talk?

mirandalorian

babbling I have the first three episodes of my webtoon ready to post tomorrow and I’m really excited and feel kinda proud that I made it this far...even though it’s not very far. It’s far for me without posting immediately end babbling

Feather J. Fern

I forgot to ask, but if people are tabling at cons, do you guys have promo stuff at your con tables for your comics?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Mostly a business card, but yes

carcarchu

i never did but my table partner one year had free postcards she gave out with purchase / to passerbys with her comic info and an illustration on it

kayotics

I always keep free postcards to advertise my comic on the table right next to my business cards.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Yep, the free postcards did wonders for me last year. They disappeared quickly!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

Buisness cards and postcards~

Feather J. Fern

Seems like Business and Postcards are the way to go.

Mei

business cards!!

i might be making flyers/postcards for my comic next time though! :D

sagaholmgaard

I haven't done much to promote my comic but I've gotten some good ideas reading through this, thanks! I currently plug my updates in twitter and instagram with a cool/fun panel from the new page. I do also share WIPS and try to engage through my instagram stories (Asking things like, 'what type of benders would the Reclaim squad be in an avatar au' and making doodles for the answers), but that only reaches those who follow my IG. its good fun tho. I've done memes with the characters a few times but I didn't get much attention, LOL. But it's fun so maybe worth trying again

Spring-heeled Jack

Today I went into a locally owned comic shop and went to the guy that owns it and said "I'm a local artist and I'm writing a comic. Could I give you some small flyers to let people take?" And he said yes, and then asked if I have any physical copies. I don't yet but told him I'll bring some by when I have them. He then let me know he carries other local artists! Something cool to think about if you have a local comic shop.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

ooo that's good to know

I droped off my zines at my local comic shop but maybe I'll drop flyers of my webcomic too lmaooo

Spring-heeled Jack

I also just ordered a business card carrier so I can tote some around with ease. I carry my flyers in my sketchbook. You should totally ask, it never hurts! Carry a few extra just in case you find yourself in a new area and find another cafe or comic shop.

I ran mine off on my at home printer on some nice quality but regular weight paper. I might need to get some more professionally done.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I keep a handful of business cards in my wallet -- that way, any time someone says "hey, that looks cool, what are you drawing?" they get a card with the title and URL. Slowly but steadily burns through the supply.

DanitheCarutor

Seeing if my local book shops will carry copies of my comic when I print them eventually is something I'm kind of excited about! My town is hardcore into supporting local artists and writers, so that'll be something neat to try out. Although I'm a little nervous that the rating might be a little too mature for what the vendors want on their shelves.

I know of using postcards to advertise, but never heard of fliers. Maybe I'll give that a try.(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I use double sided business cards, so on one side, it showcases some of my art, and the other side has contact info, a link to my comic website, and a QR code. It's been pretty helpful so far at conventions.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

You guys have all these sophisticated answers to this and my answer is just "scream on every social media platform I can reach and every person I meet about my comic."

Though I may not scream at people irl,,,

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Let's see... I have a twitter where I repost my comic pages, and a couple mirrors that help reach different audiences. I've also carried around business cards that have my comic's URL on it. One fun strategy I've used is doing review-exchange things, in an I-critique-your-comic-if-you-critique-mine way (with the assumption that most people who read all the way through Super Galaxy Knights end up liking it). Though, that isn't really viable anymore now that the comic is 600+ pages, cuz nobody would ever agree to that trade lol. And... that's pretty much it? Though, I should note that my goal with Super Galaxy Knights isn't to make the most popular comic I can so that I can make a living off ads or patreon or print sales or whatever. If I ever do manage to make money off the comic, it'll be in "spinoff tech" (basically, video games or other media based off it). (it's the reason why a bunch of early Starstuff Stories fleshed out the abilities of the characters they focused on) I would like people to read the story because I think people would like the story, but it's not like my future depends on its popularity.

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

We (me and Q) are gonna (hopefully) tabeling at cons this year! I thought about doing free non permenant tattoos with our comic things. Also we have beautiful zines of the first chapter to sell. but a free postcard is also good

Desnik

promotional strategies...ah...the biggest thing I did for my first webcomic, RAWR! Dinosaur Friends, was simply update on a general platform (tumblr), using a consistent schedule and the same tags every time. That allowed some of the bigger biology/humor/critter blogs on tumblr to find me and I got a lot of people reading from their generous reblogs. I found some more niche crossover from sci-comm blog comments and dinosaur toy collector forums, because sometimes I'd have a comic that would coincide with paleontology news. It was mainly about finding my niche and bringing my stuff to that niche. To those struggling with finding readers, I would recommend distilling the contents of your comic and then reaching out to people who buy/read things like your comic. I've definitely made friends from general 'webcomic' forums and discords, but in terms of building a readership it's all about finding the niche and catering to it in a human way

In general I highly recommend shopping around for stuff like hobby blogs/forums/groups/discords that have some relation to the content of your webcomic. Those people DO want new content related to their hobby, but they don't really deal well with salesy pitches. Just be human and also a nerd for that hobby, too (nerdy enough to make webcomics about it)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, it's like fan comic for an existing IP with an existing fandom, except it's a fan comic of a 'thing' rather than an IP (e.g. you make a pirate comic? Great! Nobody owns pirates, but there are lots of pirate fans out there!).

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

The very first customer I had at the first con I tabled at, came over and said "I like ghosts! I like the ocean! I'll take it!" And wrote me later saying it was exactly what they were looking for.

And honestly it's all because I make sure every cover has something spooky and something watery, and the genres are in the title I make it very easy for people to understand what it might be like.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

omg the genres are in the title

that's genius

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Definitely not planned But it helps so much!

I think if authors have a rule on certain symbols/motifs they MUST make sure come across on covers/posters/etc, that can be a good marketing strategy. With some wiggle room, of course.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I... I feel like I can barely even describe what my comic is, which makes it so hard to market. 'Do you like comics with cute animals and eldritch horrors and angsty teens that have superpowers and hidden religious symbolism everywhere?!? Then my comic is for you!' What even is that demographic, because I sure don't know.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) If you take away the cute animals part, that actually sounds like stuff a lot of teens are into/ a lot of people were into when they were teens. And most people love cute animals, so adding that to the mix, in theory, shouldn't reduce the accessibility too much. Buuuuut CoS has its unique flavor that's decidedly different from all the "angsty teens, eldritch horrors, religious symbolism" stuff I consumed when I was younger. I don't know how to describe that flavor, nor how to utilize it for marketing. But yeah, maybe some food for thought?

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I've used short phrases that are sort of representative to describe my comic. Examples include "consensual mind control" "a guy whose ideal life is not being entirely alive" "friendship" and "anticlimactic conversations"

I have no idea how effective any of those are

someone tell me pls

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

As someone who just started reading your comic last night I think consensual mind control is a really cool descriptor. I haven't heard that too much before.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

!

that makes me happy

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) Heh, I'm not sure what that unique flavour is, either, but it might have something to do with me avoiding the typical 'chosen one' structure that most teen fantasy literature has. The characters are all (except Fawna) a part of the hidden world already rather than discovering it, and everyone's pretty much running around like chickens with their heads cut off rather than having any power over their situation (which is kind of a huge part of the theme of the comic). It's definitely different than the typical urban fantasy, so it's been really hard to find which audience that appeals to. From what I've gathered based on the people who comment on my website, it's mostly academics in college or beyond, for whatever reason. XD

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Honestly I think for almost all comics their first pages were what convinced me to keep reading. Even with Phantomarine I was ambivalent about the description but then I saw the first page, and though, yeah, I'm into this.

Maybe my own comic can be the same way

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Exactly the same with me and your comic - I was also all about that first page It's a powerful thing! I think for anyone about to delve into a comic - which is, by nature, a very visual thing - it's going to be that visual that ultimately pushes them over the edge.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

maybe my description should just be ascii art of my main character O-O | -(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

^ It's why I tinkered with the first page of HoK soooo many times even after it went live. But it wasn't enough; it still gave off the wrong impression as to what kind of a story one should expect. Finally, more than a year after I started posting it, I redid like 1/4 to 1/3 of chapter one from scratch. Even though it will never be perfect, I can live with it now. chapter 2 on the other hand... It's an imperfect intro to the right story, rather than an intro (good or not) to the wrong story.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

To be honest, my intro probably doesn't hit the right notes to explain what my comic is about, which may be part of my problem. It starts out seeming more like an anthropomorphic fantasy than a dark urban fantasy / horror story. That's just something I think I'm going to have to live with, because I'm tired of reworking old pages (I already do it far too much). I think my best solution is drawing a new cover that showcases the tone and subject matter better than the one I'm using now.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

oh god, you reminded me of the 3 cover pages I spent hours on only to later scrap. Then my current cover page I did in one hour after it came to me at 4am(edited)

and it was perfect

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

XD

and my page redoings were after the reboot.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Cap, I don't know how representative it is of the story but I looked up the Ashes cover page and it's very impressive

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Yeah, I already redrew my intro once.... and this is the third iteration of this comic. And I'm currently redrawing the first two chapters of my other comic. I'm so sick to death of starting over. -_-

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) Oh, thank you!! I like to go all-out on covers, heh.

Kabocha

Promotion... ... is that a thing you can eat? ... A few things I've tried is business cards -- tweeting about it -- posting about it on dA... I try to stay away from services like Tapas and Webtoon because I'm not formatted for those sorts of things, and I fear I'll probably just frustrate myself. It's a delicate balance right now between remaining happy with my work and getting it seen, but overall, I guess I'm not too stressed about it since it's not a source of income for me... I just... like making comics. I've also done conventions -- Conventions are fun, don't get me wrong, but nowadays they're a really low return on interest for many shows for original stuff (except slice of life and "oh no I did a bad" types of zines -- people seem to really enjoy things like that since it's often pretty easy to relate to). They feel like they used to be easier for selling original work, but the market's gotten rougher because there's so much competition and only so many dollars. if I ever print, I'm probably going to have to lean on some marketing-savvy friends for help... Hopefully things haven't changed too much by then. I think the tool that's worked best for me in the past few years has been doing guest comics here and there, as well as using topwebcomics, oddly enough. TWC was pretty good for referrals when I started doing comics way back in 2006~2007...

sagaholmgaard

Since the topic is about promotion... Do yall know if there are any twitter hashtag events for webcomic creators? My friends in the indie game industry have certain hashtags that people can post in during specific times every week - do we have anything similar?

Kabocha

#Webcomicchat!

https://webcomicchat.com/for-creators You may also find this page helpful

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

#webcomicchat is great because you get to talk shop while talking about your own work! It's not just "look at my comic"

sagaholmgaard

Ahh!! Thank you!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I know some people do #WebcomicWednesday - not sure how official it is, but it gets some attention!

sagaholmgaard

I'll check that one out as well!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

There's also #comicartistsunite too

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

webcomicchat always looked like fun, but I definitively am on the wrong side of the globe for the times it's going on

mirandalorian

Promotion is difficult. I always feel like I'm being too pushy, even for something that's free. I also feel like I built up a following that had nothing to do with comics or art and so when I switched directions to head that way, i don't get the response I would like. Reading all the thoughts here has been really helpful tho. Just got to put them into practice

Feather J. Fern

I think my current attempt for promotion is at least being more willing to promote. I have to force my fear of "I shouldn't tell people because it's not as good as (blank)" and just shove my comic into a spotlight

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

If anyone is worried about bothering people, putting variety into your promotions will make things more palatable for people for sure. I have one person on my timeline spamming the same exact post over and over again, almost daily, and it doesn't seem to be doing them any favors There's no need for a promotion every day. The people I see that do a more-obvious promotion tweet, like, weekly, or every two weeks, seem to get good results from that Sometimes less is more

mirandalorian

I need to get to that point Feathery. And ya, daily is a bit extreme imo. But I have to figure out the good balance

Feather J. Fern

Even weekly I don't do it because I feel like I am spamming and I feel awkward

Oh! Speaking of promotions, one way I found I got my comic promoted was by doing guest comics for other people! I got lots of viewers after each guest comic I did

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, for social media promo, e.g. on Twitter, you want to make your actual tweets have value -- not just things being linked off the tweets. (This is where gag-a-day kinda comics have an advantage, because each strip has entertainment value and you can just post the whole strip in a tweet.) Obviously this doesn't apply to every promo tweet; so like, weekly promo tweet that's solely about the links, as mentioned by others, is fine. But yeah, aside from those, you wanna make your promo tweets fun to read.

Feather J. Fern

Also cameos! Cameos are a great promo

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Not gonna lie, I am lowkey paranoid about doing cameos. Someone I know had to remove their cameo of someone else's character, because that other person objected to their character being in the print version of the comic.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Uff

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oh rip

Feather J. Fern

Oh man, that's rough.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'll never even print HoK but I can still imagine someone being all "NOPE, I CHANGED MY MIND" at a later time

Feather J. Fern

I am planning to do some cameos for other people, not that Go Figure will ever be in print but I can see that problem. I think what I would say is that if you want a cameo you have to be 100% certain

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Might be a good idea to have a very simple agreement thing you can have them sign

Feather J. Fern

Yeah I was going to have a written consent form

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"I agree to let you do a cameo of my character, and to not be a jerk about it at a later time. Signed"

Feather J. Fern

Signed and dated by both parties XD

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

There's also the broad hashtags like #webcomics and even things more geared to genres like #drama and #fantasy and so on. Doing art memes helps sometimes, too.

mirandalorian

What do you think the best hashtags to use are? Is webcomics too saturdated?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'm not sure about the best hashtags, but my biggest thing about hashtags on Twitter : don't use a bunch of hashtags in a single tweet!

For broad hashtags like #webcomics or #fantasy, I gotta wonder if anyone's actually checking those out...

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Yeah, I usually tag my update posts with #webcomic and my comic's name, but honestly I have no idea if #webcomic has ever helped out my post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

mirandalorian

Ya, I typically keep it to two or less, but i always wonder if webcomic is actually useful lol

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

takes note to use something more specific than #webcomic in my next update tweet

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think it may potentially be useful as a label for someone who's just found you on that platform, and is not sure what you're promoting. But beyond that...

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

I usually use #historicalfiction and #webcomic. Not sure which one helps more, but well, there it is.

mirandalorian

Ya, I should use the genre tag too.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Do people even search genre tags for that matter lol (a bit pessimistic, but still a genuine question)

like, I'll be the first to admit, I don't hashtag search to look for new comics to read. I don't think I ever hashtag search ANYTHING, unless it's like..... a very active trend that I am interested in (e.g. an upcoming video game that I'm looking forward to)

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Well, the tags are popular enough to be suggested by twitter so I'd think some use them, probably likeminded folk.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Same keii. I mostly use hashtags to look for fan art, exclusively on Instagram.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

There's also a trend of "art sharing" tweets. I have found a couple of artists and webcomics through that kind of event, but again, the turnover isn't anything to write home about.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I wonder if readers make use of the search more than us creators do?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I doubt it, Lee

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

:/

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I never use it as a reader, at any rate, though I don't know if others are like that.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Though, actually that's not true, I have used hashtags to look at more things being posted within art events. So inktober, mermay, hourly comic day, etc.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But art event hashtags are useful, because -- like I mentioned before -- those tweets provide entertainment value without anyone having to click on offsite links. e.g. the #StartToFinish tag that's hot right now.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I have followed new artists from those tags though and then checked out their off-site stuff. It's definitely a more round about way than someone specifically looking for comics to read via hashtag

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

From my limited observation, when people are looking for comics to read, they tend to ask for recs rather than do hashtag search?

"Anyone know of some good magical girl webcomics?" etc

which is a bit of a bummer for us creators, because that is completely outside of our control. Nothing we can do about it.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

here's the popularity for the #webcomics tag

So SOME people use it.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight) I'm gonna guess it's mostly creators using them to promote, rather than readers using them to search.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Also it seems to be peak in popularity in the USA

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) the graph implies interaction, really.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

What counts as interaction?

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

tweeting it and searching it

what I'm saying is we can't know.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I don’t so much in Twitter, but I personally DO search hashtags on Insta to find new art.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's true, we can't know. I just personally can't imagine anyone searching for #webcomics to find stuff to read

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Insta is definitely hashtag game city.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, IG is a different beast

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Comics don’t generally gel so well with Insta’s format, though, so I’m usually seeking art and not comics.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

just to be safe, occasionally use it

To be honest, I'm probably more likely to find and become a fan of webcomics here on this server than any social media

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, I wouldn't say "don't use #webcomics" -- use it if you have no other, more specific tags to put. But on Twitter, you don't want too many hashtags, so if you got more specific ones... use those instead!

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

I feel somewhat self conscious in getting an instagram. But I'll get one most likely.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

It might be a good idea to switch up your tags regularly? Choose two or three from a relevant list each update and see if any of those tweets get a noticeable boost in engagement.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Yeah that sounds a good strategy

speaking of, any other creators into historical webcomics?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't seek them out, but there's some that I read.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

yours is touching upon the historical keii with the joseon-style elements.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's definitely not historical but yeah, got the aesthetics going for it!

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Yeah!

I must admit, I'm a bit starved for like-minded creators. I mean people that create historical webcomics. I know and follow a few but that's not nearly enough.

(if I'm babbling too much for creator babble please tell me!)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Babbling is fine! But this might be better for #general or possibly shop talk as it's not related to this week's topic?

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

oh sorry, there's a specific topic here too?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, all the channels under CTP Activities have a... topic thingie that changes weekly

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

okay got it. I'll take it there. Sorry :/

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Don't be sorry, be glad to chat about this stuff in another channel

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

With insta please be mindful that if you‘ll always post with the same hashtags, their algorythmn likely will assume you‘re a bot.

mirandalorian

Oh really?

I definitely did not know that.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Yup, it‘s a big annoyance. At least it was that way half a year ago, how is the algorythm now? Nobody knows.

I kinda hate insta, but it‘s the platform with the most interactions for me, although I don‘t know if it goes beyound liking my panel cutout.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Instagram does it‘s darnest to lock the user into theor own ecosystem.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Yeah, hard same. I definitely get the most likes there, but I get very few referrals from insta.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Funnily, the only social media where I KNOW I got at least one reader from is pillowfort and their teeny-tiny webcomic comunity!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I keep wanting to hop over there, but also starting a new social media sounds exhausting TuT one day.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I need to start using PF

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

It‘s pretty chill, reminds me of the hey-day of livejournal, with great filtering - more intended to create many small communities than one giant pot like twitter.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I don’t think any platform’s algorithms like me. I get very low engagement no matter where I post. I’m just not good at figuring out what these platforms pick up.(edited)

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I still have three invites left for this week.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Does cross promotion work for you guys at all?

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

A little bit? But I think my comics are a hard sell, so I generally don’t get a lot of referrals when I cross-promote with other creators.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

It‘s how I found this community; but otherwise, nope.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Now I need to check out your comics Lee. I'm intrigued!

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Haha, if you want to! If they’re not your cup of tea that’s a-okay.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I still have three invites left for this week.

@chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa] if you don't have plans for those invites, I would definitely take one and follow you first

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

About the hashtag thing on Twitter..... I have found the hashtags #webtoon #webtooncanvas and #celebrateCANVASday to be particularly useful for those of us publishing on Webtoon Canvas. I have gained a few new readers from this, and the official Webtoon Canvas page often retweets when these hashtags are used.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

That's good to know. I'm planning to start mirroring on Webtoon so I'll have to be sure to remember to use those tags.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I need to fix my series on WT first. But I'll give those hashtags a try once that's been done

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I tried using webtoon hashtags a few times, but their page never retweeted me. It seems either random, or there’s some hidden requirement for getting a rt.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i use the tag sometimes but I found it more responsive if you have a vertical scrolling format comic

then they're more likely to respond to you

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Oh, yeah.... I use a traditional page format.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

same rip

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I do combine all my pages into long episodes at the ends of chapters, so it’s kinda scrolling, but they’re just traditional pages stacked on top of each other, lol. WT definitely doesn’t like that, but I don’t have the time to reformat hundreds of pages.

Feather J. Fern

Also promo thought, I randomly joined people's streams before and then got hooked on their comics after seeing them draw on twitch or something like that

Pistashi

I struggle a bit with promo stuff, because I get too self-conscious about self-promoting and I'm the type of person that ends up doing too much of it or none of it

at the moment I'm working on making a press kit and sharing it with some blogs and networks about comics

but still, what I usually do is join groups and try to talk with people that works with art and comics

this is kind of more inclined to networking and meeting new people to talk about what we like than promoting my work to potential readers

nothing wrong with that, but looking with a more critical eye I still have a lot to learn about building an audience and reaching people who could become future readers

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I wonder HOW much a large social media following is worth. Insta‘s shown me that it isn‘t necessarily translating into readers.

carcarchu

in my experience followings on different platforms are non-transferable. same goes with having a large following on your comic itself, doesn't necessarily mean having a lot of followers on your art accounts. that's why they say "don't build your sandcastle in someone else's sandbox"

Pistashi

that makes a lot of sense

kayotics

If you’re building your following around your own content (original art, comic updates, etc) then the likelihood that the following is transferable is higher, but it’s still not 100%. You’re competing with everything else on their timeline too.

RebelVampire

i think a thing to consider with webcomics especially when it comes to social media is that a good portion of people who follow comic creators on social media are other comic creators, not people who are just readers. and the good majority of comic creators do not have a lot of time to read other webcomics. While there are certainly exceptions, I see those very few and far in between. So the conversion rates for social media right now are super low until the dynamic of the communities on the platforms changes.

kayotics

I’d agree with that, but also having a social media presence has definitely opened up some doors to being seen by other creators, many of whom are professionals. It’s good for networking, might not be the best for gaining and retaining readers.

RebelVampire

Oh yeah for sure. My point was about conversion factor

its factor in networking is a whole other matter entirely

and is indespensible

kayotics

One thing that I didn’t mention for myself is that networking has helped a LOT with getting new readers. Word of mouth, is always the best way to advertise, and other webcomic people giving you a plug can see some really strong results

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, mid July to August, 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across from July 14 to August 24, although some may be older than that.

Tumblr has not been saving all of my drafts correctly, which has led to me rewriting some of this post more than once. (I’m now going to be compiling it elsewhere & pasting it here when done, to avoid this issue in the future.) That, a heavy workload, and some vacation time delayed & truncated this report. 

But the good news is I am now on a more consistent schedule, with more time to read and write. I expect to be getting this back to 3 times a month very soon. 

Are there types of news you would like to see here? Please let me know! Leave a comment below, email me through my website, or send me a message on Twitter.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

The priority placement is US search for items that ship free has been around for nearly 4 weeks, and doesn’t seem as disruptive as some feared. Etsy is conscious that non-US sellers are particularly upset about this, and have therefore published a list of things they are doing to help international sellers. (note that most of those things also help US sellers that ship to other countries, 

Etsy’s 2nd quarter results came out on August 1. Everything was up, but not quite as much as some experts predicted, so the stock is down quite a bit. The big announcement was that Etsy will be combining Promoted Listings & Google Shopping ads bought by sellers into Etsy Ads. They are supposed to launch in August, but I have yet to hear of any seller who thought this was a good idea.

3.5 million people worldwide use at least one social media platform. (That’s 46% of the planet’s population.) And more than half of the planet  - over 4 billion people - watch videos online. “[H]alf of all internet users below the age of 35″ use voice to operate their devices, with 43% of internet users worldwide using voice at least occasionally. 

SEO isn’t enough; you are going to have to spend money to be seen, if you don’t already “The last 18 years have been an anomaly. Twenty years ago, if a brand couldn't afford to pay for a newspaper or a radio ad, the media company didn't give the company time to publish a public service announcement. SEO allowed companies to go through a period where they received free listings on search engines like Google and Bing. Sending people to a brand's website is like getting a free television or radio commercial or newspaper ad or billboard at the baseball park in 1984″

Trend watch: both clothing retailers and makeup companies are seeing a drop in sales as their markets shrink. If you sell either, you will want to read both articles, as there are some parallels between the two areas in regard to what is and is not working. 

ETSY NEWS

Etsy purchased musical gear website Reverb for $275 million; it will continue to run separate from Etsy. Etsy stock went up at the time. This is notable because Etsy hasn’t bought much lately; it looks like they are slowly dialing back the panic mode, single-goal approach. Their business acumen has disappointed one commentator [humour].

Etsy is “improving” Etsy shop stats. (Note that the Google Shopping category is apparently for the ads you buy yourself only, not the ones Etsy buys, so you will need to use Google Analytics to look at those hits for the moment.) This seems to be leading up to the launch of Etsy Ads (see above).

Here’s some coverage of Etsy changes in the past few years (not a lot new, with some errors). 

Etsy seems to be ramping up its monitoring of seller customer service factors, as more people are receiving email notifications that their shops are falling below Etsy’s customer service expectations. I expect that any updates in this area might involve the new chat convo thingy: Convos are changing to live chat threads, which you cannot write more than one paragraph for because hitting return sends the message. It’s a mess. (Please forgive my frustration; I’ve already had to deal with over 40 separate convos from one buyer alone.)

There will be a site-wide Labour Day sale August 30-September 2, which Etsy will apparently be promoting. 

Fall fashion trends as promoted by Etsy: apparently silk scarves are in, for all sorts of uses. They also released their holiday trend report (pdf file), which I will summarize next week if I can find the time. It��s worth a look, because they divulge some top search data. You can also listen to the podcast, or read the podcast transcript. 

This article on tiered pricing and increasing your average order value is geared towards people using the $35 free shipping guarantee, but it is also useful for anyone wanting their customers to buy more from them. 

Staff will be using the Etsy Success section of the forum to post weekly tips called “Etsy Insights”. So far, they have been posting each week’s thread in that announcement post, so it is easy to skim and see if any topics are relevant for you. 

They are also asking members to sign up for more research surveys; so far, I am finding it pretty boring, and all of the content on their “hub” page is over a year old. 

The expansion into India saw their domestic listings more than double last year. Free workshops have helped bring many new sellers aboard. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Google’s John Mu, who does SEO outreach & education, reminds us that “LSI keywords” are not actually a thing. (LSI was a computer method to figure out relationships between words back in the 1980s; no search engine today is using it, as they have real search data on how people relate words to each other, and it just doesn’t give any insight into modern search technology.)

You don’t need tons of backlinks, but you do need good ones. And linking out on your own site is a good idea in many cases [video], as long as it serves your readers. 

Using images that show up on many different web pages can harm your SEO. They used stock photos that showed up on hundreds of pages for this experiment, so it is not likely that using your own image on 5 sites, for example, would be a problem. 

It looks like there was a fairly significant Google update around July 18th; there’s a bit more coverage here. The last 3 large Google updates are summarized & analyzed here. 

Google then released a blog post explaining their core updates and what you should do if you are negatively affected by one. They linked to several SEO websites explaining Google’s concept “E-A-T” (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness), which is particularly important if you produce blog posts or educational materials.  

Less than half of Google searches now lead to a click on a website result, at least on desktop. Mobile Google searches overwhelmingly do not result in traffic to a website any more. (Note: as I always remind people, the data from these types of studies is always a bit suspect, because they only have a slice of the data, but the provider here probably has the biggest slice worldwide. 

Do you do some simple coding on your website or blog? You will find this beginners’ guide to canonical tags and the different uses of redirects and canonical tags [video & transcript] very helpful. If you are a bit more advanced than that, here’s a good guide to meta tags. 

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Hubspot puts out a lot of good digital marketing guides; check out their “Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution”. Also, they covered how to write a great (& SEO-effective) blog headline, with examples. 

Some stats on current social media usage [infographic]. 

Verizon sold Tumblr to Wordpress owner Automattic. 

Snapchat users continue to increase, as does revenue. They still aren’t profitable, but didn’t expect to be yet. 

Not getting enough traffic on Facebook? Here’s how to get seen by more people there. 

There are ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile to get more sales.

How to get valuable Twitter followers, that is, not bots. (They use Etsy as an example of a well-optimized Twitter profile.) 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Amazon is making advertising an even bigger slice of its income. 

Digital ad spending is continuing to increase in most areas.

Facebook is expanding its search ads to more businesses; it’s not really clear how it all works, though. The ads must also run as news feed ads. Here are some basic tips on how to get the most out of Facebook’s ad algorithm. 

With Etsy possibly ending the free Google Shopping ads it currently buys for us (see the Etsy Ads announcement above), this might be a good time to look into buying Google Shopping ads for your website; here is your complete guide to setting them up. 

More changes to regular Google ads mean less control for the business buying ads, meaning that exact match phrases are no longer even close. “Google says 15% of its daily searches are new — and advertisers will miss out on these new queries if matching is too tightly controlled. Its machine learning systems, the company says, can infer intent and spare advertisers from creating exhaustive keyword lists in order to get their ads to trigger on relevant queries.”

If you are thinking about paying for ads on Pinterest, you will want to read this starter guide. 

Twitter video ads now have an option to not pay for a click unless people view at least 6 seconds of the video. 

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

How to use Instagram Analytics to boost your business. (That is written for companies that are larger than most Etsy shops, but there is plenty of good material there.)

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

eBay beat earnings expectations in the second quarter. 

Amazon had higher than expected sales but lower than expected earnings in the second quarter. They keep thriving despite low profits margins because they have a massive cash flow. 

Alibaba reported higher than expected revenue and profit for its first quarter ending June 30th. 

Amazon sales on Prime Day (July 15-16, actually 2 days) were greater than last year’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday combined, and also signed up more new Prime members on each than ever before. Other websites also saw a big boost, especially for electronics. 

Amazon forced to amend its seller policies worldwide following German legal action. As of August 16, they will give 30 days notice for standard account cancellations. 

And they have expanded their robot deliveries (still followed by humans, though!)

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

While buyers do love free shipping, nearly half of US consumers surveyed will choose to pay for shipping in certain circumstances, most commonly when they really want the product. Only 11% said they never buy unless shipping is free. 

When you are trying to sell something, and especially if you want a repeat buyer, make sure you are pitching it to the right target market. For example, people who don’t want to spend a lot of money won’t buy things they can get for free elsewhere. Provide value for the right people. (A lot of this article is pitched at entrepreneurs selling classes and events, not tangible products, but I think there is a lot of value in the explanations.)

MISCELLANEOUS

WordPress is one of the most popular ways to set up your own website; here’s a beginner’s guide to getting started. 

Google beat earnings expectations in the second quarter. Ad revenue was up a lot. Microsoft also had a better-than-expected quarter, but the growth of their search ads and of LinkedIn (which they own) has slowed. 

How to choose colours that will work together well. 

There is a lot of research on productivity; here are 10 things you can do to get more done. 

If you use Chrome, you could really use these Chrome keyboard shortcuts. 

[backpackbrigade]

Backpack Playlist 5/27/19

I no longer have a radio show so this is where I’m gonna be posting my thoughts and playlists! Have fun, who cares. Apple Music/Spotify links at the bottom. Enjoy. 

“Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” - Kate Bush, Hounds of Love (1985, EMI)

A gay icon, not much to say beyond that. We love some extra as shit background vocals.

“Bags” - Clairo, Immunity (2019, Fader)

First single off Clairo’s new LP coming out at some point this year. Literally all I can think when I hear the guitar line in this song is Avril Lavigne, and I say that with the utmost respect and love. Big ups to VW alum Rostam for the production on this track and Danielle Haim for drums - does this mean Clairo is now part of the PC Music squad AND the VW-adjacent rap/indie rock squad??? Her career is definitely pretty strange so far, but I’m hype to see her blow up beyond the world of the Youtube algorithm chewing up and spitting out DIY music videos. This track is also kinda full circle for her - in her big Pitchfork feature last year, she talked about being starstruck after seeing one of the Haim sisters on a plane listening to SOPHIE, and now she’s got one of them on a track. We love growth.

“Kisses 2 My Phone” - Sega Bodega, self*care - EP (2018, NUXXE)

Lona (aka MANIIK aka BABY GAMELAN) shared this EP with me last year, and it’s been rattling around in my head ever since. Some glitchy trap beats and subtly depressing lyrics about sending kisses to your phone and losing love. Scottish experimental pop kid who gets in your ears and won’t leave.

“Even the Shadow” - Porches, Pool (2016, Domino)

A classic, both Pool and their newer album The House (2018, Domino) remind me of a very specific time in my life when I was spending 12 hours in the photo studio every other weeknight and played Porches on shuffle to get through it. Very sad stoner synthy alt-pop for gay kids with lots of insecurity but dreams of 2014 soft pale tumblr aesthetic escapism!!

“Hatin” - Rico Nasty & Kenny Beats, Anger Management (2019, Sugar Trap)

Remember when Rico was just a Soundcloud kid with a stellar remix of “The Race” under her belt?? When I first heard that track in the background of a friend from high school’s Instagram story, I literally dropped my phone trying to lyric search it to see who sang it. Big ups to Lafayette (a newly minted Howard University grad :,) ) for putting me on. Rico’s always been bffs with Kenny, so this collab record isn’t surprising, but I didn’t expect it to be this good!!! Very excited to see her blowing up on Tik Tok rn, maybe she’ll finally get what she’s owed. And she deserves more than just a 2 second cameo in the Old Town Road music video………

“Dig” - Lance Bangs, Lance Mountain - EP (2016, Citrus City)

Reminds me of screamy jangly indie rock from the summer after my first year when I lived in a commune and got a stick and poke from a friend who was three mojitos deep. Also, Citrus City is awesome and we love to support VA labels!!

“Livin’ On a Prayer” - Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet (1986, Vertigo)

Mostly putting this on here because it’s the ending soundtrack to a great little animated short film I watched recently called WORK (2009) by Michael Rianda. It’s a super 2009 short, but it’s fascinating because it feels like the aesthetic halfway point between Don Hertzfeldt’s Rejected (2000) and Bojack Horseman (2014-) style absurdity. It’s not the subtlest anti-capitalist cartoon out there, but it’s very cute and funny.

“20 Ghosts III” - Nine Inch Nails, Ghosts I-IV (2008, The Null Corporation)

Put this back to back with Bon Jovi because the weird guitar/vocal growls sound like the “Livin’ On a Prayer” digital doo-wops put through an insane pedal filter. Heard it for the first time when I was watching Laura Poitras’ documentary Citizenfour (2014) - she used it for the super haunting opening and closing scenes, and I can’t think of any better use for Trent Reznor’s sad garage dad phase guitar music.

“Guap” - Yaeji, Yaeji EP (2016, GODMODE)

No introduction necessary, hopefully. Gives me third year queer party vibes, and if you know what that means, congratulations. You’re part of an in-group now. Listen when you need subtle hype up music.

“Indica” - Dizzy Fae, Free Form Mixtape (2018, self-released)

When I showed a friend a picture of Dizzy Fae, their first response was that she’s probably from Amsterdam or Berlin or something and floats between secret clubs all week long before performing herself. She’s actually from Minnesota and is way younger than either of us assumed, so big ups to her for projecting the coolest vibes imaginable. Her vocal distortion is a little FKA Twigs, but she knows how to fuckin rap on the rest of the EP. Well worth a full listen.

“Flower Moon (feat. Steve Lacy)” - Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride (2019, Columbia)

Best track on this new album, imo, but I can’t stop thinking about Vampire Weekend for a completely different reason. When this album came out, literally everyone was making fun of it for sounding like a Paul Simon redux. A lot of people praised it for the exact same reason lol. But Paul Simon’s relationship with cultural appropriation is a lot like Ezra Koenig’s, and not enough people have made that connection. Remember when Paul Simon broke the cultural boycott with Apartheid-era South Africa to make Graceland (1986)?? Everyone shit all over him for not only straight up taking South African music styles and centering himself in their vocal story, but doing it all in the midst of the largest cultural boycott in modern history. It’s a good album, I won’t pretend it’s not, but it’s deeply problematic and disappointed a lot of people who expected something better from a guy who knew what he was doing. Reminds me of 2008-2012 Vampire Weekend!! Anyway, listen to this track for Steve Lacy, if nothing else.

“Ur Phone” - boy pablo, Roy Pablo - EP (2017, self-released)

Another Youtube algorithm kid, boy pablo was in everyone’s feeds because this EP is the perfect summery shimmery gaze-y indie rock. His newer album is a little more uptempo than I personally like, but this track is *chef’s kiss*

“Can the Circle Be Unbroken” - The Carter Family, Can the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music’s First Family (2000, Sony; original recording 1935)

Really not trying to wade into the country music discourse today, but this track is genuinely full of intense longing and sadness in a way that so clearly changed country/rock music and its relationship to the guitar.

“Before the World Was Big” - girlpool, Before the World Was Big (2015, Wichita)

Their new stuff fucking slaps, and seeing them come to terms with their gender identities is fucking beautiful!! But I always come back to these weird ass nursery rhymes. It’s literally just their harmonies and two guitars, and legend has it if you turn this up to full volume in your car and drive through your hometown, your unrequited high school crush will appear with their spouse and two kids just to rub it in.

“Vroom Vroom” - Charli XCX, Vroom Vroom - EP (2016, Vroom Vroom Recordings)

I mean. It’s Charli’s early work with SOPHIE, you’ve gotta just blast this shit and ruin someone’s life. The return to queer hyper pop over the past few years is the only thing sustaining my fucking mental health.

“Xternal Locus” - Chynna & Oklou, Single (2018, self-released)

Another track Lona played for me after I picked her up from work in DC. Lowkey enough to ***** to, highkey enough to **** to ;)

“Cinema” - Kero Kero Bonito, Totep - EP (2018, self-released)

KKB really did an about face with this record, but I still fucking love them. It’s still sunny and glittery pop, but with a chilled-out vibe. Their intense pop records are like the come up, and this is the chill smoke sesh the day after. Just vibey enough to let you chill out and kick back, but keeps you on your toes with some unexpected samples and glitchy moments.

“Jack the Ripper” - SadGirl, Breakfast for 2 - Single (2018, Suicide Squeeze)

We love surf rock, and that’s all I’m gonna say for this. You either vibe with it you’re bored as shit.

“watch you sleep.” - girl in red, Single (2019, self-released)

Music To Sleep To.

Playlists

[mimigianfala-blog]

These Are Not The Internet Results You Are Looking For...

In our minds, the Internet is the true open marketplace for ideas. In this place, we can gather news information about the world around us, while also holding the capacity to order your groceries directly to your doorstep. But have you ever wondered, is the Internet ~actually~ free? Or thought, “Why is Instagram showing me ads for a product I searched on a completely different platform?” To answer your questions using the wise and alarming words of Admiral Ackbar in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, “It’s a Trap!” 

Author and professor Matthew Hindman echoes a similar warning about the Internet in his book, The Internet Trap: How the Digitial Economy Builds Monopolies and Undermines Democracy, by uncovering the truth behind the real uses of the Internet. Hindman proclaims that the Internet is not as open and democratic as we believe it. Instead, it is controlled by a small handful of large corporations looking to generate as much monopolized internet distribution as possible. For example, Facebook boosts the exposure of your content only if you are willing to pay for it. The most notorious of this bunch is Google, which Hindman hones in on a great deal in relation to how large corporations monopolize and monetize users’ attention and interactions online. 

Hindman states one of his leading principles for this book early on, “Digital survival depends on stickiness--firms’ ability to attract users, to get them to stay longer, and to make them return again and again (Hindman, 2018).” A major way companies can establish this “stickiness” is through personalization. The central theme of this book is understanding how the internet’s form gives rise to concentrations of power. Hindman sees personalization as a “...key tool for ensuring that a site maintains its web traffic (Hindman, 2018).” People want to use applications and systems that they can tailor and personalize to their needs and linking. Most of the time, the larger scale companies are more utilized than the smaller guys. For example, I decided to use Tumblr, a larger-scale social media platform, to create my blog post for class. Mainly because I was familiar with the structure and layout of the platform, but also because I could customize and tailor my profile more quickly than smaller-scale blogging outlets. 

A major issue I see, and apparent that Hindman sees it as well, is the more personalization there is leads to more specific and complex algorithms. Hindman indicates that the internet “consistently favors those who have scale on their side.” Users with more followers and content engagement will typically perform better on social media because the algorithm prioritizes it. Think about if Kim Kardashian posted a picture of a blank piece of paper versus if I were to post the exact same picture at the exact same time. Who will have the most exposure and attention?? Well, that’s obvious, Ms. Kim K duh! That’s because the internet algorithm places her content above others because they know it will surely perform well and deliver greater economic value. Similar to if you google for a specific shirt you are shopping for online. If you simply enter what you are looking for into google, it will show you shirts from large-scale companies like gap or target instead of your local boutique down the road. 

So coming full circle back to the original warning of Admiral Ackbar, the internet is just one large trap to suck users into supporting the bigger corporations and letting the smaller guys nearly fend for themselves. 

[sassycassie-s-writing]

I Want One

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Dick Grayson/Nightwing, Jason Todd/Red Hood, feat. Tim Drake/Red Robin

Rating: PG

Original Idea: I saw a chat post from Tumblr on Pinterest whose dialogue is in the story.

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) This one was so much fun for me to write!

^^^^^

“Hey B?” Dick asked when Bruce answered the call. “Can a friend and I come over from Bludhaven to use the bat-computer in the next couple days? We just need it to run a tracking program that neither of our computers have the processor for.”

“Of course. You know you can, Dick,” Bruce replied.

“Great. Thanks Bruce. But, uh, before you hang up, uh, the friend is a girl. We’re literally just friends—she’s also a few years younger than me so I’d feel a little uncomfortable dating her. Can you tell Jason, Tim, Damian, and them that before we get there? I don’t want to make her feel awkward by getting teased.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Bruce said.

“Thanks Dad. See you in a couple days.”

“See you soon, son.”

^^^^^

“Before we go into the Batcave, I have to warn you,” Nightwing began. I shuffled in my seat. “My family can be a little… intense.”

“Dude,” I said, “your family is the BatFam. I’d expect nothing less. ‘Sides, I can handle them.”

“Don’t underestimate them,” Nightwing warned.

“I won’t,” I said.

Nightwing drove the rest of the way into the hidden Batcave. We climbed out of his car. The lights flickered on. I stared around in wonder.

“Whoa! This is so cool!”

“Thank you,” a deep, modified voice commented.

I whirled to see Batman himself lurking just outside the reach of one of the lights, in full costume. There was the ghost of a smile playing on the edges of his shadowed lips.

“Welcome to the Batcave,” he said.

“Thank you, sir.” I crossed over to him and stuck out my hand. “I’m Star Beam.”

A powerful gloved grip grabbed my hand and shook it. “Batman,” he replied.

“Yeah, I kinda put that together,” I said, voice going a little squeaky.

“B, you’re freaking her out,” Nightwing said, plopping down at a computer that was bigger than my bedroom.

“Apologies,” Batman said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No, no. It’s fine—you didn’t scare me. I just didn’t think you’d… be here.”

“Well, I make a point to meet my sons’ friends. Just to make sure they’re all hanging out with decent people.”

“… Right.”

“Miss Star Beam, if I can borrow you for a moment, please,” Nightwing said from the computer. Batman nodded towards his son, indicating I should go over there. I nodded to him in gratitude and went over to stand behind Nightwing. “So. Now you’ve met Batman.”

I nodded. “Yup,” I squeaked.

“You a little intimidated?”

“A little,” I admitted.

Nightwing chuckled and plugged his flash drive into the computer to run the tracking program. “Don’t be too intimidated. As long as you fight for the side of justice you’ll never have anything to fear from him,” Nightwing joked. I smirked slightly.

“Good to know,” I said.

As we watched the tracking program do its work, I perched on the arm of the high-backed desk chair and peered at the dozen or so screens in front of me as they all filled with information. Nightwing watched it with placid passiveness but I leaned back, overwhelmed by how much was happening.

Suddenly a thunderous engine roared into the cave. The man on top of it wore a black super suit with a red bat symbol on the chest, combat boots, a brown leather jacket, and a red helmet. I tilted my head down and looked at the newcomer with raised eyebrows.

“I want one,” I said to Nightwing.

He smirked. "The man or the bike?" Nightwing asked.

I smirked back. "Yes."

Nightwing chuckled as the newcomer (who I recognized as Red Hood) killed the engine and swung his leg off. "'Sup, Dick?" he asked, pulling his Red Hood helmet off to reveal black hair and a red mask. "Who's the girl?"

“Dude! Secret identity!” Nightwing protested, gesturing to his mask.

Red Hood put up his hands in surrender, helmet getting tucked under one arm. “Sorry man. I assumed she knew since you kinda suck at keeping secrets.”

“What are you talking about? I’m great at keeping secrets!” Nightwing protested. “I haven’t told anyone you’re still alive.”

“Fair point. So, who’s the girl, again?”

"Red Hood this is Star Beam. Star Beam, this is my brother Red Hood," Nightwing introduced, not looking up from the computer.

Red Hood gave me a once over. "Pleasure to meet you," he said.

"Likewise," I said. We shook hands.

“So, are you Nightwing’s girlfriend? Everyone here knows he could use some action since his last breakup,” Red Hood said. Nightwing’s grip tightened on the computer mouse but he didn’t say anything, letting me handle it.

“No,” I answered placidly, keeping my temper in check. “Just a friend.”

“You’re literally sitting on the arm of his chair.”

“Oh yeah because that is so indicative of a romantic connection,” I said sarcastically. Red Hood actually smirked. “I’m sitting on the arm of his chair, nitwit, because we’re working on a case in Bludhaven together and needed this computer and I don’t see another chair down there and thought standing was a little too annoying.” Red Hood’s smirk grew wider when I called him a nitwit.

"So what're you doing here, little wing?" Nightwing asked, still not looking up from the computer. "Man I really need Red Robin for this…"

Red Hood plopped down in the other desk chair that I previously hadn’t noticed since it was in the shadows, spinning it around and sending it sliding across the tile floor. He shrugged. "Just wanted to stop by and use the computer," he said. "But you're obviously using it."

"We can be done quick if you can get Red to return my calls," Nightwing remarked. "Then he can run an algorithm that’ll pick up on the clues we’re looking for so we don't have to watch."

Red Hood pulled out his phone, yanked off a riding glove, and dialed a number. "Hey, Replacement. Get your…” He glanced at me giving him a raised eyebrow. “… butt down to the cave and help out Nightwing so I can use the computer," he said after a few moments in which no one answered. He hung up. "Expect him in five minutes," Red Hood said. I raised an eyebrow.

"Replacement?" I quoted, confused.

"Yeah. I was Robin. Then I died. Red Robin replaced me as the next Robin. Then became Red Robin."

“Yummmmm!” Nightwing sang under his breath. I snickered.

Red Hood kicked his feet up on the desk.

“Boots. Off. Now,” Nightwing ordered without looking away from the dozen or so screens.

“Fun sucker,” Red Hood accused.

“It’s impolite, Hood. And we have a guest.”

“Another vigilante by the looks of her. You don’t mind if I put my feet on the desk, do you?” he asked me.

“It’s considered bad manners,” I said without answering directly.

“Hood, get your feet off my desk,” Batman called from somewhere in the cave.

Red Hood rolled his eyes with an exaggerated sigh and set his feet back on the ground. “You guys are all so proper and boring,” he complained.

“Better than Red getting down here and flipping his lid because you’re contaminating his precious computer,” Nightwing pointed out.

“Mm,” Red Hood grunted. He got off the second desk chair and strolled off over to an elevator, getting in it and leaving momentarily.

“You didn’t tell me your brother is hot,” I said to Nightwing.

Who shrugged. “Didn’t know what kind of person was your type so I didn’t think it was relevant,” he said.

I whacked him in the chest. “Nightwing! You and he look rather similar and you’re a handsome dude. You could have told me that!”

“We’re adopted. All of us. Well, not current Robin but—”

Ding! The elevator opened to Red Robin.

“Hey! Wassup, Dick? Jason said you needed a hand on—”

“Red! Do the words ‘secret identity’ mean anything to you? They certainly didn’t to Hood!”

“Ohhh! Sorry bro. I didn’t know we had a guest! J—Hood didn’t mention anything about a guest in his voicemail. My bad.”

Nightwing sighed. “It’s okay, I guess. What’s the harm of knowing first names, right? It’s not like I’m the only with that name in the world. Or even in Gotham or Bludhaven.” He suddenly looked several years older than he was, like his brothers drove him crazy but he still loved them with all his heart.

“Red Robin. Nice to meet you.”

I stood to shake his hand. “Star Beam. Likewise.”

“Right. Let me help. What are you up to?”

“We need you to run the algorithm that searches for certain parameters in this tracking program.”

“No problem. Move.” Red Robin pushed Nightwing’s chair away from the desk and pulled the one Red Hood had been sitting in up to the middle of the desk. “Okay…”

The elevator dinged again and Red Hood stepped back out, now holding a sandwich. “What’d I miss?” he asked.

“Nothing. Red is as bad with code names as you are and is now running the algorithm we need.”

“Hmm,” Red Hood, grunted. “Hey Star Beam, how did you meet this idiot?” He nodded to Nightwing.

I shrugged. “Luck, I guess,” I said. “Right place right time. Or wrong place wrong time.”

“Yeah… we beat up some muggers and both got knocked to the ground at the same moment and bonked heads,” Nightwing said. “But we won!” I nodded.

“So what’s your tragic backstory, Star Beam?” Red Hood asked.

“Who says every vigilante-slash-superhero has to have a tragic backstory?” I challenged.

Red Hood shrugged. “Me. Based on experience.”

“Mm,” I grunted. “I don’t really have a tragic backstory. And even if I did, you’d have be reach Friend Level Four to unlock it.”

“Nerd,” Red Hood said.

“Look who’s talking, Mr. Read Every Jane Austen Novel,” Nightwing said, spinning around in the desk chair.

“Shut up, Nightwing.”

“Hey Star Beam? Nightwing? I think I found what you were looking for,” Red Robin said.

“Mm. Guess my plan to ask Star Beam out to dinner will have to wait then,” Red Hood deadpanned.

Nightwing and I both spun away from the computer monitors to look at him. “What?” we both asked.

“What? Your face is pretty even with your mask on, so I might as well,” Red Hood said. “Life is short and I’ve already died once so might as well embrace impulses to do whatever.”

“Ttthhhanks?” I muttered. “Sure I’ll go to dinner with you sometime.”

“Pick you up in Bludhaven?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Red Robin made a gagging noise and Nightwing rolled his eyes. “Of course this would happen. This is why I never bring friends over! Because you just flirt with them!”

Red Hood shrugged. “Impulsive, remember?”

[leifandthorn]

Webcomic Buffers And You, for #WeHeartComics

I keep turning up new webcomic-related Twitter discussions. This one was an (irregular?) offering from WeHeartComics, a product of the SpiderForest collective. (Think “Hiveworks for artists who aren’t into bees.”)

Last Friday was a chat about buffers. Which was a striking thing to jump into, because I’d just been listening to the ComicLab episode where the hosts go “ahh, regular updates are so 10 years ago! Just update whenever you draw something. Readers will be into it.”

And that works great if you’re Kate Beaton (of Hark! A Vagrant) or Sarah Andersen (of Sarah’s Scribbles), where your whole thing is random self-contained standalone bits. (It also helps if they’re Really Good standalones.) But, listen, it’s all wrong for a comic with any kind of continuity. If you slack on the updates there, readers will forget where they are in the story, and end up losing interest.

I don’t know if if strict update times are necessary in the social-media age. Nobody knows when Webcomic Woes is going to update, and it doesn’t matter, because as long as you stay on top of your Patreon/Deviantart/Tumblr feed, it’ll be served up to you.

But for those story-based comics, you’ve got to keep a regular update rate (e.g. “twice a week”). So you may as well keep the posting dates and times consistent too. Keeps your life simple, makes it easier to track your to-do list.

And with that, on to the questions…

Q1. Do you try to keep a buffer of comic pages? Why or why not? #WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/aYgkNRoD9W

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

For Leif & Thorn, yes. I like titling strips in the format of “This Storyline 1/24” (a tic picked up from Bruno The Bandit)…and that only works if my buffer reaches the end of This Storyline.

The current arc is getting broken up into sub-acts — starting with “The Show Must Grow On: Overture” — mostly because I’m not far enough to have the numbers otherwise. Did the same thing splitting off the 14-strip An Incredibly Platonic Shopping Day, even though it leads straight (hah) into the next storyline, because Summer Sunshine clocked in at a full 84 strips. I could manage to be 84 strips ahead, but not 98.

As of this writing, I’ve drawn 18 strips into The Show Must Grow On: Act I. Which is…not bad, but there’s gonna need to be a crackdown of work this weekend. And the next one. And probably the next.

For But I’m A Cat Person — eheh, it used to have a buffer. Now I’m almost always working one page ahead. Talked a lot about the effects of that in an earlier WebcomicChat about pacing.

And then there’s Webcomic Woes, which is bufferless by nature. It gets made on a “whenever I have an idea” basis, and I don’t have more than one relevant idea per day.

A1 YES!

I'm working on getting a buffer of at least 52 pages because I have a crazy day job and I want enough buffer for a year of weekly updates.#WeHeartComics

— TeJay is Drawing (@TeJay_the_Mad) April 6, 2018

This here is a heroic effort. I’ve never had a full-page buffer that long.

(Technically, I’m 50-ish updates ahead with Leif & Thorn right now — but since it’s a daily strip, that only comes out to a month and a half’s worth of lead time.)

Q1 #WeHeartComics I prefer to always work on solid ground so right now I have a hefty buffer of 800 pages. (even more if I include book 2)

— 🐀Kristen🐉Kiomall-Evans🐒 (@BatichiKristen) April 6, 2018

…and here we have the winner of this thread.

Q2. What drawbacks or advantages does your current buffer (or lack of) give you?#WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/wmju0giUTm

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

Low buffer gives you a quick turnaround on “whoops, readers didn’t understand that reference, I’ll have a character explain it on the next page.” High buffer gives you security in case you fall out of a tree and have to put your drawing arm in a cast for three months.

A2: The advantage is if something happens, I won't have to miss an update. Since I post on Webtoons, this kicks me down in rankings, which potentially loses me subs/PVs. Drawbacks, are that I can't make any changes to the story arc or I'll have to redo portions #WeHeartComics

— Lisa ⭐️ リサ (@asilris) April 6, 2018

…and then there’s algorithms. Or, on a site like mine, the Webcomic plugin is configured to send cranky emails if the buffer runs low.

Although I find that having a large buffer, so you can redo something while it’s in the buffer, is much easier than redoing it after it’s posted! If you realize on page 10 that you need a Chekhov’s gun that should’ve been on the wall on page 1, you really want page 1 to be unposted. I’ve resorted to post-posting edits, but only in the case of serious continuity errors.

(If you’re really bored some afternoon, go through the BICP archives page-by-page and see how many errors you can spot compared to the originals — which are all preserved on the SmackJeeves mirror.)

Q3. Life sometimes eats away at buffers. What techniques do you use to get around that?#WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/qKtmCWYUDA

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

With Leif & Thorn: hasn’t been a problem. (Knock wood.)

With BICP: uh, mostly posting stuff late with apologies. The comic was originally 3 pages a week, and I couldn’t keep that up full-time, so I took it down to 2 (it goes back up sometimes for special events, like the second Christmas special), and that helped.

I do a week or two of filler between chapters, and I’ve given myself a couple longer hiatuses…but do not have the discipline to use them for buffering, heh. I just use them to recharge before jumping back into the “whoops, gotta draw tomorrow’s page now” rollercoaster.

Waaaay back in the day (2003!), And Shine Heaven Now had 6-strips-a-week updates. When my Dell died and the buffer ran out, I drew a week of filler at the library in MSPaint rather than go updateless.

In retrospect, under the circumstances, I’m sure readers would’ve forgiven a mini-hiatus! But for some reason it honestly didn’t occur to me as an option.

Q4. Do you have advice to those wanting to create buffers?#WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/S1v4ndaZVI

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

Work up a big one before your comic actually launches. I had several months of Leif & Thorn drawn before I started posting, and the buffer has been healthy ever since.

After that, just pace yourself. Figure out what your workflow is, and adapt your schedule to work with it! Some authors like writing out a script beforehand, others like working it out as they draw. Some artists need strict and well-planned schedules, others (*cough*) get revved up by looming deadlines. In the immortal words of Jan Valentine: whatever works is cool.

Q5. If a buffer can’t be made, what advice would you give others seeking to reduce the stress of regular updates?#WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/5ipyS6qiOh

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

…I mean, if your comic is suited to irregular updates, you can always just do that.

If not, you’re allowed to take breaks. Just give your readers accurate information about your plans, and then stick to them. Don’t be the person whose site still says “after this short hiatus, My Awesome Comic will return in May 2017!” when it’s April 2018.

If you can’t do irregular updates, and you can’t make a buffer, and it’s too stressful to keep up regular updates, and you can’t even get back from hiatus…then maybe this isn’t the comic you should be doing, and it’s time to gracefully bow out. (More on that next post.)

(Original post.)

[ask-the-phan-site]

Phan Cam: The Fight Before Christmas (Part 4)

NOTE: Some characters will not be shown wearing formal attire. So I must ask that you imagine how they look as they are described. Thank you.

NOTE 2: Before we begin, we would like to inform you that we know about the ban of Tumblr content and to let you know that we are in full support of lifting the ban. Don’t worry, we’re on your side.

WARNING: This post is pretty long since we tried to squeeze in a lot that’s happened.

>Shibuya. More specifically, the Wilton Hotel. The Fight Before Christmas Opening Party was going into full swing. The Investigation Team came in first in the lobby.

>Yu was dressed in something he borrowed from his uncle, Yosuke was dressed in a regular black tuxedo, Kanji was wearing a fine black suit, and Teddie was in his standard human form clothing.

>Chie was dressed in an orientle Chinese dress that was green with golden lining and golden flowers (thanks to Kanji), and black shoes. Yukiko was dressed in something similar to her summer clothes. Rise was in her Sapphire dress. Naoto was dressed in a fancy white dress (she was a bit embarrassed about wearing a dress). And Nanako was like Yukiko and wearing something similar to her summer clothes.

Here we are! I can’t believe I made it.

You deserve it, Chie. You’re one of the best fighters I know. We all know that.

(rubbing his bottom) I can believe that.

Chie: (upset) What’s that suppose to mean!?

Yosuke: (nervous) Nothing. Nothing.

I wonder when they’ll get here. They said they were coming.

Oh, there they are!

>Our van comes up to the entrance. We, along with Boss, came out.

Valet: Park your vehicle for you, sir?

Really? I normally self-park, but I guess this once. How much is the tip?

Valet: ¥700.

That much!?

>In defeat, Boss pays the man and he parks the van.

Boss: How I’d let you talk me into this, I’ll never know.

Relax, Sojiro, at least you’ll be getting free food out of this.

>With that, we head inside where we meet the others.

Rise: Hi, guys! I like what you’re wearing.

Thanks. They were a gift from ALTUS.

Rise: Really!? How come ALTUS never gave us anything fancy?

Yosuke: She has a point. We’ve been making money for them since 2008.

Chie: Really? I thought it was since 2011.

That was when our story took place. The release date of Persona 4 was in 2008.

Rise: Well I still think they should give us a gift for all we’ve done.

Maybe if they make a Persona 5 Arena... Maybe.

Anyway, let’s head inside. If Kanamin Kitchen is in there, I’d love to meet them... Not that I unhappy you’re here, Rise chan.

Rise: (scowling) You better.

I’m sure he will. Actually, Ryuji here has decided to become an idol himself.

Rise: Really?

Ryuji: That’s right. I want to be so great, even DearDream and KUROFUNE would be impressed.

Rise: That’s great. You know, if you ever need tips, you can ask me.

Thanks, Rise senpai.

Rise: You hear that, Senpai? Now I’m the senpai.

Yu: Congratulations, Rise.

>With that, we head inside the Wilton Hotel. Inside, the opening party was in full swing. The place was packed with fighters, their sponsors, their supporters, and lucky fans. I’m surprised they managed to fit in the Christmas decorations and the tree. After much walking around, we managed to find Joe, Ryuichi, Setsuko, Yuta, and two old men who I can only guess are Setsuko’s father and Mr. Takizawa, Joe’s coach and Maki Takakura’s father.

(in a tuxedo... and not happy in it) Hey, guys!

(in a cream suit with a red tie) So these are the guys you told me about.

Yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you George Takizawa.

(wearing a purple frock with gold earrings and black high-heels) I just want to thank you again for deciding to do this.

Makoto: Actually, I’m earning the money for something else.

Setsuko: Yes, Yuta told me.

Mr. Takizawa: I hope your aikido instructor will be fine.

Makoto: It’s alright. He said that if there’s any money left over, he’ll give it to you for Yuta’s treatment.

Setsuko: Thank you.

(wearing a light blue dress-shirt and a black tie under a red sweater vest, tan pants, and black shoes) Do I really have to wear this? I can’t feel pain, but I do feel silly.

Joe: You and me both.

(also in a tux) You both will be fine. If you two can pull it off at the wedding, you can pull it off here.

I actually know how you feel. I don’t normally wear something like this.

Ryuji: I bet you wanted to wear a kimono or something.

I think you look good in it, Yusuke.

Thank you, Ren.

>He really did look good in that suit.

Ryuichi: Hey, are those two...

Joe: Speaking of clothing, what’s with the mask?

Soul Taker: The identity of Soul Taker must remain secret.

Yosuke: (confused) Dude, it’s only covering half your face.

Soul Taker: Hey, that’s how ALTUS made it.

Yusuke: I brought my mask as well to show support.

I wish we’d done the same.

Makoto: Maybe for New Years.

Thanks, Mako chan.

You’re welcome, Haru.

Ryuichi: Are they also...

Is that all you’re going to ask tonight?

Chie: Yeah, you should be more careful of what you say next.

Yukiko: (intimidating) I’ll crush you in one strike.

Akechi: Anyway, there’s Sae san over there.

Yu: It looks like she’s speaking with Mitsuru san and Akihiko san. Let’s head over there.

Kanji: You guys go on ahead. I just want to do some last minute fixes.

Rise: Again?

Naoto: I told you, that suit I had was just fine.

Kanji: No way. This is a formal event. I don’t think anyone would be happy with that.

Yosuke: And this coming from the guy who came with his bleached hear and piercings.

Kanji: (angry) What was that?

Yosuke: (scared) Nothing.

Nanako: I like it. It’s like Beauty and the Beast.

Kanji: (a little happy) Th- Thanks, Nanako.

Naoto: (blushing a little more) Yes, thank you.

Setsuko: See, Dad? It’s not so bad dressing nicely.

... I think I’ll be fine.

Joe: You go on, too. We just want to look around for a bit.

>With that, we leave to join Sae, Mitsuru, and Akihiko.

(wearing a tight black dress under her coat) Really, you would take the case for us?

Yes. You have the same power Makoto has. I think it would only be fair to help you out.

Mitsuru: I see. Thank you, Niijima, for your support.

Good. This case has been going on for a while.

Makoto: Sis!

Sae: Makoto, you’re here.

Makoto: I overheard you talking about a case. Is something wrong.

Sae: Nothing you need to worry yourself now.

Mitsuru: So you must be Niijima’s sister.

Makoto: Yes. I’m Makoto Niijima. You’re Mitsuru Kirijo, the head of the Kirijo Group and leader of the Shadow Operatives.

Mitsuru: Yes. I’ve seen you’ve done your research quite thoroughly.

Makoto: Well, Yu and his friends told us much about you last year. It also helps that Futaba contributed as well.

You know you really need to improve your security algorithm. It only took me less than 5 minutes to hack in.

Mitsuru: I see. I’ll make sure of it. You must be Wakaba Isshiki’s daughter.

Boss: I’m also her guardian.

Mitsuru: Sojiro Sakura. You must have been a good father to Futaba.

Futaba: He’s been the best.

Thanks for that.

Mitsuru: Good... Now tell me, you, like us, also have Personas?

Soul Taker: We have.

>We began explaining our story to Mitsuru and Akihiko. Of course, we sometimes go off topic and speak of other things... Like that silly useless ban on Tumblr content. We also explain about the cognitive psience.

Mitsuru: I see. That’s quite the story. We knew of the Persona and Shadow activity here in Tokyo for sometime, but we were preoccupied with other things at the time. Forgive us.

Soul Taker: That’s alright. You probably had your hands tied and couldn’t do anything.

I guess it’s party my fault. I caused all of those incidents making people have psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns.

Haru: That’s only because Shido made you do it. You’re just as much a victim as anyone else.

Akechi: I know. And you all helped me. Thank you.

Akihiko: I’ve heard that you have some pretty strong Personas. I’d like to see that in action.

Yu: Yes. We saw just how powerful their Personas are.

Mitsuru: Yes. It sound like you would become valuable assets to the Shadow Operatives.

Makoto: That would be great, but I fear that would mean we would have to reveal our identities to the public.

Akihiko: I don’t think you would have to worry about that. When I’m not in the ring, I’m a police officer. I can just cover up for you.

Chie: So am I! Well, I’m actually training to be one. I guess we really think alike, don’t we, Master?

Akechi: I guess that would be good. But we’re not so sure... However, it might come in handy with our currant heist.

Mitsuru: You mean steal the hearts of the corrupted Tumblr admins?

Soul Taker: Another version of us is taking care of that. How much do you know about Sugimura Sekitan?

Mitsuru: He is the son of a politician. However, after Masayoshi Shido’s confession, Mr. Sekitan was discovered to be in Shido’s inner circle and he, along with others in that circle, came under fire and was forced to resign.

Haru: That’s true. Now his family is suffering some financial problems because of that resignation. In fact, the reason Sugimura is sponsoring Joe Yuuki is so that he could get the prize money to ensure their fortune long enough to restore his father’s reputation and allow him to return to politics...

But I don’t think he’s going to play fair.

Sae: You think he might be up to something?

Haru: I know Sugimura long enough to know what he’s capable of. We checked the Metaverse Navigator. He has a Palace.

Mitsuru: So you wish to steal the distortion from his heart and make him confess the truth?

Ryuji: Pretty much. We had a meeting the other day to discuss this and we discovered where his Palace is.

Makoto: There’s another reason why all of us came here besides supporting our friends for the Fight Before Christmas...

It’s here. The Wilton Hotel.

Mitsuru: I see. Then allow us to help you. We seek only the elimination of Shadow threats and this is no different.

Akechi: That’s probably a good idea...

Since I will not be here when the heist takes place.

Mitsuru: You won’t be here, Akechi?

Akechi: I know I consider the Phantom Thieves my family, but it’s not exactly the same since everyone has their own holiday tradition.And since my mother is dead and my father is... indisposed, it would mostly likely I would spend the holidays alone. However, a friend of ours in New York has offered to let me spend Christmas with him and his aunt. I should be back in time for New Year.

Mitsuru: I see. I guess you’ll need someone to fill in for you.

Makoto: Normally, we would have a reserved member fill in for a main member if they are unavailable, however, they all have their own holiday plans right now and we wish not to disturber them. Even King, who lives here in Japan, has his hands tied.

Mitsuru: Yes, we heard from one of our operatives he and his little girl are busy. However, we do have people available, if that is alright with you.

Soul Taker: As long as they can use Bless skills, or Light as you call it, that would be great.

Mitsuru: Good. I’ll have him come as soon as possible.

Thank you, Mitsuru san.

Naoto: (finally joining us with Kanji) I would be glad to help as well. If that’s alright.

Kanji: If you’re going in there, Naoto, I’m going with you.

Soul Taker: I guess you can.

Naoto: Thank you.

Ryuji: Okay, now that that’s settle, there’s still something else we gotta do. We have the who and the where, now we just need to know what Sugimura sees the hotel as.

Haru: I don’t think even I know that.

Soul Taker: True. He does seem the type who hides who he’s like on the inside...

Which is why I brought a secret weapon.

>Everyone was a bit confused about what I said. So I reached into my shirt and pulled the “secret weapon”.

(groans) Finally! I thought I was never getting out of there!

What!? Mona!? What’s he doing here!?

Ryuji, shush! Someone will hear us.

Soul Taker: I brought him here in case there was sushi here, but it looks like he has something else to do here. Morgana, Sugimura is just over there. We need you to go and listen to what he has to say so we can figure out what his distortion is.

You can count on me, Joker.

>With that, Morgana goes off to spy on Sugimura. Luckily, no one notices him so far.

Boss: Are you sure no one will notice him?

Soul Taker: I have faith in him. We need him.

Mitsuru: (pleased) Good. I like how well a leader you are.

Sae: So, what shall we do while we wait?

Talk more I guess. I still have a few choice words about the Tumblr staff.

>Morgana managed to get to Sugimura who was talking with Yuuki, Maki, and Yuuki’s coach, Matsuda.

(wearing a yellow dress with red and black designs and white high heels) Really!? You’re sponsoring Joe even though you have financial problems?

I’ll pay for the expenses after we win the tournament. Just trust me.

(wearing a tux) My. Aren’t we the sly one.

I really don’t care about the money. I just want to beat the crap out of that Haninozuka and become the new champion. And fighting Akamine is just a bonus.

Sugimura: It’s that determined attitude that will favor us greatly. Just think, with that kind of money and my father's reputation restored, I’ll be living this life even longer. I especially would like to move here to the Wilton. My own privet paradise. Plus, the buffet is to die for.

Matsuda: Heh! The way you talk about it, you sound like a gangster out of a movie.

Sugimura: Yes, it would seem that way. Which is why I would like to discuss something with you... Without those two. (Yuuki and Maki.)

Yuuki: What is it?

Sugimura: Oh, just some boring stuff.

Maki: Alright. We’re suppose to be meeting with the other Favorites now. Suoh will be making the announcement any minute.

Yuuki: Tech! Fine.

>With that, the couple leave.

Matsuda: What is it you want to talk to me about in private?

Sugimura: Well, just in case, to make sure we win this... I had the fights fixed.

Matsuda: (shocked) Really!? Isn’t that cheating?

Sugimura: Just looking after my assets, as well as yours and Yuuki’s. You want your gym to gain more attention and Yuuki just wants to be number one at everything. I’m just making sure we all get what we want.

Matsuda: Oh you wicked young man... But if you really think this will work, I can’t really argue.

Sugimura: Excellent. I knew you would see it my way.

>With that, they leave.

>Morgana managed to get back to us and told us everything.

That effin son of a bitch! He’s fixin’ the fight!?

Morgana: It gets worse. The coach agree with him. As long as he and Yuuki get what they want, they can’t do anything.

Makoto: Does Yuuki know?

Morgana: I don’t think so. I guess he knows he’ll turn him in if he knew.

Soul Taker: So you said that the coach compared Sugimura to a gangster?

Morgana: That’s what I heard. It sounded important.

Makoto: A regular gangster would see a hotel as just a hotel. But he thinks of this place as a kind of paradise. Like his personal hideout.

Haru: I can only assume that might be it. Let’s try it with the Nav.

>I take out my phone and put in the keywords.

Soul Taker: Sugimura Sekitan. Wilton Hotel. Gangster’s Hideout.

Nav: Results found.

Yusuke: It’s a hit. We can get in.

Soul Taker: But it looks like we’ll have to wait. They’re about to start the ceremony.

>We head to a stage where the 10 Favorites of Japan were along with Kanami Mashita, Ms. Ochimizu, the Masters Family, and the Ouran Host Club. Tamaki Suoh comes up to the podium.

Welcome, everyone, to the 15th Annual Fight Before Christmas Tournament! Now normally, my father, Yuzuru Suoh would do this speech, but he thought I was ready to do this.

As goes my own father, who is tied up at work with my older brothers at the moment and couldn’t make it.

Same here. And I really want to support Chika chan.

Tch! As if I need support from you, Mitsukuni.

Anyway!

Tamaki: We hold this tournament to remind us of all the struggle we had endured this year. And that the coming holidays makes us happy of the adventures that came with it. To celebrate who we were, who we are, and who we will be. And we wish only victory to tall of you. Good luck fighters!

>Everyone applauded.

Tamaki: Kanami sama, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Tamaki. Hello, everyone! My meat is marbled, my movement is slow, and I sleep off every meal! I’m Kanami Mashita, your prized cow!

And I’m Ken Masters. Me and my friend, Ryu, founded this tournament with help from the Suoh Group, the Ootori Group, and of course the Haninozuka Dojo. Also with me are my lovely wife, Eliza.

It’s good to meet you all.

Ken: And our son, Mel.

I just wish I was old enough to compete.

Ken: I’m sure you’ll be old enough soon, Mel. As for Ryu, well, he couldn’t make it this year. He’s still resting from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Kanami: Either way, I’m just so glad that everyone’s here.

You rule, Kanamin!

>Everyone couldn’t help but cheer as well.

If you are all quite done!

Kanami: Thanks, Ms. Ochimizu. Anyway, I hope you all have fun at this wonderful tournament to ring in the New Year. Good luck to you all!

>Everyone cheered.

Ms. Ochimizu: And don’t forget about Kanamin Kitchen’s New Years Eve Spectacular, featuring many other performances and Knamin Kitchen’s newest hit, Pull The Trigger.

>The crowd cheered even more.

>A little later after they announced the match up for the qualifiers, Joe, Ryuichi, Setsuko, Yuta, Mr. Koshu, Mr. Takizawa, the Investigation Team (save Naoto and Kanji), Sae, and Boss head home. The rest of us, including Mitsuru and Kanji were just outside the hotel. We were waiting for Akihiko who went inside to get something and Naoto was in our van changing our of her dress.

Ann: I feel bad making Boss take the train back. It’s really getting colder.

Futaba: He’s a tough guy, he can handle it... As long as he hasn’t forgotten to lock the door again.

Naoto: I wonder what is taking Akihiko san so long?

Mitsuru: I don’t know... But I have an idea.

>And it looked like her idea was spot on.

Sorry for the wait. Mitsuru packed this really well.

Mitsuru: (hand to her face) In hopes you wouldn’t find it.

I can see why. You’re practically indecent.

(artist hands out) Then again, the scars on your body are clearly an art that displays the many battles you went through in your life.

Akihiko: (surprised) Uh, thanks?

>I don’t know whether I should be happy for Yusuke or jealous of Akhiko.

(coming out of the van) In any case, we should head inside the Palace now.

Mitsuru: Right. We want to see what the Metaverse is like so the operative we’ll be sending will be ready.

Okay, then. Off we go.

Nav: Beginning navigation.

>The familiar red wave passes us. When it was over, the Wilton Hotel was still the same, however, the top of the building had been replaced with a large mansion that looked like it was made of polished marble and the roofs were made of gold.

Kanji: Yikes! I thought the triplet’s Palace was gaudy.

Same thing with Kanashiro’s Bank.

And Madarame’s Museum.

And Shido’s Cruise.

Mitsuru: I see your clothes have changed. Is that part of coming to this world?

It is. Kinda put your whole “Dark Hour” to shame, doesn’t it?

Akihiko: No doubt. Koromaru never turns into something like you.

Mona: Am I worth the wait?

So this is the distortion in Sugimura’s heart. I’ve always known he had it, but never had the courage to come here.

Well we’re all here now. We can do this together.

You’re right. Thanks, everyone!

>We all nod.

Akihiko: So what now?

Normally, we just go in a ways before we make a route to the Treasure. See what we’re dealing with.

Just be careful in there. I’m detecting Shadows up ahead.

Naoto: We will.

Let’s go.

>We went inside the Palace. The inside of the first room looks like the lobby, but everything was different. The wallpaper were a black and gold diamond design with golden yen signs in the black diamonds. There were also large portraits of an arrogant Sugimura as well as sculptures of him. It was almost blinding. And just as Oracle predicted, there were Shadows that were dressed like gangsters with guns.

Panther: This guy must watch The Godfather a lot. I wouldn’t be surprised of the cognitive beings here woke up to find horse heads in their beds.

>One of the Shadows heard us.

Shadow 1: Hey! What yous guys doin’ here?

Skull: Nothin' much...

Just he to make sure your boss get’s what comin’ to him.

Shadow 2: Is thatta threat!?

Shadow 3: Yous mooks betta be ready!

?????? ????????: Stand aside!

Shadow 4: Y- Yes, boss!

>With that, the Shadows part to show who I can only guess is Sugimura’s Shadow. He was dressed in a black suit with white stripes running up and down under a dark blue dress shirt with a white tie, a red rose in the jacket pocket, a white scarf, a toothpick in his mouth, and a black fedora with a white ribbon. And like all the other Shadows we’ve faced, he had golden eyes.

Shadow Sugimura: Haru, my dame, so you’ve finally come back to me.

Noir: Never! I’ll never come crawling back to you!

Shadow Sugimura: That’s shame. And here I was hopin’ you’d finally came to your senses. What with your ol’ man six feet under, it must be pretty lonely running the company all by yours self.

Noir: I don’t need you. I have my friends with me to help me when times are tough...

Especially when you’re the reason.

Shadow Sugimura: (angry) You little bitch. I was ready to forgive you, but instead, you sealed your fate. As well as the fate of your friends. Men, show these fools what happens when you cross me.

Shadow 1: Right! You heard the boss, you bums! Let’s take care of these punks!

Oracle: Those guys aren’t very original. Oni maybe strong, but all it takes are a few spells and that’s it.

Joker: Then it should be easy enough.

Fox: Mind if I join in?

Joker: Go right ahead. I love it when we fight together.

>We both smile.

Mitsuru: I would like to join in as well. This might be the only time I can see how powerful Shadows in the Metaverse are.

Akihiko: Same here. It’s been too long since I’ve done something like this.

Joker: I don’t know.

Don’t worry. I just saw beauty in Akihiko’s scars. You will always be my muse... No, my god of inspiration.

Thank you, Yusuke.

Oracle: If we’re done with the touchy feely stuff, here they come!

>One of the Oni tries to attack, but we dodged it.

Joker, Fox, Mitsuru, and Akihiko: Persona!

>Arsene uses Maeiga, Goemon and Artemisia both use Mabufula, and Caesar uses Mazionga. The Oni were either Frozen or Shocked.

Joker: Let’s attack the ones that were Frozen. Just be careful of the ones that are Shocked.

Mitsuru: Right, everyone, charge!

>With my dagger, Fox’s katana, Mitsuru’s rapier, and Akihiko’s fists. The Oni were left completely weakned. Luckily, none of us got Shocked.

Oni 1: We ain’t done here. Ready, fire!

>The Oni all use Snap on us. Thankfully, they weren’t that effective.

Mitsuru: That attack wasn’t something I’ve seen before.

Joker: Actually... I can do better. I have Fox to thank for the the Skill Cards he gave me before tonight.

Fox: Consider them an early Christmas present.

>Arsene uses Charge. Goemon uses Masukukaja. Mitsuru and Akihiko simply waited to see what was going to happen. As did the Oni.

Oni 2: Heh! What are yous gonna do? Your attacks can’t even scratch the surface of our skin!

Don’t underestimate what you can’t understand because of your boss... ARSENE, NOW!

>Arsene uses Riot Gun. The Oni were all gone.

Kanji: Way to go, Joker!

Joker: It may not be as powerful as Satanael’s Riot Gun, but it’s pretty useful when it needs to be.

Shadow Sugimura: (already in an elevator) Grr! Useless idiots. No matter. As soon as that dumb blonde, Joe Yuuki, wins the tournament with my ‘help’, I’ll be more powerful than any of yous can ever be.

>With that, the elevator’s doors close and went up.

Skull: Hey, wait!

Kanji: Don’t run away, dammit!

>Skull and Kanji ran to the elevator. However, there was an electronic lock on it that only responds to a password. Then, they notice something.

Skull: Hey, Joker! Come take a look at this.

>We came to look at the sign they were talking about.

Panther: It’s a map of the building.

Akihiko: What does it say?

Oracle: It looks like the Treasure is on the top floor. That mansion on the roof. But it also looks like the only way to get there with this elevator. It’s the only floor it goes to.

Queen: You mean there’s no other way to get there?

Oracle: Nope. And we can’t use this elevator without a password. Which means we have to explore this Palace for any henchmen who might know what it is. Now I’ve already got this map memorized. We can come back here another time.

Queen: I just hope we do have time. The tournament has already begun and me and Joker are competing.

Crow: And I won’t be here either. I’ve already packed my things and will be departing in the morning.

We’ll find a way. Don’t worry, we can do this.

Thanks, Joker.

Yes. Thank you.

Joker: Then it’s settled. Mission start.

>With that, we leave the Palace. We’ll be back soon and we have a tournament to win. Wish us luck.

Pictures and sprites came from the following:

Anime Amino

Hex

[luvmeh-plez-ihascookies]

How To Get Free Instagram Followers Instantly

It is the question that people hunt all of the time how to Get Free Instagram Followers No Survey No Individual Verification. Although having followers is not everything, they really do signify a terrific amount of people who are interested in you, your business or brand. Regrettably, it can be challenging to transfer that needle occasionally, and posting great images from the world is not sufficient, by itself to increase your followers.

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Takes too long to create points. Occasionally, the algorithm does not get the job done. You might like something but won't get matters. An excessive quantity of use on Facebook or even Instagram blocks the consumer temporarily.

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It looks like rather than Twitter, Instagram is the man or woman who appears to take care of hashtags. The appropriate hashtags can display your image into a wide and targeted audience, also Instagram users don't possess the hashtag fatigue since they receive off Facebook or Snapchat.

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Various social networking analytics firms have proven that a normal Instagram user posts at least one time daily. More interestingly, Accounts that get 5-10 followers on a daily basis regularly post marginally more than that--up to two or three images. This apparently clears out that for much more followers, you wish a greater frequency.

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4) Post High Quality Pictures

Instagram empowers its customers to upload and share videos between 3-60 seconds long, and after introducing the attribute, over 5 million individuals shared videos inside a day.

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Make sure you're that you sharing all your Instagram posted photos onto other social media for cross-promotion. Not only you'd get more exposure on additional social networking platforms, however, a buddy who's not aware of your Instagram account would begin following you. In addition, you can now cross-promote you and your friend's social media profile on each other's accounts using the Stories feature.

It is always preferable to seek support from the favourite Instagram buddy. There are different tricks like using third-party Like Exchange sites or programs, and they also do operate. Conclusion

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[song-of-sixpence]

Free instagram Followers No Verification No Survey

It's the question which people hunt each the time how to acquire Free Instagram Followers No research No Individual Verification. Although having followers isn't everything, they really do signify a large amount of individuals who are interested in one, your organization or brand. Regrettably, it may be difficult to transfer that needle sometimes, and submitting great images in the world isn't sufficient, alone to boost your followers.

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Now 1 thing that I need to clean out is not anything in this universe is completely free and in the event that you still believe Instagram followers hack and generator websites work to offer free Instagram followers no poll, then you need to be living under a stone.

Thus, read this informative article until the end and get free followers using Instagram Followers hacks and tips with no polls .

Essential Things about Instagram

You do not know what's Instagram? Can you time-travel previously or something? Instagram an app in which you can discuss images and can be readily available for cellphones whereby videos and pictures may be shared together with your near and dear ones along with strangers.

By way of this program, you may even talk with other programs like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, along with Flickr. Following the app came out, the images that can be uploaded was confined to just square ratio which was quite unique when compared with the standard one. After a while in roughly mid 2015, the following upgrade premiered by the instagrammers could set up their photographs in ratio since they pleased.

The users may also apply several types of filters at several levels making certain your picture works out the very best of it is possible. From the very first release of this program, the most interval to which a movie could possibly be uploaded has been of 15 minutes.

According to now, you can place them up for approximately 1 minute if you're setting one up and approximately 10 minutes if you are establishing a multi video article. Actually, you might even set up roughly one hour movies in the event you opt to make live movies but they disappear whenever they are finished. If you browse via Instagram every day (or some variety of occasions per day like me) you have to have this question in your mind at least on one occasion. Instant Approaches To Get Free Instagram Followers No research

We can easily understand if you're intrigued by having to understand all of the trick. In the end, nearly all the approaches can simply drive prospective organic visitors and that also after a lengthy time period. Imagine if you were able to receive free Instagram followers in moments?

Luckily, some platforms are going to have the ability to assist you attain it by utilizing Social Media Much like Exchange websites. Well, let me shed a little light onto this. Social Media Much like Exchange exist around the World Wide Web before Google has been something.

These sites function as name suggest on Just Like commerce foundation. All you have to do would be to log into the site with your social media accounts (ex. Facebook) and get started enjoying, afterwards, and sharing with additional user's articles. You receive reward points before these tasks. Get Free Instagram Followers No Verification

1)Hublagraam

Hublagraam is another excellent tool to discover complimentary Instagram followers without a effort at all. It does not function as a Social Media Like trade mechanism but rather an automation bot that makes you multiples likes and followers in seconds.

To utilize Hublagram, you would like to let permissions to your website bot to publish and enjoy different account and profiles. You Have to provide access token in Order to Obtain complimentary Instagram followers no more survey

   Log in the Website and Permit Permissions.    Give accessibility Token and paste unique in the Redirect Link.    Wait for many moments, and you'll start getting alarms of followers. Plus it's completed.

However, like I said, there's always a grab for all these things. Since nearly all the auto liker and follower websites use automated robots and scripts, they're believed by Google's algorithm. They normally divert one to third party spam and advertisements links which seals the user in connection loops. You would not obtain any hitter, and it's ordinary your account could have obstructed or temporarily suspended because of suspicious pursuits.

2)Followlike

FollowLike a is a helpful site for all of the people now want to turn into complimentary Instagram followers across the whole planet. It's simple to make points by doing dozens of these as commerce jobs. This isn't any Instagram followers something or hack. Assuming your account has been kept completely secure and secure. You can use this tips and hacks through a number of the favorite devices such as PCs or phones. And what we do is completely under the jurisdiction of social media and is lawful. Now, are you going to quit wondering and stay up to your fantasies?

3) Likeforlike.org

The most popular and supported throughout significant states is LikeforLike.org. As mentioned before, you want to make points in order to get Instagram followers. To begin with, you wish to register and include one of your interpersonal media profile to produce points. Once successful, the website automatically sends you things (Normally 9 or 10) for you follow along with deducts the specific same to your visitors.

Actual Followers in moments. Factors returned deducted by followers. Great Client Care & Blog. LikeforLike.org Allows points for instance, Followers, Page Likes, Remarks, Shares, Clients, and a Whole Lot More.

Takes too long to create points. Sometimes, the algorithm doesn't get the job done. You will like something but won't get matters. An inordinate quantity of usage on Facebook or even Instagram cubes the consumer temporarily.

We've curated a listing of several working suggestions and methods to aid you develop and get complimentary Instagram followers.

As we mentioned previously, your account will reach into a location in which you have only imagined. All you have got to take good care is to set up good quality of posts in the forthcoming days cause these are those which are shipped to the consumers anyplace.

Also it's unspoken that likes and opinions will likely be followed cause the second that post is upward.

More marketing for your business, products, services, etc.. -- Obtaining you a variety of deals. -- Immediate Influence in Your popularity amounts (achieving celebrity status) All these are entirely true Instagram followers and we will be sure that your identity is hidden. Nobody could possibly understand about this unless until you choose to share it with folks.

To seal the deal, we also ensure that this tricks and procedures will not ever ask any of your private information or passwords for this issue.

1)Research and Research Quality Hashtags

It seems like instead of Twitter, Instagram will be the man or woman who seems to look after hashtags. The appropriate hashtags can display your image into a broad and targeted viewers, also Instagram users don't possess the hashtag exhaustion since they receive off Facebook or even Snapchat.

In other words differently, hashtags could be your best chance to get free Instagram followers. Instagram lets 30 hashtags per post at max, and individuals typically get the absolute most from this restriction.

The TrackMaven research shows that posts with over 11 hashtags would probably to secure more connections. But occasionally, it is somewhat confusing what hashtags will be excellent for your photo or video.

Luckily, you are able to look up to find the identical popular posts and utilize the particular hashtags.

As you have been wondering it to find consistency in your own Instagram accounts, you would like good photographs to upload, and also what should you don't have enough time to acquire some good shots every day? You can always share user-generated articles on your profile too. Suppose you own a product established profile or business balances, then you could always discuss the honest reviews of your merchandise.

Socialize with your fans and customers to send their image with or wearing your merchandise, and you might feature it to the account. This creates a feeling of real and authentic experience for the marketplace and possible customers.

3) Article on Regular basis

Various social media analytics firms have proven a normal Instagram user articles at least one time daily. More interestingly, Accounts that get 5-10 followers on a daily basis regularly post marginally greater than this --around two or three pictures. This seemingly clears out for much more followers, you would like a larger frequency.

Because we frequently utilize Social Media Strategists and Developers, we must realize that Instagram is slowly rolling out a Facebook-like algorithm which raises the probability of your content becoming noticed more should you post always. With the ideal mix of the hashtags (that we'll mention later), you might get your articles noticed in search feeds too.

Instagram empowers its customers to upload and share videos between 3-60 minutes , and then introducing the feature, over 5 thousand people shared videos inside daily.

But, a mean of 10% accounts have movie, but they achieve 18 percent of their overall remarks on Instagram. Lots of YouTubers and Versions like Amanda Cerny, Kingbach, Dan Bilzerian along with other famous Instagram users place normal videos within their profile.

Furthermore, an excellent movie will attract you complimentary Instagram followers you might push into your other networks like YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.. .

5) Boost on additional Social Networking Sites

Make sure you're that you just sharing all your Instagram posted photos onto other social websites for cross-promotion. Not only you would find more exposure on additional social media platforms, however, a buddy who's unaware of your Instagram accounts would start after you. Furthermore, you can now cross-promote you and your friend's social media profile on each other's accounts utilizing the Stories attribute.

It's almost always much better to seek support from the beloved Instagram buddy. There are different tips like using third-party Just Like Exchange websites or apps, and they also do function.

Conclusion

So after studying this top quality Content you've got numerous legit tactics to acquire Free Instagram Followers No research No Individual affirmation . Please don't follow or attempt Instagram Followers Tool they never do the job. The above article is the legit Approach for Free Instagram Followers No research No provides