I’ve made new contacts, I’ve made friends and readers and some of my most dedicated readers were originally from DeviantArt. But I got them, not from advertising or linking myself, but by networking and making friends and commenting and CRITIQUING and accepting critique. Yeah, I post up the occasional page there and link back to my comic. And wallpapers and occasionally single panels. It gets me a few hits.

But. The valuable hits and readers came from me making friends, not just posting up art. DeviantArt is for connecting with other artists, not just posting your stuff and getting links. It won’t work as well if that’s all you ever do. And that’s why it’s not a good advertising tool.

And I also agree that I prefer it as a critique tool. Unfortunately… when I leave comments even a paragraph long, people reply to me and go “wow, I’ve never had such an in depth comment before, thank you so much!” It shouldn’t have degraded to “great picture, nice colors!” just to get people to look at your own.

Also, I disagree on the thought that “it works with minimal effort”. In order to get hits from DeviantArt, you must be an artist in certain forms of art (manga, generally), you need to be a good artist to draw attention if you’re not commenting–I’ve seen amazing pictures get two comments and 16 views–and you need to comment and fav and thank people for faving and otherwise draw attention to yourself. There’s too much submitted in too little time for it to be minimal effort. It’s pure chance.

Yeah, you can get readers there. I have. They don’t have a high bounce rate, either, visitors from there. But to draw attention to yourself, you need to either be an artist that’s jawdroppingly amazing, active in the community, or decent in a niche form of art, or a friend of someone popular.

DeviantArt: a side effect of which is free advertising.

But it’s a good article on what DeviantArt has to offer for anyone who actually doesn’t have an account yet, too. ^_^ I just kind of agree with Lilly’s points.

That’s the mindset I was arguing against; I know that’s what this article is about – I’m just saying I’m not sure if Deviant art is the place to do that as It’s the other way around; DA is supposed to be for getting art critiques – not just readers. “How’s my panel layout?” “Does that font get that emotion across” etc. It’s for growth and community more so than “Hey! Come read me!”

Sadly, the site has developed into a ‘here’s the next page, enjoy reading it!” – which is where the different comment requests came from (Critique desired, no critique, etc.). Even I find myself guilty of merely giving short comments in return for comments on my own work. *sigh*

However, the point of the article was that DA is a good place to find more readers for your comic, not to get art critiques, though I agree it can be a good place to get honest opinions.

I’ve made a bunch of new readers there for my Not Alone comic, mainly because it’s easy to attract the demographic of that comic. All I’ve done is post those pages, find my friends there, and once in a while browse through the new art area. I’ve made new contacts, definitely, and through them, even more contacts. But I’m definitely leaning towards using a DA gallery as a tool to get more readers, not it’s original intention as an art critiquing and sharing community.

No matter where you try to network, it’s important to 1) not be a poser, and 2) not be a pimp. There is definitely a middle ground. No one clicks the links left by the annoying “me-me-me” people.

Though, it is a good place to meet new artists and network, I wouldn’t’ really call it the place to ‘advertise’ It’s for commenting/critiquing artwork. It’s a community.

It’s true, you get hits from it as people come to visit you and the like, but if you’re going ONLY for advertising your comic and just commenting to get hits; I’d almost recommend taking that somewhere else.

My two-cents as a long time deviant: participate fully and genuinely. You’re there to make connections; not get hits. :)