HowXu
patreon
Something I had been thinking regarding this site
🕑 Added 2018-06-14 15:45:56 +0000 UTC Hello, dear friends.It's been more than three years since I open my Patreon. I am sincerely thankful for all the support I had receive. Especially Ajay for his massive support in so many ways over the years. I wouldn't keep this site going without you guys. Thanks again!
However, as I keep this site going and wishing it could expand, I slowly found a critical problem that make me wonder if I should keep going: "Theme". I read several Patreon's newsletter regarding reaching more audience. And it is very clear that those who are successful have a well define theme for their site. That is, people know exactly what to expect from their site. This allow audience look forward to the the future content. I find that it is what I'm lacking. I generally I don't know what to I draw next, let alone create expectation of what to look forward in the future.
I'd like to try to address this problem. If I can fix tihs, maybe I can shift my full time job to part time so I can spend more time creating. And maybe it could allow me reaching my ultimate goal of becoming full-time artist. If I failed, I would need to accept the reality and keep enduring my day-time occupation. But at least I know I tried. So here's some of the idea I was thinking:
(1) Creating original comic: After almost ten years of drawing, it's very clear that I'm not the type of the artist who can deliver visual awes. But reviewing my past works, I think I might know a thing or two in constructing comic. Maybe I can try to start creating some OC with some original story. My colleague in my workplace even encourage me to do so.
(2) Long-term Fan comic: Same as the original comic. Just with characters of corporate copyright. I haven't draw Pony's comic in a long time, but I actually still have a few ideas left. With some time, it could very well be expanded into a long comic.
(3) Focus on specific content or community: I dare say that's what I had been doing now. If not for focusing on Pony, I probably wouldn't reach $200 per month. But I need focus more on theme so my audience could expect what future content might be. Maybe series of cloth memes, or series of Chibis, or series of scene from show.
As a attempt, my plan is that once I decide the solution, I'll spend one to two week planing out all the details and then spend the next three month creating the said content. I haven't decided yet and I'm curious about what do you guys think of it. Do you think these might work? or maybe I think of it too much and should instead focus more on improving skills? Feel free to share your thought. :)
Comments
HowXu
Well, yes. I primarily use DeviantArt and I always put a link to here on each of my post. I insert this site's link on most of my works too. Well, that's pretty much it. Come to think of it, I guess I'm pretty bad at advertising myself.+_+ But I'm not really sure what else to do. I did see that some of the artist aggressively insert Patreon logo in their artworks.But I think that makes the art less aesthetic. Maybe I should use multiple social media? (I did create a tumblr account recently, just haven't upload much there.)
Sinon
tough topic, was about to write a wall of text but will do after some sleep so i can give it a proper structure xD.... just came from nightshift. But just wondering. You say you dont attract alot of people, but do you actually advertise yourself or post art on some fan-sites redirecting people to your patreon? Your content seems fine, could use some more frequent posts like WIPs or sth, but just feels like nobody comes here cause nobody is actually knowing about you. Even with a lacking theme and structure. I would even believe some people who write fan-fictions would love to have a scene illustrated by you. More coming later xD
HowXu
Thanks for sharing your thought with me. You actually mentioned another route I can try. I can focus solely on drawing cute drawing and generally abandon other type of arts. That way I can established a much more clear image and therefore create the expectation of similar arts in my future posts. I think maybe I can all of them. I go for one route for 3 months then change. After one year all 3 routes has been tried and see which one achieve my objective of attracting more audience. In any case, Pony comic seems the first to go. I guess I could give it a try once I've completed all my commissions. That said, this plan might start at the end of July.
Petardo238
Honestly, I started to meet you, thanks to the ponies on Deviantart. Even now, I consider your version of the characters, the top of the cute. It might be a good idea to try to start a series, with the style similar to "Chrysalis's fluttered adventure" (and other shorts), with new characters. Now I'm curious to see some prototype characters for the story = ^ ˽ ° =
