& (hammertech) wrote in iconning, @ 2009-05-31 02:28:00 |
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About It's really hard to be a new icon maker and build up a base of people watching your journal. So, below can be found a number of suggestions for gaining popularity as an icon maker. Make Icons Obviously, you need to make icons - and lots of them. Every time you make a new set is a chance for advertising that set on pb_updates. Watch Trends, Branch Out As mentioned above, your sets need to have variety. If you only PB girls, only people who play girls will be interested in your icons and add you to their list. The same goes for PBing strictly scene kids and what have you. The way to get people interested in your icons is to pay attention to what PBs people most want to see and do requests. You don't have to do this all the time but doing it once in a while helps to expand your audience. Pay Attention To Quality Even if you can't toss out ten or so sets of icons a week and aren't interested in doing requests, you can gain an edge over other icon makers by paying close attention to the quality of your icons. Because, honestly, it doesn't matter if you make all the icons in the world if you can't clean them properly. No one likes grainy/blurry/too dark/etc. icons. If your icons aren't up to par, people are likely to look elsewhere or just make their own. Remember, icon making is mostly cleaning up pictures - not just cropping and resizing. Be Organized Keep your icon journal organized. Make sure the directory is being kept up to date and easy to find. If people can't find your icons they won't be able to use them and you won't get the advertising that comes with their use. Put a link on your user info and include a link in the layout (the best way to do it is to link it as the webpage in your profile/user info here). Also, if possible, make your directory the latest post to your journal (or dated in the future). Keep Things Accessible It's true - no one likes having their icons stolen. However, you're doing yourself a disservice by locking down your journal. Don't Be A Bitch As Kelly would say, don't be a bitch. If people want to add a border, edit your icons, etc. it should be their prerogative even if you still want credit for the original icon. Likewise, you shouldn't harass people who haven't credited you (although asking nicely is fine). You're making icons for other people so they don't have to. It's supposed to be a nice gesture. Why ruin that by being a bitch to them when they use them? Show (SOME OF) The Goods When people view your icons on your journal or their f-list, they don't want to see them all because they hog up space and make it take forever for the page to load. Still, they want a visual of what's there. So, put your icons behind a cut but leave a few outside of it like the layout previews on this community (three's recommended because it's not too many but still enough to give a good idea of what the rest of your icons are like). Also, it's a good idea to put the PB's name and the number of icons in your post in the subject, cut, or under the preview (preview being the three icons before). Get On The List wastintime, who runs wikicon, has a fabulous list of icon makers here that you should ask to be added to if you're not on it already. Make Banners A lot of times, it seems impossible to find a good banner for a certain PB. So, do the people watching your community a favor and make a few along with your icons. When you do, you can post them over at karakul, a community primarily for banners. Advertise Your Icon Journal Post your icon journal (and a sample or three) to accessories. Frequent... find_icons - Perhaps you've made icons for a PB someone's looking for. Perhaps you're interested in making icons for them. Write Tutorials If you show people how to clean up/adjust icons using one of your own sets, you can post it to several places including iconning and rp_tutorials. A lot of times people will follow this link to your user info to see who you are and to your directory to see your icons (another good reason to keep organized). Other Suggestions These are suggestions that might get a few people to discover your icons but in the long run don't do a whole lot of good. Still, it's no reason not to do them. One person might find your icons this way and tell someone else. And they might tell someone else. And so forth. |