The Shadow Empire Art Contest is now well under way!
There have been some interesting tactics, to say the least! These strategies have been so successful, in fact, that it only seems fair I share EXACTLY what these tactics are with everyone else! I feel I need to, as the contest may otherwise be on uneven ground! Some of the artists are not as familiar to Deviantart, as others! Some artists don't even have Deviantart accounts, as the contest was also advertised via postering and flyers! There are some AMAZING pieces in the contest, in fact, that are not getting as much love as I think they deserve! Hopefully, sharing these tactics will help some of the other artists become more competitive!
1) The artists with the most votes are responding to comments on their own entries. They are OWNING their work, knowing that I said I'll be trying not to comment! I do not want to sway anyone's vote one way or another. People do seem to like it when you comment on their comments though! Comments also show activity and interest.
2) These same artists have petitioned their own friends/watchers first and asked them for favourites! I have seen petitions on Deviantart (polls, journals, comments, etc), Facebook and Twitter. Ultimately the voter needs a Deviantart account, however.
3) These artists have also been very encouraging to one another even commenting on competitors work or giving "favourites" to their competition! I can honestly say that even if there's no such thing as karma, this level of CLASS makes me secretly root for these individuals even more! Is it still a secret? One might even say, that this level of class is an embrace of the samurai spirit!
4) Last but not least is the BIGGEST one! It does take a little work, however. All of the top artists right now have joined groups, and then added their own art (the piece posted in the contest under Shanon Sinn!) to such groups as #fantasy-art or #all-art-wanted, etc. There are more of these groups than a person realizes. A lot of these groups are all about supporting artists even when a person joined that day! This request (art added to that group's gallery) will then come to me in my messages under "correspondence." It asks me if I want to allow the picture to be part of that gallery. I choose "yes" because it is in everyones best interest. Some of them have asked independently, or have been added by a supporting friend (hint). Regardless, an artist will be competitive with this one step alone, even if they only had a couple of friends on Deviantart! I'm telling you. People in this community are very cool! It only sounds complicated but it's not. Join a few groups and try it out!
As far as I know, no one on Deviantart has complained in any way. that is good because this is experimental! A member became offended from a petition on another site called 4chan. Those folk seem a little more cantankerous over there! Seem pacified for now, but we will see! We will raise these dark spirits of the Otherworld, and unleash pestilence-filled nightmares upon these petty fools! Whahahaha (my B-rated evil laugh)!
So there you go! These tactics will help you catch up! You think someone else has too much of a head start?! I do disagree!
a) These artists have already tapped into each of these groups! You haven't!
b) There are 2500 (pay by click) individuals being brought here to vote with no loyalty to anyone. I was saving this until Oct. 1st but have launched this yesterday. This is where some of the people are now coming from. A thank you to anyone who has stopped by to vote! An even greater thank you to those who have taken the time to comment etc! You are awesome!
c) There are still Contest ads as well! I thought these would have ended by now, but there will still be 2000 clicks to the contest and some of these will be voters! If these are not used in the next week, or so, I will probably change the ad to a "vote" one like the other one.
d) if these ads run out I will look at bringing traffic in another way, or do more of the same! Suggestions are welcome!
All of the above being said, these ambitious artists in the lead ARE spreading the word by bringing people here! They do deserve these votes! I just wanted to share some of their - not so secret - secrets with the other artists, as well! There's still over a month left to go! Lots of time for everyone! I would love to see a closer contest!
Good luck to everyone!
Darkest nods,
Shanon Sinn
CSS by Earldense