LiteraryWho 2024-10-28 22:54:51

I think slow follower growth on NG is pretty normal. I'm, personally, mostly just a lurker here to see cool art and movies, but I think in general the "value-add" for twitter isn't getting an audience, it's getting a friend group with fellow artists.

Maybe try joining, or even better running, a collab, hang out on the forums a bit, participate in an art jam or concert. There aren't really a lot of discovery tools here (though there is the newly introduced Takeover Tuesday), because this isn't instagram or w/e.

Anyway, I'm (obviously) not an artists or anything of the sort, so take this all with a grain of salt. Your art is super cute though, so I hope you have fun doing it, and don't worry too much about followers and stats and such.

Good Luck :D

Porter 2024-10-28 23:05:15

Grow a presence here if you haven't already by joining art/animation collabs, hop on forums with other artists/animators to share experiences or even an art dump thread, or going back to collabs, start one yourself so Tom can showcase it for you! There isn't an algorithm and it's all about finding your audience through true connections with the community.

When it comes to getting on the front page, remember that there are amazingly talented artists I know personally who know they are good at what they do who won't be on the front page anytime soon. Don't put yourself down because you won't get to that point anytime soon, it took me a good few years until recently I earned that front page on a few of my pieces. Worry more about what you enjoy creating and finding a community who will love to hop on what ever it is you're into for the moment.

LiteraryWho 2024-10-28 23:13:52

I think the best way to get familiar with how NG works, and with how to best take advantage of it is to read the news on the front page. It should be in a little box on the front page somewhere (to the top left?), next to a little picture of a man with a yellow hexagon. On mobile I think the news box is towards the bottom?

You can also look here:
https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/forum/5
to see past news posts and peruse them a bit. I think every collab, jam, contest, etc is included in there.

In fact, there should be a "Calendar Box" on the homepage that has a list of all the upcoming events. You've got all of three days to participate in the Halloween Spooktacular (https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1538617), but you might have fun hopping in, and who knows, might even win some money.

PS I realize I wrote "concert" in my original reply, when I meant to write "contest"

S3C 2024-10-29 01:06:32

eat your veggies and get good sleep of course

weirtyuo 2024-10-29 01:30:01

Joining collabs and posting on the forums can help but I wouldn't focus on numbers too much here. Draw for yourself, continue to create things that you enjoy and are proud of-- then if people follow you, great!

witlatch 2024-10-29 02:44:10

I agree with LiteraryWho. Slow and steady wins the race. NG is a bit of an old Internet oddity that still thrives on genuine interaction. What I love about it is that you don’t need to fight algorithms and chase trend trains to have your work seen. Post when you feel like it, join in on the community. Enjoy your time here. Slow down and smell the roses!

BoiledMilkz 2024-10-29 05:02:46

try and be more active with the newgrounds community! most of my followers came from my forum interactions and the discord servers i'm in, so that could be a possibility

kmau 2024-10-29 05:47:56

You already received lots of good advice here, but another thing that should be pointed out is that you already have a lot of followers! Newgrounds doesn't have the same user numbers as social media, so ~500 fans here is already the equivalent to thousands of followers on other platforms.

AlexToolStudio 2024-10-29 06:44:33

@BoiledMilkz and from other people you collaborated with

MrPakoMan 2024-10-29 07:23:27

collabs

check the calendar for collabs and art contests
join them, join discord servers, talk with peoples have fun

i know it is really important as an artist to grow and be seen
but i respectfully recommend you approaching newgrounds in a different direction

like phantom arcade said.... dont ask what newgrounds can do for you, but rather, what can you do for newgrounds

ps. your art is sick

X3LL3N 2024-10-29 09:36:49

Hey there, I'm the guy who used one of your illustrations for this year's AIM contest (big fan) !

It is harder for music composers like me to grow on Newgrounds than it is for artists, however I figured out a few tips over the years that might apply to you :

Like everyone else, I believe that by far, the easiest way to grow on NG is by participating in contests, collabs and themed events. It's also the easiest way to get a frontpage nowadays.

Following some artist trends (redrawing a scene, style stuff, etc...) and participating in stuff like Inktober and Art Fight could also be interesting if you don't already do that.

Connecting with the community (whether on Newgrounds, official NG discord servers, Twitter, etc...) might be a good idea. You'll meet a ton of cool people and maybe have some new opportunities open to you.

Related to the point above, I believe some artists grow by "sharing" their fanbases with each other, through art gifts and art trades.

Now, for some different info :

People can submit other people's illustrations in a page called "Frontpage Recommendation thread" on the website's blog section.

You might also wanna consider when to upload your art.
For example, I try to upload my songs around midday or early afternoon in the US (and not on a thursday) because I believe that's a good timeframe for my musics to show up on people's feed.

IMPORTANT : If you're not aware, you can set your work to automatically release on a certain day and at a certain time (which is pretty cool if you wanna organize a release schedule but may not be able to upload at the right time).

Either way, you shouldn't be ashamed of your growth.
Newgrounds isn't a huge platform, and reaching 400 fans in less than 2 years is pretty impressive (it took me double that amount and I was active at a time when frontpages were easier to get).

Keep up the good work and I'm sure you'll build a good and loyal fanbase overtime ^^

GrapheneKid 2024-10-29 13:07:53

@X3LL3N As a musician, this is really cool advice, thank you! Can I ask why you tend to avoid uploading on a Thursday?

Skitzidy 2024-10-29 13:36:56

Not advice but I just wanted to drop by & say that all your art is adorable and SO SHINY MY GOSH XDD
(Hope you don't mind the follow btw, I mostly lurk here so I can't really provide insight)

X3LL3N 2024-10-29 14:50:18

@GrapheneKid Because since a week ago, Thursday got dedicated to Newgrounds Supporters, so it's unlikely anybody will check your project due to the way it currently looks.

Might be better to upload between Friday and Tuesday if you're aiming for a frontpage now that I think about it :)

AlexToolStudio 2024-10-29 18:24:28

@SupNovaGY milkz was that person
And yes i was talking about stuff like that
Also Being in Movies and Audios and Games that didn’t you make

AlexToolStudio 2024-10-29 18:28:57

@X3LL3N we can change that