Dalmy Da Dog

THE PROBLEM

First, I’d like to begin by stating that this conversation is not a new one. FA has had many issues in the past few years, many of which have left the site completely inaccessible. During each of these occurrences, there is a massive spike in registrations to websites such as Weasyl, Sofurry, and most recently Furry Network. However after a few weeks, many artists find themselves reverting back to FA, out of frustration from these alternative not providing the same exposure and/or source of income as Furaffinity. And as a result, these websites find themselves in a revolving pattern of users entering and exiting the service as Furaffinity waxes and wanes in its usability. Herein lies the problem. Artists aren’t giving the proper time and attention to new platforms in order to allow them to grow, which in turn leaves them feeling devoid of content, pushing users away from these platforms and back to FA

THE SOLUTION

When making the decision to expand beyond FA, here’s the first thing you should not do. Do not make a long journal voicing your frustrations about FA, the drama, and how you’re leaving forever. Because in two months you’ll be right back where you started.

Artists are locked into a chicken and the egg situation where the artist may want to move, but the clientbase doesn’t move along with them. So once they find themselves using Weasyl or Furry Network and not receiving the same level of feedback or work, they end up dumping their new gallery and returning to FA.

To combat this, artists need to be willing to invest time and energy in properly migrating your userbase with you. Explain that moving forward your main gallery will be hosted elsewhere (whether that be Weasyl, Furry Network, or your own website) and push your content through both sites. Give users incentives in order to encourage them to move with you. One tactic I’ve seen many artists take is opening for commission first on Twitter or Tumblr and offering them to FA users a day later. Another option is to provide content you otherwise wouldn’t post to FA, such as sketches, WIPs, and doodles. Raffles are also a great way to encourage users to follow you on other websites. While this may seem like unfair “punishment” to FA users, what you’re in fact doing is taking ownership of your own content and hosting it where you desire. Which not only allows you to be more satisfied with your work, but allows your client base to explore options they may otherwise have never considered. And from personal experience, I find many users appreciate this, since other platforms allow a level of interaction with artists that FA does not. Whether that be direct communication through twitter, or being able to see a consistent stream of content with Tumblr.

So what options are there when it comes to leaving Furaffinity? Well there are quite a few, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. It’s a matter of finding the best solution for your and tailoring it to your needs. In order to most effectively relay this information, I’ll be splitting up these suggestions into two groups. Ones focused solely on art galleries, and the other focused on direct communication with clients. From there I’ll discuss the proper methods in order to make the move to a new website.

ART GALLERY ALTERNATIVES

Weasyl, Inkbunny, Sofurry, & Furry Network

In this category is where I place websites such as Weasyl, Inkbunny,  SoFurry, and Furry Network. These websites, similar to FA, focus on providing content from artist first, so users may easily view, favorite, and comment on submissions. All of these websites support high quality imagery, without unnecessary downscaling and the dreaded jpeg artifacts. Additionally, in the case of Weasyl and Furry Network, they provide easily accessible sections for artists to list their communission information, pricing, and methods of contact, allowing users to quickly see who’s open for commissions and how best to reach their favorite artists. Lastly, these websites all have special features that make them unique. Weasyl has a streaming notification system that alerts watchers when an artist is streaming. While Furry Network has a “stream” similar to that of Tumblr’s dashboard, allowing watchers to see a stream of  content from their favorite artists including submissions they have favorited or commented on as well. This provides a level of interaction with one’s client base that cannot be attained on FA due to the cluttered way journal notifications are handled. Additionally, due to their folder systems and organizational tools, clients are able to view each artist’s content much more easily and in a manner of which the artist desires.

These websites work best for artist who either want to a gallery of their work in one place or for artists who prefer a straightforward solution to providing art and contacting clients. These sites are built with the artist in mind, and a result are very well tailored to accomplishing those goals. They are not however very good for keeping open dialog with your user base. While they all have a journal system, this is a poor alternative to the open discussion that is possible through social media websites such as Twitter or Tumblr. However for artists who desire a straightforward solution with a wholesome experience, I highly recommend giving one of them a try.

DIRECT COMMUNICATION ALTERNATIVES

Twitter, Tumblr, Patreon, & Personal Websites

Next, we’ll discuss direct communication websites, which include social media tools such as Twitter and Tumblr, as well as artist hubs such as Patreon and your own personal website. This category is a bit unique in that none of these solutions work best alone. In fact, in the case of Patreon, they’re very difficult if not impossible, to use alone. These work best collectively to provide your client base with a full range of options from which they can view your content, while providing avenues for you to reach potential commissioners. Tumblr in particular is very useful due to their robust tagging system. Similar to art gallery websites, Tumblr allows for posts to be tagged with multiple keywords, bring in potential clients who otherwise would not have discovered your work. Combined with Tumblr’s reblog function, this allows for consistent and steady newcomers to locate your content and then share it with their friends or followers. This is also the case with Twitter and their retweet function, allowing your content to be spread beyond just your direct client base, unlike art galleries in which your content is posted and easily forgotten once it leaves the front page. Additionally, these websites allow a level of personal connection with clients not easily attained with a gallery on Weasyl or Inkbunny. Clients can ask questions, respond to your questions, provide feedback, and more all in real time. And due to the mobile apps provided by Twitter, Tumblr, and Patreon, you can easily keep up to date with what your clients are saying.

However, as stated before none of these work very well alone. Especially if you decide to build your own website, it’s difficult for clients to pull clients to your website if you don’t have a sort of “face” to you as an artist. Which is where Twitter really shines. You can quickly post when you are doing a stream, contact other artist for potentially collaborations, and other opportunities not presented by a traditional art website. The downside of course being that the time it takes to reach a “critical mass” where your content is being consistently shared and viewed can take some time and alot of patience. However the reward being that the larger your base grows, the faster your content can spread.

MAKING THE JUMP

Here is the part where alot of artists lose the battle in moving to a new website. Making the jump away from FA isn’t so much of a jump, as it is a slow migration. Rather than shutting down your FA and moving all your content at once, allow users to enjoy your content from either service, as you build a following. This will take some extra time, however the return on investment is worth the energy. As you're growing on another platform grows, you’ll find yourself not only reaching the same users who followed you on Furaffinity, you’ll be reaching new clients who’ve either never seen your work or didn’t have a way to easily view it.  Here are the steps I recommend following once you’ve settled on a migrating away from FA

THE STEPS TO SUCCESS

Select the platform that fits your needs

If you just want to post art, a website such as Weasyl or Furry Network may be the best solution. If you prefer posting WIPs alot and talking to clients, try out Twitter or Tumblr.

Capitalize on your “brand”

If your name on Furaffinity is “ArtistCat”, don’t make your username on Tumblr “Catalicious99”. Your identity as an artist is also your brand. As such, make it easy for your followers to locate your content by keeping your username as consistent as possible between platform.

Start uploading previous content to your new gallery over time

One mistake many artists make when migrating to a new website is batch uploading all their artwork at once. DON’T DO THIS! Why? Because if you flood the website with your art, you’ll have a full gallery yes. But now you have a full gallery that no one has viewed. Most modern art websites has locks in place which prevent more than 4 or 5 pieces being on the homepage at one time. Rather than upload all your art and risk only a portion of it being seen. Upload 3-4 submissions a day, allowing you to gain the most traction possible from each submission, which keeping your follower’s timelines from being flooded with your content.

Keep your galleries consistent when uploading new content

While it can be easy to become lazy and resort to just uploading artwork to your new gallery, it’s best to keep uploading to FA as well. The reason being that each submission you make to FA is another opportunity to encourage users to follow you on your new platform. Additionally this allows you to prevent users from feeling “abandoned” and in turn refusing to view your content out of spire.

Offer incentives for users to migrate to your new platform

As I discussed before, it helps to offer incentives for users to make the jump along with you. One common method artists use is by offering content not found on Furaffinity. Twitter and Tumblr are a wonderful chance to show WIP updates or to upload quick sketches or doodles done throughout the day. Not only does this allow users to see your creative process, it also allows for consistent content in between major uploads. Another method is to do Raffles (Follow + RT to win a sketch, for example) which encourage users not only to view your content, but to share it with their friends. A more aggressive method is to offer commissions on one platform ahead of another. Whatever your means, it helps to give users a good reason to move, rather than just telling them repeatedly.

Give it time

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Similarly, you won’t find yourself with a flood of notifications the moment you join a new platform. Just as it took time to grow a following on FA, it will take time to reach new clients and for old ones to move to a new platform as well. For some, this process can take months, if not a year. However, with time and dedication, many artists find themselves thriving on new platforms once they’ve invested themselves into it. As with anything, you get out of it what you put into it. So if you remain steadfast, results will soon follow.

Don’t put yourself out on the street

To put it simply, FA is still King. Despite its many flaws, Furaffinity remains the largest anthropomorphic community art website in the world, and as result it would be foolish to abandon it overnight. The goal with migrating to a new platform is to build yourself up, so you may reduce your reliance on Furaffinity. For some artists, this may mean maintaining multiple art galleries for a few months as their base grows. You always want to keep your own needs in mind first. So if commissions are a main source of income, then it is in your best interest to continue using Furaffinity in order to maintain that income. And as your income from other sources grows, reduce your availability of commission on Furaffinity in proportion to the income you draw from various platforms. It’s a balancing act, and no two artists will have the same experience. However with proper handling, you can ensure you are making the transition without a drop in income.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew

Maintaining an online presence through multiple platforms can be time consuming. When uploading a completed commission, it can be tedious to copy and paste titles or descriptions to multiple channels. If you find yourself becoming overwhelmed, take stock of what platforms you may or may not need. For some artists, you may desire and benefit from operating through multiple platforms. For others, it may be best to stick to only a few. Understand your capabilities, and work within them. However be careful not to limit yourself too much and restrict yourself from potential opportunities.

You can’t please everyone, the only one you can always make happy is you

People dislike change. It’s complicated and different and that scares people. As a result some of your userbase will refuse to make the switch to a new platform. And that’s okay! At the end of the day, the only person who can be the judge of what is, and is not, a good decision for where your art resides is you. So be sure the decisions you make are in your best interests and no one else’s. For every user who stays with FA, there are 2-3 ready to take their place on your new platform. Understand that you can’t make everyone happy, and that’s okay.

SUCCESS RESTS WITH YOU

In closing, the decision of whether or not you should stay or leave FA is not one any can make for you. Some artists have made it clear they won’t be going anywhere, while others have expressed their extreme distaste for the website as a whole. Whatever the outcome, I hope this guide provided a wholesome view from which you can make an informed decision of what’s best. Thank you for reading and be sure to share this with anyone whom may find it useful.

- Dalmy

Owner/Operator - DalmyDoDat Creations

DalmyDoDat.com

Twitter: @DalmyDoDat