Making more Views!
Go!Animate is fun, it helps you to develop the artist there is within you. Obviously views are not so important, compared to your own interior fulfillment. Are these words true? Well, I am afraid they are, in a way...
Even if I agree with the statement above, nobody can deny that getting "views" makes everybody feel good and happier. When an animation of yours suddenly recieves a lot of visits, it means people liked your work or, at least, they were curious about what you were doing. It is like being famous in a very very - very - small scale!
Enough of this. If you are here, chances are you want to learn how to get more views. You have come to the right place. This is the 5 steps guide to make more views! Right after the commercial...
Even if I agree with the statement above, nobody can deny that getting "views" makes everybody feel good and happier. When an animation of yours suddenly recieves a lot of visits, it means people liked your work or, at least, they were curious about what you were doing. It is like being famous in a very very - very - small scale!
Enough of this. If you are here, chances are you want to learn how to get more views. You have come to the right place. This is the 5 steps guide to make more views! Right after the commercial...
Step 1. Make a better animation.
Dissapointed with the 1st. step? Oh, so you were expecting a magic way to get you views all of the sudden? Have you asked yourself if your animations really deserved to get more success?. Maybe - just a suggestion - you are not getting those views because your animation is not up to standards. Consider that as a possibility.
So here is a check list of some of the things that makes a good animation... Does your vid comply with them?:
So here is a check list of some of the things that makes a good animation... Does your vid comply with them?:
- Does it have a story? It should be something you can tell your friend to explain what your vid is about. If it is just random stuff, just delete it. Start again, and this time, make a better animation. Something that I can watch for about three minutes...
- Your animation has music or sounds, isn't it? You may think that music and sounds are not important as long as the rest of the animation is good... if that's the case, you are wrong. You need to have some kind of sound. Tell me, how many things you watch on T.V. without any sound whatsoever? None. I rest my case.
- Your vid has no spelling or grammar mistakes. If that is not the case, you have a big problem. And your animation too. These kind of errors make your animation look really bad! It makes you look dumb!
- Does your animation use any of these FX: Cut, Span, Zoom? If it is not using any of these techniques, start experimenting with them. They are very useful and make your animation look professional. Just try them, you see how everything changes...
- Your animation must be original. Don't fool yourself, if you are copying someone else's work, people are going to notice sooner or later, and chances are you're going to get very low ratings and some painful hating. So be original, it's worthy!
Step 2. Be part of the Community.
Being a contributing member of the Go!Animate Community takes time and effort, but it is also fun and rewarding. There are not many sites with such a supporting group of users, and with so nice and helpful staff. This is no YouTube, where some users seem to get some kind of excitement by trashing everything in their way. Go!Animate is different... is not "lame", it's just "nicer"...
But... how do you become an "active" member of the Community? Here are some tips:
But... how do you become an "active" member of the Community? Here are some tips:
- Don't be so worried about getting fans, they will come when it's due. Be a fan of users whose animations you like, fan also those who are nice to you or that you feel their comments in forums and animations are funny and/or interesting, also be a fan of those who need help, and obviously, be a fan of the "Top Animators" you find on your way.
- Watch a lot of animations, and leave meaningful, rather long, comments. Don't leave just an "awsome" or "cool". Explain why you liked the animations, what is you enjoyed more. Everybody likes that kind of comments, and they'll be likely to remember your name or visit your page, or even be your fan if you are kind with them.
- Comment on the forums. Be funny or witty, or simply helpful, but always keep a certain distance, you don't want to annoy everybody. Be kind and critic, and don't be a "spoiled" kid, complaining about everything. You don't need to lie, just be who you are, but present yourself through a nice face.
Step 3. Promote your animations wisely.
NOTE: At the moment of writing this Step, originally, the comments sent to the user's page would be either Private - only the user you sent it to could read them - or Public - they were published in the user's page to whom you sent it, for everyone to see. Since then, the layout has been changed, and all the messages sent directly to the users are private. The parts that no longer apply in this Step, because of this change, will be displayed in this color.
If you have followed already step 2, you are bound to have visited many user's pages and found these comments where an animator has reproduced the exact same message on every user page he/she has come across, asking (in a more or less polite manner) for views to a particular animation. You don't want to follow that approach, it's not effective nor wise. Here is what and how you should do it:
Asking your fellow users
If you want to ask a fellow user to view your animation:
- Make your comment private. Making so has a slight drawback, as you won't get everybody to read your comment. But on the other hand, the visitors to that user's page are not likely to pay attention to your advertisement, anyway. Besides, the user whose page you are "spamming" won't get angry, because you are not attempting to use his/her page as an advertisement plattform.
- Make your comment personal. At least say the animator's name, so it doesn't look like you have copied and pasted the same message to hundreds of other users. Everybody likes to feel special, so make it look like you really want that user in particular to view your animation.
- Make your comment polite. Don't just comment "Hey gipsy, watch my animation". We are not robots who follow orders. But don't go too far, do not overdue it. Something like "Hey gipsy, I would appreciate if you could watch my new animation Crazy Dragon. It's a funny story about a dragon going mad. I hope you like it. Thanks!".
- Be selective. If you have 300 fans, that's a bit too many to be asking them one by one to watch your animations. So, do it on those who you know are still active, and don't forget the top animators and the staff. If they comment on your animation, it will show in their Activity feed, and other users are likely to follow suit.
- If you are GoPlus+, use the Broadcast tool with care. Abusing it, by sending way too many messages will prove harmful to your interests, as some of your fans will get tired of you and unfan you. So only use it with your best animations.
Personal message or Broadcast? Maybe you asked yourself this question once. Which one is better? Actually, the one that will get a better answer from users will be the Personal message, but if you have a big number of fans, it will be unlikely you can send a personal message to everyone of them, so by using Broadcast you can rest assure your message reaches all your fans (if they open it and read it or not, that's another problem). So, the best thing to do is to find a point of balance. Send a broadcast message (only if it is an important animation), but also send personal messages to the users who are more important for you (because they will leave a good comment, they will be bound to attract more viewers, or just because they are good friends). That way, you will get the best of both words!
Using other Promotion Means
Besides asking other users directly on their pages to watch your vids, you can do other things, like:
- Promote your animation in the "Animation in General" forum. Make a thread or use an existing one as long as it is logical to use it. Do not "bump" your thread too much, or it will show you are "taking advantage". Everybody deserves their time, do not abuse.
- If you have a blog, publish your animation on it. You can either put up a link or better still, "embed" your animation.
- Use your Twitter account. If you don't have one, it is time to think about setting up one.
- Share your animation with your friends via email, FaceBook, Google Plus or whatever other method you have available.
Step 4. Enter the Official Contests.
If you browse the forums frequently you might have come across many user-organised contests. It is up to you do decide if it is worthy entering them or not. Evaluate which rules they set up, or even if the price - if there is any - is good enough, or even possible at all. Sometimes they claim to give a prize that in reality can't be given (because they don't really how Go!Animate works, or just because
the whole thing is a lame scam).
But when it comes to Go!Animate Official Contests, there should be no doubt in your mind: enter by all means. There are many benefits to obtain from just becoming a contestant!
If you win you can have assurance you will receive the prize announced. Every time a Contest is announced there would always be a user saying he/she won't enter because they will not win anyway. That is a very stupid claim. The only way to win a contest is by enterning. If you do not enter, it is obvious you have no chance at all of winning. Besides that, take a look at winners of past contests. You can easily see most of them were not "Top Animators" at the time they entered.
Even if you do not win you have an excellent opportunity to show your animation to the public, or in other words, your animation will receive more views if you enter the contest than if you made that same animation without entering. Why is that? Because you will have lots of people checking on the contest entries, and yours is going to be there!
Some times not only the winner receives a prize, but the second and/or third user that classifies will get something too. Or even you could gen a Special Mention without getting a real price. That would be great. Do you get what that means? The staff thinks you are good, so with a bit of luck your next animation could become a Staff Pick!
One advice on entering an Official Go!Animate Contest: The earliest you submit your entry, the better. Everything I said so far on this matter will not easily come true if you enter the contest when it is about to finish. Obviously, do not submit your animation until you are happy with the final result, but do not lose time... there is usually many competitors out there, and you need to be one step ahead of them!.
So, to make it brief: Publish an awsome animation and submit it early to the contest. Make a wise and effective promotion, and keep on being an active member of the Community. If you do so, even if you do not end up first in the contest, you will be in a win-win situation.
the whole thing is a lame scam).
But when it comes to Go!Animate Official Contests, there should be no doubt in your mind: enter by all means. There are many benefits to obtain from just becoming a contestant!
If you win you can have assurance you will receive the prize announced. Every time a Contest is announced there would always be a user saying he/she won't enter because they will not win anyway. That is a very stupid claim. The only way to win a contest is by enterning. If you do not enter, it is obvious you have no chance at all of winning. Besides that, take a look at winners of past contests. You can easily see most of them were not "Top Animators" at the time they entered.
Even if you do not win you have an excellent opportunity to show your animation to the public, or in other words, your animation will receive more views if you enter the contest than if you made that same animation without entering. Why is that? Because you will have lots of people checking on the contest entries, and yours is going to be there!
Some times not only the winner receives a prize, but the second and/or third user that classifies will get something too. Or even you could gen a Special Mention without getting a real price. That would be great. Do you get what that means? The staff thinks you are good, so with a bit of luck your next animation could become a Staff Pick!
One advice on entering an Official Go!Animate Contest: The earliest you submit your entry, the better. Everything I said so far on this matter will not easily come true if you enter the contest when it is about to finish. Obviously, do not submit your animation until you are happy with the final result, but do not lose time... there is usually many competitors out there, and you need to be one step ahead of them!.
So, to make it brief: Publish an awsome animation and submit it early to the contest. Make a wise and effective promotion, and keep on being an active member of the Community. If you do so, even if you do not end up first in the contest, you will be in a win-win situation.
Step 5. Have fun and find your own tips!
If you follow the previous four steps you will experiment an increase in your views, but guess what? If you do everything with the only inention of getting more views, it will seem like an eternity before you reach your goals. It is like when you try to boil water in a saucepan: if you keep on staring at it, it never boils...
Making a great animation takes time an effort, and so it does to be an active member of the GoAnimate Community. If all you are looking for is a reward in views, trust me, it is just not worthy. But if while you are doing all these things you are enjoying your time, everything changes. Soon you will realize that every animation you make gets more views than the previous one. Maybe you will get a Staff Pick, or even get your animation in the main page of GoAnimate. If you manage that, you will get a boost in your views and in your popularity.
If you have fun you will soon realize that other users look up to you for advice. When that happens remember GoAnimate is not YouTube (every man for himself!), but a much friendly place. Share your knowledge, do not hesitate to give advice where you can. Even let them know about these "gipsy tips", or better still, make up your own "tips". Find out what works best with you, which advice where really helpful, and which are not so important, where should the efforts be stressed and what can be overlooked.... if you do so, please, don't forget to come back here and tell me everything about it!
Making a great animation takes time an effort, and so it does to be an active member of the GoAnimate Community. If all you are looking for is a reward in views, trust me, it is just not worthy. But if while you are doing all these things you are enjoying your time, everything changes. Soon you will realize that every animation you make gets more views than the previous one. Maybe you will get a Staff Pick, or even get your animation in the main page of GoAnimate. If you manage that, you will get a boost in your views and in your popularity.
If you have fun you will soon realize that other users look up to you for advice. When that happens remember GoAnimate is not YouTube (every man for himself!), but a much friendly place. Share your knowledge, do not hesitate to give advice where you can. Even let them know about these "gipsy tips", or better still, make up your own "tips". Find out what works best with you, which advice where really helpful, and which are not so important, where should the efforts be stressed and what can be overlooked.... if you do so, please, don't forget to come back here and tell me everything about it!