I don't really know. The "furry scene" has somewhat fragmented with the events of the past 5 or so years. The IMVU buyout (and IP theft by their marketplace)...the mod who shall not be named...rules changes...all seemed to chip away at the former userbase and send it scattering. Now they're on TwiXtter, Discord and Telegram, various smaller sites that came and went, and trying new ones while fleeing old ones. Like DA...then slowly coming back as they either forget about or accept that they're pushing AI "art" and allowing it to he trained on the art before implementing the default "do not use my uploads for AI training." TwiXtter is leaning that way as well, as I believe ArtStation does as well. FA does not, thankfully. Nor does Itaku.ee . Weasyl...has not announced their position, but still functions well. I don't know about SoFurry. FurryNetwork is apparently on life support. Buzzly had a scandal. I guess there's still Pillowfort? I know I'm still missing a few. I think amiino app had issues, but don't quote me.

Aside from making and monitoring several accounts and using Postybirb for updating each of them, I guess there's commission sites like (I don't know the exact links) YCH and Commissions .com? I think there's an auction one as well.

You could consider buying ads on here, but I have heard it takes a while to hear back on inquiries. I believe you email the site or contact support. (I think it's the email link on Dragoneer 's page.) I think Itaku.ee tried ads but only one person advertised. However, it is fairly active, and has tag blocking.

If art is your main income, I unfortunately think you may have to branch out into non-furry spaces.

I apologize for not commenting or looking as much as in the past, myself. I believe, like many, offline life and difficulties have cut into time and "having enough spoons"/mental energy to go through a lot of submissions.

FA does have FA+, which is supposed to somehow give artists a slight boost in visibility, but I believe it's very small. It also offers other things, but I don't use it so cannot tell you what. But if FA is your main hub, it may be worth a look on the site info page for it.

I'd say pick 5 sites you feel you can manage checking regularly, and focus on them for updates possibly doing specials on the ych or commissions sites. I don't know if I'd suggest Patreon, but if you stay sfw you should be okay. I don't know what sort of cut they take, however.

thanks for commenting and sorry it took me a bit before I replied, I have been a little busy as of late.

I have thought about getting an ad again, I did it once a few years ago. funny thing, from getting that ad it saved me from losing my account mysticthefox. A couple of years ago when FA was under attack and we all got auto signed out and had to change our passwords. I hadn't realized that the email address I had originally used for my account on mysticthefox. So I couldn't get the verification code to prove it was me. Luckily I had bought an ad prior a few months back, but I had used my current active email for that. So I was able to contact customer support and prove I owned the account all because of that ad lol.

Also there is no need to apologize, I don't expect anyone to look at all my stuff and be active on anything I post. I always just hope to have a little interaction. In all honesty, I was just having a bit of a downer day and was getting a little depressed. I have several ideas I plan on trying to help with my audience, which includes my own species I have been working on for years now. Hopefully I can release that soon, along with some YCH ideas, fanart, gift art, and maybe a few raffles for some free art.

But thank you all the same for commenting on this journal of mine, I do appreciate it.

***I hadn't realized that the email address I had originally used for my account on mysticthefox was hacked and I loss access to it***

No worries. Happens to everyone. :)

It's a good thing you had that ad! Did you ever get the original email back?

Do you mean the species I got one of from you way back when?

You're very welcome! Also, Weasyl is working on their stance on AI and updating their rules. It currently falls under tracing and plagiarism, and character generators, so isn't allowed. (I asked.)

In seeing Klaora's comment (*waves hello*), I don't believe Weasyl or Itaku.ee use an algorithm, either. Weasyl does have a "most popular" section of the feed, but also a regular one. Itaku is linear and a scrolling feed. I believe it shows up to three days worth. But any of the social media sites people post art on, yeah, there's definitely algorithms, and art gets lost without a gallery system, so finding it is harder.

Thanks for the info!
As for the species, I actually completely forgot about them. Well I guess you could say they are sort of getting a complete overhaul to the point they are not the same species anymore. Basically they were part of my inspiration for my new species. I should bring them back though and put them in the world I am creating for my species :)

You're very welcome!

Always good to repurpose a species you have. Keeps your IP current, so to speak.

Honestly, I feel like it's been a lot harder to grow an audience lately. Most of my income from art nowadays comes from doing conventions, but it's not something that I recommend doing for the vast majority of folks. It requires so much upfront capital and the ability to travel-with absolutely ZERO guarantee that you'll make your money back, much less a profit. I just happened to luck out and live roughly equidistant to three of the largest furry cons in the world. Even with all that, I still make less than 5 figures a year.

While it hasn't helped me to grow much of an audience, selling on Etsy has been a great source of supplemental income. There are more fees involved than taking commissions from PayPal and a 20 cent charge for each listing you post. Expect to get about 90% of the money on bigger sales and about 80% on sales in the 5-10 dollar range, so keep that in mind when you're pricing things.
However, Etsy brings customers to you. Worst case, you're out a dollar or two on listing fees if it doesn't work out, so I tell folks that there's no reason not to give it a try. (I don't have much money ATM, but lemme know if you list something in the $5-10 range and I'll give you your first sale and a review. That alone should give you a pretty good head start in visibility!)

As far as a lack of visibility and post engagement, that's not just you! Social media algorithms SUCK and I need to do more research on how they work. I'm sure there are guides to help with that and I should definitely read them lol.
I feel like engagement on FA would vastly improve if YCH and sales posts had their own section, but that's neither here nor there.

I think that the biggest difference are people's habits with how they engage online. The Internet is less something that people use in their free time and more of an obligation for a lot of folks. With more "content" than ever before, it doesn't make a good environment for *art.*

Anyway.... The community is fractured among a dozen different social websites and apps, FA is still the only website to not use algorithms so everyone's in equal footing, the Internet is exhausting, and now we have to be media managers in addition to artists.

I'm so tired.

Best of luck to you! I'll let you know when I learn some tips on how the algorithms work on other sites!

thanks for commenting and sorry it took me a bit before I replied, I have been a little busy as of late. I definitely have to try my hands at etsy like you have suggested. I do have an account made on there. now I just need to figure it all out. But thank you for the encouragement and I will definitely let you know if I put anything up in the $5-$10 range!

No worries whatsoever! Not only do I understand being busy/online burnout, but folks don't even owe me a reply lol.

Best of luck getting started! They've definitely streamlined some of the more tedious parts of making listings over the last couple of years. And the furry part seems to be spared from dropshippers and AI, at least for now.

*waves hi* Hey there! Two other art sites also don't use algorithms. Itaku.ee (which seems to be a promising new site that needs more eyeballs) and Weasyl. (Weasyl has a "most popular" section under the normal gallery feed. Itaku has a scrolling feed I believe goes back up to 3 days, in a linear fashion.) I agree with you about the social media sites, though. Art vanishes into the algorithm void and is difficult to find. There's definitely a lot of fractures people followed to diversify, and that hurt art hubs like FA and DA. Some for...reasons. Some because people chase the shiny and new sites. Some last, some don't, and some continue on life support.

Sorry to piggyback on your comment.

That's a really good point! I often forget about the other gallery websites because of the sheer amount of effort it would take to upload even just the last couple years of art-only for most folks to come back here after a while.
(I do hear that SheezyArt is making a comeback and I MIGHT have to join if only for the nostalgia haha)

No worries on piggybacking! It's a great reminder that Weasyl still exists. I'll definitely check out Itaku as well! I'd never heard of it!

I haven't used Postybirb, but hear it works well with most gallery sites. It can be set to do automated uploads if you leave your computer on, I believe. I believe a certain someone has a Weasyl that hasn't updated in some years. I do understand that most gravitate back here. If nothing else, it's nice to have as a backup for art or communication.

Isn't this Sheezyart's third or fourth restart? I thought it just had one a year or so ago...

Itaku lets you block tags and blacklist artists who make stuff you dislike, without blocking them, so you can still communicate. Haven't discovered a way to delete DMs, though, so business communication might be best offsite.

I've used Postybirb a couple of times back when I was trying to do multiple gallery sites. It's really convenient, but I also like writing each description/message from scratch- it feels a bit more personal. :) Darn my ultimately meaningless ideals!

Oh wow, did they? I remember using SheezyArt back in '06 or so but it's the first time I've heard of a reboot. It's quite possible though since I've been "out of the loop" online for the past couple of years lol!

Man, it's CRAZY that FA doesn't have a better tagging/tag blocking system! Itaku sounds like it has a great system! I'll be taking a look momentarily! :D

You could possibly go back and edit manually at a convenient time for you. Let Postybirb do the bulk, and you do the human touch?

Yeah. I think it's shut down and restarted at least twice since the original one ended. It hits online news sometimes. I'm not sure of the number. Wikipedia might know.

FA has code in the backend that never had that functionality back in 2005, and apparently it can't be easily changed to do new things, lest the spaghetti get even more tangled, unravel, or just not work. There's been proposals to change it for a decade or more, but none have come to fruition, save the current new UI. In ways, it is amazing how FA still has the classic skin for old fogeys like me who prefer it, and how the old code is essentially very reliable and tough. FA doesn't have extreme lag like DA's Eclipse, which broke a lot of userpages and still doesn't work intuitively or play well with mobile devices. (I literally cannot find a way to edit a profile there.) Them being gung-ho for AI "art" also drove a ton of people away. (They first had everyone opted in to letting AI scrape their work, and you had to toggle it off in a hidden menu, before outcry made them change it. The deceased couldn't toggle it off. But this was after they'd already let it be scraped, and pushed their own AI stuff.)

That's actually a really good idea! I might try that out when I find the time to play around with it!

I looked it up and, yeah, it looks like this is the second time that SheezyArt is reviving. It looks like the site grew too quickly last time and it was difficult to maintain as a result. But hey, third time's the charm!
Or three strikes you're out lol

Honestly, I feel for FA's developers! I do LOVE the old aesthetic and design, but some modern QOL updates would be nice-and we've had a few here and there.
I would say that I'm surprised about DA's stance on AI art, but I'm truly not.
On the other hand, PLEASE scrape the art of the entire Internet posted back when we were all collectively thirteen years old. It would poison the data set in the most hilarious of ways lmao

Yaay! I helpeded! ^u^ OpO

I guess it depends on the users and administration this go round.

It was once said the old classic UI won't be updated further. Honestly, I tried browsing a bit not logged in with a different browser, and...I really, really don't like the new UI, where things are in profile, and some wording. But I'm set in my ways.

DA has done stuff against the community's wishes and interests for some time. I can see banning some stuff due to changes in the world, but artists as a whole do not want AI art training on their stuff. It already plagiarizes Wikipedia almost verbatim. The AI companies are lobbying to get the ability to copyright AI created things. That's going to cause problems for artists.

Yes...all the crayon refrigerator drawings...except yours on here, of course! I should get one someday if ever I'm financially sound...

Did you check out Eat Taco? (Itaku)? You can browse it without an account. One flaw I found is DMs can't be deleted yet for whatever reason, lol. XD