I noticed that too. It has to do with the traffic on the site.

It seems ultimately silly, though. Does this mean I'm drawing satisfactory pictures for SUCH a small audience? If every picture on a similar topic has the same amount of faves at the end of a month or two, it's understandable, but that's never the case. :O

it does... I find i get more attention to picts in the afternoon - 5pm expecially with journals too

Uploading at night and/or on weekends has become something I'm intending to do more. :O

The middle of the night tends to attract less traffic, but it also tends to attract the sort of traffic I like >_>

My submissions get more views as soon as I upload them when they're still on the front page rather than afterwards.

Totally makes sense. Though, I'm not sure how many front-pagers are looking for what I draw specifically.. unless it'd be plain, generally-appealing porn :O

That's my assessment as well, based on my limited observations and flawed reasoning. I'd divide the attention into three basic categories:

Views from watchers: They're watching you because they have some level of interest in your art and will provide a steady base of views.

Spontaneous views: These are probably the biggest wild card, as they'd come from people catching the thumbnail on the front page/recent submissions section and following the link based on knowing your name or being intrigued by the thumbnail/title. This can be affected, as noted, by the time of posting. At some times of the day, there's more traffic with new submissions to send yours further back. At others, there are fewer people looking for random art from the front page, and so it has more time to get buried.

Referrals: These are from people noticing and following the links in other people's faves list. These are somewhat random, but they'll be driven by people who've liked a piece enough to fave it, which comes down to the art's appeal. You'd also get some from people who're chatting and tell a friend to check out the submission.

I, as the only example I can reliably provide, try to check out the pages of people who watch/fave the stuff I've posted. I'll browse their submissions and favorites to see what they also have done and have liked. I often find new artists to watch in this way. I've also been known to go to the page of an artist I'm watching and see what they've faved recently. I, conversely, don't favorite individual pieces of art much at all. I almost never check out the front page submissions either, as I have enough from watched artists and following up new interest.

Anyhoo... more ramblings from the wordy tiger.

No, all these 'ramblings' are good points.
I think the biggest contribution to views has to be referrals, especially active ones. So the problem is, "Are people able to share your work everywhere and to a large audience? ANd does your work merit such a share?"

I suppose ultimately no, for me-- I rarely draw anything that isn't a niche lately.

Thanks for the post. I'm used to mostly watchers composing all my views/favorites, so i'm surprised tha tso few showed upa t the recent inflation pic :O

Aye, it does make sense. I uploaded a week of drawings that I made when FA was down, and they all got ignored amongst the flood of other people doing the same. ^^() I think they may have been missed. But yar, certain times of the day definitely means more attention.

I also find I get a small influx of views and comments on something, then a week or two later I get another one.

I wonder if those influxes you see happen on the weekends? Hm...

Yeah. I know what you mean about that influx and being paid attention to. I think waiting a few days helped me out, but not magnanimously. D:

Heh, I should have waited as well. :3 But yes, I do definitely see more activity from Friday night to sometime on Sunday.

Gel submitted an average looking(in her opinion) badge into her scraps, at 1:30am, and it have like 9 favorites in like 15mins :o

And I submitted that recent picture before noon EDT.
I'm glad, though. Gel deserves more attention <:3

It's a sad revelation. I mean, you think the big artists ever look at a number that's only ONE thousand faves and sigh that they didn't hit 1.5 thousand faves? And then it's a startling realization because they know it's due to when they uploaded the image? Hm..

:0
This is news to me! my mind is blown!

So now submit your pictures before you go to bed-- that's just about at the perfect time! ;D

I've known this for a while now. 9pm-11pm (cst) is prime time for adult works.
Hide the actual picture behind a good thumbnail also increases views. Specially if the image is small/zoomed out.

THe good thumbnail advice may actually be what I'll try next.
Thanks, Minnie.

Anything to catch the eye of the people on the front page. Honestly, if you've got watchers, they're likely to click on your stuff, if they like it, no matter what the thumbnail is... good thumb-nails draw attention, though.

Early morning hours suck. I mean, hours when its still dark. Hours when I like to be up --.--

What sucks about those hours? That you'd have to work during those times? OR that it means you'd have to submit ALL your art then?

They suck because when I uploaded stuff then, it wasn't seen. And that's been my experience 'bout every time I've uploaded then. So don't upload important stuff at like, 3-6 in the morning. Probably not within and hour or two before or after that. Most folks are probably asleep.

ok D:

If others are as backlogged as I am (3221S and climbing), then you'll probably see some hits later on in the month for the pic. :)

Are you saying you have a life outside of FA?! I'm offended! ;P

I gave up on predicting watcher interest in anything
it can be disappointing at times (attention on crap, no attention on boners, random ahigh ttention on boners, low attention on fully coloured works etc.) so all in all I dun get it.

If Google were here, google'd understand.
*happy sigh* Ah, Google.

BRB, writing crossover fanfiction between FA and Google~ <#

Google: BUT FA, I cannot have you! Why you keep me away with robots.txt???

An unrequited love ;_;

Sorry! :( I got so many pictures to look through I've resorted to getting rid of half of them to clear out my message space! I likes your arts!

Definitely a correlation between posting time and views. As most people are browsing from early afternoon till late night, those would be the most active times to post and get seen. Though you are also competing with everyone else doing the same. I tried being more aware of when I posted, but ended up not really caring and just going with when was convenient for me. My stuff seems to average out based on the type: general furry gets few views and favs, inflation and tf get medium to a lot of views and favs.