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Faster Better Cheaper: Traffic Funneling for Content Creator
10 years ago
'...I am about to leave X thanks to it...But I'll lose all my commissionnnnns!'
I've read this a lot -- and of course, I can see where it's absolutely a real concern!
I might suggest, If you would like to make a given site your primary, and Other Site is where you make your commission sales (it doesn't actually matter what site), it's likely to not go well if you simply pull the plug on Other Site, especially if you don't have an established base at the new location. It amounts to saying 'I'm open for commissions!' to an empty house, and then (understandably) declaring the effort a failure to everyone who follows, reinforcing the belief that it can't work.
Redirect, don't remove! When funneling your audience toward a new place, don't make the mistake of removing all the content from the old, leaving your audience to figure out what you've just done. Even if you're mad enough to leave a social media site Forever, an angry journal coupled with blanking your content won't make it easier for your audience to transition with you! Leave the old submissions (so existing audience can still see what you've done), create links to new commission and contact information, retain or add links to your profile to places you're active!
I might suggest deploying a 'faster (or) better (or) cheaper' incentive from one site over another, if you want to nudge traffic and ultimately your business to a new location - just as a storefront would.
Faster: Offer commissions on your preferred site some number of hours or days before you do on other sites, and advertise on all sites you do business on (and have an audience share) that this is what you intend to do, in advance! Then, when you get the inevitable 'But you filled up' on secondary sites, said person has noone to blame but themselves - unless, of course, they go to your primary and nab that spot first. If your slots fill up on the preferred before the others? You don't have to open on the other sites at all. Done.
Better: Offer more complete/more complex/on demand (like stream) commissions in one location. Perhaps 'full color' is only offered in one place, while you can get sketches in multiple. Again, advertise on all sites frequented that you intend to do so. The caveat for this one is that you have to go through the trouble of making the account on the new place to take a spot for UberNeatCommission.
Cheaper: Offer discounts on your work when that work comes in through your preferred mode. Just as before, advertise on any sites you have a presence on that this is what you're doing. Whether at its core this amounts to a higher price on other sites and keeping your prices 'the same' for your preferred, or offering a discount below that baseline on the preferred is technically immaterial; it again incentivizes coming in via the path you want.
These sorts of moves don't remove you from places you don't want to be overnight, but they do nudge your audience in that direction over time. In the end, that's the ideal, from a business standpoint, right?
Taken from another awesome person's page
I've read this a lot -- and of course, I can see where it's absolutely a real concern!
I might suggest, If you would like to make a given site your primary, and Other Site is where you make your commission sales (it doesn't actually matter what site), it's likely to not go well if you simply pull the plug on Other Site, especially if you don't have an established base at the new location. It amounts to saying 'I'm open for commissions!' to an empty house, and then (understandably) declaring the effort a failure to everyone who follows, reinforcing the belief that it can't work.
Redirect, don't remove! When funneling your audience toward a new place, don't make the mistake of removing all the content from the old, leaving your audience to figure out what you've just done. Even if you're mad enough to leave a social media site Forever, an angry journal coupled with blanking your content won't make it easier for your audience to transition with you! Leave the old submissions (so existing audience can still see what you've done), create links to new commission and contact information, retain or add links to your profile to places you're active!
I might suggest deploying a 'faster (or) better (or) cheaper' incentive from one site over another, if you want to nudge traffic and ultimately your business to a new location - just as a storefront would.
Faster: Offer commissions on your preferred site some number of hours or days before you do on other sites, and advertise on all sites you do business on (and have an audience share) that this is what you intend to do, in advance! Then, when you get the inevitable 'But you filled up' on secondary sites, said person has noone to blame but themselves - unless, of course, they go to your primary and nab that spot first. If your slots fill up on the preferred before the others? You don't have to open on the other sites at all. Done.
Better: Offer more complete/more complex/on demand (like stream) commissions in one location. Perhaps 'full color' is only offered in one place, while you can get sketches in multiple. Again, advertise on all sites frequented that you intend to do so. The caveat for this one is that you have to go through the trouble of making the account on the new place to take a spot for UberNeatCommission.
Cheaper: Offer discounts on your work when that work comes in through your preferred mode. Just as before, advertise on any sites you have a presence on that this is what you're doing. Whether at its core this amounts to a higher price on other sites and keeping your prices 'the same' for your preferred, or offering a discount below that baseline on the preferred is technically immaterial; it again incentivizes coming in via the path you want.
These sorts of moves don't remove you from places you don't want to be overnight, but they do nudge your audience in that direction over time. In the end, that's the ideal, from a business standpoint, right?
Taken from another awesome person's page
> Redirect, don't remove!
One artist did that on my watch list (I can't even remember their name since it was a while back), they'd post the full thumbnail and then the full picture was a thing telling me about other site for their new submissions. I simply unwatched them on FA because it was more annoying to have spam in my watch list. I did add them to my other site's watch list, but I haven't been there in six months now I think.
> These sorts of moves don't remove you from places you don't want to be overnight, but they do nudge your audience in that direction over time.
And some paying audiences such as myself add people to watch lists on other sites as requested, with the full intent to commission them, unwatch them from FA because the 'redirect' stuff is annoying, then just stop seeing their works entirely because suddenly it's been months since I've even been on other art site (no real reason at all behind it). In turn, this can also lead to a reduction of viewers.
I'm guessing you were a part of the 90% for those artists.