FA+
Shop
Thinking about rebranding eventually maybe
7 years ago
I've been known as '9aia' for basically 7 years.
Many times though, even despite me displaying my name as Angie, I still get called '9' or 'aia'. Is it really that hard to tell that the 9 is a g, and my username is 'gaia'? I guess so, I can't blame them. Even with 1337speak was popular, i never saw the g being switched. I don't know.
I've been hovering over other username ideas, something where i can remain consistent over various art platforms and such. 9aia is hard to do since many new places want more than 4 characters or don't allow numbers at the start of the username.
But..
I've worked hard to build especially this FA account to where it is. I feel blessed that I even get semi-regular commissions, even new customers every so often. To build that up again from scratch would be difficult, especially with new rules FA had placed since I first made my account (the free art raffle rule in particular, which helped me a lot in my early years, unless things have changed since then.)
But, I made a new years resolution to take my art more seriously and more professionally. Being consistently known throughout various platforms seems like an obvious thing, right?
It seems so trivial though, doesn't it? Wanting to change just because I don't want to be called 'Nine-Aia'.
Many times though, even despite me displaying my name as Angie, I still get called '9' or 'aia'. Is it really that hard to tell that the 9 is a g, and my username is 'gaia'? I guess so, I can't blame them. Even with 1337speak was popular, i never saw the g being switched. I don't know.
I've been hovering over other username ideas, something where i can remain consistent over various art platforms and such. 9aia is hard to do since many new places want more than 4 characters or don't allow numbers at the start of the username.
But..
I've worked hard to build especially this FA account to where it is. I feel blessed that I even get semi-regular commissions, even new customers every so often. To build that up again from scratch would be difficult, especially with new rules FA had placed since I first made my account (the free art raffle rule in particular, which helped me a lot in my early years, unless things have changed since then.)
But, I made a new years resolution to take my art more seriously and more professionally. Being consistently known throughout various platforms seems like an obvious thing, right?
It seems so trivial though, doesn't it? Wanting to change just because I don't want to be called 'Nine-Aia'.
But yeah, I wanted to change my name, I HATE that people constantly mock mine, or do like tktktktktktktktk. It's super annoying and I tend to instantly hate people who do that, or make up stuff it stands for because its my LITERAL NAME, I was just too dumb to realize FA didnt have that 6 character rule for usernames, so I could have gone with tk. DX
You could always just avoid using your username, like I do, and use Theo moreso now. I splattered my name everything as Theo so most people just use that unless crediting me for art now.
Yeah, I remembered when you changed your username. You built yourself up quickly and have always been pretty consistent with how you work and handle business.
That's a fair thought, too. I present myself most times as Angie since it is my name (or nickname at least). Someone commented her made a good point too, a consistent signature, which I would like to start doing soon. Like, art theft. Have you heard of that yiff site or whatever that steals exclusive patreon content? I know despite whatever we do, our art will get reuploaded but i figure if I had a signature that wasn't easily eraseable it could mitigate that at least a little.
Thanks for your input regardless. I super respect your work ethic!
But yeah, if you sign as Angie, and use it everywhere except as the actual username people should catch on. I regained watchers solely from the watch me raffles which are banned now. /:
Thanks so much for your input
I've seen many do that too. I guess my worry is that 99% of my art is commissions. Some fanart or OCs would be nice here and there but I don't really have OCs (apart from devet my mascot) and I don't feel super passionate about something to make much fanart for it;; if that makes sense.
I waited years for FA to let me change the name of my account and it's just not going to happen, but I didn't have as many watchers as you.
My advice is not to make a new account here, as getting 4k+ people to re-watch you is too much of a risk.
Also hi, I logged into my old account (SexualPancake) and saw you're still active xD
Do you still have the plushie I made for you? :)
Yeahhh, with FA's archaic design, username changes don't seem viable anytime soon at all. I wonder if more popular artists ever regret not having that function but they have a name like lilpinkkitteh1990 or something like that;; Not naming names of course but I feel like many artists who might have made their account when they were 13, now 20, maybe wouldn't want to be known as lilpinkkitteh1990, you know?
Now with 27 years old and making plushies it a terrible name xD
I didn't have that many followers so eventually I went for the account change but I feel I had more active people before.
I dunno, but it was embarrassing to post my FA link around x(
Having a consistent username is pretty important. That way someone can find you easier on all sorts of places.
I changed my DA username for that reason because people from DA knew me as Y but everyone else on
other sites knew me as X. Super needed the consistency. Plus a consistent signature for my work.
I think DA lets you change your username? Its been so long, I haven't been there in years. I just know that when people commission others with Points, its like a fraction of what you can make here. Plus with the conversion rates, its just too messy. Then again, DA would have a -much- broader audience for that anime baseline too. Tumblr is the same, and I've considered branching out to Twitter somehow and maybe Instagram.
I do agree with that consistent signature >< Making one that is seen, not intrusive, but isn't easily erasable is difficult;;
too lazy to click the 8 button. Oh but, yeahhh hearing that would put me down pretty hard, too.
Ouch.
You need a Core Membership in order to change your username on DA. I had to save up just to
be able to change my name. I don't particularly enjoy the DA community at all, but one of my arts
became a spanish meme and a load of people watched me on there so... I guess I post there because of that.
I wouldn't really say I have a broader community on DA than I do on FA. I actually find more "unique" people on FA.
Smaller DA community actually. Only people interested in pokemon watch me over there.
I can't figure out how to get tumblr to work. It''s like 90% of my art is a complete miss, and the other 10% get a like
every so often. It is a mystery. Tumblr's a bit hard to communicate on, too.
Twitter is probably going to be the best out of all the other sites you listed. It seems to be that decent in between
of being a social media and being able to post your content. Has a decent means of communication, sharing art for
friends to see is a big thing there, and there's a like button, too. XD I need to figure to use it a tad more.
Figuring a Sig that's not intrusive is SO HARD. I have basically just started writing "Uluri" somewhere along the line art,
and for pieces with backgrounds I hide my signature, plus add a small watermark stamp off to the right or left bottom corner.
Ahaa I see. I've noticed places like DA and Tumblr.. the audience is often very young, like less than 18. They are easy gateways into the art/blogging world, and I've found that people on those sites are very stingy.. but that is probably because they are often young. 5 dollars was a lot of money to 13 year old me. Now? Not so much.
FA, on the other hand, is already a niche website. And there are further niches within it. Cartoony, MLP, Kemono, etc. So its easier to find more unique people, as well as fairly mature people who are more grown into what they enjoy and consume.
Tumblr's mostly odd. The site changes very little things and often doesn't announce what they've changed. You can use many tags but I've heard only the first 5 tags actually show up on those tags. And generally you'll do better if you make content on whats popular. Like new anime, the latest stephen universe episode, etc etc. I imagine if you drew Homestuck or Sherlock or.. Hetalia these days, you'll likely get a younger audience who just discovered those things. Because the majority of people have already moved on, matured, to more niche things.
Twitter is also little odd too. A good thing lately is they increased the character limit, which can make tagging things easier. I wish tags weren't included in the character limit, but then I can see it being exploited for even longer posts. Twitter's a lot like tumblr, its best to draw the new popular thing. Like, a new pokemon, draw it, tag it, you're bound to get a lot of RTs and Likes. But, apparently its operating at a loss.. so I don't know how well it will be in the future.
And yeah, its tricky. Even a sign on low opacity, it feels so intrusive. Even if you gave the commissioner a watermark free version, there is nothing really stopping them from reuploading and letting others have access to that version. Then again, its not something you can really help once its out of your hands. It just had me concerned once i heard about this yiff site that takes patreon-exlusive content and reuploads it for free, and people justifying it saying 'well its on the internet, what did you think would happen?'. Its so exasperating. We're artists so we deserve to be starving?? Its so asinine. Even when we take measures to prevent it, people still can't even respect it.
and no, it doesn't seem trivial. your username is kinda your first impression on other people, yeah? you want it to be a good one. it can be frustrating on sites like FA that don't let you change them though... >:[
Yeah, FA probably won't impliment that anytime soon though it seems sorely needed. The pros far outweigh the probable cons to me (updated a username you made when you were 13 and now you're 20, as opposed to people worried about trolls. IP ban??) but with FA as it is.. xD Alas.
Yes, it is. And that's from someone who was online around the peak of 13375p34k popularity. I just haven't seen 9 used very much for some reason. Also, I always subconsciously considered your name to be 9-ai, but that's probably because I never really paid it much attention.
But.. geez, 9-ai or 9-aia doesn't roll off the tongue well. I'm more convinced now to consider switching.
Many sites don't allow numbers in the front of usernames, and/or they don't allow a 4 character username.
As for the leetspeak.. it made sense to me at the time, just to keep it short and what I hoped at the time would be a recognizable username.
It didn't end up panning that way. For mostly the first two reasons, it was hard to keep things consistent which I feel is important in professionalism in art.
..I'd definitely try to push Twitter more, perhaps Tumblr, and maybe Instagram. Since free art for watchers raffles are banned, I'd probably even take out an advert on here for that extra push. I've done it before, and have had good success with it.
I certainly don't expect all 4k+ of my watchers to come back but those who really like my art and repeat customers would surely follow.
Following others and even drawing gift art here and there isn't a bad idea either! They'll likely retweet/reblog!
Thanks for the input!
Ahaa, I love short usernames too, but alas. ;w; I did forget about the period bit. Many other sites don't have them though, so I'd likely end up with the same problem when it comes to other platforms!
Thanks though! <3