How to support your favorite artist, up front and honest (with how to do it for free)

You walk down the street without a care in the world. It's a good day. The sun is shining and birds are singing. You hear music coming from just around the corner and there he is. His hat is overturned on the pavement and his fingers work that guitar like he was born holding it. He plays to entertain the masses and will take anything you care to drop. Some drop change, others drop dollars. He even gets the occasional ham and cheese sandwich from the deli next door. He's a busker, singing and strumming for a dollar.

Ah but those days aren't so common now are they? Well, sure, there are still buskers and street performers in plenty of places. Some pay them and some mock them, but they still exist. I'm kind of like them. I apply my talent (what I have left) to your entertainment, I just do it online. And you get something you can print out right at home or order at your leisure through a website like Amazon. You see, there are new ways to be that busker guy with things like paypal and patreon. And why not?

Alas, I still get asked how a person can help out their favorite artist and these don't seem to be a common knowledge as they should be. The idea is this when it comes to today's starving artists like that fellow with the guitar: if you enjoy it... support it. There are several ways you can even better than on that street corner.

DO IT FOR FREE:

Every so often someone says to me: "Just imagine when you go viral!"  I want to say if everyone who said that, shared my work, I probably would. And that's the key, sharing is caring. No place allows for it better than right here on the internet. You have Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc and if you would share that work you enjoyed today, you would help take that one more step toward making it go viral. You increase visibility of the artist and get more people to stop and take a look. And if you want to do something only slightly more awesome...

COMMENT. Yeah, don't just lurk silently. Say something. Posting a comment also increases visibility and more than just sharing does (although both is freaking phenomenal). And it takes seconds to do either one! But let's say you want to be a big freaking help without spending money you don't have (hey I understand).

You want to contribute some serious golden effort? Grab the link to your artist's work page and post some of his work on your twitter or pinterest or instagram with that link attached. On pinterest, that's absolutely GOLD.

Okay, so now we talk about your options to support an artist for costs. Well, you can do it just like with the busker on the street if there is paypal involved. For example,

thewildeman2@yahoo.com

is my paypal email. Feel free to drop a dollar in my "hat" anytime. It helps me cover small costs and keep providing some content for free for everyone.

Love it enough to do more? PATREON. If your artist has one you can subscribe for as little as a dollar a month and score some niceties in thanks. You can cancel at anytime with no questions asked. That link is to my personal patreon of course. Or maybe you need something you can space out even more... well

Does your artist have an ETSY page? Books on AMAZON? Buy their products, and post REVIEWS.  Reviews are a big help that few people come back to post.

See. All sorts of ways to support an artist of nearly any kind. The more you support, the more that artist grows and expands their content. Through you, someone could be the next JK Rowling or Marvel Comics of the age. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Yes, all those links are for my works as I've been asked many times how to do all this. That's why I'm posting it all together right here for quick and easy reference. If you love it, support it. Just like you support any other favorite business in your town. Now you know.

Creators: Understanding your audience

It's not magic

Your audience is a collection of the people who follow your work, taking interest and ultimately buying your product. So how important is it to understand your audience? Well, if you don't have your own marketing team or money to dump into advertising, it's fairly important. If you aren't already considered some kind of guru or master of your craft, it's fairly important. Your audience is how you make a name for yourself. But how do you manage that?

Right now, you can break your audience reach into three forms; internet, local, and in person. Internet offers connections to far more people at great distances, but can be super difficult to navigate and gain the acceptance of those audiences. Anything in person is usually much simpler because you have the human connection that the internet lacks, but you are limited in access to people based on who is physically at whatever event you are part of.

Let's look at the internet audience. Everyone goes to the internet. You practically have the entire world at your fingertips. Or do you? You certainly have access to a great diversity of consumers. But there's a huge catch. Unless you are paying for advertising (and this session of my blog assumes you aren't) you can't just jump into some forum of people and say, "here's what I'm selling, everyone!". It won't work. That's because the one thing you have to understand about the internet audience is the universal bloody eyed hatred of spam. This hatred is so strong that it makes internet social marketing a veritable mine field.

This is even if you are talking to people of a group that is all about the product you have created. That's even if the forum you are taking part in, has clear rules that allow you to share your project in certain time intervals. It's not evil to be excited about your product. It's a great achievement for you. But this is the rule you need to follow.

Be a person first. People on the internet want to know that you are personally a human being they can take interest in. That means the want to have idle chat and basic entertaining post share. They are going to want to that for a significant amount of time as well. After all, how long does it take to get to know someone. They want to know that you aren't just a market bot on the net. No, just saying you aren't isn't going to work.  This is how you market yourself as a person. Just take part in the average discussions and present yourself as an interesting human being. Be yourself as much as you can.

Local audience is important too. This is audience you can go out and spend time with in person. Making local connections branches out into more local connections. But what's the secret? Be interested in other people. Learn about them and their projects. Be supportive of their projects. Often enough that will come back around to you. Be social and prepared to just shoot the breeze. Be personable. Remember that in many situations where you are approaching other people, the dynamics are the opposite of the last point I'm about to make.

The best way to find that "in person" audience is at events like conventions. The primary difference is that people are now coming to you to find out what your product is. It's a big part of the exact reason they are there. If this goes well, word of mouth will carry news about you. The more events you can go to for your book, game, etcetra, the better. This is practically the polar opposite of trying to market via social media outlets.

To sum up, remember that your audience is made of people. You need to understand what they want. They want you to appeal to their interests. Find the people who have the interests that match your product/project, and you will move forward (so long as you remember they are people first).

The SPAM trap: Getting your product known on social media

I don't play golf, but I sometimes find myself comparing my journey with my brand to hitting a ball out of a sand trap. But what I call the "SPAM" trap is much harder to miss. When you are trying to get your brand out to your prospective audience, you have to remember one thing:

EVERYONE HATES SPAM.

And everyone seems to have a hair trigger response to anything they think qualifies as spam. There was a discussion on the Boardgame Geek Facebook page recently that highlighted this very point. It began with this:

This led to a long drawn out and very messy conversation/debate from many angles. But then someone added this:

It rings true. There is such a fine line between being seen as spam and getting actual interest in your product that it's decayed and broken. It's like tightrope walking on a wire that's fiber thin. So what do you do? Well, you can look to the advice of those proven successful or simply look at what they do.

James Mathe (Minion Games) and Jamey Stegmaier (Stonemaier Games) are established pillars of the gaming community in multiple fashion. They each have blogs that will give you detailed examples and "how to"s that are considered the cornerstones of game manufacturing information today. But how did they do that? And what if you aren't going to be a blog writer gaming guru? 

I asked James Mathe and his group over at Tabletop Game Kickstarter Advice how you get word out without becoming a spammer. 

James Mathe said, "That's not an easy question to answer. You kind of have to be a spammer; but a nice one that doesn't go overboard."

But how to do that?

James Campbell of "I will never grow up gaming" said: "Contribute to the wider community for months before getting the word out. Don't push your product continuously. Provide helpful and informative commentary about things other than your product regularly."

And he's absolutely right. You have to give people a chance to get to know you as a person. Not as a designer or anything else. A person. After all, unless your brand skyrocketed and got word out everywhere at once, no one knows who you are. It's going to take time in talking to people and learning about their interests. That means that not all your posts should be about your product. The same rings true for books if you are an author. So what do you do? 

While it's hard to post to lots of groups and keep up, you should try to be involved as much as you can. But you should only post updates about your product once a week at maximum. All the rest should be interest in group discussions. Your product may become relevant to some discussions, but avoid making all discussions sideline to your game or book. Take interest in other peoples interests. If you don't have tons of advice to offer, then become the student rather than the teacher. Aim to learn new stories, games, and get to know people for who they are. 

Over time as people watch you online (and make no mistake, they will be watching) interest will grow. You will get approached with questions. When that happens, you are in a good position. Don't overdo it. Keep your response simple and give a link to where they can get a good look at your game ( if you aren't on Boardgame Geek, why not?). Or be able to give a nutshell run down on your game. Then leave it up to them to continue for more information. I like to give a link to my page on Boardgame Geek and remain approachable if they have questions. 

Never send unsolicited messages to people in social media about your game. If you see someone posting interest in a game like yours. Ask them on the public forum: Hey, I have a game that fits what you are asking for, would you like to know more about it? Then back off. 

Keep these realities in mind; even though you have an accomplishment you want to shout to the mountain tops.

-People hear about this guy or that guy has made a new game, every single day. Some people get sick of it. So bear that in mind. The better they know who you are, the more likely they may want to hear what you have to say.

-There is no holy grail of gaming. Don't pop in out of nowhere and claim that your game is the greatest ever made. It's one of the biggest red flags out there.

-Never bash another designer, especially when you're new. Just don't do it. Stick with what's good about your and your brand, not what's bad about someone else's.

-Patience is a virtue, no matter what aspect of your brand or reaching people you are thinking of. Rushing only looks desperate.

Do you have a tip you'd like to share? Feel free to post in comments. 

Where can you find Galaxy Zento?

The question is becoming more, "where can't you find Galaxy Zento"? Because it's spreading around.

First of all you can google it and find all sorts of links as Galaxy Zento has a decent little internet presence. Not huge, but a darn good start.

If you are on Facebook, you can see the publicly accessible fan page and we do need more people to hit the "like" button on it and show some love. Even so, we are super happy for everyone who has. Still, here is the link:

Galaxy Zento on Facebook

That's where I started posting but quickly realized that cross networking is the tool I need. To do that, I need to rub elbows with fellow artists so added DeviantArt.com to the networking list. Since there's been some happy followers on the artwork side of GZ, the artwork there is available to purchase on Postcards, mugs, posters, magnets, mousepads, and more (but not T-shirts, that's later below). So, all that art you've seen on the Facebook page? You can get it on what ever you want (that's available and fitting) on DeviantArt. Here's the link:

Galaxy Zento on DeviantArt.com

Well, someone said, T-shirts. So now some of the artwork is available on Cafe Press. Not all of it, so if you don't see what you want, you have to request it. Because Galaxy Zento will always support Autism Awareness and similar educational stances (like anti-bullying) there is a special section for awareness. One day, when I make enough to do more than just support me and GZ is real name for itself, there will be donations and more support. But you can get cards and jewelry to show your support and help educate others right there on site. Plus, I take requests! You have an idea? I'll draw it up and make it available there! Anyway, here is the link for the Cafe Press page:

Galaxy Zento at Cafe Press

Then of course you have right here on the good ol official Galaxy Zento blog. Here is where the upates are and showcase short stories. I would love to see more comments but the fact that people are reading is a very happy thing. I just hope people enjoy it. I thought about writing something here more of a series of shorts that tie together. I would love your feedback on that idea. If enough people like it, I may just do it!

Not content with just that, you can get to know the characters you see much better by checking out their profiles on the wiki! Yep, Galaxy Zento on Wikia shows profiles and soon much much more! It's a lot under construction but I do hope to get a lot more activity there soon. Anyway here is that link too:

Galaxy Zento at Wikia

And more than just the artwork, we have the bookwork. With my novels up for publishing grabs and being sent to agents, there is always hope for more to take off. I still have a lot to learn on all the sites and more art to do. I even have a request or two to bring the role playing game online somehow! Whoa.

Now, you can help GZ get around by passing on to your friends, sharing on Facebook, and linking. GZ certainly isn't ready to stop yet, we're just building up steam and momentum. There will be more to come and we hope you will be with us to enjoy it!