Five basic tips to get your Art some Attention, Appreciation & Audience on deviantART

Here's some tips that may not get you a consistent spot on the front page right away, but that will definitely help getting some watchers and friends, whether you already have some, or not.

First, let me make clear that this is only about 'good' attention – if you just want, say, a certain pageview count, there are probably better ways. This article is for those who would like some people to take them serious as an artist and to actively watch them.
Also note that you needn't follow all of the tips below, but it's recommendable to follow at least 3 of them. Just one or two will not usually get you very far.

So here we go!

1. Submit art regularly.
   Try to find a balance between quality and quantity. Personally I think it's best to submit one or a couple of deviations a week, but only if you have something to upload that you like and find worthy (otherwise keep it to scraps). Try to keep the flow fairly consistent (rather than submitting all at once and then nothing for a month).
2. Improve.
   Your art will interest people a lot more when your work gets better! If you struggle with this, there are a lot of tutorials and other articles that can help you with this; some of those you can find in my recent article here: news.deviantart.com/article/15… .
3. Present yourself professionally
   Who will take you seriously if you don't? Luckily it's quite easy to show that you do. The first step would be to go to your own page and see what it looks like – are there any empty or unused widgets? Simply remove them, or make use of them! Perhaps look into the other widgets you can add as well; add them and use them, or don't add them at all.
   Getting an icon, and a lit author tag (if you have any literature), helps too. You can set them in your settings; you can find many free-to-use icons on Free-dAvatars for example.
   Of course, if you want to be taken seriously, you'll also have to present yourself in a mature way when interacting with other people; using acceptable grammar, spelling, and of course manners is recommendable if not necessary.
   And don't forget to reply to the comments you get (and perhaps to thank people for faving or watching too). People are a lot more likely to remember you and do it again, and others that see it are more likely to comment etc. too.
4. Go to the Forum
   The forum is one nice place where you can meet people. Though not everything in there is always to be taken seriously Good forums to meet friends or fans are:
   
   • The Welcome Center is recommended for new deviants to post or those who hardly know anyone. Best is to both comment on other threads, and create your own.
   • The Thumbshare forum (and for premium members, Premium Thumbshare) has many threads where you can share your thumbs for all sorts of occasions – for example to be watched, critiqued or featured.
5. Perhaps the most important of all: browse art and comment on it. If you give useful comments, people are likely to appreciate it, and to be interested in you as well.
   A couple of places to do so are:
   
   
   • The front page (www), which I recommend you set to newest. The popular deviations usually get too many comments already for your comment to be noticed. (Be aware though that all types of art from all categories may come up - using mature content filter is recommended.)
   • :devgroups: are great for browsing art as well as submitting your own. Make sure you keep a healthy balance between the two. Submitting to groups without participating in them in any other way will quickly get you a negative reputation.
   • You could even bookmark certain searches to see newest art but exclude certain keywords and categories, or limit it to only your favourite categories. FAQ #577: How do I use the Search?

Disagree on anything? Feel free to explain in a comment. It's all just based on my own experience and opinion and yours is of course just as valuable

Good luck, and stay devious