I recently heard that part of the problem why art posts don’t get much traction is because if you include links on posts on Tumblr that they disappear from search, so I decided to do an experiment to see if it was true.
I took one of my art posts from a few months ago and reposted it with the exact same tags as the first time. The only change (other than caption) was this time I posted it without my links to see if it would get more notes, and well, the results speak for themselves.
The screenshot on the left is the original post of my Loki portrait, where I obviously included links to my DeviantArt and Patreon. I posted it 4 months ago and it only was able to gather 3 notes.
The screenshot on the right is where I reposted my same art, with the same tags, only this time without my links. In just 19 hours it was able to gather 108 notes.
Conclusion? This theory is true af.
This is why it’s so important to support your favorite artists by reblogging!
If we want our work to get attention through tags we are forced to forgo our credit links, which isn’t fair and hurts us. If we (understandably) want to include our credit links to our other sites, then our posts don’t get seen because not only do they disappear from search, but also because most people only hit the like button on art posts, but don’t reblog.
If you don’t reblog your favorite artist’s work, then they suffer. Whether an artist’s work gets seen or not can literally affect their income, and artists have medical bills, rent, and need to eat just like everyone else. If their work doesn’t get seen then they can’t get commissions or other jobs because no one knows their work exists.
We aren’t “guilt tripping” or “forcing” you to reblog posts you don’t like. This is literally only the facts laid out in front of you of how tumblr is treating our posts, and we are practically begging you to listen to us instead of calling us “selfish” or “greedy” when we inform you that reblogs help us more than likes.
We only ask that if you like someone’s art enough to hit the like button, then please consider reblogging it too so your followers can see it and help spread it around further, because while likes are appreciated, the fact is posts just don’t spread through likes on tumblr.
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