Dont Pay for Textbooks Again Imgur

That is a movie of my post on the front folio of Imgur.

That is another picture of some other post

At present you lot run into this?

Most 150,000 views, hundreds of comments, all looking at me and my game. And all-time yet I didn't have to spend anything to "boost my post" or convince some features editor to write most it, or pay an influencer. It was just me uploading some pictures and writing a niggling chip nearly my game.

This post explains how to do this.

Organic traffic is difficult to come by these days. Algorithmic based feeds and paid advertisement on Facebook and Twitter has made organic traffic most incommunicable now. There are very few places left where a not-curated feed is however possible. imgur is one of those. For now... A few months agone I learned this strategy from a secret Google document that was being passed around by a couple superlative-tier games marketing people in private forums. This strategy was invented by Adrian Kaiser  and his skilful marketing team. It has worked for me at least 3 times earning me over 374,000 total views. I idea I would pay it forward and share it with the greater indie game customs. I asked Adrian and thankfully he said it was ok to share this. So every bit a big thanks delight follow him on Twitter and his associate who co-developed this strategy and wishlist his game (information technology comes out Oct 17th) as a large thank you lot So here goes...

The realities of imgur

Before I blow your listen with this strategy permit me bring some reality here first. imgur is a top of the funnel marketing tactic. The all-time you can do is get people who don't know you exist into people who are merely aware of your game. You are not going to sell ane,000,000 copies even If y'all stay on the forepart page of imgur for a week. imgur is only in one case piece in your overall marketing strategy. (If this doesn't brand sense or you have never heard of the marketing funnel, please read this article I wrote all near the funnel.) Agreement the funnel is the core to agreement how to do marketing.

imgur can but go someone from "Unaware" to interested. You need to figure out another marketing platform that will move them from interested downwards to really buying your game. My option is an email lists because it works the all-time, merely other options are Steam wishlisting, Joining a Discord, following you lot on social media.

imgur is terrible for making people autumn in love with yous. For instance imgur has a way to follow other imgurians just nobody actually uses it. (In fact you tin but follow someone from the mobile device). You can't upload a custom profile film - you have to pick from a couple dozen pre-made icons. If someone likes your post you have no style to contact them over again when your game is on sale. This all contributes to the fact that imgur is like the Groundhog Mean solar day of social media. Every twenty-four hours is like starting out with 0 following and nobody will remember yous exist a twenty-four hours subsequently.

As well, despite this strategy working for me whatever many others, I have had a lot of posts go nowhere.  It all the same comes downwards to luck. There are a hundred piddling factors that could hateful your post doesn't get viral. I volition hash out what to do if it doesn't piece of work. Just go along in listen this strategy is not a guarantee.

With that pre-amble over, let's look at how to get your game to exist on the front folio of imgur.

Decide your mail'due south hook

The fox to a viral imgur mail is to hit the right tone and discipline thing for the imgur audience. You can't just post a random game screenshot with the championship of your game and expect it to go viral.

Here are some examples of hooks that piece of work on imgur:
Wish fulfillment
Doing something totally counter to societal norms
Incredible persistence
But pretty
Unexpected Issue

Your title screenshot and sometimes description take to piece of work together to tell the story of why you are posting this to a behemothic customs. You should come off every bit just a regular Joe or Jane who is trying your best against all odds. There should be a bit of wish fulfillment every bit if you are doing something that the audition wishes they could accomplish simply you are the one trying and maybe maybe able to pull it off (side notation y'all don't take to actually pull it off merely the endeavour is appreciated).

For instance the "I quit my chore" posts are almost a cliche now but information technology was my best performing post because nigh everyone reading it really wants to quit their job and hither yous are actually doing it. They are thinking "That could be me!"

When trying to come upward with the hook for your imgur post, think back on your own history. Making a game is so hard to do and you are much farther than the average human being. Then don't exist humble. Just by making some form of game you are extraordinary and worth posting something What have you overcome or done that most people accept non accomplished?

Write your title

Creating an imgur post championship like "Hey imgur, this is our new game chosen <your game name>" you will get called out for advertising so fast your post won't fifty-fifty get a unmarried positive vote.

Instead, use an emotional headline with some phrases that take worked in the past. Almost importantly DON'T mention the name of your game.

Here are some successful examples of titles:
"I quit my full fourth dimension job to work on this project"
"We worked over three years to realize our dream game"
"You're transport-wrecked! Subcontract, craft and explore a mysterious archipelago to find a manner home."
"We merged Pokemon and Star Wars in this farming game"

Identify your call to activity

The first question you must ask your self is "what exercise yous want out of this mail service?"

If you simply said "Exposure!" … Boo.

Simply making people aware of your game is useless and a waste product of a good postal service. There are and then many games out there and so much time before your next release just hoping that a agglomeration of people will remember who y'all are is a terrible thought. Exposure is like edifice a sandcastle while the tide is coming in. When you get to the front folio yous must convert the traffic into followers on another platform.

Basic copywriting 101 rules apply here

You must tell people what y'all desire them to do. At present don't go overboard and list every single social media platform you lot are on. Instead, pick your primary platform and tell them a reason why that is the best one.

But here is the tricky part. imgur hates any form of marketing. Every mail service volition have a annotate from the buy-an-ad-guy. He is a guy who comes on to say "BUY AN Advert" and then down vote your postal service.

Here is an example of buy an advertisement guy. Wait at that, he even made a footling image to express how much he hates advertising. You will see this guy a lot, don't worry though.

At that place are a couple tricks to getting your CTA in without raising the ire of Buy-An-Ad-guy. Even so, information technology depends on your strategy so stay tuned.

At this point just decide what action you want the viewer to take.

Write your description

Every mail service has a chip of text to accompany each image. There are really 2 options depending on your hook and your game.

Option 1: 1 prototype wonder

If your game is remarkable from a single screenshot or video, utilize this strategy. You have to be really honest with yourself on this 1. Your art has to be and so skilful it gets 100s of retweets when you post it on Twitter. Or the gameplay mechanic has to be super unique. Or information technology has to be some sort of hilarious physics based game. Basically it has to make people stop scrolling but to look at information technology.

If your game has those qualities, you can get away with Choice i. With this strategy yous play the mysterious stranger. Upload your video, trailer, screenshot. Add a great thumb-stopping-headline (that I mentioned higher up) but don't add together a description.

Writing a Call To Action for Pick 1

If you have a smashing looking game, the readers will be super curious and showtime asking "Cool, what is the proper name of this game?" and then you lot can come back with your call to action "Hey thanks! You can wishlist <your_game_name> on Steam -> URL".

The do good of this strategy is you don't come off as an "advertisement" because your phone call to action is given only when someone asks for it. People on imgur often read other comments and so they are sure to see information technology.

Examples of Option i-style posts:

• Got special butterfly jumps working in my game
• I've been making my RPG for vii+ years!!... here are some of the character portraits I've washed :)
• Nosotros created an ultra realistic Cranium map for our Small Toy soldier game!
• Turn-based racing game that is likewise golf?

Option 2: Story mode

If you don't take a game that is uniquely-stand-out-impressive you can however succeed on imgur (in fact this is the only way I accept found success here.) You just need to show more personality and spunk. You are going to exist focusing on impressing folks with your writing or with the depth of your game play. Notation pixel art games (even if pretty) don't e'er exercise well on imgur because the art is much smaller and harder to come across when just scrolling through. Simply a good story can fix that (that is the case with my games).

With the story mode strategy you post lots of images in an album.

Each epitome helps to contribute to your story. The images you lot pick don't all accept to be from your game. You can post pictures of  where you work on your game, or photos from your babyhood where you are doing something gaming related (imgur catnip). Note though that the start image of your story will be the thumbnail people come across on imgur so information technology should really be a groovy looking epitome.

Writing a Call To Activeness for Option 2

You take to make the CTA all virtually imgur. And then for instance on my post near quitting my job I wrote a CTA that said. "I demand your assistance at present. I desire to keep myself accountable so I setup a "bank check-in." Every calendar month I am going to send out what I got washed, what I struggled with, and how I stayed motivated.
Join my mailing list. <LINK>"

That got me almost 500 new e-mail subscribers overnight. Note that I said it is about them helping me and not that I was advertizement and nobody said anything virtually it existence an ad.

Here are another ideas for easygoing CTAs:

• "Hey our game is near solving super hard puzzles. We are going to post a puzzle every week and people setup a Discord to solve the puzzles together. Here is a link to our discord"
• "If you lot liked our fine art, I am showing people how I did it by sending out a tutorial every month, join my mailing list to get notified of my side by side art tutorial is posted."

There is i other alternative where you just postal service a link to your Steam folio to say "wishlist it" that is effective but you take to time it just correct. Don't put your Steam link CTA until y'all arrive to "Most Viral" I will become into that in the section about timing.

Additional tips for story fashion:

• DON'T write your posts in imgur. Work in Google docs or Word so copy the text in every bit a last pace. Imgur is notoriously buggy and decumbent to crashes. I have lost hours of work because I was working in browser and it crashed forcing me to rewrite my postal service.
• DON'T try to write and launch your imgur postal service in the same day. Allot a couple hours to write a quality post and do it a couple days before you lot actually hit the submit button. Just continue your post as hidden until y'all are prepare to launch.
• DO get your post down to ten images or fewer. On the desktop version of imgur your post gets truncated with a "More push button" after 10 images. I don't have numbers only I have a feeling a huge portion of your readers will move on to some other post instead of clicking "more". If you are having trouble editing information technology down to x, I sometimes collage the similar images and upload it as a single image
• Practise: Switch between desktop and mobile. The imgur UX is a scrap disruptive sometimes. The mobile and desktop versions of the site are slightly dissimilar. And so if you tin't seem to figure out how to practice something, try switching to the other platform and see if you can find information technology. For instance you can only create a multi epitome anthology from the desktop version of the site.
• DON'T bother with adding tags while you are writing your postal service. imgur again is terrible about saving that stuff so I usually add tags just earlier I hitting the "mail" button but more on that later.
• DON'T just copy your press release into imgur and add some random screenshots. The tone of press releases always trigger "purchase an advertisement" guy.
• DON'T listing your game'due south major features: like this "Featuring 100 levels, customizable characters, and dual wielding." That will trigger the "Buy AN ADD" guy too. Instead, option one feature and write a whole imgur story well-nigh why that characteristic is cool, what inspired you to add it, what were some problems with the feature.
• DON'T combine several story "hooks" into a unmarried post. For example don't practise the "I quit my job" angle and the "What inspired me to make this game" in a unmarried mail service. It muddles your message. Just like loftier-schoolhouse English language lass you demand a cardinal thesis and every image should contribute to that thesis.

Examples of Option 2-style posts:

• Four years of working on a game nearly a talking cat later...
• Zelda to Chrono Trigger: The history of gaming'southward favorite castle
• I thought I fabricated a hard game so speedrunners totally destroyed it. Here is what that feels like.

How to pick images to mail service

The Starting time image in your album is the almost of import because it is the one that volition appear on anybody's feed and will invite them to click on it.

Tips for your photos:

• Don't post selfies. imgur has this really weird hang up on selfies they actually only allow you to postal service a selfie on Christmas Solar day without downvotes. I didn't realize this and put a photo of myself shot through a mirror and got some pocket-sized grumbling about it
• Also don't think you are sneaky past calculation a watermark to your images. The imgur audience will most definitely call that out equally advert.

Tips for Videos

• Use a 10-xiv seconds teaser video (mp4) including equally much in-game-footage every bit possible to show what your project is virtually.
• Increment the speed of your videos a tiny bit and it volition appear to move more fluidly.
• Important: Your first frame must be the nigh interesting i considering most mobile users see only the first frame.
• Also make sure your video doesn't showtime with a blackness screen considering your headline epitome volition be black.
• Don't worry about converting videos to gifs because imgur volition store them equally videos anyway.

I would also recommend watching Thomas Reisenegger'due south (@Olima) GDC 2022 talk PRsuccess.gif Get your game across in 5 seconds. Unfortunately the video is behind the GDC Vault paywall. But you tin download the slides without having full access by clicking here

How to option your tags

imgur always seems to delete my tags when I come back to a draft version of my mail. So I don't typically add together my tags until I am about to hit publish. But while you are writing your post, kickoff thinking about them.

Tags are how imgur will classify your content and it is how users will discover yours. At present the most important one is definitely "Gaming" because there is ever the "Gaming" section pinned to the front page of imgur.

Also check the forepart page for the main categories such every bit Awesome, Creativity, Funny. Also check the posts I linked to in this commodity for additional tag inspiration.

Your launch

Now the timing and sequence of your launch is very important. Super duper important. I am not kidding hither. Read this half of the article very carefully. It was not until I followed these footstep that I started making information technology to the front page.

Getting yous imgur post to the front page is like launching a multi stage rocket. It is like running a nation broad presidential campaign where you have to attract super delegates and practise well in the Iowa caucuses in the atomic number 82 up to Super Tuesday. It is a advisedly orchestrated event and so please don't skip these steps or recall yous can wing it.

To help guide you along this process I made this graph based on the data from 2 different posts of the game Flower: Memories past @studiofawn. Information technology charts the number of upvotes recieved on every hour afterward the post went live. The dark-green line charts this mail service that went to the front page of imgur. The white line is for a post that was live for 3 hours but did not get past "Popular." I don't have a link because @studiofawn ended up deleting that mail service due to poor performance.

As you tin can see there are specific jumps in the graph that pertain to the pages your post gets assigned to. Also notation that some posts just don't take the special "juice" to move up. They only linger there after about three hours.

Part I: Pushing the launch push button (but only at the right fourth dimension)

Timing is everything. People read imgur in bed every bit they procrastinate getting upwardly to go to work and during luncheon every bit they try to mask the loneliness of eating their common cold tuna salad by themselves in the company suspension room.

There is a magical moment on planet Earth when people are eating lunch in Western Europe and waking up on the East Coast. Y'all should endeavor to go your post live during that window. So post within an hour of 7AM EST on Weekdays. I cannot stress how missing this window volition make your post become nowhere. If you are off by only a couple hours a post that could accept could take gone to the front page will get cached.

Based on where I live I have to make my postal service at 5am local time. I actually set up an alarm, become up add together my tags and have it published to imgur past iv:44 AM. Remember how I told you to write your mail a day or two ahead of time. This is why.

Notation in the post-obit section I will show you hr by hour what yous should be doing. "T" = time because i am just copying what NASA does when they launch a rocket.

Part Two: Striking publish (T + 0 hours)

When you are ready, click the "Share to community" Push and confirm you are going to post it:

Your post is at present live. Your twenty-four hour period is merely beginning and will heart around watching this number tick up. It is the number of upvotes and it is the barometer of how your imgur mail service is doing.

Function Iii Get into Popular (T+1 hours)

When you lot push publish, your post goes into the "new" department of imgur. At this signal your upvotes are coming in pretty deadening. Maybe one every ten to 20 minutes. The folks upvoting right now are imgur diehards who browse this list. You might be a bit afraid that it seems expressionless. Don't be.

Your goal at this stage is to get 50-100 up votes so you tin get on the "Popular" Tab.

Even so, you lot likely won't get to 50 without help. So yous need to phone call in favors from friends and family unit and virtually importantly your super fans. Here is who to inquire

Your super fans

To reach my super fans I transport an update to my mailing listing and explicate to them exactly what I am doing and why it helps.  Again you need a strong call to activity explaining what to do. Don't but say "check out my mail service." Instead Say "Click this link and if you call up information technology is good, push button the upvote button. Doing this helps spread the word and go more people to play my gems."

Friends and Family unit

I got my wife to do information technology. I told my friends. I told quondam coworkers. I told my childhood next door neighbor. All you lot need is 50-100 votes. You probably know 50 people correct? I would get ahead and tell them what you are up to a day or two ahead of time because yous want them to act right away. Like say "hey tomorrow I am going to send y'all something kickoff matter in the morning. Delight exercise it as soon as you lot get it is that important super early."

Your fellow game devs

I always tell my favorite game dev forums and Discords about my posts. My local IGDA affiliate has its ain Discord. So I post information technology there. I also DM my favorite twitter friends and tell them what to do.

Going from new to pop is the hardest and most time consuming part of this strategy. You need to scrounge for every single upvote at this point. This is super important. I know it seems like it won't calibration but you are trying to go the rocket from sitting on the launch pad to 100 feet in the air. You need every booster you can.

Also don't add your telephone call to activeness to your mail notwithstanding. The people who looking at your mail service at this phase are typically imgur super users and are the ones most likely to police the "no marketing" culture. Your post is too frail at this bespeak to survive their downvotes so exist on your best behavior.

At just about 2 hours if I see the upvotes are coming in pretty steadily i similar to post a link to it on Reddit. Y'all tin can exercise it earlier but I like to wait to make sure that the post is getting adept traction before I carp doing Reddit. That is considering if I do pull the post because it isn't performing I don't have to also pull it from Reddit. This isn't a difficult and fast rule though and is worthy of experimenting with.

For reference, hither is the corresponding Reddit mail I created for my best performing imgur post.

At effectually iii hours afterwards publishing it, a skillful imgur postal service will have around 50 to 100 upvotes. If y'all hit this magic number your post will appear on the pop tab of imgur. You have achieved the starting time major hurdle.

However if it has been 3 hours since you made your mail public and you nevertheless have fewer than 50 votes, your postal service is not going to brand it past the "new" tab. Yous can also tell if y'all are refreshing your post and the upvote count is not changing. Y'all are the white line in our petty chart. If it has stopped getting upvotes, kill it hither and attempt to launch your mail on another day with a better headline or better first image. I would create a whole new entry instead of republishing the aforementioned ane. I call back imgur posts have some metadata associated with them that says it already went alive and so you will not become the do good of the ranking algorithms.

Function 4 Pop (T+iii hours)

If at this point you lot have around 50 upvotes, your mail appears in the popular tab. In that location is no notification from imgur when you do this yous will just notice that the upvotes start coming in a lot faster than they did earlier. Look at the graph at this point and you will see a slight increase in the charge per unit of upvotes.

When you are on the popular tab your up votes will be incoming at a much college charge per unit. At this signal you simply have to keep the conversation going. Your primary focus is now answering questions and making sure in that location are no fires or trolls.

Cheque Hacker news to see if someone posted a link to your imgur at that place. Hacker news kinda scared me so I never post my link at that place but some random hacker did it for me on their own.  The people were super nice actually.

Hither are the respective Hacker News threads that I didn't create

• I quit my job today to make video games full time
• I thought I made a hard game and and then speedrunners destroyed it

You are at present the host of a political party that is really moving. You lot should be going effectually answering questions, upvoting good comments, flirting, and making sure people don't need annihilation.

You should also be flipping between imgur and Reddit (and possibly hacker news) and sorting comments by latest and so answer questions that come in.

Copy the url to your imgur​ mail and paste into the search bar of Twitter - respond as necessary to anyone talking about it there.

Here are some tips for managing the Comments

Be squeamish

On popular posts, a lot of people volition read all the comments. And so if someone leaves a snarky comment and you are snarky back others will see it and it will look bad. I just ignore the trolls and downward vote it. You lot are trying to keep the mood positive in your comments so don't bring the party to a screeching halt by being a wiggle.

Don't talk to Buy An Advertising Guy

No matter what, someone is going to leave the comment "buy an ad" or "this seems like marketing. Down vote" don't engage with them. Don't even bother request why they consider it an ad. They won't answer you. Only ignore. If you actually demand to vent... scream into a pillow or something. But these folks exit these comments on every single mail. Seriously merely ignore it as one of life'south trivial inconveniences. The last thing yous should exist worried about are these people.

But look, this buy-an-ad-guy even has a cool blithe gif to prove how much he hates my postal service.

Wait at my mail service and ctrl f for the word "Buy". See. They are there and it didn't matter. Exist the bigger person in the room and ignore.

Too now is the time to start pitching your CTA. You should be looking to see if anyone says what game is this? Answer them with a link to your cta.

Now if your post is growing, right effectually 150 upvotes (at about 4 hours later on posting) you lot will get a notification and so this bulletin:

That right in that location is what this whole strategy is about. It is the final stage and you are at present home free.

Also note, check the time, I published it at 5AM. Almost to the minute it was "Most Viral" 4 hours after publishing it.

Most viral (T+iv Hours)

At this signal your post goes thermonuclear and you will be on the forepart page of imgur. You volition exist getting more upvotes in 30 min than y'all did in the first few hours. You just gotta hold on at this point.

Immediately edit your post and put in whatever CTA or link to your store folio you lot desire. Phrase it this way "[Edit]: Thank you for all the dearest nosotros are amazed by the reception! A lot of you nosotros're asking so here is a link to our game. Wishlist it if you lot like it: <Link> "

When you achieve most viral no hater tin slow downwards the post. You are now on another plane of beingness.

Go on checking your comments and keep things positive.
Check Twitter.
Bank check Reddit.
Check Hacker News.

Just bask in the glow of this achievement. It is kinda hard to concentrate the residuum of the day only nigh of the hard work is done.

Other bonuses

On 1 of my posts I was awarded "Staff Option." It gave me a special tag to my post and I now have a badge with a giraffe in it. I don't know what that does. Information technology didn't seem to have whatever effect on my traffic. I messaged @imgur on twitter and said thank you merely they didn't answer me. So don't worry if yous go it or y'all don't get it.

After your mail service goes viral

In the 24-hour interval or two following my viral post I still check in on it. There are always some late comments from folks.I reply to them too.

I also similar to check Twitter. Sometimes journalists will use imgur as a source for a blog postal service or mention it on podcasts. If you see a announcer retweet a link to the post I commonly attain out to them and inquire them if they have whatever questions or offer them Steam keys to the game. Information technology is also a chance for free networking.

For instance I am pretty sure my Speedrunner postal service got me this review on Rock Newspaper Shotgun

Don't be scared, accept fun

imgur can seem like visiting a foreign country with its weird community and rituals. You might exist worried about getting down voted or existence called out for marketing. Just remember how at the top I said imgur has no memory. Information technology doesn't thing. If you screw upwardly, try again tomorrow. Nobody remembers who you are anyway.

Also this is a numbers game. You are going to take to try a whole bunch of attempts and about of them neglect. But the 1 that works will be so worth it.

Best of luck.

Need help with your funnel?

You know how I mentioned that your e-mail list is your all-time bet for a CTA? I wrote up a free guide to assistance you manage your email list so that it is super effective. Yous can get the book by clicking this link.

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Source: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/how-to-get-on-the-front-page-of-imgur

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