TAG! TAG! TAG!

In the tag line of your works, include the following things: dA, The, Link, System, deviants, exposure, art, community, faves, Watchers, comment, box.

Plus, you'll put in the tag words relating to your piece of work of course eg. sunset, beach, sand, etc.

Anything else you can think of related to TLS, go for it!


Add tag words relating to the piece you've Linked TO as well. Even if both photos are of sunsets, yours might be captured from a beach, while the other might be taken from a bridge and include a cityscape. Include 'cityscape', 'bridge' etc., as tag words as well.


Ever had a photograph that could be a landscape or a skyscape? Say you categorize it under 'landscape'. Add 'skyscape' to the tags as well!


If you've Linked to a piece from a different category, make sure you put the Linked category as a tag word. Photo of lovers walking on the beach [with a sunset ], Linked to a poem of lovers remembering a walk on the beach [with a sunset ]... put in 'poem' as well. And 'sunset'. *sigh*


Add EVERYTHING!! If the photo has a single cloud, put in 'cloud'. It's got a yacht? Add 'yacht', 'boat', 'ship', etc.


Ok, an under-handed one! Regarding photographs, put  'HDR' in the tag line of any and every photo. People look for 'HDR' photographs all the time. Yeah, I know. So?


I'm not kidding when I mention the capital 'L' in 'Linked'! 'You have been Linked: etc., etc.' Why?

a) It stands out from just 'linked', which is everywhere.

b) More importantly, 'Linked' in the tag line remember?

---

Ok, I've seen this going around quite a bit in the Linkee's comments:

'You have been Linked: etc. Come check out more about The Link System at #dALinkSystem'

Or some variant of that.

You're sweet for doing that. It makes me feel warm that you'd take the few extra steps to put that in there.


But you're probably ing us up a bit!!



Ever read anything like this?

'You have been featured HERE. Fave the Article so that more people can see you and check out [insert Group name] for more exposure!'

The minute I read that I think of an overweight car salesperson with a huge smile and a massive thumbsup!


Bottom line: the chances of a person checking that Link out are a lot lower because of blatant plugging.

Remember, once they DO check out the Link, they'll see our avatar and their work there, too. THAT has a greater chance of making an impact.


Think about the times you've gotten a response to a thanks like this:

'Not a problem. It's a beautiful piece of work. Please feel free to come look at my gallery.'





'You have been Linked: [insert url].'

Short and effective, not to mention it takes up less of your time. Obviously, add comments about the piece if you want. Just don't mention TLS. Use the capital 'L' though!


Obviously, not all this stuff is 100%. But it helps more than you think.


Proof that might suggest so, you ask?

~tracteurrouge is basically the Linking Olympiad, and Gold Medalist! She's prolific, and Links like crazy. Others up there would be ~HDRenesys, *gold-rose, *serel, and a lot of others I'm not including just because that's enough for the sake of this crazy experiment. Oh, I tend to Link too.


When TLS first started, it was primarily about photography. So:

1. Type in 'The Link System' in the main dA search engine.
2. Click on the ' photography' category.
3. Look at the results. [photographs, artists etc.]

You'll notice something special about the first few pages. Check out the art, the artists, etc.


Yeah, the Olympiad tends to use 90% of those tips and tricks up there.

Finally, mentioning #dALinkSystem in your Sig will always help!


That's all I can think of right now. I'll add more as I remember or find out. Let us know if you see something that helps awright?

Happy helping, happy tagging and happy Linking. Enjoy it!

Why is he writing this part since they’ve already got a manual and video tutorials?

Because this section will discuss things those things don’t. Simple. Is it crucial for you to read this? Heck no. Will it do something if you read it? I hope so. I hope you’ll understand more about why it’s worthy. And I really hope you’ll realize why this is a good thing for many.


So in January 2009, I uploaded over 150 pieces on the same day I believe! I kept seeing them getting fave’d and thought, ‘Wow, I knew it. I’m a really stand out artist man’. Over 70 bloody people looked at some of my photos! Almost 15 of them even gave me some gold star for like, the majority of my stuff. ‘Look at how they’re munching this up’.


Then I saw a photograph of a tree. That’s it. A bloody tree in the center of a square frame. Saturated to the point where bats would go blind if they looked at it. Over 600 people had looked at it and 250 had fave’d it. It had been submitted about 3 seconds ago! ‘WHAT THE HELL?’ ‘Amazing’? ‘Unbelievable work’? ‘Incredible as always’? ‘Love the composition’? ‘It was in the middle of a ing square man’! And on and on and on. Then I saw some sunset photos.



Any of you felt like that when you started? What about now?


Next, I saw a photograph of a sunset, almost in sepia. It was deliberately a little dirty, taken from a strange angle and presented well. I loved it. About 12 view and 2 faves. Some 18 year old Romanian boy. That isn’t right, and here’s where we can help. We want to expose our work right? We can also help that kid, in 5 minutes! It’s not like most of us aren’t on dA an hour or two a day anyway. So throw in a thumbcode of one of your devs in the artists comment. And then throw in the thumbcode of the kid’s piece too.


Might as well be helping someone while we’re pimping right? Better than not helping someone at all.


That’s one of the reasons to Link! If you’re going to advertize, or ‘pimp it’ as it’s referred to now, why not help someone else too. So that’s why I first started. I told a couple of people and they thought it was a pretty cool idea. They started Linking.


We’re artists, and part of an art community. Upload frequently, Link frequently. I know people going back into their galleries to Link existing pieces. I’ve seen people with 3 of their pieces in their comment boxes, and 3 other deviations by other deviants! I ended up ‘pimping’ myself, some poor kid and I found a really cool piece of art. That’s the idea. And it’s a win/win situation. 5 weeks and I saw these results.


Try it. It doesn’t take much.


Here’re some resources for you. Video will obviously be more helpful.






Members:

1) You can share 2 LINKED deviations per WEEK.
2) Go to the Gallery, pick the appropriate category, and press the + sign at the right of the bar.



Hope this little entry gave you a slightly more insightful, maybe persuasive and ultimately helpful look at what the Link System is about.



A. a.k.a. =TheFulkrum

Kathy a.k.a. =Echostar08