Have You Tried Turning It Off and on Again Gif Imgur

That is a pic of my post on the front page of Imgur.

That is some other moving-picture show of some other post

Now you see this?

Most 150,000 views, hundreds of comments, all looking at me and my game. And best yet I didn't have to spend anything to "boost my post" or convince some features editor to write nearly it, or pay an influencer. Information technology was just me uploading some pictures and writing a fiddling bit about my game.

This post explains how to do this.

Organic traffic is hard to come up past these days. Algorithmic based feeds and paid advertising on Facebook and Twitter has made organic traffic well-nigh impossible at present. There are very few places left where a not-curated feed is withal 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 tiptop-tier games marketing people in private forums. This strategy was invented by Adrian Kaiser and his skillful marketing team. It has worked for me at to the lowest degree 3 times earning me over 374,000 total views. I idea I would pay information technology forward and share information technology with the greater indie game community. I asked Adrian and thankfully he said information technology was ok to share this. And so every bit a big thank you delight follow him on Twitter and his acquaintance who co-developed this strategy and wishlist his game (it comes out October 17th) as a big thank you So hither goes...

The realities of imgur

Earlier I blow your listen with this strategy let me bring some reality here offset. imgur is a top of the funnel marketing tactic. The best y'all can do is become people who don't know you exist into people who are merely aware of your game. You are non going to sell 1,000,000 copies fifty-fifty If you stay on the front end page of imgur for a week. imgur is but once 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 about the funnel.) Understanding the funnel is the core to understanding how to practise marketing.

imgur can only become someone from "Unaware" to interested. You need to figure out another marketing platform that will move them from interested downward to actually buying your game. My pick is an email lists because it works the best, but other options are Steam wishlisting, Joining a Discord, following y'all on social media.

imgur is terrible for making people fall in love with you. For instance imgur has a manner to follow other imgurians simply nobody actually uses information technology. (In fact yous can only follow someone from the mobile device). You can't upload a custom profile picture - yous have to pick from a couple dozen pre-made icons. If someone likes your post you have no way to contact them again when your game is on sale. This all contributes to the fact that imgur is similar the Groundhog Day of social media. Every day is like starting out with 0 post-obit and nobody volition remember you lot exist a day later.

Also, despite this strategy working for me whatever many others, I have had a lot of posts go nowhere. It still comes down to luck. There are a hundred little factors that could mean your post doesn't become viral. I volition talk over what to practise if information technology doesn't work. Merely keep in mind this strategy is not a guarantee.

With that pre-amble over, let'due south look at how to get your game to be on the front page of imgur.

Make up one's mind your postal service'southward hook

The trick to a viral imgur mail is to hit the right tone and subject area matter for the imgur audition. You can't merely mail service a random game screenshot with the title of your game and expect information technology 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
Just pretty
Unexpected Result

Your title screenshot and sometimes description have to work together to tell the story of why you are posting this to a giant customs. You should come off as just a regular Joe or Jane who is trying your best against all odds. There should be a fleck of wish fulfillment as if you are doing something that the audition wishes they could reach just y'all are the one trying and maybe possibly able to pull it off (side annotation you don't have to actually pull information technology off but the try is appreciated).

For case the "I quit my job" posts are almost a cliche now but it was my best performing post because nigh anybody reading it actually wants to quit their job and here you are actually doing it. They are thinking "That could be me!"

When trying to come up with the hook for your imgur post, retrieve back on your own history. Making a game is so hard to practise and you are much farther than the boilerplate human being. Then don't be humble. Just by making some form of game yous are boggling and worth posting something What take y'all overcome or done that near people accept non accomplished?

Write your title

Creating an imgur post championship like "Hey imgur, this is our new game called <your game proper noun>" you will get called out for advertizement so fast your post won't even get a unmarried positive vote.

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

Here are some successful examples of titles:
"I quit my full time job to piece of work on this project"
"We worked over three years to realize our dream game"
"You're send-wrecked! Farm, craft and explore a mysterious archipelago to find a way abode."
"Nosotros merged Pokemon and Star Wars in this farming game"

Identify your call to action

The showtime question you must ask your self is "what exercise you want out of this post?"

If y'all merely said "Exposure!" … Boo.

Just making people aware of your game is useless and a waste product of a good mail. There are so many games out there and so much fourth dimension before your next release just hoping that a bunch of people will think who you are is a terrible idea. Exposure is like building a sandcastle while the tide is coming in. When you become to the front page you must convert the traffic into followers on another platform.

Basic copywriting 101 rules utilise here

Y'all must tell people what you want them to do. Now don't get overboard and list every single social media platform you are on. Instead, selection your principal platform and tell them a reason why that is the best one.

But hither is the tricky part. imgur hates any form of marketing. Every post will have a comment from the buy-an-ad-guy. He is a guy who comes on to say "Buy AN AD" and then down vote your postal service.

Here is an example of purchase an ad guy. Look at that, he even made a little image to express how much he hates advert. You will see this guy a lot, don't worry though.

There are a couple tricks to getting your CTA in without raising the ire of Purchase-An-Ad-guy. However, it depends on your strategy so stay tuned.

At this point just decide what activity you want the viewer to have.

Write your description

Every mail service has a bit of text to accompany each image. At that place are actually 2 options depending on your hook and your game.

Selection 1: One prototype wonder

If your game is remarkable from a single screenshot or video, use this strategy. You lot take to exist really honest with yourself on this one. Your fine art has to exist and so good it gets 100s of retweets when you lot mail service it on Twitter. Or the gameplay mechanic has to exist super unique. Or information technology has to be some sort of hilarious physics based game. Basically it has to make people stop scrolling just to look at it.

If your game has those qualities, you tin can become away with Pick 1. With this strategy you play the mysterious stranger. Upload your video, trailer, screenshot. Add a great thumb-stopping-headline (that I mentioned above) just don't add a clarification.

Writing a Phone call To Activeness for Option ane

If you accept a slap-up looking game, the readers will exist super curious and get-go request "Cool, what is the name of this game?" and and then you tin can come back with your telephone call to action "Hey thanks! You can wishlist <your_game_name> on Steam -> URL".

The benefit of this strategy is you don't come off as an "advertisement" because your telephone 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 1-style posts:

Got special butterfly jumps working in my game
I've been making my RPG for 7+ years!!... hither are some of the character portraits I've done :)
We created an ultra realistic Cranium map for our Small Toy soldier game!
Turn-based racing game that is also golf?

Option 2: Story way

If you don't have a game that is uniquely-stand-out-impressive you tin notwithstanding succeed on imgur (in fact this is the simply way I have constitute success here.) Yous simply need to show more personality and spunk. You are going to be focusing on impressing folks with your writing or with the depth of your game play. Note pixel art games (even if pretty) don't always do well on imgur because the fine art is much smaller and harder to encounter when only scrolling through. Simply a good story can fix that (that is the case with my games).

With the story fashion strategy you postal service lots of images in an album.

Each image helps to contribute to your story. The images you lot selection don't all have to exist from your game. You can mail pictures of where yous work on your game, or photos from your childhood where you are doing something gaming related (imgur catnip). Note though that the first image of your story will be the thumbnail people see on imgur so it should really exist a bang-up looking paradigm.

Writing a Call To Activeness for Selection 2

Yous have to make the CTA all nearly imgur. So for instance on my post nigh quitting my chore I wrote a CTA that said. "I need your aid now. I desire to keep myself answerable so I setup a "bank check-in." Every calendar month I am going to transport out what I got done, what I struggled with, and how I stayed motivated.
Join my mailing list. <LINK>"

That got me about 500 new email subscribers overnight. Note that I said it is about them helping me and not that I was advertising and nobody said anything about it being an advertisement.

Here are some other ideas for low-cardinal CTAs:

"Hey our game is well-nigh solving super difficult puzzles. We are going to postal service a puzzle every week and people setup a Discord to solve the puzzles together. Here is a link to our discord"
"If you 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 mail a link to your Steam page to say "wishlist it" that is effective but you accept to time it simply correct. Don't put your Steam link CTA until yous brand it to "Most Viral" I will go 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 and then copy the text in as a last footstep. Imgur is notoriously buggy and decumbent to crashes. I have lost hours of work because I was working in browser and information technology crashed forcing me to rewrite my postal service.
DON'T try to write and launch your imgur mail in the same day. Allot a couple hours to write a quality mail service and do it a couple days before you actually hit the submit push. Just keep your post as hidden until you are ready to launch.
DO get your post down to 10 images or fewer. On the desktop version of imgur your post gets truncated with a "More button" after 10 images. I don't have numbers but I take a feeling a huge portion of your readers will move on to another mail service instead of clicking "more than". If you are having trouble editing information technology downward to 10, I sometimes collage the similar images and upload it every bit a single epitome
Do: Switch between desktop and mobile. The imgur UX is a bit confusing sometimes. The mobile and desktop versions of the site are slightly different. Then if you can't seem to effigy out how to practise something, effort switching to the other platform and come across if you can find information technology. For instance you tin can but create a multi image album from the desktop version of the site.
DON'T bother with adding tags while you are writing your post. imgur again is terrible most saving that stuff so I ordinarily add tags just before I hitting the "postal service" button but more on that later.
DON'T but re-create your printing release into imgur and add some random screenshots. The tone of press releases always trigger "buy an advertizement" guy.
DON'T list your game'due south major features: similar this "Featuring 100 levels, customizable characters, and dual wielding." That will trigger the "BUY AN ADD" guy too. Instead, pick i feature and write a whole imgur story nigh why that feature is cool, what inspired y'all to add it, what were some problems with the feature.
DON'T combine several story "hooks" into a unmarried post. For instance don't practise the "I quit my task" angle and the "What inspired me to brand this game" in a unmarried post. It muddles your message. Just like high-school English lass you need a fundamental thesis and every image should contribute to that thesis.

Examples of Option 2-fashion posts:

Iv years of working on a game nearly a talking cat after...
Zelda to Chrono Trigger: The history of gaming's favorite castle
I idea I made a hard game and then speedrunners totally destroyed information technology. Here is what that feels similar.

How to pick images to mail

The First image in your album is the most important because it is the one that volition appear on everyone's feed and will invite them to click on information technology.

Tips for your photos:

Don't mail service selfies. imgur has this really weird hang up on selfies they really only permit y'all to post a selfie on Christmas Day without downvotes. I didn't realize this and put a photo of myself shot through a mirror and got some minor grumbling about it
Also don't think you are sneaky past adding a watermark to your images. The imgur audience will virtually definitely call that out as advertisement.

Tips for Videos

Use a 10-14 seconds teaser video (mp4) including every bit much in-game-footage as possible to show what your project is about.
Increase the speed of your videos a tiny bit and it will appear to move more fluidly.
Important: Your first frame must be the most interesting one because most mobile users see but the first frame.
Also brand sure your video doesn't offset with a black screen considering your headline image will be black.
Don't worry about converting videos to gifs because imgur volition store them as videos anyway.

I would as well recommend watching Thomas Reisenegger's (@Olima) GDC 2019 talk PRsuccess.gif Get your game across in five seconds. Unfortunately the video is behind the GDC Vault paywall. BUT you lot can download the slides without having full access by clicking here

How to pick your tags

imgur e'er seems to delete my tags when I come up dorsum to a draft version of my post. And so I don't typically add together my tags until I am about to hit publish. But while y'all are writing your post, starting time thinking about them.

Tags are how imgur will classify your content and information technology is how users will discover yours. Now the virtually important one is definitely "Gaming" because there is e'er the "Gaming" section pinned to the forepart page of imgur.

Also bank check the front page for the primary categories such as Awesome, Creativity, Funny. Also check the posts I linked to in this article for additional tag inspiration.

Your launch

Now the timing and sequence of your launch is very important. Super duper important. I am non kidding here. Read this half of the article very carefully. It was non until I followed these stride that I started making it to the front page.

Getting you imgur post to the front page is similar launching a multi phase rocket. Information technology is like running a nation wide presidential entrada where you have to concenter super delegates and do well in the Iowa caucuses in the atomic number 82 up to Super Tuesday. It is a advisedly orchestrated event so delight don't skip these steps or remember you tin wing information technology.

To help guide you along this process I made this graph based on the information from two unlike posts of the game Bloom: Memories by @studiofawn. It charts the number of upvotes recieved on every hr after the mail went live. The green line charts this post that went to the front page of imgur. The white line is for a post that was live for 3 hours only did not get by "Popular." I don't take a link considering @studiofawn concluded up deleting that post due to poor functioning.

As you tin can come across there are specific jumps in the graph that pertain to the pages your post gets assigned to. Also note that some posts only don't have the special "juice" to move up. They just linger there after virtually iii hours.

Role I: Pushing the launch button (but only at the right time)

Timing is everything. People read imgur in bed as they procrastinate getting up to become to work and during luncheon as they endeavor to mask the loneliness of eating their cold tuna salad by themselves in the visitor break room.

There is a magical moment on planet Earth when people are eating dejeuner in Western Europe and waking up on the East Coast. You should try to get your post live during that window. So mail within an hour of 7AM EST on Weekdays. I cannot stress how missing this window will make your mail service go nowhere. If yous are off by just a couple hours a post that could have could have gone to the front end page will get buried.

Based on where I alive I have to make my post at 5am local fourth dimension. I really set an alarm, get up add together my tags and have it published to imgur by iv:44 AM. Remember how I told yous to write your post a day or ii ahead of time. This is why.

Note in the following section I will show you hour by 60 minutes what you should be doing. "T" = time because i am simply copying what NASA does when they launch a rocket.

Role II: Hitting publish (T + 0 hours)

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

Your post is at present alive. Your day is just kickoff and will middle around watching this number tick up. It is the number of upvotes and it is the barometer of how your imgur post is doing.

Role 3 Go into Pop (T+1 hours)

When you push publish, your post goes into the "new" department of imgur. At this signal your upvotes are coming in pretty tedious. Maybe i every 10 to xx minutes. The folks upvoting right now are imgur diehards who browse this list. Yous might be a bit afraid that it seems dead. Don't be.

Your goal at this phase is to become fifty-100 up votes so you lot can get on the "Popular" Tab.

However, you probable won't become to 50 without assistance. So you need to call in favors from friends and family and nigh importantly your super fans. Here is who to inquire

Your super fans

To reach my super fans I send an update to my mailing list and explain to them exactly what I am doing and why it helps. Over again y'all need a stiff telephone call to action explaining what to practise. Don't just say "check out my post." Instead Say "Click this link and if you think it is good, push the upvote button. Doing this helps spread the word and get more people to play my gems."

Friends and Family

I got my wife to do it. I told my friends. I told erstwhile coworkers. I told my childhood side by side door neighbor. All you need is 50-100 votes. You probably know 50 people right? I would get ahead and tell them what yous are up to a day or two alee of fourth dimension considering you want them to human action correct away. Like say "hey tomorrow I am going to transport you something beginning thing in the morning time. Please exercise information technology every bit soon every bit you become it is that important super early on."

Your young man game devs

I always tell my favorite game dev forums and Discords about my posts. My local IGDA affiliate has its own Discord. Then I mail service it there. I as well DM my favorite twitter friends and tell them what to do.

Going from new to popular is the hardest and well-nigh time consuming office 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 scale just y'all are trying to become 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 call to action to your postal service yet. The people who looking at your postal 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 delicate at this point to survive their downvotes so exist on your all-time beliefs.

At only near 2 hours if I see the upvotes are coming in pretty steadily i similar to post a link to it on Reddit. Y'all can exercise it earlier but I like to wait to make sure that the mail service is getting proficient traction before I bother doing Reddit. That is because if I exercise pull the mail because it isn't performing I don't accept to also pull it from Reddit. This isn't a hard and fast rule though and is worthy of experimenting with.

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

At effectually iii hours afterwards publishing information technology, a good imgur postal service will have around 50 to 100 upvotes. If you hit this magic number your post will appear on the popular tab of imgur. You accept accomplished the get-go major hurdle.

However if information technology has been 3 hours since you fabricated your mail service public and you still accept fewer than 50 votes, your post is not going to make it past the "new" tab. You lot tin also tell if you are refreshing your mail and the upvote count is not changing. You are the white line in our piddling chart. If it has stopped getting upvotes, impale it here and try to launch your mail on another day with a improve headline or improve first paradigm. I would create a whole new entry instead of republishing the same one. I think imgur posts accept some metadata associated with them that says it already went live and so you will not become the benefit of the ranking algorithms.

Part 4 Popular (T+three hours)

If at this point you have around 50 upvotes, your post appears in the popular tab. There is no notification from imgur when you lot do this you lot volition just notice that the upvotes offset coming in a lot faster than they did before. Await at the graph at this point and yous will meet a slight increase in the rate of upvotes.

When you are on the popular tab your up votes will be incoming at a much higher rate. At this bespeak you lot just have to go along the chat going. Your master focus is now answering questions and making sure there are no fires or trolls.

Check Hacker news to run across if someone posted a link to your imgur there. Hacker news kinda scared me so I never post my link in that location but some random hacker did it for me on their own. The people were super dainty actually.

Here are the corresponding Hacker News threads that I didn't create

I quit my job today to make video games total fourth dimension
I thought I fabricated a difficult game and then speedrunners destroyed it

You are now the host of a political party that is really moving. You should be going effectually answering questions, upvoting adept comments, flirting, and making sure people don't demand annihilation.

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

Copy the url to your imgurâ€‹ mail service and paste into the search bar of Twitter - respond as necessary to anyone talking nearly it in that location.

Here are some tips for managing the Comments

Be nice

On popular posts, a lot of people will read all the comments. So if someone leaves a snarky comment and you are snarky dorsum others will meet it and it will await bad. I only ignore the trolls and downwards vote it. You are trying to keep the mood positive in your comments so don't bring the party to a screeching halt by being a jerk.

Don't talk to Buy An Ad Guy

No matter what, someone is going to get out the comment "buy an ad" or "this seems like marketing. Down vote" don't engage with them. Don't fifty-fifty carp asking why they consider it an ad. They won't answer you. Merely ignore. If yous actually need to vent... scream into a pillow or something. Merely these folks leave these comments on every single post. Seriously but ignore it equally one of life'due south piffling inconveniences. The last matter yous should be worried about are these people.

Just await, this purchase-an-ad-guy fifty-fifty has a absurd animated gif to show how much he hates my post.

Expect at my post 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 fourth dimension 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 after posting) you will go a notification so this message:

That correct in that location is what this whole strategy is near. It is the terminal phase and you are now domicile free.

Besides note, check the time, I published it at 5AM. Well-nigh to the minute it was "About Viral" 4 hours subsequently publishing it.

Most viral (T+four Hours)

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

Immediately edit your post and put in any CTA or link to your shop page yous want. Phrase information technology this way "[Edit]: Cheers for all the honey we are amazed by the reception! A lot of yous we're asking so here is a link to our game. Wishlist it if you lot similar it: <Link> "

When yous reach almost viral no hater can deadening downwards the mail. Y'all are now on another airplane of existence.

Keep checking your comments and keep things positive.
Check Twitter.
Check Reddit.
Check Hacker News.

Only bask in the glow of this accomplishment. Information technology is kinda difficult to concentrate the rest of the day simply near of the difficult piece of work is done.

Other bonuses

On ane of my posts I was awarded "Staff Choice." It gave me a special tag to my mail service and I now have a badge with a giraffe in it. I don't know what that does. It didn't seem to have whatsoever effect on my traffic. I messaged @imgur on twitter and said thanks but they didn't answer me. So don't worry if you go it or you don't become information technology.

Later your post goes viral

In the day or two following my viral post I still cheque in on it. In that location are e'er some late comments from folks.I answer to them also.

I as well like 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 journalist retweet a link to the post I ordinarily reach out to them and ask them if they have whatsoever questions or offer them Steam keys to the game. It is also a chance for complimentary networking.

For instance I am pretty sure my Speedrunner post got me this review on Stone Paper Shotgun

Don't be scared, have fun

imgur can seem like visiting a foreign country with its weird community and rituals. You might be worried well-nigh getting down voted or beingness called out for marketing. Just remember how at the top I said imgur has no memory. It doesn't matter. If you spiral up, try again tomorrow. Nobody remembers who you are anyway.

Also this is a numbers game. You lot are going to have to endeavour a whole agglomeration of attempts and most of them fail. But the one that works will be so worth it.

Best of luck.

Need aid with your funnel?

You know how I mentioned that your email list is your best bet for a CTA? I wrote up a costless guide to assist you manage your e-mail list so that it is super effective. You tin can get the book past clicking this link.

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