Since you're here, let's break it down:

• your "vibe" - your pride in your creation. It's one thing to just be like "I made this, here you go" and "Check out what I was able to do by not giving up, I'm so proud of my progress!" Tell me, if the exact same picture were posted with each of these captions, which delivery would make the average person not only see your work, but STOP and look at it further? Closed mouths don't get fed, but those that whisper won't get full.

• "attraction" - making people not only notice your work, but make them want to get invested. There are three "P"s here: public, persistent and proud. The best way to get a real audience and potential customers is to keep posting public messages, being persistent with what you want to promote, and being proud of the work being posted. Reaching out to individuals is not the best because they are not guaranteed to help when you need it. What will is consistently keeping the fleeting attention of the general public familiar with what you have on your own - so that they associate it with you.

• your "tribe" - you know how I always quote the ten-percent rule: STATISTICALLY, less than 10% of your current audience/follower count can be expected to interact with anything you post. Only a tenth of THAT 10% can be expected to do more than press the "like" and walk away to possibly forget about it. THAT is your tribe, those who consistently do more than just acknowledge your work and move on, because you have successfully gotten them invested in your work. If you have to ask anyone directly to spread the word, they should be the first people you think of - if they don't decide to take the initiative. If you don't have them yet, BE PATIENT - by default they are the smallest percentage of your audience, and will thus take the longest to grow.

I'm not even trying to antagonize anyone, this is a general issue on multiple platforms. I'm just really tired of seeing small users with tons of decent posts and projects being like "I gave up on this cos it sucked, no one liked it in the first day or week", or "my work is nowhere near as good as someone else's" and wonder why they never get traction. This is all while simultaneously having attention drawn to sites like Patreon and Ko-Fi on their profiles. WHAT???

This "tribe" process might be the slowest way to your goal, but it's the surest way to get people in your circle that like what you do mostly for what it is, people from whom you don't have to break your neck to get attention. These people can provide an online safety net when you really need it in terms of support or even mental health because they would be invested in you and your work. That much is worth taking pride in what you choose to put out here, no matter what anyone thinks or what standard you feel like you have to live up to.

If you should attract a tribe of any size, and I mean people that will promote your product without being asked, and will vouch for it across any shared platforms they have, CONSIDER YOURSELF WAY TOO BLESSED TO RIGHTFULLY DISS ANY ASPECT OF YOUR POTENTIAL. I would rather have a tribe of 5 than a following of 500.

#advice #rant #follow #tribe #count #support #encouragement #solodev #yougotthis #mentalhealth