Let’s be honest here, the slow burn of gathering an audience can be grueling, especially if you’re an impatient person. I’m not going to judge you for wanting an audience, it’s a perfectly normal part of creating something. It’s much more fun when you have people around to see it, talk about it, and give you feedback. As long as you don’t let your hunger for recognition grow stronger than your love of your project itself, it’s more than a natural emotion to have.

However, I’ve noticed a trend in what people do when they start a new webseries and are looking for some early adopters. Many people, in my opinion, go about it all wrong and only hurt their project in the process. Let me explain.

A lot of new webseries creators looking for an audience head to where they find the shows they follow and discuss, whether that be Reddit’s r/ARG, 4Chan’s paranormal /x/ board, or anything else along those lines, and post about their series in-game, as one of their characters. It may seem at first to be an obvious choice, especially if your webseries is supposed to be immersive, but it’s not always the best idea, for a few reasons.

The first one being that this tactic is just so common. For example, if you head to the previously mentioned r/ARG on any given day (as of the writing of this guide), you’re bound to see an assortment of these posts. Taking this path won’t do much for you; it may hardly even get word of your existence out there. And sometimes getting people to know you exist through this method isn’t always a good thing, as people often associate this tactic with poor quality. It’s a gamble you have a very high chance of losing. Even if you do pick up a few followers through this method, you’re risking cementing your name in infamy as one of “those” projects. I would stay far, far away from this route, as tempting as it may seem at first.

Though, if this method is bad news, what should someone do if they’re getting a bit antsy? You’ve seen the title, the answer to this question is why you’re here.

Method #0

As odd as this may sound at first, let’s talk about the benefits of not doing anything to promote yourself at all. Because there are some that make it a good idea. First off, no illusion ruined for anyone. Every single follower you pick up is left 200% in the dark on everything, including if the project is real or not, if you’re going for being extremely immersive. This goes on for as long as you want. Only you and anyone you might be working with know anything at all. And you’re a totally allusive figure too. Mysterious people are interesting people. If nobody knows who you are, everyone will want to know who you are.

Though perhaps you aren’t going for any mystery element with your project. Maybe your series is tired directly in to your brand as a creator, and you’ve made it easy for people to find who made it on purpose. Then the slow burn method of waiting it out may not be for you. Once we get in to the true advertising methods, I’ll address something I think works very well for your style.

If you’re going for being a truly immersive series, I highly suggest to give the slow burn of letting every bit of your audience come to you a light consideration, even if you’re impatient. As long as you upload consistently and truly believe in your project and what it is, you should have no problem finding an audience, even if it takes a while. Just make sure to keep those updates coming.

Method #1

By now, I’m probably boring you with all this complimentary information on what not to do, and the benefits of not doing anything at all. You’re here for the actual tips on how to promote your webseries. So, let’s get in to that, shall we?

The first method I’m going to mention, while it isn’t my favorite, is viable. Go to the forum or community you frequent, and instead of posting in-character, post out of character, and just say what you mean. That you’ve started a new webseries and would like people to check it out and give feedback. Like I said before, it’s not my preferred method, and still has some risks, but I’d much rather have you do this than make a post in-character.

Method #2

This tip that I’m going to share with you is my favorite by far. It’s advice that I share very, very often. No matter what the question is, it’s usually a suitable answer.

In the alternate reality game and immersive media community, you should make friends and connections. Many of them.

How does this help you in this instance? Well, if you have a group of friends and mentors, they should be more than happy to watch your project and give you feedback. You’re not just getting people interested, you’re getting so much more. Things that will be far more valuable to you in the long run than just attention. I’d suggest trying to seek out an entire group/community. Joining union of some fellow creators is one of the best things anyone creating anything can do for themselves.

If you’re having trouble finding these, this is where I might suggest the first method that I’m not always fond of. If you’re lucky, you may find some good buddies through asking people to check out your project. You may not have any luck either, but if you’re having trouble finding some pals, it’s worth a shot.

While making some friends and showing them your project to them is my most recommended way to get your first set of eyes on your project, I’m not done yet. We have a few more things to go over.

Method #3

Does your webseries have any supplementary material? Do you plan for any of your characters to have social media accounts/do they already? Or maybe you’re running some sort of blog that tells of backstory? Whatever supplementary material you have, you can use it to your advantage to reel people in. Every social media platform has their exploits and hacks you can use to start raking in followers. Play your social media smart, and you can get a big boost. This is more of an ever-growing slope than the one and done method of sharing your video itself around is, but it can be much more rewarding if you know how to do it. I’m not an expert on every single platform out there you may be using, so I can’t know exactly what will work for your situation exactly, but I highly suggest you research the tips and tricks to both the form of your supplementary material, and also where it exists.

Method #4

The final tip I’d like to share can be a bit controversial, and requires some funds to make happen. This would be to do some more traditional advertising via buying advertisement space somewhere. It’s a path not traveled down very often due to money, and people just not liking ads that much, but it’s not a path never traveled down.

I’ve seen two examples in recent memory. A while back, the webseries Cave Of Shadows had a brief run of YouTube video ads. Another series known as CatGhost has recently been known to have banner ads on FurAffinity.

Now, these are both very controversial series, even without the ads, so your mileage may vary. But they’re examples that this route has been done before, and it can be done very effectively and intelligently as well. Taking the previous example of CatGhost, the advertisement has been known to switch to a much darker image involved with the lore of the show after a certain amount of time. There’s room for creativity here, and if you have all the required resources, I think it’s a valid option.

Closing

While that may be my last advertising method to share, I do have a bit more on this topic to talk about. Here’s the thing, when it comes to how to go about anything, creativity is possible. Even on this topic, I welcome you to try new things if they come to mind, and see if they work out. If you’ve found a really good way to get the word out to people who care, or want to try one you think might work, do it. The sky is the limit. You can get creative anywhere you want to.

That’s all I’ve got to say for now. If you’ve read my previous article and have been waiting for a new one, you should expect that wait to be much shorter this time. I’m hoping to pump these out much more regularly from now on. I’m going for at least something fairy short every week or so, from now on. I’ll be back then. Thanks for reading!