This is a read-only archive of the old Scratch 1.x Forums.
Try searching the current Scratch discussion forums.

#1 2013-04-16 21:46:10

PaulRHJT
New Scratcher
Registered: 2013-04-14
Posts: 34

Starting out - Any tips?

Hey everyone, I recently joined Scratch and uploaded my first project (a remake of an old game)!
I'm so excited with the result!! It's a short but intense 5-minute play. Ultimate Evader 2.0

Since I'm new, I'm a little confused about how to get people to see it, though. It seems new projects only get a few minutes of exposure before they're buried under the next series of uploads. Got any tips how to get an audience?
I'd love to get some solid feedback on my project...

- – — – -

To all the other new Scratchers, if you have a project you'd like me to check out, just post below, and I'll happily give my opinion on it for you!  wink

Offline

 

#2 2013-04-17 05:51:51

Gravitation
New Scratcher
Registered: 2012-09-26
Posts: 500+

Re: Starting out - Any tips?

Hi! Welcome to Scratch. I've check out your project - for a first project, it's really really good!

There are a lot of ways to advertise your projects, you just have to be creative. Here are some of the common ways of advertising your projects:

Advertise in Show and Tell. You can create a topic in the Show and Tell section of the forum about your project, and people will check it out. This can attract a lot of views once your name becomes more well known. Be sure to include a link to the project in the post!

Put a clickable image in your signature. Once you have 10 comments, 3 projects, and have been active for a month, you become a Scratcher. Besides being able to edit/delete posts, this allows you to have a signature. In your signature, you can put anything you like (a link, picture, text, a clickable image, etc.), and this is displayed at the end of every post you've made. If you post a lot, this will be very effective, as people tend to click on good-looking signatures.

Comment. This works for all the projects you have. Comment on people's projects. Some strategies to advertising your projects state that you should not try to advertise your own projects, but look through all the advertisements, and comment on others' projects; they and their viewers might click on your name and view your projects. This works especially well in conjunction with the other strategies, as people will click on your name if they've heard of you before.

People will advertise for you. Making your projects as attractive as possible (nice animations, cool icon, awesome graphics) and advertising using the strategies I've mentioned above will boost your views. People love to tell others they know about the "next big project" they've found, and then they'll check out the project, and tell their friends, and it goes on.

Advertise in others' projects...? You can do this, but you have to be careful about how you go about it. Famous Scratchers like Wes64 often give out space in their project noted for advertising. You can post a link in the comments asking to be advertised (but make sure this isn't all you comment!), and you'll probably be put in. As the people view the project, they'll click some of the ads. Some projects (large games, Scratch tv channels) give out space for advertising within the actual project. Although rare, this can really help your projects get noticed.

Off-site advertising. People often create websites for their Scratch projects and put links to them in the Things I'm Making and Creating forum. In these websites, they have (some) information about themselves, their projects, and, of course, links to them. the people in the Things I'm Making and Creating forum often have the most friends, and will tell the most other people about your project, but they're unlikely to discover your project otherwise.

Reviews. Getting your project reviewed in a review topic in the Show and Tell thread can boost your project's popularity if it gets a good score. People sometimes check these topics for high-rated projects to look at, because the reviewers are often people who've made really good projects. Post your project in one of these!

Well, that's basically it, but there's virtually infinite ways to advertise, as Scratchers' projects (in the true sense of the word) often create another advertising medium, and thus, more places to advertise.  smile

Offline

 

#3 2013-04-17 07:58:10

PaulRHJT
New Scratcher
Registered: 2013-04-14
Posts: 34

Re: Starting out - Any tips?

Wow, thanks so much, Gravitation!
I didn't expect anyone to go through such extensive detail to help a newbie like me, but your explanation covers everything I wanted to know! I'll definitely start looking around in Show and Tell, and I've already started commenting on other's projects. Since I'm quite the perfectionist, it might take a while to create 3 projects, but once I'm a qualified Scratcher, I'll set a signature like you suggested! In the meantime, I'll have to add one manually to my posts. Either way, I've got plenty of ideas to get some more publicity now!

Again, thanks for helping me out!
If the rest of the Scratch community is as awesome as you, this is going to be one fun ride!

- – — – - – — – - – — – - – — – - – — – - – — – - – — – - – — – - – — – -
¨ˆ;“*•›¸     ¸‹•*“ˆ“*•›¸
   `›,¸¸;,‹“ Ultimate Evader 2.0
         ˆ›,,¸¸¸,,‹“ Out Now!

Offline

 

#4 2013-04-20 02:07:29

dantefrizzoli
New Scratcher
Registered: 2013-04-19
Posts: 26

Re: Starting out - Any tips?

I found this pretty helpful as well since I am still on my first scratch project!

Offline

 

#5 2013-04-20 08:12:47

ProgrammingFreak
Scratcher
Registered: 2010-09-04
Posts: 1000+

Re: Starting out - Any tips?

Great job, Gravitation
I think this would be good as a separate topic that would be very sticky-worthy ;0

It's very helpful and I might have even learned some new ideas from it lol

Offline

 

#6 2013-04-21 20:34:56

LeDerpy123
Scratcher
Registered: 2013-01-26
Posts: 100+

Re: Starting out - Any tips?

Reference your game/projects in the forums. If someone asked how to do something with their project, you could say "*blah blah blah* For example in my game, (insert link here) you can see that it is similar *blah blah blah*"

Might be kind of a stretch, but hey, it still works to some extent.


http://www.winpenpack.com/en/e107_files/downloadthumbs/logo_mixxx.png

Offline

 

#7 2013-04-22 16:58:02

PaulRHJT
New Scratcher
Registered: 2013-04-14
Posts: 34

Re: Starting out - Any tips?

LeDerpy123 wrote:

Reference your game/projects in the forums. If someone asked how to do something with their project, you could say "*blah blah blah* For example in my game, (insert link here) you can see that it is similar *blah blah blah*"

Good point, but I'd say that your main objective should be to help the person out; I wouldn't feel comfortable giving someone minimal advice just to reference my own project.

- – — – - – — – - – — – - – — – -
ˆ;“*•›¸     ¸‹•*“ˆ“*•›¸
  `›,¸¸;,‹“ Ultimate Evader 2.0
        ˆ›,,¸¸¸,,‹“ Out Now!

Offline

 

Board footer