Self Suggesting DD's

Thank you so much for all the +favs, the comments and +devwatchs I've received and still am for my Daily Deviation "Carried Away". You guys are awesome and I appreciate your support so much!

Now I have a confession to make... I self suggested this deviation to DomiSM, so it didn't come as a surprise I received it.

I know from being a volunteer that some people feel that DD's should be suggested by others or that it should be a surprise. Well no, not always. Sometimes you have to fight for your work to gain exposure. Gone are the days where deviantART was a small site... you need to learn how to use the channels on dA to get the exposure your work deserves.

These days, I work in vector and the high pecentage of work I upload to dA is client work. A huge part of being a Freelancer is marketting yourself and putting yourself out there. This is why self suggesting yourself for a Daily Deviation should be utilised as much as you can.

So here's some tips for you on Self Suggesting:

• Remember that at most, you can only receive one Daily Deviation every 6 months. So make sure you suggest your best piece to the Community Volunteer. At the time of writing, my DD received over 6.5k views in a day. Make sure those views are people seeing your best work. If you don't know what your best work is, go into your gallery and use the Browse > Popular to find out what's been favourited/commented on the most. Use this then to find out what will yield you the highest amount of exposure.
• Only send your self suggestion to one Community Volunteer. You'll need to suggest one piece to them, don't say "I want a DD feature, check out my gallery to see what's best" - that is very off putting. Consider how many notes a VOLUNTEER gets (they do this gig for free you know) and you're adding to extra work. So make their role easy and cut to the chase. Say you'd like to suggest your own work for a DD feature and use the thumbcode to display the piece you wish to be DD'd. Be nice, use your pleases and thank yous! Remember to read that CV's DD guidelines. Some don't like to give people more than X amount of DDs, some don't mind. Make sure that one CV you've picked to suggest to allows your piece to be a feature.
• If your CV turns down your work to be featured, I know it sounds hard but don't take it personally. DD's are being held to a high standard and a lot of people expect high quality work to be featured... anything less and people complain (which they shouldn't do on deviations, but sadly not everyone reads the rules!). Keep an eye on communityrelations for their bi-weekly critique nights and utilise this to find out how you can improve. Always remember, DD's are not the end game... they aren't what you should be aiming to get out of your art, but it's just a small tool to gain exposure. Nothing more. It's not an award, it's just a site wide feature.
• If you've used any resources from deviantART or gained inspiration from any piece on deviantART, link it. If your piece gets DD'd and there is one small element which you've not creditted, chances are people will comment on it. There is no shame in gaining inspiration (not copying/tracing!) or using tutorials/stock/resources. There is a shame in your day of being featured being turned into a bitch fest of people complaining to you you need to credit your sources!
• If you know which day you'll be getting a DD, try to make some time to respond to peoples comments. It invites people to want to know more about your art and you. You build connections and hopefully discover other people along the way! This is a community after all! It goes without saying, if you receive any negative comments on your DD, don't rise to it. Take a deep breath and compose yourself. Some might be valid critism, some trolls will troll. Learn how to tell the difference and deal with them appropriately.