Hi there! 

People asked me several times when I've became 'popular' on this site and in which way. I must admit I smelled a bit of envy in their tones, but  the thing that troubled me more was that they didn't think that my work was worth all the pageviews I got over the years. 

Well, I wanted to explain this little thing right now... dA costed me a lot of work! It wasn't a 'BOOM! POPULAR!' thing at all for me.

I had to study other people's methods too and to work hard on improving my art, and it wasn't easy. At all!

So tonight I'm sharing with you some methods to get attention by dA community.
Don't take them as unquestionable laws, just take them for what they are... Hints.
They worked for me but they may not work for you.

And now that you have a dA account...

What should you do?

► POST  FINISHED ARTWORKS ONLY
Your first post should be a finished work, no matter if in black and white or not, just post something finished in you gallery. It will be your portfolio. If you want your audience to see your sketches there's a section named 'Scrapbook' in which you can post them or either Tumblr is a good platform too. People should find your art interesting. Reply to this question: 'Would I watch myself?' 'Is my art good enough?' If the answer is 'YES' then you may have the qualifications to be noticed by the Community. If you don't like your art yourself, I suggest you to take art classes trying to improve your art or try with different media. Everybody can be good at art, you just have to practice everyday. Never give in! 

► BE CREATIVE
Do your best to improve your art and to find other and better ways to do art. This site is full of amazing tutorials to learn how to draw digitally or traditionally, or to approach new techniques. Also, a periodically checking of this amazing dA section called What's hot could waken your creativity. Just remind you don't have to copy others to be creative: always keep you style and you'll go far!

► BE ACTIVE
Post something every week. If you can't do it (busy with work, or school), keep your watchers updated with a journal or post an ID. 

► REPLY TO COMMENTS AND NOTES
This doesn't mean you have to spam other people pages with a 'thank you for the fav' comment. Just reply to other people comments in your main page or deviations. Your watchers should become attached to you and you should love them.

► KEEP YOUR PERSONAL LIFE AWAY (FROM dA JOURNALS)
Ok, journals may be 'personal' but, please, don't use them to say you're ill, you got a haircut, you visited your relatives... It's preferable to make new art for similar news, like doing a self portrait with your new haircut, maybe. Everybody may read your personal stuff and this is not good for your reputation (even if you had great time), use Twitter for that. A good thing is to share  your reached goals with your watchers, though. 'I graduated', 'I got a job', 'I made an exhibition' are things your watchers die to know! They want you to be flawless to their eyes. 

► USE dA FORUM
Get in touch with other Deviants. Always keep in mind this is a Community and if you don't watch or comment on other people's work, then they may never noticed you and your art. My best choice, when I wasn't popular was posting my art in the Deviation ThumbShare section of the Forum, in which you can share your Thumbs and see other people's artworks. 

► MAKE GIVEAWAYS AND CONTESTS
People would love to be paid or win prices for drawing your OCs or either participate in a Themed Challenge with prizes, or either win something without doing anything. So do it! And don't forget to encourage/require people to put a link to your journal in their entry comment. 

► JOIN GROUPS
Absolutely join dA groups and put art in them! Some groups are really big, they have over 1000 watchers and they could help you increasing your audience exponentially. Check out dA groups HERE. 

► SHARE RESOURCES WITH PEOPLE
Be kind and share some tutorials, steps by steps, color palettes, poses, Photoshop actions or brushes, bases, Memes, wallpapers, with the community. People will be really grateful and you will learn a lot from them, especially if you shared poses and anatomical references. 

► SUGGEST DAILY DEVIATIONS AND BROWSE ART
Please do! Really. To get people interested in your art, you should be interested in art first! Be an active art enthusiast, fave and comment over other people's work and do it with pleasure.

► DO ART FEATURES
Yes, same as above. Show people you care about other artists and quality art. Spread the love! People are here for the art and they'll thank you if you'll show them new good artists to follow.

►TAKE COMMISSIONS
Question yourself as an artist. Take commissions and show Deviants what you can do when you're out of your comfort zone.

►NEVER STARTS FLAMES
If you have something to say to a user never say it in public. Send them a note instead. Being polite is the best way to coexist in a huge community like this one. People opinions may differ. If you and another user don't think the same, just politely explain your opinion and if they don't understand/respect it, well... No trouble! You can always deal with them in private or either block them. 

►INVEST IN A PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP
And you won't be disappointed! You can change your main page appearance, which is really good to impress your audience. Furthermore, you won't see ADs, you can change your username (I did!), your Sta.sh storage increases of 8GB, you can view your Stats (which is really important in case you want to build a consistent audience), you can set your own royalties over your prints and have a 10% discount over prints in general, creating a dA Portfolio and much more.

►GET AN APPEALING AVATAR
An avatar is like 'your face' on dA community, so it should rather represent a picture or your face or a detail of your best artwork. Pixel art avatars are cute, but they always disappear in the ocean.

►RESPECT dA RULES
Yep. I forgot to write it before but yes, you should also respect rules. Like... never post +18 art or you'll be banned, not even in your Sta.sh! Always flag your nudity with 'mature content' (I learned it the hard way...).
Read dA rules in case you're in trouble.

► DO FANARTS (BUT NOT TOO MANY)
Even if I do NOT encourage this method to get watchers, this is absolutely the best way to get them. I didn't use it, though, because it's a double-edged sword... People may not like the fandom you're in. People may get bored of your work quickly. People may ask you if you can do something 'that's really yours'. Do you want to get noticed for your originality or because 'you made that awesome fanart of Korra, OMG!'? It's up to you.