Ok so when you first clicked on my topic, you probably assumed I was a young, inexperienced Scratcher who is just dying to get some followers.

However, I'm not. I've been on Scratch for almost 6 years now, and have made many projects which I am quite proud of.

I've noticed that a lot of people who are new to Scratch are getting very popular very fast. I only have 96 followers, and while that's no means a low number, a lot of them followed me years ago and are inactive now, so I effectively only have a handful of people who actually check out my projects.

The only time I ever gain any popularity is when my projects have been curated. It's just a little bit frustrating to put work into a project without knowing if people will even care about it. I've tried to be a lot more active in the Scratch community lately, just trying to make my account more alive. I've run for FPC and I plan to run again, I've made some songs, and I've released games.

If you can help me, what can I actively do to get more popular? I don't necessarily want to have X number of followers of X number of likes, I'd just like people to actually care about my projects.

I recently had a theory. Is my account to old? Is the age of my account somehow taking away from the possibility of me getting popular? Have I passed some unspoken age barrier where people just generally don't see you anymore? This brings up my next question. Should I move accounts? I have another account ready to go should I decide to move. However, I'm really scared to move, because my whole life on Scratch has been on @diglett123 . I don't particularly like the username anymore, but I really do like the projects I've created here. Is there a good way to move accounts without feeling like I'm totally starting from scratch? (pun intended)

Thanks for reading (and hopefully answering some of my questions)!

Advertising yourself seems to gain popularity. A signature is the perfect little free space to do that. Of course, there are more, but that seems the most effective.

I help out on the forums on a regular basis, which seemed to get me some favor. I mean, I'm fine with it – but that's not really why I came here. I came to help, and that's what I'll do.

I don't see a need ever in switching accounts.

Super_Scratch_Bros20 wrote:

Advertising yourself seems to gain popularity. A signature is the perfect little free space to do that. Of course, there are more, but that seems the most effective.

I help out on the forums on a regular basis, which seemed to get me some favor. I mean, I'm fine with it – but that's not really why I came here. I came to help, and that's what I'll do.

I don't see a need ever in switching accounts.

Thanks for the tips!

make a generic platformer, that's one thing the front page algorithm likes.

dftyu wrote:

make a generic platformer, that's one thing the front page algorithm likes.

hah

Don't Move! Your followers will miss you! Here is some reasons that you should not move:

• 58% Of your followers will follow you on your other acc!
  The username you are going to choose might be taken already
  and thats all I got. Yep
  

Here is my Grocery List (Guys just its a joke okay?):

• Froot Loops
  Cheeze Its
  Milk
  Cake Batter
  Cookies
  Tuna
  

Srry I am Testing the forums lol

I was in the exact same predicament some months ago. A certain friend really helped me out of it. Here are some tips I've learned along my quest for fame.
• Advertise! “Advertise here” projects/studios, Add Everything studios, and anywhere where it's explicitly allowed.
• F4F. Some people reject F4F. If you're not doing it already, and you're not afraid to follow a lot of people, go ahead and do F4F! (Small underrated Scratchers are the best targets for F4F, hehe. Bringing me to my next point..)
• Find underrated Scratchers. People who have little followers, yet make some pretty cool stuff, abound on Scratch. Be polite, love and fav their stuff, and ask for F4F if you feel like they would be OK with it. Trust me, it's mutually beneficial.
• Find a community! Get into a group of people who share interests, make friends, share projects, and have fun. This will help you get more views but also help you have more fun, socialize, and learn more about coding in some way. No-brainer win-win-win.
• Featured studios/SDS. Ooh, I cannot emphasize this more. It's not hard to get into an SDS or featured studio, and once you do, slap on a catchy title, and watch the stonks rise.

Things NOT to do:
Don't advertise where it's not allowed/not explicitly allowed. People get all mad about this. Same with F4F. Be careful.
Don't be a jerk, be nice. No one will follow you that way. Sorry, it's the cold hard truth

And here's a bit of general advice:
—Have fun coding. Ultimately Scratch will become a great experience in your life, so make sure you're having fun and learning.
—Look back and be grateful. Don't compare yourself to the people who have more followers, compare yourself to the people you used to compare yourself to. You'll feel a lot more empowered that way.

Good luck on your Scratch Journey

Note after I made this post - my “quest for fame” is pretty irrelevant by now as I'm very happy with my current level of followers (I actually kinda wish I could have fewer )

gosoccerboy5 wrote:

-snip-

Those are some good suggestions.

—

Now, an edited reply I made to a different topic:


The way I see it is you need to offer something (usually projects that are desired) to the community, and with this, you will get popular in return. It's kind of like a trade.
Think of some famous Scratchers. Go and look at their profiles, and what they offer. Let's look at Griffpatch first. He makes advanced projects that show Scratch used in different ways. He shows what can be done, and a major part of the popularity comes in showing that other games can be ported to Scratch. Minecraft and Terraria are both hugely famous games. By taking those already popular things and making relevant projects, the popularity naturally comes with ease.

The same thing goes with other trends. Among us is currently very popular, and of course, recreations of the games are right now pulling in thousands of views within days. It doesn't have to be just games, though. I remember when fidget spinners were a thing. Thousands of view there, although you probably wouldn't want to just jump in to some random trend that becomes dated and uninteresting within weeks.
Platformers are very popular on Scratch, too. Make some of those, and you might get some views, but I don't know as I don't make platformers anymore.

Back to Griffpatch, he doesn't only take projects for popular trends. Complex projects like physics simulations and multiplayer are found there too. These things take a lot of effort to get right, and because of that, they do very well. I don't know why it does. Maybe there are not enough projects in these subjects to make it hard to find. Maybe there really is a huge amount of demand for them. Either way, these projects do get a lot of views when done right.

So, for creating projects, you need to figure out what you want to make that also is something that people want to play. That's really the core principle. That is the trade I mentioned earlier, where you offer something and the users give in return, the popularity.


For me personally, the things I offer are in the realm of physics. My most popular projects are my flight simulator series. It is something that I enjoy to create and is actually in pretty high demand (I didn't expect this), whilst also being somewhat difficult to create well. Because of this, I was able to climb up the search results to get my projects within the first few at the top. I think in this case, the success was thanks to other successful flight simulators, which loops back to following trends as I mentioned.
Also, it does take time. I have been on Scratch for over 5 years now. In that time, I have made many flight simulators, each one improving over the last.

Now, having a good project does not guarantee popularity, but it gives you a good chance. To really get up there, it is a mix of a few other factors.
Firstly, there needs to be a way to initially get interest in your stuff. An already established popular account will pull in more views than a month old, 10 follower account, even if an identical project was shared on both of them. This is hard to start, and so you will find that for now, it will still take a bit of time before your popularity starts improving, after something that works. I think one major impact on this is interacting with the community. Join studios, post lots on the forums (what I am doing), etc. Get your name out there. If posting on the forums, try ads in the show and tell forum. Also get a signature to advertise your best projects. Even just commenting on projects means that you now have a link from there. Maybe 100 see your comment, and maybe a couple actually go and view your profile (more likely on sort of known projects with not too many views). A few views is better than none.


The next things are easy to change and should be ensured.

A project needs to be presentable. Make sure that thumbnails are something that users want to look at in the first place. If not, they probably don't think you offer anything good enough. Go for something aesthetic, easy to see what it is, and not too messy or of poor quality. Again, look at the famous scratcher's profiles. Notice the design of thumnails. Straight away you should understand they look like something a user want to click on. The projects appear to be good. As much as people want to throw around that saying about judging a book by it's cover, it hardly holds up in gaining popularity. Trust me here.

Make sure that projects are titled properly. Put effort into how they are presented. Add key words. When users search for anything, usually they go for a key word. “Physics”, “simulator”, “platformer”, etc. is going to get way more searches, so take this opportunity to make your projects contain the correct terms. A physics project needs that word or something related to appear in searches.
Edit: Spelling is key too! Search up “tower defense” and "tower defence". The first is the US spelling, the other is not. The search results are entirely different. One will get more searches than the other. It's a case-by-case basis so you have to check with each word like this.

Add the projects to studios. As many as you can. Try asking for them to be added in many.


That's all I can think of for now. It's lengthy because there is a lot that can be done. It takes a lot of analysis of the community and how it functions.
Good luck!

Thanks everyone!

(Also, as a side note this is now my most popular discussion

How ironic XD)

I also needed this. I've been here for almost 2 years and I sometimes see accounts that are only a few months old and they have like 10x the amount of followers I have. I know Scratch isn't for fame, but the projects I worked on for hours, probably aren't going to get any views. Thank you.

dftyu wrote:

make a generic platformer, that's one thing the front page algorithm likes.

No. Make a non-generic platformer. They tend to get lots of views and good comments.
For example, Za-Chary's platformer teleports you to one side if you go to the edge of another.
And my platformer is round instead of flat.
They are both space themed, but non-generic and very popular.

-InsanityPlays- wrote:

dftyu wrote:

make a generic platformer, that's one thing the front page algorithm likes.

No. Make a non-generic platformer. They tend to get lots of views and good comments.
For example, Za-Chary's platformer teleports you to one side if you go to the edge of another.
And my platformer is round instead of flat.
They are both space themed, but non-generic and very popular.

That was a joke. but technically it is a way even though it's a bad way

There is no “barrier” where once you pass you will no longer be noticed. Looking at your projects, they are pretty good! However, an idea that might work is to join in the trends. Like make games or animations relating to (Currently) Among Us or something. I also recommend trying to make a long, unique game you think people may like.

Regarding thumbnails, I recommend using bright colors that will capture the eyes of possible viewers. Try not to use dark colors, or just try to custom fonts.

I find being nice and making friends is a good way, I got lots of practice on my old account and now I apply to my new one. During the year and a half I used my old account I got 4 non-IRL followers; now in my new account I get 5 followers a week, just because I help people a lot.

Focus more on making stuff then people will follow you, and DON"T move accounts

gchan1228 wrote:

Focus more on making stuff then people will follow you, and DON"T move accounts

this discussion is dead

diglett123 wrote:

Ok so when you first clicked on my topic, you probably assumed I was a young, inexperienced Scratcher who is just dying to get some followers.

However, I'm not. I've been on Scratch for almost 6 years now, and have made many projects which I am quite proud of.

I've noticed that a lot of people who are new to Scratch are getting very popular very fast. I only have 96 followers, and while that's no means a low number, a lot of them followed me years ago and are inactive now, so I effectively only have a handful of people who actually check out my projects.

The only time I ever gain any popularity is when my projects have been curated. It's just a little bit frustrating to put work into a project without knowing if people will even care about it. I've tried to be a lot more active in the Scratch community lately, just trying to make my account more alive. I've run for FPC and I plan to run again, I've made some songs, and I've released games.

If you can help me, what can I actively do to get more popular? I don't necessarily want to have X number of followers of X number of likes, I'd just like people to actually care about my projects.

I recently had a theory. Is my account to old? Is the age of my account somehow taking away from the possibility of me getting popular? Have I passed some unspoken age barrier where people just generally don't see you anymore? This brings up my next question. Should I move accounts? I have another account ready to go should I decide to move. However, I'm really scared to move, because my whole life on Scratch has been on @diglett123 . I don't particularly like the username anymore, but I really do like the projects I've created here. Is there a good way to move accounts without feeling like I'm totally starting from scratch? (pun intended)

Thanks for reading (and hopefully answering some of my questions)!

Hiya! I think u could do things such as:
Add your project's to advertising studios,
Try make more friends and interact with people on Scratcg
Comment nice things on people's projects
BTW, I don't think it's to do with how old ur account is, I've had my account for 5 years and I've suddenly got a lot more followers. Hope this helps!

@ruler3

Kind of same for me except that I have 12 followers and I have 6+ years of experience.

ReliableOkapi18 wrote:

gchan1228 wrote:

Focus more on making stuff then people will follow you, and DON"T move accounts

this discussion is dead

Please don’t necropost