Content 2.0 Created A Community On My Site

by Kerry
(Allaboutdrawings.com)

I have always wanted to draw yet I lived most of my life under the impression that you had to be born with a talent to draw. I set about teaching myself to draw when I was in my forties and I realized that drawing was a possibility after all. It was such an exciting moment when I looked at my artwork, I wanted to share it and to tell everyone that we don't have to have "a gift" to be able to draw successfully.

So, Allaboutdrawings.com was born.

I receive a lot of mail from my visitors who love the easy layout and informality of the site.

The introduction of C2 was exactly what my visitors wanted and needed.

I first created a C2 invitation to correspond with each main Tier 2 page. So, where "Animal Drawings" was a Tier 2, I created "Your Animal Drawings". I have Your Nature Drawings, Your Pencil Drawings, Your Fantasy Drawings and so on. There is also a place where artists can upload a photo of themselves and tell their story.

When I first implemented C2, I kept promoting it in my monthly newsletter. Every second month I would go into great detail how to upload your own drawings, with step by step instructions. Of course, to promote it as being "free" is also a bonus for everyone.

Then, in each monthly newsletter, I would list the contributions for the past month. It was a section of the newsletter that was very popular, I received a lot of positive feedback about it. That was until I reached about 25 contributions per month. After that, it became too cumbersome to list them all, it has grown so much. So now, I create a page on my site and I provide the link within the newsletter. Here is one of those pages:

Your Drawings For December

I also promote C2 on every page of the site.

C2 has helped me to create a wonderful community of beginner artists and they all keep in touch with me on a regular basis.

When I review contributions, I keep in mind that it's my site and I only approve visible drawings with an original story.

I know that children love the site so I remove any adult material. I don't like rules but I have found it was necessary to make some. The rules are -

Tell a good story - "I was bored" or any other one line sentence won't make it.
Don't forget to upload the drawing.
The drawing must be yours.
No violence, nudity or suggestion of nudity.

I have a lot of regular contributors and I am thinking I will create sections within C2 that has the page about the artist with their drawings linked to that. (I haven't worked out how to do that yet, but I'll get there!)

I love C2, I love that it keeps my site on the move constantly. I have close to 700 C2 pages at this moment.

One nice benefit of C2 is that it brings my visitors together as they offer to help each other within the comments section under each drawing.

All of my beginner artists have flourished with the encouragement they receive and it's a great pleasure to watch them grow and improve. I remove any negative comments if they don't offer any constructive advice, I protect my baby artists fiercely.

I think it is through C2 that my newsletter sign ups increased.

When I release my first ebook, I know I have established a firm base of friends who trust me and who will more than likely support my book.

There are so many positives to C2, the benefits go on for eternity, and I know that I haven't even begun to tap its full potential.


Kerry
All About Drawings