I initially joined Behance as a backup for my portfolio. My idea was that if my hard drive ever crashed, I'd have a backup to keep everything safe. Initially, I only uploaded one piece of web design work. However, my plan was to eventually upload my entire portfolio. So, I had to get organized, resize the work, and write descriptions for each piece.
What is Behance?
Good question. Behance is a popular online platform and social network that focuses on showcasing and discovering creative work. It's primarily used by artists, designers, photographers, and other creative professionals to display their portfolios, share their projects, and connect with other like-minded individuals. Behance allows users to upload images, videos, and descriptions of their work, creating a visually appealing and interactive way to present their creative endeavours.
It's often used as a tool for self-promotion, job hunting, and networking within the creative industry. Behance is owned by Adobe and is closely integrated with Adobe Creative Cloud applications.
Exciting new toy
I was enormously excited. First, it was a new toy, all shiny, and I'm going to smash this. The thought that other people could see my work gives you a warm feeling inside.
Like most things, the initial energy and excitement quickly wore off. Collating all the work, prepping it, and saving it for the web all takes time. Eventually, The toy got thrown to the side, and I forgot that I had put work on Behance.
Other things came along and were fighting for my time and attention. weeks and months passed without me even logging in.
A comment can be a powerful thing
Then, someone posted a comment. It was a good comment. It reminded me that something of mine existed out there.
It reminded me why I joined in the first place. To get my work out there, exposure. Anyway, back to the comment - wow, a comment. Someone actually looked at my design and then took the time to write something.
It's not that I'm obsessed with getting comments! I'm not, it's just nice to know that there are people out there looking.
At the same time, I was doing more self-initiated work that had nothing to do with web design.
Behance was the perfect outlet. Hmm got me thinking.
The joy of Behance
So, with a few feedback comments, I started to get my Behance mojo back. I started thinking that I should put up that font design that I did a while back. Perhaps someone out there on Behance might like it. They might want to download it.
Plus, I've got a few illustration ideas knocking about in my head. I really should get them on paper and on Behance.
Shocking results: the slow burn
I was really shocked at the response and feedback. Not that many views at first, but gradually, more and more. People were looking at my work. It was great. I thought I should probably blog about what I did, so I did and allowed people to download the font for the price of a tweet. Again, more and more people downloaded it. I started getting comments from all over the world.
Conclusion
If I had never joined, Behance none of this would have happened. I wouldn't have uploaded that font or wrote that blog post. It boosted my website traffic beyond what I thought possible.
Before all this happened, I never had any links pointing to my website and very little search engine traffic.
Gradually, people started featuring my work on their blog without me doing anything - amazing.
Then, another feature, and another before long I had hundreds of inbound links, totally blew me away.
The power of Behance to increase search engine traffic—amazeballs!
One final thought or learning, don't ever underestimate the power of a comment. On todays internet so many people troll and offer up their negative thoughts. Try not to do that. Leave a nice comment and validate someones effort and talents. It just might be the encouragement and support they need. It might lead to connections with like-minded people—it might inspire someone to do something.
Thanks for popping by.