11 Tips on Getting Promoted on Dribbble

I will tell you in this article what you should do to increase your chances of getting into the Popular section on Dribbble and to attract customers.

Briefly about Dribbble:

• Launched in 2009
• 13.86 mln users on the platform (as of December 2020), according to SimilarWeb statistics
• It is allowed to publish a piece of the project at the stage of development or when it is finished on the website, which is called a shot
• The shots can be uploaded in PNG, JPG and GIF, up to 10 Mb, aspect ratio 4:3. The maximum resolution of static graphics is 1,600×1,200 pixels. The maximum resolution of animations is 800×600 pixels

Long story short, Dribbble is like Instagram for a design community, which definitely covers your target audience.

WHY YOU SHOULD PUBLISH CASES ON DRIBBBLE

• It is a large, old community of professional designers. There are customers on the platform who can contact you, if they like your shot.
• Unlike Behance, Dribbble is a more private platform due to invites and paid opportunities. On the other hand, these restrictions filter out outsiders and provide opportunities for finding customers and designers.
• Publishing is quick here — you do not need a huge case like on Behance. One screen is enough. You focus on design, not its presentation.
  However, this does not mean you do not need to formalize your case. More on this below.

11 TIPS ON GETTING PROMOTED ON DRIBBBLE

1) Fill out your profile

Indicate your specialization and other information in the BIO, upload a photo, add a link to the website (Public Profile tab) and to social networks: Instagram, Behance, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, etc. in the Social Profiles tab

2) Add tags and the shot title correctly

Check the tags attributed to popular shots on your topic. Add 5–10 main categories to the shot that describe its content.

Try to imagine how designers and customers will search for you. What queries will they use in the search? Most likely, they will use general queries, such as “finance” or “booking app”. Give the shot a simple and understandable title of 1–4 words.

3) Upload shots in high resolution and optimize the image

The highest shot resolution is 1,600×1,200 pixels now. When zooming the shot in, people will be able to see the details and elaboration of the elements.

Many do not wait for the page to load and close it, if it takes too long. Improve your chances of getting a like by optimizing your image. Adjust the file size when exporting from Photoshop or use the jpeg/png lossless compression service at https://tinypng.com/

4) Quantity wins quality

Do not try to get the perfect shot that hits the TOP right away. Publish more to understand what the audience likes and which cases get the most feedback. Earn as much experience as possible, run experiments.

Most likely, your shots will not be visited very often the first few months after registration, there will be few likes. Do not be disappointed, continue to publish new cases, and the result will be not long in coming!

If you want to get the result faster, use the likes, views and comments promotion from BeTop.me

5) Come up with a short and interesting description

Briefly describe the shot content, arrange the text neatly (highlight key phrases, make lists, add emoticons, if appropriate, etc.), offer users to rate your case with a like and follow your social networks. This will increase engagement, and you will be rated more likely.

6) Publish regularly

Publish at least 1 shot (preferably 2–4) per week. Dribbble allows to publish no more than 24 shots per month.

There is no perfect time to publish. The statistics says that Dribbble users are very active between 10am and 2pm CET (Central European Standard Time).

Popular days for activity (in descending order) are Friday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

However, you have to try it yourself and find the best time to publish.

7) Be active

Like shots of other Dribbble users, leave comments (if you have a PRO subscription or an invite), follow interesting accounts. They will begin to interact with you more often, which will increase the attendance rate of your profile and shots.

Reply to comments left under your cases as well. This is bon ton: other users will see that you care and leave comments as well.

8) Publish holiday and trending shots

Ahead of the holidays, designers and customers are looking for ideas for inspiration and may find you. Prepare reskins of your shots for the holidays or publish new cases for Christmas, Easter, Halloween and other major holidays.

There is a technique called rebound — a copy of a popular shot. Choose a shot from the TOP that you like and try to repeat it either in whole or in part (individual elements). There is a good chance of hitting Popular if you make a decent copy on time.

Look for trends and make your own variations of fashion trends as well.

9) Buy a PRO account

A PRO account costs money, but it opens up lots of useful features, such as:

• Extra profile and design settings
• Access to a multi-frame (slider), i.e. multiple images can be published in one shot
• Video publishing
• Attachments
• Link to buy (for example, to Shutterstock or Creative Market)
• You are in the list of designers, in a special section
• Extended statistics. You can connect Google Analytics and collect very detailed information about your audience, sources of attraction, etc.
• Delayed scheduled shot publication
• Team profile, and much more
  More about all PRO plan options

10) Unveil the process

People are curious to know what hides behind the design: what techniques and methods were used in the process. Show it in individual shots or attach a link to the final shot. You can also attach additional slides/attachments if you have a PRO account.

11) Find your niche

At the very start, you will face a question: “what should I draw and publish?” Interfaces (UI/UX) and illustrations are as popular on Dribbble as on Behance. If you need something to start with, then start with them (if you want to draw them).

You also need to choose the right platform, because Android is less popular with designers and customers than iOS, for example.

As a result, you will find the interesting niche for you, where you will become a specialist. This will simplify the customers’ choice: often preference is given to narrow specialists who know all the nuances of work.

To quickly reach and maintain high positions of your cases, use Betop.me is a service for boosting likes, views and comments on Dribbble and other platforms for designers.