Jess Smart Smiley's Blog, page 9
April 26, 2019
Ghost Comics
I’ve started making a weekly comic strip called Ghost Comics, about the adorable yet problematic lives of ghosts.
I’ve been posting the comics on my Instagram page, and thought I’d share a few here to get you excited so that you’ll follow me on Instagram, follow the comic, buy the t-shirt, and help fund the movies.
Just you try to resist my Ghost Comics!
View this post on Instagram
April 25, 2019
SocialCaptain Review / Growing on Instagram (Part IV)
This post is my fourth in a series dedicated to my extensive deep-dive into the world of Instagram growth services by signing up for one free trial after another and comparing my experiences in real-time, right here on my blog.
If you’d like to learn more about how I’m learning from free trials, then be sure to subscribe and read my first post, Growing on Instagram (Part I).
Otherwise, read on.
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24-Hour Free Trial
Most free trials I’ve seen offer 3-day or 1-week trials, so I was surprised to find that SocialCaptain offers a 24-hour free trial.
After reading through their site, it was clear that SocialCaptain (SC) focus is on acquiring genuine followers through organic means. In addition to growth services, SC provide a dashboard, where users can customize information and actions based on their target audience.
The site is clean and current, and SocialCaptain even have a blog, which helps in giving me a glimpse into the company and their relationship with their customers (both of which seemed to be fine).
Last of all, I checked out their Facebook (80+ followers) and Twitter page(200+ followers). The majority of growth service providers I’ve come across tend to have low followings, so I’m really looking for any blatant issues with a cursory glance over their most recent posts, what followers are saying and how SC replies.
It all seemed good to me, so I signed up for the 24-hour free trial.
24-Hour Free Trial
Signing up was quick and easy, and, within minutes, my trial was underway!
Upon signing up, I was logged into a dashboard, where I could toggle on and off actions like “likes”, “comments”, “follows” and “unfollow. Below this information was an Activity Feed that supposedly displayed the actions my account was taking in real-time. I was given options to include similar accounts and specific hashtags, or to let the algorithm run on its own.
At the beginning of my trial I had 8,436 followers and 1635 profile views within the previous 7 days. (I hadn’t been online much during this time, so I hadn’t posted or brought in traffic on my own for the past week or so.) At the end of the trial, my following had increased by 75 followers though SC only took credit for 36 of the new followers. (You might have noticed in the second image below that my profile picture and bio have changed. I thought it was time to freshen things up a bit and took a few minutes to mess around with custom fonts, as well as setting up a Linktree account.)
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When I learned I no longer had access to the “action” data that had been provided during my trial, SocialCaptain were kind enough to offer a second 24-hour trial. I gratefully accepted, eager to find out what the Day 1 results would be when compared with Day 2.
Another 24-Hour Trial
While my health and schedule didn’t allow me to check in as often as I would have liked, I was able to get a screenshot of the dashboard in action, which was fascinating to see.
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As you can see, the dashboard displays my number of followers in real time, as well as how many actions SC have taken, as well as how and when they applied the actions. New followers are listed in the bottom-left, along with a Quality Score, which has me all kinds of intrigued. I’d like to get more insight into the Top Sources chart (bottom-right), especially about the “other” category, as well as actual numbers for the locations and hashtags used.
At the end of my second day, my total follower count was 8,553 (a 2-day increase of 117 new followers, of which SC were only taking credit for 71).
It’s interesting to note that while only 198 actions were taken by SC over a 2-day period (including likes, comments, follows, and unfollows), they were able to generate an average of 35.5 new followers per day. That’s more followers than Rapid Grow were able to generate, even though they tend to follow 500 accounts per day. It make me think there might be something to SC’s “artificial intelligence-powered boosting module [which] improves with every single execution”.
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My Review of SocialCaptain
Effectiveness: SocialCaptain managed to pull in more followers with less than half the actions that Rapid Grow made I can’t help but wonder results a week or a month with SocialCaptain might yield. 5/5
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Analytics Provided: The dashboard was helpful, though still a bit vague (e.g. what is that ”Quality Score” rating, and what is the ”other” category shown in the ”Top Sources” section?). While the Customer Service team was unable to answer any questions about dashboard information, I get the impression I would have more information and context for it with a paid account. Bonus points for real time results. 4/5
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Customer Service: I As with the analytics, I wasn’t allowed much access outside of a paid account, but the team did offer me an extended trial and I had quick and easy access to Customer Service Reps via their site. 4/5
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Ease of Use: Very easy to use. With the addition of quality information and an algorithm that learns from each action, I could see myself potentially hand over growth completely to SocialCaptain. 5/5
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Financial Expense: Even at a cost of $100/month for their Turbo plan, the quality of followers, efficiency of the system, and quality of information and data provided are probably well-worth the cost for a small-medium-sized business with a marketing team. My struggle here is in justifying a cost of $100 for my page that’s much less about sales and more about interacting with more people. While I can’t justify paying $100/month to interact with more people on Instagram, I would put my team’s marketing budget to work with SocialCaptain immediately! 4/5
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This makes for a total rating of 23/25–our highest score yet!
Would You Use SocialCaptain?
Was this review helpful to you? How?Have you used SocialCaptain before? Would you?Did you learn anything new about how to grow your Instagram account?BONUS: What are your goals for growing on Instagram? What do you want to learn more about? What do you want to do differently in the future?
If you decide to reach out to SocialCaptain, be sure to send a link to this post and let them know that Jess Smart Smiley sent you (how could they forget a name like mine?). My goal here is to help others in my quest to learn more about Instagram growth services and providers available and I want SocialCaptain to see what a positive experience I had with them.
Read Growing on Instagram (Part 1),
Read Growing on Instagram (Part II) / Jumper Media Review here.
Read Growing on Instagram (Part III) / Rapid Grow Review here.
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Illustration | Comics | Story | Design
April 24, 2019
Let’s Make Comics (1): What’s Behind the Door
Hi! My name is Jess Smart Smiley and I make rad pictures with my bare hands.
I have written and/or illustrated 18 books for young readers and created a variety of work for DisneyPixar, DreamWorks, Cartoon Network, BOOM Studios, and more. Through in-person and Skype visits to schools, libraries, and bookstores, as well as writing/drawing/comics/books events, I have helped thousands of children, teens, and adults to create their first comics!
My newest book is Let’s Make Comics! An Activity Book to Create, Write, and Draw Your Own Cartoons.
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Let’s Make Comics is packed with incomplete comics for the reader to complete by using a variety of different comics-making methods and techniques, including writing, drawing, character design, and storytelling.
The idea is that creators from all skill levels can flip open to any page and make a comic in fun and unique ways.
No need to fear the blank page—I’ve already started writing and drawing on each. All you have to do is finish the comic! Forget about messing up your precious drawings—this book is packed with my crummy drawings, and you can choose to exaggerate the characters’ cutesy-friendly looks, or turn them into salivating fire hounds. Did I mention the pages are all 8×5 x 11? This makes photocopying easy for classroom and group settings, and also allows creators to do the same activity over and over again in different ways.
Enough preamble; Let’s make comics!
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What’s Behind the Door?
Meet Peanut (turtle) and Bramble (bear). They are our guides throughout Let’s Make Comics, and they love it when people make comics about them.
In the What’s Behind the Door? activity on page 2, we see 3 separate comics, where the last part of each comic features an empty open door (opened by Peanut and/or Bramble). These comics are missing their endings, and that’s where the reader comes in. Grab a pencil, pen, or a marker and draw something in the opening of each door. (You can even take turns with a friend if it helps.)
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For Classes & Groups
I’ve used the What’s Behind the Door activity page to help teach the following:
The importance of a beginning, middle, and ending in a storyHow each panel can build tension and push it all onto the last panelHow each panel tells a unique part of the story that none of the other panels coverHow body language and facial expressions can add to the storyHow comics use repetition in interesting and helpful ways. All 3 comics feature borderless panels—that means there isn’t a shape drawn around each part of the action to separate it from the rest of the story. Instead, we understand when a new part of the story is introduced because of the placement of the repeated doors, and/or because of the characters’ places relative to the doors.
I love watching people turn these comics into funny love stories, alien invasions, and gruesome horrors.
Did you find this activity helpful? What would you draw behind your doors? How do you use comics in your classroom/group? How else would you use this activity page to teach others about making comics?
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Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to check out my comics activity page, What’s Behind the Door? This activity page is one of more than 60 comics activities featured in Let’s Make Comics! An Activity Book to Create, Write, and Draw Your Own Cartoons by Jess Smart Smiley.
April 23, 2019
US Designers: a Survey
Are you a creative professional working in the US? Beat my record of 8.5 minutes and complete the 2019 Design Census. The information gathered from this survey will allow AIGA and Google to better understand the situation of US designers in 2019, which will be provided at the conclusion of the results.
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Illustration | Comics | Story | Design
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April 22, 2019
Rapid Grow Review / Growing on Instagram (Part III)
This post is my third in a series dedicated to my extensive deep-dive into the world of Instagram growth services by signing up for one free trial after another and comparing my experiences in real-time, right here on my blog.
If you’d like to learn more about how I’m learning from free trials, then be sure to subscribe and read my first post, Growing on Instagram (Part I).
Otherwise, read on.
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Finding a $10/Month Growth Service
With my medical expenses totaling more than $20,000, I wanted to see if I could pull from my PayPal account for a $10/month service—being active on social media was quickly becoming my way of participating in a physical world and having connections with others, since I can’t sit up, stand for more than 10 minutes, drive a car, etc. I had no idea if there were such services available outside of Fiverr and other individuals, but I found a few and started doing some diffing.
The most promising $10/month service I found was Rapid Grow. (Get $5 your next bill by using code 492n27.)
1-Week Free Trial
My first month with Rapid Grow started with a free one-week trial. Comfortably low stakes.
At the beginning of my week, I had 5,433 followers and 57 profile views within the previous 7 days. (As an aside: are you as surprised as I was that I had continued gaining followers, even after I ended my services with Jumper Media?! I did my best in continuing to use the strategies I learned from Jumper, and it was encouraging to see positive results.)
By the end of the week, my follower count was up to 5,665 (an increase of 222 total followers, at an average of 40 new followers a day). Not only was my follower count up significantly, I have gone from 57 profile views to a whopping 1067 in just a week!
I was really happy with the results of Rapid Grow’s services during their Free Trial, so I signed up for a month of service at a cost of $10.
[image error]Beginning of 1-week trial[image error]End of 1-week trial
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April 20, 2019
Easter Picture Hunt
My primary concern this weekend is in making sure the kids don’t get all the eggs and candy this year. They’ve had their chance and they’ll have it again, but this year, the Easter Egg Hunt belongs to the adults!
I illustrated this handy hidden picture scene to help sharpen your egg-hunting skills, so you can see increased performance out on the field and increased sugar reserves in your baskets.
Each of the 10 items are worth a point. How many points can you get?
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April 19, 2019
Growing on Instagram (Part II) / Jumper Media Review
This post is my second in a series dedicated to my extensive deep-dive into the world of Instagram growth services by signing up for one free trial after another and comparing my experiences in real-time, right here on my blog.
If you’d like to learn more about how I’m learning from free trials, then read my first post, Growing on Instagram (Part I).
Otherwise, read on.
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[image error] Illustration by Jess Smart Smiley
April 18, 2019
Sky Without Stars
[image error] Sky Without Stars, System Divine: Book 1 by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell
If you and I have talked within the last few weeks, then you’ve heard me rave about my favorite book of the year: Sky Without Stars by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell.
Admittedly, I was a little hesitant to read the book once I learned it was a reimagining of Les Mis, set in space. I’ve been burned too many times by small-minded remakes and lackluster reboots. (I’ll be the first to admit I’m a snob—but I’m an honest one!) My worry was that the authors would basically replace all the character and location names with something spacey, and call it good. Thank Heaven this was a true reimagining that stands on its own, while also offering generous allusions to the original characters and story.
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The story is packed with plenty of intrigue and action, and even my familiarity with the characters and events of Victor Hugo’s original novel (which I finally read in 2016) kept me on my toes, wondering who the Sky Without Stars counterparts were portraying and would what happen next.
The book reads quickly (feeling more like 350 pages, rather than just shy of 600), and the way the authors slowly unravel the world and characters is nothing less than thrilling.
I won’t spoil anything here, but I will say that there was a particular scene from Les Mis that I kept hoping would make its way into Sky Without Stars, though I wasn’t sure how it would fit into the unique world that Brody and Rendell had created. But it happened. The moment came and it was wonderful.
I do not recommend you read this book—I demand it!
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April 17, 2019
Growing on Instagram (Part I)
Anyone interested in growing their Instagram account? I am!
I want to share the books, comics, games, and illustrations I’m working on with as many people as possible. That’s why I’ve started testing out free trials from 16 different services providers over the coming months. I’ve had some experience in marketing over the years, and I find demographics and other other statistical data absolutely fascinating.
Be sure to subscribe, then read on to learn more about growth services and how I’ll be testing out different providers.
[image error] Screenshot of my account, taken the day I started my research
Why Use a Growth Service?
For myself, I want people to see the pictures, comics, and stories that I’m sharing. I want other people to get involved in my work, to participate in it, and for us to have an active conversation. (My 2 most recent books, Let’s Make Comics, and my self-published maze comic, Fantasy Quest, both depend on the reader to complete parts of the books in order for them to work properly. These are stories that we tell together—and that same level of involvement is what I’m after in my Instagram posts.)
That being said, I would much rather spend my time writing and drawing than dedicating hours each day toward reaching out to other users on Instagram and trying to drive traffic to my account. For me, I’m in the storytelling business for the long haul, so I want to find a way to continue to grow my account without taking much time away from the stories I’m working on.
This is where Instagram growth services come in.
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What Is an Instagram Growth Service? What do They Provide?
Instagram growth services are companies, software, or individuals who offer any number of a variety of tools, methods, tactics, and support toward growing your Instagram account.
Here are the options I’ve seen for implementing growth services:
Do It Yourself. There is plenty of information available online on how to grow your Instagram following on your own. If you can afford the time and mental energy required for sifting through misinformation and what’s applicable to your own needs, then this could be a great option for you.Instagram Courses. There are legitimate experts who know what does and does not work on Instagram, and many have information that can help you in growing your own account. Finding these webinars, lectures, and online classes aren’t difficult, but I would suggest looking into what exactly they are offering, how they are delivering, and what customers have experienced via the service. (Keep in mind that many courses are based on offering information that you still have to implement yourself.)Individual Service Providers. This option is all about handing over your account to your IG-savvy friend (I’m looking at you, Alex), or hiring someone from Fiverr to handle your growth efforts. The short-term cost is often lower than options 2 and 4, but the success of a growth campaign is almost completely dependent on the individual’s abilities.Growth Company. If you’ve ever performed an internet search for “growing [your] Instagram” or something like that, then the top several results were probably paid ads from Instagram growth companies. Although there are plenty of individually-owned and operated companies functioning as those in option 3 do, there are small-, medium-, and large-sized companies with anywhere from a handful of employees to hundreds of employees, all working toward helping individuals and companies increase their growth on Instagram.
Some services employ the use of a rigorously automated follow/unfollow algorithm (or bot). Other services offer customers the option to buy likes and comments from other users (though there’s no guarantee that the “users” liking and commenting on your posts are actual users and not just bots themselves—possibly even created by the initial service provider). Still other services include automatic direct messaging new followers, tracking specific hashtags and/or geotags, automatic views of other users’ stories, AI that learn and improve from their application of tasks on your behalf, account managers (and management teams) that offer strategies on how to grow your account, and on, and on.
I should mention that the vast majority of these services are automated, leaving the customer free (for a price) to live their life, while lines of code complete their tasks.
After the effectiveness of a given growth service, my favorite part of the user end is any analytical data provided to me. This information can offer insights into how users are finding me through hashtags, other accounts, the Explore page, Stories, geotags, media type, etc. Depending on the service provider, I might even be able to learn something about the gender, age group, and country connected with my new followers.
If you and I can try out services like these and learn the above information about people we don’t know, then it really makes one wonder what kind of information major corporations like Google and Facebook (who owns Instagram) have access to.
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My Criteria for Testing IG Growth Services
I keep using the word “growth”, but haven’t really outlined what kind of “growth” I’m talking about. By “growth”, I mean increasing the number of followers on my account, as well as improved and increased engagement (remember: I’m all about participation!).
For this experiment, I will only be using free trials, and I’ll be looking for the following:
Effectiveness: Did the provider deliver on the services offered? (Was their guarantee of “at least 50 real followers a day” met? Did I have access to the information they said I’d have? Did I run into any problems in using their service or in regular use of my Instagram account?) Knowing the provider followed through on what they said is going to build my trust in them and their services going forward.Information / Analytics Provided: It’s not enough for me to see that something worked; I want to have some insight into how and why it worked, and how it could have worked differently or possibly better. Was I given access to meaningful information that I can continue using in growing my account? (Knowing that 78% of followers gained over the last week found me via a certain hashtag is going to be very useful going forward, as would knowing that 57% of my followers are 25-35 year-old women.)Customer Service: Including account managers and/or assistance teams. Because I have specific goals I’m trying to achieve in growing my account, it’s important for me to have access to some kind of customer service where I can get clarification, or help in fixing issues, or get information to help me in understanding how and why things happened a certain way. Ease of Use: Again, I’m outsourcing my account’s marketing because I’d rather spend my time creating new books, games, comics, and stories. This experiment is going to take enough time away from my projects, but I’m hoping that my experience will be helpful for you in growing your own Instagram account, and that I can find a trustworthy, practical, helpful, and easy-to-use service provider for growing my account.Financial Cost: How much does the service cost? Are the services worth the expense?
I’ll be rating each category from 0 (poor) to 5 (excellent). This will allow each service provider a potential of up to 25 points.
[image error] Each category rated from 0 (poor) to 5 (excellent)
Obstacles / My Growth Over the Past 16 Months
In the interest of full transparency, I’m going to share some information about my growth over the past 16 months, as well as my current status on Instagram in a separate post (subscribe here, so you don’t miss it).
I should mention that I’ve been experiencing some serious health issues for the past year-and-a-half, which have increased significantly in recent months, rendering me unable to write or draw for days at a time. It might sometimes take me a week or 2 to create a post for a 3-day trial, for example, but I’m hoping to account for all of my experiences here.
I will also mention that I briefly used the growth services of Jumper Media last year and had a mostly favorable experience. I’ve also used the services of Rapid Grow this year and have had a good experience with them.
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IG Growth Services I’ll be Testing
Listed below are the providers I’ll be exploring via their free trials. (New service providers will be added here as I come across them.)
Social Captain Insta Vast Instant Dash Falcon Social Gram Flare Instazood Explod Social Upleap Ingramer Big Bangram Kanji Rocket Social Sprout Social Combin Stim Social Instato
[image error] Books by Jess Smart Smiley
Have You Used an Instagram Growth Service?
Did you have a good experience? Share your thoughts in the comments section and throw in a link to the service provider you used. (If they offer a free trial and don’t have a terrible reputation, then I’ll add them to my list!)
Join Me in My Quest for the Best IG Growth Services Available
I’ll be writing over the next few months about my experiences as they happen, and I’ll be sharing as much information as I think appropriate, so as to be as helpful as possible.
While I’ll be posting about each trial as it happens, I plan to collect all my posts into a single PDF in the end and making it available via my email list, which you can sign up for here.
Let’s figure out this whole Instagram thing together!
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April 1, 2019
Read My Newest Graphic Novel–FREE!
This is your invitation to be the FIRST to read my newest graphic novel—for free!
I’ve never done anything like this before (and I’m pretty sure I’m going to find some way to mess it up along the way), but I want you to read my newest book, even before my publisher sees it and before it’s available in stores.
This is my way of thanking you for following me and my work, and it’s a way for you to get involved in the creation of the book in a fun and unique way. Think about it: with your thoughts and feedback, we’ll be making this book together. That’s pretty cool.
Getting involved is easy: click this link and sign up to read the book. That’s it!
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