Skyrim CK: Promoting Your Mods

     I originally intended to have this as part of a larger series on how to publish a mod successfully, but decided to release this part first after recieving a question about it on the Nexus Forums. So what follows is a guide to successfully promoting your mods.

Signature Stuff

If you've got a Nexus forum account (which you should, and if you don't, create one), then you may know how to create signatures. If you don't, that's alright. I can teach you how. But first, let's talk about what signatures are, and why they're useful.

Signatures are the things that show up on the bottom of your post when you post something. That's a little vague, so I'll give you an example of my signature. 

One of my posts, with my signature below

Everything below the orange line could be part of your signature. This includes images, text, links, .gifs, whatever. There is a limit on the amount of text you can have, however. If you include images, the signature box grows to accomodate the size of the images. The orange line is simply to make it easier for you to see. In the actual forums and in posts, it is gray. Don't make your signature too big! It's annoying. If you have a rather large signature, you can enclose the image/text/gif in a spoiler tag, like I did with the 'My Mods' in my signature. You do this:

[spoiler]WhateverYouWantHere[/spoiler]

To make a signature, go to the box right below the words THE NEXUS FORUMS in the top left. It should have a picture of your profile, as well as your username. Click on your username, and then on My Settings.

Go to Signature on the left hand side, and then enter whatever you want your signature to be in the box labeled 'Edit Signature'. Then save, and you're done.

WIP - Work In Progress

If you're mod is done, then feel free to put a link to your mod just like a [WIP], but without the [WIP] tag. So you could do something like: The Quest Compilation [Finished].

[WIP] - Name

A great place to advertise your mod is the Nexus Forums, and not just by signature. Go to the game you're advertising a mod for (I'm going to assume Skyrim) and then go to Skyrim Mod Talk. Post a new topic and name it something like:

[WIP] My Mod - This is part of the reason having good mod names is important. It needs to draw people in, and make them anticipate your mod.

My Mod - Coming Soon - Only do this if it's actually coming soon. Or you could do something like:

My Mod - Coming This Winter - So the people reading know when it's going to come out.

Or even;

Announcing My Mod! - It seems exciting and interesting, so people might look at it. If you're looking for some help as well, I'd recommend the [WIP] tag.

Remember that in order to change your topic name, you have to contact a moderator, so I'd recommend thinking about your name before posting. You also can't change the tags. But you can edit the original post, so don't worry about that.

[WIP] - Content

Now, you can't just have a good name. You need to have 2 things no matter what your mod is, and a 3rd, if you can. (3 and 4 are optional, but good to have.)

1. Describe your mod. What is it? What does it do?
2. Tell us what makes your mod unique. People get mods because they want something different, or better. We need to know what makes your mod better than the thousands of other mods out there.
3. If you have a mod that could have a trailer, give it one. People love videos. No voice-overs are necessary - just show us what you've done so far. Using an ENB in the video is good, but not essential. (Usually, you can make a trailer for most mods. Especially retextures, huge quest mods, and new lands.)
4. If you can't or don't want to do a trailer, then try to make a banner or icon for your mod. SkyUI's is fantastic, but it could be as simple as the Quest Compilation's (my mod).

Advertising Everywhere!

Everywhere you go related to Skyrim, you should advertise your mod. Even if you're posting something simple, put in a link to your mod. Let's pretend somebody asked for help making a dialogue for a quest. I'm going to advertise my modding blog there, too. I'll respond like this:

Well, you could do this... [Insert answer here]. I also made a tutorial for it on my Skyrim Modding blog, here. 

You would add a link so when you pressed on 'here' it would take you to my quest tutorials.

Only slip in advertisements if it makes sense. If someone is asking for help finding a sword retexture mod, don't say:

Oh, there's one for an elven sword here. And by the way, I've got some tutorials for Quest Making on my blog.

That sounds stupid and annoying. Don't do that. Only when it makes sense.

In Conclusion

Advertising is an art. You have to promote your mod, but not in an annoying way. More is usually better when it comes to describing your mod, but only tell people about it where applicable. On your mod's WIP page? Tell them everything about it. In a thread about scripting? Only if your mod is a tutorial on scripting, or if it contains scripts that could be useful to them. If it does contain scripts that could help them, recommend they download it and find the script. Give them the name. They might even try out your mod, if they like it.

And remind to endorse on your mod page. Not incessantly. Just a simple: "Oh, and if you like it, endorse!"

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