Ephiphanic Internet Observation - Find Bigger Teat

I've been submitting my art/shirts/commenting/etc. to a wide variety of larger websites to drive more traffic to my site.

Result: NOTHING. (or barely enough to get excited about...)

The traffic has increased slightly, but overall has remained relatively low. Most likely those of you who read this blog and visit my website are mainly friends and family, not people I have never met.

It's frustrating to be unable to proactively affect greatly the number of visitors to my blog/site in relation to the self promotion I have been trying.

Then it occurred to me. I am promoting in the wrong places.

To be successful, it occurs to me that one has to 'suckle off the teat' of a larger organism.

It's an OBVIOUS realization once you arrive at the thought.
I checked the traffic details of several places I post and frequent. And behold, useful knowledge.

Here I have been posting at GFXArtist.com, Conceptarts.org, Designbyhumans.com, and the like.

They are ALL Successful websites in their niche, BUT it has came to my realization that there are Whales that are not directly related to art that cater to the potential target market of my work.

Where?

Woot.com

Until last week, I was unaware of Woot's endeavor into the shirt sales/contest market. It makes sense.

I started a design with an intention to finish it for their contest. I am unable to finish by Wednesday, but I posted my work in the forums for some feedback. I have never received so many responses within a short period of time. It was IMMEDIATE.

I had been wondering if the design would be 'too cool' to 'waste' on woot, but now it seems to me that if I can get it on Woot, it would most likely get me more recognition and traffic than if I were to submit anywhere else. WOOT, almost always SELLS OUT of their shirts. Silly to think that a place like DBH or Threadless might not offer the same results, but truly, the law of large numbers is in the works here...

Woot's traffic easily beats the traffic of youworkforthem, threadless, designbyhumans, etc COMBINED.

Surely the argument can be raised that sites like YWFT or DBH is my tarket market since the people who frequent them are artists and consumers of that specific product, but really, that MIGHT be counterproductive. I surf both sites, but I never look to buy, I look to compare myself with other artists, get inspiration, and look at pretty pictures. Nothing more...

Woot's traffic are consumers... ALL THE WAY. Their main site is a ONE PRODUCT PER DAY site at a low price. Nothing more. And they have transitioned that idea into shirts.

Although I have yet to test this assumption, the numbers are there, it makes sense, does it not?

I was amazed when I pulled up the numbers. In rank,

Deviantart.com is actually trafficked HIGHER than even Woot or Istockphoto. (This might be the reason I can never get connected to the site and when I do, its always slow.)

In the ranks, it follows as such:

1. Deviantart.com
2. Istockphoto.com
3. Woot.com
4. Etsy.com
5. Threadless.com
6. Conceptart.org
7. GoMedia.us
8. GFXArtist.com
9. Designbyhumans.com
10. Youworkforthem.com

It's AMAZING that Deviantart.com RIVALS Digg.com, sometimes its more trafficked.

Unfortunately it might be time to jump on the winning teams.