Shadownet,
I have felt your pain, but there is some things you should know about page views. As someone said, you aren't getting paid by page views and a huge amount of page views is not any indication of the quality of your work. For awhile I agonized over the page views and while I still don't agree with their purpose, I realized it's not the page views that count in the general scheme of things anyway when it comes to artwork. Listen to what people tell you about your work. Focus on the positive. It will make you feel better. If you must guage your work based on views, try to at least guage based on similar work than trying to compare to the pinups, a game you will always lose.

Since page views are an unfortunate part of the wonder of Renderosity, here is what I have found out over my time here that has helped me come to grips with the whole thing...

The first and foremost is that page views are a product of 90% marketing. Even artists we consider quite gifted (especially within the poser pinup circle) have quite a stark contrast between their pinups and non-pinups. Views are not judged so much on originality or any artistic qualification, as much as how sexy is the image percieved to be. This is not to say that there is not true quality in many images, just that people are more inclined to pick a sexy picture than one that isn't. Certain artists gain their reputation from not only their quality, but their ability to create in this popular genre. Those artists who choose not to do this kind of art are at a disadvantage from the start in relation to page views.

Not only are the poser pinups popular from a sexy point of view, but many of those same artists as well as others are beta testers and thus privy to the latest stuff, that you and I can't even get. This also goes a long way into their page views, because people like to see what's new on the horizon for them to play with. It's like looking at 2002 cars versus 1998 cars. The 1998 car might be just as good a quality, but they're not nifty new toys.

Also, what I wasn't aware of and you may not be either, is that the posting of the picture is only part of the fun. Many post URL's to a variety of different venues such as chat, forums (like you did here), mailing lists, friends, ICQ lists, etc, etc, etc. That is still another reason why page views often seem warped. While certainly not all artists use this route, it does explain why a picture gets 250 in 6 hours, versus 25 in that same 6 hours. For awhile, I wondered if 225 were just skipping the other works including mine, but then I realized that people were probably being directed to that work from an outside source than just people scanning the galleries in general. Of course, many will look at some and not others, but to that degree was a little hard to swallow...

Time of posting, though a much lower factor than the others, can also effect page views. Posting in the middle of the night when viewers are not really surfing, but people are still posting, can mean that your picture is on page 5 or 6 by the time people do look through the galleries in the afternoon or evening. Also holidays. Remderosity events, or other real world things can also adversely effect the number of views. For instance, Halloween had the contest which I imagine many viewed in lieu of the gallery that day as even the most popular seemed to not do as well. Keep in mind the average span of views is about a day and a half. Any after that usually trickle in as a result of you showing your gallery, others showing your gallery, or people looking after noticng your latest work. There are those that get lots of views beyond that from marketing or being in the top 20, but generally a day and a half is the window of opportunity...

How big the image is is also a consideration for people with slow connections. People are more likely to look at one that will come up in 30-45 seconds then 3-4 minutes...

The most powerful advertising that you have though is the thumbnail. Finding the right thumbnail is crucial if you are concerned about page views. I've often wondered if I've gotten the right one, or would more people have seen it if I picked this or that. Here are some suggestions I hope you will find useful in relation to thumbnails...

1> If there is a woman in the scene, always use her as part of your thumbnail. She will attract much more views than a dragon or an inanimate object would.

2> If there is no woman in the picture, then why not? No, just kidding. Try to pick the most alluring part of the picture and one that will give the most tease. In your picture, the dragon eye (beyond the woman) was a great choice.

3> It's not a good idea though to zoom in on a section of the picture as it makes the thumbnail seem grainy and people will assume, usually wrongly, that the picture is equally as grainy. It is okay to pick a larger portion and shrink it so it fits.

4> It's also not a good idea to put the whole picture as the thumbnail as people will assume they've then seen the whole picture and there is no need to click on it, forgetting of course that they get all the wonderous detail that the full version has.

5> Always post a thumbnail of some kind (which I know you do, but a note to others).

I've been a big fan of your work shadownet and I look forward to each picture and I hope you won't get too depressed over logistics. This info helped me and I hope it will help you.

It took a while, but the thing I learned the most from all of this was to revel in the art itself and all will be good.