Sometimes what you think is a niche community isn’t really “niche” at all. I’ve come across deviantART periodically while browsing the web, and I always thought how cool it was that there was a place online for artists to share their work. I had no idea that deviantART was a Top 100 website in terms of traffic and has “over 16 million registered members and over 145 million unique artist generated works of art.” I knew that it was a sizable community, but I had no idea that it was that sizable. While deviantART is a place for all kinds of art, there is definitely a focus on manga and digital art. Other categories include photography, traditional art, literature, Flash, filmmaking, and skins for applications. If it’s artsy, there’s a good chance that there’s a place for it on deviantART. The site was founded in 2000 in Hollywood, CA, and it’s unclear whether it was with the intention of building a business. Regardless, deviantART now appears to be a thriving business with a bunch of job openings.
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