A Guide to Cosplay Sharing Websites
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Once you get your cosplay game up and running, you’ll start finding photographers, scheduling photoshoots, and accumulating photos of your work to share with the world. There are hundreds of cosplay-sharing sites on the Internet these days, and it might seem overwhelming at first, so I’ve created a short list of my favorite sites for uploading, archiving, and sharing your work:
1. deviantART
Ahh, the site I like to call “my childhood.” deviantART, founded in August 2000, is an art sharing site dedicated to promoting, inspiring, and integrating budding artists into one of the largest online social networking sites dedicated solely to art. Uploads specific to cosplay can be found under the portraits subsection of the photography section, but even without navigating these subsets, you can usually find popular daily cosplays on the front page, where the most viewed and favorited works in the past 24 hours are displayed. I love deviantART for its established and staunch following: after all, the more users you have regularly using the site, the more variety you’ll get!
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2. WorldCosplay
One of the most popular cosplay sharing sites on the Internet these days, WorldCosplay, with its simple design, expands its audience to cosplayers from all around the world. While other cosplay sharing sites cater to speakers of a specific language, WorldCosplay is available to view in Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and more, which makes it highly accessible internationally. The site is still growing, but I’ve found some of my favorite cosplayers among WorldCosplay’s top 20 User Ranking, and WorldCosplay’s follow and favoriting system makes it easy to save your favorite cosplays to view later.
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3. Cosplayers’ Cure
Although Cure Cosplay’s Info and Updates are mostly in Japanese, the English version of the site has been expanding for the past couple of months. The popular series on Cure correspond with what’s popular in Japan right now, so if you’re a cosplayer who likes to keep up with the times, I would definitely recommend checking out Cure’s “This Week Popular” series ranking. The downside to Cure is that a lot of the images on the site are only viewable to members, but registering for membership is free and simple. Cure also has connections with cosplay magazines, holding contests that have a chance at nabbing you a spot in popular magazines such as COSMODE!
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4. Cosplayers Archive
Although I rarely visit Cosplayers Archive because I can’t read Japanese, I have found some fantastic cosplays exclusively on this site. If you’re versed in Japanese and tired of seeing the same faces over again on the front page of deviantART or WorldCosplay, Cosplayers Archive provides a great outlet to some new varieties of cosplay.
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5. Tumblr
I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t Tumblr mainly for vintage photos and funny text posts?” My answer: yes, of course! But it’s also a great vehicle for sharing art, writing, and videos, and sorting all of your uploads into specific blogs is as easy as one or two clicks. Tumblr has a huge following, and the possibilities are endless: you can add captions to your pictures, reblog cosplays you see around the site, and there’s even a place to add sources so that crediting the original cosplayer becomes a cinch. Finally, adding tags to your posts makes your posts viewable to everyone who searches for that term.
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6. Facebook
I’ve saved my favorite for last – Facebook! Well, to be completely honest, WorldCosplay and Facebook are both in the running. But what I like about using Facebook to create and promote your cosplay page is that you’re able to build a community and interact with your fans and followers directly. While WorldCosplay and other sites are more geared toward sharing your professional pictures, a lot of the cosplayers I follow on Facebook share selfies, costests, and closet cosplays on Facebook as well. If you’re a cosplayer who loves social promotion and is looking to make friends with your fans, I’d definitely recommend building your cosplay following on Facebook.
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Of course, the cosplay sharing sites don’t have to end here – there are hundreds of them out there, and finding the one that works best for you is the most important task. Most cosplayers have accounts on multiple sites, that way they have a place to organize their professional photos as well as a space for their fans to communicate and show their support personally.
