A Tapastic Problem

[onyisart]

Yeah I did just post this month. I haven't been in the forums promoting it or chatting because I wanted to see the potential without any community involvement.

[daniellekoste]

You can't expect that many views on your first ever post if you're not even going to advertise it anywhere. As you post more and people see your icon more often, see you updating, they'll be more inclined to give it a look.

Nobody gets views overnight. 8 is actually pretty decent for a first post. I'm lucky if I get that in a day that I post on some of my less popular/new stories...

[SleepingPoppy]

Well, you posted once on tapas, and three times on webtoons. Your description also contains slightly more insight on the webtoons version than tapas. So yeah, that alone makes a big difference. It's kind of hard to tell with one update how you'll do on Tapas. That's pretty much a roll on the dice that people happen to be looking in the fresh section on that day at around that time and that those people will be in the mood for that you're making. You gave webtoons three times the chance.

[storytimebiondi]

After reading this and giving it some thought, I think it's safe to say that it's okay to use multiple platforms to build an audience. They have different users, and may attract a different crowd.

I do agree that Tapas doesn't favour the little guy much, and that is something they need to work through. But in the meantime, just enjoy the work and keep posting :3

[SleepingPoppy]

Adding that @onyisart webtoons stuff has been up, and with more content, for more time. Add that in to a larger community, the numbers probably make perfect sense.

Which isn't to say Tapas shouldn't do stuff to better promote the little guys. I agree 100% that the fresh section should be on the front page. There could be a better balance of with the popular, premium, and fresh. ^^

[beta1042]

Yeah I kinda have to agree that Tapas is pretty dead. If I think back to my first post ever and compare it to my first post ever on Webtoon....

I recall having like 400-500 views after 24 hrs on webtoon, and about 40-50 subscribers.
On tapas I had I think 5 views and zero subs after 24hrs.

5 views v 500 is laughable.

Even now I barely get new views on tapas, I get mostly returning subscribers. And yeah maybe half my subscribers are from this forum XD.

After 6 months on tapas I still have less subscribers than I did after about 3 weeks on webtoons. So a lot of people on here like to bash Webtoons as a platform, but without webtoons I'd probably be super depressed about my progress.

[Anthien]

From what I seen, both sites have different preferences when it comes to the story they want to read. Short gag comics that update frequently tend to do well here. While on Webtoons, they prefer longer updates in a scrolling format. If you have nice colors, that's a plus. Also fresh comics on Tapas seems to get pushed down much quicker than Webtoons.

On a mobile perceptive, flipping through episodes is easier on Tapas so one page updates doesn't bother me as much. While on Webtoons, you have to either tap and press the arrow or go all the way to the bottom to get to the next episode, in which I would prefer that it's longer so I don't have to keep doing that.

Also, I feel like the Tapas audience is fairly polarized to reading BL or GL comics. You basically have a head start by putting those letters on your comic thumbnail. They often get a large following pretty quickly which gives them a better chance to be trending. Not that I have an issue with it, but it's quite noticeable when you look.

Your comic seems more suited for Webtoons imo. But it doesn't hurt to post here either. Goodluck!

[joannekwan]

Factors:

1. Webtoons has a readership 6 times larger than Tapas. (at least I think it was six. @GoldenPlume is more the numbers guy and can get your better stats)
2. You just started posting! It takes several months of consistent updates to see exactly if your comic is growing or not. I would give it a whole year since traffic fluctuates a lot depending on school systems.
3. And like others have said, you have 3x's the content posted on webtoons than here.

[onyisart]

True, but even with my first post on webtoons I had received WAY more than 8 views (120 to be exact). The only info I released about it was on my Youtube and I have 100 followers BUT, the video about my webcomic only got less than 20 views.

Looking at other first time comics here I've come to realize that even though Tapas and Webtoons offer practically the same services they are still different (doi Onyi), so I can't treat them the same.

I haven't posted here because I want to do things differently.

[onyisart]

Yeah I know I have 3 times more content. Webtoons is my priority so i post there first.
However, I was just disappointed that on my first post here it was 8 views but on webtoons it was about 120.

But you're right that webtoons has more readership. I've been doing my research on it. So i'm just gonna do things differently for Tapastic and see how the odds stack up.

[GoldenPlume]

can get your better stats

For the month of Feburary 2018, Webtoons was 6.06x larger than Tapas on desktop.

Mobile stats are much more difficult to extrapolate, but Naver Webtoons app is approximately 25 to 50x larger than the Tapas app.

To give you some perspective of size, Naver Webtoons (#156 most popular app in the world) app is slightly more popular than Pokemon GO (#172).

Webtoons throws millions of dollars annually at creators and advertising. Hence your series is going to be more popular there.

[daniellekoste]

I think all we're saying ,at least all I'm saying, is I don't really understand how you can be making comparisons and concluding that Tapas is so much worse, when the situations you're comparing are so different

[joannekwan]

Thanks! Can always count on you!

[daniellekoste]

Webtoons does not have a section for novels though, so in my book Tapas will always be superior ^^

[YangKoete]

Still, we can make Tapas better by showing friends/having links to it in our other accounts and stuff.

[IdiotWithPencil]

Also fresh comics on Tapas seems to get pushed down much quicker than Webtoons.

this is tapas biggest problem in my opinion =/ unless you get fetured/staff picked it will take you month if not years to even be able to unlock ads, which is tapas biggest selling point for creators.

[BobbyjoeX]

i saw what people are talking about when it comes to views on tapas (didnt start getting satisfactory views til i started mass promoting it on the forum here), compared to Webtoons, the one problem i have is, because of something i have heard i REFUSE to post on Webtoons

EDIT: I did some reading and has since posted my comic on Webtoons

[Rochrok]

From my own experience I have to say that the OP is right that Webtoon views and subs tend to be higher. I started posting my comic in Oct 2017 on Tapas and I'm at around 220 subs. I have promoted on Twitter and this forum. I began uploading the same comic to Webtoons in early Feb 2018. I'm only five updates in and I have 224 subs. I think what could have helped my comic on webtoons was participating in the mega and BL cross promo threads on this forum.

If that's true then it shows the power of showcasing related content. I also think the ability to take advantage of two genres helps a lot. On this site, only premium comics can do that.

[NanettesClouds]

I do agree that Tapas doesn't favour the little guy much, and that is something they need to work through.

I see this sentiment tossed around a lot, and I don't really think its true tbh. The reason that newbies get so much more attention on Webtoons is because webtoons has a significantly larger (and judging by the comments section, significantly younger) audience. What does Webtoons as a platform actually do to help the little guy?

Meanwhile Tapas has:
- The Fresh Section (which webtoons also has, but I would argue that it's harder to get there)
- Trending & Popular sections (which are based on an algorithm that favors new series but weighs down established series, Webtoon's algorithm from what I understand, is more weighted towards established series)
- Fairly frequent community events that tend to help little guys in a pretty big way
- The Forums that we're all on right now, which you can use to promote your series.
New & Noteworthy

Of course, it's not really an issue because you can use both platforms, and that's a really good thing if you're a newbie. (except, from what I understand, webtoons doesn't feature anything unless it's exclusive to webtoons? Huh, weird.)

For context, I've only been seriously doing webcomics for a bit over a year, and I've only been posting on Tapas, but over that time I've been able to grow an audience of 470ish subscribers. The closest thing I've gotten to being featured is getting a shoutout from @joannekwan. I'm a little guy, but the system has worked just fine for me. If you've been posting for a good while and are having trouble growing your audience, you're probably doing something wrong (and that's not to say that I've been doing everything right)

I'm all ears for hearing what Webtoons has to offer for little guys besides its larger user base, but the few times I've looked into it I wasn't impressed.

[MayelV]

Every comic hosting site has its up and downs. You can check out other sites like comic fury, smackjeeves, the duck, etc.
To help traffic, you have to promote your work. There are many free ways to do so if you don't want to pay up for an ad. Try social media, tumblr, webcomic lists, post on forums, exchange fanarts, link to other comics...

Do your homework and you'll do fine. Pick the site you feel more comfortable with c: