Advertising your comic through private messages. Yay or nay?

[itoxicrose]

I think I've encountered someone like that before, though not sure if he posted on others' wall. Either way, I found it just as annoying suddenly getting a private message out of nowhere with just: "Hey. Would you check out my comic? insert link here" :/

Also, hope nobody got the wrong idea. owo; When I asked if it is alright, I meant it as in 'is this even allowed?'. Not too keen on doing the same. I'm actually surprised that there's no rule against this. I mean, there's one against posting announcements as an episode and yet there's nothing wrong with this kind of advertising?

[Marvin]

Well it would be hard to forbid since it's more of a social rule. But I guess if someone does it massively, we can ask the staff to give him a warning or something.

[UzukiCheverie]

Biiig nay. Look at me I'm a horsie, NAAAAAY.

I had someone recently shoehorn their comic into a comment a little while ago. It was like, "Oh wow, I love this comic, it's great you should check out my comic here" and I was just like rolls eyes and ignores

Whether you do it blatantly or you shoehorn it in one way or another, just don't do it. You can promote your comic in many other ways that isn't personally chasing after people begging for them to read your stuff. It's embarrassing for everyone, yourself (as the creator who's advertising) included. It just screams "I'M NOT CONFIDENT ENOUGH AND TOO LAZY TO MAKE MY COMIC GOOD WITH MY OWN HARD WORK LIKE EVERYONE ELSE HERE". Complete desperation at that point.

Well it would be hard to forbid since it's more of a social rule.

It's spam, plain and simple. Ignoring the first one is easy to do, but if it's repeated attempts, then you're just invading someone's space with unnecessary emails/posts/PM's, etc.

[PotooGryphon]

Definite NO!

No one responds well to these. It doesn't help the artist or the comic and in fact has the opposite reaction.

Indirect advertising and letting a comic spread through word of mouth are far more positively effective.

Not okay. I would consider it to be nothing more than a spam email and will delete it.If it happens multiple times I would consider contacting the staff.

Agreed, If you find they keep persisting I'd recommend reporting them.

[Chopythes]

No, I agree what others has said, it just feels spammy and desperate.
I think the forums are a great way to show off the comics, otherwise, spam other social medias, like Facebook, twitter, whatevs, but posting private messages feels not ok to me.
I often ignore stuff like that.

[OpalSpike]

When I get PMs or even wall posts about comics it really puts me off. I got a post advertising a comic on my wall and I didn't even want to click it. I have gotten a PM about a comic, but it was very sincere and kind, asking to help out another friend. (I'd already subscribed to the person in question) I think, under very rare circumstances, it's OKAY to advertise your comics. Not great. It usually just feels desperate. The forums, are a super awesome way to advertise. No need to spam.

[winglesscomic]

the amount of begging done to read one's comic is inversely proportional to anyone's desire to actually read it

[fighterxaos]

Just through a random private message? Like "yo, check out my comic"? I don't think that's ok. Maybe if it was "we have something similar in our comics" but even then I don't see why you'd private message. It's just too spammy.Waste of time in my eyes too, to not only spam but just spam a single person.

[Kamikaze]

Absolutely not. You know how people in parking lots will put pamplets on your car or something? What do most people do with that stuff? It's on the ground. It's thrown away. You're shoving your comic into people's personal space and it's not only uncomfortable, it's rude. When someone does that kind of advertising it's also wasted energy, because at that point the sender is pissing people off so they're going to tell OTHER people about how rude they were to do that.

If you're going to advertise you have to realize that advertising is about establishing relationships with your customer/reader base. Check out Scott Stratten's Unmarketing, or his talks on youtube to learn more.

[Menbung]

One word: No.

I'm pretty sure who's the creator that wrote the PM on your wall, he/she did the same thing to me and to a couple of friends, he/she does it a lot it seems.

I went to that creator's wall and told him/her that what he/she did was considered spam, and that please refrained from doing it, instantly, the creator deleted my post =P.

And yes, the "Oh wow your comic is super awesome, keep doing that amazing job, also, check my comic". That guy has been around some time too, he was doing the same in another site that I was in.

Spammy spam spam spam everywhere.

[shade277]

Spoken like a Jesus!

[insomniascrawl]

I'd say a no on that one. I've never gotten or sent a pm about reading a comic, but I think it would be a definite turn off if I received one. It's a bit aggressive I suppose.

[Amymone]

Oddly, every time I get one of these advertisement PMs it's usually for a series I'm already subscribed to. I get a little sad that they don't realize that I'm already on board. Do people EVER look at their subscribers list?

[Marvin]

Uh, that's weird... I mean, either they have few subscribers so they should know them a bit, or they have too many to follow but then, why would they act that desperate ?

Personnally, to answer your question, I do look at my subscribers list, if only to thank them one by one and to check out their comic if they're a creator... And of course, I tend to visit more the walls of the readers who leave the most comments, because after a while, they kinda feel familliar =D

[Aspie_Gamer]

I say nay. we've plenty of threads here in the forums where you can advertise your creations to your heart's content

[VermillionWorks]

I'll just say that I'm more likely to check out your comic after seeing a regular comment of yours through the forums/my comic's comment section than I am to check it out because you messaged me and went "pleeeaaase check out my comic". As others have already said, I'd probably just ignore that. Even if some go "meh" and are willing to take a look, I'd say most wouldn't. Plus there might be some concern that it's a spambot if you do that, and we naturally avoid spambot links!

Even your icon looking interesting is more likely to lure me in. XD

[BraveHeartTatsumaki]

Nay. I mean, I understand some people want to suceed and have tons of fans inmediately and everyone to read your thing but, it doesn't mean it's correct to spam to others specially when, here we have plenty forum threads to share our stories and talk with everyone, is like ask for more cookies when you have your plate full of them super metaphor by me (?)
Also I prefer have few but people who read them, than tons of people suscribed and like 5 barely reading it.

And also I've seen some like "suscribe to mine and I'll suscribe to yours" why? if you suscribe is because you like the work, not a thing of get numbers.

[Vikiro_Hop]

Yah Nay, I know some people just don't know any better but it is really off putting. Nothing wrong with shameless plugging, but sending a PM is really awkward.

[mg78]

is it alright to advertise your comic to people through private messages?

absolutly NO.
that could be spam.
u have to let people to choose to follow your work, not pursuit them to show it up what u do.

[Kura]

Don't like it.

Also this reminds me of when I first came to tapastic and there was someone that would go to popular comics, go to the list of subscribers and PM everyone on it to read their comic. "Hey, I see you read _______. In that case you should subscribe to and read my comic _______ you'll really like it." What made it even more frustrating was that most of the time the comics were not remotely related to each other in content in any way, so how the **** you expect me to subscribe and read to your comic when it is the opposite of what I enjoy reading?