Advice on growing a fanbase without social media?

[Lev404]

I want to grow my series and someday reach 100 subscribers so I want to know some advice on how to do that without using social media, thank you owo

My series btw

voices

[MalonTheArtist]

I'd like to know that myself! But all I CAN do is encourage you by saying NEVER give up, Keep creating I think that is one of the BEST ways

[darthmongoose]

Without social media it's not going to be easy but, okay...

• Make sure your comic has a really great cover (or thumbnail I guess on webtoon) and blurb so that the people who do see it are much more likely to give it a try. Your cover and/or thumbnail should be given plenty of attention because they're often the only thing other than the title a potential reader will see before deciding to read. Also a strong cover will increase your chances of a staff pick, which on Tapas is the best way to grow your following by a mile.
• Post on the forums, making sure the link to your comic is in your forum bio. Try to focus on threads where you post images from your comic, or the cover or talk about interesting things like the characters, themes etc. Avoid threads where people just dump links and go. Offer help, encouragement, advice or even just support and sympathy to others liberally; nobody cares about a comic creator who only cares about themselves!
• Keep a regular update schedule. Try to update consistently on the same day about once a week if you can.
• Hopefully social media doesn't involve discord... because joining discord servers is good, even if you just join the Tapas community one to keep track of announcements. Join any community event that's relevent to your comic on Tapas or webtoon. Community events based around highlighting specific genres or communities can be a great way to get a little visibility boost, so apply for any that are appropriate.
• Go to real life comic events and take business cards advertising your comic. Give them out liberally .Even better, make printed versions of your comic or a mini comic to sell or give out at these events!

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

I've also seen it suggested to have postcards of a flashy image from your comic printed that you can put in public places like coffee shops or comic book stores and the like. Obviously it'd have all of your comic's links on it so people know where to find more.

I'll admit, I'm considering trying that myself. We have several coffee shops in the area that are artist-friendly, and a good comic book store. This'd probably be even more effective if, you know... looks out the window a certain pandemic weren't a thing still.

[ButterflyEmpress]

So you could just walk into a place like Books A Million, slip some cards between books and go? Could you get in trouble for that? I hope I don't sound mean I'm just genuinely curious.

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

You should ask if you can put some cards up-- some places have a designated place for business cards/post cards, or like a bulletin board for community stuff. But I'd definitely get permission from the manager first.

[Fafnir]

As someone who uses and has seen other comic artists use various social media. I have my doubts they're even that useful... I think our audience is gonna come from these sites, and then maybe follow us to twitter, not the other way around. =/

[TheLemmaLlama]

If Youtube counts as social media, then I've seen people post art/comic advice videos and stuff on YouTube and get a lot of their readers from there

[ButterflyEmpress]

Ohhh! I feel silly! I was thinking it was like a scavenger hunt thing. Like those fake $20 bills that advertise churches

[IzzyBloom91]

So far, I've been on all of the popular Social media, twitter; instagram, facebook, youtube, deviantart, tiktok, discord, reddit, (you name it) and my tapas growth were 0 subs for 3 months.... 2 weeks on tapas I Grew from 0 to 44 subs of the time of this post... so far, this is the only thing that is working for me

[Fafnir]

the problem with that is you are now also creating youtube content. which is a whole other thing. Its the same with trying to make images for twitter, or deviant art. This all splits your focus. If you have the free time great. But I don't I need to focus on comic making, and try and ignore the other shiny stuff.

[TheLemmaLlama]

I feel like good promotion inherently takes work; whether it's making videos for youtube, images for twitter/dA or even just composing interesting posts and comments on the forums. Attracting people's attention and leaving an impression is a skill, and it requires time, effort and practice. There's no way to do promotion without splitting your focus imo.

That said I kind of agree; I also need to focus on comic making right now. I can worry about promotion once I've accumulated at least one arc's worth of content. Promotion won't do me much good if it just ends up leading people to check out my stuff only to get bored and leave because it's taking ages for it to get to the good part :'D

[Fafnir]

i feel exactly the same way. :

[SoulSean]

Good cover and blurb are a MUST DO! Without them, any promotion or social media won't work well. Since you are asking for a growing base without social media, I can't say it was a bad move, but...At least an interaction in a forum is a MUST DO as well.
Join the forum, search for the related topic which related to you. Don't simply drop your link without a proper introduction. Don't follow the trend of subs for subs. Discuss, advise, and comment. In that way, the more you interact, the more without your conscious you'd grow your own circle of friends and admirers.
Among all the publishing apps that I've been using since 2016, this was the only one that was friendly, helpful, and kind to motivate us to move forward.
I like it here, Tapas was the only place that has REAL people read your work.
At least, that was what I believe now.

[system]

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