Building an Audience: tips on how I got 30k subscribers on Webtoon and Tapas

[Jenny-Toons]

I've also got some things that have kinda helped me from this other post:

First, let's address the elephant in the room: The person who got 1000+ subs within a span of a week most likely has a fanbase elsewhere or could've been promoted. Having an Established Fanbase: A good example of this is Noodle Bois from Webtoons: Only two updates, and the creator has 20.5 k. But if you go into the comments, people are yelling: "Tiktok squad, where ya'll at????" "Who's here from Insta!!?" This creator has been posting artwork elsewhere (WIPs, concept art, lit…

[pilot-obvious]

I think social media is a huge part of building an audience that some people don't utilize. I had an internet presence before I started posting my webcomic and I'm pretty sure a majority of my subscribers are from Instagram and Twitter.

There are great art communities on those social media platforms! I've made countless friends from both sites and they're huge supporters of my work.

[byelacey]

Yeah this is such a good point specifically, and your entire post is great!! Thanks for sharing, Jenny!

[Iris-Grimoire]

Another thing that also helps is just making friends in the community in general, even if you already have non-comic artist friends. Ignore that little voice saying "oh your comic isn't big like theirs they're too far", if there's an appropriate opportunity to chat and you're polite about it, just take it. Maybe you'll even meet people who have similar goals/niches and you can work together to achieve them by sharing notes! It's not a competition, we're all here to grow together.

That said, didn't know about using multiple crops in a once-per-week schedule, I thought that QRTing was enough. I'll try that out for sure! Tiktok also kinda intimidates me, but I might test the waters by making videos for twitter first.

[byelacey]

Maybe you'll even meet people who have similar goals/niches and you can work together to achieve them by sharing notes! It's not a competition, we're all here to grow together.

Getting excited about friends' stuff on social media is really fun and has the added benefit of being public so others see your excitement and think "maybe I'll like this thing too"! Yes yes yes! It takes nothing away from you to be pumped about the work of others!

[Jenny-Toons]

Oh! And don't be afraid to repost your work! You can even get real creative with it or maybe add more depth to those previous pieces.

I see a lot of people do redraws of previous works, or they do side by side of something they changed in their style. Or hell -- sometimes, people repost it because they really liked that piece and just wanted it back on their timeline.

[summermcallen]

Thank you very much for the tips
I think its also really important to figure out which time is the best to update.
because sometimes I get a lot of views and others literally no one look at it.
So I'm pretty curious which time you think is the best for your audience?

[byelacey]

Thank you very much for the tips I think its also really important to figure out which time is the best to update.because sometimes I get a lot of views and others literally no one look at it. So I'm pretty curious which time you think is the best for your audience?

So this is one thing I played with over time and actually what influenced me most was other social media. I knew that if I posted my comic at 8am EST, readers would trickle in a bit slower due to simply not being awake, than if I posted at 11am EST. 11am is when twitter really starts to pick up, and at the time (and still) that's where my biggest following is so I'd post at 11, tweet my update links, and hope!

As for days of the week I've seen lots of different opinions! I update Tuesdays/Thursdays, it seems like Wednesdays are really popular days too. And though weekends seem slower on Tapas, I've heard folks say Sunday nights are great for Webtoon because that's when a lot of originals update.

Now that I only update on my website, I tend to schedule pages to post at midnight--1 because there's no trending to worry about, and 2 it's a popular time for webcomic websites to update and lots of people are still awake, watching their RSS feeds.

I'm sorry this answer is all over the place. I think it's one thing that's gonna vary depending on your audience.

[summermcallen]

ah ok thank you. <3
Social media sadly didn’t work by me
I tried it for so long, but don’t get follower and nearly no likes or retweets, even when I use the hashtags to support webtoons.
I think that works mostly only for accounts with a lot follower. Some accounts only get fucked up from the twitter algorithm XD

[ml_eaden]

This is great advice! I started by writing on blogspot, and then moved to Tapas. I've had more engagement on Tapas, but not much. I like Tapas as a episodic platform. It's much easier than posting to blogspot. I haven't started an instagram, but twitter has been fairly helpful, and posting on the tapas forums have worked well too. I'm working on a more professional cover - which I know is very important. I'm looking forward to doing more projects here. Thanks for the forum post!

[Humbug]

I havent had any luck on Twitter and Instagram and I've been using relevant hashtags. I've got the numbers I have now because I have been featured briefly on both sites, but I cannot seem to grow organically on social media. I'm pretty sure I know my audience, but I have no idea how to reach them.

I only have the first two points down, but that's only helping me so much.

[byelacey]

A lot of the growth I could control on twitter came from interacting with other creators. Start following webcomic creators, comment on their posts, and make yourself known! Admittedly, hashtags can really be tough on twitter on account of their "top" feature boosting already popular creators to the top of the hashtag. The big accounts get all the eyes.

Sometimes, folks do art share threads where they ask you to post your art and they'll retweet it! I did one for webcomics a bit ago, and you've inspired me to make another!

Here it is: https://twitter.com/byelacey/status/1295444793171083264

[domisotto]

I do, but folks are promoting their stuff, hoping to make a sale, they are not there to find someone else to read.

And, well, I rarely get likes or retweets when I advertise--honestly, I think people are actually less likely to want to read you if you advertise your book, no matter how clever a quote or a pitch I put in.

There is always this dead silence apart from my already existing nice friends.

The other day, i hit my Twitter best with 167 people liking my first line from the 'Write the first line for a novel inspired by this picture" and that made zero difference in people looking at my profile/links to my books. Only 3(!) out of these 167 people retweeted my line. Probably zero of them visited my profile.

Social Media just baffles me. I end up talking about what interests me on Twitter, but it doesn't translate at all in my readership numbers.

[byelacey]

Well, let me give you a boost. Maybe I have readers who want to read your comic. https://twitter.com/byelacey/status/1295444793171083264

[domisotto]

I write novels, so I can't really participate

[byelacey]

Oh shoot! Sorry I assumed.

[foxnflames]

Social media boosting can be beneficial, whether comic or novel creator. Plenty of people read both. I’ve seen some topics where people post their social media accounts. Wouldn’t hurt to help each other promote and gain followers.

Of course, this is on top of engaging outside of the forums under comments on our updates and such. Increase your visibility so people will say “hey I know that profile, I see it everywhere.” Some people shout each other out in their author's notes (I got a sub that way). Definitely don’t beg people to do so, but it’s another option

[byelacey]

Actually you know what, if you wanna post your novel links I'll boost it too! I tend to forget tapas has a thriving novel community, my head's always in comics. T_T

[domisotto]

Oh, I do that, but the only SM I really grew comfortable with are forums, because one can actually talk about writing.

[domisotto]

Thank you. I am just starting