And further like... although I'm sure it's not the only factor, being a page-by-page comic with short update length (beyond the first update) doesn't help at all xD I'm sure a lot of people take one look at the first update and are like "what is this garbage?" and leave lmao
Beta, thank you so much for the input!!! That's a very good list and it does explain why some get that 1K and others don't.
I was very sick at the time and sort of depressed, grieving...so the littlest things hit me hard. The ratings and subs was one of them. Also my health...I don't know...I haven't been feeling well. I'll be seeing a doctor in a few months. I just feel exhausted all the time and I'm in a bit of pain (arthritis...previously broken ankle) stupid stuff like that.
I think I'll hang on another month, post up another episode and see what happens. If it still hits me and takes my strength and encouragement away...I'll take it out. Those promos you've mentioned and have done are sooo much fun. But I just don't have the energy. Weird, right? I'm hanging in there day by day.
So with prayer, exercise, eating healthy, getting plenty of rest...I hope it'll subside. But I will see a doctor. At my age, I can't take these things for granted.
Thank you for those numbers and you're so fantastic, Beta!!! hugs!
Honestly, I've been considering it too. I have 73 subs there right now, which is more than I have at Tapas, but almost zero engagement which is the opposite here. My first episode has two comments on it... One that's "I wish this was scrolling format" and one that's "Oh, this is mature content so I'm not going to read it." Whelp, okay.
Also, I just hate the Webtoons website in general because there are no features. No personality. Nothing. Just put up your comic and hope it does something. And, yeah, the rating system is pretty stupid. And it is annoying that comics with... less than stellar art.... get more notice and more comments because it has cute little characters kissing or crying. ._. Not saying that's bad, good for them, but it is frustrating when you've been working for so many years, put so much into your comic, put many hours into every page for nothing in return.
Id be happy to weigh in and maybe help.
My comic reached 1k subscribers in about a week. I had not been promoted at all- My subscribers came from people checking the recently updated tab on webtoons. I did not cross promote on any of my social medias, I thought my comic was kind of embarassing honestly and kept it a secret except from some discord friends.
Its been a month and a half since I uploaded my comic to webtoons and i'm sitting at 50k subscribers, and Ive been promoted four times in rising star, hot today, fresh picks, and discover recommended.
-my comic is not in color. Ive gotten maybe 6 comments out of a few thousand asking for me to color it, and far more complimenting my choice to not color. What matters more than anything is readability, imo. Comics with art that is too overdone (full on painting) is just as hard to read as super sketchy and messy comics. Make it easy to read, the reader doesnt care how long/short it took you.
-webtoons readers NEED the vertical scrolling format. I have seen tons of great comics in the manga format absolutely flop because the readers dont like it. Space our your art. I was someone who went in intending to do manga style pages against my better judgement, but when i opened a comic in an app on my phone i instantly understood why i needed to use the long scrolling style. In the end, i much prefer it, i can get out lots of story with less time spent drawing.
-your thumbnail, title, and description MATTER. My title is "im the grim reaper", the description is "a girl makes a deal with the devil to become the grim reaper. As long as she delivers him the souls of sinners, her sentence in hell will be postponed." The thumbnail is her face. Its simple, to the point. You know the plot just from the title. A huge problem I see is people want to info-overload their readers with weird terms and giant plot summaries... no. Keep it simple. You dont want the reader deciding that the comic isnt for them because they get the entire plot synopsis on the description. You want them to only get so much information so that theyre curious enough to click on page 1.
-adding onto the point above, you need to have something waiting for the readers once they decide to read. Is your story funny? It better damn well make people laugh. I advertise as a supernatural, so right away the MC wakes up in hell and were on our merry way to killing sinners within 3 episodes.
-your art skill does matter, unfortunately. I dont think id have nearly as many readers if i wasnt at the level i am now. Story really DOES matter, but so does your art, and your art is usually what gets people to click in the first place.
-but even though i said the above, story is king. I met one of the webtoons staff at a con i went to a week ago and she remembered my comic immediately because of my story. 95% of my comics are story speculation. People love a good story, and i think there is a big lack of real story-driven epics on webtoons that readers are craving.
Anyway i hope this helps in some way. Ive been drawing for 15 years and this is like my 10th narrative series so Ive had quite a bit of practice, its not all luck. I hope you can find success in your comics.
after talking with friends who are fans, they said to quit worrying about webtoons and just enjoy doing it. (in other words, dont change drastically) so... i guess that it... webtoons is just depressing and i agree with @catluckey about it being nothing but a mental blow to the head
i do take critisism but when im being told to change or abandon my story, i'll never take it
this story is basically My "One Punch Man". sure i want it physically published and sure i would like to make some change off of it but it doesnt have to be my primary income. so in reality it is just fun for me
as for the vertical scrolling, this is the reason i have so much trouble working on my second comic, Adrian's Bane, because i kinda HATE the vertical scrolling format, it seems to screw with my attention really bad and also, unlike AB which im not too worried about, i want Royal in book form someday, its bad enough i have to go back in and remove the colour when the time comes
i know you are not saying it but the way this was worded makes it kinda sound like you're saying i have no art skills....
anyway, im probably going to delete my comic off Webtoons so there isnt really any need for this thread anymore
Amen, amen, amen to what you said!!! All those hours, hard work, staying away from your family, allowing your housework to go down...for what??? One or two likes and a comment after 10 posted updates????????? Yeah, it's disheartening. It's like being in a void. That's why I love Tapas so much. There is real interaction, not only on your comic page, but also here in the forums. Hey, @Cavechan, I'm feelin' ya!
Hey, thanks so much for sharing this with us. It really was a help to me to gather my thoughts on quitting Webtoons. But I wanted to mention having my aunt live with us at home, then seeing her pass away (literally) at the hospital affected me. Normally, I don't gripe like this, neither do I give up so quickly. But a lot of factors is playing into my need to leave Webtoons, which includes my health, lack of energy. I need to streamline myself. Posting in two different areas is double work. And not getting that much enjoyment back speaks volumes. So that's my reason.
I wish you success in your endeavors and your "One Punch Man" story. Hang in there and continue to enjoy where you are onto where you're going.
Luv n hugs to ya, Cathy
I'm noticing a trend in comments against tapas and webtoons on this topic, and while I have my ups and downs for both sites here's a basic summary of how I view both sites:
Tapas is geared more towards creators, every time there's a question about improvements they are generally directed towards people who actually create things on the site, and rarely the audience themselves. There's also a forum that is geared more towards creators where we are advertising more towards ourselves instead of a general audience. Most times when I do get comments or likes they are from other creators (this is where the sub 4 sub stigma comes from). Basically as creators we understand what we generally want.
Webtoons is designed for an audience, not creators. It's why they have ratings and a format that is strongly desired, because it's what their audience wants, hell you don't get notifications for comments or likes for that site. If you're an audience you want to sift through the good stuff right away, you're giving up your personal time to give someones work a read. This is the closest example of getting your work out to the general public, it's harsh and real. If you want to spread your work out you have to appeal to the masses, it sucks, but it's the truth. Every person who is giving up time to read your work is still someone who is giving you a chance. I completely understand how a lot of you feel I've had my blow ups too my twitter is full of them, but it's part of growing stronger as a creator.
Both sites are great, and both audience types are important for growing as a creator. I have two series but only one is put in webtoons, as the other one I make is not to the interest of the webtoon audience and I know it's a waste of time to upload. In no way am I telling anyone to give up or keep going, just to understand the difference between the two sites.
so what you're saying is that we dont have to post certain comics on webtoons.. 
tbh that makes better sense
Im not saying anything like that, spreading your work is always important, its just tapas and webtoons are the easiest ones to use as they have a larger audience base. This is about understanding the two sites workings and the differences in the audience base.
But yes you can do that if its less stressful
This is certainly not what I meant and it seems you purposefully misinterpreted me. I was giving out general guidelines to anyone reading the thread.
However, there is truth in it. Everyone has room for improvement. I have so much more to improve, you have so much more to improve, hell, even Leonardo da Vinci had loads to improve before he kicked the bucket. If you just want to be a hobbyist then there's no problem in kicking back and just drawing whatever makes you happy, but if you ever want to take it up as full-time you need to be constantly critical of your own work and striving for improvement. Be happy with it, but critical.
I was actually just thinking about that too! Tapas, Webtoon, SmackJeeves, etc... the way they're all set up is very different and they all have very different target audiences. I feel like the Webtoon audience is probably a bit younger than Tapas so it's more difficult for a more mature, serious comic like my own. The other thing is... one of my goals is to have my comic printed. I don't think Webtoon readers are even interested in buying print comics? Of course, speaking generally. Anyone know anything about that?
I'm going to try once more to change my comic to vertical format just for Webtoon and see how it goes. I tried with my other comic and it didn't come out well and have tried a couple times experimenting with my main comic and was having difficulty with it. I'm redoing the beginning of my main comic currently so I'm thinking of converting it to vertical just to gauge if it would get more readers or engagement. The content of the comic is what it is though. I can't change much about it outside of what I have already redone and am redoing. But I think it might be worth trying to see how it goes since it might work out!
Good topic. I recently got a boost of Webtoon subscribers after basically having none, and it happened all at once somehow while networking online and in social media.
Right now I'm trying to produce online content as consistently as possible while also getting a print comic ready to publish. Plus there's merchandise to make, blog content to post, etc. Just the usual multitasking that comes with running a creative business.
Wow that's a lot of insight to take in :') plus your story is engaging from page 1 congrats~
15 years of drawing and your 10th narrative series 
No wonder! It really does come from experience :'D I still have hiccups writing a narrative since I'm pretty new to it. Thank you for laying out these, it's helpful.
I've had my doubts putting it on Webtoons actually (it's not there yet atm, just here on Tapas) so this was an interesting read as a guide on what to do when I do post it there.
Glad you got something out of it:D
I read through your comic, I think you should go for it on webtoons. It is a little more mature than what I think the general webtoons audience is used to (judging from my commenters I think theyre mostly kids), but your comic is well paced, clean, and entertaining so the older audience should love it!
Omg you've read my comic? :''D thank you!
I'm still setting up in case I do ^^; But right now it'll continue posting here XD Do any of you audience also tend to comment about slow updates?
Yes, my audience complains constantly about slow updates. I was updating every three days with 40-panel chapters, so honestly, no matter what you do they'll never ever be happy. I went to the once-a-week style once I ran out of steam and the complaints have actually slowed down...
Ahh the once-a-week method XD So it does happen a lot over there... I hear other Webtoon artists also having a similar issue
Something people don't like to bring up is that most of the time, people's stories just aren't very good, or the story simply doesn't resonate with the audience.
You can tick all the boxes in the world with regards to what you're supposed to do to optimise the performance of your webtoon, but at the end of the day if the audience isn't interested in your story, you're not going to get many readers.
It's a sad fact we as creators all have to grapple with at some point.