I generally like to follow webcomics on their main site if they have one, though Tapas' system is pretty convenient, too. There are only a couple of people I follow on sites like Tumblr because otherwise they tend to get lost in my feed.
Following comics on their own sites can be easier if they update RIGHT on the clock, as some do. I don't enjoy checking multiple times on update days to see if it's been updated yet.
._. I need to get back to doing that with my own site...
Personally, it depends a lot on the way the site is set up (and if it is beneficial to the enjoyment of the comic). If your comic has a unique layout or special media effects, then you absolutely should consider having a unique site for it, provided you have the ability, time, and/or money to make it work well. If you've got a big world with lots of characters, it can be neat to set everything up on its own site just to have some world info and character pages and such.
I don't want to sound like an ass for saying this, but I have found some attempts at self-hosting detrimental to my enjoyment of the comic. 90% of the time I will if the site is ugly (as in, looks like it came out of 1991 ugly).
There are some current web design trends that would be great for webcomic-making! The first thing I thought of was parallax scrolling; here's a pretty good example14 I found through a quick google search. The added level of interactivity also can help engage your reader into the story through clickables, etc. Keep in mind cross-platform compatibility though!
Also I really, really love it when creators allow pages in a chapter to be loaded in 'seamlessly' through some nice CSS/JS/Angular/whatever it takes. I find the flashy load-reloads between pages on a lot of sites breaks the flow of the story a little, so it's always a nice option to have if you can put it in place. 
Best of luck!
Oh yeah! Interactive comics should definitely get their own site, I'm much a fan of MIK's Saving Maggie7.
nope
cos honestly, I dont know how to keep up with individual websites?
I dont even know how rss feed works lol
on tapas app, I have notifications of whats being updated
but I dont subscribed to 200+ comics, I'm very picky and I have very few on my library
Nope.
There is a reason why mobile app is rising. Simplicity. Web browser sometimes lagging and if the interface is horrible [aka a ton of ad and other unimportant stuff that makes even loading one page is slow] it means more annoying problems. Also, compared to having to sit in front of PC, it's a lot more comfortable lying down and reading comic from the phone.
So no, I don't care how good your comic are, I won't visit your site just to read one comic. I will rather install a reading app and read a lot comic there.
I actually binge reading once in a while even on Tapas. I can't really adjust myself to this whole update-once-a-week thing, I'm an old schooler.
As I remember sometimes to open the app to read them, I'd read them on their single websites too. But I'm probably an exception, as I follow a restricted number of creators and follow them on various socials - I won't forget they exist
Seeing as I already follow a bunch of webcomics outside of tapas, such as Parallax, Devil's Candy and Sleepless Domain, adding the rest of my tapas library to my bookmark list wouldn't be a problem. There's the additional bonus of creator's own sites often being themed to match the comic, which gives it more of an ~ambiance~when reading, hehe. It just looks nice!
What makes it SO much more comfortable though is if they have RSS feeds! That means I can just open the "webcomics" bookmark folder that's sitting right there under the address bar in my browser and roll through the list and see which ones have updated. It's fast, and it's simple. (Actually it's faster than opening tapas.)
Those that I follow that don't have the RSS feed have twitter accounts instead, so I don't miss out on any updates there either.
The good thing about tapas though is that I've found so many webcomics here, that I can read it on mobile, and the nice community. That being said, most comics I found through the forums and not through the actual site.
TL;DR: Basically, I'm already on tapas, twitter, and have bookmarked RSS feeds. Shifting around who's where won't affect my reading habits at all.
It's like adding a bookmark to your web browser. You basically click on the "RSS feed" button on the website, it opens a new window where you pretty much just hit OK (you can choose where you want the bookmark/feed to be, in which folder). Then you can see if there have been any updates just by opening that RSS folder, without even visiting the website!
I can't seem to like RSS feeds so I use a very low-tech "comics.txt" file on my desktop that looks like this:
http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1832
http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=722
http://devilscandycomic.com/comic/ch05p30
http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-5-page-198
http://www.praguerace.com/comic/303
http://www.wildelifecomic.com/comic/364
http://www.daughterofthelilies.com/dotl/631With about 30-50 links. Whenever I feel like reading a comic, I copy a link, check the updates, and then re-paste the latest page. I usually only check every 10 days or so unless I really care about it. I've done this for over 3 years.
It's the only way I can keep up with Hiveworks comics. Why can't they use email like webtoons or keep a cookie with your last checked comics? I've considered multiple times approaching Hiveworks to offer to program them an email distribution client or something similar to tapas' bookmarks. It's nearly impossible to find out on their site alone if a comic updated. This is really concerning since their authors often skip updates or take hiatuses with no concrete end.
Honestly, unless I really liked the comic, I probably wouldn't, though I think it's a good option for well established comics with a large following to have more control over their content and their connection with their audience.
Pretty much. In webcomic hosting sites as these I got to be reminded of updates, in their own sites... Not so much.
If I like the comic enough, I'll follow it when it leaves. There are plenty of comics here I would follow if they left. Yeah, people are gonna lose a lot of their fans from the move but that doesn't mean they can't get to that number again. I'm leaving and I don't think a lot of my fans are coming with me and that's fine by me, I'd rather lose some fans than potential ownership over my own comic.
I definitely read webcomics that are hosted on their own website, but I usually binge read and I don't follow them weekly. I find it a bit overwhelming to have to browse through a bunch of separate sites, and find Tapas to be a convenient one-stop shop for keeping current. Outside of that I follow a lot of webcomic creators on Twitter and their tweets about new content, and links to the most current page will spur me to check out their site.
Ultimately, a reader wants convenience so whatever you can do to help make their reading experience better, do it! That includes the navigation and design, but also how they are notified about updates. That can be setting up an RSS feed, posting on social media, posting on mirror sites, or suggesting bookmarking sites like Comic Rocket5.
it sounds like if they don't make it easy for people to follow, hiveworks might goes in the direction of the thing of the past
There are just a few comics I don't follow on their own site - it's the home they were meant to have and the creator can make sure they're experienced the way they were meant to (unlike tapas' rigid sturcture).
If bookmark checking is not to one's liking I, too, can recommend Comic Rocket as a hub/library. They link to each single page rather than storing content and monitor your progress so that you can pick up at the point you left off at a later time, or have that particular comic appear in the "pages to read" tab after an update.
Also following creators on social media and to get their update notifications is a possibility (next to getting those you're also showing that creator your support by increasing their subscriber numbers )
EDIT:
Also one of my followers has a document set up in their sta.sh (deviantArt's file storage feature) with all the links they check regularly. It's a regular source of traffic form that user, as I've seen on Google Analytics, so something in that way might also be a possibility.
Thanks for all your input, guys! And Comic Rocket definitely seems useful!
But touching upon social media again, I can see there being creators who people wouldn't want to follow except for updates. Like if the creator posts a lot of extraneous stuff readers aren't interested in.
Come to think of it, there's a certain creator I follow on tumblr, their work is really nice but often they'll go into these long back and forth diatribes with people who disagree with them. I've come to ignore most of those posts but damn do they take up space on my dashboard. xD
Many comics have official social media profiles these days, from which the creators tend to retweet/reblog, too. These are usually cleaner and on point with what you'd want to follow.
Unfortunately for your case not every comic has them. Personally I wouldn't want to follow an account that has nothing but update notifications - but yeah that's an opinion where people differ a lot.
For twitter an alternative would be to set up a list and add comic profiles or creator profiles in case they don't have a comics-only one. Don't know how that'd work on either FB or tumblr, though, they're simply not my preferred kind of social media.
