Creators Over 500 Subs! Share your Tapas Tips!

Ok, so, some words from someone with 3 ongoing series

Can't really share that many tips as to how I got here as... I don't know 'xD I'm just drawing whatever I like and I guess that just happens to overlap with tastes of quite a lot of folks over here on tapas (as I don't think I've brought that many people over from outside of tapas, looking by how much smaller my following is on other platforms...)

But I can share some knowledge gained from mistakes, mostly relating to posting mature content

1) If you want to get featured on tapas... ehm... don't get into mature content 'xD I've been activetily promoted on GlobalComix and Epico and swept under the rug here and while one creator I follow was for some time in the creator support program, in general, there's not much love from staff for adult content creators. Apple sucks, just saying 'xD

2) But there are still readers craving such content, so, if don't care about potential support from the site, do your research about how much is allowed on the app and the website and maybe you'll avoid my struggles with series getting randomly hidden/shadowbanned

3) Don't use any nsfw related terms in your title - while BDSM Boys app safe version can be found while scrolling through BL comics on the app it's hidden from the search results there

4) And finally a more general advice - don't bite more than you can chew - drawing 3 comics plus trying to translate them to my first language, while having a full time job was too much for me (we all need some free time as well) so I scrapped the translations, so, choose your battles wisely

Alright! I don't got much to add to the tips already shared, and I don't know a whole lot, but I'll give it a try.

My comic is 'The Guide to a Healthy Relationship' (No link because I don't feel like getting it.), a mature psychological drama or hurt/comfort comic with some queer themes. It has a little over 2k subs now, and is banned on the app.

1. Lean into your niche. My comic is hard niche, openly focusing on topics relating to mental health struggles and abuse. While many people do like that sort of thing there will always be a crowd into that sort of thing, and they're very hungry. I essentially use my content warnings as part of my advertisement because it'll attract the types who are into that. Same with my not porn or gore related mature rating since it's not super common in queer webcomics. Many indie stories have some kind of niche that doesn't work with the mainstream. Does your story have queer MCs but isn't a romance or story about the queer experience? That's your niche. Does your story feature kid characters or animals/furries? That's your niche! Do you have a platonic friendship story between a cis/het dude and chick or two queer characters? Apparently that's a niche. Basically lean into what makes your story stand out, and seek out the communities looking for that type of work. The mass majority of indie creators are drawn to the stories they make because it fulfills a need the mainstream can't, so I know you have something to work with!

2. Stay updated with your communities (Indie novels/webcomics.). Or at least to the best of your abilities. Early into my comic I got a lot of my interaction from participating in events and discussions via Twitter, Tumblr (Rest it's soul.) and Discord. Seeking out ways I can talk about my comic without doing a link drop-and-run, such as Q&A's, inserting myself into general discussions I can relate to as a creator, sharing WIPs and doing Friday Features of webcomic creators I liked, or just doing a random promo post of a webcomic you recently discovered and enjoyed (Always tag the creator if they have an account on that site.). It's a lot of work, you need do a lot of searching, but it's worth the efforts in the long run. You can meet some really cool people along the way, and gain really good resources!

This is just my viewpoint, but I don't think having your work banned on the app matters as long as you know where and how to share it. Even before the ban my comic got kinda buried by the site, but I still managed to get a good amount of readers... at least it's decent imo. Also to me the connections you make near the beginning are the most important, not the readers you get, but peers. As a webcomic creator or indie novelist this is now your community, you don't need to be all social and extroverted, but it's good to get out of your comfort zone a little and insert yourself a little bit. You'll gain so much in the long run if you do.

Oo I love what you said here about interacting with communities. What are good ways to find your niche? How do you know if you already found it? I say this because I'm not really sure if I found it or if I just haphazardly attracted different kinds of readers to my chaotic, adorable, gaming, graphic-novel style webcomic series

I've thought about reaching out to gamers but I feel like many of them are not used to the webcomic medium, especially since "gaming comics" kinda have a bad rep...

(that being said, I'm at 455 subs atm, so maybe with just one more Tapas feature I'll be qualified to give advice here lol).

Honestly, it depends on what works for you, and the story you make. I did a lot of experimenting trying to find my spot, dipping a little bit into different communities that can relate to what I make. Like, I've done some advertising in the horror community since some horror fans like generally dark/psychological stuff, the character drama crowd since some like darker dramas, there are groups of queer fic readers who like aromantic stories, I've advertised in adult creator spaces not only because they're normally very accepting, but also there small communities in those spaces that want non-pornographic adult stories.

I mainly go on social media since they have the best variety of communities... in spite of how crap they are. As far as how you know if you've found your community, I can't say, it's different for everyone. Personally it's a feel of having a community to latch onto, no longer trying to figure out where to go and who will like your work. I'm kind of the same as you, my readers are made up of people from all over, but the foundation they've made is solid.
Gamers can be a little... much, but there are decent folks out there, and I'm sure there is a crowd for your style. Like, there are cute games out there like Yoshi's Island, Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing and all that, you could always seek out those groups. Or a game genre that you feel relates best with your comic. You never know if you'll find some people that are into comics. You can even use what makes your comic different from other gaming comics a selling point.

Hopefully that's helpful despite it not really being a concrete answer. x'D

Hum, it's hard to say how I ended up with 700+ hahaha But I agree with what all of you said, I don't have much to add. Maybe consistency. Be it posting every 2 weeks, every week, once a month, i don't know, but follow your schedule. I treat my comic as a job, I have deadlines that I have to follow one way or another, rare cases I missed a posting date. I had to go through a hiatus for health reasons, but I'm really strict about my comic, and maybe that's too much even. But yeah, I believe consistency is really important, and if you change your schedule, let your readers know, and now I go for my second habit.

I treat my readers as friends xD I'm always answering the comments, talking in the description area, I'm always trying to sound as human as I can be, not just a bot who makes comics. Sometimes I rant, sometimes I joke, I'm always talking with them. I don't know if that is a good tip, but making my struggles and my things visible to the readers, made them more empathetic, so when I went to hiatus, all of them undestood and stuck with me, most of them waited there for me and didn't leave xD So that's not about the comic in itself, but more about how I deal with being a creator and how I made some of my readers be loyal to my work, I guess?

I totally agree with giving what people want to see. I make BL, so there're some things I want to to give the public that I also enjoy when reading this genre. So sometimes I have to think about it when writing the script or drawing the scenes. It's important to think about it, otherwise people won't be satisfied, they won't get what they are looking for and will drop your work. However that must be done in a way that is not too much fanservice-y, I guess. I made a scene that was so much out of context that I cringe 'till this day, but it's still there xD just so there were a sex scene. In a way it's important for developing the interaction of the characters, but it was so out of context that it looks like fanservice.

I hope to see more tips on promoting, 'cuz I believe my work will never be featured so yeah, I'm not big enough to have many useful tips, I gathered 700+ in 2.5 years, that's not a lot, but yeah. And I'll try to take some of you guy's tips, like the cover tip, I feel like mine is trash right now xD Also, does anyone have tips on better days to post? or it doesn't really matter? does the time I post have any influency as well? The most readers are from US right? So maybe posting on US timezone would be better?

also I'll leave my link just in case xD

Ah, thank you for this advice, everyone! Definitely worth the read from all of you as an itty-bitty creator on here.

Ooh, interesting! Definitely gonna set aside time to read what people are saying

I'm currently at 800 subs here on Tapas, and 3,600 on Webtoon, so here are my tips I guess:

1. Polish. Your art doesn't need to be an absolute masterpiece, but it needs to be a) pleasant to look at, b) readable and c) varied (as in, not only 3/4 headshots every panel with no background!) This not only goes for the art inside the comic but for your cover, thumbnail and banner. People are way more likely to click on a comic whose cover looks appealing and interesting. Of course, the art isn't the end all be all, but it's a an important first impression.

2. First episode hook. Your first episode will be the most viewed episode of your comic- make it count! I've always advocated for having at least a couple pages posted for your first episode rather than just one because readers don't have to wait/click to keep reading. From my personal experience, I'm really happy I made my first episode cover the entire first scene, as it meant people knew whether they were interested in my story from the first episode alone, and the story had a clear direction. The first scene set up the main character and villain, the weird cult going on and the mystery of what the true intentions behind the cult are. I feel if I uploaded one page at a time, it wouldn't have that same impact.

3. Each episode needs to add to the story- this doesn't mean the episode has to be long either. For me, when thumbnailing my pages for the week, I decide how many pages I complete based on when I feel it's best to end it off- usually after something is established/ revealed.

4. Lean into your niche if you're in one. Being in the horror/drama genre, I'm aware that my comic isn't for everyone- people have told me they've tried recommending my comic to friends who simply didn't like the subject matter/genre (I appreciate my lovely readers for trying ) but here's the thing- when you're more niche, there are people who are digging for stories like yours and are likely to remember your work. Find those people! At this point, I'm just known as the "dilf cult mosquito man" person on tiktok, but like hey, advertising my niche has been really helpful in getting new readers! Like I know a lot of horror fans like psychological drama and morally grey characters, so a lot of my jokes and promo are about that. (and also hot middle aged men are a good selling point apparently )

WEBTOON SPECIFIC:

• When promoting your comic on other sites- I recommend mainly linking them to Webtoon Why? It's the most easily accessible and popular webcomic app- people are most likely to have it installed on their phone so they can quickly search up a comic. Ofc, if this is not your main site, that's all fine, but it's just something I've noticed.

• Scroll tends to do better than pages and gets promoted by the site. Not to say you can't make posting page comics work, but it's expected on the site. I post a reformatted version of my comic to Webtoon, which has drastically increased eyes on my comic as it's easier to read on a phone. My comic on webtoon tends to fit the style of other Webtoons, which helps draw in the audience.

• NICE THUMBNAILS- I swear, I'm planning on updating mine again but make sure it's nice looking and easy to see on a small scale. It really helps with first impressions. I still need to work on this since the colours are still a bit too dark

that's my tips I guess. I do a ton of promo where I can so that's definitely helpful

Wait, so does the point 3 means I have nothing to do here with my non-romantic dark sci-fi/action comic that is "too manly" for that site​.
Ok, seriously now, is there any chance for larger audience with genres like sci-fi/action?

Well, I have
Scarlet Society with 536 subs on Tapas2 and 8832 on Webtoon1 | 4871 on Webtoon Spanish1
Then Love Quotes with 874 subs on Tapas1 and 469 on Webtoon | 3103 on Webtoon Spanish

On Scarlet's side, I wasn't in charge of the first episodes, I started drawing for it on chapter 4 and it already had around 5K subs back then, and it was mostly on Webtoon, I eventually told the author that we could cover more ground by publishing on Tapas, Webcomics and translating the content for Webtoon Spanish, Akaya Media and Faneo.

Love Quotes was a short project so it was more common for it to have these numbers on the English platforms, the Spanish sites on the other hand didn't had as much traffic when we started publishing both series, so yep.

Most of the time, I consider that the Cover of Scarlet is quite Clickbaiting, considering that the first thing someone sees and gets interested in is the Cover, so you kinda expect artwork similar to the miniature, and despite we clarified that the series originally had another artist, first chapters were done around 2017-2019 we still get some complains from readers.

However, what I think is what actually caught the interest of others onto the series I draw for, is probably the fact that I usually participate in a ton of stuff.

• Whenever I make promotional art, wips of chapters, or updates with a sneak peek I share it in probably more than 100 FB groups and Discord Servers, I also share those on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Reddit, despite the last two don't have as much activity (Both from me or visitors). I also make short videos from time to time, be it speedpaintings, tiktoks, live-drawing streams, etc.

• I also participate in several #ArtShares on Twitter, sometimes focusing in the art of a single series or picking random illustrations with a link to the rest of my work.

• In artistic/webcomic communities, sometimes I share the before and after of certain panels or comparatives, I believe several came to Scarlet probably not for the story but because of the evolution of my abilities, since I usually get complimented about how much I've changed or how much motivating my process is (Despite I believe it's not that great). I've also participated on Themed Collabs of drawing a character of your series and then sharing the whole collab with a small promotion to other people's series, personally I don't consider them that helpful but they are good if you later on want to share your character and the collab on social media

• I try to updates chapters often, for Scarlet I try to at least have an episode every two weeks, or once a month, for Love Quotes, due to it's easy production, it could be a new episode once a week (Still had to take a few breaks due to other works)

I don't believe I've done very "Webtoon" or "Tapas" oriented behavior, just the basics of what I'll find logical to do: To cover as much ground as possible

I guess for me, it means selling my comic's concept based on the draws of the niche. Like for my comic, I usually market it a psychological horror that explores the inner workings of a cult, and a lot of my promo is about that. When you're in a niche, there tend to be less comics that are like yours- so you try and find people who are interested in that specifically.

Leaning into it would be committing to being part of the specific niche you fall into. As an example, I wouldn't try and fit a romance into my stuff since it doesn't fit the story even if it's more likely to appeal to more people. Then again, appealing a bit more to mainstream stuff isn't always a bad thing either

Since you have a comic inspired by Gravity Falls and Stranger Things, that is big draw for a lot of people that like works similar to that! (I've also seen your comic very often and checked it out when looking horror comics, so whatever your doing already seems to be working )

this reply was all over the place rip someone can correct me if I'm wrong

Sure, I'll throw my hat in the ring. My current comic is The Shapeshifter's Wife, which has a slow build of ~320 on Tapas, but a ~4,200 on Webtoon. Which is a huuuge freakin difference and I'll dive into that:

Tip 1: So my first tip is to spread your comic onto different platforms. They have different demographics, hence my huge difference in stats.

Tip 2: Make sure your first 3 episodes have the heart and soul of why the hell you are making this comic at all. This includes your hook, of course, but those first 3 episodes should be very polished, and try to make them longer than your other ones (on WT I uploaded in JPG so I could fit all the panels), make sure it's your best foot forward.

Tip 3: Webcomics are weird because we are posting short spurts about once every 2 weeks. 50 comic updates look like nothing on a script, and would be a normal slow build for a graphic novel, but is actually about 1-2 years worth of posts where nothing happens, and a year for your readers to wait. So remember, you're making a webcomic, which is a very different medium, and you may need to skip straight to the Good Stuff that you're excited to draw. Don't wait to show you love interest, don't wait to show the fun sword fight, just get to the good stuff so your readers don't give up on you.

Tip 4: You get out of the community what you put into it. Doesn't really matter where you're posting, discord, reddit, tik tok, instagram, wherever. You cannot spam links in art shares and then run away and expect anything to come of it. You have to comment on other peoples content, on other people's social media posts, engage with other creators, and remember to be nice.

The staff who choose who gets promoted are on all of these social media channels, they see your posts, especially if you are chatting with their official posts. This is how they find you for promotion, and I know the reason why I've been promoted on Webtoon and on Tapas is because I paid attention to what they ask for when it comes to making phone friendly, app friendly content that matches their art expectations, and I have an active twitter and I show up in the discords and participate in community events when I can (long covid made me take a 4 month break but I'll get back to it soon hopefully)

This doesn't at all guarantee you'll be selected (I've seen wonderful comics that haven't been selected at all and it's been YEARS) but I don't think begging the staff to promote you, or being mean or self deprecating on socials, and ignoring the rules of the platform by posting content they literally can't promote will help you get promoted.

Tip 5: And for my last tip, it doesn't matter if you go viral anymore. Sub count isn't what matters the most, it's the engagement rate that matters. We live in the age of Tik Tok, where you can go viral easier than you could at any other point in internet history. Problem is, going viral from front page promotion or a really good video and getting subs doesn't mean that your subscribers will come back.

WT and Tapas both use engagement ratings to determine which series to green light or invite to the creator bonus programs. So sit back and do the math: how many of your subs are leaving comments, coming back every time you update, or liking your stuff? Subs alone may unlock ad revenue, but ad revenue is so little nowadays that I consider it a waste of time to solely focus on it.

Is there more you can do to get readers excited about your next update? Can you pace things better so they have to know what happens next? Are you leaving enough flash backs and summaries when things get complicated, so your return readers don't get so lost that they immediately unsub? Are you interacting with your community in the comments and online so they feel like they are welcome to leave comments? Try and make it a welcoming place they want to return to.

Alright so I've been thinking more about that niche marketing thing, and I think it's suddenly making more sense to me:

If I recall correctly, @darthmongoose regularly mentions that Tapas's demographic is mostly women in their 20s, and I realize that my comic might not really appeal to that group that much.

However, when Tapas does promote JumpHero, it normally does do pretty freaking well, which means that the readers who do want to read my comic do exist on the platform.

I wonder, is there something I could do to maybe prove to Tapas that they should promote my series more? Like work to gain a following on social media to show that my series could bring new people to the site? I hope this doesn't come off as begging to them; I know I shouldn't depend on Tapas, but they do bring a lot of benefits to the creators they support.

Idk, please larger creators, let me know what I should do.

Alright thank you for the advice.

And assuming you actually read my support message... I'm sorry I didn't think it was actually derogatory, but I can kinda see what you mean. Gonna replace it right now.

Albiet, I haven't changed it it in years anyway, and my writing style and humor have kinda changed a bit since then.

I guess that my only problem would be the fact that I've seen these types of snarky people get humbled over the years. Or from my experience, it could be health issues that makes people so confrontational in the first place.

Like... all it took for me was to get my tonsils taken out and it was like a huge reset button on my brain. While I REALLY feel bad for the animosity big creators get (no one deserves hate EVER), I feel we should consider the provokers' mental health? Like... after the surgery I was having all these scary realizations. One of them being that some of these people could end up being classified as "chumps" and could ruin their opportunities right before getting THEIR operations. Luckily for me, I was able to restrain myself before the surgery, but I do think about the people who were unable to do so. Hot damn that's a horrible fate. That wouldn't be teaching the person a lesson, that'd just be making them lose their purpose right when hope shows itself.

And it's not like people can say "Well you shouldn't have done [blank]" because a lot of the time they don't know what they're doing. Their brain isn't functioning at full capacity and they can't help but spew hatred. But once they become healed, it's like a lobotomy's been healed. But they can't grow in certain circles because of what they said before and what with being on the internet, it's difficult to prove your case (I remember doing it with one YouTuber. We're cool now and we still talk to each other now, but HOT DAMN did it suck that he didn't want to believe me). And like I said, I get people wanting to distance themselves, but... what I guess what I'm trying to say is this situation (and I want big creators to take note of this) REALLY does goes both ways and is more complex than just "the person is just an edgy troll".

I know I'm not 500 subs, but this comment stood out to me and I feel like I should probably share my perspective if that's alright (since people in this forum could end up working in the industry)? Because this is a worst case scenario and I'm still thanking God that I was able to "survive the storm" lmao.

As someone who was a bit snarkier before and could relate a bit to what Kate said about smaller creators having this animosity, I kinda disagree with what you’re saying. Yes, people should be forgiven for what they’ve done in the past, but that doesn’t mean that what they did in the past never happened.

I’m gonna own up to my mistakes, cuz when I was I younger (I joined Tapas as a teen) I did kinda think many “big” creators were actually lame and didn’t have actually unique stories. But when I got older and got to interact with these creators, I realized that actually they have very creative and unique stories and totally earned the successes: plus, they’re still people just like you and me.

So yeah, my brain wasn’t as developed at the time, so that could “justify” why I felt that way, but that doesn’t mean it would have been impossible for me to do better. We can’t just allow every negative behavior just because someone can’t help it, because chances are they will be able to eventually help it. Critiques like what Kate said are meant to help everyone and anyone get better.

Regardless, getting criticized over negative behavior won’t hurt your chances in the industry; but rather how you react to that criticism. If you learn to take it as a mature person and strive to change for the better, you’ll be allowed in great places.