Seconding this!! There have been soooooo many comics where I came across them when there were only 5 pages, read the 5 pages, thought "well this seems promising, maybe I'll check back later" and then completely forgot about the comic.
So I think advertising to get strangers to come to your page often isn't helpful until you've hit the meat of your story.
If you have an audience for your art already, that's the best place to start, because they're invested in you and have a reason to stick around -- you can shamelessly advertise your comic to them, wherever they are. But otherwise, think of that more quiet, low-pressure time as training for updating on time and solidifying your process.
Have you ever been in a parade? I was in a marching band in my city's Christmas parade -- you start off on a section of road where there are no spectators, but you still have to march well and be at attention and play your music as you march, so that when you get to the place where the crowd is later on, they can see you've been doing it this whole time. Webcomics are kind of like that. It's normal for only friends and family to be at the starting line!
