Does making a Youtube channel actually help?

[kalmia]

I’ve seen some people say that they have/want to make a Youtube channel to post their comics and content about their comics on. Does that actually help attract readers or do any sort of advertising? I rarely see comic content on Youtube unless I was already following that creator before on other socials and then followed their YT channel after. But, to be fair I probably follow more commentary channels than regular comic/art Ytbers. So my question is- is making a Youtube Channel for your comics/set a helpful and potentially successful way to advertise? And if so, what kind of content do people post?

[GumshoeComix]

it helped me a LOT until YT Shorts changed their algorithm again nw idk wtf im Doing anymore ;A; and tiktok is my new best friend
I'm actually considering moving my art streams from Youtube to Twitch youtube has been that bad with getting engagement, so just to test the waters i guess

[river121693]

I think it does. There are a few comic creators who I know about through their videos about making webcomic and reviewing other creators' comics-- ND Bern, Turtle and Bug, and McKay & Gray are a few examples. Their content are refined and take a lot of work but it really engages with the webtoon community. I'm willing to bet a big chunk of their followers are there more so for their videos than comics.

I've also heard that tiktok is another great place for posting drawing process and getting followers. It takes a less effort, but still a lot of work I think

[midnightsun]

I’ve never made comic art related Youtube videos myself but while I’m working on panels I like to listen to comic related videos (often some sort of discussion or commentary played over a speedpaint video) because it’s entertaining enough without being too distracting. I’ve definitely started reading comics because I discovered the creator through their comic related Youtube videos, and there are some comics I keep up with regularly even after the Youtube channel becomes inactive. I’ve considered making videos myself at some point but I don’t think I have the confidence for that haha

[AmysGames]

YouTube's algorithm has been working surprisingly well for me recently—I posted an animatic related to my comic a month ago and the majority of the views it got actually were from YouTube recommending it to people.

Main issue with video content is that it's a LOT of extra work. Speed draws are pretty easy to do, but they don't tend to get a lot of attention unless you're already famous. And obviously not everyone working on a webcomic will have the time or energy to make full on animations about it, lol.

[TheLemmaLlama]

It's great if you talk about general art/writing related stuff rather than your particular comic directly Aside from the people @river121693 mentioned, I also got into Unfamiliar and Aurora because of the creators' YouTube channels (LavenderTowne and Overly Sarcastic Productions respectively) :] But ofc it's extra work that you won't be spending on your comic proper

[RedLenai]

Like with everything, you'll need to have content created or even scheduled for it to properly take off.

To be honest a lot of people like tutorials, webcomic making process or voice overs.
Some others do time-lapses or speedpaintings of certain panels
Then you have others who hire voice actors to narrate the comic, basically having a video version of it.

In video format, while I don't do it now due to time and feeling a bit quite tired:

• Streaming the IRL time process with a multistream platform helps, as well you can engage with people which caughts their attention (I used to stream in YT and Twitch at the same time, then Picarto for NSFW stuff)
• Saved the VODs on Youtube and kept them as exclusive content in Ko-Fi for supporters to revisit.
• Used fragments of the VODs to create speedpaintings, Shorts or TikTok videos.