Yeah, which is why I talked about factor #2. Even when not counting new readers who haven't begun to catch up, I have a lot of people who simply stopped keeping up, and that number has been steadily increasing.
I feel iffy about asking the public for constructive criticism XD People who stopped reading aren't going to be around to even notice me asking, for one thing.
Another factor that I wonder about is maybe first time users to the site, come, create a profile, sub to a few series, and then forget about Tapastic and never come back. Like they came, check out the site and left.
this! I feel this!!!
I actually have the same problem as Kei (thou my sub number has stalled)
I have no constructive answer and way to proceed because I'm stuck in the same boat. Thou my approach at mo is to go outside the Tapas bubble and see what else is out there to help improve growth.
Sorry, I wasn't totally sure about the ratio thing. It's just hard to say since the stats don't tell you where your views are coming (or not coming) from. I get that your point was the overall views have dropped though.
You could be getting users subbing due to the bandwagon effect. They just assume your series is good because you have thousands of subscribers, but then they never bother actually reading it. I imagine this would only get worse as your following grows. Seriously though, a lot of people subscribe to far more series than they could ever possibly read. That is totally out of your control and unfortunately, I don't think there's anything you can do about it. As @CyndiFoster mentioned, it also easily could be random people that sub then never come back to the site.
I "plan" to read all the comics I've subbed to one day, but until that time, mine is just a symbolic sub. I suspect I'm not alone in this. We're all getting busier.
Also, after a binge, sometimes I forget about the comic altogether, and only remember it when I'm browsing again one day and find it at random. I think the secret to building a community of steady readers is kind of like the search for the holy grail, and if you could manage it, you'd probably be rich and famous.
Sorry that wasn't clear XD I think I'll edit the first post because that's a very likely misunderstanding.
I think there IS something we can do about it, but we just don't know what that is...! like @scythe said, no one's cracked the code. Even those who've pulled it off are not able to pinpoint exactly how it happened, or how it can be reproduced reliably...
Admittedly, I still haven't caught up on a lot of comics in my reading list :x It doesn't help that a few comics I follow have a large archive so it takes a while to get caught up when I actually make time to read.
I've noticed a slowdown as well. I get the feeling that the pool of readers here isn't growing as quickly as the pool of creators. Most of the people I meet here have their own comics, which like me means they probably don't have time to read updates the moment they go up (or for a few weeks after that).
It'd be nice if we could figure out a way to bring in more non-creator readers, as I feel like they might be more quick to check out updates as they're released.
I have the same problem, I keep getting subs but my views are absolute disaster. With 8k (almost 9) subs, first week I barely hit 3k views, when a whole month passes it eventually gets better, however they can be only single views from people passing by when your comic appears in fresh/trending/popular section.
I wonder if rebooting series is a good way of overcoming the large archive burn, OR perhaps further grouping of episodes into bigger episodes?
O_o What do you mean by rebooting? Like... actually starting over from scratch?
I would love for Tapastic to bring an episode grouping system. Sad that it's probably not going to happen anytime soon if ever.
We can do it manually by moving the image files into other episode containers. I do this at the end of each issue. You do have to delete comments but it might be worth it if it alleviates archive burn (?)
Maybe (?) Or possibly editing and fixing existing pages and updating those episodes. Creating a brand new series doesn't sound like the answer though, just thinking outloud.
The very idea makes me sad. I don't comment on comics that do that. We shouldn't have to choose between comments (from existing readers) and organization (for potential new readers) :[
I feel the discussion is shifting from keeping ex-active readers to encouraging new subbers to read. Anyone have anything to chime in about how to keep active readers actually active? (Granted, the two topics aren't 100% separate; when the general readership is actively commenting and whatnot, everyone is probably more motivated to keep up, new or old)
The one perk that I can think about of keeping up with an on-going series is that you can communicate with the author/join event that only happens at that specific time as the series go along. I found being active and talk to the readers on a daily basis helps a lot. Maybe also have some side contest/event going on. Like holding a raffle, open up Q&A, etcetc. I tend to binge read a series if the author does not actively communicate with their readers or do anything special and just post the comic when the update time comes.
Oh, also I tend to binge read a series if the author updates page by page 😂 Could that be the case with yours comic, I wonder...?
I've been doing that for a while now. Not sure if it helps but it stops the archive crashing some longer series have.
Ah ok, now that you've edited the post it's much clearer what you're actually asking now haha. Unfortunately, I don't have any new advice for how to bring back/maintain readers other than stuff that's already been mentioned!
This is true. I have definitely noticed there is much more reader activity when a series does regular Q&A comics or contests where the winner gets their portrait drawn or whatever. It seems more common with standalone comics, but I'm sure any comic could benefit from extra creator involvement like this.
It's like you really do have to go above and beyond or people will lose interest and move onto the next thing.
I actually had a thought. I believe the view count only counts 1 view per account (to counter false views and bots) but what if it not counting non-account views? Like people who are subbed, get the email, go to the site or click the link, don't log in and read and are never registered?
its a thought
