Gaining subs but losing views?

[keii4ii]

I've always been gaining subs steadily. But since some time last year, my views per episode have been going down. The views for the latest episode, which has been out for some time now, is at less than 1/3 of the comic's sub count. At the rate it's been going, it'll probably dip below 10% of the sub count by the end of this year.

Two factors that I'm aware of:

• binge readers. Some people let updates pile on for months. Though for me, the drop began roughly 10 months ago, so I don't think bingers actually account for a huge percentage of the view drop.

• new subscribers who haven't yet begun to read. This is a thing, but it's not what I'm concerned about. There is a significant number of people who WERE reading but stopped.

I don't mean this thread to be a "waaah nobody's reading my comic" kind of a thing. I simply want to know why this is happening? And if there's anything I should do differently to address this issue?

[Herofeeder]

pewdipie didnt stop being funny and hes work gets better and better,but even though he has 45 million subs he only gets 5,7 million views
leafy with 4 million subs is cutting close to pewdipie,

i think some people come for the quality of the comic(the ones that watch)

some come for the quality of the actual web page(what i mean by this is they find it very easy to use and find good material here BUT are not regular here and they dont intend to follow anyone ,except when they feel like they want to read a bit

and then there is the 3rd ones that let the stuff pile on for months and then they watch everything you ever posted .

the only solution i see here is to go over facebook and tumblr and stuff like that and promote your work AND Taptastic along with it
more taptastic visitors higher the chances of you getting noticed and going back to your regular view count

[keii4ii]

@Herofeeder While I agree that everyone benefits from the platform being promoted, I don't think this is the core of the issue. Like you said, people like pewdiepie have similar/same issues, but that's not because youtube needs more promotion...

[Herofeeder]

y but youtube is already world wide famous
imagine if tap started to get that amount of attention

[keii4ii]

@Herofeeder I think what you want to discuss might need its own thread... XD

[deceriacomics]

I noticed your series follows a narrative – so my best guess is that up-to-date readers are letting episodes pile up for binging later, and new subscribers just haven't caught up yet. You have a lot of episodes out, so that will take a while for new subs to read them all. Especially for those who are subbed to hundreds or even thousands of series. People aren't going to view your weekly updates if they are still stuck at the beginning of your series. Just keep that in mind.

I wouldn't stress about this though. The fact that you are gaining subscribers is a good thing. Your art looks nice and appears consistent, so I don't think that's the issue. Maybe your story took a turn that your readers don't find interesting anymore? Having never read your comic though, it's hard to say. The only way you could really address this is to put a post up on your page asking your readers for constructive criticism. That would give a bit more insight as to whether or not anything needs improvement.

[keii4ii]

You have a lot of episodes out, so that will take a while for new subs to read them all. Especially for those who are subbed to hundreds or even thousands of series. People aren't going to view your weekly updates if they are still stuck at the beginning of your series. Just keep that in mind.

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.

[PotooGryphon]

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.

[elixiadragmire]

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.

[deceriacomics]

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.

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.

[scythe]

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.

[scythe]

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.

[keii4ii]

I don't think there's anything you can do about it

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...

[Michelle]

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.

[AffectedMind]

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.

[PotooGryphon]

I wonder if rebooting series is a good way of overcoming the large archive burn, OR perhaps further grouping of episodes into bigger episodes?

[keii4ii]

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.

[PotooGryphon]

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 (?)

O_o What do you mean by rebooting? Like... actually starting over from scratch?

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.

[keii4ii]

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 (?)

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) :[

[keii4ii]

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)