Getting noticed "Very Lucky?"

[JamesClover]

Hello Tapas Forum Readers,

I have a question and I'm sure it's been posted on this forum before but I haven't come across it yet so I figured id ask.

How do people get so many views on their comic?

I'll see some that make sense like up for 3 years with 2 million views but then I'll see one with 4 chapters and 100k views.

I'm fairly new to this world I immediately immersed myself the second I wanted to start this journey so I know me coming from nowhere doesn't help promote to people.

I guess my question other than the views is how do people go about it I've been promoting hard on IG even paying for promotions but not seeing the uptick I was hoping for so scouring the internet for answers I always come across "I'm very lucky"

I've been only doing this a year and now I'm featured. Is that all it is Pure Luck?

I hope the best for all creators so I'm not trying to hate on others who are "Very Lucky"

Just wondering if there is more to it than that? Thanks to anyone who has answers I know it's a vague question.

I've attached my webtoon here as well (Can't stop promoting lol) please add yours as well I love reading new webtoons!

Triage For Love

[Lirina]

I guess one source of traffic is having a name. If someone already has drawn or written one or more successful comics/novels, people are more likely to check out their new work

[doublemelon]

It's one of the biggest mysteries in the world that top researchers are still trying to find out, along with the questions about how magnet works and black holes.

Honestly, idk, it's so just weird!
Some authors use totally different pen names for different comics, and maybe advertise one comic in another. I came across that as I noticed the artstyle.

How do you know you got featured btw? Did you receive an email?

[JamesClover]

HA! I hear that on the mystery.

I haven't been featured at all, hence my posting this. I was curious about the whole thing in general, I've just seen no rhyme or reason behind any of it other than I was very lucky. I also wouldn't be posing this question if my rating was like an 8.75 or something like that but after almost 6 months of doing this and close to 1k with a rating at 9.95 I figured my story must be solid to not have a worse rating.

I also don't want this to come across as sour grapes because more power to whoever gets picked up. I just have scoured the internet looking for answers and all I ever find is "I'm Lucky"

[gabriellabalagna]

Hi there. Here are a few ways to get noticed...

1. LUCK Some people just happen to get picked for a feature, some get favored by the algorithm, etc. But creators don't need to solely depend on luck to get noticed.

2. TIME People sometimes have a lot of views because they've been at it a long time and already have an audience. The longer you keep creating, the more your audience is bound to grow.

3. PROMOTION Here's an article I wrote giving a bunch of ideas where to share your webcomic.

4. CUMULATION Post lots of content. Try to post weekly or even daily. The more you put out, the more opportunities people have to find you.

5. CONNECTIONS/NETWORKING Practice networking or try to make lots of friends. Join comic communities, etc.

6. OUTSTANDING Make amazing content or be an amazing person.

[sorible]

I would say that having good art gets you pretty far if you're patient, but luck really does play a big part in success.

I was only able to get about 1k subs on webtoon after 5 months with very mediocre art and average story, but after it was promoted on the front page, it grew about 4k more subs in one month and I have about 8.8k subs total currently. Same with tapas, I was promoted for staff picks and it went from 200 ish subs to about 750 current.

Not all is pure luck though, I know a lot of good creators with really cool art and story but didn't have a lot of followers at first, and after almost 100 episodes are finally getting more traction and subs.

It helps to have really good thumbnail and cover art, since that is what people first see and judge your series on. Promoting is good, but I don't know if I was able to get a lot of views or followers from promoting on sites and forums alone. and if you have a big audience, there is a higher change of getting promoted by webtoon/tapas (I think that's more hard work paying off than luck).

[Kelheor]

You know if you're featured pretty simple - you went to sleep with 150 subs and woke up with at least 300... most likely 3000
There are a lot of variables there, there are authors who are already popular, so it's more natural for them to have a bigger sub count than those who start from zero.

Overall it's a combo of pure luck, having nice enough art and something in the plot that readers can be quickly excited about. Some are getting featured fast and when they immediately jump on the front page of their genre they just get more views; some have to wait for a long time for Canvas team to notice them, I remember one artist being very excited when I told her she's on the front page because with her great comic she never was there before and now boom, she's crazy popular.

I should say that Webtoons rating is a very fragile thing and so far you are lucky enough to still have high rating, there are literal raids happening there sometimes to throw off other people's ratings.
You are doing absolutely great with that natural growth though, go you

[Eiranyx]

Well I do admit that luck plays a big part of it but I think there's more than that. If I'm gonna define pure luck, it is something I can't control at all, it's always random.
But If its luck with being noticed, and I'm gonna put it in my own way, it would be defining when to use your 'luck'
When I say that, I would say it's a matter of timing and reading the situation, a strategy you could say. By reading the current atmosphere and you feel that your chances are lucky at a certain time you go for it.-- I don't know how to say it in an easier way to understand sorry lol
well to put it simply, In my case, when I started, in my 7 months of publishing here, I am not lucky enough to be put on the front page of any of these site: tapas and Webtoon BUT I was 'lucky' enough when it comes to making connections with people and among these people, there will be of course one or two that are what you can call 'popular' who happens to like my work so they're kind enough to promote my work into their work --- and people then started noticing it as well, that's how I was able to go from 600 subs to now 3.6k subs on webtoon. --- But when it comes to tapas, the fact that I was able to gain more than 50 views a day, and 10 subs a day means that it was a result of my choice to make my art style, cover match the demographic of the site, so which means that luckily my estimated 'prediction' based on studying the site before posting. So it means 'luck' works different for everyone, it's up to you how are you gonna use that 'luck' in a way that it will be most favourable for you, its up to you when to try your 'luck'

[JamesClover]

Thanks for the breakdown and link to your article about sharing your webtoon. I really just am stuck thinking of ways to best promote. More power to all the creators getting there stories out there I just wanted to know if there was more I could do on my end to grab as many eyes as I can. Look forward to reading your article.

[JamesClover]

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words. Yeah this post is for me to figure out the best way to promote myself. I suck at FB since I haven't been on it daily since 2012 so I'm promoting the best I can on IG and other places like Reddit or Amino to talk to other people interested in webtoons or anime in general and just wondered am I missing something that others are doing that I'm not lol.

[JamesClover]

Ah first congrats on all the subs! Yeah I seem to have difficulty making those types of connections. I've gotten solid feedback but nothing to strike up a collaboration. Hopefully when I do get that "luck" I can use it properly. Thanks for the response.

[rajillustration]

There's a lot of factors that could give other comics just a randomly huge boost--either from promotion outside the platform (so if they had a twitter that went viral, or if they were featured on a popular podcast or something like that) or promotion inside the platform (I got a lucky feature once where...yes I applied to a contest that required me to use my skills...but also it's still luck because there's hundreds of applications. So for a novel that typically only gets 6 views a page and 1 comment, I randomly have a first page with 1000+ comments on it because of that contest. But, my views are back to where it was before.)

the way I've heard it described, is that there's 2 growth rates. If you have a line graph and it's slowly going up--that's your natural rate of growth--but then you also have spikes of growth from when promotions or viral stuff happens. Those are really helpful, but in general, your growth will go right back to where it was after the spike is over. It's fine. that's just how the internet works:

most of the posts we see from other artists are the ones that went viral--they're in a spike period. We don't really see them at their normal growth rate period, so it's easy to think "wow, if they got 200 subs in one evening, they'll have 1000 in a week) but truth us, the spikes are a little too short for that. Unless they are constantly promoted, most people have the same slow and steady growth, and that's just down to quality, networking, marketing, having enough quantity and consistency over time, youknow, the boring stuff.

There's also a thing where your type of comic can absolutely dictate it's success on a platform--so some comics are just already what Tapas is pushing, they're going to naturally float to the top. Other's are more obscure, no one is searching for them, they'll tend to sink. Kind of the nature of our current platforms on Webtoons and Tapas alike.

Overall, focus on your natural growth, and still apply to stuff that can go viral or be good for promotion--but like...the natural growth stuff is where the meat and potatoes are really at.