How come other comics gets so popular or trending?

[keac]

I don't know how they did this... I saw a webcomic that's only on Tapastic and reached popularity quickly (Not literally "quickly" with just a snap) (without making an another website or an FB page or Tumblr account, impossible but true)

How did they do it? Are there Tips and Tricks on how they'd do it? (Other creators might be curious as well and not just me)

[SpavVy]

I've been in trending plenty of times and I don't have other sites for my comic at all, at first I tried smackjeeves but I didn't like it.
If people are interested in your comic and you get a lot of views and such then you will make it to trending especially if you have great or charming art to back it up.
When you add a new episode the fresh section makes it easier to get into trending as well.

[keii4ii]

1. How do you know they don't have preexisting fanbase from other sites? Maybe they do, but just haven't linked them from their profile.

2. Professional quality art can help you get attention quickly, especially if it's done in an accessible/ popular style.

3. If you end up on the front page one way or another (Tapastic Picks is one section that you don't need to be popular to get in), that will give you a boost. It can even lead to a snowball effect: get more readers, which helps your comic get on the front page, which in turn helps you get more readers, which in turn...

I have no idea how trending works, though. Sometimes a comic that hasn't updated in a while ends up there, and that confuses me! It is a very mysterious section.

[ratique]

Well it depends on a multitude of reasons.

The comic could be featured by tapastic - that definitely helps.

Or the comic simply hits the perfect audience with the perfect idea and/or good art.

I enjoy how on this site quality usually decides over the success of a comic. Tapastic's community is still small enough that new creators like myself are able to find an audience without being buried in thousands of submissions (like on deviantart). So if something is successful, it almost certainly has a certain level of quality.

[DragonPena]

One of my comics got into the trending section shortly after I has uploaded an episode..
Why? I really dont know exactly, supposedly its because it has more likes/subs/people talking about it..
But nothing like that happened, or at least I didnt ser a diference in the number of people checking it.

[getsuart]

I saw that my comic was in trending section when I update it. But it wasn't in Trending before I think (or it was already before I saw it). I don't know how it works properly, but it can be because a lot of people just check it at once.
I'm clueless about how to be in popular/trending sections. Just have professional looking comic/nice art, good story and people will come and check it ? XD Trending is hourly "spotlight", so it may be easier to get into it.

[zelkats]

This is what I've observed so far:

One of my comics which hasn't been updated in weeks appeared in Trending a couple of times when it got stumbled on by readers and received a handful of likes/subs/comments in a short amount of time.

As for Popular, it takes a little more time than trending for comics to show up on there (maybe around 5 to 12 hours later) after a newly added episode accumulated loads of views, likes and comments (subs not really necessary). This typically happens to comics that have 1000+ subscribers (and viewers combined) who swarm in to read the new episode or to comics that get featured on the daily snack.

BUT, they don't stay on Popular for too long, so that other comics that just updated have a chance. They stay up there for around 10 hours or so (I can't give an exact time because I don't look at Tapastic 24 hours) and then they're taken completely off the Popular list until the next new episode and wave of views/likes/subs -- even if the comic was in the middle of consistently getting plenty of attention through Popular. There are some comics that stayed up on Popular for days, like Mecha Necha and Scandanavia & the World, because they had episodes added continuously without skipping a day.

[Jrej]

From my experience, trending is all about comments left on an episode.
Every time I have a long conversation with someone on a the chat.
The comic ends up being featured on the first page.

I am sure other things are taken into account but that's just what I noticed!

[michaelson]

BUT, they don't stay on Popular for too long, so that other comics that just updated have a chance. They stay up there for around 10 hours or so (I can't give an exact time because I don't look at Tapastic 24 hours) and then they're taken completely off the Popular list until the next new episode and wave of views/likes/subs -- even if the comic was in the middle of consistently getting plenty of attention through Popular. There are some comics that stayed up on Popular for days, like Mecha Necha and Scandanavia & the World, because they had episodes added continuously without skipping a day.

sweats nervously

Zelkats knows too much about us...... time to change our secret formula! Jk

[CalebDL]

I wonder the same thing myself. It seems people get their comics noticed just like THAT while others are just flailing around like lubed up squids...

[joannekwan]

I don't have much exposure elsewhere, I started Demon House on tumblr but barely had a hundred followers before I decided to use Tapastic. It then started gaining subs on its own without much help from me.

Demon House once got to the second page of the Popular section, and it was a day after I had updated it. I saw a huge spike of subs and likes over all.

Heavy Horns was on Trending about an hour ago. No comments to boost it up there, just subs and likes. I think this section does update hourly. I don't know why the sudden interest because the series updates Sundays (it's Friday as of the time I write this).

But I don't really promote Heavy Horns anywhere, aside from sketches and illustrations I might put up on tumblr, but even those don't get that many notes. It's crazy because I started this particular series with just a chapter cover and got 100 subs before posting anything else. I guess people want to see some guy x guy romance (to put it decently).

[jordanthelass]

I don't really think being popular matters when it comes to producing your work. I just do the best I can to make my comics the best they can possibly be. If the readers enjoy it, they'll follow you and comment, like, etc.

Just enjoy making comics. Then the rest will follow!