How Common is it For People to Push Their Comic?

[tsukasafantc]

How common is it for people to push their comic? And I mean pushing it on other people's walls or in a PM. How common is it for people to seek out others- Supposedly at random- and push their comic?
What do you think of it? Is it annoying, or a good strategy?
I got one recently through a PM, and I saw it on someone else's wall (from a different creator) and I was unsure how to react. Do people look at other people's interests and say "I think they'd like my comic too!" or do they just shove them in at random?

I am legitimately curious!

[phen]

Weeeellll, it's typically considered a faux-pas for a creator to go out of their way and randomly push strangers to check out their content. Especially if they're creators themselves (time is precious). A more organic approach would be connecting in lieu of contacting (ie, look for like-minded creators and exchange thoughts/ideas on work mutually). Your comment about shared interests is definitely closer to a good way of promoting.

So yes, it's verging spam and considered a cheap strategy. That being said, cheap doesn't necessarily mean bad. I personally know of a few creators who employed this method on a smallish scale and got positive results (at the expense of some annoyed creators in the community). It's advertising.

Personal thoughts: I don't mind a transparent message from someone curious about my opinion on their work but I won't respond to some copy/paste push.

[tsukasafantc]

I had a feeling it was something of a faux-pas- but I wanted to know if it was a "difference in culture" so to speak.
Thanks for the reply!

[GalacticPotato]

It is very common but that doesn't mean it's good, it's very spammy and annoying. In fact, it might end up making people dislike your comic!
The best way to advertise within Tapas is just to interact with people in the forums and casually mentioning your comic, heck, there are several posts asking you to promote in them! This really shouldn't have to happen.

[tsukasafantc]

Thanks for the reply~
I know I was kinda annoyed- since the person who sent me their comic isn't someone who I follow, or who is following me... and the comic didn't even interest me, so that was another bit of annoyance.

[CurlyComics]

happened to me a couple of times too... and it's very akward and I don't know how to react.
I think that if you have a comic and the person that wants to promote their comic to you doesn't even bother giving a look at yours, that's well shameless

another thing that I've seen happening to me is that a person leaves a comment on a random page of my comic, something along the lines of "cool" or "nice" not related to the page at all , is not following me, has not read the comic (no views on the dashboard thingie) and just flies away XD I don't even know if that's supposed to be some underhanded advertizing or just a random compliment

[Draconic]

Just be normal and ignore them if you don't really care about it.

I don't like that and will never do that either, but it is really hard for any beginner artist to get on Tapas frontpage or the Fresh section and getting more subscriber. They don't know better as they're just a beginner, so just be nice and tell them to stop spamming.

The best way to advertise within Tapas is just to interact with people in the forums and casually mentioning your comic

I agree, everyone should just casually interact with people and no one getting awkward.
Whenever I get a perfect chance to promo my comic, I will do it without getting annoying like this!

DarkBleeder | Tapas

[Rhombik]

I often get messages asking me to check out their comic and tell them what I think. I try not to be grumpy about it... but I don't reply! If I'm getting a copy-paste message which doesn't show any interest in what I'm doing or ask any personalised questions, I figure it's not the end of the world for them if they don't get a response.

I was listening to a podcast a while back, I forget which one, probably Webcomic Alliance, which really recommended against even asking randomers to check you out. It doesn't get great results and can put people off side.

I think a better strategy is to send personalised messages to people you think have made good comics which are similar in some way to yours, comment on their comic then offer something in return for them checking you out. I don't mean sub for sub. I really think you should've already subbed the people you're messaging. Something like advertising their comic somewhere, some retweets, a good review, some fan art....

[ericsalinas149]

I only share a comic with another creator if we had done something similar themed. Even then, I ask if they want to see the link. I hate when strangers ask me to look at their page so I try not to be as annoying as possible when I reach out to other cartoonists.

[Rhombik]

It's funny this thread is up because I just saw (not here but somewhere else) somebody push their comic where they shouldn't have and somebody else reject it rather brutally.

Not a good look for either of them.

If you do get spammed, it's probably better to ignore it then reject the person, especially if it's in public.

[ISNEKO]

It annoys me completely to get a PM asking to check out a comic out of the blue by someone I've never seen before, presumably because I've just updated and they're spamming everyone in the Fresh list.

I block them. Like useless email spam.

[indagold]

It makes you look like a full fledged attention seeking asshole...I can't sugar coat spammers. Its a terrible tactic, no one is going to read your comic like that. It just makes people upset and will likely flag your comments as spam or at most block you.

[Lennart]

Well, i've begun to do it when i realized several people contacting me this way had an exponential growth doing so, but i quickly stopped after a first few days, it was really tiring (it's just fucking mind crushing for me to get from people to people and with my health issues i don't know why i would tire after an hour doing it, my eyes would close and i had to resort to have a fan blowing cold air on my face to keep being awake, it's a very very tedious thing and it's like, draining energy from your soul x) or it might be that i was in a very low depressive state at that time because i have those kind of health / mental issues and it can happen that i sleep for 12 hours sometimes.) and a really, really huge waste of time when i could be drawing instead or make blog posts pertaining to things i am really interested into, interact on other social medias.

So i am guilty to have done it out of experiment, it's true that you get a whole lot more readers this way as you are not being shown on front pages or any other ways than updating your webcomic, wich i do maybe once or twice per month in bulk of a lot of pages. You could say i could just upload one page from time to time to get more exposure, but people like it when i give them at least 4 / 5 pages to read at a time, or more, it kills the growth taking this much time between updates, health and psychological / anxiety and maniaco - depression issues doesn't help much either.

I also think it's about "how" you contact people, when i've done it, i asked politely, it was a question, if i could invite them to try it out without forcing the manoeuver or seem harrassing, unpolite, you have to at least put the manners and the correctness while doing so. Some people don't even ask a question doing it, they almost urge or rush you to check it out, wich is not how you invite people to 'try' it to see if they like it.

[FatedComics]

I find this really kind of annoying as well because I don't know how to respond, I don't want to offend them or anything so I take a look at their comic. Sometimes there'll be great ones that you're interested in and are happy that the creator told you about their work (for example Lennart above sent me a request to take a look at their comic and I absolutely love it) but others I subscribe so that I don't offend the artist, and I know it sounds stupid but I'm really afraid of that.

It gets to a point where I dismiss their updates so that I can work on my own comic so it's not really that beneficial for the creator or the person they're advertising too. It's a good thing the forums exist because you can shamelessly self-promote your work in a place that doesn't seem so intrusive.

[gh0stcr33p]

idk it doesn't seem that common but someone kinda advertised their comic in the comment section of one of my chapters..

[Rhombik]

This is beautiful because at least some people who think this is a great tactic will see this thread and hopefully change their minds.

The other danger with the spam method is that people might get the idea that you'll sub back if you're into getting followers that kind of way and un-sub if you don't.

[MGComics]

I don't like it. Specially because even If the comic is good it may be a genre or art style I'm not interested about.

I prefer letting people have a more organic choice. Like the shoutout in Tapastic doesn't put you as a reader or fellow creator in evidence, people can check it out but unless they tell you, you wouldn't know who viewed.

And If they don't like what they see they just don't suscribe.

People writing "check out my comic" on a wall puts you in evidence, and If you care enough, now that comic creator knows you didn't like their work.

I don't care much and ignore them, but I do feel a bit guilty sometimes which causes me to be anoyed in general about that way of promoting.

I have stopped suscribing to comics I don't like. I barely have time to check comics I like so... yeah. There are even a couple of comics waiting in my library and I haven't had time to read them well, even though the art and story seem gorgeous.

[DiegoPalacios]

I think pushing someone`s comic in the wall of someone is counterproductive, It makes people seem desperate and is invasive and anoying. No one likes someone who enters unanounced or a door to door salesman.

The key of succesfull marketing is making it feel organic. You dont want to look like an ad. People skip ads.

[KoreanTacos]

yeesh I was bitching about this a month ago in the Bitching thread (I'm not looking for it again). All I have to say is the people who spam their work are essentially saying: "I don't know who my demographic is and I don't care." and "My comic isn't strong enough to stand out on its own." I get that these people want their work to be appreciated, but it's hard to appreciate something if the creator is choosing such an ass hat way to advertise their work.

[Benetnasch]

It's only happened to me once so far, and it really caught me off guard because I have no idea how they stumbled upon me in the first place. I was more annoyed by someone who I've also not had any prior contact with messaging and talking to me as if I were an old friend. That confused me more, as there was no clear goal, and I am...not a very social person.