Jan 2021
10 / 13
Jan 2021
Jan 2021
JoshRaid
Jan '21

My second to last chapter has 4 reads currently and my most recent chapter has only 2 reads, but my comic has 20 subscribers. I used sub for sub because I started getting more reads when I did it. But no it's not doing that, and most of my subscribers won't read what I make. I thought making my individual updates smaller would help but it didn't. Currently, I have only two people who will read my story consistently and I don't know who.

How do I find more people who will actually read my stuff?

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    Jan '21

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    Jan '21
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VibrantFoxRegular
Jan '21

Hello friend! Just gonna point you to this thread here for some basic advice on growth and promo:

The replies are very good :grin:

ninjashira
Jan '21

Yeah definitely read that thread about promotion. Sub for sub never really works, honestly. Everyone will subscribe to each other's comics or novels, but nobody actually reads them. It's just a false sense of progress and sub inflation. If you're just trying to reach a sub milestone, like if you're trying to reach 250 to unlock ink, it can be effective. But for actually getting readers, it doesn't do anything for you.

migxmeg
Jan '21

Are you reading/commenting on the comics you did sub4sub with? Even if it doesn't directly benefit you, you can enjoy some new comics and give some encouragement to other creators.

JoshRaid
Jan '21

It's hard to keep up with that since there are so many, and I also have high school, my own comic to make, and a novel. Many of them are hundreds of pages into themselves.

domisotto
Jan '21
JoshRaid

You do realize that people who subbed to you via sub for sub have the same time constraints, right? So if you don’t invest, you can’t expect reciprocation. You don’t have to read the whole thing, just react during updates for that specific update.

As for the ways to promote that are not even more time-consuming than simply maintaining relationship with the other creators, try changing the time of day you post, particularly if your comic gets a bunch of more popular ones posted at the same time as yours, and moving it between categories to the one where you will be higher on popular/trending.

And, in the end of the day, if your comic doesn’t appeal to people, there is simply nothing you can do.

migxmeg
Jan '21
2
JoshRaid

With all the empathy for this issue (because we're all busy!) if you have time to make a comic, you have time to engage with at least a few! Take your comic-making time and use 5% of it to support some other creators.

You can never guarantee that someone will come and engage with your own work but you can engage on someone else's, which is a great feeling! Edit: to clarify, I don't think this is a "strategy" for getting views. But I think it's a healthy thing to do as a comic creator. One more edit: I'm absolutely not suggesting following work you don't actually enjoy... that would be a chore, lol. But it's kind of shocking if you can't find any works you think are interesting or that you could learn from.

That said you never know. I found one of my favorite comics by checking out a creator that followed mine. Finding work that resonates with you might help you make friends.

JoshRaid
Jan '21
domisotto

I am aware of that That's part of why they're such an issue probably. Committed creators don't have the time to read a bunch of amateur projects.

Also I would hate it if people were doing that to my work. I don't want support just for being a small creator and a subscriber, I want support because people like what I make.

domisotto
Jan '21

In this case, commit time to making something that people like. They will come. There is no magic bullet. You always spend time on something, either on finding friends or advertising or creating. And that time may or may not give you the desired result. It’s just how creating content on the Internet is.

CJYoung
Jan '21

Well, it can be frustrating but you gotta be patient in some cases. People who subscribe might not always have the time to read your work, or they might be waiting for multiple updates so they can read a lot in one go.

Or, as you said, sometimes a sub for sub doesn't lead to a true reader or fan. But that's okay, it happens. Sometimes people will subscribe because your story looks interesting, but they just never get around to starting it. Happens all the time with me lololol. I don't want to lose a story I've come across, but I also don't want to be in the middle of finishing 100 different books/comics at once X-D

Just keep doing your own thing. Writing, updating, promoting.

gempompadour
Jan '21

Unfortunately sub for sub often just leads to dead subs. They'll sub back, read a few pages and then forget your comic even exists as they go on their merry way looking for more subs elsewhere.

Promote your comic on social media, get to know other creators, and hope you get lucky and get noticed by staff.

Rhonder
Jan '21

I don't have an answer, per se, as it's a difficult task and everyone finds readers/subscribers in different ways. But I think the most important factor to consider when planning an advertisement/promotional strategy is how to:

1.) Get your story in front of the "right" eyes, &

2.) Do so in an appealing and effective way.

Point 1 is why sub-for-sub isn't very effective, as you've seen. The eyes that you're getting on your work by doing that are eyes that usually couldn't give a crap less about your story and just want your sub number on their series, much like they're just giving you a sub number on yours. To find more people that actually care about your series you'll have to find other methods of reaching out.

Promotion threads here on the forums are... okay, but also not great. They're also areas where most people are more concerned with simply dumping their link and hoping that people check it out rather than actually taking interest in looking at the other links available. Pseudo-promotion threads are a step in the right direction, those that encourage you to talk about and discuss your story, but also allow you to link it if desired. Relying too much on these forums can be dangerous, though, as you have to remember that most of the people here are also creators. Finding a network of creator friends can be a great way to kickstart your series and get an initial subscriber base, but ultimately you'll want to grow beyond that and find reader-readers that want to invest in your series as well. As you've also come to realize, being a creator is time consuming and while it is possible to support your friends' stories, there's not always a ton of time to do so.

So the next step is looking at other places that you can get your series out in the open and try to draw eyes to it. The site itself is the default option- every time you upload you appear in "Fresh" and that's an opportunity for people to see your work. If an upload does well enough it can sometimes break into "Trending" as well.

Social media and other similar sites are popular options that vary in effectiveness. Sometimes you can strike gold, but often it's hard to be noticed.

Diversifying your content has some potential- for example video content is very popular, so investing some time into making that can potentially get more eyes on you in general, which you can use to try and direct back to your work like a funnel.

Successful promotion is hard and requires some thinking outside the box, and again i don't have any solid answers as I'm still learning myself :sweat_smile: but best of luck!

edit: realized I didn't directly talk about "promotion in an appealing way". Things like nice promotional images on social media vs. just spamming update links, for example. Or participating in forum threads that encourage discussion and community collaboration vs. just dumping links in promotion threads. And spending energy to make other types of content like the aforementioned video content are examples of what I mean.