How do you promote your comics outside Tapastic?

[koopaconan]

Well, so as the title may suggest, I think that must be useful to know and talk about which techniques/methods/whatever do you people use to promote and talk about your comics outside Tapastic.

In my case, I can talk mostly about promoting my spanish comics (I'm from Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) and most of my stuff is in spanish), but I cannot say many things about my comics in english (I'm some kind of "noob" in the "english webcomic world"). Since I barely know some "english people" (a.k.a. "people living outside Spain that can be tagged as 'potential readers'" - or just 'people I spam when I release a new comic' : P) I find really difficult to start "expanding" my comic outside this site.

I've tried uploading several comics into 9gag, some links on reddit and maybe a couple of sites more. I'm also on Twitter with an english-only account (different from my regular spanish account).

I think that it's too soon in my case to start judging the results of my actions (I estimate about 6-7 month of full-regular updates before start thinking about conclusions) but I really wanna know all about your different ideas or strategies related to this outside promotion I'm talking about.

Let's discuss!

[getsuart]

I use twitter for the most part. And doing some conventions.
But I'm not a good example, since I barely get some interests about it XD

But I know some users here use Project Wonderful to help them!

[saeedfaridzadeh]

Project Wonderful is a great way to get the word out about your comic. I don't know what your budget is, but you can get a decent ad campaign going for small amount each month.

I sometimes find new users from Project Wonderful end up being some of my highest Pageviews per visits.

Twitter is also great, but you need to have a personality on twitter. If all you do is promote your comic then no one will care. Twitter is a great way to get to know other people, and have other people learn about you. Use that two way communication to build a relationship with the reader, and through that you will have an easier time promoting your comic with them.

[winglesscomic]

Hmm well if you can find any Spanish comics related communities I think that would be great for you. Maybe search for some Facebook groups of the sort?

As for me Project Wonderful is my go-to place for advertising.

Don't bother with Tumblr unless you already have a large following of people who have interests past the latest Steven Universe episode.

Like @saeedfaridzadeh said, make sure you use twitter for other than just promotion, cause literally no one wants to follow a guy who just posts "LOOK AT ME LOOK AT MY COMIC LOOK!"

[PotooGryphon]

I've made two very lengthy posts in this thread about how I promote outside of Tapastic covering everything from Facebook- TWL- ProjectWonderful- Guest Comics.

Best way to spread you comic

[mariusthered]

I was using comic rocket and project wonderful until something that effects the UK and Europe came along call VAT MOSS. then i pulled the plug on it all to avoid the confusing rules and paperwork.

now I just use twitter.

[rosette]

I use twitter, blogger, project wonderful, mostly facebook which is very good if you have supportive friends that will share your comics.

[kambreapratt]

We use social media and ads. Also convention appearances, podcasting, and blogs.

[koopaconan]

Well, I'm trying to avoid the spanish comic communities 'cause is in that places where I promote and work with my spanish comics, and I think that maybe will be confusing if I start talking about "my new english stuff".

Talking about Twitter accounts, I started my english one just to talk/spam about the comic, but then I realized that this was really bad (I was once that "LOOK AT MY COMIC LOOK!" guy xD) and now I try to mix it and manage it like my regular spanish account. It's kinda hard since I'm not used to tweet in english but I keep doing it and improving every day (or that's what I think, heh xD).

I know about Project Wonderful (I have a banner slot in my spanish comic) but I had no idea that some people around here were using it. I'm gonna try a small campaign and I'll post my conclusions right here!

Thanks for your advices! : D

[koopaconan]

Wow, these articles looks really great! I'm gonna read it and then I'll let you know. Thanks for posting! : D

[koopaconan]

@CyndiFoster

I've finished reading your last long post and totally agree with it! So now I'm gonna try several things (mostly about Project Wonderful and other ad-sites) and see what happens. Thanks again! : )

[blop]

I was wondering how you people started on twitter, when you didn't have any follower.
I have a "private" twitter account that I use mostly to follow people I like, but I never tried to be followed back or to tweet much.
I think I'll create a new account someday for promoting my work (not only my comic but other projects, illustrations....etc) but I have no idea how to be known efficiently by others, do you have some tips ?

Does anybody use instagram too? I'd like to get tips on it too.

[AnnaLandin]

I was wondering how you people started on twitter, when you didn't have any follower.

My private Twitter-account is the same one I use for promoting stuff, and I got it to follow friends, and then found new people through them, and some of those people followed me back, etc. So that works! Also, hashtag your tweets.

As a webcomic creator, I recommend participating in/using the #ComicTalk, #webcomicchat and similar weekly hashtag events to get to know other creators and get your foot in the door.

[PotooGryphon]

I'm a fan of Twitter. It took some time to get used to the site and find friends and get into the lovely webcomic community there, however, I think it's easier than ever now to join the community then when I started with the weekly chat group events on Twitter.

Here are my twitter tips from the my lengthy promoting articles linked here again.

For Twitter:

- It's really important to grow your followers before you see much action
- Follow comic related people, publishers, companies (50/50 chance you'll get a follow back) however, it's important to interact and be a person back instead of following and disappearing.
- Like, comment, retweet other people's post. Interact with people to start networking. Mingle a bit. People like getting engagements back on their tweets and will sometimes follow back if you keep it up. Always be polite.
- Join Twitter Lists (their version of groups) and become apart of
those communities
- When you post a link to your Tapastic comic on Twitter include @tapastic in your post
- Hashtag, again, using what makes sense and what you can fit in the limited characters post (don't over hashtag 1 or 2 is enough)
- Include a teaser image of the posted comic. Maybe a dramatic panel or something interesting that will entice people to click through
- Remind them to like/comment/retweet if you have the space for it
- Or just have fun, silly fun tweets definitely are more delightful to read in my feed than link spams.

Twitter:
I'm a big fan of Twitter. Unlike facebook, Twitter doesn't with hold your posts from your followers and your tweets will appear in the feed of everyone that follows you AND! the more people interact with your tweet the more that tweet will show up in other feeds as "Recommended" usually in the feeds of friends of your followers and people interesting in the category you tweet about like comics and such. Also there's a wonderful webcomic community on Twitter that I can't love enough! Super sweet amazing talented people and every weekend is #webcomicchat or #comictalk at are amazing events to join in to learn more about comics and mingle with fellow creators. Love it there! Also thumbnail images with your page update link posts are recommend and I also recommend bumping your original tweet atleast a few times to make sure it's seen. Followers don't mind this at all and tend to need a bump reminder so it's not lost in the twitter feed.

[blop]

Wow thanks, this is very helpful !
A few other questions because I'm a total newbie at this stuff :

• I didn't know what twitter lists were, are #webcomicchat or #comictalk twitter lists? If not what is a twitter list exactly, and how do you find it?
• what do you mean by bumping your tweets? Like retweeting your own tweet? (sorry I'm really a newbie)
• I heard that on tumblr, when you post something, only the first 3 hashtags were useful, is it true on twitter too?

[PotooGryphon]

I didn't know what twitter lists were, are #webcomicchat or #comictalk twitter lists? If not what is a twitter list exactly, and how do you find it?

Nope, #webcomicchat and #comictalk are different from list though there is a #webcomicchat list

Most @ profiles have Lists in their stat bars. If you see they have a list you can click on the number, see what kind of list they have and subscribe to it to follow it.

what do you mean by bumping your tweets? Like retweeting your own tweet? (sorry I'm really a newbie)

Bumping on twitter is very similar to bumping a thread post on a forum. you basically comment on the tweet you want to bump and it moves the original tweet and your bump comment to the top of the feed again.

I heard that on tumblr, when you post something, only the first 3 hashtags were useful, is it true on twitter too?

Nope, not really the same on twitter since you can do a lot of hashtagging without eating up all your character limit. Then it'd just be a tweet of hashtags without anything else to it lol Best to limit it to one or two hashtags anyways.

[blop]

Thanks a lot for you time and patience ! I' gonna save all of those tips.

[AnnaLandin]

Also, re: Tumblr, I believe it's the first FIVE hashtags that get indexed globally, so just make sure to put the most important/popular hashtags first when posting on Tumblr. : )

[blop]

Oh I thought it was only 3, it's probably not very good to put to much hashtag though, better to concentrate on writing the right ones.