How effective do you think the promo threads on here are actually?

[smokesalty]

I'm gonna be clear, I'm not dunking on anyone who uses the promo threads! I used them a ton when I first released my comic. I don't do so as much anymore since I don't think I'm gonna end up pulling anyone new from the forums anymore tbh

But- I wanted to have a discussion, especially the demographic on these forums are basically all comic creators who mainly want to either have discussions or promote their stuff.

No-one really goes into the promo threads unless they are going to promote there themselves. I don't think most people go there for actual recommendations, and I know for myself the only times I've subbed from there is when I've gone to promote and something catches my eye by accident.

From my own experiences- if you do manage to catch someone's eye, they can still find and subscribe to your comic. There are plenty of creators on here who want to read comics that they think look cool and sound intriguing. So, I think it can be effective depending on how you promote it, how you present your work and your art style impact this a ton as well. (worked for me haha)

SO yeah. What are your thoughts?

[Animefanka]

Not really effective... I mean, you just have to look at how many of the links dumped there haven't been clicked even once

[ahogemon]

Tapas forum should add genre and comic or novel options for the promotion category post so they won't get mixed together.
Oh, and maybe instead of just put the link to your work, why not add one or two banners to showcase your front cover or illustrations? That way will give more attractiveness for readers to click.

[Lady_T_Musings]

Not so effective at catching folks outside these forums, but can be a great way to find others who you vibe with well and can form a connection as struggle buds, colleagues, and sometimes mutual fans of each other's works so it's totally niche, but like in my book that's my wheelhouse hahaha.

[darthmongoose]

It's hard for me to tell now if promo threads are less effective generally or if promo threads are less effective for me through a combination of "pretty much everyone who's on the forum who is interested in reading my comic is reading it at this point" and "When you're over a few hundred subs, picking up a sub or two is much less noticeable than it was when you had under a hundred".

I think they're less effective than they used to be through a combination of the forums being harder to find, meaning fewer new users coming through, and the ability to hide categories meaning that a lot of people now completely mute all promo threads.

Overall I always found that the ones themed around a specific genre or subgenre like "share GL stories!" or "Share isekai novels!" worked the best, and where you post sample content, like "post your latest page!" "share your cover!" etc. are also pretty good, while anything where it's unsorted and everyone just posts a link and runs are the least effective kind because there's so little content to catch the eye and everyone there is putting in the absolute minimal effort entirely focused around promoting themselves.

The thing about using promo threads effectively is, it's all about quality over quantity. If everyone ignores you in a few promo threads, chances are, posting the same thing in other promo threads won't solve the problem. For example, early on, I found when I posted my link, people weren't clicking on it. I fixed the problem with one simple change. At the time, I thought the "banner" for a series just decorated the page, but on discovering that it also is used as a thumbnail for forum links, I changed it...

From this:

To this:

Immediately all my posts in promo threads were getting way more clicks and it resulted in more subs. So a factor people often overlook is "how nice and well-presented or appealing looking is whatever you post in the promo threads?" and it's a much more impactful element than "how many promo threads did you post in?"

[Lensing]

I only check out comics of people I interact with and I don´t read the promotion threads.
I can understand the creators who are using every channel to promote their work because it is
probably hard to reach people

[starless]

I gained dozens subs from this forum in 2020 by replying on promotion threads. I think it was better before Tapas Discord was active. Many users (readers especially) left the forum to Discord I guess?

[RedLenai]

I don't think it is effective but well, one should at least try to give into the illusion they are covering more ground and well, to me is enough receiving a like in a post I've made and see that at least 1 click to the URL was done.

And this is something that happens not only here but in social media in general, you can share your comic with just an url, or with a few panels, or a promo image. But still, just because it is seen in places doesn't mean people will be interested enough to click it, maybe to give a like to that post but that's it. And most of the time people read and couldn't care less about subscribing, commenting or liking.

Obviously, the more catchy your image and more presentable the work looks like, it's going to do better.

What I've seen tho, not here in the Forum since first this is Tapas, but that in FB groups is that nowadays people don't promote their content, they just make a post complaining about stuff like BombRatings from Webtoon and you see a bunch of people asking for the link of the series in the DMs (Because they claim that there are trolls in their groups who will downrate their series if they share links) so yeah, sulking and crying that you don't have a perfect 10 score has been working lately as a method to get people to check out your stuff, at least on FB

[IndigoShirtProd]

I also used the promotions category a lot when I first started on the forums though eventually I got fed up with it and now have it muted . Nothing against people who use it, I just think it inadvertently leads to sub for sub. But to be fair, I try to stay on the forums and contribute in other ways but it's not like that's leading to an uptick in views or readers on a regular basis (it does happen on occasion).

[Azifri]

Effective? Are you implying there are forum users who don't have the promotions category blocked? xD

[doitlikeomar69]

It is what it is, I mean it works but I mostly use Twitter

[Legendofgenii]

It used to be. You barely get a like in those threads anymore.

I think as Starless said, a lot of people have moved over to the Discord server.

[MushroomChild]

not very because there become so many that it's impossible to read them all and people just get bored

[bulgariansumo]

I found them useful for getting a couple eyes on my work, but yeah, I don't think I gained any dedicated readers from it. While I don't think it changes much, I try to provide my synopsis, a picture, and a sample of writing from each new chapter. Even if, by some miracle, someone was sifting through the promo threads to find new work, a lot of people just post their links and go, which doesn't really give potential lookers a reason to check out their story.

[conventurecomics]

I think they help a bit.

[AmeTsunami]

I don’t really think they’re very effective, in terms of just putting your story into every promo thread and nothing more, and just using the forums and not promoting, I think just using the forums is more effective? I’ve read and enjoyed a few stories that otherwise i would have never read just because I saw the creator around here and they said interesting things and had a link in their bio. That’s kind of off topic, but it felt like it might be useful to someone

[IndigoShirtProd]

There's nothing wrong with asking but imagine if someone else flooded the thread with your poll asking for people to come to their thread instead to discuss something completely unrelated. Would you like that?

[AmeTsunami]

Being new isn’t exactly an excuse for doing something that is probably not allowed everywhere else but okay

[smokesalty]

They probably didn't know and just wanted to ask. Not everyone knows about this rule- I didn't know about the no promoting your commissions stuff until later

[EncryptedWriting]

Honestly I really relate to this. I think a year ago I was super into promoting, but now (with my buffer going in the works), I am kinda going with the flow. I know some of the threads I participated in were useful as I wanted to find new comics or maybe promote.

Occasionally, if a thread is a bit bigger or suits my novel pretty well, I'll plug in a lil link.

Other than that, I don't think promo threads are as resourceful as they could be. With being spammed constantly, I think a lot of people post their stories and don't really think much after that. I think if there were fewer promo threads and that they were more concentrated into specific topics/themes, it would be more effective.