How to stand out when you don’t make what’s “popular”

I don't like most of the currently popular stuff either. Those things which I do like are either quite old, or if new are only mildly popular, rather than wildly so.

If you want to make stuff which stands out without leaning into what's popular, you need to make it really well, with an appealing and easily recognisable style. Polish those art skills as far as you can push them, and then post consistently within your niche.

One of my favourite artists is a digital landscape painter. He's done very well. (AngryMikko.) Another paints vibrant landscapes featuring women of colour, and she's even more well known. (GDBeeArt.) Neither of them rely on fanart, but they have appealing styles and top-tier art skills.

Personally, I've found starting my comic to be a way better audience-building medium than social media. Most people won't care about someones random OC's, well-drawn or not. But they're far more likely to start caring if they're following those OC's through a story. I've gained more social media followers through my comic than I have comic readers through my social media!

Is beefy guys and busty ladies what's in right now?

So, as someone who makes some pretty niche stuff, the best thing that's worked for me is patience and experimentation on where I post and when/what tags I use. I do make money off my art full time so I'm not trying to blow smoke here, I promise.

Not every platform is your platform. Every platform has different things it's into, and every platform has an advantage or disadvantage.

For example: my stuff does well on sites like Tapas, Itchio, Steam and Google Play. This is because I'm good at finishing smaller stories, and these sites are where folks go for smaller stories. BUT, my stuff does poorly on Webtoons (I use printed page format) Twitter and Instagram, because it's just not suited or formatted for those sites, and that's fine.

From what I can tell, it looks like your biggest issue is that uh, I don't think you're actually updating a comic? That's def an issue for Tapas. I looked around your profile and there's a lot of "Coming soon" and updates about things to come, but I'm having a hard time actually finding those things. I think that might actually be your issue here!

Also, you draw a lot of furry art (hell yeah) but I don't see you using places like Furaffinity or Deviantart, which both still have a strong furry and commission community. You may also want to try art or furry Discords if you're not already.

And, hot tip about Twitter, putting hashtags on your posts can actually suppress them in the algorithm. Try putting keywords in your description instead.
Example: "I like this drawing" #sonicfanart try "Here's my sonic fanart!" (This also makes the post more appealing for folks to Retweet, since people are picky about how the tweet looks)

My advice, and I give this advice to a lot of folks, is if you like comics and wanna see yours flourish, try to finish a comic and then release it. Doesn't need to be long, doesn't need to be perfect, just needs to be finished and released. You can release a finished comic on Tapas, Webtoons, Comicfury, Itchio, Gumroad, Google Play Books all for free and get some eyes on your work there and potentially make some money.
EDIT: After looking through some of your comics here on Tapas, a lot of them just seem to be a collection of illustrations and the usual comic format? That could also be why you're having trouble here. Might be time to revise a bit there!

The best way to get people into niche stuff is to simply make a world for them to fall into. Without a comic, without a hook or entry point, it's very difficult to get folks to stay. I'm speaking from experience. And again, this stuff is just gonna take time. I've been posting my comics since 2008, and it's taken me this long to be where I'm at-- it happens. Just try to enjoy it on the way, it'll make things a lot easier, again, I'm speaking from experience. Things improved a lot for me when I let go a little and just had fun with my work, people can feel that, and they will respond.

And, as a last thing, if you don't like my advice and think it stinks, you can instead try this very helpful Google Doc about social media posting9. Good luck!

I sometimes wish some popular, brutally honest no-bullshit foul-mouthed reviewer somehow write an absolutely scatching review of my series so it would get into "My Immortal" or "Twilight" infamy of bad and people are rushing to check it out just to see how bad it is (or anyone if you are interested).

I don't know, I feel really desperate and worthless that if I could be the best for being the worst. I will take it.

My novel is the worst supernatural-fantasy-mystery series on Tapas! Please check it out.

Just think of it as working your way up in a job...with no pay...sadly it takes some longer than others, unless you luck out or you have the money/following already. But I see it as more time to grow before getting a bunch of judging eyes on your work, if that ever happens...for now, less pressure lol.

Yeah, I understand those feels, especially when the most common answer to "what I'm doing isn't working" is to "work harder" when it's like...this is my limit, I am at my limit. The landscape of having to rely on followers and notes completely for work is just a nightmare. I personally don't use my social media accounts for commissions because...what's the point? I have better luck reaching out to clients and companies individually.

Like I got really frustrated several years back, and to vent, I started this blog on tumblr where all I do is rant about the old ass anime I watch, and it got more subs than my art twitter and I just felt...really betrayed. But it did teach something. My art twitter was all over the place. Like my work is kind of like that, I'm a chameleon illustrator, I have a lot of styles. This is good for work, but, for a new person they'd pop over there and be like "what's the story here? What is happening?" and probably walk right out. Especially for people that aren't artists, they'd be like "I don't understand these art memes, I don't understand the culture, I don't understand what these artists are complaining about even" and they'd be outie.

But, for my blog about one single thing, where every post is the same format, it was very easy for people to walk in and say "I know exactly what this is, it will always be the same, it's exactly my niche jam, howdy, how are you?" and while it's still small and niche, and will always be, I'm really glad that I have at least one single place on the internet where I have had a long term captivated audience. That's wild. And honestly, that's the only way I've found a niche to hang with.

I have a little bit of experience in this area. I started my writing career writing historical fiction, which isn't a very popular genre. I struggled a lot with finding an audience on the platform I was using at the time (Wattpad), and it was really disheartening. I started to wonder if I just wasn't good enough. It's easy to say to not care about popularity, but let's be honest: we all want people to see our work. The thing that helped me the most was reaching out to fellow writers who were writing what I was writing. Building those connections. Eventually, you find your niche, and you start seeing more views. By the time I was done on Wattpad, I wasn't a popular writer on the website at large, but I was up there for my niche: alternate history.

I won't lie: it's hard. But with a lot of work, you'll get there.

Dwelling on something that is 99% luck like becoming part of the zeitgeist will kill your passion. I've spent a decade chasing the dragon and it nearly made me quit altogether.

Most stuff posted on here on Tapas will never get a large, sustained audience. I've found it is best to just enjoy the small victories and moments and tell my stories because I am compelled to. You mention you've already been told this sort of stuff before, but it is coming from a lot of people, so that should tell you something.

You also mention shining in a sea of content, but there is the problem right there - you are producing drops in a sea. Statistically, the odds of your drops being noticed are very, very small. The best you can do is keep splashing around and hope you don't drown.

That's the best the majority of us can do.

Unfortunately I don't think I can help much, admittedly I don't feel like my comic gets lost, it kinda stands out given my choice of medium and story... or the amount of CWs it has. Lol but there is a bit that I do, maybe you'll find it useful-ish?

So my comic is super niche, not a normal drama, not a thriller, not a horror, it's in a weird spot and advertising is kinda hard. Normally I just do the standard advertising on social media with related hashtags, but an extra thing I do hang out in the horror crowd and occasionally advertise with them. Even though it's not a horror story, it's still closer to horror/thriller, they're very open and accepting of varying works from my experience. I also openly promote it as a dark cathartic story, and there is a small group for that.

I don't know what type of story you have, but maybe figure out what genre it relates to most, and promote it to that crowd? You may also be able to use what makes your story different as an advertising point, there will always be someone looking for that specific thing, or want to get away from the usual types of stories. Hanging out in fiction and webcomic related servers also helps, there are a few out there that do 'Story of the Week' and stuff like that where you can apply to have people read and discuss your work, or you could submit your work to popular review sites, there are some that do it for free. Also there's Webcomic Chat on Twitter and Reddit, they hold a Q&A every Sunday so you can advertise.

Honestly there's no real surefire way to get eyes on your work, it's pretty much about luck. The best you can do is keep on keeping on.

I've been going through similar issues for years, especially since I don't even like drawing fanart very much. It's hard to say what the best course of action to take, because unfortunately a lot of success is derived from already having a following or pure luck. However, this is some of the stuff I've done that's helped me get a bit more focus on my art:

• Art shares, art shares, art shares! If you aren't already participating in some, they can be a great place to get your work out there, as other artists will be looking through the replies to art shares on Twitter. They can be tricky to find at first, but if you follow a few artists who participate in them regularly, you're bound to see a bunch you can add your art to. I recommend replying to art shares within the first day of them being up, especially within the first couple hours. That way, people will see your art as more come in to reply to the share.

• Reach out to a community. This one can be hard, coming from an introvert, but communities can really help you gain a footing in the art world. Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating by having people in my comic discord follow and read my comics, but it just means I've found people who also enjoy my work. Connecting with others also means you can benefit each other in terms of the algorithm by commenting and liking each other's work. It helps in encouragement and with getting your art out there.

• Cut off what's not working for you. I recently stopped posting my art on instagram due to barely getting any traction, and it saves me more time and the stress of algorithm flops. I recommend cutting out art, media, or any part of the art world that causes you more stress or a lack of enjoyment.

These are just the main pieces of advice I can give, as each has helped me feel better and raised my art following a bit. A lot of advice I've gotten on similar issues is to just draw what's popular or to keep doing the same thing, but that really doesn't help much. Hopefully some of my experience in trying to stand out helps a bit!

You ever watch that movie 'Field of Dreams'?
I haven't, but it's literally not possible to have grown up in the 90s without having heard its incredibly famous quote:
"If you build it, they will come."

It's not nearly as simple and straight forward as all that, but in general, there's an audience out there for you, for whatever niche genre you want to write in. My own comic is a fucking Power Rangers series for Christ's sake, it doesn't get much more niche than Tokusatsu, even in Japan where the subgenre originated.
The audience IS out there. Sometimes the audience is hard to find, sometimes they're small and spread out, and sometimes they don't even know they're a part of your audience yet, but they ARE out there.

Of course, You can't just build it and expect people to show up out of the blue or anything:

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But you can pour your heart and soul into making something worth coming to see.

The best piece of advice I've ever received with regards to perseverance is that you have to be your own first fan. You have to believe that what you're making is cool and interesting and worth checking out, because if you don't believe that, then how the hell do you expect to convince anyone else of it? You have to be a genuine fan of your own work, you have to be actively excited to share it with everyone, to win them over through sheer enthusiasm if nothing else will work. Believe that what you're making is worth sharing enough to share it everywhere, and you won't ever be discouraged enough to give up on it.
I'm not sure if that's necessarily relevant to your precise issue here, but it's something that I consider extremely important and worth sharing regardless.

I just went and looked at your work, and it DOES seem as though you're a little scattershot with your approach. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it makes me think that perhaps the above advice might be more relevant. It also might not, so take this with a grain of salt, but I have to ask, looking at so many short series that jump to a ton of different topics, is there one that you're genuinely more passionate about than the others? A single, continuous storyline or central concept that really grabs you and won't let you stop thinking about it?
I'm not here to tell you what you should or shouldn't prioritize in your own work, nor am I going to try to tell you that you don't care about what you're doing, it's just that in my experience, those types of stories and concepts are the ones that actually gain some traction.

All that being said: Big audience =/= good audience.
I've been doing this for a while, so I know how difficult it can be to divorce your mind from the numbers game: having a big following on Twitter/Instagram or a bunch of subscribers on Tapas and Webtoon and etc. etc. definitely gives your brain The Good Chemicals, and that's worth something in and of itself, but it's not the end-all-be-all of your career as an artist.
To be perfectly frank, as hard as it would be to admit, I would take 100 fans who genuinely love what I do with the same kind of passion and excitement that I have over 100,000 fans who are just mildly tepid about my art.

(Edit) Actually, come to think of it, I actually DID have something like this happen to me. My primary source of income is as an adult illustrator, and back in 2012 or so, I was mostly on Tumblr. In 2017, Tumblr decided they didn't want ANY NSFW content on their site at all, and I was basically booted off of my home base wholesale. I transitioned over to twitter, and I literally lost 90% of my audience. I went from 15,000 followers on Tumblr down to 1500 by the time I made the full transition to Twitter, and you know what? Basically nothing changed. I still got likes and engagements on my posts, I still got commissions and patrons, and my discord server was as active as ever. That 10% of my audience who stuck around were the real driving thrust behind my ability to support myself doing my art to begin with, so losing over thirteen thousand followers didn't actually do much to impact me.

Being 'the big popular' sounds really nice in theory, and it probably would come with some upsides, but it's meaningless if the following and interactions you get are shallow and lukewarm. Like I said, the audience is out there, for every story, it's just a matter of finding it. Sometimes that audience will be small, but oftentimes those smaller audiences are the ones who most fiercely love and support their creators: They know there aren't many of them, so they know how loud they have to make their voices in order to encourage more of the content they want.
Once you find an audience like that, and it is just a matter of time until you do so, then treasure them as closely as any friend or family, because fans like that are hard to come by.

Apologies if this is more esoteric than what you were looking for. As far as practical stuff, I think everyone else here has you covered: Post consistently, get on all the socials, art trades, fan art, etc. etc., but when I see discussions like this, my mind usually wanders in the direction of the mindset and the all-but-unavoidable defeatism that can come with it, so I try to combat that with different ways to think about what you're creating and why you're creating it. I hope it was able to be of some use.