I'd like to think that I'll gain some popularity from my comic but I try to give myself a couple years gap between my comic's initial release and the time I hope it'd get popular. Of course, it might probably never happen but I do hope it'd at least end up somewhere 10 years from now.
I enjoy making my comic, but it is more fun if you get more likes/comments. Sometimes I consider starting a different comic because it seems people are losing interest in slice of life comics.
I kinda get where your going with this. I see lots of webcomics that are trendy. Almost all the BL comics are trendy. Most of the isekai comics are the same thing. But those seem to be looked at more often so people make them. Trendy to me is just a bangwagon thing. You see what you like and what others are reading and think to yourself "I can do that." The problem is everyone else thinks the same thing. The market becomes saturated with these types and to find a good, well written version becomes impossible. You become lost in the stack.
I do think you should make a comic other will want to read, as if if no one reads your comic did you really even make it? But I would say don't go as far as looking at the metrics of popular comics and try to copy it. Great stories we remembered by being different in just a way to make them memorable. And that is harder to do as more people copy the same genres.
Comedy, Fantasy, and Slice of Life are the three most popular genres on Tapas, not BL.
Also people make BL because they like those kind of stories, it has nothing to do with chasing clout.
I think this is also a symptom of how hard it is to get seen right now on either app. There's not really search filters, there's very few tags, and we don't have an algorithm that is recommending smaller comics, except when they update. So for a lot of people, they're chasing the algorithm because they want to be seen at all. Not even about being popular, but for any comments at all. So I understand why they may be switching comics because it's hella lonely when you put your heart and soul into something and just get zero response.
And I think you can learn to love whatever genre and art style you are making. Like if you enjoy storymaking, if you enjoy making art, then that same puzzle solving is in every genre and art style. Problem is, a lot of people don't really do the research into what the current comic expectations are, or just use whatever tag they can to get people to look at them even if they don't fall into that genre. That and art style is pretty difficult to adapt if you aren't used to it. Like if I COULD draw manga, I would be only drawing manga right now, becuase frankly, I want people to look at my work.
Luckily, the style that I draw is currently getting views and engagement, and I'm really happy about that. But have I changed comics several times in the past because they were dead in the water? Yeah. I still liked those comics, but there was no difference between posting them on the internet or just keeping them to myself as a learning opportunity. Hopefully as the search improves for the sites that we're on, we'll get more diversity in genre and art style. Until then, I think this is just a problem we have right now. Our readers are conditioned to only look at the front page for comics, they don't use search.
I think logistically, @darthmongoose has the right idea. Actually making a long-form comic takes so much time and effort, it's nigh impossible to get to a significant level of popularity and maintain it without any passion for your work. Unlike with most entertainment fields, you don't really get to a point where you can just 'coast' on fame and fortune until your work is over...which could take a decade or longer.
Many artists with successful, famous manga are STILL drawing them; still pulling those insane work schedules 20 or 30 years down the line. Because that's just what it takes; there's no way around it. ^^; Are you really gonna put yourself through that hell, potentially for life, over something you don't care about??
If you just want attention or a quick buck, there are SEVERAL easier and more reliable ways to get it, which many potential hacks probably realize very soon after actually starting to work on their 'next big thing'. :T So yeah, I think they tend to weed themselves out.
^And this is essentially why I realized I couldn't draw comics for a living. ^^; Not that I'm a hack, but I definitely don't enjoy the work enough to hand over my soul to it that way.
I like to write stories, and I like to design characters, but neither of those things alone get as much attention as a comic that brings them together. So yeah, technically I really only do comics for the views.
If it were at all possible for me to gain a large following simply by writing about cool things and occasionally drawing them, it's a sure bet that I would never again create a comic longer than 3 pages. >u0 That's the dream~
However, the number of entries is not yet a measure of popularity among readers, but only among creators. For this, you would have to add up the number of subscribers, likes, and so on for each section and then evaluate them.
I think people just like romance as a genre, be it straight or gay. I heard some people are drawn to BL as a genre because they don't really see those types of stories in other media. So it has sort of carved out it's own niche on the webcomic scene. It's not really a new trend or anything, I remember see them when I started out 10 years ago. It is a genre that does have some issues but so does straight romance.
something to bear in mind is that BL hasn't been a genre on Tapas as long as slice of life, and that there was a boom of Slice of life and comedy like many years back (but now is not nearly as bustling or popular). So looking at what the amount of comics altogether are on Tapas won't tell you at all what is currently trending. Also a lot of romance and fantasy comics from back in the day are BL, but never used that genre tag since it didn't exist.
I almost have no subs and likes but I love my comic regardless, not just the main story itself but also the characters and their own backstories too. I love my MCs of course but I also love sides and even some mobs lol EVEN the ones I (will or did) kill 
If you dont love your comic yourself how can you expect others to like it?? 
I'm a novelist, not a comic creator, but I agree 100%.
I recently saw a published author go on a Twitter tirade about writers who write solely for themselves rather than money. She posted, "A novel is not your passion project. It's a product. 'Authors' who publish their passion projects are hurting real writers."
Do you sense the rage I felt when reading that? Saddest part was the people who agreed with her. The mind-boggling part was that she couldn't get 100 sales on Amazon, yet she felt godly enough to give advice to new writers.
If you don't feel it in your heart, the reader won't, either. That "passion project" makes us work harder because it's part of us we're putting out to the world. That "product" is the influence of editors and publishers and society that you obey above your own creativity.
I may not make money (yes, it would be nice if I could), but I'm not selling my heart and soul for ratings.
I am aware of that. I have been here for awhile. I feel like BL tends to get a lot of unnecessary hate. And I don’t like this idea of telling people not to write gay romance because other people write them. No one says that about straight romance or comedy. I think if a newbie wants to write those kinds of stories, they should just go for it.
BL is hugely popular. The genre doesn't get as much attention during Tapas promotions, but it is quite a draw for subscribers. I wrote a short BL among my other non-gay romance novels. The subs were double digits by the end of the day when I'm still struggling with my straight romances LOL. It's funny because I write straight novels but read BL webtoons.
I agree. Write what you wish! There will always be an audience for it. (Except, of course, the obvious illegal topics lol.)
Comics have been paying my rent and bills for the last few years an saving up for my first house and I honestly cannot imagine doing this job and putting in the amount of effort it takes for a project you don’t have some personal investment in. I have a theory that’s why there might be a lot of people who quickly pick up some heat who within the span of a year or two just completely disappear from the industry (though I can think of a slew of other reasons why this is the case— I just wonder if that’s a contributing factor).
And yes, I did work very hard to develop things that would be popular but only within the confines of my tastes and I don’t regret it at all. My more niche work now has tens of thousands of eyes on it and has gotten more interest from publishers than it did before and I wouldn’t change my course of action for anything. I’m in a very good position right now where I can pitch some wild stuff and get approval because the work is tried and true.
In the years that I’ve attended conventions as an industry professional, I can’t actually think of a single high level creator who ever felt like they were clout chasing—they all seem pretty passionate about their projects which you kinda have to be or the work isn’t worth it. There ARE some people who extend the life of their projects because of financial obligation but even then there’s usually still love to there.
And, of course, if you do anything hard enough and seriously enough it does become WORK but its clearly not limited to industry pros. I see hobbyists in discords and forums all day talk about burnout with much smaller outputs. Its a universal feeling whether the income is there or not. Every single path in is grueling work.
Yeah I'm not pointing this out to throw hate at BL, I just find that a lot of people head to the numbers on the search page thinking that those are the numbers for how much is in these different genres--and it's not at all. The numbers are deceptive.
If you're going into art just to gain popularity, you're doing it for the wrong reason.
Art needs to have soul. Fans will like what they like, and if they like the stuff you make, that's fine, but most of them aren't going to look at something with only the minimum amount of effort and passion put into it.
On the other hand, it is nice to know that people are enjoying what you make. You don't want to feel like you're giving to the void.
Actually, yeah that makes a lot of sense. There are benifits to making something that has a higher chance of being popular especially if you need the money.
I when I think of someone who only makes their comic for views it tends to be someone who sees how popular webcomics are and thinks "I'm gonna be a super famous webcomic creator!" Without the actual passion for making them. Granted, I don't think these people get far because it's extremely hard to get famous and is super time consuming.
But yeah, I'd say most of the popular featured webcomics nowadays are done out of passion and also because they're being supported financially, which is understandable! I'd make more of my comic if I was getting paid, that's for sure 
Well... personally speaking while I like to draw, I mostly do comics because it's like doing a long term commission and I need the money, while at the same time of course I work in stories based if I'm interested and it's on my abilities. I don't think that any of the stories that I work for is going to be the best next thing, or that we'll get famous or anything, that's asking for quite too much luck and sometimes, a lot of attention can be exhausting. I know, with more views you can even increase someone's pay but while I don't call myself a pessimist, I would say I'm realistic, effort and passion doesn't always guarantee life-changing success neither stucking with the popular on demand things, because just like you, millions are jumping into it everyday.
While I don't deny I have a few stories of my own, I'm not interested enough to turn them into comics, and if I do, I would probably do the first chapter and leave it forgotten for around a year or more.
What I see first is that a lot of people are not only hungry for attention, validation and compliments. But what I can tell is that they also seem to be from... bubbles, where they are a peculiar individual who exceeds in a talent inside that bubble or social group, however, once they begin to interact or to finally go beyond what they've known their entire lives they get frustrated because they notice they aren't actually especial... but another one of a majority that they didn't see nor knew about, and that's upsetting.
You also have, among those individuals those that are not used to failure or that things don't go the way they desire, therefore, they are very analytical about what to do, and since they also have a narcissism and quite the people pleaser behavior (But of course, with the goal to obtain recognition and receive once again that feeling of being unique) they try to do content focused on popular things because they believe they'll succeed with that (And that honestly, that's not true, with popularity also comes competition and overload).
The goal may vary from one another, some want popularity, increase their numbers in one form or another (followers, likes, views, comments, etc), self-steem, validation, have a "not-failure" comic to be proud about to later presume on portfolios (Prob to get better jobs, recommendations, be hired by a company or person, etc)
The only thing that I still gotta mention is that whenever some of these... superficial goals is not met, you'll have this people asking if it's better to cancel their story or abruptly finish it because "it's being ignored, I love my series but people not caring about it hurts me so much" (And this can be because of the art, the flow, the style, the genre, the execution, characters, etc, anything that may be the thing that is not working, even promotion)... And honestly, my mindset is quite simple, if you tell a story you gotta ask yourself why, it is for yourself or for someone else? And if you drop it... then, I think you didn't love your story enough if you have to ditch it away because it's not bringing you desired results.
Sometimes people have too much ego, or believe that just because you do Isekai, BL or NSFW you're going to solve all your problems and gain a lot of money, while the reality is that there is a lot of competition, a lot of times you need to produce more than what you're capable of just to get noticed or to get paid faster, or the harsh reality is that it takes years to build a fanbase to then have less than 10% of your followers to actually support you.
