Historically Nov/Dec have always been rough months for me and my comic. Mostly because I didn't have time to promote the comic, or have consistent updates. I was busy with school or holidays. Then I'd see a spike in Jan/Feb because that was the beginning of con season, and I give out the most flyers and do the most advertising that time.
So I feel your pain!
You know, I didn't look until just now but, November was incredibly slow for me last year as well (granted, I don't think I posted a ton in November last year, as I had just started posting in October). But I do think you're right that that's a contributing factor.
Unfortunately, I do think this contributes too and at least there's more than one person in this boat. :'D I don't think it's the biggest reason for my own comic though, as I was well past 100 pages for all of November as well, and still broke my record.
Definitely not the only one! Though there do seem to be some exceptions on this thread, seems there is a lull for a lot of people. I'm kind of relieved to know I'm not alone too.
As for Twitter, I don't think I'm doing necessarily WELL on it, but I've met so many fun people to talk to that it's making it worth it for me. :'D
Yeah same here. I only joined last October, which I did very well for my first month, then plummeted in November. Granted, I don't think I was posting much in November last year, but like you were saying, I don't think I've been here long enough to take any serious note of patterns or just chalk it up to coincidence.
Amen to that. :'D That's been a growing fear of mine, and this isn't helping it.
I've kind of noticed this too? But I've been chalking it up to my pages' content. There have been a lot of pages where I'M not even sure what to say in the description, so I don't know what I'd say if I were a reader. Comments come in random spikes for me, it seems? Like my last page did probably the worst in favs and views that I've had in...months, yet I got a ton of comments.
With all of this said, I kind of came across another thing that I'm wondering might be contributing? At least to my comic, though I'm sure there are other comics that fall into this "bottom of the popular section" club that are being affected too.
For the past couple of weeks, whenever you click the comics tab on the front page, you are not being directed to the Browse All section, rather than the popular section. The browse all selection consists of the most popular comics on the site, based on number of subscribers. MANY of these comics are in active, some having not even updated since 2015. And this is where all of the traffic that normally went to the front page of the Popular section is now going.
My comic in particular tends to frequent the bottom of the front page of the popular section or the top of second page. I know not everyone is landing in this ranking, but I've noticed the other comics that tend to upload around the same time as me suffering as well ever since this browse all update.
Because now nobody is seeing the rest of the popular section or the next pages. All they are seeing is the two top rows on the main page, then when they click "comics" to see more, they are being directed to the already immensely (and mostly inactive) Browse All section.
Now I'm not saying this is the SOUL reason my comic is doing much more poorly, however I'm certain there are far, far fewer people exploring the bottom of the popular section or the next pages now that they aren't being directed there. And yes, I have been noticing the other comics that usually float around mine in the popular section suffering and not getting as far as they use to as well. So while I don't think it is the only reason, I do think it is contributing.
With that said, I did actually ask Tapastic about this on Twitter and was very, very disappointed to hear that "it is permanent for now." So all that traffic that traffic is going to the already established mega popular comics of this site, some of which don't even post here anymore. Instead of, ya know, on going popular series, new series that made it there, comics that are getting just enough to make it to the bottom like mine, or just the Fresh section like I know a lot of people want.
THIS. This, so much ._. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's been slightly annnoyed with this.
Having traffic instantly going to the browse section was a bad idea on tapastic's side in my opinion.
These comics rarely update and some are indeed inactive. Also seeing the same comics on a page everytime you click on 'comics' gets old fast.
In my opinion it would be the best to direct traffic to the 'fresh' section instead of 'browse' or 'populair' This way great comics what would go by unnoticed may get noticed.
Just my 2 cents.
I can't be SURE, but the gist I sort of got from my conversation with them about it on Twitter was it was more of an accident that's very low on their priority list to fix. I don't think it was an actual decision to switch it to Browse All.
But I can't say for sure. Here's the actual thread if you'd like to judge for yourself:
https://twitter.com/city_of_blank/status/7979228394205143044
Personally, I think the ideal solution would be to have a choice like you do with DeviantArt's front page:
http://www.deviantart.com/
If you select "Newest," that is what you will always be directed to when you go their front page, until you change it to another section. I'm one of the few people that doesn't actually mind the popular section being the default, but I really do think it'd be awesome for people to have the option for the Fresh section (or any other section for that matter) to be their front page is they desired, like how DeviantArt has it.
I agree with you on it. I don't benefit from it either way, as my comic never makes it to popular/trending ever these days, but it'd be nice to get a full page of popular or trending instead of sub order. As a reader, I would like to see something new every time I click on that link.
L I check Tapastic for new comic pages of the series I read every morning when I get up at 4:30am, and being so early, I'm not quite awake and hadn't noticed right away that the page was going directly to the 'browse all' section. It took me a few days to realize why the comics on that page weren't changing ^_^'...A first time user of Tapastic might think those are the only comics on the site..
One thing I've really been disliking about Tapastic (website and app) is the way they've been handling traffic, with the app, to actually get to anything that's not payed or featured content you gotta dig through, the 'trending' and 'fresh' sections in the app are thrown way back and I hate to blame the 'big update' for this but I do feel like it kinda does contribute to the lack of traffic the past few months. I do understand that they want to promot their payed comics more, but so many of the regular comics are pushed way back in the app, many new readers might not find your comic unless you search for them specifically. Now with the 'comics' tab taking you to the 'brows all' section instead of the popular section this is affecting the website too which was honestly fine as it was.
Highly agreed here. Like @Lucazu said, I'm starting to go a little crazy seeing the exact same comics over and over again. Especially as someone who kinda...habitually clicks it. I know a handful of comics usually populate those top two rows of the popular section, but at least it's still kind of constantly changing... Plus, every now and then you DO see a new comic up there.
I think this is also a super relevant point. It took me a couple of days to realize what was going on as well. So if it's taking us regulars a couple days to figure out we're getting directed to a very inactive section, I can only imagine how long it's taking new comers to the site. Honestly, it's a bit discouraging too for newcomers, who see you're only chance of winding up on a "main page" is if you're one of the few 20k+ subscriber comics.
I'm still under the impression this was an accident that they don't intend to fix soon, but it's still valid issue. I'm really tempted to make another thread to address this with the hopes of getting a more official statement on it, because it is rather discouraging... A lot of creators felt like the were put on the back burner after "the big update," and now the fact they have no intention on redirecting all the Comic tab traffic back to the popular section and away from the already established mega popular comics is only further discouraging.
This is us. Our stats are nothing impressive but we are satisfied given we started at nothing in April. The reason for our decline is simple really. We stopped
First off, everyone should remember that webcomics require a five year plan. One Punch Man took several years to take off and that's the one in a million story. The reality is its a long grind with a lot of effort up front in order to get the reward at the end. Remember comics are highly word of mouth based. It takes a long time to get a group of core fans built up who want to tell everyone about your comic. So until you get to that point, you have to get the word out about your comic, and that takes time and money. There are no overnight success stories in comics. It's 90% perspiration, 9% inspiration, and 1% luck.
We mean this in all fairness but Tapastic doesn't owe anyone anything. They host our comics for free, they give us a slice of ad revenue, and they promote the app and website for everyone equally. If creators here think that it's Tapas' job to get them subscribers and views, it's not. A creator's job is to do both the art, the writing, and the promotion. Tapas is nice because it does provide everyone a sizable number of internal subscribers from readers already on the site, but a creator also has to go out and bring in new readers as well.
Looking at our graph we had a huge summer because we went out there and beat the pavement. We only had a handful of pages done at the time but we purchased a table at a convention, printed up a big banner, printed out fliers, and set out 7! other series from Tapastic on our table. And what did we do? We promoted Tapastic the whole time and not our comic. We made sure that every comic on the table got attention and they did. Tapas noticed this and retweeted what we were doing. And we got a huge boost of views and subs from that.
So drawing inspiration from JFK, "Ask not what Tapas can do for you, but what you can do for Tapas."
What does this mean? If you do something that sets yourself apart from the rest of the creators here, staff is going to notice and they are going to reward those people who take a step above and beyond. There are 16,000+ other series here. Just being on the site is not enough, you have to stand apart. GamerCat is the 2nd largest referrer to Tapastic. Since they send Tapastic all that traffic, you bet as heck that staff is going to feature them repeatedly in the Daily Snack or on the App.
Who else here has done something for Tapas? Who else here has done something for a series other than their own? We're not trying to be accusatory, just pointing out a fact.
We've featured the following series in our marketing efforts this year:
Apricot Cookies
Centralia 2050
City of Blank
Extra Ordinary
Ghostblade
Grassblades
Magnolia Online
Manna Magi
Oops Comic
Sammy
Silversong
Shanties
Star Pace
The Book of Life
The Middle Crowd
We wonder: If everyone tried as hard as we did to promote Tapastic and comics other than their own what kind of growth would everyone enjoy?
So do something out of the norm to make yourself get noticed by staff and see what happens.
Or better yet, do something for someone else, and see what good things come back in return.
Anyhow just to recap, getting views is all about
In my case (not saying everyone is going to be similar to me) Tapastic slows down around this time every year.
Since I started posting here in 2013 Tapastic has always had a significant drop in the November and December months. (Though I can easily see this data be different for non-story driven comics like gag a days that can add holiday themed comics in to be shared without breaking continuity, which is I assume, popular to share/promote around this time of year)
I was going to post screen shots but it would just be 7 different images all showing the exact same thing (Raven Wolf views from 2013-2016 and No Future Views from 2014-2016) and that's view count dropping in the month of November EVERY YEAR for BOTH series.
Hopefully this year is just following that trend and it's nothing to worry about. That readers are just slowing down for a while due to reasons outside of your control.
Yep, it just looks like November is lower than average - my comic had about 21k views October of last year that dropped down to 15k in November, all the way down to 8k in December. This year it looks like it's the same, 10k vs 3k (my comics been on hiatus which explains the disparity between the two years.)
I assume it's just because everyone's starting to get busy with holiday shopping that there isn't time to read some webcomics :V not necessarily because of lack of marketing on the creators side, though I do feel like the browse all issue is something that needs to be addressed regardless.
To be clear, this is exactly why I do think the front page should be the Popular section by default. I think it would be nice to have the option to select the Fresh section as your front page, but the popular comics like Gamer Cat and Owl Turd are the ones that bring in the most traffic to Tapastic.
New comers are FAR more likely to stick around if they look at Tapastic's front page and go "Oh! GamerCat uploads here! If I join, I can get regular updates from them!" than if they saw a bunch of obscure smaller comics they've never heard of. I think for Tapastic's sake, the popular section is a very necessary and important section.
Honestly, I would actually like to talk to you more directly in regards to getting some advice on marketing my comic, as you're someone I see around getting featured and successfully promoting your works a lot. I'm literally just a single artist trying to figure out this web comic thing all by myself while balancing full time jobs (Well normally I am. Currently job hunting). There are a lot of aspects of what you're saying that I would love to take, but I'm just not sure how or if I physically can without the manpower of a team or abundant money. I think what you guys did at SacAnime is great and I would love to participate or run something like that some day, but I don't have the first clue what the first steps are to make. I would love to be in a position where my featuring and promoting people actually made a significant difference, but I'm not sure how to get there myself.
With all of that said though, this did get a slight bit off topic. The original point of this thread was just to see if anyone else noticed a pattern of inactivity among readers in November, and it seems most people do. I do personally have a few things I wish Tapastic would fix (Like the Browse All issue, which is just bad for Tapastic itself, not just it's creators), but I do agree that it doesn't necessarily owe us anything. However, I don't think most of us have the man power to give back to Tapastic on the levels some people do.
Please do correct me if I'm wrong, but you are a team of people right? Not just a single artist (I've actually been wondering this for a while)? I do frequently shout out to Tapastic and try to feature and promote other artists, via Twitter, art features, guest comics, ect, but unfortunately as a single artist who is doing this only with my spare time, there's only so much I can do. I think everything you've said is valid and I'd love to be promoting Tapastic like you are (Because I honestly do love this site. It's my online home), but I'm just not sure how I ever could to the scale you do. I'm not saying it's impossible, I just don't know how. I would sincerely love some advice or input on how single, low-income artists can market their projects like you have.
Glad to hear from someone who's got more than 2 years under their belt! I still think it's possible that other things have been contributing, but I do think it is safe to conclude that holiday season is just a slow time for story comics. I do personally know that last year the page I uploaded on Christmas was statistically the lowest traffic I've gotten on a page to this day (I think you raise a good point about gag comics maybe even getting a boost though).
Once Keiii mentioned exam season too, it also occurred to me that I've even had a few people in my streams tell me that they've been too busy with school to come to my streams lately or catch up with their reading list.
I sure hope so, because I've honestly been marketing my own comic more than ever lately ahaha... So it was certainly disappointing to see the opposite results of what I was expecting.
And in regards to Browse All, agreed. As stated, the Browse All issue is not only bad for creators, but for Tapastic. For someone who's just taking a quick glance at Tapastic for the first time, they might be sort of turned off when they're directed to the Browse All section, click Fish Eye Placebo, think "This is really cool!" and then realize it hasn't been updated since 2015. It makes the site feel very inactive, as at first glance not many people realize that section's being sorted by sub count, and it just looks like Tapastic has decided to feature a bunch of inactive comics.
Like..... the sentiment here is good, but it didn't seem like anyone was acting like Tapastic owed them? Instead it's just a creator saying "wow, my November views are weirdly low, is anyone else experiencing this?" and then trying to figure out what might be causing it. E.G., Is this just me, or are lots of people experiencing this? it specific to November? Is it specific to Tapastic? Is it a result of that one website change that Tapastic made? Has anyone else noticed that change negatively affecting them?
That sort of analysis isn't bad to make!! You may have just meant to be mentioning the whole Tapas Doesn't Owe You thing as a side-note, but I wanna make clear to others that "analysing a sudden drop in views and questioning what factors outside the comic may have caused it" isn't entitled behaviour, and "analysing whether Tapastic's choices have negatively impacted me" isn't the same thing as "expecting Tapastic to do my promotion for me." I've never seen 66 on this forum acting like they're expecting an overnight success story -- quite the opposite, I see all of 66's threads revolving around building a longer-term plan that can work, and figuring out what's the best way to reach out outside of Tapastic and market their comic.
So.... I don't totally disagree with your post in general -- but it didn't seem like anyone here was acting entitled to Tapastic's promotional efforts!
I've had a similar drop-off to what others are describing, and IIRC I had a drop-off in views last year around this time as well, so the theory of it being a pattern holds up - but I just found... a really odd discrepancy.
My series performance tab insists I have about 24k views so far this month (which is a definite drop-off from previous months). But my ad-impressions tell me I have 29k impressions this month. :T I have about 5000 more ad impressions than I have views. What the heck, people?
I would also like to add that I completely agree on this and all of what has been said so far about the 'Browse All' issue, and I do not doubt it's been effecting traffic as well. It's just difficult to see how much it's effecting it because view drops is the trend this time of year. I think starting a new thread about it (I believe you mentioned in a post before this one) would be a good idea, because it should still be addressed outside of the 'End of year drop' problem it happens to be coinciding with.
I'm actually working on this right now (Just stating in case anyone else was thinking to and doesn't want to accidentally create double threads ahah)!
Thanks for your input. I'm just relieved to see people agree it's an issue.
First, can I just say you made my night with this. :'D I really do worry that I come off as attention grabby every time I make a post, but I really am just trying to figure out this web comic the business the best I can by myself.
I definitely don't want to put words into anyone's mouth (Hence why I keep insisting that I don't think this Browse All thing is a big evil decision, just a low priority accident), but I sort of assumed GoldenPlume's response came from the fact everyone is frustrated at Tapastic's promotion of already popular comics. Which... I'm honestly mixed on. However, my only REAL issue was this Browse All update, which has been pointed out to be very flawed by several people here.
Is it weird to agree with both of you? Because I do agree with most of what @GoldenPlume said, it just felt like a response for a different topic, as you're right. The real point of this topic was just to discuss if there was a pattern of low traffic this time of year.
The entire ad revenue program is still pretty broken, right? I'm honestly not 100% sure, but I know in the past I use to manage $20ish a month, but last month I literally broke my records in views and still wasn't able to achieve $20. I heard things got...better? But honestly, I feel like it's been broken for so long, that I wonder if anyone's been tracking it's progress in getting fixed lately? I know I haven't ahah...
