Is anyone not getting Ad Revenue or is it just me?

[YangKoete]

Seriously, I have over 1,000 ad views this month so far and I'm not gettin a single penny!

I know Tapas needs to make money too, but why am I getting nothing?

Does anyone else have this issue?

[Wumbl]

It's not necessarily gone, but revenue did take a dive recently. The amount you could make in relevance to how many impressions you got has gotten a bit low. For me it took like 2,500 ad impressions to make a handful of change this month, and others have been saying the same. It's not quite as profitable as it had been before.

[LordVincent]

It's not a matter of "tapas needs money too", it's a matter of the current CPM being very low.

[scythe]

I'd just pretty much forget about internet banner ads for the moment. Some kind of seismic shift would need to occur before they start being a money spinner again. This goes for any platform.

[tayo_rafferty]

Based on your screenshot it would take just over 14K impression to make $1 (approx)

[LordVincent]

Considering tapas recent extensions in regards to the tipping feature, I would suggest trying your best to gain subs for your comic and enable the tipping feature.

Once you do, set up some rewards for tippers to encourage them to engage with the feature. Sure, some people will tip just out of the kindness of their heart, but MOST of them won't. Most will ask one of two things:

1. "What's in it for me?"
2. "Will this even matter/make a change for the creator?"

Setting up a reward system indicates that you see the tippers, you appreciate the tippers, and you want them to be satisfied in return for their efforts. It also gives the first group mentioned a reason to tip you.

I used to have a tipping reward system that lost popularity with time due to lack of ads in summer, and it also depended heavily on a thing that wasn't easy to maintain.
I recently launched a new tipping reward system. Here is the difference it has made for me so far:

See the arrow? That's when the tipping reward system was implemented.

Advice for a good reward system, coming from someone who's managed one in various ways and seen what works and what doesn't:

1. Make sure it's EASY FOR YOU TO MAINTAIN! Preferrably, it involves things you've already created (like exclusive bonus chapters, exclusive art, or unreleased character design sheets... The first one mentioned would be worth more, the last one would be very low value reward) or that you would make anyway.
2. Create a range of tiers, so that both tippers with low ad amounts and tippers with large ad amounts see a reason to tip you. Now, in my case I am a premium creator so there is no point in me creating a tipping tier that is just a few hundred coins because people that have very few ads are already spending their coins on that. If you are not a premium creator, it might be good to make a tipping reward that is of very low value.
   Think of it like a staircase, the highest step being of highest coin amounts and highest value. Your reward system should somewhat resemble a staircase.
3. When creating rewards, think like a business man, not like a parent, and not like an emo kid. I know you think your art and your comics are your beloved babies and they are worth every single penny in the world... or you hate yourself and you think it's trash that deserves fire, not coins. Regardless of what you think, YOUR FANS DO NOT AGREE! They see a comic. They see entertainment. They see (you'll hate what I'm about to say) A PRODUCT.
   So, when you create rewards, think from a reader's point of view. What will YOUR readers want?
   You can look for inspiration in other people's patreon rewards, for example, but when you do you need to make sure to always ask yourself "Would MY audience like this?"
   My audience likes gay stuff, NSFW things, they like thrilling dramatic entertainment and they like it at a speedy update rate. So I have created my rewards by those standards. If you're writing a cute magical girl comic or a superhero comic, chances are your fans would not like those things at all. So you need to tailor your rewards to attract them.
4. MAKE YOUR FANS CONTACT YOU FOR REWARDS, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!! This goes for anything other than rewards like "I'll post a badge on your wall" and the like. Basically, a lot of fans don't know that the PM function even exists. When they then don't receive their rewards they might get angry and start accusing you of trying to scam them. So tell them they need to contact you, not the other way around. Make it clear. Remind them. Put a big fat banner at the end of your comic episode making it clear they need to contact you and say what rewards they want. PUT IT RIGHT IN THEIR FACE because today's readers have short attention spans and will not seek out any info that takes two more clicks than they would like. So be as short and clear about everything as you can.
   -
   The second reason for this is that not every reader WANTS rewards. Especially not if you are a creator that does NSFW things here and there! I once sent a person a reward set that involved some nsfw art among other things, and they became uncomfortable by it and said they had only tipped because they liked me and my stories.
   -
   The third reason for this is that it's just so much easier to organize! Unless you want to spend hours upon hours keeping track of people that don't even look or CARE if they get rewards, not to mention the people that want them and have no idea how to find them, then you better make Those who want rewards contact you, not the other way around. These are work hours your readers would rather you spend drawing those pages, btw.
   
   For those considering a tipping reward system, I will show mine for inspiration. As you can see, I've also added information on what tipping is, how to get free coins and how to contact me for rewards. Because I did this, and because I specify "on the tapas app" and "on tapas.io", making a second version with some sort of intro to get webtoon readers on board as well is an easy job to do.

[LordVincent]

Oh, and, doing the above is good both for individual creators and for the growth of Tapas at large. When Tapas at large grows, it means they can spend more money on more employees that can help develop and maintain more awesome features that us creators can then put to use to earn more money.

It's the circle of love.

And money.

The latter is more likely to pay your bills.

[joe_galindez]

Open question to everyone who's succeeded in making a living out of this: what's your biggest revenue stream?

[LordVincent]

Biggest revenue stream depends on time, current job aspects, and who you're asking.

For me, at the beginning of this year most of it was collectively from tips and tapas ad revenue. Then during summer the most important income source was my patreon. My patreon lost a lot of supporters in autumn until just recently when I ran it through some huge improvements, causing the tide to turn, so in autumn it's been a combo of webtoons pledge program and my premium comic. Heading into winter it looks like my patreon will grow, webtoons support continues to be a good add, premium income is improving gradually, and since i got a tipping reward system installed that is on the rise too. I also occasionally get a small boost through book and pdf sales. Basically all of my main income sources are going up right now it seems.

Many comic artists who put all their eggs in one basket ended up screwed royally. One good example is Inkblazers, which went down pretty fast when investors lost interest. Because inkblazers had very little income source besides the investors money, the entire site structure crashed as soon as the investors ditched. Many of the artists hired by Inkblazers where thus safe in one moment, and in the very next they stood bare feet without a job and with very little time to build up new income sources.

Moral of the story is: when in the creative field, unless you're earning wages that are large enough to let you save money for a rainy day, don't put all your eggs in one basket. When you have a good month, try to save money in case a bad month is on the way.

[Rhombik]

Thanks - this was extremely useful. I don't have many tippers so it's not revenue for me but getting tipped makes me happy nonetheless. It would be cool to give rewards for it.

I need to think about what to use as a reward.

[YangKoete]

Ah...Didn't they say they were going to increase CPM though?

[alarnia]

Thank you for posting this! Very informative, plus i feel like some of your points can be applied for places outside of tapas as well.

[LordVincent]

If anyone wants, I'll see if I can refine the list of advice a little and add it as a new topic to make sure more people that can make use of it see it?

[Rhombik]

Yes please.

As for CPM, I think it also depends on the bots. They bring down the value. It took me until the 1200 view mark this month to get a cent so that must be the rough ratio.

[LordVincent]

Actually, last time CPM was discussed and Josh from Tapas contributed to the discussion the theory of bots bringing down the value was not confirmed. He had no idea if they contributed, and he seemed to not quite know why they were given such low CPM. I hope they figure it out.

I will get right on it trying to make a thread to help creators with tipping advice so more people can approach making a living off of their hard work.

[Rhombik]

Aha, I did not see this. Were any reasons given? I'm mostly just curious. I'm too green to plan getting any revenue off Tapas but I like watching the numbers. It's a sign of progress.

[LordVincent]

Hmm no but they said they were moving over to a new ad distributor/something like that... but it doesn't look much better so far.