I share your feelings here. I've been working away for 5 years on my strip, Charmy's Army. I managed to grow a nice following on Facebook and Twitter... but where it counts, I am invisible. I have been here six months and have 23 followers. My strip is good, in my opinion... but getting noticed is really tough. It is not just here on Tapastic... it is anywhere you go. There are just so many cartoonists dreaming of success that the sheer numbers bury us.
My advice is to not worry about numbers or even paying your bills. Just cartoon because you love it. Build enough strips to submit to the syndicates and send them off. Then, don't worry about getting a response. Just send them and move on.
Bottom line is to enjoy what you do. I send the first two years banging my head against the wall until I realized it wasn't helping me. This was after two serious concussions and a ton of holes in my study that I have yet to patch up... lolol....
Seriously, just have fun. Your strip is great. I'll subscribe and keep you motivated from time to time.
Good Luck!
Davy Jones
Creator of Charmy's Army
http://tapastic.com/series/CharmysArmy