I don´t have a comic online at the moment but I will use all available channels to promote it when I have the comic finished.
All possible webcomic channels, insta, facebook, homepage, youtube and a printed comic.
Tapas or webtoons is good for trying out and to get into the habit of working with schedule
I think it comes down to the main page change. In the past on Tapas (before all these Korean comics from their investors took over) the main page was dedicated to promoting anyone who posted, and it was much easier to get readers. I know Tapas is focusing a lot on their Discord and made a "community" page to use for promoting their non paid creators, but nobody is looking at that page (I can't even find a link to it on the website), so it is currently useless.
I know a ton (a TON) of webcomic creators who are abandoning Tapas because of low readership, when they've managed to get thousands of subs over on Webtoon. There is definitely an issue with how Tapas promotes it's community these days as it's quite frankly not working.
As not the biggest fan of Webtoon I'd really love to see Tapas do better with and for Webcomic creators than it currently is since I don't like seeing so many webcomickers leaving the platform, making me have to read their work on Webtoon instead XD But I do understand that Tapas is probably doing what's most profitable for them as a company, as it does make sense to promote the works of your investors and your paid content over what's being offered for free. I just wish they could find a better balance for it.
I think it's no surprise tapas favors already big names and things they translate from other languages.And it's true the site would need some better sorting system for smaller comics and starting authors. However, it's not totally impossible to be found in popular section if you try hard enough. My comic is currently at 141 subs and will run for 4 months on 27th February. And it stays in the popular fantasy section since launch. Both in general and free to read tab.
So yeah, Tapas doesn't give you much chance to get big, you have to wok your own ass off to actually be seen, by communicating with other people and having a good material to work with. I keep my comic there, thanks to a loyal fanbase I got over time, but yeah, it's a drill as hell and it took me 4 reboots of my story. So my advice is, work smarter, not harder and don't expect anything from the site in the first place.
It's a tricky topic, because I'd actually say that yes, people are actually looking at the community tab. It's been pretty good for my views! I've had a noticeable uptick in both views and organic sub gain since it launched ...But that does actually illustrate what the issue is for smaller creators.
The issue is that the community tab still uses the same algorithm as the main "view all" page, (ie. it's based mostly on likes in the last few days) meaning that if you're like me, and your comic is over a few hundred subs (or in my case over a thousand) and can reliably get enough likes on update day to appear in the overall rankings in your genre anyway, the community tab is great. It's like the main browsing except I appear higher up it because all the pay to read comics made by teams of people with more marketing behind them are taken off the top. It might also be good for people who are performing okay for a new comic and can appear in their genre rankings sometimes if you skim 20 or more titles off the top. But obviously it's no good for somebody who cannot even get close to the rankings through some mixture of being in an overcrowded genre (like Fantasy) while also not managing to get more than a couple of likes per update.
So if you have a comic that's brand new or with low readership, the best thing to do is promote on the forums, the Tapas discord and participate in every community event that's appropriate, because the best shot you have is the staff spotting you and giving you a "new from the community" feature to boost you up those first 50-250 subs or so where your numbers can make you appear in your genre rankings.
Tapas has changed, and in a way that will benefit some creators and be bad for others. Fundamentally, the best way I can describe this change is that Tapas now looks at each comic more like a "brand" or "IP", and they're interested in comics as individual units over creators (unless the creator's name has become a marketable brand in itself due to some significant past success).
This is obviously a bad change if your approach was a scattergun one of throwing out lots of bitty experimental shorter comics that were scrappily made but with an interesting concept, getting a few readers on each and relying on how Tapas used to notify people if somebody with a work they'd bookmarked made a new comic.
It's also a bad change if you go into your comic with an attitude like "aaah, I don't really 100% know what this is yet, but I'll work it out as I go. I'm just gonna try things."
The audience on Tapas funnily has changed in a way that makes the name "tapas" not make so much sense as it used to; from one of people browsing for little bites of random interesting content, to one looking for a solid read to get stuck into. It's happened because of the addition of these very complete localised comics combined with some of the original premium comics becoming very long or being complete, and to the audience they've attracted is of people looking for a comic that knows exactly what it's trying to be, communicates it very clearly to them and delivers consistent storytelling.
Basically your comic needs to spring into being as a complete product, like the Goddess Athena being born out of Zeus' forehead fully armed and armoured and knowing exactly what her deal was.
This is where @Lunar-Turtle has done "new Tapas comic" exactly right. Relaunching a comic with a very clear, consistent aesthetic and a neat, distinctive but readable logo that matches that aesthetic on a polished cover that follows the Tapas cover guidelines to the letter, plus a copyright-friendly unique name and telling a story that's got easy hooks that are established quickly. Then putting a bunch of effort into promotion across a wide range of channels. Synastry got a "New from the Community" feature because it did exactly what Tapas wants from a new comic.
Obviously this approach of "launch your comic like it's a brand" may not appeal to some people, and they may be like "well, seeya! I'm gonna go to [webtoon/flowfo/dillyhub/the duck/comic fury]", but the other option is to take advantage of this knowledge and make a comic that'll launch with a bang on the platform as it is now. Tapas are looking for polished comics with a strong unique brand identity based around recognisable, marketable characters and that have a punchy story hook. If you can launch something like that, you might be onto a winner.
I'm not sure if I'll continue uploading here after my first episode. I just couldn't find some decent outlets for this platform to promote on. Unlike Webtoon's which has tens of thousands of active members, most Tapas subreddits and fb groups barely has any engagements going on. And Discord's self-promo channels are just the same old dead rooms filled with links that won't be clicked.
The thing is, as much as I appreciate the comments and views from fellow creators I got, I'd also love to get some casual readers. But I just can't figure out how to find a way to market it to them.
Another thing I noticed is this: When I first uploaded an episode here, I immediately tried to find a "most recent" or "recently uploaded" section in the app. Couldn't find one. This means that it's either I missed it, or the only way to get an organic reader in app as a new creator is for the readers to actively seek you out. At least Webtoon throws you a bone in this regard by dropping the readers to a page sorted by date if they click a genre on the Canvas section. It's still a long shot, but at least it's there.
I fully understand that the promotion is a part of my responsibility. I just got frustrated on how hard it is to share your comics here to the readers as a small creator.
I know that my story is kinda recent with it being out for less than a year or so but for me, it's kinda the opposite me in the past couple of months my views have increased from around 50 ish a month to over 100 a month. Though I think it has to be acknowledged that it depends on your story's genre, cause my story is sci-fi so it ain't as competitive as say fantasy or LGBTQ+ (like there are no premium novels for sci-fi) so you kinda have to do something that sets you apart. For example, another sci-fi novel that I love is Ex-Machina which has a detective Cyber-Punk sci-fi with an artificial intelligence setting, which differs from Iapetus Snow which is an alien invasion dystopia.
So I guess one thing that could be done is with the stories is something that helps you separate yourself without making yourself seem like a simple 'gimmick', Also patients, I know I can't really say that but if you keep working on your work people will eventually get attention of it causes like a lot of people are saying here people will read a story that'll last for a bit.
@darthmongoose Ok first thing, thank you, it really menas a lot to me seeing you say something like this.I never thoguht I would actually read something like that about my own work.
Second thing, this is me right now:
I seriously mean this, because I can assure you, I have no idea about Tapas guidelines by which they choose what to feature. I never read anything about or hear anything from other people. So yeah, everything I did was totally on my random mind and without any planning, i was just like: Make it look nice, unlike last time lol. So maye this dissapoints, but it looks like I check all those criteria by pure luck or some higher force told me what to do, because myself had no idea.
This actually makes it more hilarious.
what is good- good art? rn the only art getting that distinction is the manhwa type. It's not like the comic artists getting sidelined by the trends can't attempt that but I assume there is a tonal and story vibe that gets them to chose the style they have. My slightly angular, manga/american cartoon art is what suits my story best I find.
Oh just look up Tower of God, God of Highschool, and Noblesse. They’re the once who are first on Webtoon to get feature, and getting an anime after them. They are good examples to study from. I mean, you can have your own style; but I noticed the ones who get staff picks are the ones with anime-inspired art. Black and white comics or American-inspired comics don’t do as well if you’re looking to get featured on Webtoon.
(Edit: *Oh sorry I didn’t noticed you ping @ the other user! )
"please the audience"
That may be the main problem. i personally rebooted my comic, because I knew fucked up art and the story. I did it, because I felt like it deserves better, I never did it for audience. The project itself and what it means to you as it's creator is waht matters the most. You should do it because you have idea and want to tell the story. If you are really devoted to your idea, because you like it, then you hav emuch bigger chance to succeed. People are draws to artists who clearly love their characters, world etc. Not those who try to pelase everyone. Have some faith in oyur own work and don't bend it for others.