Popular creators, what was your journey to success?

ninjashira 2021-03-10 20:20:49 UTC #21

By your metrics, I guess I'm considered popular. I have about 1,200 subscribers right now. As for what I did? I guess...

I posted a big chunk of pages at the start so even new readers would have something to sink their teeth into. This wasn't done deliberately or with any kind of action plan. I was originally posting my comic to Smack Jeeves and was about 30 pages in when SJ changed everything and I abandoned it in favor of Tapas. For the rest of that chapter, I was updating simultaneously on Tapas and Smack Jeeves, just to make sure my small handful of loyal readers would have time to make the switch, and I didn't want Tapas to be 30 pages behind my SJ site in updates. So I dumped the first 30 pages of Hollow onto Tapas on one go, then continued my regular updates from there.
I've been active on the forums. I think it helps a bit for creators and the Tapas folks who hang out on the forums to see other people being active and sharing art, so I think that got me a little attention.
I update frequently, which people always like. My regular update schedule is twice a week (thrice currently thanks to my readers hitting an Inksgiving reward tier), which keeps people engaged.
I was featured on the front page twice, and in last year's Easter Egg Hunt, all of which definitely drove a significant amount of traffic to my comic.
A lot of my story is playing with some very familiar and nostalgic tropes that a lot of people grew up loving. The premise is sort of, "What if Card Captor Sakura was a boy who grew up and the magic was gone and he had depression and PTSD from his magical anime hero days?" A lot of people who grew up reading or watching magical girl manga and anime immediately latch onto that premise, and enjoy seeing familiar tropes, but with a darker twist. Nostalgia has a lot to do with my story's success, I think.
Before I even started, I had my whole story scripted out, which I think is helping in terms of dropping hints and clues to help tie the whole long story together. I've never done a story this long before, and I wanted to make sure I did it right, so between writing the script, thumbnailing everything, and drawing about a 40-page buffer, I probably worked on the comic for about six months before ever posting a single thing online. I think the advance preparation worked in my favor to really make the story feel cohesive.

Outside of that, I didn't do much in the way of promotion. I don't have a huge social media following, I don't do conventions or anything, I don't bother with advertising or cross posting or any of that. I just made the best story I could with the best skills I had at my disposal (and I keep improving on them all the time!), and updated consistently.

Hodge 2021-03-10 21:35:35 UTC #22

Don't really have a journey to share~ but love reading people's success stories! It's always super motivating and encouraging to see all the effort people put into their stories.

pilot-obvious 2021-03-10 22:26:46 UTC #23

I don't consider myself huge by any means, but I'm willing to share my experience since you consider anyone over 100 subs to be eligible.

I have an okay Twitter presence (and less so on Instagram, 1,150 and 460 followers respectively), and marketing my webcomic on there has drawn a lot of success. While I don't have a huge following, I have a lot of mutuals who are very supportive and like to engage with my artwork and comic, so it seems to get seen by more people. That support bled over into Tapas where they support me by leaving likes and comments. People say they really like my artwork and that I write relatable, dynamic characters.

The other (really big) reason for my subscriber count is that I've been featured by Tapas 3 times. The first time, I was featured as a community pick and gained about 70 subscribers. A month later, I was featured as a staff pick and got about 100 subscribers. Currently, I'm featured in the Women's History Month collection and I've gained about 50 subscribers so far. Most of those subscribers have been lurkers as my like/comment rate never increased.... which is totally fine, by the way! I'm just happy people are interested enough to click on my comic.

I genuinely think my journey to success happened because I found a small group of people that I just click with and we've been immensely supportive of each other! A handful of people can make amazing things happen, like the friend who recommended my comic for a community and staff pick. Without that, I probably would have a fraction of the engagement I currently have.

Also, despite having just talked about numbers for 3 paragraphs, I'm not actively worrying about whether or not my webcomic is successful numbers wise. Ultimately, the only measurement of success I often think about is if I'm having fun with what I'm doing. Maybe that translates into my work. Not that numbers aren't a great hit of dopamine though...!