*~Struggling With Promotion/Reader Interaction! 25 Subscribers after 1 Year- ADVICE?~*

[Farwin]

Hi everyone! I'm about to hit my 1 year Anniversary on my comic in a few weeks and I'm very happy I've been able to work on it. No matter what, it'll always be my personal project to work on regardless of success.

I've been consistently updating every two weeks around 8ish pm est across all platforms I've been on. I post on Webtoons,Tapas,ComicFury,several facebook pages and also have my own site+Patreon. I also post update notifications via Twitter and Instagram. Even after all of that, I still struggle to get any traction. Tapas performs the worst out of all of them. I JUST hit 100 readers on Webtoon. I've only ever gotten one comment(which is on here) on all platforms.

Is there something I'm doing completely wrong or missing? I want this upcoming second year to do better but the analytics across all my platforms seem to have been doing worse and worse and I'm frustrated to see my stuff go unnoticed for as long as it has, as anyone would be. I know it's not my art itself because I make half my income on it- am I just bad at advertising?

My Webcomic

[Nossumy]

I can see few easily fixable things after reading few pages. I will write you a pm when I got time. : )

[novabycreativerobot]

Same with my webtoon. I have around 11 subscribers rn. Really hard to get followers. Goodluck to us!

Read NOIM (COMIC) :: Dreams And Triggers - 1 | Tapas Comics

[Farwin]

Thank you! I look forward to it.

[darthmongoose]

I've actually written a whole big document about building an audience on Tapas, so I'll just link that rather than repeating myself. Hopefully you find it helpful!

Tapas “How to get eyeballs on my comic and keep them there” Guide

[Farwin]

You're off to a better start than me lol Fortunately you avoided the initial flood of online comics when the plague hit the world. Your comics only been up since Jan, don't worry, you got this!

[Farwin]

Oh wow! You really did! I'll definitely check it out and read through. I'm sure many many people have been grateful for this resource you've made.

It's funny, I've been reading webcomics for over a decade so I totally thought I'd knew what I had to do but NOPE lol.

[authorvicomara]

Wow, your style is beautiful!

I'm no expert whatsoever (struggling immensely to advertise my BL romance novel "Connection" myself on Tapas), but:
* Have you tried doing collaborations with other artists on Tapas (especially those that have a lot of traffic)? Easter is coming up, and many other occasions could be used as a theme for collaboration.
* Maybe creating fanart for some popular comics on Tapas would work as well (e.g. a crossover with their characters and yours)?
* Find a popular novels on Tapas with good traffic and do some fanart for the authors? Hopefully the author would share your art on their post and link to your page for credit?

Just some random ideas...

[darthmongoose]

Honestly the fact you've been at it over a decade might be the problem! I've been making webcomics a long time, like 20 years, and they've really changed a lot since I was a teenager.

I had to totally change my whole approach with my Tapas comic because people read on phones now, so the comic needs to read well on a phone, with really big text and spread out panels (personally I make two print pages, spread out the panels vertically and stack them into one "update" that's in between pages and long scroll). The audience has changed now too. I remember when most webcomic readers were like young men who work in tech or were at uni wanting gag comics about videogames, but statistically an average Tapas reader is a 20 year old woman and her favourite genres are Romance and BL.

Your art is very nice, so I think it's the approach that's the issue here.

[novabycreativerobot]

Thanks! Advertising is a totally different job from creating and it burns me out sometimes. >-<

You too!

[IzzyBloom91]

I love your webcomic, it has solid smooth colors, and I like the dynamic of the characters. Thanks to the title I am on edge of what the betrayal is... Is the betrayal to the cult, the world, to each other, all the above, I don't know, but I like it. Instant subs. keep up the good work.

Here's my comic, I hope you like it

Read Infinite Strike | Tapas Web Comics

[Farwin]

I hate to admit even though I'm in the comic community, it's been MANY years since I've actually read another person's webcomic and there's maybe 2-3 that I still keep up with on their own sites. I wouldn't even know where to begin. The hardest part is that all my time with art is focused on commissions and the comic and Patreon so if I did collabs or fanart, it ends up eating time from work >_< I wish I was 16 year old me again lol

[Farwin]

Yeah I'm being stubborn about the page layout. I remember back then it was important to make sure if you made a webcomic that you took into consideration if you ever decided to print it that it was in the correct format. I came so late into the webcomic game that once I did start making my comic stuff, mobile webcomic apps came into play. I DO however cut up my webcomic for vertical/mobile scroll on webtoons and have to reinsert speech bubbles and whatnot. I don't like doing it but I know it's necessary for that platform. I tried to do some research with Tapas and from what I was reading was the results were about the same if you uploaded in normal comic format vs vertical scroll, so that's why I haven't bothered posting the scroll version on here. But if it really is effecting it that much, I can certainly start slicing up my pages for the next chapter on here, just not super sure how to keep doing it in comic format without destroying the quality when I reformat for vertical scroll.

Also I am not sure if having longer pages are better or if also the results are about the same. I'd rather post twice a month AT LEAST than once a month to have two pages in one update.

[Chocolate]

Your panels are too small and they’re so closed to each other. How about spaced them out more? Also, what era are your characters in? The way people spoke in each era are vastly different than modern times today.

Also, your style reminds me a lot like Superman/Batman. Like western style. Not a lot of people here love that particular style. Most artists on Tapas go for Japanese-manga inspired style.

:3 I hope that helps. I only read a couple of pages from your comic and that’s all I noticed.

[Farwin]

Just my own high fantasy world- nothing intentionally modern, more sword and sorcery here.

Oh yeah my style gets compared to a LOT of different stuff, I do take that as a big compliment personally though LOL. I know it's a bit of a double edged sword, it's kind of the same way when I do commissions online, it's not a popular art style but if someone wants something a bit different, then it tends to hold its own. I know my style is more niche, I'd love to find more comic artists with similiar style so I can see how they succeed and learn from them.

Edit: I'll def be working on making the panels a bit bigger. I later change my format on chapter 2 pages are 11x7? something dimensions or whatever but I know for a fact I have much more room on the current pages I'm working on so I'm hoping the size and spacing will be a bit better. I was getting comic critiques on a Patreon I was supporting and a lot of it was I needed to zoom out more and give more breathing room, so I've been more conscious about that on newer pages.

[darthmongoose]

Also I am not sure if having longer pages are better or if also the results are about the same. I'd rather post twice a month AT LEAST than once a month to have two pages in one update.

If your art style is too much work to maintain weekly updates of at least one page, it's going to definitely be harder to build an audience. The fully shaded art you're doing is lovely, but it's possible the complex art and high panel count not only mean you're updating slower than other comics resulting in less visibility, but since it makes the panels small and hard to read on a phone, it may also be putting off potential readers (Over 90% of Tapas readers read on mobile).

[Nossumy]

I've read a bit out your document.

I recently read making comics from Scott and the fact that you meet him I'd quite impressive.

Also what I've read till not is very helpful. It is really nice of you to make this for all the inspiring authors.

[J.K.Borealis]

Funny, I've just recently read Understanding Comics and Making Comics by Scott McCloud!
I'll be sure to finish reading your guide : D

[WLHcomics]

Same here, not sure what I'm doing wrong. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[smokesalty]

Definitely going to give it a read, thank you so much!