Tapas subscription milestones and their benefits?

[Katzalcoatl]

Hmm I could have sworn novels and comics had different milestones but I can't find the info anywhere.

The only thing I can find is the 100 milestone for ad reveniew, the 250 for ink support, and the 500 for merch tapas. Are those all the milestones?

Or are there hidden benefits at 50 or even 600 subscribers?

If I activate my ad milestone how will that affect my readers? Like is it a video? Or just a small image hidden. I am curious. Sometimes I can be as blind as a bat. But I wouldn't want my readers to have to watch a video every episode or so. (I would still activate it assuming somewhere down the line I get 100 subscribers need money to reinvest in my series.)

[VibrantFox]

The ads that appear between episodes are basically it the only change is that part of the revenue that comes from viewing or interacting with those ads now goes to you so no worries about any kind of disruptive or intrusive ads or pop ups (i can't speak for the app coz i haven't used it in years but i'm sure someone else can chime in on that)

As for the milestones I think everything is pretty much straight forward like you mentioned with the first big unlock being ad rev, then tipping and then merch (tho the last one is news to me but again consequences of inactivity or whatever)

As for earnings it's not a whole lot with ad rev since there's a views to dollar ratio and it's not that big so any real earning will come from tipping tho that'll depend on number of readers and their engagement. Along with that is the fact that you wont be able to withdraw any funds from Tapas to your linked Paypal account until you've reached $25 dollars, after that there's a few weeks if not more for the very first transfer to process and send (unless Tapas has improved this) and after that it's a bit shorter but still several weeks.

I'm personally kind of clueless how the merch stuff operates so I'm at least a little curious about that myself

[Katzalcoatl]

Yup wasn't expecting to make much from ads but hey it's better than nothing. I guess you would only make a lot of reveniew if you had milllions of visits but by then I would guess tapas would of contacted you to make you premium or something.

[VibrantFox]

Even with thousands or even millions of views i'm pretty sure quality of work and reader interactions and retention would be higher influence in whether or not Tapas forms a contract with someone (likely closer to their metrics for staff picks than anything)

but with earnings...yea. i know there were folks who'd keep on top of changes in the cents per view but it's i guess more a thing of the past now (the old science or something category had all those threads here on the forums but they're probably long gone now)

[candiedcotton]

I just had a look at mine and I'm making like $0.04 for every 1k views. It's ridiculous.

[VibrantFox]

yeah i figured it was pretty low... i feel like the best we'd managed to get was at least a dime per 1k views but honestly it's been ages since i've bothered trying to do the math or seen people going over it here or elsewhere

[candiedcotton]

From what I gather it varies a tiny bit depending on the ad (seems some have better payout than others) but that's mostly hearsay. But yeah, four cents for a thousand views is just ridiculous. I have a lot of beef with how they (and Webtoon) treat creators.

[Katzalcoatl]

That is sad. 🥲
It hurt my soul.
Sadest part is you can't even take any money out till you get $25.

[DarkSena]

Not to mention that 25USD is literally nothing but it's rather impossible to even get there
That's how most comic creators get there money from Patrons the the platforms are rather unwilling to give money

[candiedcotton]

It's like working half a year to afford a loaf of bread or some nonsense. It's genuinely disgusting and these big sites have absolutely no excuse for it whatsoever.

[DarkSena]

Well yeah, if you're not hired by the platform itself it's rather impossible to live only by drawing comic than posting it on the platform. Doing commissions makes much more if you have willing clients to pay for your hard work and also attend conventions which might be double-edged sword literally when you don't know if you will be able to cover the expenses and having SOME profit.

[candiedcotton]

Yep. And I'd even say being hired by the platform itself isn't enough either. Not enough to realistically pay your bills at any rate. Even living by commissions tends to be painfully difficult. I did it for a few years and it burnt me out beyond belief. Plus, the overwhelming majority of people who want to commission art tend to want porn. Meh. I've no issue with drawing sex and stuff, but a lot of those requests are just stuff that makes me uncomfortable. Objectifying real people or characters that are copyright, I won't do.

I hear conventions are really expensive, had a friend who used to do 'em. She'd sell her stuff alright, but I guess the cost of producing it, framing, gas to get there, hotel room, paying for the table... she ended up basically just breaking even. And that's not including the time spent on the work itself. I have agoraphobia so it's out of the question for me, lol.

Just wish artists were appreciated by those who consume and/or make money off their work. It should be a damn crime.

[darthmongoose]

To give a general rundown of the "tiers" with further elaboration:

25 Subs: Does nothing. It's literally just there so that new creators don't despair looking at the progress bar that goes to a hundred.

100 Subs: You can unlock Ad revenue. The banners are pretty small and unintrusive, so I can't imagine a lot of people click them, which is likely why the views generate so little revenue. I mean, we've seen people on the forums who say they don't even see the ad banners... That's not exactly amazing ad real estate. (If you want to make money on ads, I'd recommend putting your comic on a website or similar and setting up with comicad or similar. Ads aren't the biggest earner on Tapas). Honestly though ad banners haven't been a big earner online in over a decade.

250 Subs: You can unlock Ink donations and revenue withdrawal. This is where most of the money you'll earn on Tapas, at least until you hit tens of thousands of subs, will come from. Engage your audience and take part in Inksgiving and this can pay off well (Lifetime income on Errant from Tapas so far has been over $700, which isn't bad for a comic of its size).

500 Subs: You can get a merch shop. When you make a piece of merch, it has a base cost. Then you set what your profit on top of that base cost is. When somebody buys a piece of merch, you get whatever amount you set the profit to. I've sold just a few shirts. I can't say they're a great way to make an income because the whole shop integration is a bit hidden away, and shirts haven't been how webcomics make money since the "t-shirtpocalypse" happened many years ago (I'm serious, this was a real thing that happened in webcomics. Merch and ad banner earnings suddenly imploded).

SECRET (not really) HIDDEN TIERS!

At 10,000 or 50,000 subs, you can apply for the Creator Bonus Program or the Early Access Program. On the Creator Bonus Program, creators get a lump sum sent over if they hit certain monthly view targets, and on the Early Access Program, readers can pay ink to unlock episodes a week early.
Now, it IS possible for Tapas to invite you to one of these early, like they did me. I was put on the Creator Bonus Program at 1600 or so subs. BUT, honestly it's really hard to hit the view targets at those kinds of numbers. There's a reason the required subs are set so high.

To genuinely make a full-time living on Tapas, you really need to be probably over 50,000 subs, and to also have a Patreon, and I'd also recommend periodic Kickstarter campaigns for print books and similar to supplement income. Conventions can be good too (again, if you have print books to sell and good merch, and if you can attend cons without spending too much money to eat into the profits) Most creators I know in the 10,000 sub region have a part time job to supplement what their comic brings in.

[DarkSena]

You are right, it might be enough but depends on where do you live because the expenses for living are so vastly different for and every single country. F.e. in Europe... it's neighboring countries and if you would live across the border you couldn't afford living there for a few months and those who earn the top can basically live anywhere...

Yes, as I have been doing conventions on regular basis before Covid, just returning a bit to that now. I must admit my life is so much harder as I sell original art only, never sold fanart and I never will. I was unlucky enough last year to be sat next to an fanartist who sold poorly dressed anime girls and guess what who cried each and every single day as they had crowds next to me and never forgot to boast about how much they made that day. Explicitly I requested NOT to be sat besides them beforehand too

[candiedcotton]

I seriously don't get how that works, you know. I mean selling fanart. I feel like that's a lawsuit waiting to happen and it confuses me how much conventions allow it. I mean, I love fanart and rehashes of characters, things like that, but making a profit off someone else's work just really bugs me. I do have a lot of respect for you though for doing original work and I'm sorry you ended up in such a shit situation. I'd be pissed for sure.

[DarkSena]

Fanart is overall tolerated... Some conventions do tend to regulate that though so you can be allow to have only 50/50 but if nobody is regulating that you can sell fanart only which is sad. I think the conventions should support original artists more than they do as we really do make much lesser profit, which is obvious lol

What bugged me the most that they boasted about how much they made like 24/7 and you were unfortunate enough to listen to that all the time. I mean I made approx. 1/3 of their profit but even if I was able to make more I'd never boast to someone about how awesome money I made today, it's so disrespectful.

[Katzalcoatl]

Uff 50,000 subs. Anyone know 50,000 people? 🤣

[candiedcotton]

I know a couple of people who have 200-300k subs, but every single one of them is working hours that are even too much for me, and I'm an addict. They post weekly at 40-60 panels, full color and shading and lighting and great, detailed backgrounds. I don't know if that has to do with the numbers, but I've definitely noticed it's been a consistent thing between all of them (it's like six people that I personally know, I can't speak for others).

I think it's possible to build up to those numbers without the above, but I think perhaps it would be slower to happen. I don't know. Honestly, most of my focus is promoting my webtoon version of my comic rather than Tapas, because it just gets those numbers better and people are more likely to already have accounts on webtoon than they are on Tapas. But with my first comic where I didn't put in much effort, I got roughly 100 subs a month. With my current comic that has more effort, and longer episodes, I hit 3k in about 3 months.

[darthmongoose]

Yeah... I think a lot of the time when people complain about how their comics can't build readership on Tapas, they're currently putting in nowhere near the level of effort needed, and probably couldn't stick with the amount of effort needed. Having high subs on Tapas means treating your work like a product. A lot of people who say they want it wouldn't actually enjoy what it entails...

You have to market it like a product, you have to do presentation of all the assets and advertising with consistent branding like you're selling an "IP", the comic has to both update at least weekly and with full colour, polished art, and you need to really carefully plan what you're making to have a very strong hook to compete in the Attention Economy.

In a lot of ways, I'm happier just being in that "mid-tier" space where my comic makes some money as a side hustle, but because I'm not reliant on it, I have more creative freedom to have the style, pacing and content be a bit more niche, a bit less optimised for gaining the highest subs possible, and instead focusing on having a small, very dedicated fanbase. Basically I can make a comic with stuff for my personal enjoyment and artistic expfression rather than purely designed to be a product for consumption. Tapas is a good platform for that; there's better reader loyalty, and a more personal sort of relationship with the readers and staff, so if you're doing something polished that's a little niche (but still not so niche that there are no comp titles at all, you still have to be sensible) and are happy to be in that sort of space while having a part-time job, it can work out. I think mid-tier comics make more money on Tapas, while top-tier ones make more on Webtoon because you can just get so much bigger there if you're willing to laser-focus on that audience.

[system]

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