Tapas vs Webtoon(And the sub gap between them)

[Teira]

I WISH I could post my comic on Webtoons...but it has some some blood and gore and I don't think Webtoons goes for that...

[Indigo-Child]

I will talk about my own experience,
for the same comics I have a difference of 6k subs
31K for tapas
37K for Webtoons
I started to publish this comic book on both sites while already having an audience on tapas, it progressed quickly at the beginning, while webtoons the beginnings were slower then overnight suddenly it exploded I took 20k sub, without knowing how ^^

I find that Tapas allows us to be closer to the readers as well as greater freedom for the creators. On the other hand, the like \ comments ratio is greater on webtoon.
Given that I find the ad revenue ratio is not comparable, that of tapas is very far behind that of webtoon, the majority of my Tapas revenue comes from the generosity of my readers :smile

In short, the two are in my opinion are very different. Honestly I much prefer tapas for the proximity to my readers ^^

[PerfectSerenad3]

Really interesting seeing the differences in subs on Tapas vs. Webtoon for everyone. The gap between the two, for me, is pretty large. However, my biggest and most active audience is here on Tapas with 2570 subscribers vs my 596 on Webtoon. I've been doing my story for almost 2 years and never been promoted. That's the safe that I'd like to crack.

[Rhonder]

From what I've heard from other creators, that's typical. My work for whatever reason has been the opposite though, where it performs better on Tapas.

My first comic (now completed) has 110 on Tapas and 66 on Webtoons.

My current comic is still pretty new, but it's got 17 on Tapas and 7 on Webtoons (1 of which is me currently to make it faster to access/check on mobile)

The first one I suspect was due to it being a page format comic which isn't as accepted on Webtoons.

The current one is vertical scroll but has poor on-app visibility on both sites due to once a month uploads, so my larger preexisting readership on Tapas helped skew the numbers this time.

[Tanako]

yea mine sucks a$$
My comic Since I met you has 2.1k in tapas and has 568 in WT.
I have no idea why the gab is worlds apart LOL

[Fafnir]

this thread encouraged me to go post on webtoon. I won't be surprised if it gets banned soon, since it's got some mature content. but we'll see.

so far I've got 3 subscribers on tapas, It's been up for 2 weeks. posted a new update every day, and shared on this forum.
Webtoon, I just threw up the first 6 pages all at once, no forum posting, and I have 5 subscribers already.

those are low numbers I know. But the webtoons numbers are much better so far. I'll be sad when they ban my comic lol.

[migxmeg]

We do better on Webtoon with little to no advertising (248 vs. 65) and though I have no proof, my theory is that being posted under a small genre (historical) has helped.

Anyone struggling for the organic subs over there - does your series fit into any of the smaller genres?

^ Fantasy top 20 by popularity - you can see how many subs all these series have to get an idea that this genre is really crowded - so you can't get seen by "popular" as a new series and even when you sort by date, your series will get buried pretty fast.

Compare with post-apocalyptic below where many series on the front page don't have 1,000 subs yet (can't see the green & white circle in the top left of the thumbnail). Yeah fewer readers are checking out this genre but your visibility as a newer series can be much much higher and you'll stick around longer after each post.

Obviously it's not going to help you to falsely advertise your genre but if your story fits could be worth a shot.

[writercynknapp]

What genre(s) do you think would work best for

The Larks

[migxmeg]

I'm not familiar with the situation for all the genres - that would be something you'd need to explore and see what's a good fit! No one knows your series better than you .

I'm also not 100 percent sure about this being effective - it's just a guess.

[R.n.P]

On webtoons i had 4 subs compared to the 65 subs I had on tapas(now 70), it was frustrating to watch my comic not grow at all on webtoons so I decided to leave there and focus on tapas

[carloswebcomic]

You're not going the get the same visibility and traction on two different platforms.
It's all about visibility.
Right now, as of this moment (well, since the last Tapas redesign), you're more likely to get visibility on Webtoon if only because they show what comics have been updated vs Tapas that doesn't.

About a year ago or so, things could've turned out different as Tapas offered more visibility to smaller comics.

[Wocalich]

You're not going the get the same visibility and traction on two different platforms.

That's true. However, I thought it would be easier to gain readers on Tapas, not Webtoon, which is basically why I made this post.

[DarkChibiShadow]

Actually, their censors are way nicer about blood and gore than they are about other themes, so you should go for it!

[DarkChibiShadow]

My gap between Webtoons and Tapas is pretty big!

On Tapas I've got 18.9k subs and on Webtoons I have 6.2k. I've had that same number on Webtoons for MONTHS while my Tapas subs grow pretty consistently. My comic started out strong there, and then sometime (seemingly randomly), poof, comments stopped coming and subs stopped coming on Webtoons. It's been so stagnant there that I've reduced the amount of times I update per month by the request of commenters there. It's been wild.

I generally think Tapas is a stronger site to use despite the smaller reader number because I think generally people are more engaged with stories here, more friendly towards sexual and queer content (which is what I make), and the tools we as creators are given are a lot stronger. Of course, Tapas has it's flaws, but I'm much happier with how my comic is presented here than I am with Webtoons, where the quality of my upload is garbled and commenters are way more cut throat.

I would say that traditional format comics like mine do more poorly on Webtoons, but I see plenty of comics with my format and similar quality do SO much better there than my comic is and it's just... very strange. Webtoons is a nut I can't crack, similar to Instagram. Both are very odd places to me.
All I know is I'm glad at least people have a choice of platforms? I honestly wish we had more, I wish people would talk about Comicfury as an option more cuz I've used it for years and like it a lot! It's a great Smackjeeves replacement and allows you to do custom HTML, highly recommend it as a mirror site. (They also don't censor you nearly as much as Tapas or Webtoons does.)

In general, growing a comic is really tough on any site and what I've found works for me is to try and do guest comic / comic trades with folks with similar comics to mine. So, for example, your comic has mermaids in it? Do a trade with someone who has mermaids in their comic too-- it's a nice way to cross pollinate your readers and also, it's just fun to make something for a fellow creator and have a bit of fun.

Anyways, my post is way too long and I wish everyone here lots of luck on both Tapas and Webtoons!

[Wocalich]

All I know is I'm glad at least people have a choice of platforms? I honestly wish we had more

Sounds like webcomics are in right now so I'm sure we will get more options in the future. Will they be good options? Who knows.

[carloswebcomic]

Sounds like webcomics are in right now so I'm sure we will get more options in the future. Will they be good options? Who knows.

There are tons of options at the moment.
Webcomicsapp, Global Comix, The Duck, Comic Genesis, Manga Toon, Pixiv and much, much more...

Don't limit yourself by posting in one or two places, you're just doing yourself a disservice.

[Wocalich]

Hmmm, you're right but we're going to post only on Tapas and Webtoons for now, I think. We might broaden our options after the comic is finished.

[writercynknapp]

Which sites have the highest readership? Which sites have an income potential?

[carloswebcomic]

Which sites have the highest readership? Which sites have an income potential?

Income potential?
Making money from comics is highly unlikely.
At best, you can get $50 if you get 40,000 U.S. views per month (not total, just from the US only) from Webcomicapp.
That's generous.
I get around 60K-70K views per month here and get about $4 of ad revenue.

If you really want to make money, build an audience with your comic, then open a Patreon with exclusive NSFW material.
Expecting to make money directly from your comic is highly unrealistic. You'd need to be insanely talented/popular/lucky.

[Wocalich]

Our main genre is Romance and it seems to be doing well on Webtoons. I thought it would get buried like you said in your previous post but guess not.