The problem with popular visibility. ( A discussion of new way to be discovered )

The day I get a spot light a hah hah hah hah HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!

But a more serious note, the ideas you present really sound swell but they would have to higher more staff and or I don't really understand the whole popularity thing to be honest. There would be some kind of weird debate on who gets featured and even though the story is really pretty and not so many pages but man oh man it's amazing! but the pages are short and there's not enough for me to digest ( this is one thing I will never accept when reading or watching anything, BINGEING) it kind of feels like you won't get noticed because you don't have that said amount of content of say someone who has 26q73w4etsyht4237645371734 episodes. When I first signed up here, I did in hopes of hey! my comic is in color! AND ITS COOL! and maybe people will like it? maybe I will get featured? But that is totally the wrong way to think about it. I mean phhfff yeah that would be awesome to be featured on there...uhh... (snacks) or front page featured. Point is it really does suck and I agree. Just draw the comic for you, not for anyone else. And people will love it! If they don't that's there loss. I don't want to sound mean or anything but you gotta do this because you love to do this, stop worrying about the numbers kid, the stars are your goal. Yah know what I mean? and besides when you are finally noticed it will be worth all of it. Aim for the stars but don't fall. Create your dream.

I get the same comment that my comic, taking a long time to make because of school, that I should get more subs. But because of the amount of time it takes to make an issue, I'm unable to update on a basis of any kind. Thus I lose the ability to gain subs at a rate I wish to have. But because of my desire to gain more subs, I often find myself using other tactics to gain subs, which work in the short run, but not really as the view count on some comics strangely stay consistent through each month. With the exception of the more serious comics.

For example, My Darkling, although not updating for 4 months, still gets an average of 200 views each month.
But this could be because each issue of the series is just a short panel, making it easily digestible. And because of its cute/creepy aesthetics, it can draw readers to come back to read and share amongst other readers.
If you're curious, you can take a look here.

Action comics on the other hand, have the opposite effect, as viewership will go down the less you update, but stay consistent as long as you update on a basis. With the exception for that one moment when someone popular shares your comic on the basis for that one shocking tweet, but the people looking a the comic will leave after seeing the spectacle.
It plagues me that this page has the highest view count of the series of around 1.9k whereas the average view count of the other is 250 (0.25k) views on the promise of man nipples.

But all in all, I feel like I need to work on my marketing abilities and try to find a way to streamline my work in order to keep my subs and views, as well as engage readers to sub to want more of what I got.

Yeah, I've noticed that the progression on my series is basically zero. It's not like Webtoon, where each time I post something I'll slowly gain 5-10 subs, and get a bit more views each time. There, I actually see IMPROVEMENT each time I upload something, because there´s always people on the Discover section. Here on Tapas, no matter how many or how frequently I upload episodes, I will get similar amount of views (or less) and, therefore, no subs, which then again translates into no views; like a vicious cycle.

Where am I going with this? I think that the most popular comics that are on the main page plus the daily snack all cover the "entertainment needs" of the readers; when they finish reading the popular ones, they don't feel the need for more. On Webtoon, people read the daily features (maybe up to 10-15 series of different categories) and then some go on Discover, probably because their demand for entertainment hasn't been fully fulfilled.

To summarize, Tapas should change the structure of the site so that there's a more clear "Discover" section in addition to maybe lowering the amount of space and quantity that the popular series take up. That way, more people would be drawn to the Discover section and smaller creators would get their stuff viewed more often.

That's it, thanks for reading

I think Tapas should have some sort of "relevance system," in which, after reading a certain amount of comic/novel chapters, a recommended list appears which showcases other series of similar genre to the one the reader is currently engaged in or what fellow readers tend to read along with that said series. Think of it like an "other users also read blah blah..." kind of system where the site recommends other (hopefully lesser known but otherwise great) content based on the taste compatibility of the audience.

Another option would also be a "surprise me" button which randomly selects a series out of the current tapas database in which gives higher chances of showcasing a lesser known series that has potential, momentum, or compatibility to the certain audience's taste in genre and style.

All in all, I think that the creators are responsible for promoting their own works but the site's aid and assistance are definitely welcome to have anytime. Let's all work hard everyone and continue helping each other out.

I would love if there was a group of people who went through works with less than like 50-100 subscribers and just picked out the best (or best 5) and posted them up weekly or something like that.

I would love some kind of Daily Snack for comics with a certain number of episodes and a small number of subscribers. Example would be more than 10/20 pages and subs less than 300. This is just an example, but some kind of math to ensure the lesser known comics get more coverage.

what if Tapas had a section just for completed comics and novels? so that new and ongoing comics could have some time in the popular or trending section. idk there could be too much room for error like that

I was actually thinking that too!
It’s also great when you just want to bringe read a story, especially since webcomics tend to be “neverending”, whether they’re ongoing or just dropped midway

Maybe something along the line of Staff's favourites. This list would include new favourites Staff have personally found and liked that week. So it would change every week.
If this is too much work for staff maybe there should be weekly nominations for favourites that aren't already popular.

That seems a bit similar to the Daily Snacks?

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but what if Tapas had a blast-from-the-past kind of section? It would show what was hot a certain number of years or months ago, while exclusing titles that are still ongoing.

As a reader and an artist it kinda sucks that finding less known comics actually takes a lot of effort. The Trending section on the front page is something I check often, but now that's on the bottom of the page again. The Popular section is probably great for attracting new visitors but for regulars it's kinda boring to keep running into the same comics over and over again.

I personally like the idea of a recommended comics based on what the user has liked or read. That would make it easier to find something completely new and but also interesting. A chosen list of recommendations is also nice but it's more limiting than algorithm based recommendations.

I think it would also be a good idea to have a list of just updated comics/novels next to the popular and trending sections. At least that list would be constantly changing, so even if someone couldn't get to trending or popular they'd still have a change to get noticed.

They won't do completely random because of the risk of bots or porn comics appearing on the front page.

Personally I wonder if there's some way us users could help whoever it is that picks for Daily Snack. They're often fit into a theme, so maybe a thread that's "Rec us comics that have MICE" and then the mice fans toss in a link so they're not scrounging for themes?

But then there might be a fierce temptation for a bunch of mice to appear in everyone's latest update

I don't know if it was actually mentioned before but I think that it may somehow solve the problem and it's not like a big problem to introduce to the site.

Leaving the front page aside as it will always promote popular comics (hey, I know that everyone wants to be popular with their comic BUT actually some of the comics have that thing that made them become popular! I've seen people who seek attention but sadly to say that - their comic is just no good, so people won't read them, cause for example the story and art sucks - sorry to say that but I think that someone should even though it's awful - it's true [and tapastic won't list them on the front page cause people actually look for quality comics])I'd like to suggest something that was on Tapastic BEFORE the ad revenue program - that is: when you've been reading a comic in the place where now ads are listed - there were random comics that you could read. And I think that something like the whole: "you liked that story? try to read these too! they are somehow similar but also a different kind of comics!

I mean that maybe a little thumbnails should appear somewhere with random comics based on genre what we are reading at the time. I like visuals so I love to choose to read a comic when it's hidden behind a smartly used icon. Or just looking to read some similar stories, right? Cause we all seek for what we already like and then we find some new good stories to enjoy.

EDIT: And please don't say that creators need to be promoted to get better - I think that we should learn at least basics about making comics/art/science/sport etc before actually doing some kind of work. And by just doing it without learning we tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. People put high hopes in their work, especially if they are young but that doesn't mean that a not good enough comic should land on first page just because it needs some readers to define that. I really don't like when someone do a half-assed job and then complain about it not working how it should. But I also think that many of the good stuff is probably not being seen because of lack of advertisement although Tapastic shouldn't be the only one doing it's job. It's creators work to deal with advertising their own work! Remember that!

I wouldn't call my comic "great" or "a hidden gem" but not a lot of people have seen it hero on tapas.

TL;DR
It's a great idea, it just needs to be executed well. Staff doesn't have the time right now.

Tags are currently not functioning so we just use them to put in gags and other Easter eggs for the hard core fans to look for. At some point they probably will have a use, it just seems very low priority... 2020?

Something far more simple would be just to do 30-50 genres that creators can select on their dashboards. "Romance", "Science Fiction", "Boy Love", "Superhero" etc. Creators get to select up to five per series. Readers select as many as they want or "All". Then their feed is automatically curated to fill based on that reader's preferences.

It all sounds very simple but it's not. It takes a lot of back end work to make this happen and staff already has a to-do list a mile high which is why it's going to be a while before it happens. Monitization stuff that makes the site and creators money are much higher priority and web tipping and coin purchase just got added after months of creators requesting it.

Also the Daily Snack at that point would have to be automated because right now its all done by hand. Someone on staff picks the series in advance and does their thing on the back end. If you start excluding certain things then the Snack becomes very challenging to do. Let's say they pick four things that you're filtering out. So your snack would have only one thing in it?

Also what if a reader only selects "Mystery". How many "Mystery" comics are there on Tapas? The snack would quickly run out of content to provide or it would have to dig deep down into the MS Paint drawn stuff with poor grammar, no story line, and only five subscribers. Staff probably doesn't want that sort of stuff to be featured by the system.

One other concern is that the system could make the community very segregated. If someone selects "Action" only they could miss out on some really great "Romance" stories, and vise versa. How many times have you accidentally stumbled upon something outside of your "likes" and ended up finding something new you enjoyed?

I have a feeling the daily snack, along with many of tapas sales and direct marketing attempts, would override any recommendation system. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense to have a tool like it. However a recommendation system would also, on top of their current marketing methods, allow them to target some direct marketing to the audience that actually wants it. Possibly also get an idea of if a certain genre has readers that are more active during a certain part of the day. If they can figure that out, they can schedule direct marketing targeted at people with those preferences to be sent out at a peak hour so more people see the notification.

Regardless, it's all stuff that takes a lot of back end effort and needs to be done well. If done wrong it can straight up break the site for everyone. Or it could be as shitty as youtube's recommendation system, which heaps of people have done their best to deactivate just so youtube will stop putting toxic or annoying content in their faces. I wouldn't want that for tapas.

And as you said, it's not top priority. Top priority is making sure creators can benefit financially off of the site. It's pretty much been one of Tapas' absolute main goals for a long time, after all. And we should be happy that this is the case, because considering how unlikely the young webcomic audiences are to buy print books or support a patreon, it is the thing that can make or break a creative living for many of the site's creators. It is good for small creators too. The better the revenue tools become, the less popular a creator has to be to make proper income (assuming they are ready to make use of the tools in a profitable way).

Never have been able to figure out why staff doesn't make CPM a priority. Hiveworks has a $1.25-$2.00 CPM and Tapas is $.08 CPM. Imagine how much happier creators would be if they were earning 20x more from ad revenue. Plus Tapas gets 30% so there's something in it for them as well.

Yeah, that's another thing that I really don't understand. there was another forum talking about why ad revenue was so low but it seemed like their best answer was because there are a lot of creators's on this site or something. That sounds completely made up to me though because there are a lot more platforming sites that have much bigger audiences but still have way higher CPMs like you said.

I think it's just that they haven't been able to create enough demand for their ads because whenever I watch videos for ads it's usually the same 4 or 5 different companies. it would be a different story if they were to take advantage of this real niche market to try and convince advertisers to do business here, just off the top of my head I can think of at least five major companies that would benefit from this market.

and also they could just open up advertizing to the users that are already here because that would literally solve both of these problems at the same time. users can spend on ads to increase their traffic and then everyone would have a higher CPM as demand for the ad space goes up.

but I don't know it must be more complicated than that for whatever reason.

I was just wondering why sites like Tapas and even LINE, don't bother to offer opportunities for creators to pay for advertising. It would make them more money while creators who desire to be on the front page or in a sponsored content section for similar products can have a chance to reach an audience they wouldn't get normally. I also think it would be nice if they created a system where creators can bypass Patreon by offering early access on our comic pages for tippers or the ability to lock a comic behind a paywall to offer exclusives to supporters. If not many people are willing to leave the site to go somewhere else, as it seems hard to get people to leave Tapas or LINE for Patreon then integrate those systems and take advantage of it.

A labor-intensive alternative would be to embed the advertising in the content. Like make your characters use a product in a non-canon strip, or personally endorse the product in the description.

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now and it’s so weird to me that “sponsorship” type advertising hasn’t taken hold in the webcomics community like it has on YouTube, in podcasts, and even some good ol’ Fashioned text blogs. The only two comics I can think of that have done sponsorships are Penny Arcade and O’ Joy Sex Toy. And both of those are effectively product review series so they make sense to advertise through.

But other comics with huuuge followings don’t have any sort of sponsorship? I have no idea why. They are podcasts with like, listeners in the 5k range that have sponsorships so why not comics that have ~10k readers?