The best tends to be at conventions where other webcomic people go. Meatspace networking is key, but a lot of artists also utilize twitter, tumblr, and other social media platforms.

No i mean meatspace as in going and talking to people in real life. I had no idea there was a site called meatspace...

I'm still fairly new, but thought I'd share what I can.

For Tapastic, it's all networking; looking at others works and getting to know the folks here. For my website the deducers5, I've had the best luck posting on reddit. Share your work wherever you can, Imgur, deviant, you have to build your audience one fan at a time.

I must admit it's really a hard job. There are people out there who are paid to do network communication as a full-time job for a reason: it's excessively time-consuming.
Personally I really have issues to track more than one thing at a time, so it's hard for me to do more than working on my comic. Even reading other people's comics that I subscribed to can be tedious because I'm that disorganized.
I can already tell that deviantART isn't the easiest place where to grow a fanbase, unless you're doing fancomics, then it's the perfect place. Growing an audience for an original work is always hard, and if you have lots of watchers thanks to fanarts, they still won't look at your original stuff because they only care for the fanarts. It's a bit like you'd be a sushi shop and suddenly start selling churros instead. Churros might be good, but if people want sushi they'll go to another sushi shop.

I would second that IRL network is the best. We're still being made of flesh and so we care more for the people we've met for real. Conventions and book fairs can be a nice place to showcase your work or just talk of it.

I'm going to have to try the Reddit/Imgur stuff this weekend. As far as meeting people in person goes...are there webcomic conventions? @MylCreates, what convention did you attend, if I may ask?

None of the sites would take your copyright though; they only reserve the right to re-use if necessary, and that's just so they can "show" your post in your friends' newsfeeds. These sites aren't going to steal your stuff, so don't let that stop you from spreading your comics.

On Tapastic the best way I've found is to comment on everything. The more people see your name and that you're a real person the more people will make it to your profile page and then your comic. The user Amet6 as an example has a not so great art dump comic that has amassed over 900 views from his frequent chatting.
Some other people have mentioned Reddit, but that tends to be very capricious and you may get people disliking you for simply self posting your work.
For other sites I can't advise.

i would like to share this video i found 3 minutes ago about how to establish brands :3

also if you ask me, collaboration with already established people is the best way to get your name out! especially if they ever feature you! (i got a spike of 100 watchers just because of one little feature from a well established name XD)

yaaaaaaaaay1

the trick with collabs is that you start off with smaller or equal people you'd find and help each other out first! also, its best that you know the person well or at least by a degree before you start collabing! (cause nobody would just go out and collab with everyone they've meet!)

also, join group collabs! the more the merrier as they always say! and you don't need to know the people here as much to do it :3

Collabs are good! Careful with Reddit, trolls feed off of each other, despite encouragement and lots of praise on my art style just about everywhere else, the Redditors gave me an ego smashing when I shared my first 8 pages. You've gotta really shove awesome deep down the throat of trolls so they're incapable of sayin anything

Trolling is just so useless... I wouldn't want to lose time over them. It's not that hard to make constructive criticism, after all. May I ask what kind of collabs you do? Like, uh, one makes the lineart and the other colorizes? That kind of stuff?? Or trading fanarts?

I've been involved in a couple of group collabs. The concept has been that someone will pick an old public domain comic that gets completely rewritten in a different genre, then the artists will do their interpretation. At the end the participants get a copy of the finished book in PDF format that can be sent to a printer and printed out if someone wants to sell them at cons.

That sounds like fun! I like to do interpretation, twisting things... I've mostly done this through fanwork though, so of course it's not public domain and no profit can be made (it wasn't intended either), but still something I'd have fun doing.

Thing is that my polyvalence in writing and drawing made it so I never had the need to team up with someone, and if I could find someone who'd be interested to work with me (and fit as team mate). I must admit I'm a little controlling at times, and if I don't have the direction I will always find a way to bypass hierarchy "for the better" ^^;

As a new artist, I've only done networking on Facebook previously, but that hasn't gone well at all... I realized that Tapastic had a forum, so that's why I'm here now. I've been interested in doing some collaborative work though too.

Give back to the community. Become a part of it while you're at it.

I've seen people give the excuse of "but I don't have enough subscribers to give back to the community!". Well how do you expect to get that many subscribers if you don't start taking part?

You can do so much for and with your community. Here's a list of simple things to get you started:

-Read people's comics. I know this sounds silly and sort of redundant (I mean, most of us in here are comic artists). But there are some comic artists who are in it only for themselves and don't actually read comics. If you're a creator, it's so important to read comics. You expose yourself to new media and new techniques, and you can be inspired by other artists an the stories they tell.

-Comment on their comics. You can make a lot of friends on Tapastic this way, believe me. I'm still stuck in a comment string that's been going on since November 2014.

-Take part in creator contests for comics you like. Some contests are super simple and easy to enter and only require you to like an episode or tell the creator your favorite character (I'm in a contest right now where entering required us telling the creator our favorite flavor of ice cream). You might even win some nifty prizes that way too.

-If you want to support any artists through the Support program, then throw a dollar at 'em, even if it's only for a month or two (but don't throw all your money away either thinking that now they have to read your stuff just because you gave them money, because then that's just bribery >.>)

-Do guest strips/fan art. Often times the creators will show off the art in their comics and give you a shout-out for it (plus it's fun!)

-Thank the people who subscribe to you. Doesn't even have to be one of those creative "Thank you!" images, even just a simple "Thanks for subscribing!" PM can make someone's day.

-Host your own contests with prizes that you can deliver (ex. don't promise you'll give them a t-shirt if you have no actual way of giving them a t-shirt; prizes can be as simple as a shout-out on your page/comic to a free request drawing).

-Host drawing livestreams, and take part in other artists' livestreams.

-Take part in the forums. Just like the comment strings on the main site, you can make a lot of friends and learn a lot of things here.

-Help other artists when they ask for it. Give your honest feedback when they're seeking it ((don't go around giving unsolicited advice tho, some people don't appreciate that and it can come off as harsh and rude > < ) Along with this, if there's a page a creator did that you really, REALLY like, let them know and tell them why! They're working hard to give you the best damn comics they can.

There's a lot of other stuff you can do that I'm sure I'm forgetting, but that's something to get you started at least. There's a lot you can do to get your comics more exposure, but you have to be willing to put in the work. Don't expect people to come to you. Even if you only have 5 or 6 subs, you can still start now to become a part of the community, and you can still start to give back to said community. You always have to be an outsider before you can become an insider. (if that makes any sense lol)

I'll share my tips when I figure it out myself! I find it very hard to network being as I have nothing but self-consciousness about reaching out to people online. Most of all when I'm the one initiating contact. It's always been a hurdle of mine even though I know I have to try and just ignore it.

I'd definitely say I've done a good job at networking, considering my income comes almost entirely from artwork and comics, and 70% of my commission clients and comic opportunities have come from a recommendation or word of mouth etc.

For general artwork it's been pretty much all Twitter and Twitch. I stream drawings on Twitch so there's that, but my stream (and by extension, my art outreach) has grown because I've spent a lot of time in other channels just making friends, being genuine, sharing my own content in spaces that are dedicated for it - instead of barging in and talking only about myself when it's unwarranted. I've found a few Tapas comic artists on Twitch too, and through making friends and asking about other people's work in those channels, my tapas comics have grown because of their shared interest. All of this making friends, sharing other peoples work, and finding the context to share your own, also extends onto twitter. Following people and actually checking in with them, making conversation and creating a genuine bond is a positive way to make friends while also expanding your brand and getting your name out there.

IRL and more specifically to comic book work, cons are a nice way to meet other artists, but I've had more growth and opportunities arise from things like Facebook groups. Back when I lived in a major city I joined the local "Comic Creators" facebook group, in which people share their work, request and offer critique, ask questions about the industry and help each other out in general. These kinds of groups are all over the world and are a good way to meet your fellow peers without leaving your house. I've hardly used the group since leaving the city, but recently made a post asking for publishing resources and was added by a couple of other artists and some independent publishers just for saying hello and linking to my work!

long post but honestly the biggest thing I've learned after looking at the last 12 months of my life and realising how much my network has grown in that time, it's just about being genuine, trying to meet people who are in the same boat as you, and get enthusiastic about their work as much as your own. Going into these kinds of relationships looking for a friendship with furthering your own career as a side step, it makes for better, stronger friendships, and means that even if it takes a long time for your stuff to get off the ground, you've made some neat friends to support you along the way.

(For some context, I still sit roughly at 5k overall subs on tapas and my free comic work is pretty slow. But my patreon has improved, my Twitch subscribers have increased, donations have increased like holy hell, and I'm getting enough commissions every week to pay my bills! So even though I struggle selling my printed comic books, I'm still supported in other ways, and those are the ways that my network has helped me improve.)