Yeah, gaining visibility is more about putting in the due diligence of getting your work out there. Multiple platforms is a necessity. Or you get lucky.
Either way, there's going to be a vast chunk of time where results seem non-existent. Blaming a hosting site or an algorithm is pointless in my opinion. Just gotta keep grinding.
Currently, since I've been on the mends with my arms, my comic has been moving slowly...but I've never been one to think that my comic would explode with likes/subscriptions- and when it has at various times, I've been rather surprised about it as how the superhero type genre has never been widely popularized or embraced on Tapas in the time that I've been here.
Even though I've chosen to work within a genre that isnt largely popular, I stick with it because that's what I like. It would be the worst choice to chase other type genres in pursuit of popularity; I do get nice feedback from the readers that I do have so I'm content with chugging along, picking up readers at the pace that I'm going. I dont want readers that hang around coz the comic is popular at the moment- then leave when the story isnt going the way they imagined or wanted it to go; I want long time readers who are there till the end, and then may read another project that I do afterwards...
ok, i'll admit, im one to think ill of the devs (honestly, i lived my whole life being cucked by false promises so...) but i wouldnt go on to say that Premium comics are soulless, no, i can see the creators being just as passionate about their work as we are with ours.
But even well established comic authors (and premium authors) saw the visibility dip for the FtR comics with each update... tbh i dont care anymore. i'm only going to care about the readers i do have
Yeah, one thing I had to get used to after getting staff picked is having the purge of subs afterwards who drop you once you're off staff picks. When it happened the first time I kept thinking it was something we did wrong. Our comic has been picked two more times since then though so we've gotten used to it. Currently going through another drop of subs right now, but it doesn't bother me near as much because the active people commenting and actively theorizing make it worth it.
I definitely don't have as much issue with the devs and I think while it's perfectly find to criticize them I feel like people give them too much flack, but yeah it's the people I see who decide to target and belittle other comics out of jealousy that irritates me so much. It might be that I had someone like that being horrible and belittling to me on Amino - I mean it's Amino, go fig I guess - when I was at only 600 subs. Long story short they actually admitted to me of their jealousy being the reason they were telling me that my comic was uninteresting and made no sense rather than it being real criticism and was an attempt to try and "get back" at me for giving them criticism they asked for.... but now I'm going on a tangent lol
It's not a great feeling to feel like you're being shunned for no other reason than someone thinks you're popular. Makes it even worse when you're really not lol
I wonder if it's not just the natural stagnation of a series. Like even Harry Potter's reached a saturation point and would very unlikely see an explosion of growth even if it was rebooted somehow for the next generation.
Unless we are given metrics for the entire site, it's hard to make the claim concrete. But it certainly isn't to be discredited either.
Yeh, that's why I say there's a lot of nuance that goes into why a comic doesn't get popular. Or in this case might stagnate. It's not very wise to forget that correlation isn't causation just because it's your own work that you're proud of. I'm proud of my work and think it's worthy of being well known and popular but that doesn't mean it's going to happen.
I'm a relatively small author and I just feel like I've burned out a lot of the time and my flames need reigniting to train myself more.
Sure, after 3 years, I've improved a lot...but right now? I feel so discouraged to post any art on Tapas. This new design isn't helping, but really...I just want people to see I exist. Even if I just have a small handful. I've tried advertising on Twitter, Deviantart, you name it.
I just feel so lonely almost. I can't describe my feelings towards this. It's almost like the website is against me. I know my art isn't super good or anything, but I'm not horrible at it.
I've thought of ways to get more things done, but...I dunno.
I agree with everything you've put here! But one thing I want to definitely boost is:
It's ironic that readers have supported me often 10x more than other creators have on Tapas when it comes to success with Premium. I rarely get any readers complaining about works going Premium, or Premium works being highlighted to them, but I've had fellow creators tell me I don't belong on the forums as a Premium author or that my works shouldn't be promoted. So like... this. I post free-to-read works as well, and work damn hard, and Tapas was my break-out site where I built my primary audience from 0 and didn't pull them from somewhere else... So ... I do love Tapas. I regularly boost new creators to the platform and try to share the love and success around as much as I possibly can, but I also often feel pressure to qualify my place in spaces here because apparently going 'Premium' meant that I'm no longer allowed to have an opinion - even when it affects F2R/UI/etc.
When it comes to the new UI and visibility, I found things are down across the board right now - but this make change once readers have got used to the new site. I'm going to wait a few weeks and make a real judgement about visibility.
You belong here. Don't let anyone tell you any different just because you have a premium comic. I absolutely can't stand this mentality of not being welcomed based on your level of popularity. The forums are for all tapas users. It'd be one thing if you were going around rubbing it in people's noses but I haven't seen anything like that from you.
I think some people just see even mentioning Premium, or mentioning things like sub counts as 'rubbing it in', when usually I'm just using it to qualify what I'm saying. It's definitely never my intention, but I can't control how people read my tone?
But thank you for the rest of it 
I feel that. I mentioned earlier how I had someone who admitted jealousy in my comic and so called "popularity" (600 is certainly not popular and we're not even at 2k subs yet which is when I plan to try and pitch my own comic for premium).
They were being demeaning to me and my work and I had the gall to tell them in response "hey it's okay if you don't like the comic because 600 other people seem to like it just fine" and that was me "rubbing it in" when it was in response to them giving nonconstructive criticism that they later admitted to being false just to try and get at me.
So I definitely understand where you're coming from. I'm sure there might be some people who think I'm going to brag or rub it in when I say what my sub count is currently at but like... just cause you think that's popular doesn't mean it actually is lol
This. The struggle of getting to a relative 'mid-tier' as well is very real. Too popular for sympathy or being a hidden gem, too small to actually reap the benefits of being at the top of everything and pulling engagement constantly. Everything becomes a grind at that point haha
Haha I feel this so hard being in the mid-tier!
Especially when it comes to the 'recommend such and such' threads. And everyone lists really small titles, or extremely popular ones. And I'm here holding on to a shred of hope that someone would recommend mine too. I've had a couple instances where people have linked my series, and I LOVE them for that, but it's disappointing when it's just a very small percentage of the time.
2
We all hope for the day someone takes time out of their schedule to try and get other people to look at what you've made. It's such a nice feeling.
This can't be understated. The most successful artists on the site are often highly active in communities outside of Tapas, produce quality work and understand their audience. A Tapas feature can only do so much, or can, in some cases, actually backfire.
I remember quite vividly that my old comic was featured once or twice in the daily snack or 'New and Noteworthy', and while the bump was nice, it was often followed with by weeks of loosing subscribers that realized they were actually not as interested as they thought.
Nowadays I put the blame on this myself - If I had created a better product, they may have stayed. It's not Tapas' fault that I was growing slowly, nor the readers - they all gave me chances. It was my own lack as a creator.
It is very disheartening to see other creators regularly post "I will never pay for premium because I like none of them." while some of the same creators supported my previous work that was provided for free.
Since my community isn't outright supportive, I have built somewhat close relationships (As close as they can be online) with other premium creators instead.
Others I try to follow, pay for their content and leave a comment whenever I can. So many of us are female comic creators who would have no chance in the traditional comic industry. Webcomics, and with that Tapas, have provided us with an outlet instead.
When other users and readers complain about the fact that our comics are hidden behind a paywall I would like to refer to the high workload premium creators put onto themselves. A full chapter on a weekly or biweekly upload schedule, and that for months or years. If you're not a highly successful creator, the pay you will receive from people buying your comic is also something I would consider peanuts, and I can make what my comic pays me here in a month just in a few hours worth of freelance work. Yet I'm still here (you may call me an idiot).
So if you see a premium comic with a high subscriber count, feel free to take a look at the actual views on their more recent episodes and then feel free to do the math on what that may turn into. Views are generally higher than the number of 'unlocks' a comic receives, so you can reduce the number by about 20%. Then remember the fees and Tapas shares and suddenly you realize that your comic with a few hundred subscribers may actually outperform many premium comics regularly and you made more money than the artist on your weekend job.
You are an insanely successful artist with readers who have been with you for years. You wouldn't be as successful as you are if nobody would share your work online - even if you don't see it in the forums! It's really easy to forget, but here you go: You're awesome!
This is pretty much my issue- I don’t care too much about becoming bit time as much as I care about the readers I already have, problem is everyone hates this update to the UI so much I’m honestly afraid of loosing the readers I do have. 
I like my readers, I’d rather not see them go cause they’re annoyed with the website now, I’ve seen this happen years and years ago with a site no one remembers called Drunk Duck.
Okay, I could be wrong but I do feel that the front page IS important. Before, you at least got some visibility when you updated. You may be there for a bit, but you were visible.
Maybe it won't set your stats on fire, but you will be exposed and judged on your own merits and not whether you signed a contract or made it to the staff pick.
Let's take Smack Jeeves' new design for example.
I started posting there just before the site's redesign.
My comic is not great, but every time I updated, I managed to grab a couple of subs here and there.
Once the site was redesigned, they removed the recently updated section and front page visibility was gone.
And that was the end of that. No new subs, no new readers. The comic simply disappeared.
Again, I could be wrong, but improving the search and tags doesn't inspire a lot of hope. How many people go beyond what's in the front page?
It's not so much the number of comics that makes it hard to be noticed.
Well, okay, it does play some part, but what's really fucking everything up it's the way we are posting comics.
We no longer have our own sites. We cannot link our friends. Promoting comics has degenerated to the endless "Post your comic with under XX subs!" threads in the forum.
When you go to someone's comic, the only links readers see is what the host wants them to see. Premium and popular comics.
It's self feeding cycle that screws over the smaller comics.
And no, you cannot go back to hosting your own site because corporate style hosts have cornered the market. You could not survive with your own website anymore. You'll never get the traffic now when Tapas and Webtoon are so convenient for readers.
Sure, there are 70,000 comics and you cannot put them all in the front page, but at least the recently updated section provided some measure of exposure rewarding those who actually update their comics.
Let me make one thing clear. I'm not saying this because I think I've been cheated of greatness or anything.
I'm well aware that my comic is mediocre at best and that the only reason I got a substantial number of readers is because I got spotlighted years ago.
But I see so many comics which are pretty good with absolutely fuck all audience, buried out of view. And it will remain that way because they get no visibility.
This hurts webcomics in general. It forces creators to either create the content that makes the front page or face obscurity.
This is just the way I see it though and it's possibly influenced by my rather grim view of reality.
