Well... I've been reading this thread for 45 minutes, and ended up finding out some interesting stuff about Webtoons. And now I've got even more reasons to maybe NOT post some of my comics there... Anyway, Tapas always felt like " home " lol
Hey! Welcome to the red ink club. We're 5x further in the hole than you with proportionally even less earnings.
We've extensively used TWC ads and would recommend just going with the $1 daily sponsorship and Google AdWords. Your CPC will be 1/5th the rate that they charge for their leaderboard, square, and skyscraper ads.
Why not! And we can also share our Zoloft.
More seriously if you wanna talk business feel free. We've made plenty of advertisement/promotion mistakes the last two years so if we can help anyone else avoid losing money we're all for it.
I guess it depends what making webcomics is to you! When I get down about the numbers, the time spent or the money spent on materials, ads, etc, I remind myself that at the heart of it I just wanted to make a story with my best friend and have a creative project to occupy my time. While it would be fabulous to become an overnight success, the amount of readers or money made really didn't factor into our decision to make a comic. 5k over 2 years is less than some people spend on their own hobbies like shopping or clubbing, going to plays or on ski trips. If you have fun doing your comic, that's what matters. But it is sounding like you see it more as a chore, a losing investment and a source of stress and disappointment. If that's the case, there's indeed better ways to invest your money and energy - into something that makes you happy.
By the way guys, since we're all talking about followers/subs increasing and decreasing, the possible existence of bots on the website, etc etc. I just wanted to tell you guys... I don't have much audience, and normally 2 or 3 people comment my stuff. But is it normal that ALL of them will often change their names? Like, they are constantly changing their names, almost every 2 weeks... maybe I'm just being weird about it because, maybe it's completely normal, but I don't know, I just wanted to share this I guess... sorry if I sound dumb lol :V
I'm curious to know how you even know that they change their names :o We don't have access to subscribers lists on Webtoons.
Well, I kind of notice when they comment the next comics and I'm like " Oh wow, a new person " but then I'll just go see the comment from the previous comic post and I'm like " Oh, no... it's the same person ". It's kind of easy to remember their names if they are only 2 or 3 XD
Do you mean on Webtoons or Tapas? Is the name change retroactive? Cause if not, I don't understand how you even realize it's the same person :o They don't even have profile icons...
On Webtoons xDD. Yes, at least on them it is retroactive xDD, I mean, I don't know if there's a on/off switch xDD, but when they change names, it'll automatically appear as their most recent on all their past comments.
Oh! I had no clue! Mine have kept the same names as far as I know. I don't have a whole lot either but I've seen some of these names since the beginning a year ago.. Miraculous Butterfly, CabinKitty, Okami-dono...
I guess they just like changing their names ^^'''' Bots don't interact, they don't leave likes and especially not comments. These are real people!
Thank you!!!! 
As far as the new patreon x discover program goes. When websites grow they have to make changes or else the company will just go belly up. The discover section was making over $150,000 a month and growing at a rapid pace. For us we were put on the recommended section of discover with only a couple uploads and got 26,000 subscribers in alittle over a month. We went from making nothing to $1,000 in just one month. I personally feel that it was far too easy for authors to make money on webtoons. With how fast webtoons has grown in the past 1 year I'm positive we will be seeing another change to the patreon x discover next year. Maybe even sooner. Webtoons as a company is very focused on love stories I've done test series after test series to figure out what webtoons wanted most. When we created Liar! Liar! The only intent was to see if we created a specific story could we get on weekly round up, fresh picks, or recommended. Sure enough Liar! Liar! after 5 uploads was put on recommended and then fresh picks a week later. The problem most of the creators that complain about not getting views and special attention from webtoons is the fact that they only want to work on "their special story" The money game with comics isn't about creating the perfect story that is in your head, its figureing out the audience that the specific website wants to target and make a series that perfectly fits that. Even further we're positive if we created a new series on webtoons with what we have learned since liar liar we could get that series to the new money cap in a little over a month. And so could anyone else if they did research and testing. Stop being stuck on your "perfect series"! If you want to make it in the comic industry you have to be willing to completely change everything you are doing at any given moment.
That's only if you want to make it in the comic industry at any price. Personally I don't really feel like working on romance comedy slice of life fluff piece, and I have a well-paying full-time studio job so I don't have to. Someone who wants to be a professional Webtooner, then yeah sure that's good advice. To anyone who wants to work on their perfect series that they are passionate about, please don't talk down to them as if that's silly! Everyone has different goals. And if your story is not what Webtoons is looking to promote then there are many other marketing strategies to go in search of your target audience. It's not like the only 2 options are creating romance fluff or giving up...
If you want to make money its about adapting, I'm not saying don't work on your "perfect series" Their are plenty of people have become successful from that. But it still is a minority. If creating comics is just about your own enjoyment and happiness then do whatever you want. All I'm saying is stop bashing on webtoons because they are running a business model you don't like.
Well the original intent of this thread was simply to ask if other people had had a drop in their stats if anyone knew what was going on. There's been a lot of other talk since about the platform, but on the whole people are just expressing concerns. You make it sound simple when saying it's "a business model they don't like". On the surface it's true, but on a deeper level the success of Webtoons depends on its creators. WE are creating the material that they are making money off of, and if the creators have legitimate concerns they should express them. If Webtoons doesn't remember to have a system that can do something for its creators and encourage their growth, eventually they are going to flee the platform in pursuit of other more lucrative alternatives... And what would Webtoons do then? Maybe it would become a ghost platform like Smackjeeves.
Besides, your approach is dry and calculated and I believe that can only take you so far... If you look at any kind of industry, trend followers get a decent amount of success... but only trend setters take it next level and become massively successful. You can only go so far by riding someone else's wave, especially if you're not passionate about it. When there's true passion, inspiration, originality, uniqueness and love in a project, people can tell the difference. Making exactly what people expect in every way sounds like a boring and soul sucking process. And when you meet people's expectations too much, eventually they get bored too and they go in search of something that will surprise them.
I feel like many of us are not just creators, but readers as well. If stats are being manipulated to promote certain series and genres while hurt others, then yeah I will bash webtoons for that. Right now everything as a whole is a lot of speculation, but the biggest problem is the lack of transparency in what is happening combined with the fact that webtoons is presenting themselves in a certain light. I could care less about the pledge money changes, that seemed obvious that it would change. But stat manipulation is messed up.
Romance isn't a trend lol This isn't about what the creators want its what the readers of webtoons wants. There have been many good series on webtoons that didn't go anywhere when they were on the weekly round up and recommended sections. It's because the readers of webtoons currently want something specific. What makes an author enjoy working on their series and find some kind of fulfillment in it, is the readers that enjoy the series. Their was a series uploaded to webtoons called world at strife acouple months ago, the art was unbelievably unique and the story was just as interesting and good. But it got no traction because the majority of readers of webtoons are not interested in those type of stories. I'm sure even webtoons would have enjoyed it if they had found it. Sadly the author just quit the series because of all of this. The readers are everything. If webtoons doesn't promote what the readers want then the readers will leave. If artist don't create what the readers want then the readers will leave. Then we are left with smack jeeves. We're are both very passionate creators and we are both very calculated creators. We want to create series that people will enjoy, not series that we enjoy. Because we are in the business of entertainment, not self satisfaction.
Speak for yourself, not for all authors. I think a GREAT many of them would absolutely disagree with that.
I don't know who you're talking about when you're saying but it's certainly neither you nor I. I checked out your comic and your very last update is a hiatus notice stating that you've had to take a break because you both have full-time jobs and the comic is your hobby that you do for fun. And I started mine because I wanted to work on a project with my best friend during my free time. Neither of us are in the business of anything when it comes to our comics, and I certainly hope you get some some of self-satisfaction out of your "hobby".