What keeps you pushing on even with low subs?

Well, this is the period where you try to figure out what works and what doesn't.
It is very rare to be an overnight success.
In my first comic, I used this period to experiment the crap out of my comic, changing styles week to week and sharpening my timing, narrative and scripting skills.

I'm aware this may not be so easy if you're doing a story driven long form comics, but if you're start experimenting, you might stumble across a winning formula.

A combination of the fact that time and persistence = more subs, eventually, and that nobody started a comic solely for the subscribers.I've commented in a thread before that it's completely disingenuous to say that no one should want subscribers, since stories are meant to be shared, but they also can't be the only driving force.

For me? I'm just happy that I'm making something, and the few people giving me feedback that I'm making them laugh is good enough for me to press on confidently (as opposed to no one is laughing and I press on semi-less-confidently). Everybody starts small, no one is entitled to an audience out of the gate. Work is work.

Well, I just put my comic out there hopefully to make someone's day a bit better. I'm even more amazed about the fact that it gained that many subs despite it being just another run-of-the-mill gag series.

It took me half a year to pass the 100-sub mark, but I still kept drawing. I didn't think about the readers I didn't have--I drew for the ones that I already do have, no matter how many there were of them. I guess it's really fun to read the comments they leave on my episodes--whether exchanging snarky comments with me, shipping the characters, or even just saying they could relate to some of the gags. Someone even said mine is his favorite webcomic, and that made me really motivated.

In fact, just thinking that I have this many people who even bother to check on my stuff every week makes me think that what I'm doing's very much worth seeing through to the end.

Well i have never had a lot of success with any of my comics and Right now my comic Wait...What8 has 4 subscribers . Honestly what keeps me going is the knowledge that through time and effort I'm getting better and at least one person likes my stuff thats enough for me. (it is hard sometimes to see others become overnight successes but I always think to myself they deserve it and maybe one day I can get there too)

lol... I retyped my reply 4 times.

All I can say is. When you think you are no longer motivated to continue your work. Try to recall why you started the project (in this case, comic series) in the first place. I believe each person set of a goal to make comic. Is it to tell a story? Get it down to paper? A memory for your older self? Or is it a life goal. Mine was to tell a story. I do it in online since my friends have different interest than me. And only one of them would listen. Here I have more than 1 audience. Beats the hell out of 1 audience but I still cherish them.

When I started it was just to tell a story that I wanted to existed, but didn't. Now that I post it, I'm a bit obsessed with comments and the like, but I can't imagine stopping even though I don't get too many. If I get none at all that would suck, but I have a couple for now, and it's good enough to get me going.

What really give me a big push though is whenever I'm approaching a really epic scene, because I just really want to make it look the best I can

Mainly because I know that if I keep going, I'll get better and hopefully more people will notice me.
Plus, I just enjoy drawing comics and telling stories.

I Really like telling stories, and I just really want Serenade Song3 to exist. That's my main motivation. Of course I want as many people to read it as possible, but really I just need for it to exist. I spent an incredible amount of time not making art, not doing anything really, outside of going to work everyday.Working on my comic is my first step to changing that. My stories are very important to me, so low subs or high, I love them all for taking an interest in my story. Also it's really fun don't you think?

I honestly started my comic to improve my art. I had a slow few years art wise, and then at the start of this year I was laid off and finally had some free time so I seized the opportunity and jumped head first into a comic idea I had been mulling over. Drawing on a regular basis again has really lifted my spirit.
And other then that, the desire to see my characters be more then ideas really motivates me. I have always loved drawing comics and seeing my characters grow and 'live' is very rewarding. (I hope that doesn't sound too weird... ^^; )
Oh also a few IRL friends of mine are also making comics right now, so the group support really keeps me going.

I always found it easy, even before I started posting on Tap and was just making the comic for my own website, because my comic tells a story. The need to keep the story going is what helped me push on before I had readers.

My very first comic (not on Tapastic) was mostly drawn because my friends and I had really enjoyed it when it was a class project, and I wanted to try to keep it going -- a sort of challenge to be consistent with something, to see if I COULD keep finding new ideas and updating a journal comic consistently, and how long could I keep it up? To be honest, when it grew a moderate readership a couple years later, I was surprised!

So what kept me going without lots of readers, I guess, was that I wasn't making it to find readers. Back then I was making it to challenge myself, and to share with my friends, and posting it online just kinda made it feel a little more real.

Biggest help was the fact that I r e a l l y wanted to get this story out of my system. My comic is long form mystery that takes it's time to start out after introducing characters and their dynamics, so it's not like I don't understand why it gained readers more slowly. The story is just kicking off and works better as one big read, so I've heard.

Another thing is, even thought readers dropped really slowly they still did. Then they started to come a bit faster and so on. I'm also lucky to have subscribers who leave comments and questions, which is always encouraging.

Good thing is that now you can experiment on your art/Story without a worry that there's many people to piss off with it :DD

What's keeping me going? We just printed our first comic, and have already sold more copies than we have subscriptions. That makes me feel good, and get's me back to writing and drawing.

Eagle
(Let's me sleep well at nights)

two things keep me going.
1. my readers , especially the ones who take the time to like a post comments. how can i let them down? they have invested time to read my tales and they expect to see the story lines through. (not that my story line really end they flow into one another like a river of stories)

1. my characters, I gave them life how can i take it away from them, and more to the point what would i do without them? it brings my great joy to write these tales, it's like watching children grow.

A love of storytelling, and a love of art.

While I built up a readership on Tapastic pretty fast, a big part of that is because I spent a decade posting art on the internet in other places before that - moist of it to crickets chirping in response. It was rare for me to even get 5 notes on a piece of art I posted on Tumblr, because I rarely do fanart (and still don't do it very much).

It can be discouraging, but my love of drawing and my love of telling stories has always outweighed the lack of response to them - and so I kept going, and little by little, I started gaining a regular audience. It takes a long time, but for me, it has been worth it.

Allow yourself time to find new ideas.

Regular updating schedules on webcomics are important if you want to build a readership fast, but readership doesn't mean a thing if you can't do anything. Then it's just a big crowd of people sitting around waiting without anything happening.

So allow yourself the space and time to not draw all the time. Go outside. Read a book. Listen to music you like. And - this is going to sound strange - allow yourself to be bored. Boredom builds creativity, and begins to teach you how to make something out of nothing - being left idle for too long, your brain is very likely to start making stuff up to keep itself entertained.

By not paying attention too much on subscriber numbers... If I have the option to remove that subs number counter, i'd do it. It's not where I get my motivation because i'd stop drawing on page 10 if subscriber numbers motivates me to push forward. Yet here I am 330 pages later still going, while other comics with 1000+ subs or more stopping just after a year. I do this because I love drawing, I want to tell my story, the way drawing stuff reduces stress... if people likes it then that's the bonus part. Every subs, comments, likes, fanart, etc. just adds tot he pushing forward of my comic.

What keeps me going- lots of patience, and the saying "Rome wasnt built in a day".

I've only posted 5 pages to date, so I know I'm not gonna pull in huge readers with only five pages...maybe after I get past the 10 page mark, then we'll see what happens. I just keep everything in perspective- that I will eventually get the readers/fans that I want, but it's not gonna happen overnight. You have to love doing comics and be in it for the long haul- even when it seems like your readership is taking forever to grow.

First and foremost, I just really want to get my stories written out. I'm always eager to reach the next part of the story and it would be nice if the readers were excited as I am, but not necessary.

Though, now that I've gotten a couple of regular commenters, they're pretty big motivators too.

at this point ....hum I don't especially draw for the Subs I draw because I want to draw haha

OKAY I would be a liar if I would say I don't want to be popular I think every artist kinda want to be popular a little.

I keep pushing because even with low subs I still have subs who are waiting for my story c: