Yeah, even IG hashtags aren't that good really.
If anything, they give you 20 more views and 4 likes depending on how many (and how good) hashtags you use.
I've seen good reception from promoting (actually paying to IG) posts, but I've seen far better reception when I promote to Latin American countires rather than when I promote it to english-speaking ones, so I can guess it's harder to get attention from those places, and even more for novelists.
Blogs are a double-edged sword actually.
I first made my blog because I didn't know sites like Tapas and Webtoons could be accessed by normal people to publish their works, so I published mine there until a friend told me I could use Tapas.
Then my blog was kind of redundant until I posted updates regarding the redraws/soft-reboot of the series and the character profiles.
But they give you good insights on where do you get more visitors from, and how many actually click to your links:
I'd say it's good to have one, but (even if I done otherwise) shouldn't be the main site one promotes for their comic.
Another thing that could be of help is learning about SEO and SEM.
I haven't researched as much of it yet, but in simple words it helps your site to get more traffic through search engines and other means.
Fortunately for my comic, "The Memorable Bittersweet Days" it such and odd thing to search and has little to none similar searches that my tapas/webtoons links are the first results:
But that can't be said about "Shelter of the Chalk":
Of course it changes depending of one's region though.
With your blog Chalk how much do you pay for it to keep it up and if so do you think the money that’s being paid is worth the traffic your getting to keep it up?
For the blog itself, I haven't used any money, but I did for instagram paid promotion.
So far I've paid something around $400 MXN (which is roughly $20 USD) in two months and thanks to it I've got around 15 registered followers more.
You can choose if you want your promotion to be to get more profile views, more messages or more visitors to your website (the one you put in your bio). I always choose for more visitors except for a $20 MXN promotion I made for the Ask Salamon event.
It really works better when targeting people from latin-america than when targeting english-speakers, and so far, I've got 100 or so visitors thanks to the promotions, but only 20 clicks to the actual links to the comic (whether it be via webtoons or tapas).
I'd recommend to give it a try with a quantity of money that you can afford, but linking directly to an episode you want people to read at the time.
Next time I will only promote when using a link to either tapas or webtoons, and leave the blog links for other instances.
Another thing I forgot to mention.
You can choose whether you want to Instagram to target an audience automatically, or target it by yourself specifying age range, countries to reach to, and interests of the people you like to reach ("anime and manga fandom" "Dragon ball super" "Marvel studios").
The first will take your current country as priority, which helped me get more people to read the spanish version, but not as much for the English version. But if you target a specified audience, make sure to put as many interests as possible to get a better reception. I've put like 20 or 30 interests for my specified audience and been experimenting on how many reach it has when aiming for Latin-American countires, and when aiming for English-speaking ones, or both at the same time.
I have never seen a single person who is not a friend to like my IG posts, so I see no point for paying for anything. Social media is just not my forte.
It doesn't help a lot by itself of course, but what I've seen is that depending on the topics you choose, or instagram chooses regarding the post, it helps you get more people to see the post, and adds a button for them to go to your profile/website/direct depending on what your goal is.
Here I talked more about it:
Again, it doesn't solve all the problems, and from what I've seen, works better to reach Spanish-speaking countries, but it does help to get more people that aren't following you, far more than just using hashtags (which I recommend to use still, I don't know if it affects the results of a paid promotion).
Still, I'd like to find better ways to promote my work without relying on just paid promotions for social media, though I don't think they will be free.
Instagram works well but I am concerned about all the people leaving it. Maybe need to start with a newer social media?
2 months later
Since I do not earn with my creativity, I only use my Instagram page. But every time I read these1 articles, I think seriously about my promotion on social networks. Maybe (one day...) I can make money on my hobby.
I used to try and use every social under the sun but that was too stressful. Since I host my work on Tapas, this is where I have readers. For my art and whatnot: I use insta, Tumblr, and YouTube. These are the places I found most of my art friends on so I also have a soft spot for them. 
8 months later
It's very individual.
I am sure that by contacting a professional we get more effective help. Such as outsourcing customer service wow24-7.io This is a particularly great solution for startups, small and medium businesses. Companies that don't have the budget to maintain their own support team can simply outsource customer service to an external provider. I think you can consider these options as an alternative.
I personally don't check from where sites I have more or less traction.
In facebook I share from my fanpage to all my groups whenever I update the comics I work for. Same for instagram and Twitter but there, I only made OG post and done.
I like to use Tumblr despite that most of the people that follows me there is only for the Supernatural content instead of comics but I don't mind. In discord I just simply drop the update on the art groups I'm in an done.
Then it's back to work so I really don't focus nor know from where most of readers come from xD
From my experience, Twitter is the best social network for promoting any type of content. Much easier to make it go viral.
Instagram, Twitter, Discord, Reddit, TikTok, and I'm ATTEMPTING Youtube. Also Spotify.
Instagram and Twitter I just dump panels or art (I'm beginning to post scenes)
Discord and Reddit I post my links.
TikTok is where I have the most fun with. I post scenes while adding music in the background. I seem to be getting a lot of views over there. (I do this every weekday. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for my main comic and Tuesdays and Thursdays for my other comic. Should I do Saturdays too?)
Spotify I try to add as much music as possible.
1 year later
It's fascinating to learn about the different social media preferences in various countries. As for me, I've found that Instagram and Twitter work best for promoting my novels. Instagram's visual focus lets me showcase my creative work, and Twitter's engagement with hashtags and conversations helps me connect with fellow enthusiasts. It's all about finding that sweet spot where your audience hangs out the most. And if you're up for trying new strategies, you might want to explore the option of a Linkedin account for sale – who knows what opportunities that could open up?
