When did your comic start gaining readership?

[cassidybueter]

Hello. I've been doing a comic for the better part of a year, now. It's crossposted on both Tapas and Webtoon. It updates every Wednesday and I haven't missed a single week, and I've tried to promote it on social media, too (though I don't have any followers there, either). Despite my best efforts, my readership just isn't growing. I have less than 50 followers on either website, and it seems that a lot of my old readers have just stopped returning. Has this ever happened to you? What made your comics really take off?

https://tapas.io/series/swgy/info#:~:text=Shadowman%20Will%20GET%20You&text=Shadowman%20is%20the%20monster%20that,suspicious%20tasks%20at%20his%20workplace.

[carloswebcomic]

There's no easy answer on this.
Getting readers is extraordinarily hard these days. Getting exposure is almost impossible if you don't have an established following to begin with. (or if you're lucky and get featured)

There are a bunch of comics out there and it's extremely easy to drown.

There is no true formula to get readers. You just need to do the best that you can and cross fingers that it will connect with people.

[Eyre]

This is exactly my experience. I'm in exactly the same boat, the only differences being that I post 3 times weekly and my comic has an original soundtrack.
I agree completely with Carlos.
Audience building relies primarily on luck, though the more things you publish the more chances you have.

Modern web platforms want you as a full-time, unpaid worker. They get this through the promise of fame and belonging.
I'd say "defy the system - work towards a small following of friends", but I've not even been able to do that, since all but a couple of my friends don't read my comic, or don't read comics at all. It's a bit depressing I realise, but I've been publishing work of some form or another online semi-consistently for over eight years, and I've really only ever had experiences to this effect.

[MeltingCORE]

"Taking off" is a fickle concept. I have a decent size following on insta and YouTube but I don't consider myself "internet famous". And I have a kind readerbase on Tapas but hm... I would consider yourself to be taking off when people leave comments and theories about your world/characters? Definitely nebulous. Because you may also be popular on one platform but not another.

[Comic.Kikikora]

I thought if I keep drawing, perhaps my comic will take off one day ... but as time pass, I sort of accept that my comic will never take off ...

Guess what? I started to feel better

[Yulek]

when it's going that "badly" then there's the presentation that you can play around with.

esp on webtoons people do click on stuff on the fresh page, so you can try new icons and changes to the description (get feedback from the forums. esp on the description. I'm sure it could be much snappier) and thumbnails for a month and just compare if anything changes.

it won't make you blow up. but getting more ppl to just click on it, would already be an improvement probably.

rn, I personally wouldn't click on it based on cover and description.. the cover has a bit of a "comic made with paint feel" (to me. not trying to throw shade, I just think any input rn could be helpful?)

but when I click on the episodes, the art is actually pretty neat!

so I dont see why this wouldn't get subs, esp if youve got 50 eps under the belt and been doing this for months.

another thing that might help is going back and combining the first few episodes into one longer one.
like. pages 1-15 would make a great first impression.
you have the setting with human and monster world.
you have the MC's job, his discontent with it, his morals when the kid is too young to be scared, and then the action scene with the robber and the punch.
which would be a great cliffhanger for the first episode. like "whaat did shadow guy just ... kill a man??"

and you will WANT to click the next episode to know the answer.

__

ppl give things a shot for like... one to three episodes. if nothing keeps their attention, they often leave.

so making your first episode a bit of a feature length that has enough in it to hook someone, might get the numbers of ppl who stick around up

__

actually, literally look at your views for this.

page 15 /ep7 is pretty much where your numbers start to become more consistent So if that's the first point that makes ppl want to stick around, then that's what the first episode should include

I hope I didn't overstep, since you didn't actually ask for feedback.

aynways, I'll sub (will have to catch up the rest of the pages later) and do my best to be engaging. for now, take the sub and the first few likes :3

[DarkChibiShadow]

It can take a hot second, honestly! I started posted my comics online back in highschool and it was many, many years before I gained any kind of small following, and I have to do supplementary work to make comics profitable as my full time job.

But, that doesn't mean it's impossible! The most important thing is staying consistent in updating! Just keep working, keep widdling away, and keep refining. Your work is already very clear, easy to understand, and you've got nice, big font, those are all really great starts and you should honestly just keep at it

@Yulek's reply here has some very solid advice for Tapas/Webtoons readership, that is: combining the first episode, remaking your cover/thumbnail every now and again, and you should also consider revamping your summary.

Here's some longer advice I gave someone in a different thread the other day that I'm gonna copy and paste:
-Please do try art focused sites like Deviantart, Furaffinity, Newgrounds, or good 'ol Tumblr. These places are still where folks go to find art!
-Tag your comics carefully, and try improving your SEO with a strong summary for your comic and file names.
-Do art trades/collabs/guest comics with fellow artists. Getting exposed to someone's audience by drawing their characters in a cute little comic is a tried and true method of cross pollination. It's worked wonders for me!
-Thank your audience when it's appropriate. Seriously! Just thank the people who are there, it encourages them to keep coming back.

Good luck! Comics are a tough grind but imo, totally worth it. It just takes time to get your foot in the door.

[cassidybueter]

Actually, I think that's some pretty solid advice. I didn't think about it that way! I'll give it a shot. (Late reply because I was at work)

[sociallyawkward]

I've been doing my comic for a few years and I have built up a few thousand followers on Facebook and Tumblr, and more recently Instagram. However on here and Webtoons, it seems that hardly anyone sees my comic. It gets buried, and seems difficult to try and find the most recently uploaded comics, they only want to shove the ones with millions of followers in people's faces

[Rhonder]

Definitely no consistent answer unfortunately. For example, my first comic ran for a little over a year, and its performance looked like this during its run:

The most traction was definitely up front when I was the most enthusiastic about it, talking everyone's ear off, and doing the most promotion. It ended up plateauing relatively quickly, although it never stopped growing. Even now, a year after it ended, it still picks up reads and subscribers occasionally

My new comic is still in its infancy but has had a slower growth. In part due to being a monthly comic instead of a weekly one, I would guess:

If I were to try to pinpoint the main difference, though, it's that I haven't advertised this one as heavily, by a long shot, yet. I've been low on social media energy lately so I haven't been posting as much nor doing many promotions for my comic

I would ask whether you do much in the way of advertising, or if you mostly just rely on posting to find readers? Generally speaking, visibility on both Tapas and Webtoons is poor for series with low subscriber counts. You can slowly grow that way, but it's more lucrative, I think, to go off-site and try and get your series/links in front of eyes that might be interested directly instead of hoping for them to find you. That approach is still hard and there are no guarantees, but it's a strategy that has potential

[Teira]

I got featured for Black History Month and thats when I started getting a bunch of readers.