Continue the story because you like doing it =) getting readers usually involves just making friends with a lot of people and getting them naturally interested in your work. That takes time, but people take notice of someone who's enjoying what they do.
Well, it's as you said in your post already, "success" doesn't come early. Comics and webcomics take a lot of time to build up and it can only grow through the creator(s) of the series putting in the effort, constantly consistently creating it, and promoting it.
However, that aside, if we look at it as a hypothetical question of an artist in a vacuum creating, why do they create without an audience, my answer would be because it's something I enjoy doing, I'd feel useless if I don't create, I love working with my husband on our comic, and it's a story we have to tell. Having an audience is just a nice bonus on top of all that.
Well I think a creator should ask him/herself why they are doing the webcomic in the first place. THAT IS A QUESTION NO ONE CAN HELP YOU ANSWER. If you're doing it for self-fulfillment, (I've know of some who doesn't care if anyone read) then I guess having readers or not doesn't matter. The rest is asking yourself the basic question of,
1) How would a webcomic reader find out about my webcomic? Am I exposing my webcomic enough, at the right place, with the correct community?
2) Is my art good enough to attract the follower?
3) Is my story interesting enough to attract readers to follow?
4) How long are you willing to keep doing it until someone follows you?
The list goes on... Tapastic has a lot of help on advertising your work. Most effective way is to pay for advertising. If you're not willing then you'll have to gut it out and pray and hope that someone finds your work eventually and that it is good enough to keep them coming back.
There's a lot of reasons people continue working on their comics, even if they're not very popular at all. Its one of those things that only you can truly define yourself.
For me, I keep continuing on my webcomic because I want to give people the chance to meet some of my characters and see how their world works. Even if its just a few people, its still better than none and I'm one of those people who gets easily discouraged but my love for my characters and their story and the passion to continue it even if it gets zero attention is high.
This post got me in a better mood than expected, I read all your comments and let me say they make me happy and encouraged to do what I want to do! Thanks!
I think if you enjoy working on your comic, that is more than enough reason to not stop. Comics for a lot of artists can work as therapy in a sense. But I can definitely understand why it can be discouraging if no one is reading. I recommend sharing your work on different social media platforms and meet and connect with other comic artists through forums like this one. 
You should continue because that is how you practice! That is how you get better. You just keep going. The good thing about having a finished product as well is that you have something to advertise. If the moment ever comes up, you can tell someone about your comic, and you'll have pages upon pages to show them!
If you just stop, and the opportunity to advertise comes up, you won't have anything to show for it then.
Or, at least that's what I tell myself to keep going. :'D
But seriously, there's some quote out there about doing 200 bad comic pages before you get better. The only way you're going to get better is to keep going.
Making ANYTHING and posting it on the internet can feel like shouting at the top of your lungs into an empty room.
But shout long enough and loud enough, and people will find you.
Getting no response at all can feel discouraging, but in those situations, the only way out is through. Keep working on the comic - or story or game or whatever it is you're making - and keep trying. Reach out and get involved via forums or via social media. Eventually, people will start noticing.
And really, the best way to NOT get attention is to stop. You fail 100% of the attempts you don't make. If you give up and stop working on your comic, that's that.
I do it because I have this idea that im going to make something out of these comics. Its also fun to do to.
I do it because I really do see my characters as people who could or could have existed so I want to do them justice by completing their stories.
Also it's nice to have a completed body of work under your belt either for a portfolio or for your own self-satisfaction.
Wow. that's a lot of response. But yes, basically, I believe each artist has a story of their own, whether its fandom or self-created universe. For me, I have that characters I really want to bring to live. I want them to start talking and start interacting with each other as if they have their own minds. I have a story to tell about this characters, about their development, their struggle in adventures and finally achieving something. Thus I started creating comic. Yes, it would feel empty if its not getting attention. As said by saeedfaridzadeh, we are generally "broken" people who seek validation from people. Keep going. Eventually people will stumble upon you and started following. Stan Lee once said in his interview, if he like that kind of stuff he draw, surely someone out there will have the same interest as him. You just need to expand your reach to other audience. =)
This is a truth ( so trust it to come from one of my comics biggest fans) .
My comic Talesfromeswipecity13 has a low number of subscribers ( hugs to all) but I know I get more people who read it from the shadows so to speak and never like or comment. I have been doing my comic for almost three years now and writing it for a lot longer.
It is not popular and some people don't like my art style on the comic as I use 3d backgrounds mostly. I have even lost money doing it but I keep going because quite honestly if I wasn't doing it I think I would crack up.
Writing and drawing Swipe city has got me through some very bad times of my life, times when I needed to get rid of all of my rage and frustration, I could have very easily crawled into a booze bottle and stayed there, instead I created a comic. and I will let you in to a swipe city secret , the first person killed in my comic represents a person who gave me lots of heart ache, but that's the fun thing about having your own comic you get yo kill off the people you hate.
even if I had to come off the internet and draw my ideas on napkins for nobody to see I would still write swipe city because it helps me control my inner demons and keeps me as a "nice person" to the rest of the world.
so yes viewers come and go but the story will be waiting for them.
I agree with you wholeheartedly on that! And I think Tales From Swipe City is very underrated, I am a subscriber and am very much enjoying the ride so far btw xD!
Writing and drawings comics is something I got heavily in to back in highschool while I was dealing with a number of health issues. I was too ill to really get out and do things back then so reading and creating webcomics was my only real outlet. It has been a mega stress relief component in my life overall and I think if you're passionate about something, you would want keep at it for the sake of wanting to do it I guess. 
Making comics is something I also enjoy. When i took a l break from it for a month for personal reasons I always felt like something was missing. I draw because i like to and it gives my life meaning. There will always be at least one reader who follows your work no matter how popular or underrated it is. You have to socialize with other comic artist and general artists. My new years's resolution for this year is advertise smarter not harder. Meaning being more social with other artists, doing art trades and seeking art opportunities outside of comics.
when this happen, when this question came back, when we become victim about the "need 2 be celeb" "demon"... i, or u if u acept this idea, we have to go back to the origin and ask "why i draw?"
i draw to express myself, sometime to live or live-again some good emotions or to exorcise some bad feelings. its not for others. it's for me.
none like? amen! it's quite sad, but the fuel/reason about why i draw it s the wish to draw my emotion, NOT the will to be famous or got viewers. imho this answer ll destroy that stupid question in a moment.
i mean... everybody love be liked, no doubt. and it s damn "effective". when we learn this feeling, when we learn to be apreciated ...its damn good!!! but this feeling (be apreciated) too many times blackout the original "why to draw" and here u are.
pursue the way to own many viewers its ok, but it must not be the main reason to draw.
last thing:
this problem it very complicated.
it's not easy give all the reasons or help, but this imho its a good start to save ourself.
I think I can offer a perspective from the other side of things... as someone who DID give up when my comics didn't get any subscribers... twice.
And it basically just came down to... making comics isn't my passion. Sure, I love drawing, and at one point in my life drawing comics really helped me, but that was years ago. And if I'm being honest, the only reason I started drawing comics again was because I found this site and I thought it would be easy to become "famous" (and maybe make money).
My passion is writing, and I'll continue to do that even if I never become famous, just because I love it. If you're really feeling discouraged maybe you need to take a step back and really think about why you're doing this. Is it because you truly love it? Then you'll persevere, and you'll get better, and hopefully one day you'll have a lot of viewers. If it's just to be famous or to make a living with it, then maybe that's something you need to consider.
Also, I thought this subject was addressed brilliantly by a youtuber:
"All art does have an audience, even if it's just an audience of 1. You. If you worry too much about getting a huge following you may not feel as fulfilled by your art as you could. And if that's all you care about then even your audience of 1 won't enjoy the finished product." (Magicturtle643, "Art Doesn't Need an Audience!")
My comic is quite random, so I understand if I don't have many viewers or subscribers reading it. But I still have fun making it, and that's pretty much all the motivation I need for making comics 
That and forcing my friends to read it whenever a new episode comes out XD
I keep doing it because i know i'll get better. writing and drawing is something that i have decided that i am going to do. I think everyone, and i do mean everybody who writes or does comics has feelings like these. I'm like the most ridiculously motivated person that i know! But in the end it will be those people who keep pushing on no matter what that become successful, there's work involved yeah, you might have to change a few things, but you'll have kept going.
It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.
- Confucius ,
Just remember: everyone is famous to 14 people on the Internet. If you're there, then you're doing fairly well. If you want it to get better, my take on it is you need a sizeable chunk of material (let's say, 50 pages or more), and effort put into advertising, attending cons, and social media presence. I have been working on my comic for 2.5 years now, and I have something like 70 viewers here on Tapastic. Is it worth the effort? You tell me. One thing I know - when I reach a good number of pages, I plan to dump some cash into advertising, but before then, I have to sit tight and keep working to improve my craft. I think there's a reason all the famous cartoonists have balding heads.
