HOW DO YOU... promote your comics???

[JoKeRcologne]

Ok ...I have to know...

How do you promote your comics??

I'm not good in social-networking and I don't know where and how to connect with people (not in real life) or to promote my works.
I draw my Comics and not many cares.
The Update for the last weekend was cancelled ...not even an angry comment... Nothing, Nada, Niente, Rien, Nix!
What do you do to spread your work and get the attention.

Don't get me wrong... I don't care for the amount of Fans ...I want my comics to be read and commented and loved or hated ... but especially to be read.

Should I change my update schedule?
One page per week?
Or what else??

I'm not depressed or something ...but I can't put in my remaining power (after Work) in a comic project what don't really care anyone.

[UrbanMysticDee]

I have no idea. Every idea anyone ever gave me in regard to this topic has failed. The best I can think of is that people like people who remind them of themselves, only inferior copies of themselves because they don't like to be outdone. Look at who is the most popular on the internet, cultists and jackasses, and maybe becoming one or the other will help, but I doubt it.

[xkrazydog]

Place your comic on sites like Deviant art and always plug it in your signatures and on your journals. Every time you update a page on devart you may snag in a new reader at a time. Make your character icons more iconic and let them be like your signature, people will recognize you as an artist by the things you make which helps.

if you have a facebook plug in good news about your comics there, your friends and family may be interested to take a gander and they may be more likely to spread the word.

[NeoKitai]

If you have forum accounts, throw in your banner for a signature, like I do with most forums I'm on. I really want to know the same thing as OP. 28 fans? Right. I've only been able to pass the 300 view mark twice in my comic's life (and I think it's raising now) and that's it. The first time? On my comic's third day. Almost no fans then.

[H0lyhandgrenade]

Being an active member on SJ helps, commenting on other peoples comics can make them more inclined to look at yours. Don't forget to take your free plug in the Self Promotion thread, and you can try Project Wonderful's ads if you really want more viewers. It works a charm.

But I think the bottomline is, persistance is the key, really... I know when I started I had no one reading, there was a very gradual increase. It took years. Just gotta keep on in there.

[remington]

Well, maybe you should put some cute anime boys kissin' in your banner?

I'm kidding of course, but that would probably work. The fact of the matter is that with Katran you have a well-drawn shonen-ai type action manga, with fightin' and wranglin' and tearin' it up. While this is not a problem in itself, you might notice that the readership of people on this site tends to skew in a cutesy or romantical direction. Just look at some of the most popular comics on here. It seems a majority of Smackjeeves must be middle-school girls judging by their tastes - but if it was made up of hyperactive middle-school BOYS, your comic would be a hit!

I'm not trying to discourage you or anything. Just know that fan count is a fickle thing on this site and doesn't really matter in the end. Don't look at the yaoi comics with 5000 fans and shake your fist at the heavens shouting "WHY NOT ME?" It's because they have anime boys doing each other and you do not. Like H0ly said, just hang in there and keep putting out a good product, and the readers will come.

Have you tried posting your comic to any of the other comic hosting sites? DrunkDuck and Comicgenesis are both free and easy to set up. They're not as customizable nor is the community as friendly as Smackjeeves, but if you really want READERS, spreading yourself around might be the way to go.

[Krensada]

I have found that it takes awhile to build fans. i had a bunch the last time I did my comic. and the main thing that helped was updating regularly. telling people when it was going to update, and following through with it. it shows professionalism.

[ParadoxComic]

I place ads on other sites through Project Wonderful occasionally, but mostly I rely on the fans to share it around with friends.

[blankd]

Forum signature and once on y!gal for errrr, well I thought it would be relevant to their interests? (As far as I know only one not-fan read it and comments, so I have no clue how many from y!gal actually read it lol)

Honestly persistence and just participating more in the forums is a good way to go about it.

*Have you tried getting your comic reviewed? Maybe there's something technical afoot, I hope not )8

[sukai-yume]

Well, maybe you should put some cute anime boys kissin' in your banner?

Haha lets not go there.

Im a complete failure at trying to prote myself, I have real friends [I know right, real friends godforbid] watching me on DA and I have a strong aversion to people I know seeing my work, I try to keep them seperate [although a couple have sniffed it out recently] Possibly because getting critisism from friends is a little harder to constructive crit from people online. Dunno why that is.
I've been thinking about making accounts on DD and CG but I can't bring myself to accept the lack of contoll you get over page design etc. Sob.

But back to the topic in hand, I recently get a subscription to SJ, [I thought, may as well, im not re-subscribing to DA. I lurk here more anyway] and I have to say that really has shown a difference, Ive been getting new readers almost every day and I hit the 1,000 pageview mark a couple of days ago having not had any new interest for my comic for about 7 updates, which I can only guess is through the extra advertising you get throughout the site.
Also what h0ly said about being an active member of the community, the more you post on the forums for example, the more people see your banner. It all comes down to having your banner in as many places as you can to maximise the number of possible viewers. I mean TV ads, most people dont pay much attention but its still fufilling its purpose of bringing peoples attention to the product or service in quesion. Thats all it takes.

I'm a bit sceptical about the self promotion board on here, not sure how effective it is. Possibly a thread on creative showcase could work too? People would see your art and want to visit your comic. [Sadly mine imploded so I don't know how well that works either.]

Finally, I can say its not all about popularity. Popularity doesn't necessarily mean good. Hell most of the time its pretty crummy, I mean look at Twilight [Disclaimer: If youre a fan I mean no offense, just my opinion.] So just take pride in the fact that you're writing something that you beleive is original and unique. Sure its annoying that that shoujo romance over there has over 9,000 fans and comments but writing and illustrating for yourself and the few that appreciate it is enough. At least thats what I've told myself.

[amiko_16]

I'm not big on self-promotion; it makes me uncomfortable. There are a few simple things I do that help, though. Getting ads through Project Wonderful (more specifically, aiming only to place ads where the traffic is high enough to guarantee someone will at least look at your ad) helps, and so does keeping a link to your comic as your signature (like on DA). You can also get a premium membership here on SJ so that your comic gets advertised for you randomly throughout the main site.
And yeah, even just commenting on other peoples' comics helps. I, for instance, go check out the profile of every new commenter I get, to see if they draw anything I'm interested in.

In the end, time and word of mouth are some of the biggest contributors, and there's not much you can do about that.

[Piano-kun]

Putting your comic on Onlinecomics.net and other listing sites can help too.

[Kohikki]

Right now I just tell my friends about it on other sites.
I also have a thread for it on the site where I came from (adultswim.com) and I think most of my readers come from there.
I guess I could probably throw it into my signature on Gaia too, but right now I'm a little insecure about my comic, heh.

Project Wonderful seems to be a pretty good deal there... But you do have to pay for it. Still, I've clicked a lot of links I've seen on sites because of it, so it must work.

[eishiya]

Actually, there are plenty of comics that get a good amount of hits but have free ads on PW ;D Look for those. I've never paid for my PW ads but I've gotten an appreciable amount of clicks.

[jaxxy]

Facebook is your biggest promotion friend. Also, online comic listings. Check other popular web comics to find a bunch of different types. Follow some other suggestions with changing your banners on forums to link to your comic too. Also, if you don't mind spending a little cash, $5 can get you a ways on Project Wonderful!