Tapastic

[afterthedream]

So the primary site for my webcomic is a bit clunky and not at all mobile-friendly. SJ is only so-so. With that in mind, I recently created a mirror at Tapastic [ https://tapastic.com/series/After-the-Dream ] which is set up with mobile in mind first and foremost. Not sure if it will net me many new readers or not; I've gotten a few subscribers in the first few days. It does offer readers a much cleaner and more user-friendly way to read my comic on the go though. Anyone have experience with the site or advice they'd like to share?

[mg78]

tapas imho doesnt give any chanches to "newbies". i use it just to be everywhere, but their policy it's no chanches until u re a big name.

there s webtoon that can give u some little chanches. and u have to resist to downvote wars. then... it can be a good place to start from.
there s also duckwebcomic and comicfury that are very nice. DWC got some smart administrators who keep alive the main page, finding new comics and putting them in the featured section. veeeeeeery nice.

[eishiya]

I feel like Tapastic's alright for webtoon-style comics (which are what it was made for), but for page-based stuff it's just icky, especially compared to SJ, which is designed for that.
As a reader, I find the site to be a big turn-off, mainly because navigating comics there is a pain. It's clearly meant for webtoons with the expectation that each update is many simple pages that you just scroll through, it's really not meant for single-page updates where each page matters.
As an author, I don't want to put my readers through the ordeal of using that site, so I don't use it. I hear it's a good way to get some extra readers since most Tapastic users don't venture beyond the site, but It just doesn't seem worth the trouble of using the site and updating in another place, especially since a lot of those readers are... ehn. This is obviously hearsay since I'm not on the site myself, but it seems like the audience there is a lot more entitled than on other sites. Or, if not more entitled, then perhaps just not very considerate. I suspect it has something to do with Tapastic and LINE Webtoon both starting off as webtoon sites and getting users more accustomed to a rather different update style and presentation than most western webcomics have.

You mentioned your site not being at all mobile-friendly. Have you enabled SJ's mobile reader on your site? I haven't looked at Tapastic's mobile app so I can't compare, but I quite like SJ's mobile view, and I wish more sites would enable it. It puts the comic first and foremost, no fluff. For page-based comics, all you have to do is enable it. There's a feature to let you define panels on your pages, but I feel this is only useful for strips and the like, pages look and read best with the default settings on everything but the tiniest phones.

[mitchellbravo]

eishiya- thank you for mentioning that. For some reason I had mobile settings turned off. Just put them on, and it's really nice.

[Oly-RRR]

Just put them on, and it's really nice.

I can concur that! I think it's turned off by default on all profiles.

[afterthedream]

@mg78 I think I see what you're saying. They only seem to show already popular comics on their front page. Kind of hard to get noticed when there's no easy way for readers to find new comics.

@eishiya Thanks for the insight about the SJ mobile function; I wasn't aware of it. I guess it's a matter of personal taste, but I don't mind Tapastic's layout, and I've also seen plenty of long-form comics with several panels per page that look fine. To each their own, for sure.

[Memoria Caelestie]

I hear it's a good way to get some extra readers since most Tapastic users don't venture beyond the site, but It just doesn't seem worth the trouble of using the site and updating in another place, especially since a lot of those readers are... ehn. This is obviously hearsay since I'm not on the site myself, but it seems like the audience there is a lot more entitled than on other sites. Or, if not more entitled, then perhaps just not very considerate. I suspect it has something to do with Tapastic and LINE Webtoon both starting off as webtoon sites and getting users more accustomed to a rather different update style and presentation than most western webcomics have.

As someone that both used Tapastic and linewebtoons, Line webtoons is 10 times worst than tapastic when it comes to being entitled. If you don't update frequently enough you can lose up to 20 subs and I was updating once every 2 week cus they want longer updates. When I finally quit linewebtoon someone just said fuck you at me. I never interacted with that person before. Tapastic is not a walk in the park either you lose subs often for just updating your comic and like eishiya said they don't go outside the site at all. They are not the most loyal readers let's just say.

[Jen_Linman]

It's a weird thing. I'm actually doing okay for a newbie on Tapastic. I realize that it's not for everyone, though. I think I got lucky somehow.

[AmeliaP]

Anyone have experience with the site or advice they'd like to share?

My experience in Tapastic... They featured me in ''Sunday Snack'' round and if it wasn't that, I'd be doomed. My style is American Comic, pulp neo noir crime drama genre. It's niche in the "printed realm", but it's much more niche in webcomics (which is more family oriented, or manga esque, or cartoon esque, or - and plus - cute/funny/etc). Some hosting audience has a tendency to like a style more than another, independent of the comic quality.
I don't remember a place I'm having so low view numbers as Smackjeeves (and I upload DAILY ). Between 5 webcomic hosting, I feel it isn't my place (it's not Smackjeeves fault! Daniel, one of the administrators, was superb with me). BUT I felt the same about Tapastic, until the staff helped me with the promotion and makes the things better there.
Maybe if you contact Brooke from Tapas or other staff member, they can help you with the promotion there.

[MK_Wizard]

It's got some funny comics and it's a nice site, but it was not my style. I like having my own website for my comics and Tapastic did not have that.

[Emevsa]

We have our comic on a few different mirrors. The community on TheDuckWebcomics is small but those that are there are pretty friendly and dedicated. I've found it to be worth investing in if only to help foster a sense of community. Webtoons was great for our initial release but I don't think it would have been noticed much had it not been for our Twitter account. Smackjeeves has felt a bit hit and miss, but given we haven't spend much time here and have only recently begun getting into the forums I'm not really surprised by that. Still, all of that seems to be outweighing Tapas. It is a hard community to crack in comparison to how well we have been received elsewhere, or at least that's how it feels. We don't see much engagement or traffic for that matter, despite our self promotion efforts, so it's hard to gauge how we're doing there. Just not feeling the same level of connection with the site.

We're going to keep going on all the mirrors till at least the end of the issue we're on then we might have to review which ones are worth maintaining.

[Stacy H]

Mirror sites are a great way to get started with your comic- but you can get overwhelmed very quickly if you try to do too much.

I've had our comic on both Comic Fury and Tapastic. But in all honesty, keeping up with three sites- our home site, Tapastic and CF- was exhausting. It started feeling like I was being pulled in three different directions by three different communities that were completely separate from one another.

After a while I decided to scale back to only using our official site to host the actual comic. I didn't have to maintain multiple sites, which freed up more time to draw.

[Afterlifecomic]

I have found Tapas terrible. how do you even get discovered there? I am at a total loss. I feel the same way here too. Webtoons is picking up but also very slow. We have the most success on instagram.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks,

AfterlifeComic