How long did it take for your comic to get popular?

[RemusShepherd]

I forget if it's been said on this thread, but I know it's been said before. I'll repeat it just in case.

'Popular' is hard to define. 'Financially viable' is not -- it's a simple measure of whether or not a comic makes money after bandwidth costs are handled. And it's related to popularity -- if a comic's viable then we can say that it's pretty popular.

The best measure of 'viable' we have comes from successful webcomics. Randy Mulholland of _Something Positive_ has said that the break-even point for his comic was 5,000 page views per day. Howard Tayler of _Schlock Mercenary_ started doing his comic full time when it reached around 15,000 page views per day. So 'viable' comes somewhere in the range of 5k-15k daily page views.

I'm beginning to think we should set up a logarithmic scale for website page views. New comics are about a 1 (~10 views per day), established amateurs are around 2-3, and viability is about 3.7. Penny Arcade is a 6 (>10^6 views per day), so it's a scale with lots of room on it.

[McDuffies]

Again, take Questionable Content as an example. In the webcomic community, Jeph's comic is quite possibly the most popular out there.

Questionable Content is very popular, but it's hardly the most popular webcomic. For one, it's popularity is nowhere near infamous PA and Pvp, and then ther's a number of comics like Shlock Mercenary, Scary Go Round or VGCats, with measurable popularity.
Of course, it's far from what we have, but it's not nearly the most popular.

Compare him to webcomics, and he tops the chart in popularity. Compare him to YouTube, and the popularity pales in comparison. That's why popularity can't really be objective, because you have to take everything into account. Let's say the author for "Stick Figure Comics" is expecting absolutely NO readers, because, frankly, his comic sucks, and he knows it. But then he gets 18 fan-mails per week a year later. While next to nothing when compared to Questionable Content, I'll bet the author thinks that, all things considered, his comic got popular.

Well, if you compare two categories that have nothing in common whatsoever, of course you're gonna get wrong impression. I mean, you got to find an objective criterium. If you feel that your comic is suffering from once-a-week schedule, you find a well-known comic that updates once a week and compare to it. On the other hand, if you have a 7x a week comic and compare yourself to a popular 1 x a week comic, then you're just using the wrong measuring unit.
If you think that your comic suffers in popularity because of it's content, you just find a popular comic with similar content. God knows that all kinds of comics have been popular. From disturbing graphical sex like Sexy Losers, to family-friendly newspapers content like Kevin and Kell, to totally innocent children content like Ozzy and Milly, geek comics, gamer comics, SF comics, fantasy comics, historical comics, whatever kind you do, you can find popular webcomic that can be put into the same category and thus by seeing what your comic could be, you can conclude where it is now.
Of course, if you compare it to youtube, you get skewed results. Like a lab experiment that hasn't been thought through to exclude bias. But on the other hand, I could as well compare my numbers to the average of CG per comic, and decide that I'm incredibly popular, ommiting the fact that there's a couple of thousands of CG comics that have about 1 comic in the archive.
It's all about whether you want to be realistic or not.

Honestly? I don't know where all this merchandising and costs came into the conversation. I was referring to popular in terms of readers, money's a completely different can of worms that I don't feel inclined to pry open.

Number of visits is one way to measure popularity. It's marketability is another one. They are rather closely tied subjects.

[Sphix]

I'm beginning to think we should set up a logarithmic scale for website page views. New comics are about a 1 (~10 views per day), established amateurs are around 2-3, and viability is about 3.7. Penny Arcade is a 6 (>10^6 views per day), so it's a scale with lots of room on it.

We shall call it the Comichter Scale, and it shall be composed of utter PWN.

[Sphix]

Number of visits is one way to measure popularity. It's marketability is another one. They are rather closely tied subjects.

But see, while I could see my comic being popular in the distant future, I could never see it as "marketable." While close, they're still pretty different. ^_^

I think the point I was trying to make last night (now that I'm more coherent) is that while other people can think that a comic is popular, only the creators and the people behind the scenes can really judge that. And that, in essence, means that whether it's considered popular varies from comic to comic.

*sigh* I suck at coherence.

[McDuffies]

But see, while I could see my comic being popular in the distant future, I could never see it as "marketable." While close, they're still pretty different. ^_^

In a way, it's the only way to materialize popularity of your comic. It's popularity that you can hold in your hand. I can image an author who can't accept that his comic is popular, until he earns enough money to buy a bike. And then one day while driving this bike, he realizes: "This bike is a metaphore of my popularity!"

[Uncaringmachine]

Popular. Hm. I would love to have 100 people a day read my comic. To me, that would be popular. Right now I only average around twenty or thirty people per day, which is meh, but at least someone likes it. It has been going up a bit recently, and hopefully it will increase as the quality, in my opinion, is going up as well.

[Jackhass]

Popular. Hm. I would love to have 100 people a day read my comic. To me, that would be popular. Right now I only average around twenty or thirty people per day, which is meh, but at least someone likes it. It has been going up a bit recently, and hopefully it will increase as the quality, in my opinion, is going up as well.

You mean the link on my site hasn't been sending thousands your way? That can't be right...

[Uncaringmachine]

I'm amazed. Suddenly today so far I've had 137 unique visitors. How the heck did that happen? I guess a lot of Zoology readers used the gothy link today huh? Heh.

[Sphix]

I can image an author who can't accept that his comic is popular, until he earns enough money to buy a bike. And then one day while driving this bike, he realizes: "This bike is a metaphore of my popularity!"

The Bike of Popularity +5!

[Fourdays]

Yeah, I'm fairly new, so i'm still dreaming of that kind of popularity

[Geekblather]

I gained a new category in my Rockstar point scale.

+30 points for being referred to as a "The"

as in, someone im'ed me, and said "I can't believe I'm talking to THE Quinn."

I flailed and fell over with glee...

[E]

throw up a comic featuring character from sesame street. have them read off a recipe for crystal meth. wait a week and you'll have vists in the thousands.

disregard anything in an envelope that says 'cease and decist'.

works like a charm.

[Whatupwidat]

I'll just be glad if after this server malarky that anyone still bothers reading my comic, considering I used to have about 171 unique visitors a day on average.

It's probably me and two other people now.

[McDuffies]

throw up a comic featuring character from sesame street. have them read off a recipe for crystal meth. wait a week and you'll have vists in the thousands.

disregard anything in an envelope that says 'cease and decist'.

works like a charm.

I remember you.

[Dutch!]

I'll just be glad if after this server malarky that anyone still bothers reading my comic, considering I used to have about 171 unique visitors a day on average.

It's probably me and two other people now.

Make that three. I hadn't seen you or your banner before so I've given it a look over. Gotta admire a strip that is clearly based in a specific national identity!

[Jackhass]

I think the hits Gods got mad at our bragging of our traffic...seeing as how Comicgenesis can't go half a day without fucking up again lately.

[E]

I remember you.

once i saw all the fancy new CG slickness i had to reappear and see if i could finally get banned from the internet for life.

[McDuffies]

Banned people form a kind of elite society around here, as in, it's extremely difficult to join them.

[Geekblather]

My definition of 'popular' is closely linked to how much I feel like a rockstar when working on the comic.
Sort of like:

Someone says "Hey cool comic!" +5 rockstar points.
Someone frets about a character's actions +10 rockstar points.
Fanarts from people +15 rockstar points.
Being a part of a collective of people I'm fantarded for +25 rockstar points

And so on...

*Yoink!* This system is now the new standard. I am currently at 0. This shall not be for much longer.

Hey, cool comic!

-hands out points-

Actually, it is a cool comic. I dig it.

[Sphix]

*Yoink!* This system is now the new standard. I am currently at 0. This shall not be for much longer.

Hey, cool comic!

-hands out points-

Actually, it is a cool comic. I dig it.

HAHA! +5 POINTS!

And just for that, I'ma check yours out, too! Thanks! ^_^