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

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Mon May 28, 2007 10:13 pm

Don't forget that time you hit 'reload'.

Tashasworld · Post by **Tashasworld** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 6:21 am

The most visitors I had in one day was 400+ (I forget the exact number; it may have been 600+). That was the day a strip went up revealing that a member of my supporting cast is a transsexual.

I could have kept most of those readers, but my sporadic update schedule hurts me (those long hiatuses ((hiatii?)), ya know).

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 2:33 am

It all depends on your comic and how you advertise it. My comic started in May 2005, and had its first day with over 1,000 hits in early September 2005. Of course, obviously the longer you're writing, the more comics are in your archives, the more hits you'll get from people reading through the archives.

Of course, my individual and returning visitors haven't been as good--I've never had more than 1000 individual visitors in a day. The record there's just over 600 in December, 2006.

My number of returning visitors has increased fairly steadily over time, with a record of just over 100 this last May.

So... it takes time. And honestly, I wouldn't even call mine 'popular'. I just get a lot of people wandering through who're looking for porn (due to the 'naked' in the title,) and happen to be listed really high on certain Google searches. Very few of the people who wander into my comic bother to read any of it, much less return.

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 2:39 am

Liddell wrote:I just checked my stats, and I average only two visits per day, one of them usually from me (to make sure the comic loaded properly).

This, despite the fact that I update often (several comics due to come out this week) and my art is getting prettier and prettier. I think I need to find more things to say in the forums.

Never underestimate the power of advertising. After all, if people don't know your comic exists, then how will they find and read it?

The easiest way I've found to advertise is to label your comic in such a way that people who might be interested in it will be able to easily find it (say, via Google.) If your comic has, say, lots of anthropomorphic silverware in it, then try including the phrase 'anthropomorphic silverware' on the indexpage--then people who search for anthropomorphic silverware are more likely to find your comic.

CaptainClaude · Post by **CaptainClaude** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:12 am

took mine five minutes 22 seconds. I just sat there and waited like a good patient boy. and then POW.

Sphix · Post by **Sphix** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:41 am

ryclaude wrote:took mine five minutes 22 seconds. I just sat there and waited like a good patient boy. and then POW.

"POW"? Are you sure it wasn't "BAMF"? Mine was a distinct BAMF.

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 12:28 pm

i almost broke 70,000 visits last month.

Derenge · Post by **Derenge** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:24 am

I just wonder why this thread still exists, none of us are truly popular as far as the internet is concerned and all this wang waving does no good. Used to be you could see where everyone stood by looking at the guide and calling it a day. I don't know if that's still the case, but if it were it would spare us a lot of people not having a good concept of what being popular would really entail. If your readers don't number in the tens of thousands you are not making any sort of impact.

Sphix · Post by **Sphix** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 4:35 am

Derenge wrote:I just wonder why this thread still exists, none of us are truly popular as far as the internet is concerned and all this wang waving does no good. Used to be you could see where everyone stood by looking at the guide and calling it a day. I don't know if that's still the case, but if it were it would spare us a lot of people not having a good concept of what being popular would really entail.

Are there ANY webcomics that are TRULY popular by that standard, then? Maybe Questionable Content. But what the question is here is "popular" not by the Net's standards, not even by a set of CG standards, but popular in the eyes of the creator. Therefore, there's no set rule, but popular could mean 100,000, could mean 100. It just depends.

Derenge wrote:If your readers don't number in the tens of thousands you are not making any sort of impact.

Pessimism is always rewarded with disappointment

Tyras · Post by **Tyras** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 5:08 am

Hmm.
I think popularity growth might be more important than current popularity. Anyone? 500 per day may be nice, but if that stays the same for three months, then it's hard to say how good you're doing, really. But if your monthly average is only 300 at the moment and your hits have been increasingly, steadily, for a while, then I think you're doing just fine.

Warren · Post by **Warren** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:55 am

That gets into when the comic actually tops out. Gaining 25 readers a month is great in the beginning, but if you already have 3000+, what's an additional two dozen or so?

Not that I have 3000 readers....

Oh, and I just want to say "Yay!" for bra ads. Bras are fun!

Derenge · Post by **Derenge** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:28 am

Questionable content is indeed a good example of a comic that is popular, there are larger comics out there but if you can hit that level I suppose then the back-patting can begin. It's not a matter of setting goals you can never reach, it's a matter of having perspective on where you stand and realizing the task ahead of you rather than deluding yourself into thinking you're famous because you've got a couple hundred of people who will look at your page for free. I won't be content with my work until I can make a living off of it. When I reach that point I will consider referring to my comic as popular, but not before.

I personally look on being pessimistic as always being happily surprised when things go well, interesting how people can have two entirely different takes on the concept.

The Mortician · Post by **The Mortician** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:52 pm

ryclaude wrote:took mine five minutes 22 seconds. I just sat there and waited like a good patient boy. and then POW.

Did you punch the internet for that to happen? That's what Chuck Norris did.

And Derenge that's a well-put prospective. I like it. Lately I've been too caught up in wanting to be a popular comic...

Sphix · Post by **Sphix** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 3:11 pm

Derenge wrote:I personally look on being pessimistic as always being happily surprised when things go well, interesting how people can have two entirely different takes on the concept.

We agree to disagree, then!

Geekblather · Post by **Geekblather** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 5:59 pm

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...

Sphix · Post by **Sphix** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:31 am

geekblather wrote: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.

CaptainClaude · Post by **CaptainClaude** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:36 am

The Mortician wrote:
ryclaude wrote:took mine five minutes 22 seconds. I just sat there and waited like a good patient boy. and then POW.
Did you punch the internet for that to happen? That's what Chuck Norris did.

Actually I punched reality. it brought jason todd back to life and made power girl kryptonian again.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:52 am

I'm not popular by any stretch of the imagination. People's lower numbers stated only on this page along are well above my daily visits.

But there's a nice feel to be one of the little, quiet gems hidden out there amongst the rest of the ore.

Some of my readers (few that they may be) have claimed to feel quite satisfied knowing that they read and enjoy a little strip that only a handful have discovered and fallen in love with.

Popular is lots of people waving to you whenever you're seen out on the street.

Loved is when one person stops and asks why you're on the street in the first place.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:00 am

Sphix wrote:Are there ANY webcomics that are TRULY popular by that standard, then? Maybe Questionable Content. But what the question is here is "popular" not by the Net's standards, not even by a set of CG standards, but popular in the eyes of the creator. Therefore, there's no set rule, but popular could mean 100,000, could mean 100. It just depends.

I don't think that popularity is a subjective category, well maybe subjective regarding different communities, countries, societies, but subjective in eyes of it's own creator? Hmmm. I don't think so.
I don't like to see people being popular in their own subjective view, while their visits just scrape the bottow side of a couple thousands. They kept spending money on making merchandise, even vanity printing, ending up in selling literally nothing, to the effect of wasting their money to investition lost in advance, sometimes also losing sonfidence and mothive to make comics at all... Digging themselves into status quo instead of working on advancing their skills... I think we've seen several examples pass through here.
I think popularity should really be taken more objectively. It has nothing with your confidence or drive to make comic. Any fan mail can boost your confidence, but one fan mail (or ten of them for that matter) don't make you popular. If you turn to some numeric data (you can find numbers of visits of big shots somewhere around, there were a few Comixpedia articles on that topic, and some of them have a counter link on their pages too) then you know whether you've reached the point where you can pay out your hosting expenses from adds, whether there's a point of making merchandise, whether you can earn something from add revenue, etc. I think it's important to keep objective because the sight of people who think they're big-shots because they have three-digit visits is, frankly, a bit sad.

Sphix · Post by **Sphix** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:39 am

mcDuffies wrote:
Sphix wrote:Are there ANY webcomics that are TRULY popular by that standard, then? Maybe Questionable Content. But what the question is here is "popular" not by the Net's standards, not even by a set of CG standards, but popular in the eyes of the creator. Therefore, there's no set rule, but popular could mean 100,000, could mean 100. It just depends.
I don't think that popularity is a subjective category, well maybe subjective regarding different communities, countries, societies, but subjective in eyes of it's own creator? Hmmm. I don't think so.
I don't like to see people being popular in their own subjective view, while their visits just scrape the bottow side of a couple thousands. They kept spending money on making merchandise, even vanity printing, ending up in selling literally nothing, to the effect of wasting their money to investition lost in advance, sometimes also losing sonfidence and mothive to make comics at all... Digging themselves into status quo instead of working on advancing their skills... I think we've seen several examples pass through here.
I think popularity should really be taken more objectively. It has nothing with your confidence or drive to make comic. Any fan mail can boost your confidence, but one fan mail (or ten of them for that matter) don't make you popular. If you turn to some numeric data (you can find numbers of visits of big shots somewhere around, there were a few Comixpedia articles on that topic, and some of them have a counter link on their pages too) then you know whether you've reached the point where you can pay out your hosting expenses from adds, whether there's a point of making merchandise, whether you can earn something from add revenue, etc. I think it's important to keep objective because the sight of people who think they're big-shots because they have three-digit visits is, frankly, a bit sad.

I was by no means saying that there won't be people that are delusional out there. I, for one, think that 100 returning readers for my comic would be horrendous in terms of popularity, but 5,000 would be excellent. That's what I feel popular would be, considering my comic's subject matter, etc. But, you've gotta take into account that popularity is not a science. There is no set number that makes you reach the "popular" status.

Look at the Internet in general. How many people use Yahoo or Google on a daily basis? Then compare that with ANY webcomic in the world, and try to pass it off as popular. It won't work. Why? Because popularity is subjective.

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

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.

... Some form of the word "popular" was used one dozen times in the last four paragraphs. I think it's sleep time.