Readership Growth: How much is good?

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 6:50 am

Not neccesarily everybody is growing. I think up to one point, a comic has to grow, from there it's all in more promotional efforts, and luck.
My readership peaked two times, aforementioned EOI fanart and now that I'm linked from CRFH. Other than that, it's been varying but steadily.

Actually, come to think of it, 6000 visits a month? I don't have reason to be unhappy with that, that's more people tan would ever read my comics otherwise.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 12:58 pm

Heh...I'll be doing a dance around the kitchen the day we succeed in getting 1000 uniques a month...well done.

William G · Post by **William G** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 1:10 pm

My bandwidth use spikes heavily whenever I update. (duh) But I find that the majority of my traffic comes from people following links from other sites, or through my sig on forums.

Anyway, growth is good as long as you can still afford the bandwidth. Otherwise, it's a site-killer.

Cortland · Post by **Cortland** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 1:34 pm

I check my stats religiously everyday and feel great when they go up, and sad when they go down. I do my best to keep it all in perspective, though. It's not like I'm making any money from readership at the moment, so getting new readers is mostly just a way of making me feel good, knowing people actually like reading the stuff I make! The whole reason I started doing a weekdaily concept was for practice anyway, to force myself to draw something every day and improve on my artwork, so I figure the readers I get now aren't even really seeing the final product yet.

So anyway, Dutch, try to relax and try to enjoy your day job, which I think is much more fulfilling in the long run!

Soap Soaperson · Post by **Soap Soaperson** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 2:11 pm

Wow. Go Gianna!

Mr.Bob · Post by **Mr.Bob** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 5:17 pm

YarpsDat wrote:Grow.

Sacre bleu!

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 11:32 pm

cortland wrote:I check my stats religiously everyday and feel great when they go up, and sad when they go down. I do my best to keep it all in perspective, though. It's not like I'm making any money from readership at the moment, so getting new readers is mostly just a way of making me feel good, knowing people actually like reading the stuff I make! The whole reason I started doing a weekdaily concept was for practice anyway, to force myself to draw something every day and improve on my artwork, so I figure the readers I get now aren't even really seeing the final product yet.

So anyway, Dutch, try to relax and try to enjoy your day job, which I think is much more fulfilling in the long run!

Aw...you're too nice to be an American!

(How much stick am I gonna get for that one, eh?)

And don't worry about me not enjoying the day job... 8)

Mr V: "Who's the best teacher?"

Generic Child A: "Mrs blahblahblah"

Mr V: "Sit in the corner!"

Power corrupts...but absolute power is pretty neat...

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 11:51 pm

I'm kinda miffed this month.

If six more people had visited my site last month--just SIX PEOPLE--I'd've had 1000 visits for September.

Actually, that's cool as heck, and a fairly predictable growth from last month (and the month before that, and the month before that).

I'm kinda hopeful for this month. I'm going to be shamelessly plugging during NaNo prep in November. Shamelessly.

Hey, other people do it too!

CW

Pockybot · Post by **Pockybot** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 1:17 am

If I've learned one thing in the last year of doing PockyBot...it's that it truly, *truly* is not numbers that matter...but the fanatics who do read your comic.
I've said this before, but I am filled with so much joy from responses from readers...everyday I'm getting emails or pms from readers who say Ive helped to inspire them in their art(be it writing/drawing/painting/music/making stuff, etc) I mean that rocks, and they show ya their stuff and no matter what the quality it makes ya smile. Having that kind of positive effect is a blessing...and I can honestly say anyone who reads my comic I'd in part...in some esoteric way call them a friend.

Don't let numbers get ya down folks...I spent close to $200 in advertising, spent COUNTLESS energy promoting my site online...but never was truly able to break that 1000 readers a day thing. But thats ok. They are the best approx. 1000-2000 readers I could ever ask for.

Bekka · Post by **Bekka** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:48 am

If you don't mind me saying so Pocky, since your art is awesome, I think that what's kept your readership numbers down despite the promotional push is the script. Not in the sense that is bad, but it's so very very quirky that only a few people will get it. I'm not one of them, I love looking at your comic but when I read it I have a big invisible question mark hovering over my head... I'm not irritated by the script or anything, I just don't understand it. As a result, I can't read more than a few strips at a time, because it's more confusing than modern poetry, even if I think that they are visually stunning.

Now, the 1000 guys who read your strip every day are those who get it, and who are exactly on your same wavelength when it comes to sense of humour. I'm sure that if you went more mainstream and either wrote a script that can be followed by most people, or had a writer do it, you'd get 20x the hits, but you probably wouldn't have the same type of loving following that you do now. So it's a choice between quality or quantity of readers

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 4:09 am

Bekka wrote:If you don't mind me saying so Pocky, since your art is awesome, I think that what's kept your readership numbers down despite the promotional push is the script. Not in the sense that is bad, but it's so very very quirky that only a few people will get it.

Er...

Well, since it's come up, I agree. Still, coming from someone who has a comic that appeals to a mere 250 people on the web - and believe me, that's the entire potential fanbase - I must add that there's nothing wrong with a niche comic.

As for the main question... Well, it's easy.

Target Readership Growth = Desired Number of Readers / When You Want Them By.

- Joel Fagin

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 5:12 am

Aw Joel, that's not fair!

I'm only officially required to teach grade 4 maths at the moment...until now I don't need higher mathematical skills...

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 5:29 am

Dutch! wrote:I'm only officially required to teach grade 4 maths at the moment...until now I don't need higher mathematical skills...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we were once called "the Clever Country". This was some time ago, you understand.

- Joel Fagin

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 5:46 am

Joel Fagin wrote:
Dutch! wrote:I'm only officially required to teach grade 4 maths at the moment...until now I don't need higher mathematical skills...
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we were once called "the Clever Country". This was some time ago, you understand.

- Joel Fagin

What were you called before you were "the Clever Country"?

William G · Post by **William G** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:53 am

Waltzing Matilda World

YarpsDat · Post by **YarpsDat** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:55 am

Joel Fagin wrote: As for the main question... Well, it's easy.

Target Readership Growth = Desired Number of Readers / When You Want Them By.

- Joel Fagin

Not really.
I'd say it's unlikely your growth would look like "1000 more visits every month", I'd expect something more like "25% more visits than last month!"
And hence, total readership at a given moment is given by the formula
[total visits]=[visits in the first month]*[100%+monthly growth]^[number of months]
And hence, if you want to achieve the given [total visits] in a given number of months, it would be:

[monthly growth]= ([desired visits]/[visits in the first month])^(1/[number of months]) - 100%.

Lintjinks · Post by **Lintjinks** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:58 am

Smart people. Sheesh.

I've never really done a whole lot to promote my comic, since I totally see it as something people will read all at once when I'm finished, but as an example, the readership quintupled between two months (which sounds good, but don't be fooled, it just went from 200 readers to over 1000), then a little more than doubled over the next three months. Now it's just settled into a pattern of increasing at the rate of about 20-25% each month. It's kind of like a backwards snowball. The readership is increasing at more or less the same rate, but since the core lump of readers is bigger each month, the growth percentage is smaller. Make sense?

I think anything is good as far as growth goes. Only big, sudden dropoffs in readership would probably give me pause.

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:55 am

I'm an optimist, I never bother to look at my stats. Or I could just be lazy.

G-Lode · Post by **G-Lode** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 10:02 am

I also think that ANY growth is a good thing. I've had my comic up for 4 months and I'm pleased that people read my comic at all! It would be great if down the road people would actually start sending me email or fanart because they really liked what they saw. My goal for this month is to have and average of 45 page views a day.

Seeing increased readership is such a great motivation to keep drawing and creating!

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 11:02 am

Joel Fagin wrote:Well, since it's come up, I agree. Still, coming from someone who has a comic that appeals to a mere 250 people on the web - and believe me, that's the entire potential fanbase - I must add that there's nothing wrong with a niche comic.

Not if you're ready for that. Somehow I feel Pockey has higher ambitions.

Here's an interesting question: how many popular comics linked you?

Comic Genesis Forums

Readership Growth: How much is good?

Perspective

Re: Perspective