Where are the fans?
A common problem webcomic artists stumble into with alarming regularity is the need to see constantly rising viewing figures. The need for validation can be a significant one, of course, and it’s always good to have fans but let’s look at this from a reader’s point of view for a moment.
It's Too Early To Focus on Statistics When Starting A New Comic
Jo Reader is a fan of webcomics. He (Jo could easily be a woman but I’m going with ‘he’ for this example because that’s who I envisaged when I typed ‘Jo Reader’) likes finding new webcomics, but most of them don’t go onto his ‘must read’ bookmarks right away. Why is that? Well, it’s the reason so many people give for not investing in new comics: most will die quickly, so why put the effort in as a reader?
Now let’s get back to the point of view of the webcomic artist. You want new readers. You need them if your comic is going to survive, because you know that even though you adore webcomics and love your characters, you can’t face the idea of spending year after year drawing a comic that nobody but your doting mother ever wants to read (even if you had to spend hours teaching her how to use the Internet just so she could see your work.). You need new fans, but every day you go and check Google Analytics and find only two, or ten, or maybe even fifteen readers.
So you start to wonder if producing the next comic is worth it. The deadline looms, and you slap something together. It’s on time, but only just.
The next day, you check your stats, and now only ten people have read the new comic. So you wonder what the point was. You’re slaving over this comic and nobody is coming to read it! That was your fifth episode and so far, nobody cares!
And here’s the rub: Jo Reader knows that’s your fifth episode. Chances are, five of the hits on your comic are from him. He’s read your archive, and then left because there’s nothing else to read. Maybe he’ll be back, maybe not. If you managed to hook him with those five episodes, he’ll chance by in a week or two and read your new stuff, but the chances of hooking someone with so few comics is slim.
There’s a saying on the Internet that Content is King and although it’s a really poor cliché, it’s the truth. All new webcomics are not only battling for a place on the readership’s bookmarks but they’re fighting a long-established truth that most new comics die quickly. Thankfully, you can overcome this truth very easily: you just need to keep going.
Once you’ve got a month or two’s worth of comics under your belt (assuming you’re updating two or three times a week, that is) you’ll have enough content to say “Hey! I’m not one of those other comics that dies young. I’m here to stay!” and you’ll be right. Anyone can make that claim from the outset but readers know the difference between someone who’s all talk and someone who can actually back up their claims. Be in the latter camp, it helps a lot to give you a reputation.
More than that, it means you’ve got more chances to hook new readers. Remember how Jo Reader looked through your archives and then left without bookmarking because you only had five strips and he didn’t yet know if you were worth sticking with? That’s because you only had five chances to prove to him that you had something in your comic worth coming back for. When you have fifty strips, you get ten times the number of chances to prove yourself. Get to a hundred and you double your chances again.
It’s true that each comic needs to give the reader a reason to click on the ‘next’ button but it’s equally true that you can’t be all things to all readers all the time. That’s why you need to keep updating with good content, and update on time. You can’t do that if you’re hooked on your stats.
Stats demoralise. In the early days, they will not be good. If you want to make your comic a success, don’t look at them until you’ve got at least a couple of months of regular, consistent updates behind you. Even then, you should be thinking about advertising before you think about looking at who’s visiting your site.
So here’s the deal: you get thirty or more comics online; then do some advertising; build a reputation for yourself in the community with good comments on other comics and forums; and then you can start looking at your stats.
Until you’ve done the ground work, there’s no real reason for an audience to stick around. Give them a reason, then go looking for them, not the other way around.
Great article! My comic has only been around less than a year, but I have seen a slow rise in readership. As far as numbers go, they’re not great by any means, but the readership is rising, not shrinking. I do love the fact that there are fans of my work who keep coming back for more on a regular basis (love that ‘New vs Returning’ analytic).
Thanks, Ed.
I’m glad you liked it and well done on building an audience. 
Also, don’t use Google Analytics to try to figure out readership. It’s not suited for that, especially not with the small scale that most webcomics operate at. ComicRank is a much better tool, as it captures readership statistics based on a metric that makes sense for regular returning visitors.
Also, I’ve been doing webcomics for close to 10 years now and I still only have around 75 readers, but I’d like to think that those are 75 of the best webcomics readers (with the most excellent taste) on the planet. A healthy sense of self-delusion can sometimes be helpful.
Well put, all. Best way to overcome the demoralisation is to just keep going.
>> Stats demoralise. In the early days, they will not be good.
No, not necessarily. There are enough webcomic lists, forums and, of course, Project Wonderful to gather a basic readership at the start. Sandra and Woo had over 300 visitors/day every day after the publishing of the 7th strip (= 26 days).
However, getting several hundred readers is the easy part since it’s easily achieved with some advertising. Getting several thousand readers is much harder since you can’t get such numbers with advertising alone (if you don’t want to spend enormous sums), so you must deliver quality content on a consistent basis so that a few of your first-time visitors will come back on each update day.
Or you can do a (furry) fetish comic = instant success.
Quality content is still the only way to guarantee success, however. Okay, you can certainly advertise right from the start and there’s a chance that people will come to see what you’re doing but this is not guaranteed by any stretch of the imagination. A good advert will attract readers but quality content is what keeps them coming back. Also, a bad advert will put people off the comic, just like bad content will.
So it comes down to this: do you want to spend a fortune on advertising to get new readers because your content isn’t gripping them, or do you want to build up a batch of good content, then advertise and get readers that will keep coming back?
Great article, helped bolster me a bit. My problem is, how do I know if my content is “quality” or not? Also since I’m doing long form there’s no real possibility of updating more than once a week, not unless any “quality” I do have goes out the door.
Meantime, I will be patient, master.
With regards to quality, there’s always peer review and looking at your own work with a critical eye.
You’re right in stating that consistency is the key, and that one shouldn’t expect thousands of new readers flocking to his site right at the beginning . Not sure I agree with not looking at stats at all, though. Stats, even at early stages, can help you see which strips your audience liked or disliked (combined with post ranking systems, comments, etc.), so basically it provides you good feedback when you start.
I’ve been affected by the staring at my stats bug, actually every single day. But I enjoy it whether I have low or high numbers. I’m doin alright so far, and it can only get better, as long as I continue my updates on time and at a consistently high quality, or at least as high as I can make it. Extras don’t hurt, either. Showing the fans you care by adding free wallpapers, commenting on every comment they make, maybe having a gallery of extra art, etc., will only help in building a readership that cares as much as you do.
I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say you need to comment on every comment that is made but yes, getting a dialogue going between yourself and your readers will definitely help show them you a) care about them and b) care enough about the comic to take that little bit of extra time over how it is presented to the world at large.
hej does anyone know where I can get some statistics on how many people actually read web comics? and their demografics and background?
I have been lookinf for the last few days but not really found anything…..
THANK YOU
My readers all love my comic. All 3 of them tell me so…………………….Thanks mom,Grandma and, Aunt Gurdie.
I enjoyed this article.
I use my stats to set myself targets. I go into Google Analytics and set it to show stats ‘by month’. I then give myself a very simple goal: to beat the previous month’s traffic. In theory it should be easy, after all I now have an extra month’s worth of content so anyone reading the archive will visit an extra 8 or 9 pages. That puts my page numbers up (assuming the same percentage of new readers go through the archive). All I need to do is make sure I have a few more new visitors each month.
This technique has really helped me. At any point I can see how I’m doing against how I was doing at the same point in the previous month – ie on the 15th of August I could also check what my numbers were like for the month of July up to the 15th. If I’m behind, I can advertise on PW, put together a guest strip for somebody, make some forum posts – whatever will get me ahead of the previous month. So far it has helped me to expand a little more each month.