The deep abyss that is Reddit, have you ever thought about promoting your comics or manga there? Do you know where to start? Beginning to post is a little overwhelming, but we've got you covered!
Welcome everyone to another Creator Tips and Tricks! Today, @mousylou and I (@ArtCrumbs) will attempt to break down the mystery of Reddit. We hope to educate you on the value of this platform and why it’s so useful as a promotion, networking, and community building tool for anyone who makes a comic.
With that, let's dig into it!
How does Reddit work / how is it structured?
In our Self-Promotion and Marketing series, we looked at Reddit as one of our options for promotion, but you can't promote anything well if you don't understand the platform. So let's revisit Reddit for those who don't understand its structure.
Essentially, it is a massive Forum with seemingly infinite threads.
The homepage of Reddit is full of "subreddits" that you've joined or subreddits that you might enjoy based on interests or activity on Reddit. Each Subreddit is like a community around a certain topic or thing of interest. Part of what makes Reddit so amazing is subreddits can be as detailed or as broad as you can imagine. Subreddits are named "r/insert_name_here". Whatever is after the "r/" is the name/topic/whatever of that subreddit. Some aren't as obvious as you think they are! Within each subreddit are threads, individual posts relevant to whatever that subreddit is about.
@mousylou, creator of Lost Souls, has been one creator I've worked with to help find more readers and before writing this article, I sat down with her to ask about her experiences on Reddit at first and over time:
Before you started posting on Reddit, did you ever think Reddit would work for promotion? What was your first impression of Reddit?
I was following some chat on the GlobalComix server. A comic creator/ monitor of that server, ArtCrumbs, advised some creators in using social media to help promote comics, naming twitter and reddit as example. I never was fond of the limitation in text and image of twitter and even less with their hashtag and mention. So I decided to try reddit.
I never really was raised with social media in my daily life. To me, it was just a place with a lot of drama. I didn’t even really know what reddit was before, only the name.
When I started on reddit, I was really scared of it. It was so big, imposing and easy to get lost in. Some of their features, like karma, were complicated to understand and made me want to turn back. Without any knowledge of the platform it can be quite stressful and frustrating.
In general, here is a list of pros and cons we've put together about using Reddit:
| Pros: | Cons: |
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I want to post on Reddit now, how do I start?
First, @mousylou also has some advice, as someone who has garnered well over 400,000 views on their comic, for those getting started:
Before starting on reddit you should dissect your story in subject and make a list of it. Using that list as a reference will help you greatly. If one of the subjects does not work, then try another until you find one that works for you and your content. Here an exemple, mine has monster girls, monster boys, lamia, scales, girl love, long tongue… etc
Once you start reddit, find communities that may work with your comic and interact with them. Show that you care. This will increase your karma and protect you from potential ban for over promoting and maybe make some friends. Give it a few days or a week even, then it's time to post!
I also learned that it's best to promote what you can do rather than what you want to do. It's also best not to promote your comic on your title. Rather do it in the comment section it will bring less hate from the self-promo mobs. As long as you interact with your communities and promote your comment section you should be safe from those haters. It's like that everywhere, even reddit. Art communities don’t follow that rule much because… art but it’s best to take precaution.
You don’t have to just promote your comic content. You can also promote other art pieces and simply link your art platform and your comic in the comment section. People that love your work may be curious enough to peek at it.
In a previous Tips and Tricks article, I covered how to find your audience or at least get a better idea of who they might be. We broke down themes and genres and topics in our comics to get a list of words that were relevant to what our comic is about. Once you complete it, it'll look something like this, I've done it as an example here:
Find subreddits relevant to the results you obtained, and join them, from here, it's a little trickier.
The most important tip for Reddit is to be engaged! Reddit has a reputation of being confusing and unpredictable. Spend some time engaging in Reddit, commenting, using the platform. Redditors (users) are wary of those who come in and drop links without engagement or without checking the rules. Doing so can cause you to be downvoted into oblivion. To make the most of Reddit, you need to be using it on a decent basis as well. This is a great chance to network, get feedback, and meet some new friends. I asked @mousylou what she thought of Reddit and her experience:
I went on the website and looked at some communities. The karma issues made it difficult in the first few posts I tried to do. I had to show that i wasn’t a robot before using reddit correctly. I also learned that reddit hates computers and prefer mobile devices for some reason blocking multiple types of posts when on it like images. Which we want!!!! Why do you hate computers so much!!!
Once that was taken care of and I understood reddit better, I tried posting on comics communities which was a terrible experience. I felt that followers of those communities were more interested in small comic strips, and the good old DC/MCU than indie creator content. They were even downvoted to zero in some cases, which was very sad.
With such interaction, I thought of washing my hands of reddit but global comix encouraged me to try again, this time focusing on subject of my story instead of comic communities.
I started posting in communities centered on monster girls, one of the main subjects of my comic. And dear god, it was a stampede!!!!
A Stampede it was! Mousy Lou has had a lot of success on Reddit and they've been kind enough to make a guide for posting to Reddit as well, which you can find here: Reddit Community Supplier. Just take a look at those views!
How do I make a post to Reddit?
When you visit a subreddit, like the GlobalComix Subreddit shown here, you can click on the icons at the top of the feed to start a post, or you can click on the (+) icon and begin your post. You'll be taken to the page below where you can structure your posts.
Vary up the different types of posts that you make. There are all sorts of ways that you can spread awareness about your comic outside of posting a link and a call to action aka “Read my comic please”. Here are some ideas that can generate conversation about your art and story without directly asking for page reads:
- Character art
- Asking for feedback on a page / drawing of a character
- Progress pics / before and after / WIPs (Works in Progress)
- Timelapses (people love videos)
You also might want to have a comic-focused account and a personal account on Reddit, that way you don’t have to worry about your posting history being available publicly. Be sure to fill out your Reddit account with links to your socials if you plan on talking about your comic a lot! It will save other users for having to ask for it, and they can just find it in your profile!
Also, pin your favorite or best posts to your profile! Anyone who checks you out can see them too, and it'll help those curious about you see what you're all about! Your profile will look like this roughly to someone else:
Also, don't forget to check the insights on your posts! They are only available for a limited time, so you might want to screenshot or write them down somewhere.
How can I optimize posting on Reddit? / I don’t have time for reddit!
Reddit can feel like a huge task, having to spend time making posts, reading, engaging on others posts and it's easy to feel like you don't have that time. However, just like learning to draw, learning to be a good writer, it's critically important to learn how to maximize your time on Reddit. One of the tools the GlobalComix Team (namely our own Eric Tapper) has created is The Community Marketing Toolkit.
When you open this document, we have a series of instructions on the first tab if you ever forget how this works. Always feel free to reach out us as well. This document will help you in posting to both Reddit and Twitter, having UTMS (essentially custom links that give you analytics on the interactions with those links) will give you a lot of insight into if and how successful your Reddit posts are at actually bringing readers FROM Reddit.
To use this sheet, first we’ll need to make a copy for our own use. From there, you can follow along with Eric Tapper in the video here, as he walks you through how to use it far better than I could! Thank you, Eric!
This sheet has been incredibly helpful to me in generating my own links, both for Reddit and Twitter! Mine is slightly modified to work for both in one tab though since I'm more comfortable with this process. You can learn more about UTMS and custom links here in a previous Tips and Tricks article.
In Conclusion:
Reddit is a power force for marketing. Some creators have been able to grab tens or even hundreds of thousands of views from Reddit. However, this is after doing the work to find relevant subreddit communities to post in. It's not a straightforward way to promote, and often times, it's the result of time, mistakes, and finally finding that perfect post that takes off. Reddit can certainly be hit or miss, but that's no reason to ignore it. Creating a community for yourself on many social media platforms will be key to your success, and helps prevent you from losing all of your audience if one shuts down, as we've seen with the chaos and panic of Tumblr, Twitter, DeviantArt, and others.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, I sat down to talk with @mousylou about her experiences sharing her own comic on Reddit. Lou has been incredibly successful and has gone out of thier way to help educate others on using Reddit. They've even created a thread in the GlobalComix Forums all about sharing subreddits with each other and how we've had success (or the opposite) in particular subreddits. She invites anyone to contribute!
I'd like to share the full interview with @mousylou here. Please give them a follow!
Q1: Before you started posting on Reddit, did you ever think Reddit would work for promotion? What was your first impression of Reddit?
I never really was raised with social media in my daily life. To me, it was just a place with a lot of drama. I didn’t even really know what reddit was before, only the name.
When I started on reddit, I was really scared of it. It was so big, imposing and easy to get lost in. Some of their features, like karma, were complicated to understand and made me want to turn back. Without any knowledge of the platform it can be quite stressful and frustrating.
Q2: How did you learn about being able to post on Reddit to market your comic?
I was following some chat on the global comix server. A comic creator/ monitor of that server, ArtCrumbs, advised some creators in using social media to help promote comics, naming twitter and reddit as exemple. I never was fond of the limitation in text and image of twitter and even less with their hashtag and mention. So I decided to try reddit.
Q3: How did you start posting on Reddit? Was it a lot at once or slowly over time?
I went on the website and looked at some communities. The karma issues made it difficult in the first few posts I tried to do. I had to show that i wasn’t a robot before using reddit correctly. I also learned that reddit hates computers and prefer mobile devices for some reason blocking multiple types of posts when on it like images. Which we want!!!! Why do you hate computers so much!!!
Once that was taken care of and I understood reddit better, I tried posting on comics communities which was a terrible experience. I felt that followers of those communities were more interested in small comic strips, and the good old DC/MCU than indie creator content. They were even downvoted to zero in some cases, which was very sad.
With such interaction, I thought of washing my hands of reddit but global comix encouraged me to try again, this time focusing on subject of my story instead of comic communities.
I started posting in communities centered on monster girls, one of the main subjects of my comic. And dear god, it was a stampede!!!!
Q4: Your comic Lost Souls has done really well on Reddit, are you surprised to see how well it’s done? Did you ever expect it to do as well as it is?
Heck yes I am, I thought that I would have a few, but this much wow!!! Who could have thought that my dangerous noodle would bring 437k views in a mere 3 months!!!! And each reddit updating post of noodle keeps increasing that number more and more. Mommy is so proud of her baby!
Q5: Now that you’ve had a lot of success on Reddit, you’ve been very active in helping others learn about Reddit. What sort of advice do you have for other people who are wanting to learn how to use Reddit?
Before starting on reddit you should dissect your story in subject and make a list of it. Using that list as a reference will help you greatly. If one of the subjects does not work, then try another until you find one that works for you and your content. Here an exemple, mine has monster girls, monster boys, lamia, scales, girl love, long tongue, vore… etc
Once you start reddit, find communities that may work with your comic and interact with them. Show that you care. This will increase your karma and protect you from potential ban for over promoting and maybe make some friends. Give it a few days or a week even, then it's time to post!
I also learned that it's best to promote what you can do rather than what you want to do. It's also best not to promote your comic on your title. Rather do it in the comment section it will bring less hate from the self-promo mobs. As long as you interact with your communities and promote your comment section you should be safe from those haters. Hater gotta hate unfortunately! It's like that everywhere, even reddit. Art communities don’t follow that rule much because… art but it’s best to take precaution.
You don’t have to just promote your comic content. You can also promote other art pieces and simply link your art platform and your comic in the comment section. People that love your work may be curious enough to peek at it.
Q6: In your experience with Reddit, what type of subreddits are you posting in? Are they really specific for your comic and their themes? Or are they vague subreddits that anyone could post to?
I do have some communities like character design and world design. But my comic is NSFW so I can't post in SFW communities much. Noodle hate clothes after all. So I had to look for more ‘MATURE’ communities. One of my most productive ones being NSFW lamia sub.
Just because it is marked as being a NSFW community doesn’t mean that it has to be mature. There will be a lot, yes, but you can share your work there too. Any content related to the community subject is welcome. My full clothes innocent looking arachne was quite the bomb when I posted it on those types of communities. And they are ways less strict in the self-promo stuff and interacting. I spammed like crazy in those first few weeks before learning of self-promo rules. But that is just my opinion.
I will also poke on some fetish stuff when pages refer to some. Like long tongue(snake tongue), bondage(coiling) and vore(snake hungry). I'm quite the open girl and really… anything can be a fetish these days. So why shy away from potential readers. I got some great followers that have been with me for years, even decades, that found my comic because of their kink. They peeked because of it and stayed for the story. And I thank them for supporting me all these years. We are all human, and we all have our level and type of kinks.
Q7: Do you think that posting in more general subreddits or more niche and specific subreddits are more helpful?
In general subreddit, you have less chance to be noticed. Those communities have thousands of subjects all concentrating on one location cramping everything together. There are so many people posting each and every second that one post will get hidden quickly by another. Not easy to show yourself under all those other peoples.
It's best to go toward communities centered or touch your comic. Going for communities that are looking for specific subjects is the best because they are the audience you are looking for. Also less competition!!! Do you know how many monster girl comics are on monster girl community? Not much!!!! Which is why it's one of the best places for yours truly when promoting.
Q8: Speaking of specific subreddits, you’d actually made a forum post on GlobalComix that has a list of subreddits, can you explain to me and everyone what that is about? How is it helpful to other people? Can others contribute to it?
My first experience was terrible. If it wasn’t for people explaining how it worked and encouraging me to keep trying I would have given up. My forum post is to prepare creators on what they will face the best way I can and how to make their journey a little bit better.
Also, reddit is a real rabbit hole. It can take days to find a subject you may have in mind. It took me multiple tries before finding monster girls and even more for other communities in the same theme. Sometimes, you find one in pure luck. Which is why I made the list. So creators don’t have to take several hours/days exploring the depths of reddit when they could be working on their comic instead. Also a lot of NSFW communities may be quite intense to look at cause not all reddit content is art 0//,,//0 the things i saw!!!!
People can use the thread if they want to add more but most creators using my list go to the full supplier version on my reddit discord where anyone can share the communities they found.
They share the link, what is it about?, if it's SFW/NSFW? and if it was tested/good? We also have a section where you can chat together for help and advice and another one for more tricks to make your post stand out.If you promote it, they will come!!!!
Also be sure to read MousyLou's Comic here!
Lost souls, 241 pages - Published by MousyLou, (cc/ @mousylou)
Follow the journey of two Lost Souls, one a lab experiment that has only recently tasted freedom, the other a mysterious girl hiding from the world with only spirits for company. Watch how their fates collide and their primal natures clash against one another all the while the lab tries to claim back what it's lost.
Story and Art by MousyLou
