LINE Webtoon? Tapas? Instagram? Facebook? Tumblr? Reddit? Hiveworks? Self-Hosted? WordPress?

When considering where to publish a comic, creators are often faced with a daunting question; what is the best platform for hosting my webcomic? Where I can I get maximum exposure for new readers to my comic. This post will try and delve into the various options for comic creators.

When it comes to social media, three options quickly come to mind. Instagram, Reddit, and Imgur. Both Reddit and Imgur have sections that are exclusively dedicated to comics. Be aware though that the readers here can be very harsh critics especially to newbie creators. If you are just starting out, your best bet is to hold off on both Reddit and Imugr. For social media Instagram is the place to be for cartoonists of all stripes. It has a thriving comic community that is supportive of creators that range from those just starting out, to established cartoonists. Can’t stress this enough, Instagram should be your first stop when it comes to social media. At this point you may be asking, what about Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr? Based on feedback from several comic creators, you are unlikely to gain any traction from these three options. But before ruling out any social media platform, try, posting on all of them, say, for a month. Figure out which platform get’s the most readership interaction,and then stick with that platform.

The same rule of thumb applies to the two most popular webcomic/webtoon portals: LINE Webtoon and Tapas. They both have a pre-established rabid mass of readers that are specifically geared towards comics. Some of the comics have as many as a million dedicated readers worldwide! Try posting on both for at least a month, figure out which one get’s the most readers/subscribers and stick with one. That is if you are not up to the task of posting to both websites on a regular basis. For what is worth, LINE Webtoon has gained a reputation as being much friendlier to the webcomic creator in terms of revenue sharing, syndication offers and copyright protections.

Your final option for publishing your comic online is self-hosting your website. One word of caution. You would have to do a lot of leg work in terms of Search Engine Optimization and marketing to drive new reader traffic to the website. Being aware of that, you would need to do the following:

1. Purchase a domain name for your website
2. Purchase web hosting for your website
3. Hire a web designer/developer for your website or use prebuilt website templates that are built for comics.

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If you are on a budget and cannot afford a web designer/developer, your best option would be to purchase a web hosting plan that supports WordPress. Then you can download some free WordPress plugins and themes that are specifically built for webcomics. The two best options available are: ComicPress/Comic Easel and Toocheke. Both give you the ability to publish setup your webcomic site fairly quickly, and can be easily customized by someone with little to no experience with web design. They both offer features like a comic archive, and comic navigation links.

While comic readers rarely go to self-hosted comic websites(that is unless the comic is widely popular) it never hurts to have comic hosted on your own website. You never know when the other platforms(social media/webcomic portals) you post on may go down. A self-hosted website provides a central hub where readers can get to follow their favorite comic.

So to sum it up, your best bet is trying to post on as many platforms as possible,  with a pre-established webcomic readerership, find the one that works for you, and stick with it. Having a self-hosted website is not necessary, but if you want one and are working on a budget, consider using WordPress.