Since I can't change any story of the comic because I'm just translating it,
I'm just wonering what is the other key factor...

Advertising.

Being hosted by a community site will lower your apparent value in the eyes of many. It's hard to build a reader base with your own domain, but once you get established, you'll want to get one. It still won't give you any kind of "fame," depending on your definition. (What do you mean by "famous?" Readers? People linking to you? A market for books and merch? A spot in the newspaper headlines?)

Go on Oprah.

You might find the How do you make people read your comics? thread useful. :]

As you've said, you're just translating it. I've never seen any comments from the original authors about these comics in the forums. I also randomly selected Pink Lady from your comics and flipped through some of the more recent pages. Well, most of those are single panels that have no text to translate which doesn't exactly help your translator claim. I think the only way you're going to earn any respect from the community (or me at the minimum) is if you can prove this is a legitimate translation and you're not trying to get fame off of someone else's work.

Might sound harsh, but the fact that these works aren't yours is not going to work in your favor.

I think it's a Dickensian fantasy to imagine that you can just toil away faithfully, and eventually you'll be "discovered".

90% of success is legwork: shameless self-promotion, networking, exhausting every resource you have to promote your comic. It's more about marketing your product, as if it were a soda or a sneaker, than it is about talent. There are formulas that work, both in creating a comic that people will "buy", and in putting yourself out there. And even still, knowing all the while that your chances of fame and fortune are about equal to the chance of bein' struck by lightning.

It's the not-so-fun part of this junk that most people opt to eschew in favor of makin' a comic for fun and sharin' it with a handful of readers.

If you think you've got a professional quality comic, by all means, set your sites on fame. Just know that it'll take hard work to get there.

BlkKnight
Might sound harsh, but the fact that these works aren't yours is not going to work in your favor.

The question was how the COMIC not the PERSON can be famous. ;)

it can't. not easily anyway. most comics here are not known outside of the site. only the top comics on this site can even hope to be noticed elsewhere, and even then, it's through sites like topwebcomics.

@BlkKnight: Pink Lady is not hosted on Drunk Duck. You have to click the link below the single image to see it. The comic was hosted here but mamaya94 contacted the creator and she wishes for the comic to be only on her site.
So the translations are there. The comic is very good. Though I am very far behind on it as well.

mamaya94 only updates the comic on here when the creator on the other site uploads a new page that's been translated.

Hyenna if shameless self promotion is what it takes, then all aboard the Harko-express!
I cant fail!
(just check out my signature!)

1) Advertising.

2) You need to have something that gets people coming and coming and coming back. I cannot really properly explain HOW but just make sure you read every single page you make and you gotta be sure that every single page has something interesting in it. If you really gotta do a boring useless dialog type of blabla page, make sure that the 5 pages before and after that have something interesting in them.

kyupol
1) Advertising.

2) You need to have something that gets people coming and coming and coming back. I cannot really properly explain HOW but just make sure you read every single page you make and you gotta be sure that every single page has something interesting in it. If you really gotta do a boring useless dialog type of blabla page, make sure that the 5 pages before and after that have something interesting in them.

That.

I do think that number 2 is a little more tantamount than number 1, though, mainly because you can advertise your butt off and have a blah comic. You gotta have something worth reading, no matter what your genre is. Just my opinion.

It's really a number of factors:

Quality: If you're putting up poor artwork, no effort, and bad writing then no one is going to read it to begin with. In some cases you can excuse poor artwork if the writing is really good, as artwork of webcomics tends to improve over time (although the poor artwork in the older part of the archive then ends up being a liability towards new readers in a way). Personally, I know how to write, and I'm not a bad artist, but looking at my artwork objectively I realized it wasn't good enough for a professional site. Instead of sitting there doing nothing I hired an artist, and for the last year we've been building a good site. So in other words, in one way or another, you may have to pay to make them stay.

Advertisements: If you're site isn't being linked then the only people reading it will be those few you've shown it to. Return readers are great, but they tend to come back about half as many times, or less, than you post each week. In addition less people than you think will promote your site for you, unless they're a die hard fan.

Consistancy: Post your pages the same day, and the same frequency every week. Not doing this, or putting up filler pages, will annoy readers, and make them jump ship. Some will come back later if you fix what you did wrong, but others won't.

Be a shameless sitewhore: Only a fool would think promoting your site would hurt it. Although you need to follow the given rules of a site/forum/etc, you should do whatever it takes to expose your site. Bribe people if you have to. Threaten them. Well, maybe not that last one. I will also add that helping others helps you, especially in a forum like this one. Reviewing people's comic will give you a chance to put a free link (your sig banner), and it will garner respect from the authors you review (although it you did a negative review it might not.)

There's more, and more, and more, but that's all that's coming to mind at the moment. I'd suggest using Project Wonderful to get hits for your site. My main site gets five hundred or so hits a day when I advertise at a dollar a day. It's a decent strategy, and over time it will attract loyal readers.

usedbooks

BlkKnight
Might sound harsh, but the fact that these works aren't yours is not going to work in your favor.

The question was how the COMIC not the PERSON can be famous. ;)

Good point,I'm more interested in advertising the comic,Not me...I don't care if anyone don't know my name

You shouldn't really concern yourself with popularity or being famous.
Do the comic for yourself. Everything else is just an extra perk.

I've noticed that a good handful of the comics getting the most hits on Drunk Duck are actually paying for advertisement space on even more popular comics offsite. But I agree with the sentiment that if your comic isn't really good, people simply won't come back.

But most of all, elmatto's right. It's not even really something to worry about. If you let your thirst for fans dictate how you make your comic, it will only lead to disappointment and wasted effort. Or Garfield.

elmatto
You shouldn't really concern yourself with popularity or being famous.
Do the comic for yourself. Everything else is just an extra perk.

So true.

Hyena H_ll
I think it's a Dickensian fantasy to imagine that you can just toil away faithfully, and eventually you'll be "discovered".

90% of success is legwork: shameless self-promotion, networking, exhausting every resource you have to promote your comic. It's more about marketing your product, as if it were a soda or a sneaker, than it is about talent. There are formulas that work, both in creating a comic that people will "buy", and in putting yourself out there. And even still, knowing all the while that your chances of fame and fortune are about equal to the chance of bein' struck by lightning.

It's the not-so-fun part of this junk that most people opt to eschew in favor of makin' a comic for fun and sharin' it with a handful of readers.

If you think you've got a professional quality comic, by all means, set your sites on fame. Just know that it'll take hard work to get there.

have you tried advertising at a Comic-Con of any sort?

hey, getting famous isn't such a bad goal! it's my goal... er.. I mean, not necessarily for my comic, but for something, someday. Like maybe a novelist? Or for another, more sophisticated and awesome comic?

I think that to get famous, first and foremost you have to have a really, really great work. Market the hell out of something that's just ok, and you might end up with some readers, but nothing all that long-lasting. But if you have something that's worthy of fame, and you make a real attempt to get it out there to the public, and you'll get a fanbase.

I think with DD you have to advertise to really get lots of readers... maybe not enough non-comic-making people check the site out...

manicmerganser
have you tried advertising at a Comic-Con of any sort?

Nah- gonna wait until I have the first four issues put together in a book before I get serious about it. ;)

I would be too scared to go to a comic con.
I'd be sat at a stall being ignored by thousands of people who wouldn't know who I am or care one way or the other about what I have to tell them.
That is how I imagine it would go anyway.

Maybe when I get a giant mega following and I would be guaranteed having people there who wanted to meet me or listen to me self promote in my trade mark style.

But right now, I wouldn't want to be reminded of how insignificant I am.
From in front of my computer screen I can pretend I am as popular as I like!

harkovast
I would be too scared to go to a comic con.
I'd be sat at a stall being ignored by thousands of people who wouldn't know who I am or care one way or the other about what I have to tell them.
That is how I imagine it would go anyway.

Maybe when I get a giant mega following and I would be guaranteed having people there who wanted to meet me or listen to me self promote in my trade mark style.

But right now, I wouldn't want to be reminded of how insignificant I am.
From in front of my computer screen I can pretend I am as popular as I like!

I've done open portfolio sessions at a bunch of printmaking conferences, so it ain't so scary. Trust me, you get used to people glancing yer way.

Hyena H_ll

harkovast
I would be too scared to go to a comic con.
I'd be sat at a stall being ignored by thousands of people who wouldn't know who I am or care one way or the other about what I have to tell them.
That is how I imagine it would go anyway.

Maybe when I get a giant mega following and I would be guaranteed having people there who wanted to meet me or listen to me self promote in my trade mark style.

But right now, I wouldn't want to be reminded of how insignificant I am.
From in front of my computer screen I can pretend I am as popular as I like!

I've done open portfolio sessions at a bunch of printmaking conferences, so it ain't so scary. Trust me, you get used to people glancing yer way.

I've never been to a con either, but I'm more scared of people actually coming my way. Me self-promote? Good lord, I'd suck at that.
Me at a con: "Um....I make a comic...um....about vampires....uhhhh, WANT A STICKER? IT STICKS TO THINGS."

I've got some sort of geurilla advertising plan in the works for when I've finally got at least 30 pages up.

That and I'm also working on animated trailers.

I'm going to need to advertise on the voice acting club for them since the VAA hasn't brought up any results.

Doesn't help that the voices are very specific and not every applicant is gonna feel comfortable with the characters they're going to be portraying.

If all else fails I could do animated speech bubbles or subtitles on it.

And I don't even really want to be famous... At least until I know where I want to go with my life. If enough people like what I do I could end up taking this route while leaving my other talents as hobbies.

Me at a con: "Um....I make a comic...um....about vampires....uhhhh, WANT A STICKER? IT STICKS TO THINGS."

I rofl'd.

As everyone else said, advertising helps a lot as long as you advertise in the right places. I personally wouldn't know, I have no money to pay for advertising because I'm too young to work and my parents basically buy me everything. Though I was thinking of asking for money to advertise rather than getting a deviantart subscription for my birthday, but that's beside the point.

Being famous is overrated. When someone's comic gets really famous, I think people lose sight of why they began doing the comic in the first place. It's like my excuse for being bad at sports: when you're average, your expectations aren't as high and you can have a lot more fun. Make comics for the pleasure of making comics. At the end of the day, I think I'd much rather be making a comic with less than 30 fans than not doing a comic at all!

ozoneocean

elmatto
You shouldn't really concern yourself with popularity or being famous.
Do the comic for yourself. Everything else is just an extra perk.

So true.

Yeah. If the satisfaction of getting it done in and of itself isn't enough for you, you'll never be able to maintain the motivation it takes to put in the endless hours of hard work to produce good quality. Plus people's love for what they're doing always shines through, and it's one of the biggest factors that keeps readers coming back. If you're just going through the motions, it will show, and whether they consciously realize it or not, it'll turn people off.