If you think that comics are fun for kids, then you haven’t read this case study. In fact, serious money can be made in this niche with the right approach.
Inside the case, we don’t just showcase our publishers’ impressive revenue — we break down the market, share tools and strategies that led him to success and helped earn $300k, and give you everything you need to unlock your website’s full potential as well.
Read further and see for yourself!
Even better, see for yourself in practice!
Key Points
- Period: From March of 2024 until now
- Website category: Non-mainstream
- TOP GEOs: JP, CN, US
- Total Earnings: $300,579
Monetize Manga website Smarter
You don’t need a crystal ball to know that manga is getting more and more popular year after year. Promo activities of global brands also mark its trend. For example, McDonald’s released its anime universe called “Mcdonalds.” But let’s step back to our topic.
To drive more traffic, you need to know where it’s coming from the most. We collected fresh data about manga popularity across the world, alongside target audience descriptions in each region, to help you make better-informed decisions.
Japanese Market
Japan continues to lead as the top GEO for manga fans:
- Digital manga sales hit ~$3.3 billion in 2024
- Manga drove 90% of Japan’s e-book market in 2024
- Way back in 2019, 33% of Japanese people said they often read manga or watch anime (imagine how many people will do that in 2025).
Manga outside of Japan: Situation on Other Markets
Japanese readers strongly dominate as a target audience of manga comics – but they are not the only ones interested in it. Moreover, sometimes, by focusing on smaller audiences, you may achieve bigger results. This is why it’s essential to consider other markets as well. Here is a small comparison of different digital manga markets with the Japanese industry:
| Total market size in 2024 (USD) | Demographics (age, gender trends) | Device usage (mobile vs. desktop) | |
| Japan | ~$3.3B | Mainly teens, young adults in 30s | ~83% of females read on phones |
| United States | ~$1.1B | 70% of readers <24, majority female (58%) | Smartphone-dominated |
| China | ~$3.1B | Mainly teens, young adults in 20s | Smartphone-dominated |
Key Data Takeaways
- There are three key regions with increased manga-related comics recognition: Japan, the United States, and China.
- 58% of digital-comics readers are men
- 32% of digital-comics readers are at the age of 18-34
- Digital manga readers spend a noticeably larger amount of time reading via smartphones and tablets rather than laptops.
Manga Website Monetization with HilltopAds
HilltopAds publisher – Takumi.
Takumi’s website has 1.8M visitors monthly and approximately $20K in profits per month.
Of course, such a case caught our attention. We decided to share Takumi’s story with everyone – to inspire and provide insights so you can boost website profits as well.
We contacted Takumi and prepared this case study together – to show you that big profits with monetization are for everyone. You just need the courage to take it (and a reliable partner with high CPM rates, like HilltopAds). Takumi, mic to you!
Takumi
Publisher from HilltopAds
Seeking for ways to make money with my website on affiliate marketing forums, I found HilltopAds – platform with weekly payouts, and variety of ad zones (Popunders, Videos, In-Pages, Banners and Multitags).
Publishers also have full control over the ads set up, from frequency to the themes. I thought that it might be a win-win for all: my users receive the most relevant ad experience, and I get higher payouts.
After registration, I contacted a personal manager. Together, we identified the weak spots of my website and developed a plan to maximize its potential. Here are five key points I focused on at the beginning of my journey with HilltopAds:
- Implemented a recommendation system. Now, users explore content from the ‘New Releases’, ‘Others Read’, ‘Continue’, and ‘Favourite’ sections.
- Loading speed. I regularly connect to a VPN and go to my website as I am reaching it from other GEOs. This way, I ensure that users from my top GEOs have a smooth experience.
- Multi-lingual versions of the website and comics. Below, I will tell you more about why it’s important and how you can do the same with the help of AI.
- Promoted website with social media. You can’t rely solely on a single traffic source, because there are high chances that you can lose everything in a short time. I put my effort into diversifying my traffic channels.
Do you want to find out the weaknesses of your website
which are preventing you from earning maximum income?
Website Statistics
Here are the details of the manga website the publisher monetizes with HilltopAds:
- SEO accounts for nearly 25% of all visits. It highlights that content is well-optimized by keywords and titles.
- 98.5% of all traffic comes from Japan, yet other regions have a smaller contribution to the success.
- Bounce rate is 42.19%, monthly visits are 1.8m, and the average visit duration is 2:52 – all these details mean that the publisher has real high-interested in his website audience.
Ways the publisher uses to monetize his website
To monetize a website, the publisher started working with the HilltopAds Popunder ad format. For now, the publisher uses our Popunder and MultiTag Banner ad formats. Here are the details he started working with HilltopAds:
Step 1
Registered as a publisher (you can do that using this link)
Step 2
Verified his website using a verification file. To do that, go to the Manage Site & Zones section, add your website domain, select its category, and download a verification file or copy a verification meta tag.
Note: Mainstream category is for websites that do not contain age restrictions.
Most websites are verified automatically. If you have any issues or questions, contact your personal manager. You can also read our step-by-step guide here.
After your website is verified, you can create an ad zone
Step 3
The publisher selected an ad format. Firstly, he started working with HilltopAds popunder by DirectLink. But we pay much higher when publishers use our JS code for Popunder ads. It helps Publishers to avoid Ad Blockers and customize Popunder ads showing.
Step 4
Scaled his monetization strategy. The publisher tests different HilltopAds formats. For now, he works with Popunder and MultiTag Banner ads.
Please note – we recommend you to test HilltopAds ads for not less than 72 hours. This time the HilltopAds system needs to optimize your CPM rates and make it the highest on the market.
Website Monetization results with HilltopAds
Here you can see a screenshot of the publisher earnings and payouts from the HilltopAds account. The total earnings are $300,579 for just one year!
Learn more real stories from the HilltopAds publishers on how they earn thousands of dollars!
Extra Tips for Manga Websites Monetization
Before we end, here are some tips to monetize manga websites even more effectively:
Multilingual manga versions
To reach a wider audience, use an AI tool to translate comics. It’s super simple: set up, upload the comic image and get it back in the needed language. This approach will help you to attract engaged users from multiple GEOs at once.
Colorized Comics
While original manga is traditionally black and white, young readers — used to high-quality visuals — tend to respond better to color adaptations. That’s why try to offer two variations: one in color and one in black and white. It doesn’t take too much extra time for you, but for users, it’s a unique experience.
To do this, you can use ColorFlow.
Conclusion
As you can see, making money online with your manga website is much easier than it looks. Attract high-quality organic audiences to your website using different channels from SEO to social media platforms, try different ways to monetize your website, and, of course, work with the best ad networks for publishers such as HilltopAds.
With HilltopAds you will get safe, clean and Adsense-friendly ads, personal support without hidden requirements, weekly payouts, the highest CPM rates, and much more. All these benefits will help you earn $300k and even more!
Add your website and earn today!
- Personal manager
- Payments every Tuesday
- Self-serve platform
- Multiple ad formats
- Adsense-friendly ads