Slashdot Mirror
Promoting Webcomics?
krf asks: "Have any other Slashdot readers ever tried to get a webcomic off the ground? What promotional tricks have you used? I've been doing my strip for a couple of months now. Traffic is good, but not great. I think that most of my visitors are friends or people who heard of the site via word-of-mouth. I'm looking for ways to bring the strip to a larger audience. I've submitted links to most of the big webcomics pages, but a lot of the 'top 100'ish lists seem pretty tacky - kind of like linking pyramid schemes. I've paid for some very targeted advertising, but not many people click on ads any more. I've even tried getting in to local print outlets, with very limited success. I enjoy writing and drawing the strip, but it's always nice to know that other people are reading it. I'd appreciate any advice Slashdot readers might have to offer."
You got already the slashvertisement. If your strip is any good, you'll have some increased traffic. :)
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Building an audience takes time, and for the sites I've done, word of mouth rewarded me a hundred times better than any paid advertising or shameless plugging I've attempted. Consistently put out a good product and slowly the people who like it will tell others about it.
Put your URL in your sig when you post here or anywhere--don't expect visitors to do all the work by clicking on your profile to find your home page. And when you visit online boards you intend to shamelessly plug, don't. Just participate in the discussions that interest you, leave your URL in the sig, and make some friends. Assist the people you can, and learn from the people who can help you. If they don't like your work, at least you've made some friends.
Believe it or not, getting a bunch of exposure too early can backfire because you might not have enough content or skill to hook people. I got an interview with the New York Times about my audiobook project when I'd only been around a month or so with about twenty recordings, which just wasn't enough to keep the audience interested. That led to a Slashdotting and a lot of buzz at the time, but if that would have happened now, a year and fifty offerings later, I might have been able to appeal to a larger percentage of the audience, to keep them coming back. But instead I've had to work to steadily attract new people.
I also did a webcomic for just over a year as a learning project. By the time I discontinued the comic I had about twice as many readers as I thought I had, and many of them emailed me to tell me they were sorry to see it end. I was growing my audience and didn't even realize it.
Be patient and do good work. Create an opt-in mailing list and don't abuse it. Send out press releases. Onlinecomics.net is a good thing to be a part of, as is the Webcomics day event. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck.
Alex.
Before anybody accuses me of being a snob, I wish to point out that my absolute favorite online comic is the offensive, gross, disgusting, tasteless -- and extremely funny -- Sexy Losers.
1) be good
2) be novel
3) get on the various webcomic lists
4) you will get readers
The most common fault of webcomics is an utter lack of #1 or #2. Most webcomics are sloppily drawn, plotless, lacking any characterization beyond stereotypes, and using hur-hur sarcasm, nonsense, and gross-out as a substitute for humor. And they all have the same damn "wacky flatmates" formula.
Amongst this dross, even moderate quality stands out and gets noticed.
If I'm reading your site right, you have all of twenty-one comics online.
Compare the twenty-first Sluggy Freelance with the most recent one (note the current Saturday is another artist), or the the twenty-first Penny Arcade with the latest one.
You've barely begun. You've barely begun to refine your style, you've barely begun to find your voice... and you're in direct competition with the comics I just listed, along with a lot of others.
If you're honestly offended that the world isn't beating a path to your door after 21 comics, either get out, or stop caring about your audience numbers, right now. It doesn't work that way. Comics are an opportunity to fame and some modest fortune, but it is hardly a guarantee.
Everybody starts out slow. Frankly and honestly, having seen your site, I'm in no hurry to go back. Your comics aren't that good yet, and your drawing style needs some refinement; right now you're giving me that "ouch, that looks like it hurts" feeling on a lot of your humans as their arms bend in wierd ways and their proportions are off; everything is off model. But... like I said, everybody starts out slow. Sluggy freelance is horribly off-model by the modern standards and the Penny Arcade comic almost seems to be two completely different people than the modern main characters, with only their clothing to indicate continuity. This should be both an encouragement and a challenge.
If the fact that you're going to need to put years into this before seeing any kind of payoff bothers you, you need to quit now and try something else. If this doesn't bother you, ideally because it is something you want to do anyhow, then keep going. If you simply reject this criticism, or it really ruins your day, comic drawing probably isn't for you, either.
One last thing: This needn't be your last comic ever; this can be a "practice" series and nobody need ever know. If you get a better idea, drop this one and start a new one. In particular, I'm not sure you've got the humor chops to pull off single-shot jokes; those are probably the hardest comics to create, and even the masters like Larson did an awful lot of repeating themselves and got in a rut pretty quickly. Consider a more, although perhaps not entirely, character-based comic, with one-shot jokes as you come up with them.
Give yourself 5 years, which seems to be how long it really takes to get going with comics, with continued improvement up to around the 10 year mark where you level off. (This closely parallels the development of any skill; programming works almost identically to this.) Re-assess your progress honestly. I for one would most likely be forced to rationally concede at about year two that I'm not going to make it; only you can decide where you stand.
(Note to people offended about the percieved negativity in this message: Committing to a comic is a serious undertaking... despite what they may have told you in school, which strives to be a Happy Fun Place, not everybody can do everything, and encouraging somebody to do something they shouldn't, which results in a major waste of time (the only non-replenishable resource we have) is evil, not nice. I don't give a flying fuck about "nice", I care about good, and being good here requires some feedback to the poster that isn't all ooshy-gooshy and nice. If he can power through this, then maybe he has what it takes, and he can gain strength from this. If this is enough to de-rail him, that is a strong net good. Don't mindlessly encourage, you think you're being nice but you're really being evil.)
That's how I heard about P-A and DieselSweeties when they were the NKOTB
No sig for you!!
..and keep doing it.
:) good going.
don't base the decision if you're going to keep doing it on if the pageviews are on rise or not.
get returning viewers. make so rude and good jokes that they'll get posted all around irc and bbs's.. that way new people find your page.
btw.. some funny stuff in there
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
As the old saying goes, "A good product sells itself".
I am not--in any way--a humor professional. So my not liking your comic may not carry any weight. But the comics mostly seem flat, with the occasional tasteless pterodactyl-snatching baby gag thrown in out of desperation. Visually, I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish.
My first instinct is to tell you to give up. But since you'll most likely ignore that advice, my second piece of advice is to ditch the 'variety show' format and go with a more character-driven approach. As you develop the characters, they give you new ideas and new directions, and they carry past humorous triumphs with them. When you have to spend hours and hours fumbling for the next idea, it's a great relief to know that you can just fall back to, say, drawing Dogbert in a silly hat.
Gary Larson succeeded with the variety show approach. But he had so many brilliant ideas to work with, every comic could stand on its own. Also, his art was distinctive, so the people in each comic felt pleasantly familiar, even when you'd never seen them.
You need to be putting out new product daily, if you want to become part of a person's daily routine. this "when I get around to it" scheduling. Weekly is only good if you have a lot of content to put out every week (ala The Onion).
Again looking at Gary Larson, you'll notice that his art, while seemingly clumsy in an earnest ninth-grader sort of way, greatly added to the comic. Your visual style is all over the map. It doesn't have to be good, but it does have to be catchy and consistent.
So introduce some actual characters, discipline your artwork and your production schedule, and if the end result is good enough, shameless self-promotional Slashdot submissions won't be needed. Get people laughing, and they'll want everyone else to laugh along.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
Are you doing this comic by yourself? People who can draw aren't necessarily funny/entertaining/interesting, and people who are can't necessarily draw. You need to find someone to team up w/. (Note that Scott Kurtz has a wife, and w/out her, he'd just be another worthless fat man...)
Great webcomickers who are solo acts are the exception, not the rule.
[o]_O