Motivational Sketches: Taking out the Trash
Wanna get warmed up for another week of cartooning? Then join us for a Motivational Sketch. This week’s phrase is “Taking out the trash.”The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
Wanna get warmed up for another week of cartooning? Then join us for a Motivational Sketch. This week’s phrase is “Taking out the trash.”The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
This post has been kindly submitted by member Raymond Arotin. |
There are several ways that developers have sought to “improve” the reading experience of digital comics. On the Kindle Fire, it’s called “Panel View.” Comixology’s version is “Guided View.” (Scroll down for a video comparing the two.)
I have to be honest… I really hate them. To me, there’s nothing more annoying than to be squinting at a comic on a tablet and then having to “tap – tap” on the screen… and then having to turn your screen from portrait to landscape, just to see that one panel, then turn it again to go back to portrait, to see other panels better. All that does is throw me out of the story. Even just simply tapping to enlarge is annoying… even if I don’t have to turn my tablet.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
Today’s Archive Dive comes from last year when we talked about Search Engine Optimization.
Don’t let anybody misinform you: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) matters, and it matters a lot.
Although it should go without explanation, here’s why: Google is the Number One Web site in the world (with an estimated 900 million unique visitors a month). Yahoo is Number 3, and Bing is Number 10.
And most of those people are on those sites for one reason and one reason alone: They’re looking for content. It boggles my mind that the same people who are yearning to extend the reach of their comic beyond the “webcomics community” can’t see the value of SEO. It is — absolutely — your ability to reach new readers. And that’s what we’re all trying to do, right?
So, SEO… if you underestimate it, you’re making a grave mistake.
To that end, I wanted to share ten tips I’ve collected to help you move towards optimizing your site’s SEO potential. They’re easy, intuitive, effective ways to improve your ability to grow your site.
Read the entire post and comment there.
According to Comics Alliance, the closing of Graphic.ly has left some participating creators with doubts that they will get paid by the one-time ComiXology rival. From the story:
You wouldn’t be alone if you believed that Graphicly shut down in 2012, when the company switched from being a digital comics platform to an ebook distributor. Now that it has officially closed its doors. the company has reportedly left quite a few comics creators in the lurch in regards to payment for works they published through Graphicly.
The post features links to a Comics Beat story that alleges that Graphic.ly’s financial woes have been longstanding, as well as a piece that quotes Graphic.ly participants who allege, in some case, that they never received payment from Graphic.ly.
Did any of the members of Webcomics.com participate in Graphic.ly? If so, what were your experiences?
Read More: Graphicly Closure Leads To Unpaid Creators | http://comicsalliance.com/graphicly-closure-unpaid-creators-digital-comics/?trackback=tsmclip
You wouldn’t be alone if you believed that Graphicly shut down in 2012, when the company switched from being a digital comics platform to an ebook distributor. Now that it has officially closed its doors. the company has reportedly left quite a few comics creators in the lurch in regards to payment for works they published through Graphicly.
Read More: Graphicly Closure Leads To Unpaid Creators | http://comicsalliance.com/graphicly-closure-unpaid-creators-digital-comics/?trackback=tsmclip
Read More: Graphicly Closure Leads To Unpaid Creators | http://comicsalliance.com/graphicly-closure-unpaid-creators-digital-comics/?trackback=tsmclip
This is the latest installment of the current round of Hitch It / Ditch it HotSeat critiques. The rules are simple. I go to your site and list one thing I think you’re doing very well, and then I talk about one thing you might be able to do better. As always, this serves merely as the starting-off point for a larger discussion among the members.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
I’m really happy to see that some members of the site are starting to submit guest posts/columns! And I want to make it worth your while to do so, so (as you’ve already seen) I’m going to offer a little promotion from the site as a thank you. Each guest post will be accompanied by a small box that identified you as the author and links to your comic. You can even upload your comic’s logo.
We’re looking for tutorials, and webcomics-related news. But we’ll also happily consider opinion pieces and posts that call for the members to engage in a deeper discussion of a webcomics-related topic.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
If you’re not a member of Webcomics.com, here are some of the topics you missed out on last month. If you’re curious about joining, we’ve just made it easier than ever with a $5 trial membership. You’ll get full access to the site for thirty days so you can see what you’ve been missing. At the end of the trial, you can choose to re-subscribe ($30 for 12 months of access) or walk away with no strings attached. You will not be re-billed unless you choose to subscribe.
The links will lead you to content that is “subscription-only” content, but I like to link to it for the people that see something intriguing, join, and then want to delve into what they missed.
Critiques: The Webcomics.com critiques are a great way to discuss the craft of cartooning in real-life terms and situations. This month, we offered our popular Hitch It / Ditch It critique. I reviewed the comics/sites of participants and identified one thing that I thought was exemplary about their work as well as one thing that I thought could stand improvement. Then the members joined in for a fuller discussion.
Square expanded the features of its popular credit-card-processing app with the ability to process transactions offline.
Mailbag Q&A: Is it too soon to run ads on my site?
Disqus: A bug was reported that caused text ads to appear — even though users had opted out of that part of the Disqus service. We discussed the bug, and asked a more important question: If the text ads are unobtrusive, you it make sense to opt in to such a service?
WordPress Pro-Tip: Auto Embed. We discussed how to use WordPress’ auto-embed feature to make quick work of posting blogs with extra media features, and we provided a comprehensive list of sites enabled for this feature.
Syndicate content to Tumblr: We identified a quick-and easy way to automatically post your site’s content to Tumblr.
PageRank Status: This tutorial showed how to keep your site’s PageRank status in full view.
eBay hacked: When eBay announced that their site had been hacked, we were out with an alert and instructions on how to protect yourself.
Photoshop Pro-Top: Rotate Canvas.
#YesAllWomen: Could reading the #YesAllWomen hashtag feed make you a better writer?
Photoshop ProTip: Tool Presets. (Step-by-step tutorial)
ComicsPress and Comic Easel beta testing: Our members were given the opportunity to help test out the new versions of these popular webcomics stand-bys.
Should I re-draw old comics before publishing a book?
Scanning line art into Manga Studio
How to format desktop wallpaper
Setting a minimum bid on a Project Wonderful ad space
To Do List app
This week’s Webcomics.com Poll asks about some of the more popular revenue streams available to webcartoonists. To participate, scroll down the right-hand column and click on as many responses as apply to you. There are sure to be a large number of answers that do not appear on the pool. Feel free to discuss them in the the Comments section of this post.
Last week, the Webcomics.com Poll asked how many times per week you updated.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
Philip M. “Frumph” Hofer is preparing to release new versions of the ComicsPress and Easel themes.
If you would like to be among the vanguard of webcartoonists using his ubiquitous CMSs, here’s how.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.