Best of Webcomics.com – April 2015
Now, more than ever, it’s easy to see what a subscription to Webcomics.com will get you.
Every Friday, you can read the entire Archive Dive post without a subscription. This is a post from the site’s archive that I pull out front again because it still has relevant information you can use today. This is especially nice for newer subscribers (or anyone else) who may have missed it when it originally ran.
Plus, at the beginning of every month, I do a wrap-up that highlights some of the best posts — from the site as well as the private forum — from the preceding month.
If you’re curious about joining, we’ve 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.
Please note: The links below will lead you to content that is “subscription-only” content. Why do I do this? Simple. If you see something that intrigues you and decide to subscribe, you can come back here and use this post to jump right to the post that caught your attention. And once you do that, use the other Best Of posts to drill even deeper into the site!
Best of the site
Are you mobile-friendly? Bar none, this was a site-wide highlight in April. On April 16, Google announced that it would include”mobile-friendliness” in its criteria for determining PageRank — which affects everything from your search ranking to the quality of you ads. This threw a lot of webcartoonists into turmoil, struggling with how to stay within Google’s parameters. Within 24 hours, Webcomics.com had posted a solution that took about 5 minutes to install.
Stop playing ‘Favorites’: This post talked about the importance of creators supporting other creators on social media. After all, we know how this stuff works, so we know the added benefits of retweeting, for instance, over merely “favoriting” a post. So why don’t we put that know-how into how we do social media?
Inside the Cartoonist’s Studio: We started a new feature called Inside the Cartoonist’s Studio. Participants can post photos of their workplaces and write a short piece describing their workflow, approach to comics, etc. The post is public, so everyone can see it — and follow the link to the participant’s comic.
Hot Seat critique: The current critique series is “Hitch It / Ditch It.” I identify one thing a participant is doing that could stand improvement, and one thing the person is doing that is working great.
Four Steps to Update WP Plug-ins Across Multiple Sites: If you run several WP sites, this little trick can save you a lot of time.
Is ‘Webcomics’ a Bad Word? A Mailbag writer asks: “Do you think the term “webcomic” creates an unnecessary divide between print and digital delivery?
Filing for an extension with the IRS: Since it was tax time, I posted some handy information for people feeling the weight of April 15.
Thumbnail sketches: They’re so important, but so few of us take this step in our process. I write some thoughts on approaching this better.
How to work with scanned lineart in Photoshop
Q2 Slump: What to do: If you were affected by the annual second-quarter slump in ad revenue, I shared some tips on optimizing other revenue sources to fill in the gaps.
How to add a Share button through Jetpack: What if you want to use a social-media button that’s not pre-loaded into Jetpack? We show you how.
Paypal’s new TOS: As usual, with a new TOS comes a new wave of panic. This lawyer sheds some light on what the new TOS actually means.
Copyright Office launches new Fair Use index: If you want to understand copyright better — particularly in the case of Fair Use — here’s a new tool for you to use.
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