Best of Webcomics.com — June 2016
June was an excellent example of the tremendous value offered by a one-year subscription to Webcomics.com ($2.50 a month). My readers got early alerts on issues that would impact their businesses, helpful tutorials, insightful analysis, and meaningful feedback on their work.
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.
Patreon’s “Charge Upfront” Feature
Patreon is rolling out a “Charge Upfront” payment feature in which patrons get charged immediately when they pledge — and then at the first of the month every month thereafter. This is an attempt to counteract “ghost pledging.” I was invited to beta-test upfront charging, and I share my analysis — and it’s not what my readers expected to hear.
Hitch It / Ditch It Critique
In June, we launched another round of the popular “Hitch It / Ditch It” critique series. The rules are simple: I go to your site and point of one thing you’re doing well, and one thing that might stand some improvement. The discussion goes on from there as the members join in with their thoughts.
Using ID tags as part of your social-media and SEO strategy
Lately, I’ve been re-doubling my efforts towards blogging. There are two reasons. First, with two updates a week, it’s not only more important to take that opportunity to try to get my messages across, but it’s much easier than when I was doing a daily strip. Secondly, now that my business has shifted from a ad-supported to a subscriber-supported model, it’s crucial that I try to make that blog a bigger part of my outreach.
What I have found is that I have been able to use my beefed-up blog as part of a greater social-media strategy as well. And it’s all thanks to a very simple HTML tag.
Webcomics.com Poll: The End of the Schedule?
The latest Webcomics.com poll indicates another huge sea change in the webcomics business model. The question was simple: On which day(s) does your webcomic update. A surprising number of people indicated something that would have been spelled instant death a few years ago.
A full 27% of the respondents indicated that the has no schedule for updates whatsoever.
It’s logical to assume that the rest of the results are from the 73% left over who do have an update schedule.
That makes that 27% much more significant.
Of the scheduled webcomics, Friday was the top response, with 35% of the responses. Wednesday was second popular.
That’s pretty interesting.
When I asked the same question in 2011, Monday was the most popular update day —with Friday a close second.
Manga Studio Lettering Tutorial — Video
I’m convinced that the way Manga Studio (aka Clip Studio Paint) handles lettering is one in a long list of features that makes it a superior comics-creation software package.
- It breaks you out of the text-box approach (see below).
- It treats the text and the word balloon (and the word-balloon tails) as a single entity
- The enables you to group all of your word balloons in a folder — and adjust the opacity of that folder to better integrate the word balloons into the panels
- It enables you to create complex — yet easily manipulated — compound word balloons
I posted a video showing all of the above points in action.
Ten Tips for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
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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.
UPS rate hike
UPS is making two changes next month that are liable to affect your bottom line. It’s raising its shipping rates, and it’s reducing its “oversize” threshold.
Here’s a PDF describing the rate hike. The oversize threshold works like this: Previously, items that were over 60 inches on the package’s longest side qualified for an extra handling charge. That dimension has been reduced to 48 inches. So now, if you’re shipping something that measures over 48 inches on its longest side, you’ll be charged an extra $10.50 for handling.
Both changes are official on July 11, 2016.
Mailbag: Do I have enough pageviews to launch merchandise?
Q.: I have a webcomic that gets around 1500 pageviews a day. I’d thought of that as a small number, but I work in an online marketing company, and my boss and co-workers were telling me that I should be thinking of monetization. I’m not sure if I want to be focusing on that yet (I’ve been reading a lot of the articles here on writing and sitcom structure, and improving the actual comic is my short-term goal), but I’m wondering if this is something I should be thinking about in the medium term.
A.: Take those pageview stats and Facebook Likes and throw them out the window. Here’s why…
Mailbag: Should a first-time cartoonist “keep it short”?
Q.: I was reading an article about some things new comic creators should do, and avoid. For the most part the article gave really good advice, however, one piece of advice struck me as odd and I was curious what others thought. It said that for new creators, a long episodic comic should be avoided, and in its place the creator should do something shorter. The reasoning was that new creators need experience in crafting comics and shorter story (maybe something over the course of a year) would help them build the tools necessary to do a long, episodic comic. I also want to be clear that I respect and love the creator who gave the advice. Just wanted to get others to weigh in and share some thoughts.
A.: I think that’s pretty smart advice — especially considering s/he’s talking specifically to people who are new to creating comics. And here’s why…
Reinventing Webcomics
In May, I posted 12 Ways You’re Doing Patreon Wrong. In it, I advocated moving away from an ad-supported business model, and into a subscription-supported model. After one member read the piece, they asked:
Q. I have a question about this: Do you EVER provide the paid material to the general population? I.e. if Patreon subscribers get your NSFW work, will the visitors to your [public website] … see the archives one day? And if so, how?
A. A few days ago, I posted this under the Webcomics.com Twitter account:
Webcartoonists: It ain’t about the pageviews anymore. Once you let that sink in, you’ll rethink your entire publishing approach.
— Webcomics-dot-com (@Webcomicscom) June 13, 2016
…And this is a perfect example.
Ten tips for running a successful Kickstarter campaign
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Having launched a couple successful Kickstarter campaigns, I’ve been doing a lot of “I make mistakes so you don’t have to” research for this site. Here’s a few things I learned and a few tips I’ve culled from from others along the way.
Character Design: The Silhouette Test
One of the most popular rules of thumb in character design is that each character should be so distinct that you can identify them solely from their silhouette. We talk about why this is important, and how to implement it in our work.
Art 101: Draw large and reduce
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I took a question on Twitter recently:
Would it be wrong to draw my comics on A4 paper? I find it hard to fill big spaces.
My answer was, of course. that he should do what he felt comfortable doing. 140 characters doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for art advice. But it made me think that perhaps some artists don’t understand the benefit of drawing larger than the final size of the strip.
Video tutorial: Draw complex perspective quickly in Manga Studio (Clip Studio Paint)
One of the strengths of Manga Studio (Clip Studio Paint) is its perspective rulers. I posted a video tutorial about using those perspective rulers wisely to speed up (and improve) your drawing process.
Facebook: Less content from Pages
Facebook just announced a change that makes it more difficult to promote your comic through your Page. Here’s how that change will affect you — and some thoughts on how to address the situation. A similar crackdown on posts from Facebook Pages happened in 2014. My thoughts now are similar to my thoughts then.
In short: If this is troubling news to you, then you’re doing social media wrong (and lazy).
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