As we head into tax season, let’s take a look at one of the most useful tools for running a small business — the Profit & Loss Statement.
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“It’s so hard to get noticed today,” was the comment the webcartoonist made. “It’s impossible to get through on social media, and there are so many webcomics out there competing. It’s almost impossible to rise to the top.”
Wrong, wrong and wrong.
Feel free to file this under “Get Off My Lawn.”
When I was writing this post about the decreased prioritization of daily updates, it required a bit of history. In writing the piece, I reached back over 17 years of daily webcomics experience to contrast publishing then with publishing now.
The upshot is that the two are vastly different, yet most webcomics I see are still doing the things we did Then instead of innovating into the Now.
In writing it, I found myself taking a tangent into another area that requires a bit of compare-and-contrast. It did not aid in making my central point, so I edited it out of the piece. Fortunately, there’s so much there to talk about that it stands very well as its own topic.
Let’s get this out of the way, first and foremost:
It’s impossible to hide good work on the Web.
Got it? Print it out — big — and hang it over your workspace.
If your comic isn’t generating the pageviews / social sharing / income that you think it should, then the answer is staring you in the face. Your comic’s not good enough. Yet.
Now, while you’re printing banners, print this:
It’s impossible to get worse at something you do every day.*
*If you’re putting a critical eye to your work.
Those two thoughts, hand-in-hand, sum up my thoughts on webcomics popularity. And it came from hard-won experience. It came from thinking I was “there” for years and seeing other comics — comics that I didn’t think were done very well — outperforming my own. I would look at a comic like xkcd with outrage. Stick figures! He does stick figures! I draw actual images that look like things and he’s drawing stick figures! My comic is way better than his!
But his comic was connecting to an audience, and mine was not.
His comic was impossible to hide. Mine easily filtered to the middle of the heap.
It wasn’t a reason to quit. It was a reason to focus. And work harder.
Everything I’m going to write is second to those two thoughts above.
They are essential.
“Picture it… Sicily, 1912…”Twitter was launched in 2006. Facebook didn’t become open to the general public until the same year. (Kickstarer and Patreon would follow long after.) The original “How To Make Webcomics” book doesn’t mention any of these. They just weren’t around to be talked about at that time.
This is part of the reason I always cringe when I hear newer webcartoonists complain about how hard it is to get noticed on today’s Internet. Simply put: You folks have no idea. Once upon a time, savvy promotion came in the form of web rings and forming online pseudo syndicates (such as Keenspot and Modern tales).
You know what? You freaking kids have no idea how good you’ve got it.
Unfavorable signal-to noise? There’s always been a tremendous amount of crappy webcomics — and a relatively small number of really good ones.
Hard to get the word out? It has never been easy.
Oh, and here’s the one that kills me: The only way to be a successful webcomic is to have started in 2000? You’re (conveniently) forgetting every. single. day. of hard work between then and now. And by taking your eye off the target, you’re missing your chance to be the success story they talk about in 2030. While you’re looking behind you, the people you’re going to be jealous of in fifteen years are looking ahead.
Social media is a powerI always look at the social-media outreach of the webcartoonists who bellyache about how hard it is to get noticed. And — overwhelmingly — I always see some pretty shoddy social media: Repetitive solicitations to look at the most recent comic, and little else of substance.
I picture them with an electric drill, unplugged, wondering why everybody seems to rave about how well the thing makes holes. Because — clearly — you’ve been drilling all day and you’ve hardly made a dent.
We all say that social media is a powerful tool. But it might be more appropriate to say that social media is a power tool. And as wonderful as power tools are, they’re useless until you provide the power.
And so many of us simply aren’t willing to do that. We expect results without the effort — and we expect them NOW… not five years from now.
How do I know? Heh… how do you think I spent the better part of the early 2000s?
So… how do you power up social media? I’ve written about it before. It’s the Three Cs. (And most of us stop at the first one).
If you’ve already read this, skip down to The Bottom Line.
Here’s the problem: You need to promote your work more often. But if your social-media feed is nothing but you hawking your tawdry wares, you’re going to lose followers (and it’s going to be hard to gain new ones). Let’s face it, people don’t follow creators on social-media for a steady barrage of “buy this” posts. They want to interact with the creator.
That doesn’t mean less self-promotion — that means adding a lot of non-promotion posts so your copious promotion doesn’t overpower the feed.
And, of you can do that well, you can actually get away with posting a ton of self-promotion.
OK… This is why you’re on social media. As a creator, you’re not really interested in sharing cat videos or complaining about politics. You’re not here to take personality quizzes or play games. You know that social-media is the most powerful tool in your arsenal for “getting your work out there.” You want people to read your webcomic, buy your book, support your Kickstarter and back your Patreon. And social media is the best way to make that happen.
So your Commercial posts are just that — overt messages that invite people to do all of those things that will help you build your webcomics business to the next level.
Commercial messages are good. And you can get away with posting a LOT of Commercials if you balance those messages out with posts from these next two categories.
Commercial is what brought you to social media, but to the general public, they’re here for one thing — Content. They don’t mind the Commercial (in reasonable amounts), but they’re there to connect with YOU on a social level. They want to know you better. And that means talking about your work and your life (to the extent that you’re comfortable). They want to see your own cat video. They want to know what kind of brush you use. They want to know what you think about the new Star Wars movie. And they want to talk to you about it.
You should be striving to fill your social-media feed with as much Content as you can reasonably manage. Content is what gets shared. And shared posts bring in new followers. New followers are who you want to expose to your Commercial messages, right? So every time someone shares a post, it’s an opportunity for growth. Content gets shared way more than Commercial.
If you haven’t read this post about curating social-media feed, take some time to do so. It’s a crucial concept to understand if you want to improve your social-media power.
Here’s the problem: You can only post so much content. After all, you might not even own a cat to record on video. You might not have anything interesting to say about the new Star Wars movie. Maybe you’re kind of a private person. Maybe you’re pouring all of your creativity into you comic, and you just don’t feel like you have any left for Twitter.
It’s OK.
I’l argue that you really should be posting as much Content posts as you reasonably can, but sometimes there’s just nothing… there.
That’s where the third C comes in — Curation.
Nobody expects your social-media feed to be purely you. In fact, they expect some of the content of that feed to be other people’s work* that you’re sharing with them.
Do you know how many people retweet and share the posts I make about other people’s comics? Maybe it’s a comic that made me laugh out loud. Maybe I’d just like to tip my hat to someone else’s work. Or promote their Kickstarter. Or retweet their book announcement. Retweets, shares, posts about other people doing cool stuff… ALL of that is like GOLD on social-media.
And without fail, those are the posts that get shared, and — in a nice little bit of social-media karma — those shared posts bring me new followers.
I love promoting other people’s work. Of course it feels good to promote someone whose work you think is good. But there’s more to it than that. The dividends are significant.
——
*…work that is meant to be shared
That’s why I always cringe when I see a webcartoonist complaining about how hard it is to get noticed. The facts are immutable:
And the more you convince yourself that one — or all — of the above don’t apply to you, the longer it’s going to take for you to actually succeed. Because you can’t do that by complaining. You can only succeed by improving. And you can only improve by honestly and objectively looking at your flaws.
You’re going to go back to your studios and workspaces, and you’re going to focus on the Three Cs because that’s easier than really addressing the Unspeakable Truth. You’re going to try to game Facebook’s Edgerank system because that’s much easier to grasp than figuring out why your jokes aren’t funny or your stories aren’t compelling. You’re going to continue to find that One Weird Trick — that secret button to push — that will bring millions of readers to your site.
When you should be solving why you haven’t kept the millions of readers who have already been there.
You’re going to miss the point.
Now, get off my lawn.
Surviving Creativity welcomes our lawyer and good friend, Katie Lane! She’s here to help us break all the taboos surrounding our pocketbooks. Why we don’t we talk about our paychecks, why we should, and how we could!
Find more from Katie, including her amazing workshops, classes, and legal resources for creators on her blog at workmadeforhire.net
When you’re writing a longform story, it seems you inevitably find yourself stuck at a fundamental question of storytelling:
“Where do I start?”
I have a few thoughts on that…
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Today on ComicLab, we’re going deep on one of the most important (and least-talked-about) aspects of cartooning — Editing! We also take our first patron-submitted question, and it’s all about contracts between collaborators.
BUT FIRST… When Dave eats breakfast at McDonald’s and subsequently questions his life choices, it’s Brad to the rescue with the healing humor of some carefully-executed impressions.
This is the second of the current Hot Seat critique series. If you want to participate, there’s still time. Otherwise, I’ll move on to a new critique topic. This one is a Hitch It / Ditch It. I’ll review your webcomic site and list one thing that needs improvement as well as one thing you’re doing very well! Today, we’ll talk about
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Last month was an excellent example of the tremendous value offered by a subscription to Webcomics.com. My readers got early alerts on issues that would impact their businesses, helpful tutorials, insightful analysis, and meaningful feedback on their work. Here are some samples of what you may have missed…
There’s a lot of misinformation on this one floating around, so be careful! International shipping can be expensive. As a result, many creators opt for the relatively cheap First Class Mail when shipping original art to buyers and crowdfunding backers. However, this month a new USPS rule went into effect that disallowed using First Class International to ship merchandise such as original art. The Post Office now requires merchandise to be shipped via Priority Mail International. In other words, shipping art internationally just got a lot more expensive.
That’s why many savvy indie businesspeople are doing this… [subscribers can read this post]
Even if you’ve started to transition away from an ad-supported business model, the Q1 slump is a phenomenon that’s worth your attention.
As I mentioned before, ad revenue tends to plummet in the first part of the year. Most businesses are reassessing their budgets in the first quarter, and most of them habitually cut back on spending until those budgets are cleared. It’s especially noticeable coming after November and December, when ad budgets are ablaze with holiday-shopping promotion. It’s a steep drop that puts me into an annual panic.
But the Q1 slump goes deeper than ad revenue. Your traffic is probably slumping right now, too. The holiday season — and all the stress that comes with it — is over, and your readers are in recovery mode. The harsh winter weather hasn’t helped much. And, let’s face it, if you’re like a lot of us, you’ve probably had a hard time getting your own creative engine started in the last few weeks.
Let’s talk about getting through the slump… [subscribers can read this post]
In 2013, I published some advice on backing up your website. It seems that one of the most heavily-recommended options — a third-party plugin called WordPress Backup to Dropbox — has been abandoned by its developer. Realizing that my sites were in need of back-up, I decided to revisit the topic and update my recommendations. [subscribers can read this post]
To be honest, it was a tip that I passed along, but personally dismissed. Patreon had been insisting that they had a simple way I could improve my ability to earn backers, but it was so simple, I decided it couldn’t be that important. I was wrong.
Here’s what I found out… [subscribers can read this post]
It happens regularly. An artist is outraged because someone stole their design! And when I click over, I see the design in question is a mash-up between two licensed properties that this person couldn’t possibly have the rights to. In other words, they’re complaining that someone stole the design… that they stole.
And I always see the same justifications:
It’s Fair Use (or parody)!
and
I’m not making any money (or very little) off this!
Wrong, and wrong.
So let’s take a moment to understand Intellectual Property a little better.
Calls for entires have gone out for both the Eisners and the NCS Division awards. Webcomics.com collects the submissions guidelines for each to make entering these competitions as smooth as possible.
Our most-recent Webcomics.com Poll asked “What improvement to your site would you consider most important?” The responses were enlightening… [subscribers can read this post]
We launched a new series of Hot Seat critiques! It’s a Hitch It / Ditch It. I’ll review your webcomic site and list one thing that needs improvement as well as one thing you’re doing very well! Then I’ll open up the conversation to the membership of the site.
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the future of webcomics. We’re in a period of significant upheaval, and rather than be frightened, I’m focusing on the opportunities that present themselves in such times.
I’ve written how social media has evolved the typical webcomics reader from a forager to someone who is force-fed. And I think that the way we handle that issue is going to define our future as content creators.
I’ve also written that I think many of us are going to have to turn to a subscription-based model (such as either Patreon or a traditional subscription-based Web site). Some of you got confused, thinking I was proposing this as the better method of serving readers. If this is you, I want you to read that post again carefully. It’s not the better choice — especially from the standpoint of readers. However, once ad revenue is removed, it just might be the only choice you have, if your goal is to earn an income through your self-published comics.
If you need any real-word examples of how this is playing out against the broader landscape, simply look to the new Star Trek series. It wasn’t available on Netflix or Hulu. Rather, it was exclusive to CBS All Access — the network’s own subscription-based delivery service. Throw in other existing services such as HBO Go, and it’s clear to see that a fantasy/sci-fi fan is going to have to keep several subscriptions going to continue watching shows like Daredevil, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and so on.
Having discussed Instagram’s new algorithm, it occurred to me that I hadn’t discussed the new Facebook operating system. In case you missed it, a bunch of people are convinced, once again, that Facebook is going to kill their ability to reach their readers. And, once again, understanding this requires a deeper discussion on the topic. So let’s do that… [subscribers can read this post]
Part of the new dashboard that Patreon has rolled out is the Exit Interview. When a patron discontinues his or her pledge, they are offered an exit interview. This gives them a chance to explain why they’re leaving.
I’ve found this to be the classic good news / bad news situation. Here’s why… [Read this post for FREE]
I’ve been seeing a lot of discussion about the new Instagram algorithm. Although it’s virtually impossible to get verified information, I wanted to pass along some advice I gathered to help navigate these waters. [subscribers can read this post]
ComicLab co-hosts Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar welcome special guest Jake Parker — creator of Inktober and stand-out cartoonist/children’s book illustrator — to talk shop. They discuss their deepest, darkest fears for their careers. And then they tackle how to recover from the completion of a monumental project. Jake shares his experiences from a recent Kickstarter, and they discuss the pros and cons of taking a creator-owned title to a publisher. But first, Jake’s gonna have to explain what the heck a “Chicken Walker” is. (And if you guessed it was related to a Skywalker, you’re not far off!)
In the latest Surviving Creativity, Brad and Scott have both stopped using or reduced their use of Twitter over the last few weeks. They’re meeting up to discuss their experiences while Cory gets riled up about it… enjoy?
It’s our very first Bonus Episode! These episodes contain topics we’d discussed during our recording sessions that weren’t quite long enough to form their own episode but that we felt were still an interesting listen.
Normally our Bonus Episodes will only be released to our Patrons, so if you’d like to hear more of these mini-convos consider becoming a Patron! Not only will you be supporting the show but you’ll also be getting access to Bonus and Outtake episodes, and a host of additional content!
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