This is the second in a short series of critiques that will focus on book-cover design. There’s still time to sign up if you’re interested.
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It’s time for Webcomics Confidential Episode 6! I take on a couple pf good questions. First — Are smaller comic conventions really better for webcartoonists? And then — Patreon backers who come and go… are they a problem? I’ll answer both of those questions and manage to insult vegans all at the same time.
Please keep sending in your questions and comments! They’re tremendous — and a great source of ideas for upcoming episodes.
Catch up on all of the Webcomics Confidential episodes.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
This is the first in a short series of critiques that will focus on book-cover design. There’s still time to sign up if you’re interested. First up…
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
You don’t need a subscription to read today’s post!
This is a re-post from the Webcomics.com archive. If you’ve ever been curious about the kind of information, tutorials and advice that you’ll get as part of your subscription to Webcomics.com, this is a good example.
If you’d like to join the site, consider a subscription! You’ll get a steady flow of information, tutorials and advice targeted towards your webcomic business — plus a private forum to discuss issues with other professionally minded cartoonists.
Forget the Stretch Goal. The Add-on is where it’s at — especially if it’s a digital add-on!
Editor’s Note: The Add-on was a huge part of the success of my own recent Kickstarter. However, there’s a new twist — Backerkit. We’ll be talking more about that in an upcoming post.
Whenever a Kickstarter campaign attains its goal, it’s expected that the creator will announce a Stretch Goal. I know that was the expectation when I hit my funding goal with two weeks of campaigning to go. But I really didn’t have a good Stretch Goal lined up. My readers have never strongly supported merchandise outside of the graphic-novel line, so maquettes, action figures and toys were out.Heck, I’ve never even seen a strong enough demand for hardcover editions to justify that expense. Besides, adding all of that stuff to the mix means accounting for extra shipping expenses, and I wasn’t certain that I was going to be able to hit a Stretch Goal if it accounted for all of the extra money that would be needed.
And — really — now that I’ve reached my goal, isn’t it wiser to simply run up the numbers for the current Kickstarter? I mean, I have a three-volume omnibus book that I want to pitch to my readers, but I think it’s better to let that stand on its own merits — with its own Kickstarter.
However, I did want to maximize the money I’d be able to generate in the next two weeks of Kickstarter funding.
And that’s when I discovered the beauty of the Add-on.
The Kickstarter Add-on was pioneered by tabletop-gaming project creators, who have used them to allow backers to add expansion packs, extra cards and game pieces. Since then, add-ons have become popular for projects in every category.
I offered a single Add-on — a PDF that collected the NSFW comics I was doing for Patreon since last April. I alerted my Kickstarter backers that it would be available as a $20 add-on. That announcement went out on April 7.
Three days later, I’ve seen $720 in increased pledges.
Easy peasy…
To maximize the impact of this add-on, it should be a digital reward. If that’s not feasible, it should at least be something lightweight that will not significantly increase the shipping cost of the item. Remember, Media Mail rates are applicable only to bounded, printed material. If you throw something different into that package, it no longer qualifies for Media Mail rates.
Keep in mind… a Kickstarter is basically a preorder on a line of merchandise. If the Kickstarter is successful, you’ve covered the start-up costs on that merchandise. If that happens early, it’s risky to try to launch a second piece of merchandise at the same time — especially if you haven’t properly gauged the extra cost and/or the demand.
I think it’s much wiser to simply maximize this preorder cycle, and let that second line of merchandise stand — or fall — on its own merits.
We’ve all heard of “shameless self-promotion,” but there’s such a thing as shameFUL self-promotion — and that’s low-yield, pointless, ineffective promotion. If you’ve ever posted “check out my web-comic” then you’re guilty, too. Learn how to avoid the pitfalls of poor promotion — and, more importantly, learn how to do the kind of effective promotion that your comic deserves.
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We’re going to run TWO Hot Seats concurrently — Book covers and lettering. If you have an upcoming book, this one is for you. Post your book cover design, and we’ll workshop it together.
Hit the Comments and give me…
We’re going to run TWO Hot Seats concurrently — Book covers and lettering. Lettering is crucial to improving the quality of your comic. Let’s talk about upping your lettering game. Hit the Comments and give me…
March 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’s a guest post by Webcomics.com member Jake Parker. He originally wrote it in the forum, but I thought he made a lot of points that I’d like to present to a wider audience. He’s talking about setting up Patreon rewards that work. [Subscription post]
I was fortunate enough to be interviewed on Comic Pop. There’s a lot of stuff there — much of it based on the posts I’ve made here over the past several months.
That appearance touched off such a positive response, I decided to take Webcomics Confidential out of mothballs and re-imagine it…
Here’s an excerpt…
Chances are, your webcomic site is set up based on what webcomics were in 2005. Title image at the top — and probably way too big — and a comic strip. And if you’re not able to pull off a satisfying, standalone piece of storytelling in that strip, you’ve already lost the game. [Subscription post]
The return of the e-mail listI got a chance to bend Cory Casoni’s ear while I was in Seattle for Emerald City Comicon. Cory is the business manager for Scott Kurtz (PvP, Table Titans). The subject of Patreon came up several times during the course of the week, and I learned something very interesting about one of their most popular Patreon tiers. It was something I’d assumed that most of us had stopped doing around 2005. [Subscription post]
In the second Webcomics Confidential, I answer questions from members, including: What kinds of [Patreon] rewards do you notice patrons find more desirable? Is it the connection to the creator, exclusive content, or perhaps physical rewards like a “____ of the month club”? Here’s an excerpt…
This was originally offered by Phil Hofer in the forum, but I wanted to pull it out here to make it easier to find in case anyone was looking for this answer later. The question was: Is there any advantage to using Comic Easel’s Transcript function to input comic’s script. Does it provide any SEO advantage? [Free post! Read it now!]
For the third episode of Webcomics Confidential, we talk about one of the perennial questions in crowdfunding: “How do I get more patrons on Patreon?” Here’s an excerpt…
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.
And the results aren’t all bad. For example, once we remove ad revenue from the equation, we’re free to rethink many things that were no-brainers for over a decade of Web publishing. And one of the biggies is this…
[Free post! Read it right now!]
Following up on this post about Imgur strategy, this guest post by Alex Hoffman discusses another prime marketing tool for cartoonists — Reddit. Over the last few years, reddit has remained my largest source of traffic by far. With subreddits like /r/comics and /r/webcomics, reddit can be an invaluable tool to get your comic out there. [Subscription post]
I’ve announced that I am canceling all future comic-convention appearances, and I think it’s time for independent artists to consider doing the same. When you judge the numbers objectively, it becomes hard to justify one more Artist Alley table. Here’s an excerpt…
If you’re like many cartoonists, you learned Photoshop long before you learned any other image-manipulation software. As Manga Studio 5 EX continues to make converts out of us, I thought it would be useful to post a guide to manga Studio from the perspective of someone who, like myself, once saw all image-manipulation through the lens of Photoshop.
Many of the shortcuts, processes and commands are identical. But there are some old habits that you’ll need to dispatch — and still other new tricks to learn that were never possible before. [Free post! Read it now!]
The mighty Sal Crivelli from ComicPOP talks to me about NSFW comics — and specifically the role crowdfunding has played in their re-emergence.
Tyler James and I discuss the many ways webcomics have changed since the early 2000s — and we re-think Patreon. From the site:
In today’s show, veteran webcartoonist Brad Guigar (Evil, Inc.) drops an onslaught of mega-ton knowledge bombs on everything from Kickstarter to Patreon to creating better comics. You’re going to want to listen to this session at least twice!
We discuss…
Get out your calendar and start circling dates. It’s time to do a little webcomics planning.The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
You don’t need a subscription to read today’s post!
This is a re-post from the Webcomics.com archive. If you’ve ever been curious about the kind of information, tutorials and advice that you’ll get as part of your subscription to Webcomics.com, this is a good example.
If you’d like to join the site, you can get a 12-month subscription for $30 — or you can get a monthly subscription for $5. For less than three bucks a month, you can get a steady flow of information, tutorials and advice targeted towards your webcomic business — plus a private forum to discuss issues with other professionally minded cartoonists.
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 announcement for the new Star Trek series. It’s not coming to Netflix or Hulu. Rather, it’s coming 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.
The same thing is going to happen in comics, folks.
And the results aren’t all bad. For example, once we remove ad revenue from the equation, we’re free to rethink many things that were no-brainers for over a decade of Web publishing. And one of the biggies is this…
The archive was once the webcartoonist’s secret weapon. A big archive meant big ad-revenue dollars. Binge-readers generated significant returns on CPM advertising, and long,winding archives means plenty of SEO-based opportunities for a new reader to discover you.
Although SEO discovery is still important, ad revenue is a much smaller factor than it was a few years ago.
I have a 16-year archive of comics that includes three strips, one single-panel comic and a series of full-page comics — over 5,000 pieces at last count. And it kills me that these don’t generate the advertising revenue that they once did. But that doesn’t mean they’re worthless.
I’ve been having a great deal of success in using the old comics from my archive to promote my current work. Since starting last week, I’ve seen a marked increase in my engagement — particularly on Facebook posts.
My approach has been simple. I’ve been selecting a couple of comics from my archives — Courting Disaster and Phables have been working well, as have features such as “This Day in Evil Inc History” and “This Day in Greystone Inn History.” I always link to the main site — out of habit more than anything else.
But mainly, I’m using this as a tool to drive engagement. That’s one of the keys to successfully promotion on Facebook. The more people who “like” your Facebook page, the wider you’re able to spread your message. And the more people engage with your posts, the more of your posts they’ll see in the future. And the engagement data I’m getting is really encouraging.
Best of all, I can cherry-pick the archives for the comics that are the strongest — or even ones that are topical.
I’ve been hitting Twitter and Imgur as well — but with limited success. I’ve been seeing a much more flat rate of engagement through Twitter for several months now. And I’m still trying to get my head around Imgur. My first post — a particularly cheesecakey Courting Disaster — went through the roof:
…but subsequent posts haven’t even come close. Furthermore, even when I did achieve 272,000 views, the actual tangible rewards were almost nonexistent. Little or no bump in my website traffic, and no noticeable engagement in my online store or Patreon campaign.
Nonetheless, I’m very optimistic about my ability to use archive material to promote my new work.
The archive as… Patreon rewardAs a result of the sea change in online content-consumption, there’s a much smaller reward for keeping that archive readily available to binge-readers. Instead, I’m giving serious consideration to putting the majority of my archive behind a subscription wall. Once some clever coders use Patreon’s API to build a way to incorporate my patrons into my personal Web site, I can offer that subscription-based archive to my patrons as yet another reward.
I would, of course, keep a healthy chunk of my recent work available for free reading. After all, that’s the best way to turn a new reader into a fan. But my goal now will be to leave just enough free content on my site to convert a fan… and then convince that fan to be a subscriber. After all, only a fan is going to subscribe to get deep-archive access. Finding that sweet spot is going to take a little experimenting. But I think it’s got tremendous promise as a revenue source.
In the same way re-formatted sites should be directing deeper archive material into eBooks / print books, I think partitioning archives off for Patreon backers (or the equivalent under other subscription services) is going to be key. Patreon released its API a long time ago, and I’m still waiting for a WordPress plug-in to integrate Patreon and WordPress seamlessly. It doesn’t seem to be happening very quickly — and I think that has something to do with that fact that the solution has to be very careful of the potential risk of leaking credit-card information. But I’m, confident it will happen sooner or later.
And frankly, even if it doesn’t, it’s pretty easy to combine six months or a year’s worth of comics into an eBook and make that a Patreon exclusive.
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