Nov11-17; On laziness and Social Networking

[covenmouse]

Heavy duty lessons and levels of emotional intensity, along with ‘should I stay or should I go’ scenarios, and reminders of people who have up and left; any and all of things are what’s on top of the stack at the moment. You know for sure that you’ll make it through this, but right now you’re feeling like it would be great if someone or

Comments

[ellorgast]

I find it useful for webcomics to have Twitter, or a LiveJournal community, or both. I don't personally like using Facebook for fandom-type things--my family watches me on there. But as far as I can tell, the best way to build up a continuous reader base is to give people an easy way of being aware of updates, whether through an RSS feed or LJ or anything.

As for advertising, I run across most webcomics through recommendations from other comics, but I also keep an eye on Project Wonderful ads. Usually they advertise things I'm not into, but anything with shiny new art is going to get me clicking. So I would say, if you're not ready to pay for advertising yet, the first thing to do would be to get the word out to other webcomic communities, because usually webcomic readers like to look into other comics. Also, those "top 100 comics" sites must work, because most comics I read encourage people or give weekly incentives to vote.

I wouldn't mind beta'ing, but I don't have time right at this moment. If you want to email me at vertical.movement@gmail.com I could look through it when my life's a bit less crazy in a few weeks.

[covenmouse]

/nods/ I like the LJ comm idea for easy updates, extras, etc. I've seen a very few webcomics do it, but I appreciate it when I see it. The FB thing makes me nervous as I'm not really sure I'm ready for my family to be aware of fandom things, and there would be too many ways to link it to me unless I used a pseudonym. Maybe I'm just a fuddy-duddy.

Shiny art tends to be the biggest draw, according to the forums. XD Most people into the webcomics scene tend to go "oooo" and click, without caring what it is. Which I'm kind of banking on, really. /cough/ I've also heard good things about Top Web Comics, specifically, for the whole chart thing.

<3 Thanks for the offer, hun, especially with the time of it you've been having. If you're sure about that, since you have G-mail, I'll just copy you into the permissions. XD I host everything on G-Docs these days.

[ellorgast]

I like LJ comms because you get the interaction between fans and author without having to sign up for forums. Lots of comics have their own forums, and it seems to work, but I rarely sign up for them or bother to check them regularly. And yeah, just not into Facebook for fandom things. I don't think you need one.

Exactly on the shiny art. XD You clearly have shiny abilities, which will garner a ton of attention right off the bat.

Oh yeah, guest art for other comics might be good too. It gets other artists noticing you and linking your stuff, and regulars of those comics who like what they see will probably check yours out.

[covenmouse]

lmao, definitely on the guest art thing. XD I went to a web comic marketing panel at a Con last year, and one of the guys mentioned that--and that one of the larger name artists who runs QC actually prides himself on being a "website crasher," as he has a habit of linking webcomics who do fanart for him and totally killer their server with traffic. XD

[ellorgast]

Oh yeah, QC is totally a webcomic crasher. I've found a few good things through them. XD

But like, for a while there, Tiny Kitten Teeth was doing guest art for like EVERY comic I read. I don't think they had to advertise a single time because it seemed like within weeks every big comic out there was linking them. Granted, they got a big break when they drew for Penny Arcade, but I think it still applies.