Award season is upon us. Although I’ll be featuring a post with the details of each as it is announced, here’s a look at some of the awards you may want to start preparing for. For more information on any of these awards, feel free to use the Search function on this site to look up nomination/submission instructions from past years. They’re usually the same from year to year (except for the deadline dates, of course).
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BUT FIRST, Dave marvels over the exercise craze of the belt vibrator. And that leads to this little-known story about the true-life origin of Marvel supervillain, the Shocker.
Show notes
00:00 — The belt vibrator
08:10 — Understanding “sharing statements” in social media
27:05 — Sharing on Instagram
47:50 — We use the passing of Stan Lee to get Kevin to do his Fake Stan Lee impression
55:48 — Possible replacements for Tumblr for web hosting
As you’re clearing your heads from last night’s festivities don’t forget the Comicraft sale today. It’s an excellent time to stock up on fonts you’ll use for years to come. Here’s what I snagged this year…
If you want to build out your comics-font library, be sure to mark this on your calendar. ComicCraft traditionally holds a sale on Jan 1 every year in which price of each of their fonts is based on the year. This New Year’s Day every ComiCraft font will be $20.19 apiece.
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When I worked in newspapers, December always meant end-of-the-year lists. Every writer in every department would file one. Why? Well, I guess they can be pretty interesting. But more importantly, they’re easy content to churn out during the busy holiday season.
So let’s discuss a quick-and-easy way to generate a top-10 list for your comic.
Google Analytics — Pageviews
First, we’re going to use Google Analytics to discover the top 10 most popular comics in our archive.
Change the time frame to Jan. 1, 2016 – (today’s date)
Click on Behavior in the left-hand column
Now click Site Content, and then All Pages
This will generate a list of the most popular pages in your archive, by pageviews.
Your home page, obviously, is going to be the most popular, but let’s leave that out of it. The next page down will be the most popular archive page, and then the one after that will be second-most popular, and so forth.
Google Analytics — Organic Search
Alternately, you can build your list based on organic search results.
Change the time frame to Jan. 1, 2016 – (today’s date)
Under Audience / Overview, click Add Segment (at the top)
Select Organic Traffic from the list and click Apply
Go back to the top of the page, Select All Users (by clicking the downward-facing arrow) and click Remove.
Go to the left-hand column and open Behavior
Under Site Content, click Landing Pages
Now you have this year’s most popular pages, in terms of search results.
Build your list — quick
Remember… the name of the game is to get this done quick so you can get back to spending time with your family over the holidays. If you’re using ComicPress or Comic Easel, it’s gonna be a snap with shortcodes.
In this case, the shortcode you’re looking for is [[randcomic slug=SLUG]]
Just replace “SLUG” with the slug of the post — which is that hyphenated phrase after /comic/ in your Analytics list! So, using the example above, my #1 comic is short-coded as [[randcomic slug=ruin-a-moment]]
Top 10
My preference is to start with the tenth-most-popular comic and work my way backwards to the most popular. (You’ll have to load the next ten results to see the actual #10 — since you won’t be including your home page).
I assemble them into a list, making a brief comment about each, and — presto! — I have a quick-and-easy Year-End Top 10 list!
Webcomics pros Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar discuss the Patreon Special Offer — and why comics artists should be using it — RIGHT NOW. Plus… running concurrent campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Is it a little skeevy, or super skeevy? And then, the burning question for the ages… What’s it like being the most handsome host of ComicLab?
BUT FIRST, Brad finally wins the artificial-Christmas-tree argument at his house. And he’s miserable about it.
Show notes
00:00 — Brad’s artificial Christmas tree woes
8:00 — The Patreon Special Offer… what it is, how to do it, and WHY you should be doing it NOW
45:10 — What’s it like being the most handsome host of ComicLab?
50:07 — Running concurrent campaigns on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo
01:05:00 — What’s your stance on offering cameos of people or their original characters as higher tier Kickstarter or one-time Patreon rewards?
01:13:10: — Brad has a new microphone, thanks to ComicLab’s Patreon backers
Cartoonists Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar are talking shop! Still reeling from an action-packed weekend at PatreCon, the guys are talking Patreon! For example — should you hide your Patreon numbers or display proudly how much you’re earning? And what do you do when a backer expects more than you’re offering? And how soon is too soon to launch your Patreon? Also — can a story-driven comic strip like “Bloom County” survive on the Web today? And the guys discuss which of their many projects have brought them the most joy.
BUT FIRST, before they drill deep on Patreon, Dave’s dentist does some drilling of his own — and gets an unexpected result!
Show notes
00:00 — Dave’s trip to the dentist
04:00 — Do public-facing $$$ numbers cause Patreon patrons to drop because “you don’t need any more help”?
05:49 — The two approaches to Patreon — Exclusivity vs Support
10:30 — Dave insists that public-facing Patreon numbers should be hidden
17:40 — Making Dave blush is fun
19:17 — Can a story-driven comic (like “Bloom County”) do well on the Web today?
33:33 — Which project has brought you the most joy?
40:18 — What to do when a Patreon backer expects more than you’re offering
48:46 — Should you launch a new Patreon as soon as you start your new comic — or wait?
57:30 — Where should your priorities be in launching a new comic?
There are two very different approaches to Patreon, and — depending on your webcomic and its readers — you may want to favor one over the other. However, some of the best Patreon approaches feature both.
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The USPS has proposed new postage rates to be implemented on Sunday, January 27, 2019, subject to approval by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). Listed below are the highlights of the proposed 2019 USPS rate increase for customers buying postage online.
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