Resolution Hot Seat: Saffron and Sage
To kick off the new year, I’m doing a resolution Hot Seat. In short, it works like this, I’m going to look at your webcomic and suggest one area that I think you could put some extra energy into as we head into the new year. It could be art, writing, improving your site, upping your social media, merchandising, etc.
First up…
Saffron and Sage by Daniel Kelly
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Resolution Hot Seat: Meat Sheild
To kick off the new year, I’m doing a resolution Hot Seat. In short, it works like this, I’m going to look at your webcomic and suggest one area that I think you could put some extra energy into as we head into the new year. It could be art, writing, improving your site, upping your social media, merchandising, etc.
First up…
Meatshield by Rob Chambers
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Wizard updates its payment requirements
After Wizard World announced a significant change in the way it would accept payments for booths and tables from exhibitors, the company has issued an update. It doesn’t add back the ability to pay for your floor space with a credit card — and yet it does. Kind of. Here’s what you need to know…
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Disqus to move to ad-supported/premium model
Disqus is a popular plug-in that many webcartoonists use to integrate commenting with social media. And soon they’ll see a third integration — ads. Discus has announced that, later this year, they will start monetizing their product through serving ads on the sites that use it. Here’s what you need to know.
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Will Net Neutrality Survive a Trump Administration?
In my opinion, Net Neutrality has been a crucial component in the success of webcomics. A level playing field has meant that anyone could post work that — if it connected with an audience — could enjoy rapid viral growth.
President Trump may be appointing a vocal critic of Net Neutrality to the FCC, the government agency that regulates the Internet in America.
If you’re not acquainted with the concept, it’s very important you understand what’s at stake.
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Library of Congress Survey
The Library of Congress is taking a survey to gauge opinions on a new Register of Copyrights. The deadline in January 31, and there’s more at stake than meets the eye. Here’s what you need to know…
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Wizard World Announces New Payment Rules
EDIT: Wizard has updated its payment policy. Read this.
Wizard World has announce changes in the way it will accept payment for tables/booth space at upcoming conventions. Credit cards are out. Checks are in. And that’s only the beginning of the new protocol. Here’s what you need to know…
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It’s January… Adjust your ad rates
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 one-month Trial for $5 … with no obligation after your 30 days expire. 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.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, ad rates are plummeting in the opening weeks of January (as they usually do). One of the best ways of weathering this storm is to maximize the ad revenue you are generating. Here’s an easy step-by-step primer on doing just that.
If you use Google DFP to manage your ads, this is simple.
Setting a Rate
The Rate is the CPM price at which Google AdSense competes with the ad defined in your Line item. (Except for House ads, which uses Value CPM to define this competition).
To calculate the number that you should use as a Rate, you’ll have to log-in to your ad network and find two statistics for each ad unit: Fill rate and CPM.
Note: I would limit my data to the last seven days. I don’t want those high December ad rates to skew my numbers.
Multiply the CPM your ad is earning by the fill rate. For example, if I’m getting a CPM of $1.50 for a skyscraper ad through PulsePoint — but my Fill rate is 25%…
1.5 x .25 = .375
Therefore, I’d set my Rate at $0.38
Now… you can update these rates as often as you’d like. You can adjust these rates daily, weekly, monthly, annually… or never, for that matter. But, obviously, the close this rate matches what’s happing for each of your ad networks, the better your ads are going to perform.
For example, if you’re getting $.40 CPM for a leaderboard through Tribal Fusion and your Rate is set to $0.50, then Google can’t replace the Tribal Fusion ad with a better-paying AdSense ad — at least not until Tribal Fusion reaches $0.50. And if that never happens, you’re going to be stuck getting a $0.40 CPM.
For more DFP tips and tutorials, check out this post from the archives and this one, too.
Is your site SSL-compliant?
By the end of the month, Google Chrome browser will start flagging sites that don’t have SSL certification. That may discourage users from buying items on your store or signing up to comment on your comic. At the very least, it’s gonna cause a little confusion for some of your users when their browsers start telling them your site isn’t secure!
Here’s what you need to know.
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