Ashton Olive
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This really is a fantastic topic. My friend that inspire me to launch my first strip did so while we were working together at a second hand retail store. He said “dude, all you have to do is make minimum wage with it.” And I realized if I was willing to live a frugal lifestyle I could realistically pursue webcomics. I’m fortunate in that the cost of living in a small Alabama town is low. Minimum wage would require pinching pennies but it is technically livable.
So around 12000 a year and I think I could cut ties with a soul crushing life in retail.
That’s really disappointing. I was in the middle of a relisten of the series, but at $20 a month I absolutely don’t blame you. I really hope you can get them back up some time in the future. They always help me get into creative mode.
I can confirm. It’s happening on my side as well. As far as I can tell it’s the last thing that occurs during the loading process.
Absolutely! Just off the top of my head, looking at all the varieties of things Kris Straub does is a similar boat. You become interested in one project he has and before you know it you’re interested in several more because it’s pretty easy to find your way from one to another.
I’ve been using Tumblr for my comic since it started, and I’m still not sure if it’s my best option for exposure (Among other things.) On the one hand, Tumblr is tailor-made to help nurture potential for viral content. I’ve gone from a couple hundred followers to several thousand in a weekend because of one strip that just happened to scratch a certain itch and get the attention required. So exposure is definitely the name of the game with Tumblr, but I’m wondering if it’s less a tool and more a wildcard to utilize and hope for the best.
I will say this, before my hiatus I was updating consistently and my growth of followers accurately reflected that, it rarely stagnated and several times would heavily spike due to a widely shared strip or two. I think you’re on the right track and as long as you keep fostering it to help its reach expand, I can definitely see it paying off for you in the long run.
I’m curious to hear the opinions from people that know what they’re talking about though.
Very hearty and thought out post as usual, Margaret. You make a very valid point, and one that applies to me specifically since I post my comic on Tumblr. I feel the majority of my fans see it on their feed, not by going to the URL to check on it.
I wouldn’t necessarily expect them to memorize a dynamic schedule. My original thought process was that they would expect MWF updates and be pleasantly surprised during the more dense periods. After thinking about it though, how would they know? They wouldn’t. The extra updates would go unseen unless I somehow made it clear to them, which further complicates it.
Sam I think you’re right in that without a story to show the progression of updates it would be a mostly fruitless endeavor, and even then I imagine a reader stumbling onto a later page in a story would be confused first, kind of annoyed second, then pleased that there’s more to consume.
Thanks for the input. I find it really comforting to be reaffirmed that there is nothing wrong with trying to plant seeds of income.
Regarding that darn skyscraper ad, I have been trying to fix it for days now. I’m using the default project wonderful code, and no matter how I try to modify it, it always remains unaffected! I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually, I just have to find the time to experiment.
I might have more episodes on my old hard drive our iPod. I’ll give it a look.
I use listnote. It is very quick, and focuses on minimal actions required to jot things down. It even has voice recognition built in, though it isn’t very good. I use it to keep ideas from floating away, in addition to my handy dandy pocket notebook. I’ll be looking into clear though.
As other folks have said, the “problem”, if that’s even the right word… challenge, perhaps… is how you turn those followers into people who support your comic in some way other than reblogs or likes.
That keeps getting brought up, but I’m genuinely having trouble understanding the issue. Tumblr is exactly as capable of announcing things as a wordpress site would be, and in fact the extra circulation it could get *could* be argued that it does everything a wordpress site does and more.
If you follow a URL, you can find a wordpress strip with a blog post, or you can find a Tumblr comic strip with a blog post. They’re both capable of the same thing. So how is this potential support being lost, exactly? Is it because it’s assumed or implied that if your comic is on Tumblr then the only readers you’ll have are Tumblr users? I don’t necessarily think that’s the case, though there will be Tumblr fans for sure, if you’re spreading your strip like you should be, then you’ll have non-Tumblr readers as well.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at. I think we can all agree that exposure is good, so if a service allows someone to get a boost in exposure when they’re starting out, how can that *not* be a good thing?
And I’m asking this question honestly. My familiarity with Tumblr is minimal, so I’m very interested in hearing your response — and more importantly, the reasoning behind it!
I’m glad you asked, as I’d be interested in hearing how others feel about it as well.
Tumblr works by feeding every update from the people you (the user) subscribe to into your main page. This means out of all my followers, they aren’t guaranteed to see my newest update, as it might get buried by other people they follow. Of course they can still go to the URL as if it was a normal webcomic, and Tumblr also supports RSS feed (Though I’m very uninformed about it or if it functions well.)
The benefits as far as I see it is that it’s easy to set up and dump your content onto, and if people like something, they reblog it, which means all of THEIR followers get a chance to see it. That really helps get exposure. You also get the instant feedback of people “liking” your posts, which can be really important to a beginner, I think.
I definitely don’t think it’s a good long-term solution to web hosting, but I think it’s fantastic for someone who wants to dip their toe into the water before devoting a lot of time and some money into doing it “legitimately.”
Now, as far as harnessing their fandom, when I update I post it as an image, but I also have the option of posting a blog along with it, that my followers will see and if it’s reblogged, their followers will also still see it. The picture is never separated from the blog post. That’s where I’m going to be advertising any other projects, any donation buttons, or once I get my stand-alone website up and running, where I’ll be advertising it.
I started my strip in September on Tumblr and it’s still going (relatively) strong. So far I haven’t run into any issues with people not crediting my work. It’s almost a non-issue as I put the URL and my name at the bottom of each strip, so even if someone did post it uniquely (Instead of reblogging it like normal) I would still at least get that credit.
My biggest issue with Tumblr has been some minor issues with navigation links and getting them to cooperate. Otherwise I can’t think of a reason I wouldn’t recommend it to another artist to build a following.
Then again, I’m still working on my own wordpress site and it isn’t finished. Once it’s up and running I may curse Tumblr. Who knows?
I’m interested in this topic as well. Sometimes I find it really difficult to fight through and make a comic (And I only update twice a week!) I’ve managed to keep going no matter what, and the spark always comes back from time to time, but I really don’t know what to do about it. How do I stay excited about my strips ?!
I’ve seen people say the most important thing is to power through it and get to the other side. I’m hoping there’s more tips coming this way, but I have a very bad feeling that’s going to be as good as it gets.
