Okay, so, after some crunching of numbers, I realized that most of our bathtub curve was in my head. Math trumps psychology again!

So, this chart shows the Backers over the course of the KS. The blue line is the total, where the red is the change per day. We only had a couple of spots where the delta was 0 for more than 48 hours.

Likewise with our pledges. The charts, understandably, mirror each other, meaning that the majority of the backers after that initial rush were pledging to the same tier.

I’d like to explore that a little deeper.

Do this: Go to your Google Analytics and see what your “New User” percentage was for April.

Now… How many visitors did you have in April.

Brad, I think you’re either missing, or outright dismissing, the point of this post.

This particular post is not asking how do we turn new viewers into recurring readers. That’s an important step two. As step two, it’s predicated on the fact that we have brought people to our comics in the first place. Story comic, joke comic, superhero, horror, graphic novel or daily strip, it doesn’t matter your content or format until the readers are at the web site and have a chance to see what your content is. It’s only after that we need to talk about conversion.

Step one is reaching potential readers in the first place, and that’s what my original questions revolve around.

I’m sure that everyone can agree that in order for us to attempt to win the hearts and minds of a readership, they need to find our comics first. Now, for us, specifically, I’ve already put in some of Brad’s suggestions from his first post. I’ve got the social media links in place (Thank you AddThis) and started publishing issues for free on DTC in the hope that I’ll see some traffic. The social media links may be marginally effective, since they mean getting the current readers to use them (reader participation is step three). I have some hopes, but we’ll see after a few months when I’ve got some better data. The DriveThruComics might have a better impact for me (being a long form issue based comic) but that’s still too early to tell. Again, in a few months, I’ll have the data to determine how effective it is.

Now, that being said. I feel the need to give more context. I do run ads on PW during update days (Thurs/Fri). Prior to starting the ads, the typical visiting traffic was fairly flat, same with the pageviews. Since running PW ads, I’ve seen approximately a visit increase from about 1100 to 1500 (unique) and pageview increase from around 3500 to 10000-12000 for those days.

This tells me I’m reaching new people and they like our comic. They come in, check it out, and then a few of them go and read the archive. (Stats show consistent archive binges on those days for a small number of people. Those, I figure, are going to be the most likely conversions from curious bystander to regular reader.)

A few years ago those numbers would have been even higher due to the larger advert platform available to all of us, reaching more potential viewers at the same time. So that being said, I’m still interested in picking brains for new ideas on how to reach a wider audience, and am open for suggestions.

There are roughly 600+ pages across 23 issues (not counting the mini half issues). Do I have to read all of them to read the current issue?

Thinking about what D Larson has said, I still have a number of things to do to make converting a first time curious viewer into an active reader. A “New to the Comic” page would be a decent start. Something to give someone a chance of getting into the series without needing to go back 700 pages.

(Side note) I still do need to put some of Brad’s original suggestions in place. I’m checking my options to do some more targeted advertising on some niche sites, I just haven’t gotten that far along yet.