Why can’t we be friends?
October 23, 2009 | Posted by Brigid As the newspaper industry continues to shift in ways that generally don’t benefit those in the field, Simon Owens discusses what newspaper cartoonists can learn from webcomics creators in his MediaShift column at the PBS site. (Via Robot 6.)
Over at Webcomics.com, Brad Guigar has some thoughts on designing effective ads for your webcomic. There’s a big argument in the comments section about whether you should put the URL in the ad, but no one addressed a pet peeve of mine: Clicking on the ad should bring you straight to the comic. It’s amazing how often that doesn’t happen.
Also at Webcomics.com, Abby L. continues her discussion of how Chris Anderson’s book Free can be applied to webcomics.
We haven’t heard much about Longbox, the planned “iTunes for comics,” lately, so here’s an update.
At Graphic Novel Reporter, John Hogan moderates an interesting roundtable on digital piracy.
Dirk Tiede is taking preorders for the third volume of Paradigm Shift. I recently reviewed the first two volumes at Robot 6.
Shaenon Garrity’s co-conspirator on Skin Horse, Jeffrey Wells, will be at Geek.Kon this weekend. (Via Shaenon’s LJ.)
Delos reviews Dean Trippe’s Butterfly at Art Patient. And El Santo continues his Halloween horrorfest with a look at Danielle Dark, Blood Bound, and Abandon: First Vampire.
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This is actually a major wondering of mine – Assuming you’re already willing to buy an ad (presumably for no small chunk of change), is it really better to:
a) Send the reader to the first comic (so they can view it in order)
b) Send the reader to the last comic (so they can see the work in it’s presumably best light)
c) Send the reader to whatever the homepage is (regardless of whether it has the comic or not)
d) Send the reader to a carefully crafted landing page (ala typical blogger logic), which may be designed to give them a carefully crafted overview / preview and function as an extension of the ad, AND can be tracked for effectiveness / funneling, but doesn’t have the actual comic there for them to start reading?
Obviously you’re a fan of making sure they go directly TO the comic, but if all you’re doing is subjecting them to a random strip vs. a metered-out experience, is that really “better”?
Brigid,
I’ve been enjoying this new blog of yours, as well as all your other ventures (you really keep busy).
I’m wondering about your bolded statement about ads clicking through to your comic. I’ve just started running ads for the first time for my comic but I purposely created a splash page so that new readers wouldn’t be sent into the middle of the comic (it’s an ongoing dramatic story rather than a strip). Of course I could have the ads point to Page 1 but I thought a nice splash page might act as a helpful launch area. I was trying to basically recreate the experience of coming to a book via it’s cover rather than an individual page.
Is my thinking flawed here, do you think? Is it okay as long as there’s a very clear link to the comic from this page?
I am happy to be sent to the latest page of the comic, which ideally would be embedded in a carefully crafted home page with elements of options c and d above that also contains a big FIRST button should I want to start reading at page 1.
A lot of webcomics are gag comics, and for those the most recent page is obviously the way to go. Even for continuing stories, the most recent page probably gives a better sense of the whole story and of the creator’s abilities than the first page. And I’m a firm believer in maximizing your assets by putting the comic on a well designed web page that gives a sense of the overall theme (through color, design, whatever), includes a short description of the comic, and has easily located links to the archives, character sketches, artist bios, etc.
Instead, what the PW ad often leads me to is a blog with no indication as to where the comic is. And just as I do not draw webcomics, a lot of webcomics folks should not really be blogging–often the blog posts are self-indulgent or simply mystifying to the newcomer, and sometimes they really don’t have anything to do with the comic. The ones that really stick in my head are the ones that are so awful that I leave without ever trying to find the comic, either because of terrible writing or eye-melting design.
SEND ME TO THE DAMN COMIC. If that’s what you’re selling, that’s what I’m buying.
Rich, in your case I can see it. As long as you make it obvious how to find the comic, the splash page would work. I think the big problem is when the ad takes you to the creator’s blog or homepage, which aren’t designed to orient the new reader. If I’m not following a comic, I don’t care about where the creator will be this weekend or even a sketch in progress.