Here are the last pages of Chapter 1.
So as you can see in spread 17, I am going to have a small intermission for a week to repost all the pages of chapter 1 with a few corrections and updated word balloons. So please don't skip out on next Mondays post, in turn missing these much needed improvements. Please call out any mistakes you've seen as soon as you can so I don't have to update them again in the future.
When I started posting Chapter 1 in November of 2009, my main fear was getting through all my pages before getting an audience. It's really hard to release everything you've worked on for the last 3 years in a few short months only to find 3 people care enough to come back every week.
Here are a few stats since I started:
November 3rd I started posting spreads every Monday and had a steady flow of about 20 visitors a day. (I'm starting to sweat)
December 2nd, Notcot.org featured reMIND driving massive traffic for a few days but back down to around 30 unique viewers a day for the rest of the month.
January, My new WordPress/Comicpress site was launched with an average of 40 viewers a day. (gulp, is anybody out there?) Shortly after the launch, CartoonBrew featured my new site on the 21st driving 3000 unique viewers in the next 2 days. Suddenly I had over 100 viewers a day and my first handful of subscribers.
February I learned how to start advertising and immediately got over 200 viewers a day along with more subscribers.
March is here and chapter 1 is online with a whopping 117 subscribers and over 275 unique viewers a day at this point. Thanks to all your votes at TopWebComics I am in the top 100 for this month. Help me stay there by voting every day for reMIND. This weeks incentive is an illustration for Vampire the Masquerade that never got published.
I'm not telling you my stats to brag about anything. In fact these could be considered really low when compared to other webcomics. I just know there are people out there who are in the same boat as me trying to figure this all out, wondering what's normal. I want reMIND to be a completely transparent site instead of pretending I'm something I'm not. 90% of the time I don't know what I'm doing and when I figure something out that works I want to share it. Hopefully reMINDblog is not just a webcomic or a graphic novel to you, but also a helpful resource and motivational tool.
Chapter 2 is nearly completed with just 2 more spreads to finish coloring and I'm very curious to hear your comments on it. It's been my most problematic chapter to date with lots of exposition which I hope doesn't get to complicated for the sake of clarity. There is a fine line between telling a story and explaining a story which I've been juggling since I started this thing. Either way, some questions will be answered and I hope many more will arise. So once again, Chapter 2 will begin on Monday the 22nd.
Now onto a small list of things I've been wondering about.
What's the deal with Donation Buttons?
So I've noticed almost every webcomic site has a donation button. I think it a complete waste of time to assume someone will just send you money but since everyone is doing it I want to ask if it really works. Does anyone have a donation button on their site and more importantly, does anyone give you money?
I guess my thoughts are mixed on the subject. For example, if I were to have a donation button with a goal of X amount of money to help pay for the printing costs of my graphic novel, that would make sense to me. Or in the case of the most awesome webcomic I've ever seen, Axe Cop! They have a donation button for a college fund. That's a worthy cause in my book. If any of you haven't witnessed Axe Cop yet then PLEASE go there now. It's written by a 5 year old and drawn by his 29 year old brother (who is an excellent artist). It's one of the funniest and creative, original webcomics I've seen. Check out the first episode on Youtube too. It's amazing!
On WapsiSquare.com (a very popular webcomic), the artist is asking people to donate so he can get his wife a new TV for about $1000. Last I checked he has totaled about $700 in the last week. That's crazy in my mind but it's cool that he's making it work. If he can get money for his wife's new plasma then why couldn't I get a fund going for the printing costs of reMIND. Let me know if I'm crazy to think this might work.
There is also the question of taxes. From what I've seen with Paypal, the person who donates has to pay a little extra percent of what they are giving as taxes. I might be wrong but I'll ask my tax guy soon.
Should I start a mailing list?
Okay, so I have an RSS subscribe button. But I've been wondering if I should have a separate button for those of you who might not think to check back every week to see my progress. You know, to just get a monthly update of things like release dates and convention info. I know people are forgetful of what they came across last week on the net and not everyone likes RSS feeds.
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Thursday I have a new video about the CMYK vs RGB workspace in Photoshop I'm excited to share. But first I need to fix all the times I said CYMK instead of CMYK. I'm an idiot.
Man, you got a great thing here. Awesome art and great blog. It's very resourceful and motivational, so mission accomplished.
I can happily say that I don't have Donation buttons on my site. I like to think that if someone wants to make a donation to me, they can buy my book. Other cats I know will at least give you a wallpaper for your donation. That seems a little more fair and professional, IMO. Personally, I have too much pride to ask my readers to foot the bill for a luxury that my wife wants and I wouldn't know how to ask for it. It just doesn't seem very professional. I did ask my readers to foot the printing bill in the form of pre-orders. That seemed like a fair exchange. If you go the Donation route, I would love to know how it works out for you. I would think a fair bit of what you get coincides with how personable you are with your blog and I think you have a great blog here loaded with personality.
I hear mailing lists are very good and while I don't have one set up myself, I just might do so to coincide with my next print trade paperback.
I appreciate your opinion on the donations subject. One thing I've read about giving something in return for a donation, like a wallpaper, is you can't call it a donation anymore, at least from a tax point of view. But since it's just a digital file it could possibly only be valued at 1 cent which means the rest of the donation is considered still a donation. Man, I really need to talk to my tax guy about this.
I am very curious to just put a donations button on here for a month just to see the results. If anything I can let everyone know what the outcome was. But placing a donation button for the printing costs is still something I am very interested in doing. I just need to put together a few printing quotes to get my numbers straight. I'd like to have a goal of the cost and let people know where we are with achieving the goal, like a little meter or something. If I were to come across a comic that I really wanted to see in print then I think I'd throw the author a little cash to help. I guess I have donated to a few sites now that I think about it. One was a musician who just gave away all his music for free download. I loved it so much that I donated later.
I really appreciate your suggestion on making a voting incentive too. Since I've been doing that it's been really helping. Great advice man!
Yeah, the donating thing kind of goes to the personality of the site. You're more likely to donate if you like the site, and I think you have a very likable site.
I can tell you that I haven't donated anything, unless I got a wallpaper or image or short story pdf. I did more to support the artist but *for me* it seems weird otherwise to give money like that and I'm talking about friends. With something like Waspi Square, you can believe that I don't ever forsee donating to them, not when I know that other causes like breast cancer trump buying the mrs a nice TV. So, it's all a personal thing really.
However, my hypocracy knows no bounds, so if Donations worked for generating capital, I'd definitely consider it myself. XD
While a donation button is certainty preferable to banner ads, I don’t really think either is that big of a deal. Banner ads would probably detract from the visual aspect of your page though. There are lots of ways to make money from the Internet these days. I think Amazon has a program where if you link people to their products and they make purchases you get money. If there is something that they sell that you use, you could review it and link the product. I don’t know if they still do it, but they also used to have a general link program where if anyone used that link before making any purchase you’d get money. Zac might know more, I think he is doing some web design these days.
Yeah, the Amazon thing is called Amazon Associates. I have an account with them but I stopped listing the books I recommended because it never made me any money yet. At the time I only had a few visitors a day so that's the main reason why. Some day soon I plan on doing some reviews of graphic novel How-To books and then I'll use my Amazon links.
As far as banner ads. I really don't feel like they are worth it yet. Maybe when I get a billion hits a second. I'm toying with the idea of selling my own ad space instead of using googles Advertising. I only make about 10 cents a day from googles ads. And they aren't really relevant to my subject matter.
Hey,
I have been enjoying your site and comments on your process a lot. I am one of the newer visitors and am also starting to document my own process for creating a graphic novel.
You mentioned learning how to advertise. Would you be able to shed more light on what you learned or did that changed your traffic situation for the better? Hopefully I am not prying. I felt comfortable enough asking because you said you like to be transparent.
Thanks for reading my comment! I look forward to having your story in printed form one day soon!
I love hearing that others are starting to document their process on making a GN. It's rare to find a good site dedicated to this. Usually people fade out after a few months so I encourage you to keep pushing forward. I'd love to link to your site when you have something started and some tidbits to share.
As far as advertising goes. I wrote a few posts a whole back about my experiences with it so far. Here's the first one about Project Wonderful:
http://www.remindblog.com/2010/02/08/remind-sprea…
I also wrote a bit about top list site which I found a few that are good to advertise on here:
http://www.remindblog.com/2010/02/25/webcomic-lis…
I didn't talk about it much in the latter article but The Belfry is turning out to be a pretty good place to advertise too. I will let you know more once I finish testing it more. http://belfrycomics.net/
If you need lots more info then this, I'd love to share more. I just don't know what people want me to babble on about. And please feel free to keep asking me to share my secrets. I don't believe in secrets with this stuff. (well, I wont hand out my administration login)
Thanks for getting back to me quickly. I did notice these posts before and they were very helpful and informative. I guess I could have phrased my initial question better / more in depth.
I am interested in what you may have done beyond advertising, like if you ever dealt with google adwords or had to do any sort of optimization or have found more unconventional methods that have worked for you.
I am just also curious all around what methods seem to work best. It always seems to be an ever changing combination of getting lucky with ad placement, having your site built a certain way and also having the right amount of sites talk about you or link your work.
I see, yeah I have tried a few SEO methods and have been having luck with some of them. At first I really tired to focus on placing specific words into my content or titles to ensure the most traffic from a search engines but it's been hit or miss. I will have to dig deeper into that in a post sometime . What I do now is just focus on writing things I wish I knew before.
For a while, my site was ranked at 3 which is a pretty good start, but for some reason it dropped to 0 again. I can't figure out why but surprisingly I have more traffic from Google searches now then I did when my site was a 3. I don't get it and I need to learn more about it.
Let me know if any of this need clarification. It seems like you know about a lot of this stuff already so I'm just going for it.
It's true that the more sites that are linked to you the better Site Rank you are given, which drives more traffic to you. So it's good to get the word out there when you are first starting by joining forums and stuff with your links in your signature. I think this is the best way to get a bunch of links back to your site at the very start. Try submitting your site to the cool websites you like too. But you might want to wait until you have a bit more content about your GN before you do that.
I was featured on Notcot.org and CartoonBrew.com ONLY because I suggested my site to them. That was the biggest kick start for me.
But the advertising with Wonderful and TopWebComics has brought in the most contestant and dedicated viewers to date.
I didn't realize your link to SpecialPalace.com. What a great site. I'll definitely link to you. It looks like your have a great start, and wow, that's a ton of thumbnails. Just the kind of stuff I like to see. Keep up the great work!
One thing I'd suggest is getting a small back log of pages up before you start spending any money advertising. I've found that having 30 or so posts or pages in my archives really helps bring in new traffic. When I started and only had a few pages, it was hard to convince people that I was serious about it so they didn't want to invest their time in reading what I had.
So spend the first few months just building good content specifically about your GN and updating on a contestant basis. THEN, start thinking about advertising. Also, you might want to think about having a site dedicated 100% to your project, not you as an artist. It's easier to sell people on a project then an artist. Of course, people will recognize you AS the artist in the end. I really started seeing a difference when I started reMINDblog vs just using my personal artist blog.
Those are just my two cents. I hope it's helpful.
Thanks for your comments on my site! I definitely appreciate that you took the time to check it out. I would be honored if you linked to me and of course I would do the same for your site. I actually already planned to because I think everyone should see it (everyone as in all of my 2 visitors)
You put forward some good points on how the site is organized in terms of being all my art and potentially focusing all on the graphic novel as its own blog or section. I could definitely see a benefit to this, because the GN posts could easily become lost in other posts on work or paintings if I were busier with those at a certain time.
My immediate thought is to maybe have a menu link or tab that just displays only graphic novel posts until I decide on wether to set up a secondary site. It could be a good immediate compromise :¬
Also the other thing I have decided is what to show. What is enough and what is too much. I would like to be pretty open about the process, but I would really like to do a print version moreso than anything – either through a publisher or DIY. So I will probably show finished pages, but maybe not sequentially or anything that would give away too much.
Maybe you have a good perspective on this aspect of it and why you chose the route you did.
Yeah it's a tricky decision to put everything online. My #1 goal is to get reMIND in print. I never intended to put it online but after years of working on it I realized that I had no fan base. If I finally got enough money together to print it then I'd have boxes of reMIND in my garage for the rest of my life.
One thing I've noticed over the last few years is how big the webcomic fan base is. Some of these guys have fans that dwarf what any comic publisher has. I mean when Image prints a new no name artist they maybe sell 3000 – 5,000 copies. (That's my guess) But some webcomics which aren't even as good have 10,000 unique views a day. In the end my decision to release reMIND online and then in print came down to the understanding that people who want to read comics online will not buy a book and people who want to buy a book will not read comics online.
I like buying a good book. If I see a comic online that I LOVE then I will read it every now and then but when it comes out in print I will be the first to order it. The online presence is in a huge way responsible for the success and fan base of the book. I could also use this new fan base to sell my next book to. At that time I might decide to only release it in print but I already have a fan base from my first book. And they can easily see the quality of what my new book will potentially look like.
Anyway, I'm not saying I'm right but that's the reason I'm doing it this way. Only time will tell if my method is a good one. If it's not then I'll try something else with my second book.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. The question I probably have to ask myself is 'Why would anyone buy my book?'
And then I guess you answer the question by doing things that would generate that interest. So in your case you are showing your work and pages and your work is great so the appeal is immediate.
One of the other issues I am having with doing it for web is the fact that my GN wont work too well serialized. Its written book by book, moreso than issue by issue.
Well, I think it can still work on the web just fine. My book is just a one shot book. When it's over, it's over. I didn't think it would work as a serial either so I planned on making it 2 big books. Mainly so I get show something sooner. I never thought people would find it interesting enough to keep reading unless it was all there in front of them but I have been proven wrong. People are still reading it even though it's only partially finished. And it's also really been helpful to see how people respond to it because I'll change subtle things before I go to print.
Don't worry about bragging. This information is like gold to me and I appreciate the honesty. That's not an easy thing (and for me an impossibility… ;) ).
As for the donation button and mailing list. I don't see how either could do harm.
Keep up the good work.
sam
Thanks buddy.
Perhaps it's just my pride. I feel like I'm begging to have a donation button. I'm still going to try it and see what happens. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to pay for some advertising that way.
Jeez, 59 hits has been my best day to date! I'll be over here in The Bell Jar if you need me.
59 is a good start. Plus your starting from the ground up. I had a art blog for years before starting this one. That one never got more then 30 a day if I was lucky. I've found that it's a good thing to have a blog be very focused on a subject. Plus I have the advantage of a blog alongside my comic. It's my little method of bring in more traffic. Have you thought about writing a little article after each page?
Thanks for the pep talk. I have thought about a blog but have trouble thinking up ideas for non-fiction writing.
About mailing lists (thanks for joining). It is a fairly unobtrusive little button and you don't have to do anything to maintain it so I say go for it.
How did you set up your mailing list by the way? Is it a plugin for wordpress? I really like it.
It's a widget called "subscribe2" and while were trading widgets; what do you use for your Comment section? I can't reply directly to comments on mine.
Also, is there a reason why you don't have Project Wonderful ads on your site?
And, have you ever thought of doing merchandising as a form of financing? If so, I'll let you do all the research and steal your sources when you blog about it ;-)
Haha
Thanks for the widget info.
My comments just have nesting turned on. If you goto your WP admin page, click on Settings on the left. Then click on Discussion. Then put a check in the box that says "Enable threaded (nested) comments". That's it!
I tried Project Wonderful ads for a few weeks but it only generated about 20 cents a day so I turned it off. That's not enough for all the real estate I'm giving on my home page. Plus it just looks sloppy sometimes. In the future I was thinking of selling my own ad spots for a locked price per month. We will see.
I have thought about making t-shirts, Mugs, stuffed animals, mouse pads, posters and sculptures. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I will definitely blog about it someday and you can steal whatever links and ideas you find helpful. I'm just glad you find it useful.
I am officially nested, thank you.
Jason, don't worry about wrangling capital yet. Establish a readership first, and turn it into something that will generate profit. Remember the links I sent you in January about professional blogging, etc.? One of the biggest things these guys preach is to establish your content first, network and create your own product. In time, the advertising will come in handy and earn you a decent profit. It isn't until you start seeing thousands of visits a day on numerous pages that the ad revenue pays off.
I've been at it for over a year trying different models – affiliate marketing through Amazon (poor return) ad banners with Google, Chitika and AdBrite, and different referral systems. These things work if you have the traffic to make it worth the advertisers while. I'm starting to see some revenue trickling in after a year of content. I could be more aggressive, but its not a priority.
I guarantee that your biggest income generation will come via the sales of your book. You already have a following, so I'd suggest you take your notes from your process and craft an e-book out of it (with a ton of extras that aren't released for free on the site) and offer that as a primer to your mailing list. Not everyone will buy it, but some will, and those that do will have directly supported the cause AND learned something based on the valuable info you've provided them.
Best part of that, there's no cuts you have to pay out to a publisher. :)
I'm working on an e-book myself based on the tutorials I've released to begin a mailing list. From there I plan on releasing one that is way more in-depth and features a bunch of extra goodies I haven't put on the site for free.
Don't be in a rush – these things take time to develop. You're going about it the right way though. Just have a bit of patience and focus on the stuff thats more important – your GN. The more time you spend trying to tweak and research, the less time you're spending being productive on what you're good at.
reMIND is what people want to see. The rest will build itself.
I (once again) see your points here and appreciate it very much. I love the idea of making an ebook at some point too. I've thought about it before but couldn't quite put my finger on how to release it or when. But all your suggestions seem really smart. The links you sent were a huge motivation and helped out tremendously. I really appreciate you spending the time to help me out like you have.
At this point, I guess I'm not to concerned about making money, I just want to figure out what works and talk about it. Then when I do have more viewers I don't have to test everything from the ground up. I agree that my book will be the biggest source of revenue on this blog, if I can afford to print it. haha. And your right that I should keep focused on it verse doing all kinds of other pointless jumping through hoops for 10 cents here and there. Thanks again for the comment!
Actually you should talk to me about an eBook option. I have worked with a company who does programs and applications. They have wanted to do apps based around comics and graphic novels for the iPhone and even more interesting options for the upcoming iPad.
Well so maybe thats not exactly an eBook, but it could still be interesting and worth looking into.
It's definitely on my mind. I'll give you a shout when I start pushing that direction.
I really appreciate what you’re doing. I wish more people put tutorials and blogs up to help artist.
I do it myself actually. I run http://www.ipaintgirls.com
I actually decided to do my first graphic novel, and reading your blog has been inspiring. I’ve completed 5 novels in less than 2 years, and many short stories, a few which I submitted to magazines, and got published. They didn’t pay much, but no one really pays much for short stories. I haven’t tried to publish my novels yet. I’m procrastinating. :p
Anyway, I think I have the will power and dedication to complete a graphic novel. I hope so. It is called Demi Nation, and will be on my site once I get it rolling. I’m still working out all the characters and the script. But, I do think I can do it because I had the dedication to complete 5 novels, and that is a lot of work.
I look foward to reading the next chapter of ReMIND.
Haha, What a great website name. Idrawgirls.com! It’s a great looking website too! That is impressive to have written 5 novels in 2 years. I bet you totally have it in you to complete a graphic novel too. It does take dedication but it seems like you already have that. Thanks for stopping by and let me know when you start posting your GN!