Chapter 1 is all updated!
So as you might remember from last weeks post, I will start Chapter 2 next Monday to make time for a good updating of all the pages in Chapter 1. I've replaced all the pages with their new improved ones. The main thing you will notice is the new word balloons and word balloon colors being consistent now. I also replaced most of the sound effects. Click through the pages if you don't mind and tell me what you think. You might have to refresh them to get them to update.
More text below.
Tons of things to share this week:
I also started a mailing list right under the subscribe button. This may look like a mailing list but it is really just a Feedburner email service. Now you can easily get reMIND updates delivered right to your inbox. This is the way I like to subscribe to my favorite websites.(as long as they don't update 40 times a day) I seem to forget what I found 2 days ago online even if I really liked it. If I find a new artist I love, I always look for a method of getting their new posts into my mail box instead of trying to remember to look for it again online. Plus I'm trying to keep reMINDblog filled with useful information so I hope this option is appreciated. If anyone is interested in how I set up a mailing list in feedburner then give me a shout.
I have officially put my foot in my mouth. A while back I wrote about Top-List-Sites for Webcomics and bagged on many of them. One of the sites I bagged on was BelfryComics.net saying it just looked to outdated to look into further. In retrospect, I noticed it was the only site I really didn't study much. I just assumed it couldn't be useful for whatever reason at the time. Well, starting last Sunday I noticed a few hits were coming from that site so I looked into it more. Turns out someone wrote a description for reMIND (and a good one at that) and listed it on their site. By the end of the day I had 81 unique visits from the Belfry alone being my number 1 top refferral site that day. Monday I got another 77. Tuesday I got 41. Wednesday 112. Thursday another 81. Okay, okay, so this is turning out to be the best Webcomic directory I've been apart of without doing any advertising at all. I admit, I tried a little advertising on Wednesday for a few hours which helped but over all I am really blown away with the traffic from that place. I'm going to create a few half banners and run them for a week or so just to see how well that works. I'll let you know the results.
So in return for the awesome traffic, I will update my Top-List-Sites article to reflect my new opinion and findings (in a few days). TheBelfry.net has officially moved to number 2 on my list right uner TopWebComics.com (when I update it).
In addition to sending traffic my way I also found a beautifully drawn and colored comic there that is turning out to be my new favorite visually. I haven't read it yet because I usually never read webcomics but if I keep going back to look at the art then I might just give it a shot. It's called Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name. Check it out if you love good art, page design and coloring with textures. Here's an image from her site:
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(Ultimate geek-out warning!)
So I want to end this all by being a total geek. I usually don't get the chance to geek out now that I'm in my mid 30's (I really don't know what that means) but every now and then something happens that brings me back to my geek out roots. (I don't know what that means either)
So there I am at work just minding my own business about to go to lunch when I decide to check my email. I had a nice fresh new unread email in my inbox and as I was about to click on it I noticed something strange. It said it was sent from Sam Kieth. You know, THE Sam Kieth who drew the Maxx and helped start Image comics and only has one of the coolest styles in the comic book world. He's one of my biggest inspirations to this day. In fact the ONLY pamphlet style comic books I bought in the last 10 years are his Scratch books by DC. I usually wait for everything to become a trade before buying it but his stuff is just so awesome that I couldn't resist.
Anyway, he said he came across my stuff and like it. I couldn't work or think straight for the rest of the day. Having one of your heros contact you and say they appreciate what you are doing is the best feeling ever. Thank you again Sam! I hope you don't mind me mentioning this.
I use Belfrycomics (I like that it’s not overly commercial and the ads are unobtrusive and relevant); I was bemused by your snub of it, but decided it wasn’t worth arguing about. Then I was amused again that it brought in so many visitors for you. Congrats, your writing and art deserve it.
Did you notice that reMIND is listed with as a Reader’s Favorite in the “New Comics” section of belfrycomics? You get that when your comic earns a certain number of subscribers over a certain time period. Obviously starred comics attract a lot more interest (only 3 comics are currently starred on the New Comics list right now). The result is that comics that surpass a threshold of quality quickly turn into a snowball effect (quality -> visitors -> subscribers -> star -> more visitors -> more subscribers). You’ll probably see some decline in visitors when reMIND drops off the list in a few days, but I suspect that the 40 or so subscribers you have will stay loyal.
Also, did you notice on the description page of your comic that you linked, that it lists other comics that have subscribers in common with your comic? Maybe there are other avenues for getting the word out about reMIND.
Yeah, wow, I don’t know what I was thinking. Guess that’s what I get for barking about stuff I didn’t fully look into. Lesson learned. I hope.
I really need to update my list to give them the praise they deserve. I was originally turned off from the Belfry because I learned about it from a super outdated how-to list which wasted hours if not days of my free time following it’s obsolete advice. It made me think that every thing associate with that list must be obsolete too. Well, enough explaining my rash decision.
I found a new top list site the other day too. I need to add it to the list AND research it a bit more before I form an opinion.
I like your train of thought about the finding comics with the same subscribers and possibly advertising on them too. My next move is to do some advertising on the Belfry to see how much more traffic that brings in and hopefully subscribers too. I was pleasantly surprised to see the star next to reMIND too. I wasn’t sure how it got there so your explanation of it is very helpful.
Oh yeah, next time you are bemused by my opinion, don’t hesitate to let me know. I like opinions. Thanks for the comment!
Hey Jason – I am digging your comic and all of the resources and experience you’re sharing about your process here!
The dudes that run it are pretty good friends of mine and provide all of my merchandising and prints at extremely reasonable costs, and I think that the roughshod, circa 1998 look of the site is actually one of the things working in its favor. Revar (the administrator) created it sometime in the middle-90s as a tool to make it easy for him to keep up on the webcomics that he liked, and then shared it with his friends, who then shared it with theirs, and so on, and now thanks to its tenure has a huge userbase of people who are interested in comics. So it’s sort of a funny paradox – because it wasn’t created to act as a promotional tool for creators, it’s a fantastic promotional tool for creators.
There is no ego involved, I know he has absolutely no interest at all in the internal politics of the webcomics community (though because of his site’s unintentional prominence, and relationship with the furry community, it sometimes splashes on him anyway), he’s just a very smart software engineer who saw a problem and took it upon himself to fix it.
I look forward to hearing how your Belfry advertising efforts go! I’ve been considering doing the same thing myself.
I’m glad you chimed in. It’s interesting to hear more about the Belfry. The guys who run it must be pretty happy with it’s success too. I’m not sure how much more traffic the advertising has given me but I’m still getting a pretty solid flow.
I’m also glad you are enjoying the comic too!
The revised pages are excellent, and I have to say I’ve warmed up to the colored word balloons now that they are all consistent. Editing art, etc., is something I will have to do on my own comic very soon, as I’m approaching the end of the first chapter. So it’s nice to know I’m not the only one. I’m curious, have you ever had to scrap whole pages, or do major art overhauls? Or do you work that into your normal schedule for drawing?
By the way, thanks for the link top-left! I just noticed it! Been in my own world so much these days I never mentioned it before. But I do appreciate it!
–M
Yes, I’ve scrapped entire spreads before after finishing color. Especially in Chapter 2. There was one spread that I must have drawn all the way to clean up 3 times. I finally just kept it really simple. I was trying to over complicate it. Another page I had finished, then changed the story so I tried to edit it. Then after a few months of looking at it unhappily, I had to start over. I’m glad I did because it much more dynamic and interesting now.
I also throw in spreads in the middle of the story just to add a little more breathing room. Sometimes I get so caught up in telling the story that it starts feeling squished together. So I have to add some pages in between to slow down the reader a bit. Plus I just like cool spreads with cool art.
I started on this so long ago that I’ve had time to iron out my story problems and look at pages cross eyed for months. Revisiting it all after putting it down for a while. That has really helped. Now that I’m closer to having the pages figured out I can stay on a schedule easier.
Oh, and by the way – nothing wrong with being excited about hearing from one of your heroes. I have a long-standing admiration for cartoonist Tim Krieder, who long ago began politely ignoring my letters. So I understand the feeling. No matter how good a person gets at something, there’s always someone else’s work they end up aspiring to match, or exceed. I think it’s just how the artistic mind works. And it keeps you developing.
–M
I just post mine on Belfry last week and couldn’t believe the amount of clicks I got, good ones too, no bounce rate people that would spend a long time on the site etc… I guess the minimalist approach brings out the hardcore webcomic readers.
I too discovered “Hanna” on their and posted a recommendation to read it on my FB group (I posted it last Thursday, I swear I’m not copying you…this time. I guess great minds think a like I immediately loved it because the creative page layouts remind me of… wait for it… Sam Keith. The Maxx is still one of my favorites, I would soil myself if I got a letter of praise from him, good for you.
Sorry about the typo’s.
Ha, Typos are my middle name. I noticed you were advertising on Belfry too. How has that been going? I was thinking of adding reMIND right next to yours for a few days. It’s great to hear that the Belfry is working out nicely for you too.
Hanna really has some impressive stuff. She is really talented!
Not getting much activity from the advertisement, certainly not as much as I would think based on the amount of clicks I got from the bit of text under the New Comics category. But it’s cheap and I can’t make an advertisement to save my life so there you have it. I’ll be scavenging around for other hidden Gems like Belfry (forums with low over-all traffic but high participation.) who’d of thought?
Here are 3 more I just found. I need to add these to my list but I haven’t checked them out yet so I can’t tell you how well they work.
http://www.toponlinecomics.com/
http://macscomiclist.gotop100.com/index.php
http://www.comichovel.com/
Ha! Wow, Sam Kieth. I was just looking over your pages and thinking how much the backgrounds (specifically the houses and buildings) reminded me of the outback in The Max. Even Victuals sort of looks like those Iszes (sort of…). Awesome.
Keep on keepen on!
sam mooney
Yeah it’s pretty awesome. Thanks man!
I rarely click on ads on the Belfry, but seeing an ad there sort of “legitimizes” a comic to me and makes me more likely to give it a shot when I see it somewhere else (either in a toplist, or a “people who like this comic also like these” list, or the New Comics list). Of course it helps if the ad gives a hint of the flavor of the comic. That may be Aquarium Drinking’s problem.
Also who wrote the “Description” of Aquarium Drinking on the belfry? It’s kind of bland and generic. How is it different than any of the other “twentysomething drinking buddies” webcomics out there?
I put up a half banner reMIND ad on the Belfry yesterday to see if it helps bring in a few more visitors. So far it seems to be working. I can’t tell who came based on the ad though but according to Project Wonderful I already got about 30 clicks. That’s really not bad at all for the price of the ad.
I’m grateful again for you chiming in. I guess I can see how an ad does bring a sense of professionalism to a webcomic. I just need to get a budget together for all this advertising stuff so I can do it more often.
The colored bubbles really fit the style of your comic. I’d stick with them.
That’s awesome about Sam. Maxx is a great looking comic.
Glad you like ‘em. I added the purple color to the Mom’s bubble but now that I look at it online I think it’s a bit strong. I’ll bring down the saturation a bit and see if that helps next time I do her word balloons.