Here we go. This is the moment when I thought to myself, "I need to get this thing going!" I toyed with the idea of making this into two spreads but then the rest of my life flashed before my eyes. Drawing a 4000 page graphic novel is not what I wanted reMIND to turn into. So from here on it starts picking up. I think.

Since I've published my list of artist forums, I've learned of a few more. I need to look into them a bit more before I add them to the list but I'll let you know if I update it.

In starting reMINDblog.com, not only did I want to post my progress of reMIND, I also wanted a place where I could organize information and resources that I've found relating to making graphic novels.  There's nothing more frustrating then digging through a website for an hour before noticing it's a ghost town. All the links are broken and information is just totally out of date and useless.

For instance, when I was looking for information about promoting a graphic novel online, I came across a fairly popular how-to site with articles claiming they had all the answers in a nice simple list.  I started following the advice but as I read I couldn't help but wonder when the article was written because it had advice like "Join a WebRing." I've never heard of a webring before so I did an Internet search but everything I found seemed so primitive.  Even worse, when I looked at comics in webrings, they were so crusty looking and rarely viewed that it made me question the rest of the points on this How-to list.

I ended up joining a webring when I had my Google blog just to test it out. Guess how much traffic it gave me. In four months I got a total of 4 hits from the webring all of whom stayed less then 4 seconds. Worthless.

I asked my IT guru friend about them shortly after and he said webring's are dead. They were popular in the 90's. So basically I wasted hours and hours of my free time following worthless outdated information from a legitimate website. I've come across tons of these by now. One of them had a list of 6 forums for comics creators. About 2 of those forums were still alive.  One of them was completely spammed to the point of no return. It's like people start this stuff and then forget it's there.

Another site that drives me nuts is ComicSpace.com. I was all into ComicSpace back in 2006 when I was experimenting with publishing an old comic called Phobos. I had a number of friends on it and it was tons of fun.  Well, time passed and I forgot about it for a few years. In early 2009, I tried to log back on to update some things and I misplaced my password so I had an automated new password sent to my email. Oh snap! I had changed my email address! No sweat. I'll just email the administrator, Josh,  to get my new email and password fixed so I can login to update my account. That's what I thought anyway.

No response for 3 months.

I did it again, written nicely with a bit of humor this time…….. no response again for 2 months.

I tried new methods every few months for over a year!!

Nothing.

Finally I make a new account so I can IM whoever is running the show to ask them to cancel my old account.  I send messages and never get a reply. It even says they never viewed my message.  That was a few weeks ago. When I look at the updates on the site from Josh, the moderator, I notice he stopped posting anything in 2008.

On top of that, the site is really slow now so updating it is pathetic. I don't know what happened to Josh, but sites like this really bother me when their not maintained. Is anyone else in this same predicament with ComicSpace? Does anyone know what's happening over there?

Here's a funny thread I found about comicspace. Look how old it is too.

Recap: Don't join a WebRing. Don't join ComicSpace.

Sorry for giving you a bunch of worthless links this week.  I did however start a DeviantArt account and I'm trying to learn how to use it.  I'm not sure if it's right for me yet but at least it's being maintained nicely. Become my friend (or whatever you do there) and show me around the place a bit if you don't mind. Here's my page.

Updated – April,14 2010

Since I started posting reMIND online I’ve been scouring the internet to find ways to promote my site. One of the ways I’ve seen are “Top List Sites” or “Webcomic Directories” where hundreds or thousands of webcomic creators come to list their online comics in hopes they can get more followers. These are websites designed to organize lists of webcomics by popularity. Each site decodes popularity based on a different algorithm of their own. For some it’s a combination of your hits, page views, etc. Others are based solely on voting while others are a complete mystery to me. I joined a bunch of these when I first started but most of these top-list’s seem to be gimcrack sites. It makes me question if it’s even worth it to list my comic there.

Before I go into details I want to mention the “Pareto’s Law” or more popularly called the “80/20 Principle“. I’ve read about this rule in many motivation books and it goes something like this:

80% of outputs result from 20% of the inputs.

or..

80% of my time at work produces 20% of my finished work.

or in this case…

80% of all websites are 20% effective.

Some push it even further…

90% of all websites are 10% effective.

You can even flip it like this…

10% of all websites are 90% effective.

If you look into this rule more you will see that it can be applied to almost everything in life. If you can figure out what 10% of your life is 90% effective and just focus on that 10%, you can save lots of wasted time.  With all this said. I think it’s a complete waste of time to add your webcomic to every list out there especially if it’s in this 90% that is 10% effective or less. So lets move forward.

As I mentioned, most of these sites have the ability to advertise on their homepage in which I have tried 4 so far and have no reason to try any others yet. So here is…

The 80/20 Principle applied to Top List Sites.

I structured it this way because once you get past the top four on the list it’s just a complete waste of time to try to figure out which one is better.

• Top Web Comics - (90% effective – with ads)

Top Web Comics seems pretty relevant to todays online communities for one. I joined and listed reMIND about 3 months ago and was ranked around #1500 on their list finding it hard to move up because the top comics were getting thousands of votes a week. I tried to remember to log on each day to vote for reMIND, I know I’m cheating, but it hardly moved me up the ranks anyway. I let it go for a while but one day noticed the ads on the top of the page were prime placement so I looked into it more. Turns out you can buy an ad there for as little as $10. (which is a discount for webcomics!) I bought an ad for $35 (300,000 impressions) and waited about a month for it to make it’s way up the queue. So far this ad has brought in an average of 100+ unique viewers a day since it started displaying. It looks like my ad will run for about 3 weeks. From what I can tell I am averaging about 100,000 impressions a week on their site. This could mean over  2100 highly targeted unique viewers by the time my ad expires. Not to mention lots of new subscribers.

But the biggest advantage to advertising at TopWebComics is people start voting for your comic (if they like it). Since my advertisement started, I’ve moved from around #1300 on the list to #320 (as I write this) in just about a week. Because I’m moving up the list, I’m now getting more people to recognize my site. When people goto the site to vote for other comics they might see my ad at the top and decide to vote for me too. So your not just paying for a little advertising, your also putting yourself on the map so people can find you to vote for you which will continue to drive traffic to your site long after the ad expires.

• The Belfry WebComic Index – (85% effective)
  

[Edit] When I first wrote this article I blow this one off thinking it was useless. The nest month I had some traffic from the site so I went there to check it out. What I found was a pleasant surprise. Someone had listed my comic and it was being displayed on the front page as a new comic. Being on this list alone was sending an average of 60 unique visitors to my site. Wow. Then I got another surprise when so many people subscribed to my comic there that I was added to the Most-New Subscriptions list. This shot more people to my site for a few weeks.

I started advertising on the Belfry lately and it’s been a wonderful return on investment, as far as getting new people to notice my graphic novel. So my end conclusion is that the Belfry is the second best Top List site I’ve found so far. Go there and sign up and list your comic if it’s not there yet!

• The Webcomic LIst - (80% effective – with ads)

This site is kinda clunky, but hey, they all are. The Webcomic List is sometimes very slow to load a page and I find it frustrating to navigate. The stats don’t really work on my comic too because it’s a blog but I don’t really need stats. I use Google Analytics. Overall, since I’ve listed my comic here I get about 4 unique viewers a day who somehow find me in the infinite list of burnt out comics. I think they add your page views to their algorithm and since 80% of the comics don’t get updated anymore, you automatically move up the list. As of writing this I’m ranked at 1,839 out of 15,310. That’s allot of comics to dig through!

One thing I’d suggest is to buy a spot in the featured list for $15 a month. This was my first advertising attempt being cheap enough for me to risk. They have other banner advertising but it seems really expensive at about $100 for 150,000 impressions. I’ll let you know when I tap into my Home Equity Line of Credit for this.

When I bought the $15 featured spot, I was sent about 5 to 16 unique visitors a day from the ad. Not bad for about 50 cents a day. Of corse it’s important to make a catchy button to attract people or your precious 15 duckets will float down the toilet. So in other words, this site is pretty good and seems up to date. I’m not sure if I will keep advertising there though. All together it has brought in a little over 300 unique viewers in about 3 months, mostly when I was featured.

• WebcomicZ.com - (10% effective – with ads)

I bought a featured ad on this site too for 3 months because it was only $5 a month. I’ve had a total of 37 unique visitors since I joined. Advertising the WHOLE time. What? Is that possible? But I’m ranked # 210 on their list (as of this writing). It seems like this list is pretty rarely traveled. It seems like a well managed site though but it definitely falls into the 80 to 90% ineffective catagory. Unless this changes in the future, I wont be spending my time there anymore.

Below are more Top List Sites that I found but don’t see the point in listing my comic with yet. If you know anything about any of these then feel free to leave a message in the comments below.

• ComicRank.com
• WebComics Super 100 List
• 100.taversia.net
  
• TopOnlineComics.com
• Mac’s Comic Lis
• Comixpedia.org
• OnlineComics.net (I don’t recommend this site. Slow and unkept by admin)
• Piperka.net
• ComicHovel.com (I’ve heard complaints of this site spamming you so be warned)

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:

____________________________________________________________

(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.

This may seem like a no brainer to some of you but I know that there are many who have no idea why Comic Sans is a bad choice. I know because I was one of them. In fact I completed three whole comics in Comic Sans MS and paid tons of money to print ‘em. I still have copies of these books and I’m embarrassed to try to sell my leftovers. Other newer comic creators have asked me to explain why Comic Sans MS is so bad so here is my list.

“A bad agent is worse than no agent at all. A really bad agent is worse than not being a writer.”

“The easiest time to get an agent is when you’ve just gotten an offer on a book. The editor phones you and says, ‘I want to buy your book.’”

“If you’ve got an offer, you can get an agent. If you don’t have an offer, you don’t want the kind of agent you’re likely to get.”

“Don’t start by looking for an agent.”

————————————————————————-

So there you have it. I’m just going to keep focused on finishing the best graphic novel I can. When the time comes for me to find a good agent I will know because I will have an offer from a publisher first. If I don’t get an offer then, who knows. But that’s another story.

For those of you who want all the info you can find on agents, here are some good links. Niki Smith has made a great list of graphic novel agents that she keeps updated on her blog here:

LITERARY AGENTS WHO REPRESENT GRAPHIC NOVELS

If you have an agent in question then make sure they don’t have any bad marks on this list:

Predators and Editors

Another great resource with extensive articles and links is Colleen Doran’s website:

Graphic Novel Agents: Cartoonist/Comic Books/Creator Resources

You can find links to these articles on Colleen’s site as well.  I found these particular ones very informative:

How to spot a bad agent by Teresa Nielsen Hayden:

nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/part1

nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/part2

And one of the best articles is on Neil Gaimen’s blog here with almost to much to dig through:

NeilGaiman.com/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about

Let me know if you have any other useful links, bad agents to avoid, good agents to recommend or encouraging success stories on the subject.

My Top 10 Favorite reMINDblog Articles…so far.

1. Before You Start Your Graphic Novel – This was the first real article I made to try and convey something I learned about the GN creative process. It started as an answer to a question that someone asked me in a forum. I didn’t feel like I was qualified to answer but once I started writing it, it was clear to me that I had some important things I wanted to say and warn people about. I’ve updated it since it’s inception so check it out again.
2. Outsourcing Comic Pages (Specifically Flats) – What I learned in this series of posts on Outsourcing really changed everything for me. I was able to color my last 2 pages in an a hour and a half last night, and it was largely because I learned about flatting and outsourcing. This article has a few parts to it so keep clicking.
3. Interview with Ian Hannin (a professional comic colorist) – It’s not everyday that I get to interview someone working on Batman. Plus it’s very informative of the creative process of coloring comics.
4. Making Your Own Comic Font – When I first started my graphic novel, I didn’t seem to care about my fonts or anything to do with Lettering. After showing some pages on forums, my eyes were opened and I realized that the Lettering is just as important as any other aspect of my comic. I tried to find the right font but had trouble getting one I was happy with that matched my style. Shortly after, I learned how to create my own font and never looked back.
5. Blogger Vs. WordPress – I started out using Google’s Blogger for reMIND but once I starting getting serious about blogging I learned about WordPress and the ComicPress theme. What I discovered completely revolutionized the direction I took with reMINDblog.
6. RGB Vs. CMYK in Photoshop – This has been a tricky learning curve for me because there are so many opinions of the right way to do things. Even so, I never understood the real working difference in Photoshop until I made this video comparing the two modes. Decide for yourself which mode you want to work in but only after you see what the difference really is.
7. 1000 Ture Fans – This is an encouraging article about making a living off your comics or graphic novels. The linking article by Kevin Kelly is a must read and can really change the way artists think about their work.
8. 7 Reasons to NOT use Comic Sans MS in Your Comic – This is by far my most trafficked and controversial article to date. Some hate it and some love it. Before just plopping the first comic font you find into your artwork, check out this article.
9. Easy Word Balloons – I made a quick tutorial a while back about word balloons. I’ve made them many ways over the years and this is the easiest and best way I’ve discovered.
10. Unnatural Talent – I know this is a new article but I think it’s one of my most heart felt posts I’ve written so it definitely deserves to be on this list.

Thank you for all your support and comments over the last 6 months. If it wasn’t for all your warm encouragement I’d still be trying to finish the first Chapter.