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Question: Story vs Strip
Rone:
Humor-based comic strip webcomics seem to be the ones that gain the most popularity the easiest. The reader does not need to slog through the archives to enjoy the humor. The plot (if any) is easy for the mind to digest, making it something that a fan can look at quickly for a good laugh and then get back to the rest of his or her day. A story-based dramatic comic does not have any of these advantages.
So, from what I've seen, attracting readers to an amusing comic is easier than attracting readers to a story-based non-humor comic. (I think. I don't know, because my own comic isn't story-based so I can't speak from experience on the humor-based.)
So how would a story-based comic gain new readership? Will the same methods used for a humor strip work for a dramatic story?
Valrus:
I'm thinking maybe it would help to divide the strip into "chapters," as many story comics do, and perhaps have a page with synopses of each chapter. That way potential new readers wouldn't have to slog through hundreds of comics to catch up on backstory. Also, dividing it up would make it easier for people to take it a chapter at a time when reading older comics, rather than having to remember an exact comic number.
Seems to me that those two things would help a fair amount without being too difficult to implement.
fenmere:
Thanks for reminding me! I need to put synopses at the beginnings of each of my chapters!
My comic suffers from being very in-joke-y as well as having a strong story content. What it lends itself to, though, is a cult following. It's slower going, and may never grow beyond the few hundred readers you may collect in three to five years of comicking, but your cultish fans then reward you with the strangest, most loyal devotion you'll ever find on the planet.
In fact, I had no idea I had any readers outside my group of friends until I quit doing my comic in 2003. Then I got mobbed by individuals seeking more comic!
Anyway, there are all sorts of things you can do to plug your comic for little to no money or effort. Though, I did spend $10 and eight hours a week printing my comic on little brightly colored handbills and leaving it around in coffee shops all over town for a year and a half...
It's called geurilla marketting. We should actually have a brainstorm thread for it here. I'll contribute as soon as I can. Gotta go out on a date! ;p
Rone:
I already have everything divided into chapters, but putting up a synopsis for each section is a really good idea that I had never considered! Thank you!
The guerilla marketing idea also is very clever. Unfortunately the town I live in right now is rather small, but I could cover every coffee shop when I visit my folks. If I can find every coffee shop, that is. Too...many...
What about toplists and things like that? Are they worth the trouble?
fenmere:
The only thing like a toplist that might be worth the trouble would be http://www.onlinecomics.net/. Although, I supposed you could look at it from the point of view of whether or not you'd use a particular toplist. The thing about toplists is that they are totally arbitrary and only reflect the oppinions of the people who bother to vote on them. And the comic at the top is usually the comic that has the most readers to begin with.
Anyway, best way to pimp your comic online is to be an enthusiastic and valuable member of at least one big forum. Put a link to you comic tastefully in your signature, but hardly ever talk about it. If people like you, they will click on that link.
I'm also thinking of ways in which a group of online cartoonists could share geurilla marketting resources... Like, I live in a college town with a huge turnover in population. The people here love comics and they take them with them when they go home. I could conceivably start a small publication here... or at the very least leave some ashcans around.
Mmmm... This gives me some more ideas. Gotta go think about them for a bit...
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