questions, questions, questions

Discuss the future, present and past of sequential art.

Moderator: Moderators

Locked
rcar
Consistant Poster
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu May 31, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by rcar »

Just a few questions for my own curiosity, and probably for other web cartoonists.
First about numbers, and I know this is a very individual thing. But I only here the big hit numbers like PvP, but I don?t think many of us fall in that category. I hear Scott?s hits and think and am amazed. Then I think about how many people have internet access then wonder why he gets so few hits. I think web cartoons need a higher profile.

Second, how long do you give yourself? I have read where some cartoonists give up after six months because they are not getting many hits. Others say wait at least a year. What kind of numbers are you looking for before you feel successful?

Third, do numbers go up during school? I have heard that college students spend a lot of time looking at web cartoons. Do the numbers go down during the summer? Are the numbers steady at all, or do they ride waves?

Well I guess that is about it for now,

Thanks
Randy

http://www.mermbut.com
User avatar
Greg Stephens
Forum Founder
Posts: 3862
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Contact:

Post by Greg Stephens »

Sites like PvP are the exception, not the rule, but it does take time for a given comic to find its audience (I guess the exception to that is Megatokyo which, by all accounts, rocketed to the big leagues). How long is entirely up to you. My initial goal was 6 months worth of comics, but I had no real expectations as to the size of the audience I would be getting. I did have an idea that I thought would be nice to achieve, but have not yet gotten those numbers. That goal is modest and by the end of the year-- with no extra effort on my part beyond merely posting a comic regularly-- it's reasonable to think I can surpass it. But if you've got a real target to get, you should consider doing as much publicity and banner-waving as you can. Especially in places other than the internet. Links from other sites are good and never to be discounted, but one good write-up in a local newspaper could bring you more hits in one day than links from 100 other web sites.

As to the chance that the school year might have an affect on the size of your audience, that's certainly a consideration, but I don't know that it's a large one. Perhaps somebody who's been posting comics longer than I have would be in a better position to answer that.
Good morning! That's a nice tnetennba.
?platypus
Forum Member
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2001 7:00 pm

Post by ?platypus »

On 2001-07-03 23:13, Greg Stephens wrote:
Sites like PvP are the exception, not the rule, but it does take time for a given comic to find its audience (I guess the exception to that is Megatokyo which, by all accounts, rocketed to the big leagues).
In part because it got listed on slashdot.
Of cause even the best publisty doesn't help
unless you have a solid comic for the readers.
?platypus
Forum Member
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2001 7:00 pm

Post by ?platypus »

On 2001-07-03 13:30, rcar wrote:
What kind of numbers are you looking for before you feel successful?
I don't think numbers should be the sole critior for success. I mean there are popular strips that arn't that good.
rstevens
Forum Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by rstevens »

for what it's worth-

i've been doing DS for about 13 months now and i've grown it a bit each month.

last month (june 2001) saw DS get 1,130,000+ page views from about 70,000 visitors. (17,000 of which repeated during the month)

this is about a 25% jump from the previous month, as i was listed on memepool.com on or about the 10th.

i never got slashdotted, but i attribute about half of my audience to the inSANE amount of luck that led me to get memepooled twice.

i'll share more details with anyone interested.
and before anyone thinks i'm acting "Big" - keep in mind i'm very aware that penny arcade, PVP, etc. are all anywhere from 5X-20X bigger...which means i have a crap load of work to do. :wink:
Love, pixels and indie rock.
http://www.dieselsweeties.com
rcar
Consistant Poster
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu May 31, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by rcar »

I never really worried about amount of hits to be successful. I was thrilled anyone but my immediat freinds were reading my comics. But with the recent talk of numbers and then I read someone quit after six months because of not getting many hits I was wondering if I was missing something. Then I started to wonder about about the other factors I mentioned in the first post. I have a lot of thinking time while I mow the lawn.

Randy
Adam
Forum Member
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by Adam »

I've been pushing my junk on the internet for almost four years now, and I see about 100 (not unique) visits a day. Which is pretty small from what I read here and there. But I don't really know. I guess I don't think about it that much anymore cause I only update twice a week, and I realized I'm still learning, and it is growing, albeit slowly, and you know, there are a few people who seem to genuinely like it.
And I guess getting a forum actually helped me to not obsess over numbers so much, cause I had regular interaction with people who generally like my junk (even tho it's just two of them, that's plenty) so it made it a lot less like working in the dark.

My numbers have gone down slightly this summer, and generally speaking, they are pretty steady. Ususally when they do go up it's all at once, then it just sorta stays there.

--
<a href="http://www.nooutlet.org">No Outlet</a>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Adam on 2001-07-05 10:06 ]</font>
macclint
Forum Member
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Twin Peaks, Washington
Contact:

Post by macclint »

So, do some of you who are getting really big numbers have cost of bandwidth problems? Or do you have a special deal with your hosting?

The cost of Bandwidth at Keenspot has just about taken the whole shebang into the red...

almost...
Clint Hollingsworth
The Wandering Ones
damonk13
Frequent Poster
Posts: 72
Joined: Tue May 01, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: l'acadie
Contact:

Post by damonk13 »

I have to admit, i'd like to know what clint asked, myself...

and actually, clint, i don't know if you may know this or not, but I had heard that the entire keenspace universe only accounted for about 15% of the total keeniverse bandwidth -- is this in fact the case?

and this brings up another question, one related partially to commerce/finance... are having large archives actually HURTING cartoonists, rather than helping them? should they limit their archives to a certain number, and offer to "sell" the rest? should there be a limit to the amount of archived comics a strip has, so as to help conserve bandwidth?

hmmmm.....

[edited because i keep skipping important words when typing]
_________________
frank "damonk" cormier
<a href="http://framed.keenspace.com/"><i>FRAMED!!!</i></a>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: damonk13 on 2001-07-14 12:16 ]</font>
Jack Masters
Consistant Poster
Posts: 180
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by Jack Masters »

With my comic <a href="http://castlezzt.net/spongy/">Spongy</a>, I imagined sucess would entail a slowly growing pool of readers, enough of which would contribute character ideas for the interactive end of the strip to survive. I've gotten quite a few hits in the last few days since I started, but no one has sent in a single character idea.

I didn't even actaully think about how I'd do micropayments with this strip until I re-read this thread just now, but since it has the odd aspect of being written backwards, perhaps I'd show most of the afterchive (like an archive of future strips rather then past ones) and just charge a tiny amount for each new (old) strip until my readers had collectively paid some certain amount for that particular strip (the amount would probably depend on my amount of readers). Someone else on the forum described this buisness model quite clearly a while ago, but I can't remember who.

If any of the comics I read asked for character ideas, I'd send one in. If you looked at my comic and liked it, please tell me why you didn't send a character idea so I can change the interface.
<a href="Http://CastleZZT.net/">House of Stairs</a>
lylebclarke
Frequent Poster
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: New Zealand and Denmark
Contact:

Post by lylebclarke »

Hi Jack, I didn't send in a character because I didn't read that far down, and thus didn't know you were asking for them. I read the first couple of sentences, up until "In addition to writing the comic backwards, every wednesday I introduce a new character." and then I stopped reading. I had heard enough to make me want to come back.

I do have a character suggestion now though. An elderly fussy old man obsessed with cleanliness. (Do you need more that that?)

Cheers
Lyle
Jack Masters
Consistant Poster
Posts: 180
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by Jack Masters »

Thanks! An old man obsessed with cleanliness really has interesting possibilities in the setting. Perhaps he needs to sweep the entire maze. But where will he put the sweepings...

I'll try making some of the lower text bold and see if that helps.

<a href="Http://CastleZZT.net/">House of Stairs</a>
rcar
Consistant Poster
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu May 31, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by rcar »

Jack, I was going to wait and see were the strip was going before I made a suggestion. I wasn't sure what you were looking for. How about a classic pirate with a peg leg who is looking for his parrot.

As for bandwith, I am starting to get worried about this problem. I don't have a large audience, but my files are large (I do them in flash) I do a comic book style with issues so it would be easy to get rid of bck issues and just have the new ones on the site. Maybe charge for back issues, I will have to think about that. What I am going to do is not use flash and go to the infinit canvass style. I can make the files much much smaller. If I start getting a larger audience I will be in trouble with bandwith.

Randy
rcar
Consistant Poster
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu May 31, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by rcar »

Jack, I was going to wait and see were the strip was going before I made a suggestion. I wasn't sure what you were looking for. How about a classic pirate with a peg leg who is looking for his parrot.

As for bandwith, I am starting to get worried about this problem. I don't have a large audience, but my files are large (I do them in flash) I do a comic book style with issues so it would be easy to get rid of bck issues and just have the new ones on the site. Maybe charge for back issues, I will have to think about that. What I am going to do is not use flash and go to the infinit canvass style. I can make the files much much smaller. If I start getting a larger audience I will be in trouble with bandwith.

Randy
Jack Masters
Consistant Poster
Posts: 180
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by Jack Masters »

I like the pirate too. Maybe if I give him a tricycle disguised as a boat...

I should probably bring in the janitor first though. He seems more fitting to have near the very end.

Heehee, and the boat could have a little cannon on it...
macclint
Forum Member
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Twin Peaks, Washington
Contact:

Post by macclint »

Damonk,

Then numbers that you said were the same as the ones that I've been given. The KeenSPOT strips use about 85% of KS' bandwidth. Keenspace, though it has over 1000 sites only uses about 15%. Thus the PING emails of a few months ago.

Strips like Sinfest, when it got slashdotted have actually crashed the server due to the traffic generated.

Rumors are that Keen is working on starting it's own server farm to reduce costs and give more control to the KS tech staff. Hopefully lag times will get better too.

As much as Scott Kurtz gets raked over the coals, His rants on the price of pageviews was closer than many think.
Clint Hollingsworth
The Wandering Ones
Locked