I’ve heard the complaints and coming Monday, I hope to have all pages (or at least most of them) re-uploaded at a much larger size with easier to read text. I apologize for not getting it right the first time, but hopefully it hasn’t ticked off to many!

I just found an awesome comic that I think is worth checking out!
THEY ALL BLEED THE SAME

Also: http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/

Any other good books I should be reading?

Why I’m in on the web:

Why I’m posting Ellium on the web (http://www.asylumink.net) is because I’ve already published two graphic novels and some floppies the traditional way.

My first books I put out my self. I went through a distributor, organized my advertising, called retailers and made my pitch. I wasn’t blown away with the results, but I did cover the cost of printing and turned a little profit.

Then I moved on to publishers and I really didn’t like what I found. For example, I found out that my book was being solicited for sales at a convention from a fan – Mind you I had a massive advertising campaign planned and money on the line that need to coincide with the solicitation. So that royally sucked. Other publishers were interested but I didn’t want to trade rights or creative control.

So than finally I turn to the web. There are a LOT more people you have access to and once the fan base is big enough, you can turn a profit any number of ways, including print.

I’m focusing on advertising with large banners, especially skyscrapers. They let me show off my art which is a big seller since it’s a story based comic. My guess is size is less important if you have a good hook. Now there are exceptions to the rule, there’s one site I advertise on with the size above a button and I get good returns, but generally those ads are easy to ignore for size alone.

As for expensive high volume sites versus the others – I’ve found the volume of the traffic from the site you advertise on is less important compared to the type of place you advertise. I’m hitting big with superhero and zombie sites as well as some dark humor. I tried basing it on volume alone and while I got some decent hits, there’s one site that I’m barley paying anything for and getting a lot of clicks. In the end, spread your ads out there and see what common denominator the sites have, then use that to narrow your advertising focus. Set a click through goal as well. Mine is $.05 or less. If I’m paying $20 a day that’s fine if my click through rate is still $.05 per click. This goal is important to keep your cost down and maintain a value.

Basically I feel more comfortable talking about the print comics than the web since I’ve only started the webcomic (ellium) in August 2009. For this early stage of the plan, I’m mostly focused on the following:

• Having material to publish long term without a hitch (I have cued on the server material that will last until July, with 40 more pages that just need to be lettered)

• Refine usability of the website (I’ve made several big changes since launching and have a redesign set for January that should resolve the last of the issues in site design/layout)

• Building up awareness and a fanbase. I’ve used analytics as well as statcounter to establish my current levels (last week: Page Loads 32k; Unique Visitors 8.5k; Returning Visitors 1400)

• And lastly I wanted to get as many verified advertising channels as I could which in part also meant finding out which types of banners did the best (the last part is more ongoing – it required doing two banners of the same dimensions placed in the same spot on the same site and seeing the traffic – I’ve done about 3 studies like this). For advertising I’ve settled on specific sites through project wonderful, and advertising on a handful of webcomic resource sites. Roughly I’m averaging probably $0.03 a click.

As for printing, and some of this carries over to online, the biggest thing was to always get the best base price for materials. Not always the cheapest, but the best overall. I would routinely ask for samples and get quotes from as many as ten vendors. I’ve printed up DVD’s and had two vendors bid against each other and the same with books. And with a low overhead, it made selling them easy. My goal was always to cover the cost of the trip not counting entertainment (if I go out to a nice restaurant with friends, it’s no longer business

For printing I’ve also always tried to have something unique. I put out a black and white trade with a color cover when most thought it would cost too much. I went to a full color book when others thought the same again. Try new things.