How to sequey in your comic.

[Q_Slash]

Ok, I hear people swear by word of mouth promotion. They claim to telling Everyone they see about there comic. Talk about it, bring it up, give cards.

My question is...HOW do you do this?

Person A: Hi, this is Person B, Person B, this is my friend, Person C.
Person B: Nice to meet you person C. Want to join A and I for some chinese food?
Person C: Nice to meet you, I'd love to. Did you know that in one of my comics, the title character ate chinese food? Yeah, I do a web comic!

Is it me? Or does that sound a bit awkward and forced?

So how do you do it?

[Levi-chan]

Given that I'm not a person who is used to being listened to, I just talk it up with popular friends. It's a basic rule of word-of-mouth marketing - always target the top "sneezers".

"Sneezers" are people who can reference/use stuff, and give people the tendency to do the same - mainly because of the good choices they make in that matter. E.G., Steve Jobs. When he uses or pitches a product, I suddenly have this itch to grab my wallet and shell out for the stuff he recommends. Be it something awesome like OS X Tiger, or something ludicrous like the iPhone.

In smaller social circles, these are the "popular" guys. Say, the top nerd in a computing class. Or the hottest (or thinnest) chick in a Valley Girl Group.

Of course, this isn't an exact guideline. You can always target the small fish. You lose some gravity, yes - but hey. Beggars can't be choosers.

---

As for the approach, have you heard of Permission Marketing? It's when marketers ask for permission before sending advertisements. It makes sure that the product being pitched does not become an annoyance - and this could backfire badly.

The same idea applies in social circles. As long as you do not pitch it explicitly, it can work. Be passive, not active. Don't talk about what you do to others. Let others talk about it for you.

For example - instead of talking about your comics directly, you can just leave an open browser in a lab. Or if you have it in dead-tree edition, you could leave a copy hanging around. Eventually, someone will ask what it is. There's the hook. Then the line. Then the sinker.

Anyway, that's it for now. If you're really interested, try to look into the following (searchable via wikipedia):

- Memetics
- Permission marketing
- Powerful/Promiscuous Sneezers
- Seth Godin's books

[Biev]

I don't know about you guys, but I have a harder time not bringing up my webcomic in just about any conversation. Not because I'm that desperate to plug it, but just because it's what I spend 50% of my time on, and the other 50% I'm trying to make it as an artist, so between the two... I get the feeling I'm boring my friends to tears, but what else would I talk about? v(' ')v

[Levi-chan]

Well, if my comic looked as good as yours, that might not be a problem. *fangasms*

[Warofwinds]

The only word of mouth promotion that I've tried that's worked well is web-word-of-mouth, just links and such. I have however gone to conventions, and the hot items there are business cards...probably because they're free. On mine, I list my site's url as well as "freelance graphic and web designer." This way, under the guise of selling my "talents" *cough* you inadvertantly *cough* find my website!

Really, it's about bringing up in the right conversation at the right time...with the right people. As a biology major, I'm not often around any of those, but in computer labs or libraries, I often get people peeking over my shoulder to see what I'm doing. If that EVER happens, be open about it, and definitely don't be shy or glare at them for their curiosity. Explain what you're doing, write down your link for them, and send them off with a smile.

[Dutch!]

The twenty five odd kids I work with each year know about it, and that's as far as most of my word of mouth reaches. Unfortunately, at the end of each year, most kids forget about it being on the net cos they've read it in the classroom instead.

I don't tend to talk about it much though.

[TRI]

I don't know about you guys, but I have a harder time not bringing up my webcomic in just about any conversation. Not because I'm that desperate to plug it, but just because it's what I spend 50% of my time on, and the other 50% I'm trying to make it as an artist, so between the two... I get the feeling I'm boring my friends to tears, but what else would I talk about? v(' ')v

We really are turning into the same person.

Yeah, I talk about it 'cause . . . I spend so much time thinking about it.
I even talk about when I don't want to talk about it.

[Oualawouzou]

Best trick I've found is to surround yourself with people who couldn't care less about comics, weither online or in printed form. That way, not only do you get to skip doing word-of-mouth entirely, but you don't even have to feel bad about it because people wouldn't care anyway!

[Redtech]

Well, there's always putting it in one's curriculum vitae!

No wonder I'm still unemployed.

[Rao!]

I dunno, I once got a "maybe" employment list BECAUSE of my webcomic effort at the time. Job was utterly unrelated to art in any way but, eh, I didn't get the job either.

I think the easiest method is to have an unshamely egocentric personality, so people kinda expect you to promote your things no matter what. Getting an easily excitable friend also helps in these matters.

Another option would be to gain access to a giant lazer and carve the url on the moon.

Final advice, I guess, is to not try too much...? Back in the day, I got interviewed for a radio station and a newspaper article (Radio-Canada and La Tribune, respectively) and it did jackshit readership-wise. The fact that my content is in English may or may not have anything to do with this.

Moo.

[Biev]

Well you don't write it on your resume but you do keep it up your sleeve. I've never gotten turned down for a job interview with anything other than "you're overqualified for this post", and I'd say I've nailed all of them largely because I helped run a Nintendo news site for a couple years. It sounds stupid, but when you go to a job interview, they already know what degrees and work experience you have, they're just trying to judge your personality to see what they can expect to get out of you.

Whenever they start asking me random questions about my achievements and whatnot, this type of project is what impresses them. I don't just say "uh, well, I started a Nintendo site with my friends cause we're all geeks and we had spare time", I say I was able to maintain that site for a few years while translating the industry news, writing game critics, handling all the PR issues by myself, getting recognized as a journalist by Nintendo of Canada which gave me the chance to meet a lot of people from the industry, conduct interviews, get into conventions like E3, and appear on some tv shows. See? I bet you want to hire me now : P I don't need to mention that we had less than 100 regular readers and ended up letting the site die.

Anyway it's the same when you talk about your webcomic, you don't just want to say "yeah I draw a webcomic... if you feel like, you know, reading it sometimes, seeing as nobody does" ;o) What you need to do is explain how involved you got into this project, what kind of success it's achieving, what skills it's helped you develop and what opportunities it's brought you. It shouldn't be so hard to talk about it in a way that doesn't sound like you're just bragging, because this is all stuff that has you genuinely motivated.

...

Damn, I should start giving motivational speeches : ) That will be 50$ please.

[Kirb]

Frankly, I hate talking about my webcomic with people.

It makes me feel... dirty. And also kind of like a whore. A dirty whore, if you will.

Such as the other day, while walking through a computer lab, I saw a person reading my webcomic. I didn't tell him that I drew it, but I do think I succeeded in making him feel extremely uncomfortable as I stared at him intently from two rows away.

So I never really try to promote it, unless the person is genuinely interested.

The way I figure it, if the webcomic is good enough, it should spread from word of mouth anyway, with minimal advertising from the artist.
Let me just tell you one thing: nobody likes people who whore their comic night and day. If you're going to do it, make it subtle.

[Banquo]

i definitely agree that the best comics probably promote themselves. it's difficult to motivate myself to try and go out and promote a comic that even i feel ambivalent about. often i think that if more time passes and i practice more, the comic will improve enough that i think people will actually be interested in reading it. so i guess what i mean is: don't promote your comic wholeheartedly until you're absolutely sure people will want to *keep* reading it. i once heard "people will click anything. once.", and i guess i buy that.

[[geoduck]]

Wear a shirt and matching hat with the comic's name printed on them in large black letters.

[Glambourine]

Work on it in public. People get curious (and occasionally go to your site), and it gets you out of the house.

[Garneta]

I don't remember how it came up, but I've talked about it with customers in the gift shop at work.

And on lunch break I go across the street to the Dairy Queen, and draw while I'm waiting on my salad (or whatever) to be delivered. Sometimes people ask what I'm drawing. Of course, I don't know if anyone I've told about it has actually visited, but it's worth a shot.