I've just recently started on making my site (and my comic) better. Recently I've added a messageboard and a character page. If anyone could take a look at it and tell me what I could or should do to attract more readers that would be greatly appreciated. I need all the help I can get.
You can find my comic at http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com
thanks!
Creating a more interesting site
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Meghasissues
- Newbie
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Joel Fagin
- nothos adrisor (GTC)
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Extras are just bonuses. They're not going to attract any new readers, any more than DVD extras attract new people to watch the movie.
However, you may find this useful...
Attracting Readers
- Joel Fagin
However, you may find this useful...
Attracting Readers
- Joel Fagin
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Geekblather
- Regular Poster
- Posts: 335
- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:44 pm
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That is really useful. And, in my experience, hanging around can be really helpful. Not just on forums (although I have about 4 that I frequently post on) but on communities for the site. I have facebook/myspace/livejournal groups for the comic, and I think those really help too. Especially in interacting with readers. I know that I personally like it when artists are available to poke at, and I try to be available for poking.
It's about fluff, angst, drama, comedy, gaming. Come play in our world.
Thank you for the link, I'm sure I'll be finding it really useful in the coming months. I've only just started my comic (less than a month, so not really worth promoting yet), and it's nice to see that all the things I can/should do at this point are already in place, and I've got an opportunity to plan before I get serious about advertising.
Well as far as the web site goes, a organized, prominent menu is first priority. The characters button looks very out of place by itself, so why not make other sections to go with it? You can add an image link to your message board instead and maybe even add a few sections like links, about you, etc. The other thing I noticed was the white text on grey at the bottom is a huge no-no and on my laptop I couldn't see there was text there at all.
Another thing that might make it look a bit cleaner is to take the bright blue link border off your character button. Unless you change the link color set it tends to make your layout look a bit amaturish. To remove borders on link images just put border="0" in the tag for your image, not the link. If you need any help, send me a PM ^^;
Another thing that might make it look a bit cleaner is to take the bright blue link border off your character button. Unless you change the link color set it tends to make your layout look a bit amaturish. To remove borders on link images just put border="0" in the tag for your image, not the link. If you need any help, send me a PM ^^;
<a href="http://fantasywrit.comicgenesis.com"><IMG src="http://209.85.12.236/4797/23/upload/p921986.gif" border="0"></a>
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Brigid
- Regular Poster
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Another recommendation, as far as the site itself goes, is to keep it simple. The more code you have the more likely something will go wrong or that something won't work for some browsers.
Basically, keep applets and javascript to a minimum and use extraneous pictures with discretion. There are a lot of things that can be done with simple text and HTML.
And don't use flash on the main page. If you make a flash movie for your comic, have it on its own page. Make sure that the link to it clearly states that the page will contain flash.
This is because some people, even those who read webcomics, don't have very sophisticated computers.
Accessibility to your site is important for getting and keeping readers.
Basically, keep applets and javascript to a minimum and use extraneous pictures with discretion. There are a lot of things that can be done with simple text and HTML.
And don't use flash on the main page. If you make a flash movie for your comic, have it on its own page. Make sure that the link to it clearly states that the page will contain flash.
This is because some people, even those who read webcomics, don't have very sophisticated computers.
Accessibility to your site is important for getting and keeping readers.
Hey, all! My Comic is up and runnin'!
<a href="http://marycontrary.comicgenesis.com">Mary Quite Contrary</a>, MQC for short.
<a href="http://marycontrary.comicgenesis.com">Mary Quite Contrary</a>, MQC for short.
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Warofwinds
- Cartoon Hero
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I'll share what I do, though I don't know how much Joel's tutorial already discussed.
My site isn't designed all too well, but it is flashy. I have a big title, featuring the best of my art and the most popular character. A good title is important. Like it or not, books ARE judged by their covers most of the time.
I make navigation easy and prominent.
I use the many extras to show that I am COMMITTED to making my site and story better, not that I am DISTRACTED by them.
I display an updating schedule.
I update news when I miss updates and explain what's up.
I answer questions. Even better, I pose questions.
I have places for audience participation, including chatbox, forum and cast Q/A. These should be used only when the situation calls for it. My comic in the scheme of things is relatively popular. Yet, only 1-5% of my readers comment in any form, and only 0.5% joined the forum.
I display things in the order that people would search for them. So, in my navigation bar, rarely accessed pages are in the middle. Pages I want people to see on the edges.
For my extras, I include (and really, this should be a usual feature of all webcomics, and not extras, IMO) archive, characters and about pages.
My color scheme is SUBDUED. No bright colors unless it's necessary. The comic itself should be the main focus of attention.
Lastly, I don't act clingy anywhere on the site. Nothing makes a visitor erase a bookmark like a giant "I need visitors to complete my existence!!" sign.
My site isn't designed all too well, but it is flashy. I have a big title, featuring the best of my art and the most popular character. A good title is important. Like it or not, books ARE judged by their covers most of the time.
I make navigation easy and prominent.
I use the many extras to show that I am COMMITTED to making my site and story better, not that I am DISTRACTED by them.
I display an updating schedule.
I update news when I miss updates and explain what's up.
I answer questions. Even better, I pose questions.
I have places for audience participation, including chatbox, forum and cast Q/A. These should be used only when the situation calls for it. My comic in the scheme of things is relatively popular. Yet, only 1-5% of my readers comment in any form, and only 0.5% joined the forum.
I display things in the order that people would search for them. So, in my navigation bar, rarely accessed pages are in the middle. Pages I want people to see on the edges.
For my extras, I include (and really, this should be a usual feature of all webcomics, and not extras, IMO) archive, characters and about pages.
My color scheme is SUBDUED. No bright colors unless it's necessary. The comic itself should be the main focus of attention.
Lastly, I don't act clingy anywhere on the site. Nothing makes a visitor erase a bookmark like a giant "I need visitors to complete my existence!!" sign.
-Kez
My impression of your comic page/what I would change were it mine:
The contrast of purple against grey is a little sharp for my eyes. I would either make it a lighter purple or a darker grey in order to soften that. The purple area also looks too big to me--in general things feel a little cramped/awkward. For example, the edge of the comic goes right up to the edge of your 'characters' button, and the words 'characters' and 'previous' take up their entire buttons with no room to spare. I'd try making the text on these buttons a little smaller (and the other buttons so they'll match,) and then move them away from the comic by at least a few pixels so that there's a nice border around your comic. (let the comic breathe!) and then reduce the width of the purple area. It's way wider than any of your comics. (And add some more buttons to go with that poor lonely characters button all by itself up there.) Good luck!
The contrast of purple against grey is a little sharp for my eyes. I would either make it a lighter purple or a darker grey in order to soften that. The purple area also looks too big to me--in general things feel a little cramped/awkward. For example, the edge of the comic goes right up to the edge of your 'characters' button, and the words 'characters' and 'previous' take up their entire buttons with no room to spare. I'd try making the text on these buttons a little smaller (and the other buttons so they'll match,) and then move them away from the comic by at least a few pixels so that there's a nice border around your comic. (let the comic breathe!) and then reduce the width of the purple area. It's way wider than any of your comics. (And add some more buttons to go with that poor lonely characters button all by itself up there.) Good luck!
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Meghasissues
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thanks for all the suggestions i'm currently reworking the site hopefully the new version will be up and running by tuesday
I Feel Twitchy http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com
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Meghasissues
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the new version of the site is up now. i tried to use as many of your suggestions as i could. i'm still working on improving it but for the moment i think it's alot better than it was. if you see anything else wrong let me know
I Feel Twitchy http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com
Definitely an improvement. A few things still stand out to me...
1. I can see your .jpg compression. This is more of an art thing than a layout thing, but I noticed it so I thought I'd mention it. If I can see your compression with my eyes, it's probably the wrong compression. For a drawing with multiple colors like you're doing, I'd generally recommend .png--png compression doesn't introduce that crap around the edges. .JPGs are better for other kinds of pictures.
2. I like that you've made the purple section smaller. It definitely looks better. Unfortunately, it's now smaller than some of your comics.
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20061116.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20061121.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20061122.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20061219.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070109.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070221.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070226.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070301.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070412.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070501.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070509.html
go outside your purple border. I recommend re-shrinking your originals to get comics which fit (shrinking the same comic multiple times makes for crappy resolution--better to reshrink the original.) As a general rule of thumb, keeping your comics about the same width is useful. For me, that's 800 pixels. For you, something else.
3. For some reason, your December calendar is overlapping your purple box.
4. This is another art comment, but anyway: when you crop your panels, sometimes you need to crop them a little closer. There's often this white crap around the edges. If your border is shaky or whatever, color the white crap in black. (personally, I just do all my borders on the computer. The computer draws such nice straight lines...)
How much effort are you putting into cleaning up your scans? It often seems like I can see your pencil lines, and your whites aren't very white and your blacks aren't very black. Play around a bit with the 'levels' tool to clean things up.
Also, while 'sorry I don't have an update' comics are well and good when you don't have an update, once you do update the comic, you should remove them from the archives. After all, people obviously aren't waiting for the update anymore, and they just look silly to someone reading through your archives.
5. There's a lot of wasted space at the bottom of your page. It's the sort of space where you could, well, put stuff. There are lots of different ways you could use this space, but a short 'welcome to the comic, we update every day!' sort of thing would be what I'd recommend. Personally, it's where I'd put things like my calendar and characters page, but they also work where you've got them. I would add an archives page and things of that nature, and get rid of some of the extra gray space.
And as someone already pointed out, white text on a gray background =unreadable.
1. I can see your .jpg compression. This is more of an art thing than a layout thing, but I noticed it so I thought I'd mention it. If I can see your compression with my eyes, it's probably the wrong compression. For a drawing with multiple colors like you're doing, I'd generally recommend .png--png compression doesn't introduce that crap around the edges. .JPGs are better for other kinds of pictures.
2. I like that you've made the purple section smaller. It definitely looks better. Unfortunately, it's now smaller than some of your comics.
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20061116.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20061121.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20061122.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20061219.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070109.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070221.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070226.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070301.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070412.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070501.html
http://meghasissues.comicgenesis.com/d/20070509.html
go outside your purple border. I recommend re-shrinking your originals to get comics which fit (shrinking the same comic multiple times makes for crappy resolution--better to reshrink the original.) As a general rule of thumb, keeping your comics about the same width is useful. For me, that's 800 pixels. For you, something else.
3. For some reason, your December calendar is overlapping your purple box.
4. This is another art comment, but anyway: when you crop your panels, sometimes you need to crop them a little closer. There's often this white crap around the edges. If your border is shaky or whatever, color the white crap in black. (personally, I just do all my borders on the computer. The computer draws such nice straight lines...)
How much effort are you putting into cleaning up your scans? It often seems like I can see your pencil lines, and your whites aren't very white and your blacks aren't very black. Play around a bit with the 'levels' tool to clean things up.
Also, while 'sorry I don't have an update' comics are well and good when you don't have an update, once you do update the comic, you should remove them from the archives. After all, people obviously aren't waiting for the update anymore, and they just look silly to someone reading through your archives.
5. There's a lot of wasted space at the bottom of your page. It's the sort of space where you could, well, put stuff. There are lots of different ways you could use this space, but a short 'welcome to the comic, we update every day!' sort of thing would be what I'd recommend. Personally, it's where I'd put things like my calendar and characters page, but they also work where you've got them. I would add an archives page and things of that nature, and get rid of some of the extra gray space.
And as someone already pointed out, white text on a gray background =unreadable.