Let’s get started! *cracks knuckles*

I’m going to start out by role-playing a new visitor to Dutch’s comic.   I stumble across his link, and BAM! I’m presented with some very important things:

1. This may seem like a “d’uh” thing, but Dutch states that hey, it’s a comic (and furthermore, it’s Australian :D)! You have no idea how many times I’ve had to explain to people who had never read webcomics before that it’s a comic, on the web. I encourage anyone reading this to have SOMETHING to cue total webcomic noobs into what your site is about (a webcomic).  Either state it’s a comic, a webcomic, or have a link stating “new to webcomics” or simply a “new reader” link. It sounds absurd, but it works.  Some people REALLY DON’T KNOW that they can read an entire comic online.
2. He has prominently displayed his update schedule!
3. He’s got an amusing title image (that randomly rotates).  This is a very catchy, welcoming thing! If you can make someone visiting your page for the first time laugh, chuckle, snort, etc, you win. That new reader WILL stick around to view another page.  One of the WORST things you can do is have your title in boring letters, slap a gradient on it, and call it done. It doesn’t work that way.  Your title graphic and/or logo needs to be personalized and stylized and catchy (this links to an article that briefly mentions this, since I haven’t done an all-out article on logos yet) and represent you.
4. So, still role-playing that new visitor, I see the important stuff, nice and bright: archive, cast and contact links (filling in for an about page link at first glance). Each page is organized in an appealing, simple manner,with obvious/simple/good names for those pages.  No mysterious links! So far so good, Dutch!

Okay, Dutch’s site passed the “new reader” test with flying colors, so let’s go more in-depth in my self-titled webcomic website must-have’s:

ARCHIVE PAGE:  Organized by storyline, starting with the FIRST storyline (which is good. I hate it when the most recent storyline is first), the number of comics in that storyline, and a short text synopsis.  I still recommend linking each and every page, but even I will admit with nearly 700 comics, all those links would be slightly absurd, and more likely to scare away new visitors (with the sheer immenseness of it) than please them. High marks on this set up!

CAST PAGE: Ok, the webdesigner in me is screaming about ugly tables. I’m going to address design itself at the end of this review, and stick with just organization and information display for now.  After making as many webcomic sites as I have, I am confused by the order in which the characters are presented. If you’re not going to order them by first appearance (and I don’t think that’s what has been done, since the “first appearance” links jump around a bit), then they should be ordered alphabetically, or by “main cast” and “supporting cast” (and then in each of those sections, ordered by first appearance or alphabetically). The random display of them is confusing if I’m looking for a specific character.  Admittedly, you don’t have so many characters I’m liable to GET lost, but people with a larger cast need to keep the ORDER of their characters on this page in mind.

ABOUT PAGE: the closest thing I can find is the “history” page, which, while aptly-titled considering the content, in my opinion better belongs on an about page, in a “the history of School Spirit” section. The reason I don’t like the “history” title is because when I first saw it, I didn’t know if I was about to be bombarded with an Aussie history lesson! I love how you put history in your comic, I think it adds tons of culture and is a great teaching tool, but as a reader, I don’t want more than that.  One of the many reasons I encourage people to have an about page is for redundancy of information as well (not to mention SEO). We all know internet users….aren’t always the brightest bunch. You have an email link in your menu, and an about page should additionally state how to contact you. It should also redundantly state what your comic is about (ASIDE from a one-line synopsis, something a little more in-depthe), and more about you.  Which….is almost exactly what you already have on this “history” page. If you are very attached to the page title “history”, at the very least include a link alt, “About the history of School Spirit,” or something. Include link alts on all those mapped links there, especially the Strine. Us non-Aussies have no idea what that means, but if you included the link alt, “Australian glossary of terms,” there’s no confusion there.  I know there may be some issues including more about yourself, since you are a teacher and your students read the comic.  I am unsure of the peculularities of such duality, but I AM saying all of this stuff is something someone who is a regular webcomic reader (not your students, or their parents) would want to see.

Still, really great job on the WWM-H’s there. Lots of text for search engines to see as well. Moving on to the should-have pages:

GALLERY PAGE: Again, a lot of text for SEO, great! I’d like to see you linking the people who have sent you guest art (that’s par for the course), especially if those sites are the same rating as your webcomic.  If they are more mature, the people who sent you the art probably don’t expect a link back.

LINKS PAGE: Gah! Only one banner available!?  And not even for your comic? Dutch, make more banners for yourself, man! Do you NOT want to be linked or something?  I think I remember you mentioned something before about not desiring to be linked by more “mature” sites, but if you have a linking policy, you just have to state it! 99% of people will abide by it.  If you don’t provide people banners to use, a lot of times they won’t even bother to link you, or ask you to make one, or even use a text link. They just won’t.

———–

SITE DESIGN:

This is where I groan. You’ve got everything mostly where it needs to be, all the aspects of a good website, but the webdesign needs some work. Not a lot, because where you have all the information already there, and the style in which you’ve built matches the friendly, out-going nature of your strip.  But some aspects ought

Some things YOU need to keep in mind: Take out every table border you’ve got (technically, set table border=”0″). The cast page is the main culprit.  It just looks….guh. Try cellspacing instead.

Be consistent in the design between pages. For example, your cast page has orange headings in Comic Sans, white body text in Times New Roman, and a black background. Your history page has headings in just a larger Comic Sans font, with a page background that looks like crinkled paper. Mostly, it seems the cast page is the odd man out. Perhaps you just haven’t gotten around to it yet, but the front page news area has the same issues. It’s not a good idea to use more than 1 font face on a webpage, especially if images have different text. Find a theme you like, and use it on EVERY page.

The order of your site navigation buttons needs changed. Like the cast page, the order should be alphabetical, or by order of importance.  I usually go with the later. No matter what, “Home” should be the first button. I usually then recommend “Archive” followed by “Cast,” [insert other pages here], ending with “Links” and then “About/Contact.”  I’d recommend taking out “Reviews” (and put that in an “about” section) and if at ALL possible, making horizontal nav bar. I’m guessing you don’t want to do that because then  you’d have all that room up there with nothing to do with it, so how about a compromise?  Perhaps a banner or half-banner or square button(s) ad slot up there instead? And the site navigation below that? Also, the text sizes on all the buttons needs to be conistent. It looks very odd with the changing sizes. It wouldn’t bother me nearly as much if all those buttons stayed in the same place, but had fonts all of the same size.

Next, um, the wood paneling background. I’ve never been a fan of that. I don’t think it matches your comic or art at ALL. I get that you’re going for a classroom desk (at least, I think), but just like fonts and such need to be consistent on a site, so does the art. You have your art in the title graphic, an obviously drawn ruler for the comic navigation, and then you’ve got this photograph of wood texture! It just will not mesh. It would be like inserting a photograph in your comic for a background (obviously we’re not talking about your history lesson comics here). You wouldn’t do that, because it would look BAD.  It would look totally different, and I daresay good, if you drew that yourself. Consistency in graphic design/web design is a MUST for a good-looking site, and if you’ve been reading this blog, you’ve heard me say it: webcomics are half comic, half WEB. The quality of your website needs to match the quality of your comic!

Some other random things: Add “storyline archive” or something above your dropdown archive. Let people know what it is.

Do something with your news area (that doesn’t involve table borders). It is floating off into nothingness. Remember! Cohesive design. Make sure the font styles here match the font styles on the rest of the site.

I would suggest less ad space. You’re offering too much space for the prices they are going for, and unsold spaces don’t look good. Now, if you’re just being magnanimous with your space, good for you! But if you want to be making more than a cent per spot, offer 1 or 2 spots MAX.  In this way, rather than 4 people bidding on every spot, 4 people bid on the same spots, and compete with EACH OTHER, rather than just taking the least expensive spot.  I’d recommend getting rid of those 3 boxes all together.

That’s it from me!  I apologize if I was wrong about any of things “I remembered you saying…”. I read so many webcomics, and I’ve been reading yours for quite some time now, I may have gotten some details wrong. <3 Next in line for a website review is Beertycoon’s Maskerman. But first, a webcomic host review of ComicDish.  Finally got my mirror site up there and joined the forums.

Before I begin, a note: I don’t ever ever review in the form of “this sucks, change it to suit me, puny human!” I prefer to use reviews as a teaching tool, and I definitely try to write reviews such that no matter who or what is being reviewed, everybody wins/learns. Also, all of the links inside this article do not lead to Varethane’s site, but instead to articles that expand upon the point I’m making.

Let’s get started! *cracks knuckles*

The first thing I’m going to touch on is pretty obvious: the comic is not on the front page. Now, this is not necessarily always a bad thing, as I wrote at length about in a previous post.  Things to consider when having your comic off the front page are:

• do you have multiple comics updating? If yes, and your home page lists the updates of all the comics, having the comic off the front page may be acceptable. Your one site displays updates to all your work this way, but if you only have one project going…why isn’t it the first thing people see? (no, really, I’m asking you all this question).

• does your comic page format change? If your pages constantly change size or format (example, widescreen vs. vertical formats), having a comic page in a good-looking template is nearly impossible, and you may want it on it’s own, simplified page.

• do you have this format because your home page is of a totally different design, with different content than your comic archive pages?  If yes, perhaps you want, for example, a title image,  site news and ads on your home page, but you want comic news, vote images, and a chat-box on your archive pages.

Where I’m going with this is that I would highly recommend YOU specifically putting you in particular having comics on the front page.  The minimalistic approach you’ve taken (content-wise) defeats the purpose of having a front page. If it’s not highly dynamic, or if there’s not some sort of interaction (in the form of commenting, chat-boxes, etc that doesn’t take a click/link to find), people will start bookmarking your “most recent comic” page instead.  When you have a front page like this, the goal is to keep people coming back TO the home page, not visiting the home page once or twice, realizing there’s little in the way of new content, and then bookmarking the most recent comic page. If everyone bypasses the front page, what is the point of having it?

Also, what is with having the tag-box on a separate page? Don’t make it harder for people to communicate with you than it has to be! And we all know, for some reason, that ONE EXTRA CLICK is superhard for 99% of internet users.

So, add more to the front page, or put your comics there instead.  Before I move on, I also wanted to touch on your choice of front page image. Now, I’m a total fan of your style. I think it rawks, and I have no idea how you get such great lines, but I don’t like your choice of a front page image. It’s very static.  Instead of seeing *BAM* CHIRAULT THE WEBCOMIC SEE MY AWESOMNESS, my eye is confused on where you want me to go! I’m stuck at the top left because of the gold coloring and complicated design.  Just like in any artistic piece, focus is important (and it should be on the content, not on the surrounding art). Webdesign needs to take this into account. I would suggest a stronger title image, either strong letters specifically, or Kiran not kinda squiting and grumbling at the news. Or perhaps a more organic incorporation of the content into the background.  The text gets a little lost, especially at smaller resolutions.

NEXT!

BIG POINTS on the following:

• update schedule is prominent
• direct links to the latest page, first page, and archives, a MUST for having the comic off the front page
• prominent “contact” link
• An updated and dated news area (a must for a webcomic site, regardless of the content)

SITE NAVIGATION: I’m not seeing a “links,” “cast,” or “about” link, which are webcomic website must-have’s.  Since I don’t see those, I’m going to click the mysterious “other” link to see what I find. Mysterious links are NOT good to have. Don’t make people guess about the content of a page before they click. Always title a page exactly what it is.  If you don’t want to upkeep multiple pages, then organize all the content of your “other” page with link anchors, and just add the extra links into your nav menu.

Okay, you have banners on your “other” page, so that’s good! For everyone reading, how are people supposed to link you if you don’t provide banners? You also have a gallery section here, though I would of course recommend you add a “gallery” or “art” link to your site navigation too! Don’t make people hunt for your banners though, Varethane! So get up a specifically-titled “links” or “banners” section.

I’m looking for a “cast” section still, and…oh! There it is! Hidden between art sections! Get this link on the FRONT page.  Who your characters are is almost just as important as your archive page.  This is a highly visited page on any long-form comic, so give it the attention it needs!

Provide an “about” page with information about your comic (such as a synopsis or pitch) and if desired, about yourself. All of this helps improve your site’s SEO, which I think it really needs. Your site has extremely little text, so I would imagine you get very little in the way of search referrals unless someone is searching specifically for your comic’s title.  Webcomickers in general don’t think much of search referrals (with the logic being “they’d search for my comic if they knew it, and no one will read it if they stumble across it while searching for something else”), but they are important!  The sites that really make it big get the majority of their visits from search referrals, NOT direct referrals (bookmarks, etc).

Your archive page links each page, and it’s ordered by chapter and page number. Nice!

COMIC ARCHIVES: You have full comic navigation (first/prev/next/last), YES! What you DON’T have is navigation above AND below the comic. A lot of times comic creators do not realize the importance of having this navigation for the READERS. It’s not for you, it’s for them, especially when your pages require a scroll in 1024×768 resolution (which has replaced 800×600 resolution as the default). Don’t ever make your readers scroll more than they have to, especially if they’re looking for a specific page. It’s not all too important for casual readers who check only the latest page, but what if I want to go back 10 or so pages to see what happened? Are you going to make me scroll beneath your comic every time? You’ll make my fingers tired, and just annoy the crap outta me.

You also don’t have links to your “archive” page or your “cast” page from your comic archive page. Remember, make it as easy as possible for your audience! Anticpate their needs, and provide it for them. Now, what if I’m starting out on your latest page, and I don’t recognize a character? I click the home page, looking for a cast or characters section, and I don’t find it. That’s one click. So then I try the “others” page. 2 clicks. I scroll down, and FINALLY find “characters” page link in the Miscellania section. That’s 3 clicks and scroll total. Ack! People are going to just give up before they find what they’re looking for!

CMS CHOICE: You are hand-coding your archives, aren’t you? D: No wonder your archive pages are so bare! If you don’t want to deal with WordPress, go for something like SomeryC, which requires no skill with PHP, and nothing more difficult than creating a mySQL database. If you don’t have access to a hosting admin panel, or the ability to get someone to make a database for you (by making, I mean “naming” and “setting a password,” no pain involved!) try i-strip. You may actually want to try i-strip first since it doesn’t require a database.

Based on how your webpage looks and your page source code, you obviously know what you’re doing or have someone who helps you out. Take advantage of this web knowledge. I’ve said it so many times here, but I’m going to say it again: webcomics are half comic, half web! Don’t sell you, your comic, or your audience short on the “web” part! A CMS will also make you entire site easier to manage.

Since I think you’re not using a CMS, I’m now actually wondering if your site format (webcomic off the front page, barebones nature) is a result of not having any automation. It’s somewhat easier to create the html files for blank comic archive pages rather than continually change the front page links.  This only reinforces your need FOR a CMS though.

I’m going to sum everything up now:

• Add “cast/characters,” “about”  and “links/banners” link in your site navigation. For you, I might also recommend a “world setting” section. I would also recommend taking out links for your DA and contact, and putting those inside your “about” section. Your chat-box needs to be somewhere that doesn’t need a click.
• Add more content, period!  Your site is barebones. If you can keep the streamlined nature of what you already have while adding more content for people to explore, it will be perfect! A lot of people offer either too much, or nothing at all. More text content in particular will increase your SEO. Webcomics are about more than just the comic–they’re about the site too!
• You ought to either have your comic on the front page (which would recommend considering your small page size and distinctive art style that you ought to be showing off more) or improve your front page design to make people want to keep coming back to it.
• Find a CMS you like!
• Add full comic navigation above and below the comic pages.

Phew, that’s it from me! Four more reviews to follow. At this time, I am NOT accepting more sites to review until I can make sure I can handle what I have. I’ll post here when I can do more.