A huge, huge part of gathering an audience to your work is having an update schedule. How would you like it if your favorite television series just went on air “whenever?” No schedule for a new episode, no day for you to check back, just whenever the heck the network had the time to air it? You’d be pissed off and forget to check back! Then you’d be pissed off more when you realized you missed a new episode or 3!

Yes, yes, I know. You want to tell me, “But Kez, when a webcomic updates, the page stays up, so people can come and check back whenever they want! TV shows air, but then you can’t watch them again until the network feels like replaying them! These are 2 really different things!” Well I’m going to tell you that updating randomly is the lazy-man’s way to do it, and though you may keep SOME of your readers, you will NEVER have the audience that a webcomic that updates to a schedule has.

As usual, I’m going to look at the success stories here. Let’s  try Gunnerkrigg Court. GC is currently #14 on TWC, so we can all agree the comic is quite popular! It updates 3x a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And look! It SAYS so, right at the top of the comic there.  Let us view the Project Wonderful stats on GC.  No way! HUGE increases on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays! I WONDER IF THERE IS A CORRELATION (please note, that was not phrased as a question).

Let us consider a scenario where you come across hypothetical Comic X. You really like Comic X, so you bookmark it. Uh oh, problem! Not only does Comic X NOT have an RSS feed (the only semi-substitute for not having a schedule, which I’ll get to at the end of this article), but it does not have an update schedule listed either! So, you bookmark Comic X, and tell yourself that you’ll check back.  For the first couple days, you DO check back. No update! Then, one day a week or so later, you check back and there’s a new page! You are so happy, but wait a second! There are new characters and new places and you have no idea what’s going on! You click the “previous page” button, and discover that Comic X was updated with multiple pages totally out of the blue. I suppose this scenario wouldn’t be so bad if the creator of Comic X at least kept an updated news area to let people know what happened, but odds are that if someone hasn’t posted a schedule, they don’t know enough to have news posts either! Anyways, you catch up on Comic X, but never knowing when the blasted thing updates, you check back quite randomly, maybe 2 or 3 times a month.  You don’t tell many people about Comic X, because let’s face it: though it’s really good, you only ever remember to check it 2-3 times a month, so how are you going to remember to tell anyone about it? Because you don’t visit the site much, you don’t even vote on TWC much. You don’t join a forum or leave a comment or send a fan-mail.  Now multiply you a hundred or so times, and you have the audience of this comic!

Scenario TWO! You come across hypothetical Comic Q.  You really like Comic Q, so you bookmark it.  Uh oh, Comic Q does NOT have an RSS feed, but don’t worry! Comic Q has an update schedule! It updates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a page per update. You are irked that it does not update more, but you know when to check back for another new page. So you do, three times a week. Each time you visit for that update, you vote for that comic on TWC. Comic Q keeps getting bigger!  Visiting 3x a week, you’re keeping up with the story quite well. You leave the creator of Comic Q a comment, telling him/her how much you like it.  You remember to tell friends about this comic, and you’re sure to let them know when it updates, so they can enjoy the same thing! You find yourself looking forward to each new update, MUCH THE SAME AS IF IT WERE A TELEVISION SERIES.  Is that a small amount of gratitude you feel? That the creator of Comic Q is updating his/her comic loyally to schedule?

Okay, now consider that Comic X and Comic Q are the same comic. Comic X decided to update in batches of 3 on random days, once a week. Comic Q decided to update 3 scheduled days a week with one page per udpate.  They both have the same thing going for them, but Comic Q decided to take the audience into consideration.  Always, always, ALWAYS make it as easy as possible for your readers to keep up with your comic. A schedule is for THEM as much as you, if not MORE for them.  Yes, yes, there are DEFINITE middle paths between Comic X and Comic Q. Phoenix Requiem updates on Mondays and Thursdays with batches of pages. FreakAngels updates on Fridays with 6 pages, and when they can’t, they bother to let people know they’re taking a week off (’cause hey, that’s polite!). There was once a comic I read that updated on Fridays, every OTHER week. This leads into a discussion on how often one should update, which I’m not going into, because the point of this article is merely that to maximize your audience, you NEED to have a schedule (and stick to it!). People will continue to check back on those days you’ve told them you will update.  The reader who comes back to your comic monthly to read batches of pages regardless of whether you have a posted update schedule is few and far in-between.  The great majority of people will come back when you tell them you’ll have something new.

Let us consider a 3rd scenario. You have a webcomic, but you have no idea when you’ll have time to work on it one day to the next. You try for an update schedule, and fail miserably. People start leaving nasty comments about how they’re not going to check back because “you’re a liar,” yadda yadda. Webcomic readers can be a spiteful bunch I tell you!  You really want to keep updating your comic, but there’s no way in hell you can definitely update on a specific day.  Finally, you list your schedule as “whenever I can do it, you sniveling mongrel sons of dogs” (only slightly less inflamatory), and point people to your RSS feed.  Once subscribed to it, people will be notified when you update!

Ah ha! The miracle cure, you say! No, not really. The minority of an audience uses an RSS feed. A sizeable minority to be sure, but most people bookmark your site and physically check back.  As for the intricacies of an RSS feed, what to display on it, I’ll leave that to another article as well. The bottom line is that if you want to continue to grow your audience, they need to know they can depend on you for updates. It’s a loyalty issue. People stop coming back if you don’t update like you said you would. They stop coming back if you update randomly and don’t keep them informed. They stop coming back because they lose interest because they don’t check back, and then forget about you.  Relying solely on RSS feeds is NOT recommended! Not even update listing sites like Piperka, TWCL or OnlineComics make up for not having a schedule, because all of these places require people to make accounts! Again, the minority of your readers will use these sites.

So, if you don’t have a schedule, you need to make one! Period.

Next up! “What is a CMS and WHY do I need it?”

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One of the very first pieces of advice someone new to webcomics will receive from the webcomic community is very simple and 99.9% of the time the right thing to do: always display your webcomic on the front page.

The reasons to do this are numerous: the webcomic is your main “product.”  It is what you are “selling” to your audience, and they shouldn’t have to look for it. It is the driving force to KEEP first time visitors, and you’re supposed to give them what they came to get.  Many visitors will LEAVE if they can’t immediately find your comic.  “It’s the only right way to build a webcomic site.”

I am here to tell you that final, blanket statement is not true, and that my site proves it.   I am not trying to brag here, I assure you, I simply want to make a point. I’m not saying my way is the BEST way either. What I DO want to say is that sometimes there are special circumstances that may push you to move the webcomic off the front page, and that if you do decide to do so, there are wrong and right ways to do it.  The problem is, most people who go about putting the comic off the home page do it wrong. Yes, totally and completely WRONG.

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First, I’m going to speak to real reasons not to display your comic on the home page. Perhaps you have multiple comics updating on your site, and you don’t want to have multiple sites.  You want multiple comics updating on ONE site because you want to pool your audience and MAXIMIZE the exposure of all your comics.  You can’t [or rather, shouldn't] display all those comics on your front page–that’s just confusing! You are therefore left with 2 alternatives: display one comic on your main site, and link the others on their separate sites, or create a “hub” page, and link all comics to their own separate pages. Why go through the trouble of creating separate sites for each comic, and then the additional trouble of setting up a “this is my portfolio [look at all my comics] that no one is going to look at, but I thought I should have anyways?” site? Don’t. Just organize a single, central domain well and you’re set. Get the extra domain names later if you want, when your audience is already pooled. It is ALWAYS best (for pagerank, for Alexa rank, etc) to have everything under ONE name, remember that!

Another reason might be because of stylistic choice of comic. For example, my comic pages change dimension with each update. This is a conscious, experimental choice I have made to take full advantage of the digital format of my comic. I don’t care if it annoys people. My comic is not, and never was meant, to be published as a book. I don’t like squishing every panel, regardless of how large I want it to be, into a set size. I don’t like panels, period.  But I digress, and will stop myself here. If your comics change dimension with each update, it is extremely difficult to place them in a good-looking template without breaking that template. The answer? Either conform (boo!), or don’t put them in that template.

A third reason to have comics off the main page is to save the audience loading time. Perhaps you want extra features available, and on your home page, but you don’t want these extras to load with each archive page. Slimming down webpage clutter is nearly always a good thing.  Also, similarly, perhaps your pages are saved at high quality (and you want them as such, within reason.) Putting new pages in a slimmed down, SEPARATE page (off the homepage) allows you post high resolution comic pages with each update. For example, how much would I LOVE Phoenix Requiem or Xylia’s pages to be displayed at a much larger size. The comics are so detailed, it seems a travesty to display at such a small size.

A final reason, perhaps just as important as the others, perhaps not: increasing total site pageviews. If a visitor continually comes to your home page, and the proceeds to the page that displays a comic, that is two total pageviews for one returning visitor.  Obviously, if the comic is on the front page, a returning visitor gets you only a single pageview. When most ad companies pay by CPM (or as with Project Wonderful, auction prices are often determined foremost by pageviews), doing what you can to increase pageviews can be imporant.

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Some people are going to argue here some very basic things that I was taught FIVE YEARS AGO when I first started webcomics: filesizes should ALWAYS be under 200kb; comics should NEVER have a scroll; comics should NEVER change size or dimension; your webpage should be 90-100% text functional and should not rely on art.

THIS IS BULLSHIT. Five years ago,  60GB harddrives and 500MB RAM were considered state of the art. Many people still used dial-up connections. The most common screen resolution was 800×600 on a CRT monitor.  5 years of technological evolution has changed the rules, and really, the rules are changing all the time. The fact, the very awesome and important fact, is that digital medium (that is, how we are displaying, and in some cases making, our comics) is so vast, has so much potential, that it should be used.  Not everyone makes their comics for print, nor should conform to print requirements. I wrote an 80-page college thesis about this. You may not agree with me, you hard-core, dead-tree formaters, but I do have experience here. You may not believe me, but I do ask that you listen.   Oh, and finally, of COURSE webcomic sites should take full advantage of artistic layouts. It’s a visual art for goodness’ sake!  Having a good looking and functional website is HALF of making a webcomic.

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So, more ranting aside, if you are going to display your comic off the front page, here are the ways to do it wrong, and then do it right:

WRONG 1: Do not ever have a “static” (unchanging) home page. Last Blood is a good example of this.  This page set up has not changed since the day the comic started. If your front page never changes, why would anyone bookmark it?  They won’t. They will instead bookmark the page WITH the comic, defeating the purpose of increasing exposure to all of your comics or other works.

RIGHT 1:  Always have updating, dated news on your hub page. It should change with every update to every comic, and preferably, have an RSS feed (done right for a single project: Phoenix Requiem). What if Bobby Crosby instead had “bobbycrosbycomics.com?” And let’s say this page linked to all the comics he works on, with linked RSS feeds, and updated news/commentary for each time a comic of his updated. This page would be POPULAR, due to the success of his projects. Someone who comes for Last Blood might discover Marry Me, and love it. The overall exposure of all his comics would increase dramatically, as opposed to mere static text links in his lower left sidebars.  I leave the measure of commentary vs. news up to you guys. My rule of thumb: if it’s not interesting (or at least inflamatory, because those are always fun), you probably shouldn’t post it. I personally post short, pertinent news blurbs on the homepage, and leave commentary for beneath the comic itself.

WRONG 2: Having more than 1 click to the most recent comic of all comics/projects you have. Multiple clicks lead to frustration, and frustrated visitors simply leave. For example, on your home page, don’t have a button that says “my comics” and then a “my comics” page with links to each comic.  A more frustrating example: an inane and babbling home page that has unintuitive link names (for example, “my comics” vs “my art projects;” well, what KIND of art projects? Lead them directly to your comics.) that lead to a gallery page with random art pieces than FINALLY leads to your comic archive and then, FOR REAL THIS TIME, to the first/most-recent comic.  By the time visitors get to this point, 90% will have already left. Have the links to each comic’s most recent page on your home page. The common reason I see for this kind of mistake in design is that a person can’t decide what they want their site to be ABOUT: themselves, their portfolio, their comic, their school projects, etc. Decide, and focus, when designing a webpage.

RIGHT 2: Having a dated, titled image and/or text link to the most recent comic page update(s). If you have an image, it should have a new file title each update so it is not cached. I prefer to have both a text link and an image link. This/these link(s) should be given TOP priority on the page design. Reading your news is optional. They came for your comic(s), but hey, they might be interested in what you have to say too. However, since they didn’t come to hear you talk, links to comics should be above/before your news, not at the bottom or after.

WRONG 3: Having more than 1 click to the archive page(s) of your comic(s). Let us return to the first scenario of WRONG 2: mulitple clicks to the comic. Okay, well, what if a new visitor wants to go to the archive page first? A lot of visitors like to see what they’re getting into first (in other words, how long they will be sitting to read your work) before going to the first page or most recent page.  If they have multiple clicks to get to the comic, how will they react with even MORE clicks to get to the archive? Or, what if, an even worse worse-case scenario, you don’t even HAVE an archive page?

RIGHT 3: Prominently displaying the link to your archive in your site menu, which should be nearly at the top of your site. I prefer navigation horizontally below the title, but some people like it on a sidebar. That should always be your LEFT sidebar though, never the right (unless of course, you speak a R->L language like Arabic). Don’t make people search for how to explore your site!

WRONG 4: Not having a direct link to your comic’s FIRST page. Somewhat like the previous scenario, some visitors like to jump to the first page rather than check the archive or go to the most recent comic page.

RIGHT 4: Displaying an image or text link or menu button for your comic’s first page. This image/link should be intuitive and LABELED. Do not rely on the “<<” image that has become commonplace in the webcomic world.  People new to webcomics will not know what that means. Anything you can do to make the reading experience easier, you do, especially since you’re moving (or at least thinking about moving) the comic from the home page.

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It’s obvious here that in some places I have merged wrong things to do and how to fix them. A lot of things will simply boil down to common sense webdesign and knowing what your audience wants (which in nearly all cases, is what YOU would want if you came to such a site.)  My #1 rule is to always make a site as intuitive and as easy to use as possible. Provide all the short-cuts to all the important pages. Don’t make your audience WORK to read your comic or use your site. My home page features the above “rights” and more: I have a text synopsis for each feature of mine, increasing the SEO of my site. The home page has a lot of images, but each has alts and titles. My navigation menu includes (in order of importance) links to the first comic, the archive, the cast page, etc. I have 2 links to get to the most recent comic page: one is an image, one is a text link in the news. My news updates with each comic update. My home page has a bounce rate (visitor see, visitor flee) of 1.34%.  This means only 1/100 visitors come to home page and leave without clicking anything.  What is the bounce rate of sites that display comics on their front page? 60-80%.

Could my site be done better? Yes, of course. There’s almost always a way to do things better. Does my site “work” with the comic off the main page? Most definitely. If it works for me, it can work for others. Just do it right!

And now, to finish my longest article ever, a list of popular comics that don’t display their comic on the front page and still make it work:

Copper (Bolt City)

Samurai Pride

VG Cats

Shades of Veil

White Noise/ Welcome Committee of Magic High/ Doom ‘n Stuff

Fantasy Realms

Phoenix Requiem

Antagonist

No Need For Bushido

Strays

The Gods’ Pack

It would be a good exercise for those into webdesign to consider how each example could be modified or done better, and then to apply it to your own site.  Please remember that even with all these features on your “hub” page, some people WILL still bookmark your “most current comic page” instead. Some just refuse that one extra second to click, and that’s alright. There are ways to stop this behavior, but really, it’s not worth the effort half the time, not if you just design correctly. The majority of your readers won’t mind that extra click, so don’t be discouraged.

]]> http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/displaying-the-webcomic-off-the-home-pagecorrectly/feed/ 3 http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/vote-incentives-and-toplists-worth-the-trouble/ http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/vote-incentives-and-toplists-worth-the-trouble/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:16:37 +0000 KEZ http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/?p=148 On the SpiderForest forums, one member asked if signing up on webcomic toplists and coming up with vote incentives was worth it. By worth it, I mean “does the effort bring enough readers to make up for the time spent?”  The short answer is most definitely YES.

Toplists are a popularity contest. Unpopular/unknown comics won’t ever BEAT the popular ones, but these are places to get your comic’s name out. It’s not about winning (getting in the top 10, or even top 100) so much as increasing overall exposure, and places like TopWebComics and Buzzcomix get a LOT of traffic. Even in the 200′s or 300′s, you will definitely get new readers. To get into the top 300′s, all you need is YOU voting for yourself daily, and one or 2 other people helping you out occasionally.  To get into the top 200′s, you need you voting for yourself, and 4 or 5 committed fans voting almost daily.  Getting into the top 100 requires, at least for me, 100 votes a week.  With an audience of around 1.5k, it update my incentive once a week to maintain a standing in 90′s.  BEING there gets me 80 visits a week, the equivalent of a really good link exchange! It’s a good deal, and worth the effort.

How often should I update my incentive? Depend on your audience size and your ambitions. If you’re a small comic, and you want to get on the front page of a toplist, you should update your incentive multiple times a week. I recommend updating the incentive at LEAST as often as you update your comic, preferably on the same day.  Don’t expect people to come back afterwards to see a new incentive AFTER reading your comic.  Remember to make it as easy as possible for people to vote for you! I don’t recommend updating your incentive daily. That’s unneccessary. 3 days a week is good place to start if you have small audience with high ambitions. I am a medium comic with low ambitions, so I update the incentive once a week and I’m happy where I am.

Should I display the toplist button or make my own? It is definitely better to make your own button that is a thumbnail of your incentive. It is even better to include the thumbnail AND provide a written description of what you have up. As a slight tangent, I advocate including this thumbnail in your news area AND another link elsewhere on your site.  For example, you have a permanent vote link, perhaps, in your navigation menu, AND have a thumbnail in the news area (for example, Xylia). Duplicating the link in this subtle fashion means a higher chance of visitors seeing the link.   Don’t be pushy about getting people to vote! Only 1/10 visitors MAX will ever vote for you! So don’t have links EVERYWHERE. That’s just annoying, and no one votes for annoying sites.

Be sure to let people know that voting on toplists isn’t like voting for president! People can vote multiple times a day, but only once each day per comic! We, as webcomic creators, take this piece of knowledge for granted. A LOT of visitors don’t know this! The first time I posted about it, my votes doubled. 0.0

What should I post for an incentive? Art is the favorite.   Ask Dr. Eldritch posts extra comic panels, often continuing the joke or story of the current comic.  Fey Winds often has concept pictures of World of Warcraft characters.  I sometimes post sketches of the following week’s comic page, or sometimes a “the making of” page.  If you’re the author and not the artist, or simply an over-worked artist, consider posting snippets of the following comic’s script (obviously as an image, since you can’t really post a lot of text).

There are so many toplists! Which and how many should I choose? I recommend focusing on one toplist. In the long run, it will be far less effort with far greater reward for a mid-sized comic (large/popular comics like Phoenix Requiem and Cat Legend can easily be high-ranking members of two.  They have a highly active fan base. If you don’t, try ONE list first, and make sure you can stick with it!) It means less updating of incentives, especially if you try to update each list with a different incentive.  Most people won’t vote twice either, just once (if you’re lucky!)  If you’re trying to decide between TopWebComics and Buzzcomix, I recommend TWC. It’s far more reliable. BCX is down too often for my taste. You might also have a lot of luck with smaller lists if you’re not getting anywhere with the larger lists.  For less readers, you can get more exposure there.

Next up! Deviant Art as a webcomic network tool…does it work?

So, you really like this one comic, named “Comic”.  It updates 2 days a week, and you are a loyal reader.  The site is very professional looking, and includes the webcomic website must-have pages.  The site is “SO VERY” professional that the webcomicker in question has decided not to have a blog/news area. One day, “Comic” inexplicably is no longer updated.  You check back, regardless, on the two days it’s supposed to update for a couple weeks. You peruse the “about” page and find contact information, and decide to send an email asking what happened. No reply.  You check the site occasionally, maybe once or twice a month, before you stop checking entirely. You hold no hope that “Comic” will ever be updated again.

Then, suddenly, six months later, you see a post in a forum saying that “Comic” is finally updating again.  You post in that forum and you ask, “what happened? Why did you stop?”

The reply is “Shit happened, but I didn’t think it was important to let my readers know that I needed some time to get my life in order.  I thought you guys would figure it out, and be there when I got back”

Why to have a news area: I am going to clarify something right now: after almost 5 years of making a webcomic and designing webcomic sites, I can say without any doubt whatsoever that having a webcomic news area is extremely important, and I ALWAYS design an area for this into every site I make. You must keep your audience up to date on the status of your webcomic if you have for some reason missed an update or have decided to go on hiatus.   Don’t ever make people guess when you are next going to be able to update. Also, If you provide no explanation, people will stop coming back because they have no confidence in you keeping to schedule.  It’s true!

On the positive side, keeping an updated news area will foster audience involvement by providing the first line of contact. YOU need to start trying to reach your audience if you expect them to try to reach you back, whether it’s through shoutbox or forum or email.  Webcomics are form of art unlike traditional comics BECAUSE of this contact you have with your audience.  People first moving from paper comics to webcomics do not seem to realize this, and believe that because print comics do NOT have news about the artist/writer, so too webcomics should not. This is not true. Please take advantage of the digital medium! Communication is key! And it starts with you!

It is NOT “unprofessional” have this area, and I would argue it is essential on the web, because everything is so ephemeral–so provide something solid.  Anonymity and internet handles distance you from the reader, but you are still closer to your audience online than you will ever be in print (unless you meet your audience face to face at a convention, of course.)  The trick to having a news area is knowing what to post.

An important distinction: there is news, and then there is blogging. “News” connotes something important; “blogging” connotes something vain and unimportant.  News should always be updated when necessary, but blogging is up to the discretion of the webcomic creator. Personally, I blog BENEATH comic news so that I may improve fill rates for context-based advertisers. However, I always try to blog about something that hopefully my audience finds interesting.  It is never given precedence over comic-related news however.

What to write about: (I’m going to repeat myself a bit) I’ve found a lot of people decide they do NOT want a news area because they believe it is unprofessional, that no one cares about extra things, that no one will read it, or because they will always forget to post news.  The biggest mistake people make here is blogging about themselves instead of the comic. If you’ve got a talent for writing, can tell a story well, or can make people laugh, then it’s okay to write about yourself or things you like. You’d be amazed how many people LIKE to know more about the person/people behind the webcomic.  If you can’t write well, and your posts sound like desperate whinings for attention, then you need to stop yourself. The idea is to connect with your audience and fill them in on news relating to your comic or yourself, not chase them away!

Ideally, a news area might provide deeper insight into your most recent page (for story-based comics, for example), or pertinent news about yourself, if it relates to the comic, or just keep people on your page longer so they look around. Jason of Wayfarer’s Moon writes hilarious anecdotes each update, while in contrast, Sarah Ellerton of Phoenix Requiem posts only to let people know when she has updated, with how many pages (providing a direct link, mind you!), and any important news about anything that may stop her from updating. Remember, when in doubt about certain features, check the successful comics to see how it’s done!

Another important distinction: A key difference you’ll see between Wayfarer’s Moon and Phoenix Requiem is that the former displays the comic on the main page, and the latter does not. If you are a comic that does not display the comic on the front page, you MUST have a news area that updates with each new page you post, otherwise the front page is nothing more than useless cover readers will never look at again. Instead, they will bookmark whatever page displays your most recent comic.

Next article: Advertising.

Again, like the archive page, many people know they NEED a cast page, but have no idea how to present all that information. This article is going to go through the different ways it can be done, and the pros and cons of each.

Let’s start with the most common way: picture and short blurb.  For example, again, Phoenix Requiem.  We have a portrait image, followed by a very short, concise, paragraph about the “important” aspects of the character: who they are, what they want (motive), and how they got where they are.  At PR, the main cast has images, and the “supporting cast” does not–only the blurb–those other comics choose to provide profile images for all semi-important characters. Providing images for the supporting cast is perfectly acceptable, Ellerton has simply decided not to.

• The pros of this method are many. For first time readers, it lets them in on who your characters are without revealing a lot of plot or spoilers.  It provides all important details as a refresher to long-time readers. It is quick to read, presented in a tight SINGLE page, is fast-loading and has a lot of text (for search engines to see! Whoo!)

• The cons are that it does not provide an up-to-date history on the characters for what has happened through-out the story. It is “intro-level” only.  With only portrait images, if your art is such that faces look alike either due to artistic inexperience or stylistic choice, the cast page can be more confusing than not having one at all. For example, “why do Sarah, Jenn and Jesse all look like the same girl with different colored hair? Oh wait, I can tell them apart by their clothes, but the clothes aren’t in the profile picture!”

The second popular method is a full body profile shot with a small amount of information on the side or beneath. A second facet of this method that makes it different from the others is how the information is presented: on it’s own page. So, you’ll click to go to the cast page, and then click again on separate profile links.  Here are a couple examples: Giderah, Kukuburi and Talismen. You click an image, and you are taken to a separate page.

• Pro’s: there is a lot more emphasis on the art, and WHO the character is as represented BY that art, instead of a focus on text.  It can also be a great promotional tool, especially if you have attractive art. A new reader goes your cast page, sees these “splash” pages, and immediately wants to read IF YOU DO IT RIGHT.  I’m not going to link bad examples here, only good ones.
• Cons: more clicking is the big one. Remember KEZ’s #1 webcomic website rule! Make it as easy for the reader as possible to get the information. If your cast is small, then the amount of clicking is also small. If your cast is big…that’s a lot of clicking around.  A second con is that there is not a lot of information presented. It’s more like…a baseball card than an actual profile.  Long-time readers find little value in going back to this page except to look at the art.

A third way to make a cast page is a mixture of choices 1 and 2, for example Sorcery 101. Usually, this is a very large image, “cut” in half, with a full-body/large picture of a character on one half, and a large blurb on the other half.  This is my least favorite way to see the information presented.

• Pro’s: there’s a lot of room to work with, both with an image and with the text.  More often than not, I consider this method to be a personal pro for the webcomic creator, as an organizational tool. As for how it is received by the webcomic reader, I admit to being unsure.  Those who use this method in my experience seem to be those uncomfortable with coding, and use the image to compensate for a table or div set up. It is, after all, far easier to insert a single image into a page than code a page to insert all pertinent information.
• Cons: large file size, unnecessary clicking, NO TEXT to be read by search engines or context-based advertisers.  Harder to update than a webpage if desired.

The last way I’m going to discuss, is how I’ve done it myself, which is taking choice 1 past the intro level.  Checking around, I see some of my favorite comics have done the same: Juathuur: GateCrash and Garanos, to mention a few.  Here you can see the there is images and blurbs, and the blurbs contain up-to-date information on what has happened through out the story.  Each of us has different information available: age, first appearance, scroll-over definitions, and other interesting stats.

• Pro’s: interesting to both new and long-time readers. Lots of text for search engines and context-based advertisers. All the information is on one page.
• Cons: well, spoilers. I’ve heard on comic forums that sometimes, people go straight to the cast page, and if that is sufficient for them, just right to the most recent page without reading the archives. You may have gained a new reader, but you lost all those pageviews. Some people also just hate spoilers! Another con is that this page must be continually updated as new events occur in the comic.  You will come to point where you may think about switching to choice 1, and making it into-only, especially if your comic is an epic.

The moral of this post is that there is no “right” way to do this, but there are definite wrong ways. Again, look at the cast pages of popular comics that you read, and use that to start. It’s been tried and found true, and it works.  There are some definite wrong ways to make cast pages though, and the biggest wrong is NOT TO HAVE ONE AT ALL. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a story-based or humor comic. If you have re-occuring characters, and plot/jokes depend on who those characters are, you need this page!

Again, like the archive page, many people know they NEED a cast page, but have no idea how to present all that information. This article is going to go through the different ways it can be done, and the pros and cons of each.

Let’s start with the most common way: picture and short blurb.  For example, again, Phoenix Requiem.  We have a portrait image, followed by a very short, concise, paragraph about the “important” aspects of the character: who they are, what they want (motive), and how they got where they are.  At PR, the main cast has images, and the “supporting cast” does not–only the blurb–those other comics choose to provide profile images for all semi-important characters. Providing images for the supporting cast is perfectly acceptable, Ellerton has simply decided not to.

• The pros of this method are many. For first time readers, it lets them in on who your characters are without revealing a lot of plot or spoilers.  It provides all important details as a refresher to long-time readers. It is quick to read, presented in a tight SINGLE page, is fast-loading and has a lot of text (for search engines to see! Whoo!)

• The cons are that it does not provide an up-to-date history on the characters for what has happened through-out the story. It is “intro-level” only.  With only portrait images, if your art is such that faces look alike either due to artistic inexperience or stylistic choice, the cast page can be more confusing than not having one at all. For example, “why do Sarah, Jenn and Jesse all look like the same girl with different colored hair? Oh wait, I can tell them apart by their clothes, but the clothes aren’t in the profile picture!”

The second popular method is a full body profile shot with a small amount of information on the side or beneath. A second facet of this method that makes it different from the others is how the information is presented: on it’s own page. So, you’ll click to go to the cast page, and then click again on separate profile links.  Here are a couple examples: Giderah, Kukuburi and Talismen. You click an image, and you are taken to a separate page.

• Pro’s: there is a lot more emphasis on the art, and WHO the character is as represented BY that art, instead of a focus on text.  It can also be a great promotional tool, especially if you have attractive art. A new reader goes your cast page, sees these “splash” pages, and immediately wants to read IF YOU DO IT RIGHT.  I’m not going to link bad examples here, only good ones.
• Cons: more clicking is the big one. Remember KEZ’s #1 webcomic website rule! Make it as easy for the reader as possible to get the information. If your cast is small, then the amount of clicking is also small. If your cast is big…that’s a lot of clicking around.  A second con is that there is not a lot of information presented. It’s more like…a baseball card than an actual profile.  Long-time readers find little value in going back to this page except to look at the art.

A third way to make a cast page is a mixture of choices 1 and 2, for example Sorcery 101. Usually, this is a very large image, “cut” in half, with a full-body/large picture of a character on one half, and a large blurb on the other half.  This is my least favorite way to see the information presented.

• Pro’s: there’s a lot of room to work with, both with an image and with the text.  More often than not, I consider this method to be a personal pro for the webcomic creator, as an organizational tool. As for how it is received by the webcomic reader, I admit to being unsure.  Those who use this method in my experience seem to be those uncomfortable with coding, and use the image to compensate for a table or div set up. It is, after all, far easier to insert a single image into a page than code a page to insert all pertinent information.
• Cons: large file size, unnecessary clicking, NO TEXT to be read by search engines or context-based advertisers.  Harder to update than a webpage if desired.

The last way I’m going to discuss, is how I’ve done it myself, which is taking choice 1 past the intro level.  Checking around, I see some of my favorite comics have done the same: Juathuur: GateCrash and Garanos, to mention a few.  Here you can see the there is images and blurbs, and the blurbs contain up-to-date information on what has happened through out the story.  Each of us has different information available: age, first appearance, scroll-over definitions, and other interesting stats.

• Pro’s: interesting to both new and long-time readers. Lots of text for search engines and context-based advertisers. All the information is on one page.
• Cons: well, spoilers. I’ve heard on comic forums that sometimes, people go straight to the cast page, and if that is sufficient for them, just right to the most recent page without reading the archives. You may have gained a new reader, but you lost all those pageviews. Some people also just hate spoilers! Another con is that this page must be continually updated as new events occur in the comic.  You will come to point where you may think about switching to choice 1, and making it into-only, especially if your comic is an epic.

The moral of this post is that there is no “right” way to do this, but there are definite wrong ways. Again, look at the cast pages of popular comics that you read, and use that to start. It’s been tried and found true, and it works.  There are some definite wrong ways to make cast pages though, and the biggest wrong is NOT TO HAVE ONE AT ALL. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a story-based or humor comic. If you have re-occuring characters, and plot/jokes depend on who those characters are, you need this page!

Of all secondary pages to have, the archive page is the most obvious one, and indeed, about 99% of comics have it. However, the format of the page seems to be beyond some people.  First, I will list what you should not do:

• Do not have your archive be a listing of “calendars.” This is most often seen on Comic Genesis sites.  A calendar contains no information about chapters, page titles, or filler pages you may have. The only thing it’s good for is showing people what your update days are, and/or how often you miss them.
• Do not list your archive by text-link, date only.  This is most often seen on ComicPress sites that have not been personalized.  This is just as bad as the “calendar” feature on Comic Genesis.
• Do not list your archive as shrunken-down “thumbnails” of the original comic files (make real thumbnail images instead).  It’s called a “thumbnail” for good reason: it’s small, and it loads fast! You may think you are being innovative, but you’re really being annoying, taxing your bandwidth, and taking up people’s time.*

When people visit your archive page, they are looking for a couple things. First time readers may want to know how large your archives are. For example, “This comic looks great, but I don’t have the time or energy to read an epic. I will check the archives to see how big/small it is.”  First time readers may also being trying to find a link to your first comic page, and this is often the fastest way.  Loyal readers will browse your archive to pull up a specific page they are looking for, or to re-read a part they liked a lot. This is why you should not have your archive set up by date or calendar. No one can find anything! Remember KEZ’s #1 webcomic website rule: make it as easy for the reader as possible. Not easy for YOU, for the reader.

Now that you have the “do not’s,” how about the “do’s?” When in doubt, go the archives of the most popular comic you read.  I choose you, Phoenix Requiem! See how the information is presented in a chronological AND chaptered way? What about Tales of Pylea?  Date, page number, chapter and page title, though ideally, the formatting of this page would be a little improved.  It can be hard when it’s automated, I know.  What about Xylia Tales?  Chapter cover image, chronological and chaptered order.  Ok, now what about my own archive?  I’ve taken everything I like about the previous examples, and then added my own flair: The War of Winds’ Archive.  I have a thumbnail image, chronological chaptered order, each page text linked, AND a written synopsis.  The written synopsis serves three functions: it is a refresher for long-time readers looking for a specific page, it gives a better idea what the story is about to new readers, and lastly, it provides textual content for context-based advertisers and search engines.

How could I improve my archive? I could add page titles as link titles and alts, as discussed in a previous article of mine.  I have the chapter cover image, the chronological order broken down by chapter, but I don’t have titled pages. If I included link titles, the final piece of information my own archive doesn’t offer, the page title, could be seen whenever you hovered over a page number. Why haven’t I done this? Well, I’ve got 270+ pages. That’s a lot of work. It’s on the list of to-do’s though!

So, to repeat myself in a coherent manner, for your archive page, do the following (only the first two are definitely necessary for 99% of comics out there):

• link every page. This can be done with a collapsible menu if your archive is extremely large, or be broken down into multiple webpages so as not to be overwhelming.  The only comic I know of who can get away with NOT linking every page is Sluggy Freelance, because there are thousands of comics.  Sluggy has an expandable dropdown instead. Be aware that an expandable dropdown does NOT replace an archive page!
• split up the page links by chapter or story arc.
• provide an image to represent each chapter or story arc.
• provide page titles to differentiate between separate comic pages.
• provide chapter synopses.

*ComicPress has an option for “archive by thumbnail.” If formatted correctly, and if your comic files sizes are rather modest, then this may be the option for you–especially if you have a black and white strip comic.  You could even set up the archive by week (well, past 7 strips), if you know how to do it. HOWEVER, you should also have a chronological and chaptered archive as well, especially if you have a large archive.

Of all secondary pages to have, the archive page is the most obvious one, and indeed, about 99% of comics have it. However, the format of the page seems to be beyond some people.  First, I will list what you should not do:

• Do not have your archive be a listing of “calendars.” This is most often seen on Comic Genesis sites.  A calendar contains no information about chapters, page titles, or filler pages you may have. The only thing it’s good for is showing people what your update days are, and/or how often you miss them.
• Do not list your archive by text-link, date only.  This is most often seen on ComicPress sites that have not been personalized.  This is just as bad as the “calendar” feature on Comic Genesis.
• Do not list your archive as shrunken-down “thumbnails” of the original comic files (make real thumbnail images instead).  It’s called a “thumbnail” for good reason: it’s small, and it loads fast! You may think you are being innovative, but you’re really being annoying, taxing your bandwidth, and taking up people’s time.*

When people visit your archive page, they are looking for a couple things. First time readers may want to know how large your archives are. For example, “This comic looks great, but I don’t have the time or energy to read an epic. I will check the archives to see how big/small it is.”  First time readers may also being trying to find a link to your first comic page, and this is often the fastest way.  Loyal readers will browse your archive to pull up a specific page they are looking for, or to re-read a part they liked a lot. This is why you should not have your archive set up by date or calendar. No one can find anything! Remember KEZ’s #1 webcomic website rule: make it as easy for the reader as possible. Not easy for YOU, for the reader.

Now that you have the “do not’s,” how about the “do’s?” When in doubt, go the archives of the most popular comic you read.  I choose you, Phoenix Requiem! See how the information is presented in a chronological AND chaptered way? What about Tales of Pylea?  Date, page number, chapter and page title, though ideally, the formatting of this page would be a little improved.  It can be hard when it’s automated, I know.  What about Xylia Tales?  Chapter cover image, chronological and chaptered order.  Ok, now what about my own archive?  I’ve taken everything I like about the previous examples, and then added my own flair: The War of Winds’ Archive.  I have a thumbnail image, chronological chaptered order, each page text linked, AND a written synopsis.  The written synopsis serves three functions: it is a refresher for long-time readers looking for a specific page, it gives a better idea what the story is about to new readers, and lastly, it provides textual content for context-based advertisers and search engines.

How could I improve my archive? I could add page titles as link titles and alts, as discussed in a previous article of mine.  I have the chapter cover image, the chronological order broken down by chapter, but I don’t have titled pages. If I included link titles, the final piece of information my own archive doesn’t offer, the page title, could be seen whenever you hovered over a page number. Why haven’t I done this? Well, I’ve got 270+ pages. That’s a lot of work. It’s on the list of to-do’s though!

So, to repeat myself in a coherent manner, for your archive page, do the following (only the first two are definitely necessary for 99% of comics out there):

• link every page. This can be done with a collapsible menu if your archive is extremely large, or be broken down into multiple webpages so as not to be overwhelming.  The only comic I know of who can get away with NOT linking every page is Sluggy Freelance, because there are thousands of comics.  Sluggy has an expandable dropdown instead. Be aware that an expandable dropdown does NOT replace an archive page!
• split up the page links by chapter or story arc.
• provide an image to represent each chapter or story arc.
• provide page titles to differentiate between separate comic pages.
• provide chapter synopses.

*ComicPress has an option for “archive by thumbnail.” If formatted correctly, and if your comic files sizes are rather modest, then this may be the option for you–especially if you have a black and white strip comic.  You could even set up the archive by week (well, past 7 strips), if you know how to do it. HOWEVER, you should also have a chronological and chaptered archive as well, especially if you have a large archive.