Everyone out there who has a wordpress blog (with comicpress, inkblot or slideshow), you need to realize something right now: WP is SET-UP to get you search referrals, to have multiple types of archives, and to easily navigate your posts/pages.  It does this through the use of things called “categories” and things called “tags.”

A category is exactly what it sounds like. With wordpress/comicpress, everyone has a “blog” category and a “comic” category. Are you aware that you can have many MORE categories? How about “storyline” or “arc” categories? (this is a function of CP 2.7, by the way, but you don’t need it for what I’m saying here.) You can select multiple categories when publishing posts and comics.  For example, here at Winged Wolf I have my categories set up on the side there *points right*  When I publish this article, I’m going to select the “tutorial” category, the “tips and tricks” category, and the “Webcomic SEO” category. If you clicked any of those links, posts in those categories show up.  This is archiving by category. If you are publishing comics from, ex, Chapter 1, you could select the “comic” category AND a “chapter 1″ category. Clicking the “chapter 1″ category would take you to all the comics you also put in that category.

A “tag” is a keyword listed (usually) at the bottom of a post. When you choose tags, pretend as if you are a person SEARCHING for your post on Google.  What keywords or phrases would you search for? Which keywords are popular enough that someone will actually USE it, but not so popular that your post would end up on the 71st page of the search listings?

You can ALSO archive by tags the same way you archive by categories.  Each time you choose a tag, WP automatically creates an archive for it.  When someone clicks on that tag, all of those posts you’ve tagged WITH that word appear. For example, if you clicked “Project Wonderful” in my tag-cloud at the bottom of my side-bar, you’d go to this page.  This isn’t important enough that I would make a CATEGORY for Project Wonderful, so I use tags. I don’t want to over-organize, so I don’t make a category for every tag I use.

When you are modding your WP sites, remember that these functions are there for you (to increase SEO) and for your readers, so don’t just not use them (or erase the functions in your sidebars) because you don’t see other people using them.  Requiem for example, categorizes each comic post with the characters in it, so people searching for specific characters can easily find them. You can find this function on Requiem’s right sidebar, in the categories dropdown.

You can add categories in your WP admin panel (posts–>categories in 2.7, settings–>categories in 2.5, if I remember right).  You should also be able to add categories whenever you make a post too.  You add tags when you make a post as well.

Another thing to consider is using perma-links with your categories and tags. For example, would I want my “webcomic website reviews” category to appear at http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/?page_id=34 or at http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/webcomic-website-reviews? The latter, of course!

Long story short, use categories and tags to archive your work and to increase your webcomic website’s SEO.

Everyone out there who has a wordpress blog (with comicpress, inkblot or slideshow), you need to realize something right now: WP is SET-UP to get you search referrals, to have multiple types of archives, and to easily navigate your posts/pages.  It does this through the use of things called “categories” and things called “tags.”

A category is exactly what it sounds like. With wordpress/comicpress, everyone has a “blog” category and a “comic” category. Are you aware that you can have many MORE categories? How about “storyline” or “arc” categories? (this is a function of CP 2.7, by the way, but you don’t need it for what I’m saying here.) You can select multiple categories when publishing posts and comics.  For example, here at Winged Wolf I have my categories set up on the side there *points right*  When I publish this article, I’m going to select the “tutorial” category, the “tips and tricks” category, and the “Webcomic SEO” category. If you clicked any of those links, posts in those categories show up.  This is archiving by category. If you are publishing comics from, ex, Chapter 1, you could select the “comic” category AND a “chapter 1″ category. Clicking the “chapter 1″ category would take you to all the comics you also put in that category.

A “tag” is a keyword listed (usually) at the bottom of a post. When you choose tags, pretend as if you are a person SEARCHING for your post on Google.  What keywords or phrases would you search for? Which keywords are popular enough that someone will actually USE it, but not so popular that your post would end up on the 71st page of the search listings?

You can ALSO archive by tags the same way you archive by categories.  Each time you choose a tag, WP automatically creates an archive for it.  When someone clicks on that tag, all of those posts you’ve tagged WITH that word appear. For example, if you clicked “Project Wonderful” in my tag-cloud at the bottom of my side-bar, you’d go to this page.  This isn’t important enough that I would make a CATEGORY for Project Wonderful, so I use tags. I don’t want to over-organize, so I don’t make a category for every tag I use.

When you are modding your WP sites, remember that these functions are there for you (to increase SEO) and for your readers, so don’t just not use them (or erase the functions in your sidebars) because you don’t see other people using them.  Requiem for example, categorizes each comic post with the characters in it, so people searching for specific characters can easily find them. You can find this function on Requiem’s right sidebar, in the categories dropdown.

You can add categories in your WP admin panel (posts–>categories in 2.7, settings–>categories in 2.5, if I remember right).  You should also be able to add categories whenever you make a post too.  You add tags when you make a post as well.

Another thing to consider is using perma-links with your categories and tags. For example, would I want my “webcomic website reviews” category to appear at http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/?page_id=34 or at http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/webcomic-website-reviews? The latter, of course!

Long story short, use categories and tags to archive your work and to increase your webcomic website’s SEO.

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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/advertising-202/ http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/advertising-202/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:29:21 +0000 KEZ http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/?p=97 Now that you know how to place ads (and therefore design space in your site to put them), now it’s time to move on to ad providers.

Most people in webcomicdom know, use and love Project Wonderful. This post is not about Project Wonderful. PW is AWESOME for the average webcomicker looking to advertise his or her comic on another web-page  (advertiser). It is not so awesome for the person trying to make money by publishing ads on his or her page (publisher).  In the rest of this article, please be aware that when I say “publisher,” I’m saying “person who publishes ads on his/her site.”

Some more terms:

CPM=Cost Per Thousand Ad Impressions (mille=thousand in French, guessing the acronym is related). This is the unit in which ads are sold through most publishers. You are paid by how many thousands of pageviews you provide. Normal market CPM is $2-4.00 US for webcomics.  In contrast, I’ve never advertised on PW for a CPM over 20 cents.

CPC=Cost Per Click. Some ad providers pay by the click. This directly relates to the performance of the ads on your site, obviously. It’s not recommended that you run CPC ads, as you will generally make less money than with CPM campaigns.

Fill Rate= # of ads shown/total # pageviews. Most ad providers do not guarantee a 100% fill rate, unlike Project Wonderful (if someone is bidding, they get that spot 100% of the time, until they cancel the bid or run out of funds).

Default= when an ad space is not filled on a pageview, it may be sent your default: either an image of your choice, or another ad network.

Ad Chain= you can set up different networks to default to other ad networks. When your fill rate is 10-20% per network, but you set up your ads in a chain, you make more money by filling default views.

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So, if I don’t champion Project Wonderful for the Publisher, what do I suggest?  There are lots of other advertisers out there that pay by CPM or CPC*  For this article, I am only going to talk about the ones I personally use, have set up for others, or have heard only praise for by others.  I am also going to stress that you should not take the step to applying to ad providers until your site is up to par! That means SEO, webcomic website must-have’s, should-have pages, reguarly updated content, and that’s just the beginning! You can find my articles on these things in the archives on this blog. Check the categories section in the side-bar!  If you do not do these things, your site’s application will be rejected, and you’ll have to wait a couple months to resubmit!

Okay, now that I’ve added my disclaimer, I can move on to where to go! I recommend starting first with ADSDAQ. This is a context-based ad provider, meaning it reads the text on your site, and serves you ads that have something in common with your readership.  If your site does not have a lot of readable text, your site will be rejected.  ADSDAQ is also nice because it provides you with simple codes to install on your site, as well as the freedom to set your desired CPM. This means that you may set a very high CPM (and have a lower fill rate), a very low CPM (and have a very high fill rate), or your perfect CPM (with a medium fill rate.)

I recommend ADSDAQ because it allows small sites to join. Webcomic sites, or any image-intensive sites, must be careful when applying.  Webcomics/graphics compete with ads on the page, so an application will be quickly rejected if competition is too high.

I personally make $40-50 dollars a month with ADSDAQ (more now that I’ve optimized my site) by displaying 2 ad sizes. That’s up to $600 a year, which ain’t a LOT, but it’s far more than I would make with PW at 50 cents a day.  I have a steady 15% fill rate at 2.00 CPM, and I get on average 100k pageviews a month. I’m trying to increase the fill rate to 20-30%, if not more.  The key to making money with ADSDAQ is increasing your fill rate, and it will depend on your site’s content, your desired CPM, and your total pageviews. I am currently experimenting with including more text about current television series such as Heroes, NCIS, CSI, etc, as well as new movie releases in order to increase fill rates. By doing this, I increase fill rates for ads that have more in common with my audience, for example, the Hellboy II campaign that was shown 2 weeks ago.

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After applying to ADSDAQ, learning the ropes of being a publisher, and optimizing your site even more, apply to Burst Media.  Burst is harder to get into than ADSDAQ, and is not context based. Instead, it allows you to choose which ads (and what CPM) you want to display on your page out of a list.  It also requires that your audience fill out a survey in order to determine your site’s demographics. You need a minimum of 200 responses to get better fill rates, so make sure your audience is big enough!

Since you’re in 2 networks now, you can set up an ad chain so that unfilled impressions are sent to the second network. Which ever network makes you more money should be placed first! (D’uh, right!?) I have ADSDAQ defaulting to Burst.  Before joining Burst, I had ADSDAQ defaulting to Project Wonderful. Be aware that when doing this, the PW stats graph DOES NOT INCLUDE PAGEVIEWS WHEN IT IS NOT DISPLAYED. However, due to misconceptions about this, PW default ads perform poorly.  People do not like to bid on them.  The one exception I know is the tower on Roza and the Horse Prince.

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After ADSDAQ and Burst, you’ll want to apply to networks like Tribal Fusion and Gorilla Nation.  These are the big guys, and they require a minimum amount of visitors, UNLIKE the previous 2 networks.  They are context-based networks also, GN more than TF.  My site is too small to be accepted here.  There are many other ad networks out there, but most, like Google Adsense, make zilch for the average webcomicker.  Since I have no experience with them, I won’t write about them.

What I HIGHLY recommend is advertising through Project Wonderful, and publishing through these other networks.  For a comparatively inexpensive price, you can greatly increase your pageviews, and make MORE money from publishing than you spent advertising.  I also know there are plenty of webcomics out there with significantly more readers than mine, webcomics that are simply better, but make no money.  THERE IS A WAY. If I can make $600 a year on a hobby, others can be making thousands, easily. This is entirely without merchandising, which is something I think webcomics should not pursue until they have a steady income though publishing ads. There is simply so much involved in designing good merchandise odds are you won’t do it right until you’ve had more experience in knowing WHAT SELLS, and that includes ads on your site.

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Up next: Advertising 303: Generating Ad Revenue and How it Relates to Content (and therefore, SEO).  I touched on it today, but tomorrow will include examples, screen shots, etc.

I give you now proof that it works:

This graph shows search engine referrals from May of this year until now, and is graphed by month, courtesy of Google Analytics (a free service you all should be taking advantage of). Yes, it is trailing down at the end, but a best-fit line will still show a positive slope, and the month isn’t over anyways. Yes, the percentages there are negative (in red), but that is contrasting the behavior of search engine referrals to the rest of the referrals I get–so of course people who stumble across my site via search engine won’t be as keen as the group of people who come to my site directly, knowing what they’re getting into.

The success that this graph shows is:

• 1) a distinct increase in the number of referrals per month since taking steps to optimize my site, and therefore…
• 2) a distinct increase in gaining NEW readers through search referral rather than direct webcomic-webcomic referral.

My goal was to gain new readers, real NEW readers, and I think I succeeded. This isn’t a “hey, I’m so great!” article. It is my intention that this article simply proves that if I can do this kind of thing, anybody can!  My degree is in biology, not um, computer science.  Everything I’ve learned has been the result of paying attention, and learning from people with experience. My goal with this blog is to pass all that experience on to you, so you don’t have to scrounge it up yourselves over the course of years.

For new readers of this blog who have their own sites, I will repeat myself about what SEO is, how it works, and why it’s something you should be doing for your own site:

[From this article] “…Why is it important to get more search referrals to your site? Because outside of webcomicdom, that is where sites get most of their visitors. Here, it’s the opposite. Most people visit our sites from direct links on OTHER sites. It means we get a small, in-bred audience, with few opportunities to catch a truly new reader. This is why it’s critical to improve your site’s Search Engine Optimization.”

SEO works by reading the text on your webpages. Search engines don’t see images, and webcomic sites are primarily composed of images, which is why traditionally, they don’t get many search referrals.  You can fix this problem by adding more text, cleaning up your code, inserting titles and alts for links and images, and relying less on images (well, text flattened onto images, especially if you’re not all to HTML/CSS savvy).

When you optimize your site for search engines, you also optimize your site for context-based advertisers, a service I champion as a way for webcomickers to make money.  As soon as I exhaust the articles on what you need to do to change your site, I will change focus to how to make money with your comic (AND your site.)

Interested readers can find more about that in a 2-part interview I gave at The Floating Lightbulb.

Next Up: Links and Gallery Pages: two great pages to have for “webcomic relations.”

ADDENDUM: I would like to apologize to those who have sent me emails within the past 72 hours. I have been phenomenally busy with website commissions, and have not responded to anyone.  I greatly appreciate your comments and your emails, and I will reply as soon as I have free moment. No, I am not ignoring you, I promise! I would also like to say that I flattered at the attention this blog is getting. I really had no idea so many people would find it helpful, and I will earnestly try to continue posting articles of substance. Thank you for visiting, everyone!

Read more about it there!

Also, Bengo and Pug’s comic, L’il Nyet, can be found here.

Read more about it there!

Also, Bengo and Pug’s comic, L’il Nyet, can be found here.

So how do you do this? No one wants to read down a huge, scrolling wall of text. No one wants to have to scan through that text to find the ONE piece of information they want.  This is where link achors come in handy.

Link anchors are regular links that take you a place on the same webpage.  You can see it in action on my own about page.  When you click any of the links in the sub-navigation, you are taken to the paragraph in question.  These are extremely convenient when used properly, but like all “tricks” should be used in moderation.  You do NOT need to use link anchors on the majority of pages you make unless you are doing something wrong: writing TOO much, basically.  Brevity is a virtue on the internet (and just about everywhere, for that matter), practice it.

To code a link anchor, you do the following and place it at the destination of where you want to take the reader (anchor goes at destination, simple, yes?):

<a id=”LINK-NAME”></a>

There is nothing inside of that link, and there is no “href.”  It is an anchor. You CAN put text inside of that, but it defeats the purpose of even having an anchor.

To link TO the anchor, you code the following (no spaces in the link name, only underscores and hyphens!):

<a href=”#LINK-NAME”>Text</a>

For example, I will make a link inside of this article.  This link…

…

…will take you here.  This comes in handy when you want direct readers to a specific place, obviously. For example, on your cast page. If you go a recent website I built, the character thumbnails on the front page link to separate character profiles on the cast page.

The second trick is link titles. Last time I went over link titles it was on the subject of SEO. Now it’s about putting more information in a page without actually PUTTING it in there.  Again, I will direct you to a live example: my cast page.  Please hover over the text that is highlighted in the character profiles. See the “title” that comes up?  The information is available if people want it, but it is not there to take up more space unnecessarily.

This is coded with the following:

<a title=”descriptive text here”>Visible Text Here</a>

And in action:

Visible Text Here

This text is not clickable. It doesn’t take the visitor away from the page The extra information only appears when the cursor is hovered over it. BUT! This extra text is visible to search engines. SEO FTW!

Next Up: A personal success story in Webcomic SEO.

Your about page should contain all the information that new and long-time readers might want to know. I don’t call this page a FAQ page,  because it should contain MORE than simple, often inane, “frequently asked” questions.  This page should function as the “one-stop” page for questions about the webcomic creator, the webcomic plot, the webcomic update schedule, how to reach the creator, and what your ENTIRE project is about.  AND, most importantly, this information needs to be presented in a concise, organized, interesting manner. The only thing worse than the lack of an about page is the never-ending, rambling, disinteresting “look-at-me-and-what-I-do-aren’t-I-so-very-awesome?!!!” page.

Here is what I, after five years of making webcomic and webcomic sites, think a person ought to have on his/her about page:

• Begin with a tight, 1-2 paragraph synopsis of your comic (usually shorter for humor-based comics as opposed to story-based).  For long, story-based comics, writing this may be extremely difficult, and it doesn’t matter. If you can’t do this little thing, you either 1) don’t have a tight enough grip on your storyline that you are forced to write out every single plot line for it to make sense to YOU, or 2) don’t appreciate the need for this enough.  For number 2, would you ever buy a book without reading the back-of-the-book synopsis? No! It doesn’t matter how cool the cover is if you don’t know what it’s about.  The difference is, with webcomics, instead of buying your comic/story with money, your audience spends TIME.
• Now that you have the synopsis, you need to decide, based on the breadth and scope of your comic, if you need something longer. The above “blurb” is for the people who want the quick overview. Some people may want more. A longer description of your comic is optional, and indeed, may be better placed on the archive page anyways.
• If your comic updates with multiple features, each feature needs an explanation on scheduling and links to [separate!] archives.  Don’t ever confuse your audience by not providing an explanation!
• Moving on to YOU, the webcomic creator, you should include a short biography. Who you are, what you do, a picture if you dare, and DEFINITELY a way to contact you. If you don’t want to include your personal email address, create a new email address specifically for the comic. It is very easy to do, and did I mention, free?
• If you offer commissions, you must inlcude your fees, and links to work you’ve already done as examples.  Do this professionally. Any venture where you want to make money requires a measure of professionalism.
• Do you have a mirror site? Link it. Gallery site? Link it. Link your comic profiles on OnlineComics, Piperka, The Web Comic List, etc.

All of this information needs to be ordered as is most important to your comic. Don’t be vain here, and put everything about you up top. Your site isn’t about you, it’s about your work. The great majority of this page should be text also, not images, and certainly not text flattened on an image.  Why should all this be text? Because of all pages that would show up in a search engine, the about page can and should have the highest chance. But only if you write! Remember, always optimize your site so that it will show up in search engines.

Next update: tricks with link anchors and titles to organize your “must-have” pages.

Your about page should contain all the information that new and long-time readers might want to know. I don’t call this page a FAQ page,  because it should contain MORE than simple, often inane, “frequently asked” questions.  This page should function as the “one-stop” page for questions about the webcomic creator, the webcomic plot, the webcomic update schedule, how to reach the creator, and what your ENTIRE project is about.  AND, most importantly, this information needs to be presented in a concise, organized, interesting manner. The only thing worse than the lack of an about page is the never-ending, rambling, disinteresting “look-at-me-and-what-I-do-aren’t-I-so-very-awesome?!!!” page.

Here is what I, after five years of making webcomic and webcomic sites, think a person ought to have on his/her about page:

• Begin with a tight, 1-2 paragraph synopsis of your comic (usually shorter for humor-based comics as opposed to story-based).  For long, story-based comics, writing this may be extremely difficult, and it doesn’t matter. If you can’t do this little thing, you either 1) don’t have a tight enough grip on your storyline that you are forced to write out every single plot line for it to make sense to YOU, or 2) don’t appreciate the need for this enough.  For number 2, would you ever buy a book without reading the back-of-the-book synopsis? No! It doesn’t matter how cool the cover is if you don’t know what it’s about.  The difference is, with webcomics, instead of buying your comic/story with money, your audience spends TIME.
• Now that you have the synopsis, you need to decide, based on the breadth and scope of your comic, if you need something longer. The above “blurb” is for the people who want the quick overview. Some people may want more. A longer description of your comic is optional, and indeed, may be better placed on the archive page anyways.
• If your comic updates with multiple features, each feature needs an explanation on scheduling and links to [separate!] archives.  Don’t ever confuse your audience by not providing an explanation!
• Moving on to YOU, the webcomic creator, you should include a short biography. Who you are, what you do, a picture if you dare, and DEFINITELY a way to contact you. If you don’t want to include your personal email address, create a new email address specifically for the comic. It is very easy to do, and did I mention, free?
• If you offer commissions, you must inlcude your fees, and links to work you’ve already done as examples.  Do this professionally. Any venture where you want to make money requires a measure of professionalism.
• Do you have a mirror site? Link it. Gallery site? Link it. Link your comic profiles on OnlineComics, Piperka, The Web Comic List, etc.

All of this information needs to be ordered as is most important to your comic. Don’t be vain here, and put everything about you up top. Your site isn’t about you, it’s about your work. The great majority of this page should be text also, not images, and certainly not text flattened on an image.  Why should all this be text? Because of all pages that would show up in a search engine, the about page can and should have the highest chance. But only if you write! Remember, always optimize your site so that it will show up in search engines.

Next update: tricks with link anchors and titles to organize your “must-have” pages.