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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.

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