Is the archive system good the way it is? I posted this in business since I'm approaching it from the financially viable aspect of it.
If you have 10 years of comics should they just all be there in the archives? There are some webcomics out there that just have too big an archive to catch up with for the average reader. They might read a few oldies but then just start reading from the current one.
Is it a thought to just have a years worth of archives, and anything earlier only be available in books or as a pay part of your site? Or maybe just keep a "best of" sort of archive?
I guess its only a consideration if you are trying to maximize profits from a comic. I think most ad systems are good for maybe 5-10 adviews per visitor before they start not paying or showing default banners. So it seems the archives are just costing bandwidth and possibly cutting book sales.
Maybe archives could have no ads and just be run on a donation basis.
Maybe that's not the case at all, maybe that's a service to the reader to make them stronger fans. It may also depend on if its a story comic or gag comic. Or maybe its a disservice to the reader, because they won't get around to reading them, but won't want to buy a book either since it IS technically available to them when they are ready... I am much more apt to read a lot more in a sitting from a book than on my distracting computer.
Just curious what people's thoughts are on the old archive system and if it's a benefit or detriment to your comics potential earnings.
It's late and apologies if I didn't word this understandably.
-Tyler
ComixTalk is not responsible for comments, blog and forum posts. News and ComixTalk Magazine articles are copyright by their respective authors.
ComixTalk, its websites and logos are ©2003-2008 | Managing Editor: Xaviar Xerexes | Site Design: Mind Faucet
Thoughts on Archives...
Is the archive system good the way it is? I posted this in business since I'm approaching it from the financially viable aspect of it.
If you have 10 years of comics should they just all be there in the archives? There are some webcomics out there that just have too big an archive to catch up with for the average reader. They might read a few oldies but then just start reading from the current one.
Is it a thought to just have a years worth of archives, and anything earlier only be available in books or as a pay part of your site? Or maybe just keep a "best of" sort of archive?
I guess its only a consideration if you are trying to maximize profits from a comic. I think most ad systems are good for maybe 5-10 adviews per visitor before they start not paying or showing default banners. So it seems the archives are just costing bandwidth and possibly cutting book sales.
Maybe archives could have no ads and just be run on a donation basis.
Maybe that's not the case at all, maybe that's a service to the reader to make them stronger fans. It may also depend on if its a story comic or gag comic. Or maybe its a disservice to the reader, because they won't get around to reading them, but won't want to buy a book either since it IS technically available to them when they are ready... I am much more apt to read a lot more in a sitting from a book than on my distracting computer.
Just curious what people's thoughts are on the old archive system and if it's a benefit or detriment to your comics potential earnings.
It's late and apologies if I didn't word this understandably.
-Tyler
I've seen a few comics that removed strips from the archives to make them book exclusives, I'm not sure how well that works though. Many people save old strips to their hard drives, and there's always webcrawling bots like archive.org.
If you're interested in maximizing profit, you could try a rolling archive system that varies day to day. It would encourage new readers to visit daily.
Of course, this only applies if you draw a gag-a-day. If your comic is an ongoing story with character development, making old archives inaccessible would defeat the advantage of the web medium.
I'm a firm believer in "The Story So Far" Summary bits every so often to keep new readers from getting lost. It doesn't replace archives totally but it obviates the need to reed the entire backstory to jump in.
Bingo.
Story summaries are a great way to grab the people who don't want to go through 4 years of archives. I can't imagine not having the entirety of my comic available for free on the web. That's how you get people to your site in the first place. To take it away seems silly to me.