Business
Making money with webcomics. Seriously!
Little Gamers Make Available Free Download of Print Book
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 9, 2005 - 13:43
The Confabulators blog writes about Little Gamers posting a free download version of their first print book which collected the first 300 installments of the Little Gamers webcomic.
Click here to find a .pdf and a bit torrent file for download. Creator Christian Madsen writes:
Reason we put it online for download is because we've made the money to pay for the print and for the trip to Comicon, so we set it free as it should be. We believe that if you really like something, you'll support it in some way, even if it's avalible for free.
New Book on the Business of Web Comics
Submitted by magister on August 4, 2005 - 17:09
Online Comics Vs. Printed Comics: A Study in E-Commerce and the Comparative Economies of Content by Todd Allen, examines revenue models for webcomics and contrasts them with the printed comics industry, concluding that webcomics may be a more viable option for emerging cartoonists. Allen talked to artists online and off including Bill Jemas (Marvel), Tony Panaccio (Crossgen), Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics) Robert Khoo (Penny Arcade), Joey Manley (Modern Tales) Jon Rosenberg (Goats) and R Stevens (Diesel Sweeties) about their respective business models.
The current paper can be read in its entirety online here (a printed copy can be purchased from the same website). Allen's paper is a follow-up to his 2003 paper, Comics on the Internet: A Business Primer.
Allen has a Master’s degree in Internet Business & Media Convergence from New York University. Allen also covered the "Technology & the Arts" beat for the Chicago Tribune’s business section, writing about topics like streaming video, online circulation audits, and the economics of webcomics.
King Features Walls Off Comics On The Web
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 4, 2005 - 11:49
A few additional thoughts on Tom Spurgeon's King Features story this morning at the Pulse. Despite the spin from King that they are moving to a pay-for-comics model on the web (i.e., subscription) they still seem very much torn between their current business model of newspaper distribution and fumbling towards the future. Unlike say Modern Tales, which really is a subscription site (you can only get the archived editions of MT strips by subscribing), you have to wonder how much King Features' Daily Ink subscription site might be a bit of a shell game.
Why? Because most (possibly all) of these strips are still available for free at newspaper websites. If you have a minute, please post a comment about what's available at your hometown newspaper's website. I checked the Houston Chronicle for example, where much more than half of King Features' comics appear free (although interestingly the Chronicle now restricts non-print version subscribers to only the latest installment) and the Washington Post where a number of them also appear free (the Post gives you a running archive of a couple of weeks for each comic).This all has to have impacted the amount King is charging for a Daily Ink subscription ($15/year) and certainly I'm curious as to what kind of impact it will have on subscriber numbers.
The other key question for King and other features as they navigate from wholesaler to newspapers to retailer to Internet readers is branding. No one, at this point anyhow, has much of a concept of what a King Features strip is (or any other newspaper syndicate) other than "classic" or "old" or even worse "mind-bendingly boring". My guess is that to succeed in the new world a lot more attention will have to be paid to branding. My own sense is that King is making a mistake by lumping its entire slate of properties into one site called Daily Ink. If I was tasked with King's Internet strategy I would have launched something like 3 sites: serials, G-rated humor and PG-13-rated humor and then for each site I would have used the established newspaper strips as anchors but I would have filled out the roster for each with web-only properties. That way King could begin to build actual brands for readers to understand and quite possibly give King a way to bust out of the G-rated box newspapers have put it in.
Interesting Thoughts About 4th Generation Business Strategy
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 27, 2005 - 16:01
An interesting riff on the concept of 4th generation warfare as applied to the evolving media landscape and accompanying earthshattering changes to the existing corporate media business model comes from the uber/hep/geek blog of screenwriter John Rogers. What's it all mean? There's a lot to the post but here's one except:
Personal brands are now more important than corporate brands -- or at the very least, more efficient. Nobody -- and I say this full-knowing the outcry from some suited friends -- goes to see a movie because it's from Paramount. Or Fox. Or Warner Brothers. Or Sony. Not a human on this planet says "Well, I wasn't going to go, but it's a Paramount flick." People go to movies because the media campaign -- usually integrating strong personal brands, hey, look at that -- has convinced them this particular project from the studio is worth their time.
And Rogers name checks Penny Arcade in the post so it's clear he thinks this applies to webcomics.
King Features disables two-week-behind archives
Submitted by STrRedWolf on July 23, 2005 - 12:56
King Features has just changed their comic posting policy for their print comics put online two weeks in advance. The gist is they're now a month behind, and only the first week of that month is shown. Viewers have to sign up for their DailyInk subscription service to get full access, with the added benifit of having them posted that day like any normal webcomic.
Post on How Weblogs, Inc is Doing Really Well With Google Ads
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 22, 2005 - 13:58
This post from the CEO of Weblogs, Inc. might help explain why Keenspot is going to the trouble of transcribing every webcomic in its archives. If it can result in anything like Weblogs, Inc. type money, Keenspot is going to be pretty happy with the results I imagine.
Google Ads: Pros and Cons and Click Fraud
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 1, 2005 - 13:11
Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary recently switched from using Google Ads to serving up his own banner ads (Howard has posted the relevant portion of his post as a comment below. Click the title of this post to read it).
If you are using it or thinking about it here's some links on it you might want to look at: "15 Common Mistakes by Google Adsense Publishers that Violate Terms of Service"; and "Click Fraud: What It Is, How to Fight It".
Also, this week the Register reported that Google has been sued by plaintiff Click Defense for breach of contract, negligence and unfair business practices over its Adwords ad program.
Melonpool Hits the Trifecta
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 1, 2005 - 11:17
The current storyline in Melonpool ventures into Checkerboard Nightmare territory targeting the Melonpool webcomic's supposed "low audience numbers" and the cast trying out various tactics to bring in new readers. A little different subject than usual but Steve Troop gets a lot of mileage out of this familar trope (is this technically a trope?). And he manages to work Websnark, Comixpedia and Digital Strips into this one. And I see today that strip got mentioned by Comixpedia, Websnark, and Digital Strips.
ShamelessInnovative marketing does work sometimes...
Josh Lesnick's Slipshine Reaches 500 Subscribers
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 23, 2005 - 14:05
Josh Lesnick reports that his adult webcomic subscription site Slipshine (link not really safe for work) has reached 500 subscribers this month.
Comixpedia had an overview of Slipshine just over a year ago.
Rosenberg Says Bitpass Experiment A Failure
Submitted by Erik Melander on June 14, 2005 - 13:49
After one week, Jon Rosenberg declares Goats' Bitpass experiment a failure.
