I was chatting last night on Webcomics Study Group, with some fun and talented folks who, (very helpfully) pointed out a mess of stuff for me to work on. The first of which was that I had the Facebook page set up with Canadian restrictions. (Sorry about that.) It’s been corrected so anyone can go to it now and see whatever internet banalities I’ve found topical, post recipes to the Alternative Kitchen see or add photos to the convention pics, comment, whatever. The only thing I ask is to keep it PG. My little cousin sees it.
The other thing I re-discovered was Google analytics. Josh installed that for me ages ago and I hadn’t checked it since. As it turns out, my Mum is not the only one reading this stuff. (Hi everybody!) I was genuinely shocked and delighted to see the numbers and all the different countries people are coming from! So much fun. (I know, I’m a total tourist.) Truthfully, at the moment I find myself with a touch of stage fright, but in that fun-excited kind of way.
It’s been suggested that I get serious about advertising and I have been looking at Project Wonderful and a few other ad sites, but I’m reluctant to jump in. Which is funny because I always thought that the minute I had a good idea I’d sell out faster than you can say “Garfield”.
I really like doing the comics, I like learning about building my site, I like the social interaction and the community, it’s a hobby for me. I have a goal to get a nice thick book together, but I’m really afraid of turning this into “work”. I draw for a living and frankly, that can really take the fun out of it, sometimes to the point of discouragement. This is what I do to get away from deadlines and pressure and just have something to remember why I love drawing. It doesn’t have to be perfect, (frequently isn’t) and I like that, I like that it evolves, it’s very freeing. I like to keep a schedule for discipline sake, but if I miss a deadline, nobody’s yelling. And sometimes I have to miss deadlines for work, or life-stuff. If I have advertisers, there’s a real obligation to someone else…Which is not to say obligation to readers isn’t valuable, it absolutely is, but when there’s money involved, that’s a whole other beast.
Lots to think about but it’s looking more and more like fish-or-cut-bait time.
