Anarchy in your Head Web Comics

[picaro]

Eli is correct.  If traffic is your goal, consistent daily content is more important than quality.   Your site becomes part of a person's daily routine.  ...though if I don't laugh, I usually stop reading a webcomic.

The creator of Perry Bible Fellowship quit newspaper syndication because grinding out comics on a consistent basis was sapping his creativity.    He posts irregularly... and I end up only visiting his site every couple of months -- even though PBF's humor is delightfully twisted.

Perhaps making comics at your own pace, then selling the collection as a book would work.  Lots of webcomics make money that route.

[dalebert]

I do intend to write an Anarchy In Your Head book at some point that will be sort of introduction to the notion of a stateless society with comics incorporated in. Still, the immediate issue is whether spending more on Adwords is worthwhile. Daily comics are completely out of the question right now. I'm just not fast enough. Maybe someday.

[srqrebel]

It's based on how many times people click my ads that link to my site. Each click has a cost depending on how common of a search term I've chosen to attach the ad to...

What do these ads look like?  Do you design them yourself?

[dalebert]

What do these ads look like?  Do you design them yourself?

Yes. They're just a tagline followed by a couple lines of text that I chose. The consultant may recommend some changes to both the ad design and the search words that bring it up.

[Russell Kanning]

you can double your tshirt sales by getting Menno to laugh and buy one .... then have him look at the joke a different way and buy one explaining his last one.

[J’raxis 270145]

As far as getting content out regularly, pick a schedule such as "every Monday." Then, come up with a dozen or so cartoons, but don't publish them right away. Once you've got them ready, start releasing those one at a time, each Monday—and now you have plenty of time in which you can work at a slower pace coming up with new cartoons. Using a sort of "reserve" system like this prevents you from having to worry about being on a grueling schedule of coming up with a new cartoon each week.

[dalebert]

As far as getting content out regularly, pick a schedule such as "every Monday." Then, come up with a dozen or so cartoons, but don't publish them right away.

I'm halfway there. I've picked a schedule of every Friday, and have been moderately good at keeping it. Honestly though, it's actually difficult enough that I get sick of it after I draw one and just haven't had it in me to keep going even enough to get next week's done, much less twelve weeks. Ugh.  I think I'm getting better, but it's still slow going. I was up til 2am doing today's toon. I know a lot of it is procrastination, but some of that procrastination is actually me thinking about exactly what I want to draw, and I don't mean "two leprechauns smoking pot and finding a four-leaf pot plant", I mean all the details about two leprechauns smoking pot- what are their faces going to look like? What will they wear? What colors work best?  Do I want to re-use them sometime? If so, I'm even more particular about how they look. How will this same character look from behind if I ever draw him that way? From the side? Does that affect how I want to draw him now? Do I want to have an Easter egg? Where can it go? What kind of background do I want, if any? Will this cartoon make a good t-shirt design? If so, that may affect the color choices and background and whether it's a single panel toon or a multi-panel toon. You get the idea.

In the meantime, I'm trying to make myself simplify my drawings so I can do them faster, but I haven't really mastered that. I start off thinking it's going to be simpler, but then it's not. Also, after all those issues I'm trying to get right, I inevitably compromise on a lot of it and end up with something I'm not satisfied with in order to get the damn thing done, sometimes far after my bedtime. It never really looks like what I envisioned.

[Russell Kanning]

I'm halfway there. I've picked a schedule of every Friday, and have been moderately good at keeping it. Honestly though, it's actually difficult enough that I get sick of it after I draw one and just haven't had it in me to keep going even enough to get next week's done, much less twelve weeks. Ugh. 

Maybe they can all be unrelated.

[dalebert]

New toon is up. Happy St. Patrick's Day. If you like it, please DIGG it and share with anyone you think might like it.

http://anarchyinyourhead.com/2008/03/08/four-leaf-clover/

[dalebert]

OK, I went ahead and submitted this to DIGG. If you already visited, I'd appreciate it if you could digg it.

http://digg.com/comics_animation/Four_Leaf_Clover_2

[Caleb]

Hey Dale, do you have any plain, ordinary, "Anarchy in Your Head" t-shirts for sale? Maybe just something with a logo, and Anarchy in Your Head in prominent, visible lettering? I went to your store, but all the t-shirts had a cartoon on them. I use t-shirts as conversation starters, and I think the whole "anarchy in your head" idea is a powerful one and speaks for itself.

[Russell Kanning]

and he heard that you can pick up chicks with Anarchy in Your Head gear

[dalebert]

Hey Dale, do you have any plain, ordinary, "Anarchy in Your Head" t-shirts for sale? Maybe just something with a logo, and Anarchy in Your Head in prominent, visible lettering? I went to your store, but all the t-shirts had a cartoon on them. I use t-shirts as conversation starters, and I think the whole "anarchy in your head" idea is a powerful one and speaks for itself.

I'll get right on that. I just updated the logo to use black and gold so I need to update that design before I add t-shirts.

[dalebert]

Hey Dale, do you have any plain, ordinary, "Anarchy in Your Head" t-shirts for sale?

OK, I've added a section of products with just an Anarchy In Your Head logo. I'll expand this soon to have some choices with recurring characters and other graphics, including the soon to be introduced Anarchy Boogey-man.

http://www.cafepress.com/aiyh/5031017



And for a really broad range of clothing, click here.

[Eli]

I like the new logo a lot.  My post wasn't meant to be critical.  I work on a podcast and I have a number of spottily updated blogs.  I was just putting out my hypothesis (somewhat empirically validated) that regularly updated rss sites are more successful.  And scheduling your updates and posting your schedule, means that people will get in the habit of reading you (or viewing or listening) on the day you post.  Unless your posts are more or less constant keeping to your schedule seems to be of the utmost importance.  I suspect this is because most people don't actually aggregate content, they just cruise by when they expect there to be something new.  Also, always post something (even a "Behind schedule, post tomorrow") so that folks get their expectations met.

Just my two cents.