I've not seen Something Awful before but it's apparently a site that finds the best of the stupidest so, for a brief Internet moment at any rate, I'm digital swill. It happens.
The forum post that started it actually cracked me up:
dude is basically trying to see if he can make a living off of a webcomic and chronicling what he's doing to try and make it happen
too bad the comic is terrible
I realize that lots of folks haven't heard of me but I've been around for a long while. I've done the convention thing, the trade show thing, and the store signing thing. I've had people tell me to my face that I'm not funny and I've gotten bad reviews. It's all part of putting yourself out there so you need to develop a thick skin especially in this day and age when self-control and civility are in short supply. Here's the first reply to the above quoted post:
I hope he starves to death.
My kidney failure hasn't killed me so I seriously doubt that Web Comic Failure will.
After that comment, interest in fragging me drops off a bit but amid the muck, there is something not awful to get out of this. Even when people yell, if you listen carefully you may hear something worth hearing. So, yes, I know my interface needs work as one or two pointed out. I'm getting to it as I can and it will improve as my coding-fu improves and as time allows. My ads come in for some hate too, but tough.
And best of all: it appears that a lot of the new visitors from the Something Awful forum are actually reading the entire Java Town strip. If they don't like it after that, that's fine and fair. I really can't ask for more (oh, wait, yes I can: Buy My Mugs!).
UPDATE: I just noticed right after posting this that my Zazzle store had 26 hits so far today (0-2 is the daily average). Since almost all of today's Java Town hits have come from Something Awful I guess not everyone hates ads.
UPDATE 2: Another thing I just realized: the complaints in the forum seem to be about the flash version of Java Town (and linked from the large banner at the top of Now What?'s home page). About two-thirds of the new visitors aren't clicking on the large banner, they're clicking on the smaller Java Town square to the far right on the home page which leads them to the more popular non-flash version. This confusion is my fault and I'll fix it as soon as I can.
6 comments:
You don't even have a domain, running a for profit website from a freehosted subdomain is like trying to start a shop in a park bench
Yeah, I'm a rule-breaker. I'm using Blogger for its ease of use and its pleasing free-ness. I hear a lot of complaints, but "I can't find your comic because it's buried in a subdomain" isn't one of them. A dedicated domain is likely in my future, it's just not in my present. Pardon my dense-ness, but how will a domain help me (beyond SEO -- though I'm pretty easy to find via Google) in my present situation?
You simply don't control your traffic, just like you wouldn't control the park bench.
but hey, good luck!
Again, I apologize for being obtuse but I truly don't get how using Blogger is hurting me. What I do understand is how it's free and how it makes it easy to put up my comic. If you care to elaborate about your point that would be great. I don't mind getting educated.
Actually, you can use blogger on your own domain
http://personalweb.about.com/od/easyblogsandwebpages/ss/bloggeronsite.htm?rd=1
I just think a 9$ a year domain and some cheap hosting (Dreamhost is the usual go-to for webcomics types, you can use promo code BATTY for 50$ off) is a far better investment than project wonderful ads with abysmal clickthroughs - think about it like this, growing traffic on a domain is a long term thing, you've already figured this out, so why wait any longer? You WILL lose traffic when you decide to finally move to a proper domain, so might as well do it when you don't have any to lose...
Okay. That's an argument I understand. Thanks.
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