Want to increase the readership and / or maximize the money you make off your webcomic for FREE with just a little hard work? Heck, who doesn't! I will share with you (in several parts) the methods (this blog is one of them - but more on that topic in another part of this series) I have used to promote my webcomic, BLOOP. Some people look down their nose at some of these methods and call them 'pimping'. These people are ________ (fill in the blank with your favorite disparagement). There is absolutely nothing illegal, immoral or wrong about legitimately promoting your webcomic! The bottom line is you can have the best webcomic in the world but it won't matter if nobody sees it. And getting people to see your webcomic is presumably why you posted it on the web in the first place.
So anyway on to the good stuff . . . The first step is to set up 'Friend' sites for your webcomic. Seems obvious! Maybe you even already have a MySpace site. But why stop there? There are numerous good FREE friend sites out there, that with a little time and imagination, will work as FREE promotional agents for your webcomic. You can also form good friendships with people to kick around cartoon ideas with, collaborate on projects with or get just feedback from. Here are the major sites in no particular order (if you know a good friend site not listed here - just e-mail me at blooptoon@aol.com and I'll update):
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/
Friendster: http://www.friendster.com
Squidoo: http://www.squidoo.com/
Windows Live Spaces / MSN Spaces: http://spaces.live.com/
Tag World: http://tagworld.com
Frapper: http://frapper.com
There are other friend sites out there but these are the major ones. Setting up an account is easy and doesn't require too much computer savvy. For examples of what you can do at these friend sites to promote your webcomic, click on the link(s) below to see what I have done.
http://www.friendster.com/blooptoon
http://myspace.com/blooptoon
http://blooptoon.spaces.live.com/
http://tagworld.com/blooptoon/
http://www.squidoo.com/blooptoon/
http://www.frappr.com/blooptoon
HOT TIP: You may have noticed all of my url's have 'blooptoon' in them. This is done on purpose. You will soon begin to amass a large quantity of usernames and passwords. I recommend getting a small notebook where you can write entries for the website url's, your user name(s) and password(s). I also recommend using the same user name and password at ALL sites for the sake of simplicity and consistency.
So what are you waiting for get to work and set up a friend site for your webcomic!
Congratulations! You have completed the first step in this series of FREE promotion methods for your webcomic site. In the next part of this series, I will discuss the ever important and mysterious BLOG!
Check out BLOOP at: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/blooptoon
Check out BLOOP's Blog at: http://www.blogcharm.com/bloop/
