22 December 2009

Stage 01: Page 07

sci-fi webcomic
Posted by Mangaka2170 at 12/22/2009 12:01:00 AM
Labels: ,

1 comment:

  1. TiDecember 23, 2009 at 3:00 PM

    Hey, sorry, I'm going to drop the constructive criticism bomb on you.

    Your comic looks really sweet but I can't find any navigation, it has absolutely no typical webcomic navigation whatsoever except for a 'go to first page' button... which has no continued navigation. No one wants to scroll alllll the way down to click each button on the archive.

    Your priority with a new webcomic is not the string of Google ads and the Paypal donate button because you won't get money if you're not getting views which you won't get if we can't navigate your comic. Yes, yes, we could go to the archives, but that's EXTREMELY inconvienient. Most people want instant results. If they've read webcomics before they will see the comic, and immediately look for standard navigation if they want more. Not finding any, they will assume that you do not have other pages up and leave.

    Have you ever seen a webcomic before? They usually have a site set up something like this.

    BANNER
    [about] [archives] [cast] [gallery or extras] [links] [contact] [rss]

    FIRST PREVIOUS NEXT LAST
    COMIC
    FIRST PREVIOUS NEXT LAST

    BLOG

    Top menu repeated.

    About: lets people read more about the comic and the person behind it. What if they want to commission you? Have you done other comics? This is a place to tell people that, and maybe talk about the world of the story... Archives: lets people browse back to wherever they want in your comic. Cast: Good if you have a large cast, I can see it being useful in a mystery story especially, so people keep straight who's who. Gallery or extras: I've seen it named both, but either way, this provides a way for you to keep people on your site longer. Links: Put up link banners for your comic so other people can link to you. (200x40 is most important for webcomics, as it tends to be the standard, with the little 88x31 or whatever it was still in use, and the larger 468x60 as well... have these three and you'll be well covered for most people who want to link you) Also, link to other comics you like, or link exchange with other comics to build linkbacks and potential traffic from other similar audiences. You'd do well to build traffic from science fiction, noir, and manga, obviously, and I can already think of a few I read that are similar in tone. Contact: so people can email you, if you want that. RSS: So people can FOLLOW your comic.

    Then the traditional comic navigation buttons.

    FIRST PAGE, PREVIOUS PAGE, NEXT PAGE, LAST PAGE. These should be above and below the comic page, which should obviously be the most important part of the site.

    No one puts their comic on Blogspot. Do you know why? It's a terrible comic host. It's for blogging. I've seen it work about twice, and the creators had vastly modified their page to have traditional comic navigation and they had gag-a-day comics where you could jump in anywhere and it would still be funny.

    You have a longform comic.

    I like longform comics. I read this genre of comic. Before you brush off the criticism, remember: I am your target audience because this is the sort of thing I like reading. I would've read through your archives and probably bookmarked already if you had usable navigation.

    I suggest that, as you're using Blogger as a host, you probably want free. In which case, I highly recommend you look into the services of ComicGenesis, DrunkDuck, SmackJeeves, WebcomicPlanet, or ComicDish or ComicFury or WebcomicNation. They're all free hosts made for webcomics.

    Give'm a try!

    And let me know if you do... I kind of want to read through this comic. I love sci-fi and I love noir and I approve of mixing them together, and this page alone has me interested.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)