WeMakeWebcomics.com talks with the Daniel and Dawna Davis, the husband and wife team behind Steam Crow, to ask about their commitment to their company and its products.

Look just about anywhere on the Monster Commute website and you’re not only presented with the opportunity to explore the magnificent world of Monstru, you’re also invited to become an active participant in the success of its creators, Daniel and Dawna Davis. This is no accident.

Through Steam Crow the Davis’ deliver exceptional artwork in a wide range of media, and yet each product maintains a distinctive look and feel that reflects and reinforces the company’s brand. Their websites’ design feature buttons, logos, artwork and widgets with a cohesive overall theme, so visitors to any of their sites are not simply passive viewers, they’re taking part in an immersive experience.

One simple yet effective technique the Monster Commute creators use is to treat their readers as honored members of a team. When you think about it, all readers are collaborators to some extent – your webcomic’s success depends on their enthusiasm. Many webcomic creators already understand this and make a point of taking the time to read and answer comments and emails.

The Steam Team have built their success on this approach – in addition to posting a new Monster Commute strip every weekday, they also share knowledge as artists, sales and marketing agents, and business owners – and they do so while working full time for their respective jobs and as partners and parents for their family. “It’s all about consistency,” says Daniel, “People will not want to invest in you unless they see that you’re going to be doing more of your work for a long time.”

He recommends posting new work on a very regular basis, “Or you’ll be quickly forgotten. The people who succeed are the ones who are busting ass putting new work out all of the time.” Not only that, but “You’ve got to write back every person who emails you about your work.”

“A publishing schedule is another matter,” the artist continues. “You’ve got to post when you say that you’re going to post, and do it as often as your life can manage. Best is seven days a week. Five days a week is good too. Three days is all right. Once a week is pretty slim. Beyond that, it’s probably not enough to gain any momentum.” It’s with this in mind that Steam Crow posts a new page of Monster Commute five days a week, no matter what.

Each Monster Commute update also comes with a blog post. “I usually post an additional blog post once per week, too.” Which can’t be easy for a family man who is already working to support his brood, “So far, knock on wood, I’ve not missed an update. It’s tough sometimes though.”

What the Davis’ have established in getting in the habit of updating regularly and answering questions is that their team of readers knows that Steam Crow can be counted on – and it’s this sense of trust that webcomic creators must develop with their audience if they hope to become successful. That’s not the whole of it, though.

“Be great at what you do. Hands down,” says Daniel, insisting that other webcomic creators ought to check their work – that is “Make sure that other people outside of your circle like what you’re up to.” Pay attention to what new readers say. Ask people who have never seen your work before to evaluate it. Talk with people whose work you admire and find out if they see a direction for your work that you haven’t thought of before.

Daniel worked for nearly ten years as a graphic artist before he was encouraged to launch Steam Crow, “Just “believing in yourself” isn’t quite enough, you need to road test your work by getting it out there and doing it. If people react in a good way, you’re on your way.”

He also stresses the importance of knowing what you’re trying to accomplish, “Know what kind of life you’re trying to build. When opportunities come, make sure that they align with these goals. I get opportunities but I don’t take them unless they align with this compass.”

For example, while attending their first comic convention Steam Crow was approached by a number of interested industry professionals. “Daniel got a lot of business cards from Nickelodeon, Sesame Street Workshop, Sony and Disney,” says Dawna, also an artist, “People were drooling over his work, which was really good.”

“In one day, I got more compliments on my artwork than I’ve had my whole life,” Daniel admits. “I’ve been approached by companies that like my work, art style, etc., however, they wanted me to work on their projects, rather than saying “Hey, we want to publish Monster Commute.” Now, I’d be all for someone like Dark Horse to publish my books. I’d probably be all over that, though I’d likely make less money than doing it myself.”

But he’s not that interested in quitting his good and stable job to work on someone’s temporary project, “It just doesn’t make sense.”

What does make sense for the Steam Team is to continue working on their webcomic and creative products, and on further honing their marketing skills. Steam Crow has just released a fourth book to join its growing library, and the company has been able to recoup much of the cost of publishing because fans believe in their products, “We had the goal of trying to raise $5000, which is a crazy goal,” says Daniel. Crazy, but by no means impossible – to date their book drive has helped to collect 70% of the funds required to deliver Monster Commute Traffic Novel 1 into the hands of faithful Steam Crow collectors.

To see full inventory of Steam Crow products, including prints and plushies, visit their site at SteamCrow.com. Additionally, you can preview Monster Commute Traffic Novel 1 on video and learn more about their book drive.

Promoting your comic beyond the boundaries of your website is another key component to getting the best results from your work. WeMakeWebcomics.com will meet up with the Steam Team again in the spring ahead of this year’s convention season. Be sure to check back for more tips from these avid Comicon participants.

Steve Jobs, yesterday.

Yesterday’s unmissable news was Apple’s announcement of the soon-to-be-released iPad – like an iPhone, but bigger. And shinier. And surprisingly affordable for the basic model – easily on par with a lot of the netbooks out there.

What’s especially exciting about this announcement, though, is that finally the Apple marketing machine is promoting what is essentially an e-reader edition of the iPhone. Like a Kindle, but with more applications. And colour.

The iPhone itself is a nifty device useful for getting internet stuff while out and about, but its merit – being small and easily portable – is also something of a flaw when it comes to reading more than snippets of text, with lots of pinching and scrolling and stuff required. For comics this is especially the case, as having any more than a panel on-screen at a time makes it hard to see what’s going on – and for for a visual storytelling medium that’s no good.

The iPad, though, seems to have addressed that by the simple expedient of having a bigger screen. It looks to be about the size of a compact magazine, with an aspect ratio very close to that of print publications – which could make it an excellent opportunity for comic creators to bring their work to a wider audience (and make money from doing so!) without the expense of getting stuff printed.

The barrier to selling comics on the iPhone has been the lack of a way to charge for stuff – iTunes doesn’t cover books or suchlike publications, while getting into the App Store requires an investment of time and money in getting a developer’s kit and learning to code your own app. Not everyone has the time (or money, or inclination) to do that when they could be working on their comic instead, and an open-source WordPress equivalent (providing a customisable shell into which the creator inserts their comic for distribution) simply doesn’t exist.

The arrival of the iBooks store could potentially change that. If it’s implemented like the iTunes music store then rather than having to put together an app, comic creators could submit their works to the library to be downloaded directly (for money!). A micropayments-based business model suddenly becomes a lot more feasible.

I’m very interested to see where this goes.

Leroy suggested the idea of charging a nominal monthly fee for readers to have comic strips delivered direct to their email, which in principle seems workable – for most people that’s a pretty trivial amount of money, especially when it’s spread out over a month, and in return they get the convenient service of having the strip delivered to them.

Another approach is to charge a fee to view the comic’s archives, as was the case at Graphic Smash for a while (or might still be the case, I’m not sure). You get to read the daily updates for free as they happen, but once they pass a certain point each strip gets shifted into the archives, which are pay-to-access.

Alternatively you could let subscribers view updates before non-subscribers, so if you sign up for the regular fee you get to see each page as it gets updated, whereas non-subscribers have to wait a week or two weeks or a month until the page gets added to the archives.

Any other suggestions for ways to get readers to pay to read a webcomic are most welcome – these are top-of-my-head ideas, and I have no experience of putting any of them into practice.

From what I have heard and read, the most successful business model for webcomic creators is to give away the comic for free, and once you’ve built up enough readers you can start selling things to them. Opinions vary about how many readers you should have before you start offering merchandise, but I’d say it’s wise to be cautious at first – overestimating your likely sales will just end up with you sitting on a big heap of unsold stuff.

Anyway, some categories! This list is by no means exhaustive, and if you can think of something I’ve missed then please say so. Especially if you’ve experienced notable success with a particular type of merchandise.

Wearable things:
Clothing and accessories, stuff that can be worn and has the added bonus of spreading awareness of your comic.

• T-shirts – That most ubiquitous of garments. They’re pretty easy to get printed up, they don’t degrade with age, they’re not too heavy, and anyone can wear one. They have the added bonus of acting as advertising, and if you can come up with a killer design then buyers will be proud to wear your t-shirt and tell others where they got it. Sometimes you don’t even need a killer design, as a witty slogan or amusing catchphrase from your strip can suffice. I would tend to say that short-form humour strips are somewhat more likely to have success with t-shirts than long-form serious comics, because people like funny t-shirts.
• Buttons – A small disc-shaped badge that has some iconic graphic or short phrase emblazoned upon it. Buttons are really cheap to produce if you get a bunch of them, and can thus serve as bottom-end items to entice buyers who might not be confident enough to splash out a t-shirt or suchlike. Also, buttons are highly collectable and it’s rare to see someone who has just one button. Produce new designs on a regular basis and they’ll keep coming back. Buttons are also cheap enough that they’re useful for throwing in with other purchases as a sweetener. Want to show your gratitude to someone who’s bought a t-shirt or bigger-ticket item? Throw in a couple of buttons as a surprise extra.

Printed things:
Printed material produced in quantity.

• Your Comic – Sure, they can read your webcomic online, but there’s still something about having a print edition of a comic that’s a lot more satisfying. Getting your comic set up to be published is probably a topic for a whole thread of its own, of course. Suffice to say, in order to have a print edition to sell you need to have enough strips to make a book.
• Prints – Sort of like mini-posters that are graphically pleasing enough that someone would want to hang them on the wall. These can grade into actual posters of the sort that hang on dorm walls, if you’ve got the graphical chops to pull it off. Depending on the quality of the print these can command a variable price.
• Postcards – As with buttons, these are generally cheap enough to produce that you can throw them in as a sweetener with other purchases – make sure to have your website’s URL on the back somewhere.

Crafted things:
This is kind of a special category, as it is based on merchandise that isn’t exactly mass-produced and is thus a bit difficult to talk about except in generalities.

• Original art – If you draw your comic using traditional media, it’s likely that you have a bunch of original art hanging around the place. If you’re not loathe to part with them then these pieces can be a valid source of income – particularly if you have a short-form humour strip, where there’s a good chance that a particular day’s strip might resonate with a reader enough that they’d want to own it.
• Sketches – These are something of a tradition at comics conventions, with artists drawing special custom sketches for a fee. An alternative approach is to pre-draw a variety of sketches and offer them for sale on your site – while they might not be as personalised as custom-drawn sketches, they’re still unique pieces of art which aren’t too hard for you to create.
• Hand-made items – Things that have a personal touch, whether it’s limited-edition comics with a screenprinted cover that you made yourself, or little Sculpy figures, or hand-stitched plushies, or whatever. If you’ve got a hobby aside from making comics that could conceivably be tied in with your comic, it’s a good way to expand the range of merchandise you can offer.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but feel free to expand the list.

So far I have:

• Project Wonderful – half-banner (468×60 pixels) at the top of the page. Minimum bid of $0.10 per day, and I’m going to set it to display a link to my site store when the minimum bid isn’t reached.
• Amazon Associates – wide skyscraper (160×600 pixels) widget in the sidebar, where I recommend some stuff for people to buy from Amazon and earn a small commission if anyone follows the link and buys something.

I’m looking around at other options, but I’m not sure how useful they’d be at present. Two of the main contextual advertising companies seem to be:

• Google AdSense – I’m not sure how worthwhile this is unless you’ve already got pretty substantial site traffic. My understanding is that you earn revenue based on the number of people that click ad links on your site, so unless you’ve got a lot of visitors then you won’t get many clicks.
• ADSDAQ – Much the same sort of deal as AdSense, with revenue generated according to the number of people who visit your site and then click an ad link.

Anyone had experience with these advertisers, or any others I’ve not mentioned? Any particular successes or failures? Companies to use or avoid? Let us know.

What you see here on the front page isn’t really the meat of the site – the forum is the true heart of things, where you can talk shop and compare notes with other webcomic creators. Take a look:

WeMakeWebcomics.com Forum

I was surprised, and a little intimidated – I’d set up this thing on a whim, with little expectation of people signing up and no real idea of what to do with it, and people had signed up in droves.

It prompted some thinking on my part.

• Think #1: Clearly there are quite a few webcomic creators out there who’re interested in being part of some kind of webcomics group, for whatever reason.
• Think #2: The webcomics field is pretty big, and growing all the time. It contains a relatively small number of well-known/successful creators (a subset of whom make an income from their comics, and an even smaller subset for whom making comics is their main source of income). The vast majority of creators are not yet well-known, but have the potential to become so.
• Think #3: Given that webcomics are a “growth industry”, there are lots of people out there who are fresh to the field (I’m one of them) and are looking for information on how to go about producing a webcomic, and potentially turning it into a business.
• Think #4: From what I can tell, there does not currently exist an online venue where webcomic creators (both successful and aspiring) can talk with their peers about the gritty details of making webcomics – art, writing and business.
• Think #5: I really enjoyed meeting up with webcomic and minicomic creators at the UK Webcomix Thing at the end of March, and would like to meet more of them. They’re good people. Hooking into the webcomics community on Twitter has let me meet even more good people.
• Think #6: I have barely been scratching the surface of what my webhosting package provides, and I have enough of an understanding of CSS and PHP that it shouldn’t be too hard to grab an off-the-shelf PHP-based forum package like Simple Machines, tweak it to suit my purposes, and start spreading the word.
• Think #7: This could be awesome.

So there is a gap in the market, as it were, for a forum that allows webcomic creators to mingle, chat, network, and trade advice relating to their craft. I think that having such a venue will help to enrich the webcomics community by encouraging the exchange of ideas and the sharing of accumulated wisdom. Somewhere that fosters mutual support and cooperation in an atmosphere of camaraderie and respect.

It’s my hope that WeMakeWebcomics.com will be that forum.