[10.34] Ben the Silent
Thanks for your comments last time, I very much enjoy reading them and appreciate your thoughts. Was pretty blown away by the number of responses !!
I reconstructed the archive (finally), and hope it will be easier to navigate. Let me know if it loads slow, there seem to be still a few problems. The old text-based archive will remain available.
Per suggestions, I will work on figuring out how to add a bookmark function, that seems like a useful feature, and character links, I’ll add those to the cast page somehow.
I’ll also create some PDF downloads. Won’t be fancy, but I am saving the major graphic design work and revisions for a future, nice print edition.
Advertising used to work for me, but it’s been a steadily worse return-on-investment. I’ve spent $590 on ads since last May (while hosting ads has only earned me $511) and monthly visits went up for a while, but have fallen back to the same level since, so that’s why I suspect newcomers aren’t sticking around.
I would love to make available some stickers, key chains, buttons (or other things, suggestions welcome) if any of ya are interested.
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10.34 Transcript
Daisy: You forgot I was banished, eh. Now you know the terror my name strike.
Kiro: Never mind that- I was positive he went down with the ship!
Kiro: I really want to know how he survived.
Daisy: Probably just got real lucky.
Daisy: If you want his story, give him something to write with… I knew that kid back in the day. Anyone tell you yet why he’s mute?
Scribble, scribble, scribble. “Yeah? And then what happened?” Scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble. “Wait, it’s circling around behind us? Where?”
Web server logs should be able to tell you what new users do on the site. That said, I suspect your analysis is good: people who’d try to “find the start of the current arc” and go back to the start of chapter 10 or chapter 9 via the archive would find they still don’t understand much of what’s going on. (The picture archive takes too long to load for me, and I’m on WLAN. I’d prefer the text version as default, and scrollable chapters may be a good idea.)
Editing 400 comic pages down to an abridged backstory seems like a difficult and pointless task, since ideally you want to “catch” readers who then follow the current storyline while working their way through the archives. A lower-effort approach might be a “Previously on Detox Camp” page at the start of each chapter. I don’t know any webcomic that does this, but TV series often do. I’ve recently watched “The Magicians”, with 5 seasons, they tailor the “flasback” to what’s going to happen in this episode, which is a little spoilery (but most bingers skip this anyway, so…). Basically, imagine a new reader who starts with that chapter: what’s the bare minimum they need to know to make sense of what’s going to happen in the upcoming chapter? how can you convey that with text and images (this can be very narrator-heavy) that only take a few minutes to go through? obviously showing Ben and that he went down with the ship would be necessarily be somewhat of a clue, but we’d still not know if we’re going to find him alive, his corpse, or his ghost. But it’d help even regular readers remember what happened months ago in real time. Having this kind of excerpted review means it’s still worth it to binge the full story while the new reader follows the current plot—not surprisingly, that’s what I tend to do myself when getting into a new comic.
Rank 101 on TWC, I voted just now, so you’re very close to breaking into the first page!
So glad that Ben is actually safe.
And I’d be down for swag of some sort. Maybe a plushie? But stickers and keychains are cool, too.
The obvious plush toy for this would be a seal, but I don’t think it would be distinctively Detox Camp. (Of course, I don’t often buy swag, so my opinion is irrelevant.)
The picture archive is rather slow (and I’m on 1Gb fibre…). Maybe you should limit it to the cover page of each chapter (like the text-based archive), and link that to a page containing all the images for that chapter.
I’m not sure about the pens, keyrings and so forth. I don’t tend to buy them, and the cost of postage would effectively limit them to the USA.
Yeah that’s what I initially intended to do but I got lazy lol. It has been slow for me too, so I’ll get on that asap
A keychain of the light arrow sounds like brilliant idea, just sayin’.
Yes. Bonus points for a glow effect or a push-button LED in it.
Seal plushie! Hawk plushie! I’m confused about wanting to make the story shorter since I enjoy reading the comic. Why skip to the 4th course of a 5 course meal?
I’m loving the plushie ideas, but from what I’ve heard from others, they seem pretty costly to manufacture. Stickers would definitely be a good idea – lots of potential designs (the arrow logo, characters, seals!) that would probably transfer to keychains well if you decide to do those. I think some of the chapter cover art would make great posters, too! I’d probably get one, I have a lot of webcomic posters in my room lol
IMO stickers and buttons do not bring many viewers.
The site topwebcomics seems to be your main draw and regarding that site you should do two things:
1. Put the TWC above the main page making it easier for fans trying to boost numbers for you. When I had more time I used to click page every day and the click TWC logo but not so much time and scrolling is not something I am not doing if I am not reading page again.
2. Put incentives on the page TWC sends you to when you do clicking there. My suggestion would be starting with a public (non-spoiler) bio page for a character every month.
Not exactly sure I got here but likely from TWC after I went to vote for another comic. I used to vote twice per day for my favorite comics (once from work, once from home) but less time now that I am working from home.