Webcomics 102: Promoting and Monetizing Your Webcomic

Get my book "How to Webcomic" now for even MORE webcomic advice!! thestarfishface.com/products/...
Part 1: How to start a webcomic: • Webcomics 101: How to ...
Originally streamed to Twitch on 5/21/2021.
After getting so many questions about how to make webcomics, I decided to say "heck it" and ran my entire How to Webcomic panel on Twitch! This is part 2- How to self-promote and start making money off your webcomic endeavors!
My webcomic, Castoff: castoff-comic.com/
Twitch: / thestarfishface
Twitter: / thestarfishface
TikTok: / thestarfishface
FAQ and other links: beacons.page/thestarfishface

[@kevinstrange6836]

In an over three hour presentation, she never once failed to make a noise while drinking water. That's dedication.

[@DennisCNolasco]

Mmmm

[@sagganuts18]

I really disagree with having patreon early being a negative thing. Everyone should have a patreon incase people like what you've already put out is worth supporting. Making art, even if it's one panel of comic is hard work, and it deserves monetary support regardless of your following. And your patreon supporters are smart, they'll know if you're not meeting their expectation

[@estherflecksing6305]

My thing is what if you have NSWF pages that you aren't willing to post for free? I feel like patreon is perfect for that

[@ArtOfShannonLee]

I have only one stranger on my Patreon but they still pay me $10 a month that I wouldn’t have if I was too scared to make a patreon 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@amalthearain2]

plus if they have a patreon early on and don’t get traction on it until later, there’s a ton of content ready for people!

[@michaellavallie3896]

I’m going to have nsfw pages in some of my comic so patron is perfect for that. Plus I wanna make sure the people who will see those pages are 18+

[@lenzanari]

Yeah, it really depends on the case, when I started I set up a ko-fi page and out of nowhere I got two random donations in a week, but I guess sometimes the link gives this impression that you are just interested on the money i guess

[@UltimatePerfection]

3:38 Mirroring your comic has also the advantage from preservation stand point - say your main site (or any other mirror) goes down for whatever reason. Your readers can still read it elsewhere. And if the host shutdown through no fault of your own (RIP Smackjeeves), that also gives you an avenue to continue uploading your content, without having to reupload your old comics in a frantic move.

[@QNiki]

TBH I dont think having a patreon early makes people seem greedy. While small there is still a chance that people want to support you, it's still possible. When people ask for a patreon, you could've already had a few supporters by then, every bit of income can help new webcomic artists, it all depends on the person to support them. And honestly not everyone's situation is the same, and it might help them drastically change their life to have a patreon. If you dont personally trust a new comic maker with your money, thats fine and understandable, but I dont think it hurts to have one. Of course when you dont have an episode up it is unreasonable to expect patrons lol

[@Tuvella1]

agreed. I made a Patreon because there were some projects I wanted to put behind a paywall and are meant for a very specific audience. Meanwhile I also make free stuff for my general audience. Star wasn't most likely talking about someone like me specifically. I think starting Patreon too early (if you don't have a very specific plan in mind) might be a bad idea when it takes too much time and effort with little to no return. That might be stressful and disheartening to a new creator who might have unrealistic expectations

[@beastbook4950]

I would set up a little one time donation thing like Kofi or tip jar . Then just focus on building an audience and fan base. After having a decent following then make Patreon. Since a having a Patreon is like having a second job. Also interacting and building a fan base would first could help with deciding tiers.

[@MANGLORIOUS]

This is really hecking helpful! Usually I hate long videos because the reason why they’re long is because the video creator doesn’t know how to compact information and about 60 percent of the video will be fluff. But this is packed to the BRIM with helpful information. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it was originally a panel? Same with part 1! I watched both all the way through. This is the best compilation of advice for web comics that I’ve seen

[@lemonkatze7461]

The tumblr tiktok mess up is funny

[@GlowBerri]

This was wild to watch present day and seeing how the tables have turned with the social media sites you mentioned

[@strawberry641]

literally what i was thinking haha

[@tash4995]

this comment is from months ago but gosh it is only getting worse 😭

[@GlowBerri]

@@tash4995 right?!

[@PlasticAddict301]

1:17:30 one punch man is actually an amazing example of this. The author was not very good at art! But his story stuck on so well with people that it got big enough to have an actual production around it. Granted, it started in 2009 and took YEARS to get to the point that any studio would even want to pick it up and make a proper manga, let alone produce an entire anime. But it goes to show that audiences are just as fine with an amazing story as they are with gorgeous art. If that weren't the case, comics would have been our only form of storytelling ever. EDIT: awesome, ten minutes after typing this you covered it! I love OPM's success story :)

[@andystark993]

Funny enough, I was smashing my head for strategies for webcomics since I'll start one soon. This video gave a lot of useful insight :D

[@mifuworks]

Thank you so much for doing this series! So much of this was incredibly insightful and a huge kick in the butt to me as someone who has been working on trying to make and get comics out for 15 years and has been too anxious and scarred to put my work out there. I literally printed out your slide from your previous video about "excuses you have to not make your comic" and taped it up next to my art desk. I will probably rewatch these two vids over and over from time to time to remind myself to keep going. Thank you

[@SpinningOmoriPlushie]

1 year later how's the comic now

[@frances3720]

Yas

[@stephystuff2955]

Not only am I impressed with your info, but I'm also impressed on how your character is able to animatic your talking... Tutorial please!

[@liachngo]

Love your video series here! Thanks for the tip about Later - I’ll def have to check it out. IMO on the Patreon, I honestly don’t think it matters if ppl set their Patreon up before they are more established as a creator. I even think ppl should set it up immediately as part of the pre-work stages. Same with setting up your email, social accounts throughout social media portals (even if you are not really planning on using that social media account, but I suggest to create one in case someone else tries to impersonate you there), and whatever else that’s part of building your online presence. I get it that we may all have different end goals - some of us just want to make this as a hobby, and others want this as a career. More props to you for being more prepared IMO 😙 but obviously, there needs to be the content to get engaged

[@yepimbatman]

I also came here from Twitter! This is super helpful and I really appreciate the resource, cheers!

[@studiodevil5283]

1:35:05 MHA is arguably the opposite of x-men. x-men is a world where only a small number of people are non-mutants and the main characters are mutants. mha is a world where only a small number of people DONT have quirks, and the main character is "quirkless."

[@UltimatePerfection]

My problem is that I don't know how to promote without spamming. Like, I don't know where's the line between the two.

[@polyweird]

Thank you for creating these streams, they are super helpful for an anxious comic creator

[@boblukasik323]

I just started a new webcomic after a several year hiatus. These tips are great. Ive been watching your stuff for tips and tricks. Thanks for this

[@joustgalpals]

That was such an awesome resource thank you! I've been struggling with marketing the comic and you've provided ideas I feel I can really put in place easily 💪

[@sargentuniverse2254]

With all the advices you give me, Im able to call you as my master! Ypu give me sooo mamy good advices and resources!! SUCH AN AMAZING TEACHER! I use to do some talks in comics cons too like yours but more in a drawing class mindset if ypu know... YOU ARE AN INCREDIBLE MASTER!!!

[@justincampbell7638]

???? I came from Twitter expecting a 10k sub art channel. THIS IS A CRIME!! WTF?!

[@TheStarfishface]

Haha I just don't use KZbin that much currently. Hoping to get more into it soon!

[@Gendgi]

its over 10k now lol

[@catherineabena5720]

thank you so much for your videos! Your personality makes your videos better and more engaging and we’re so grateful for you for making them ! :)

[@Lexithepoptart]

Thank you SO MUCH for making this! These videos are incredibly helpful, incredibly well-said. I'm going to go buy the book now :)

[@santoshoommen9209]

fabulous presentation! Great info and loved the book. Keep going! Great art and thank you for passing on this wealth of information to help all of us on our journey to telling our stories!

[@kevinbyrne6142]

On comic fury is what I do: I usually ask a couple of questions to my subscribers....usually stuff that changes, but really? it doesn't happen very often

[@RandomYTUser0]

Your channel really needs 10k subs!^^ Your are so underrated Queen star!

[@GabriellaBalagna]

Thank you so much for this series! It's super insightful. I could go on and on about this type of stuff too. :)

[@clawed50java71]

I listened to these while I was working at my day job haha. Doing comics for a living is a dream of mine. Since I'm not financially stable and never have been it's been hard to take the time but idk if its possible to post once a month I think I could do it. I wish I could do it all the time but alas I do so many commissions and on top of a day job I hardly have room for sleep and food lol but oh well

[@ContinuaComiq]

Thank you for doing these!

[@ganjo8316]

This was GOLD! Thank you!

[@IGot7Gallery]

Wow OK finally I got in Part 2 just finished watching part 1

[@StormAsher104]

My Writing style is writing things like they’re Movie-Scripts, I don’t know how I ended up like this, but I like it. Also sorry but I don’t draw or write webcomics (I’m a terrible drawer but a pretty decent writer) but instead I write book-like things, in the style of Movie-Scripts, I legitimately don’t know how this happened. And I usually keep all my stories very personal, I have never posted them anywhere 😅 ^AND I PLAN TO KEEP IT THAT WAY (but maybe not for long idk 🤷‍♂️)

[@arielporcheratv]

I just bought the ebook. THANK YOU!!

[@Viv1992]

1:35:40 Wouldn't have guessed actually, even though I saw both of those. I really like Castoff and am seriously planning to put Patreon in my budget in the future.

[@steve_robichaud]

So I was wondering what your process is for converting from full page to webtoon scroll style? Is it a lot of just reformating manually or do you have a automated/semi automated process?

[@antonydrossos5719]

I've watched a few Livestreams of artists drawing pages & characters. Could this be a good way of building & interacting with an audience?

[@TommyJShizuko]

I'm glad I started watching this

[@gardenofhelios]

I discovered castoff while wandering around the tv tropes website by random chance :D it took me to the glowing eyes trope~ 💛 (I'm actually curious if you know that your comic's tropes are listed there?)

[@liljatupsu]

I finally got around to reading Castoff a few weeks ago and I'm pretty sure Star did mention the tvtropes page in a comic page's description at one point

[@gardenofhelios]

@@liljatupsu ooo, cool! Thank you for telling me :D

[@michaelmunster9074]

I'm curious, how many people doing a webcomic get a copywright? And do you think it's necessary? I'm getting close to being ready to post and curious on people's thoughts.

[@dvffy_dotcom]

I FEEL SO EUPHORIC TO BE IN YOUR VIRTUAL PRESENCE YOU ICON

[@lauradloz]

Hey Star! How often do you publish a new page per week?

[@lenzanari]

I love you and this was extremely helpful.

[@frances3720]

Do you recommend to fully finish your webcomic and then post it online or update it regularly

[@n0vellette]

I hate social media. I had an instagram and twitter for 8+ years and posted regularly but never hit any more than 2, 3 comments per post on insta, most of which were bots or my mom lol. All it did was let me follow artists I admire and comare myself and the longer it went on with no progress, the more i hated myself and my art. I eventually quit all socials and stopped drawing for almost a year. Ihate it so so much, but i realize I'll never make it anywhere with or without it. Idk what luck god these artists pray to to get discovered but I'd give them my firstborn for half the chance. 8 years of consistent updates and interaction with others and no more than 50 followers on either platform... Maybe being an artist isn't for me lmao

[@lyzzistormnightcore]

Well I pray to Jesus if that helps lmao 😭 but fr social media is always a hit or miss, there's probably so many people who'd love to see your stuff nut it hasn't reached the right ones. It's so annoying, somehow I managed to hit the right audience eventually but I don't think theres a strategy to it. Just luck.

[@Myah_W]

So if you post pages of your comic, can you copyright each page to prevent people taking your comic concept in its early stages? I understand that no ideas are original but if your comic has a small audience with a chunk of your story out there to be viewed after posting for a couple of yearss, how do you protect your work? Thankx

[@koirena]

You always own the copyright of your own story. Like they are copyrighted from the moment you create them. Of course, only if they are your original work and not fanart.

[@838190]

How did the star raid go? :3

[@paperstudios5120]

this is very helpfull thank you

[@frances3720]

Can you use informal language and swears in your webcomic

[@jackmanningfan1]

Trash Polka's my personal favorite style.

[@UltimatePerfection]

8:30 Does it even make any sense in the age where virtually everyone is using adblock of some kind?

[@terriermonisgod]

a good way to find inspiration for a comic is to not draw from other comics. draw from your other interests. same with artstyle. then the series will feel fresh and unique. all the time i see new artists draw the exact same style and characters as naruto etc, looks very obviously not original

[@aPhrogg]

Btw you can post pictures on tiktok now! :)

[@maratusart6583]

40:00 I really have to disagree with this. Asking people to support your art financially should be normalized. If you are a pro artist or striving to be or even as a hobby you should definitely monitize your art. We can't complain about people devaluing our art if we don't value it first. Just because you give people the possibility to support you through patreon it doesn't mean that you're in it for the money it just means you're trying to make art seriously. If you put all your art behind a pay wall then yeah I'd say that's a little bit exagerated. Anyway. Just my opinion. Love all the rest of the advice

[@HTMangaka]

I just want to apologize for smashing your like button into oblivion. I'm sure it's fine. =P Edit: Also, this helped me quite a lot! SUPER Good stuff! ^^

[@randomfandoms8994]

Ok so here is a question that might get answered but here (and anyone feel free to answer) is it a bad idea to have my comic on one website (ex webtoon) and have one social media platform because it’s easier to manage so if something happened to webtoon I could mention where im posting it from there bc my brain cant focus on multiple things (especially since im often busy)

[@tash4995]

i've heard someone else say to just focus on one social media platform so i don't think it should be too bad. you may just have to put in more work into that social media and try understand how it works. like, if your on insta you may need to post more reels or on tiktok you can just post videos. and if you already use tiktoks, you can repost them as reels or vice versa. so you can focus on one platform mainly and just repost on another without doing as much. sadly it seems most big platforms are prioritising videos but i think insta can be nice as an art portfolio and tiktok does have slideshows now.

[@randomfandoms8994]

@@tash4995thanks!

[@sebastianwardana1527]

well its nice that you want to change the culture when it comes to kickstarting... i think, "overambitious" is a thing of the past...

[@BanditTheShepherd]

Is there a way to keep people from stealing your Comic? That's my only fear.

[@deruniversale4444]

u whoooo

[@wradraws]

This was very helpful and honestly helped get my but in gear for making my linktree 😅 It really is a good way to get around the one link policy that a lot of social media has!

[@sebastianwardana1527]

im sure tiktok is useful... i just...

[@sebastianwardana1527]

you are like your mom...