Episode 432 - How to get more readers
Jun 24, 2019
Just Banes and I for this one! Today we have 3 topics: 1. Being positive and how that really helps us in online communication and social networking, as well as giving a boost to those we talk to- very important in comic communities. 2. How to get more eyes looking at your work. We always need to build our audiences! 3. Updates for drunk duck to modernise the site… We're going to have to raise a lot of money for this! How is the best way?
Topics and Show Notes
-1. There's an old myth that “being positive” helps you get over diseases and makes you a happier person among other things. Well, it doesn't unfortunately, but what it DOES do is make you more popular and interesting to people as well as giving people a boost when you communicate with them. This is a great tip for good online communication: be positive and be sincere.
-2. How to get more eyes looking at your work? The trap everyone falls into is expecting ALL their traffic to come from the site they're being hosted on thorough its own internal mechanisms like the search and front page features on Theduckwebcomics.com . Of course that's silly, you're competing with all the other members of the website for that limited limited piece of the pie, and that's exactly the same for all webcomic hosts. To get more readers you have to jump the queue:
2a- Network: comment on the work of others, especially comics that you like so you can always be sincere, do fan art for people, collaborate.
2b- Make yourself visible, participate in discussion and things and have a link banner. On DD that would be in the forums or the newsposts.
2c- social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube etc.This takes time but it can work.
2d- Buy advertising. This is a great way to get a big boost very quickly! On DD we have the option of banner ads https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/jan/25/give-your-comic-a-boost-and-help-us-at-the-same-time/ which give you a big ad on every page of the website, or supporting us through Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5127951 Which gives you a link on the front page, links or ads in weekend newsposts, and a link ON the forums.
-3. It's time to think about getting fixes and a redesign for the site again! We have good plans for it already and know all sort of things we'd like to fix like good page organisation for creators, likes, threaded comments and comment notifications for a better social experience (we have SOME of that already but we need more), a nicer colour theme, a site that works better on mobile devices, translations of the site into other languages for Italians, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, etc
The trouble is that we need money to make that happen because these are fairly big changes. How would we get there?
Banes and I are thinking of a mix between direct donations to Paypal and a Kickstarter campaign - I hate Indiegogo, too may obstacles and it takes a really big cut.
Site redesign look and feel here: - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177679/?page=3
Suggestions for money making and new features here: - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178185/
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Android Blues: Cold blue, ancient mechanisms, clicking and pulsing… springs contracting, gears turning, cams slipping, servos spinning, capacitors whining… the machine works perfectly and mysteriously.
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Ice Massacre - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/jun/18/featured-comic-ice-massacre/
Featured music:
Android Blues - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Android_Blues/, by Stahlberg, rated A.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!
Episode 431 - Political messages in your work
Jun 17, 2019
This Quackcast is about having political agendas in your work and expressing them well! We're talking about deliberately putting in ideas that you want to get across to people, NOT the idea that all work has agendas and ideas no matter what. That's not relevant to this discussion. When you want to want to get your ideas across there are good ways to do it and poor ways. When you do it poorly your work either has the opposite effect (people will laugh at your agenda or despise it), or it becomes propaganda. Propaganda is for preaching to the converted, it's terrible for changing minds. The only thing it's good for is motivating people who are already on-board with you.
Episode 430 - Good beginnings!
Jun 10, 2019
At the beginning of a story how do you grab and KEEP your readers? This comes from the Friday newspost by Emma Clare. Her advice was pretty brilliant. From my own perspective it's generally characters that grab me first before anything else. Great art and a fantastic cover can hook your eyes, but without a great story or interesting characters there's zero to keep you there.
Episode 429 - Bad ends, not bad fans
Jun 2, 2019
This Quackcast was inspired by the fan reaction to Game of Thrones, a series that I haven't watched but Tantz and Banes have! Specifically it's about poorly written endings and gas-lighting fans rather than admitting to faults.
Episode 428 - Expectations of Male and female audiences
May 27, 2019
What are the different expectations for female and male audiences? This almost entirely a culture based thing, it changes depending on where and WHEN you are from as well as your age and experience… but some obvious things are determined by our physiology: sex sells, but there are slight differences based on gender. I wasn't interested in the “why” (genetic predeterminisim or evolutionary psychology), just the “what”.
Episode 427 - Betrayal
May 20, 2019
Betrayal is an interesting thing to use in fiction. You can have betrayal of your nation, your organisation, friends, lovers, religion, beliefs, self. In stories it can be used to add a nasty twist or completely change the flow of events and alter the balance of power in a dramatic way! It can be devastating in relationships. The story of Judas betraying Christ for 30 pieces of silver is one of the most famous betrayal stories and became so iconic that the phrase “30 pieces of silver” or just the word “Judas” became synonymous with the act. Of course the inspiration for the best treachery and betrayal comes from real life and the names of the betrayers often echo down through history. IFrom Rome we have Brutus, in the USA the name “Benedict Arnold” has a similar meaning to “Judas”, the 20th century gave us the term “quisling” after the Norwegian political leader Vidkun Quisling who sold his country out to the Nazis.
Episode 426 - Sidekicking
May 13, 2019
Inspired by Emma Clare's Friday newspost about supporting characters, today we're discussing sidekicks! Sidekicks are a useful character type that are used in so many different ways. They can be a specialised type of supporting character that are also a main character or they can be the main protagonist in some cases. In comics sidekicks came in during the early days as a way of giving juvenile readers their own insert character who they could identify with… Bucky Barnes, Jimmy Olsen, Robin etc. They had other functions like giving the hero someone to save, providing commentary, reaction and exposition. Later when that kind of sidekick fell out of favour they became superheroes in their own right.
Episode 425 - Pay-off or rip-off?
May 6, 2019
In this Quackcast we chat about set-ups. pay-offs, and rip-offs. To make your climaxes and endings more satisfying you have pay-offs for audience expectations: set them up in the story and pay them off at the end. If you fail to pay-off then you get a rip-off, it's pretty simple. Your audience will be really disappointed. That's not to say disappointing and unsatisfying ends to stories are wrong, not at all! Often those are fully intended. We're just talking about satisfying audiences, not “good” endings.
