You have a comic. You’ve read How to Make Webcomics or, perhaps, a Scott McCloud classic, and you’re excited to share your work with the world. But how? Here are 10 things you don’t want to forget to include in your site.
- Your Comic: Place it as high and visible as you can get. 99% of the time you’ll want the comic on the homepage.
- Clear, Visible Navigation: Comic readers are accustom to a First, Previous, Next, and Latest navigation. Don’t officiate it and center the buttons with the comic. I’m fond of being able to click the comic to advance as well.
- A Blog: These days people want to know more about you than just the comic you’ve created. Blog content also adds text to you site to entice search engines and advertisers.
- Your Logo/Banner: Brand your site with a good quality logo and/or banner image, but try not to let it dominate your homepage.
- Social Network Buttons: Let others find you on Twitter, Facebook and more as well as easily share your comic with others by putting these buttons at their fingertips and near the navigation.
- Easy to Use Archive: A comic archive is one of a webcomic’s greatest assets. Give it its own page and consider alternatives to simply listing your comic by date. Straight humor comics might want a Random button too.
- About You, Characters, Etc. : Just like the blog, the About page is so your readers can learn more about you and your projects.
- Comments: Have a way for people to interact with you by offering comments on your blog and comic pages. As your comic’s following grows you can expand into a Facebook page, forum, or other social space.
- Privacy Policy/Terms of Use: If you run ads on your site you are often required to have a compliant privacy policy. WordPress users can try the “Easy Privacy Policy” plugin.
- Copyright Statement: In the U.S. your work is copyrighted the moment you put it down in a “fixed” form. A copyright policy on your site is a visible reminder, and should also address the aspects of your site that you don’t own as well as how you handle comments.
10 Features your Webcomic Site Needs
You have a comic. You’ve read How to Make Webcomics or, perhaps, a Scott McCloud classic, and you’re excited to share your work with the world. But how? Here are 10 things you don’t want to forget to include in your site.