Join Webcomics.com
Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 4:57PM Starting today, Webcomics.com will begin charging a $30-per-year subscription fee. That fee is going to be used to help support what this site has become -- and allow it to achieve its full potential.
Webcomics.com has established itself as a tremendous resource of practical information for webcartoonists. By joining today you will have access to:
- Frequent updates of news, advice, tutorials and strategies by webcomics veteran Brad Guigar.
- Monthly contributions by webcomics pioneer Scott Kurtz and Penny Arcade's Business Guy, Robert Khoo.
- Personalized features like a new e-mail-based organizer to help you plan for upcoming conventions.
- Feedback and guidance for your comic and the small business you'll create running it.
- A fully rounded, indexed repository of two year's worth of information that you can use to help improve your work.
- A moderated, passionate, supportive community of webcomics creators.
- Inside information on conventions, vendors and other entities that webcartoonists access to advance their businesses.
- Deals on merchandise.
For a low subscription of $30 per year, you will have access to all of this plus the entire Webcomics.com archives, one of the most helpful and supportive forums for creative people on the Web, and several members-only offers.
Webcomics.com Terms of Service.
FAQ
Most webcomics are based on the free-content model. The "How To Make Webcomics" book is built around it. Why is Webcomics.com becoming a pay site?
Simply put, Webcomics.com isn't entertainment; it's a valuable resource for webcartoonists. It would be difficult to continue offering this site for free in its current state -- and impossible, given the improvements we have planned.
Why not just run ads?
This will be very much a niche site. There will not be as much value for an advertiser as there will be for subscribers.
Why $30 per year?
It's an inexpensive buy-in that almost any webcartoonist can afford. It has an added benefit of keeping out people who may not be as serious about webcomics. It naturally weeds out comments from people who may be passing through, and results in distilling comments to those from people who are committed to improving their comics.
Reader Comments (272)
You had me at "Frequent updates of news, advice, tutorials and strategies by webcomics veteran Brad Guigar."
My $30 is yours Mr Guigar.
This is disappointing.
It would be more tasteful if the previously free information remained free. Right now, there's little reason in my mind to join this site.
The posts were interesting and the blog was picking up. It's sad to see that this was/has become purely a business venture.
Thanks, Mark. :)
I'm sorry to hear you say that, Disappointed. But if you change your mind, we'll be right here.
This site has been very valuable to me, and I didn't hesitate to join as soon as I saw this on the front page. I had recently been wondering how Brad can afford to do all this with no ads running on the site, so I'm glad he and any others involved can monetize it. Having an issue creating an account though - saying my email address is already registered, which I guess it is - by me. I emailed the customer service email that was given, hoping to get into the site soon.
Oh boy, get ready for the crap storm that'll drop from this. I can already feel the nerd rage building on the horizon. II get why you're doing this but IMHO the site hasn't really offered anything to make it worth subscribing too (and don't take that as a slide against Brad's work maintaining it. I just don't feel like it has information that I HAVE to have.).
If that changes in the future, then the price doesn't seem too hateful at all on an annual basis.
I gotta say, I am a bit disappointed by this development. Not that I begrudge any of you the opportunity to make some money off of this site. I still think all of the free advice you've given out over the past few years makes you pretty fantastic people. It's not a 30 bucks I can justify right now (and I'm not sure that I should even try) but I'll be sad not to be able to participate anymore.
Hmm… I'm a bit torn on the asking price. I've found Webcomics.com (and its print counterpart) to be useful references for developing my non-existent comic skills, and I've seen the collaborative nature of the forums and the classified ads section (to some degree), but I also rarely pay money for anything without fully understanding what I'm paying for. Some of the existing articles don't apply to a small-time webcomicker like me yet, and I don't know where I will be in the future with my modest webcomic project or even if I'll be able to keep it running as it is.
Basically, I'd like to hear from somebody who understands what that $30/yr. will buy me - not just a bullet-point list, but a step-by-step breakdown of how each aspect of the site can help even the moderately dedicated hobbyist.
(And might I be so bold as to request that you guys keep both "paid" and "free" sections of the site running so people like me can better evaluate their decisions? Thanks.)
I was initially surprised by the decision, but, I don't have a problem with it and paid for a membership...
Even though my comic isn't profitable, I only started just over two months ago, the halfpixel fellas and their cohorts through various sources have helped me get off the ground and I'm appreciative of that. I just need to put in the time/effort to let my comic grow and eventually/ hopefully will turn a buck for me.
I feel the information I've received from the book, the podcasts and this site is well worth thirty dollars. Further information I get on top of that from being a paid member is effectively gravy in my opinion.
Good luck with this endeavor Brad, it'll be interesting to see where this goes! However, there are enough free webcomic community forum sites out there helping the webcomic community, I just cannot see how this will become something we webtoonists will pay for when plenty of talented comic creators are within reach and free to help others w/o mandating a fee for it.
Your opinion is valued of course, but I'm sorry you feel that making money from this venue trumps wanting to offer a solid community service to struggling artists. I certainly wouldn't do this to my peers if I were in your position.
It's a shame that it's going to have to cost me money now to get information on something I truly enjoy. It looks like I will have to take webcomics.com off of my bookmarks list, as I cannot afford to buy a subscription.
While it was free, I truly enjoyed your blog posts, Webcomics Weekly, and all the advice and insight I got from you and the others, Brad. Thank you for everything. It was fun while it lasted.
Yikes! That's a little... sudden, innit? At least I certainly didn't notice any build up to this decision - it's a little jarring, frankly.
I was really only along for the forums, which had sadly never fully recovered from the last webcomics.com change-over, and I doubt a 30$ barrier will end up growing that forum any time soon.
Good luck with the site!
Wow. Didn't see that coming. You'll probably get my $30 eventually. For now, I'm just gonna head over to one of the other gazillion webcomics community sites. The forums are filled with other super helpful webcomic creators & I value them as much as the guys running the site. My point is, they will be just as helpful elsewhere. I only balk because I've learned NOT to expect anything consistent from the Halfpixel boys (Guigar aside). Not faulting anyone. For sure you should try and monetize what you can and I certainly appreciate the FREE content you've provided up to now. It's been great and I wouldn't have come as far as a I have now without you guys.
Oh, and I'll believe the "Monthly contributions by webcomics pioneer Scott Kurtz" when I see it.
Hmmm... my first question is this... if I subscribe to this how many paid porn sites will i have to dip out on for my $30?
But seriously, I'm going to think this one over and come to a decision in the next week or so. I don't in any way doubt the decision to add a subscription fee to the site, those who see value in it will happily fork out in the name of sharing ideas and information I'm sure. (when i say it like that, I guess I probably will subscribe!)
I guess it's pretty easy for those of us with incomes outside of the webcomics world to be critical and demand that Brad and the others give out their services and advice for free, but ultimately this is their livelihood and they're the best at what they do. I'm happy to drink a couple of beers less each week to be able to drink from this pool of knowledge (did that sound cheesy enough).
@Ryan Those porn sites charge you every month... er, so I'm told... I know you understand this, but I want to make sure others looking in get the distinction. This is thirty dollars for an entire year. That's two-fifty a month. And I promise to keep my clothes on. That's worth an extra buck-fifty a month and I throw it in for free.
For those of you who are subscribing: Thanks. This year has an awful lot of great stuff in store. :)
For those of you who are not, I have absolutely no hard feelings or regrets. If you think you can find what I'm doing on Webcomics.com on another site, I want you to go to that site.
But I've got to tell you. No one is doing what we're doing here. No one went line-by-line through the Amazon Comic Strip Superstar contract to point out places that could be problematic. No one else brought relevant and useful tips day after day.
If you're relying on a forum, you've got to know that some of those helpful people may be spreading misinformation or bad advice without even knowing it. I moderate the Webcomics.com forums closely, and I step in when I see someone spreading some information that might lead you down the wrong path.
This site has worth. If you get that, you're welcome here.
If you don't, I can do nothing but wish you the very best of luck.
The bookis definitely worth the money. Buy the book. And I really like all of you guys. You are a classy group and everything you have done to cultivate the community was sincerely appreciated.
But....
$30 is more than four times the cost of the book new from Amazon. As much as I anjoyed my time here at the site I mostly saw it as a place for lesser successful webcomicker's to gather and discuss the information put forth by you more successful folks and network together.
Then you did away with the forums and I lost touch with most of those folks (and all the while you kept telling us the forums were coming back which was kind of a rotten thing to do but I suspect unintentionally so as you guys are all pretty nice and I imagine wouldn't do something like that on purpose) . And once I couldn't really commune with the masses and all my lovingly crafted forum posted were blasted into the netherverse I found less and less use for coming here.
The articles are usually well written and often insightful but without the discourse that came with them on the forum I just wasn't as engaged and often had questions that just went plain unanswered.
So for me at least... the value just isn't there. I don't begrudge you guys making money off of this. Get it where you can right? I know how busy you all are as well and for something to be taking up your valueable time I'm sure it needs to be bringin' in the coin. There are only so many hours in the day and the more that are productive the better right?
Good luck with this. If anyone knows of a good place for low level webcomickers to congregate and howl at the moon please drop me a url via Twitter (remedialrob) or at my e-mail (rob@remedialcomics.com ) as I'd love to keep in touch with most of you folks. And if there is no other place you are welcome to come and join my forum and I promise not to delete your posts. :D It's nice, quite and mostly empty... just like most new webcomic forums. LOL.
Good luck guys.
I think this is a really interesting experiment on Brad’s behalf, and it’ll be very cool to see how it all pans out.
I think the most delightful part of all is that you're (suddenly and without notice) going to start charging WEBCOMIC ARTISTS for advice.
These are people who GIVE their ART away! They do it for years on end! They only ever HOPE for the slightest payout, if only EVENTUALLY.
You can’t just lock that kind of person out unless they start paying up with absolutely no warning. If any one of us did what you’re doing with our own comics, our fans would laugh in our faces and go somewhere else. LAUGH.
Can you imagine it? One fine day, BLAP! These archives are locked! Now you must PAY me for my precious doodles!! Step right up!
YES, you're dedicated. YES. What you’re offering is valuable and worth reading. But not more so than what we’re all giving away for free.
Justify it as you no doubt will, this is laughably ironic. If you'll step up and say "Advice is worth more than art", then I'll believe you and pay the $30. But you're not going to say it, because you know it's not true.
I know full well how the Webcomics Business Model works. I'll be celebrating ten years of doing a daily webcomic in a few weeks. :) But that's beside the point...
Daniel, yours is the misunderstanding that I dreaded the most.
This is not an entertainment site.
You simple can't compare the business model for this site to the business model for a webcomics site.
I run three other webcomics sites -- all of them will remain free because that's the proper business model for them.
But what goes on at Webcomics.com is much different than that. You simply can't compare the two.
I won't lie, I'm kinda disappointed in this. I hadn't been to the site for about a week, so maybe I missed the announcement, but the sudden subscription wall is, well, sudden. I don't begrudge anybody for trying to make money off their website, and this is a good website, no doubt there, but were there any other considerations besides a subscription wall? I read the FAQ about different options and why you're not going in those directions with the site, but it still feels like another route could be taken to make money while keeping the content available to all.
The articles were good and insightful, and the forums had some good conversations, but I just don't think a subscription fee is the right way to go for the content delivered. Is absolutely everything going to be behind the wall, or did I miss something about having some free content on the site as well? If it's all behind the wall, how will newcomers who hadn't seen Webcomics.com when it was free know that the content is worth their 30 bucks? Is there a way to just subscribe for a month and see if you like it? Or a free trial? Even knowing what this site has offered in the past, I'd still feel the need to "try before I buy", as it were.
I guess the main thing is how sudden the change over was. I enjoyed the forums and the people who posted there, and now I'm suddenly not allowed there anymore without paying for it, which is pretty disappointing. I hope the best for this site and the people who subscribe to it, as I found it to be a great site, but this subscription wall is just not for me, especially with no free content to go along with the paid content. : )
It's not a misunderstanding, you can't undercut a person's opinion by relabelling it. I just don't think these are people that you should be charging. They give away too much, to strangers and to this site itself. And this site IS entertainment. Webcomics are our hobbies and our passions. Discussing them IS a form of entertainment.
This is, however, just my opinion. I wish you well in this venture, and despite my general response toit, I do indeed see what you're going for. Know that I understand this situation perfectly, I just don't agree with it.
I suppose one has to weigh up
a. How seriously they take themselves as an artist/writer and whether they feel a real desire to improve and say something to the world through the medium of webcomics,
and
b. do Brad and co really know their shit, enough so to justify shelling out a little bit of cash?
Obviously the majority of us here already repect and value Brad's opinions and insights or we wouldn't be here in the firstplace... and let's be honest, $30 is not a hell of alot of money, maybe the price of one less cup of coffee a month...
And hell, here's another way to look at it, anybody only interested in their own opinions and self promotion is most likely not going to sign on... sounds slightly cynical perhaps but seems like a positive outcome to me.
I would ask where this leaves the podcast. It was my favorite part of the site. Those were valuable conversations for someone trying to get up the momentum to do this webcomics thing. But the last show was posted in June (IIRC). Does the change in format bring with it the promise of new podcasts? Will iTunes start charging a fee for them? Or does this change signal that the WWPodcast has ended?
For myself, whether or not to subscribe may depend on that.
Mr. G. Good luck with your endeavor. I know it IS time intensive.
However, I would have gone a much different route. A premium service w. special benefits access to site members would have allowed for the more casual reader to have an avenue to becoming that select subscriber you covet w/out alienating them prematurely.
In my professional opinion, the site just is NOT diversified enough yet to offer something that appeals to a large enough base to justify the risk vs reward.
You are hamstringing long-term potential with short term profit IMHO.
You don't know me or what my goals are, but to have started a campaign that asked these questions to non-paying viewers PRIOR to the subscription announcement would have been a better strategy.
I, like so many others, came here looking and finding nuggets once in a while, but not QUITE what I wanted...not yet. That niche could have been broadened AND diversified for multiple streams of revenue...if you had asked the right questions prior to the announcement.
Good luck, but I believe someone else will now give me the info. I need w/out $30 a month. I need it to go towards my energy bill which is going up at least 30% this year...
Daniel,
Webcomics are entertainment.
A site that explains how to convert your webcomic into a business is not.
That's the difference, and that's what you're misunderstanding. This is not a webcomic site. This is a site about webcomics.
If you want to discuss webcomics for entertainment, go to Fleen.com. If you want to better yourself as a webcomics businessperson, that's what this site is about.
Man, how dare you ask people to pay for a regularly updated resource of useful, invaluable information that you have been until now been doing for free during your spare time when you have other obligations that need attending to?? The nerve!
*cough*
Sarcasm aside, I think this is a great idea and should have happened a long time ago. I just hope you get enough subscribers to make updating the site worth while for you guys. You can count me and my $30, for sure :)
CORRECTION: $30.00 per YEAR (less than $3.00 PER MONTH). Don't want to mislead viewers.
My apologies.