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)
I find it kind of ironic that this announcement should occur at the same time as certain web cartoonist are arguing over on Daily Cartoonist that syndicated artists don't know what they're doing because they charge for their archives. I know it's different, but still ironic.
Personally, while I understand the need to make money, I think charging for the blog is a ridiculous idea. The other features sound pretty neat, and I might consider paying for those - but the blog should be your public-facing free content, something you can offer the casual hobbyist to draw them in further (this is why I pay for a deviantART subscription - because they have extra features I like, but if I had to pay for the most basic feature, I'd find another way to share my artwork).
Besides Brad, if you're so busy with a day job, kids, and your own comic, how will getting paid help minimize the time you spend? Are you planning on hiring help? That I could understand, but otherwise it doesn't seem like it would help ease your burden if you have no time to start with.
By the way, what assurances do you have that the content will get better? Maybe my RSS feed is broken, but it certainly doesn't seem like Webcomics.com has been posting five times a week...and lately, the "new" posts have just been repeats from the arhives anyway. If I were to be asked to pay for content based on what I've seen lately, I definitely wouldn't consider it worth the money. I'm curious how you plan to upgrade the site and content? How will Khoo contribute? What, honestly, can we expect?
I agree with Ariadnex. I feel you'd get more subscribers if there was an option to either break up payments or have the option for monthly subscriptions. 30 bucks our weekly gas budget. While I can spare 2.50 a month, I have a harder time parting with $30 bucks all at once, even if it's a once-a-year thing. 30 bucks really isn't a whole lot, but it's a lot easier parting with your cash when you can do it a little at a time, and it would also give newbies a chance to test drive the chance for a very small investment to see if the site could really help them before paying a full year's subscription. Heck you could even make the monthly subscription more expensive to make the full year a better deal (like Livejournal or DeviantART's subscriptions).
*test drive the SITE for a very small investment
That is what I meant to write. Dang ol' typos.
I think one of the things here is that the number has passed a magical barrier - $20.
Anyway, as someone who has yet to start a comic I have acknowledged the helpful advice contained throughout the site but I have not had an opportunity to try any of the tips out. I thought your site had a lot of valuable tips to starting comickers, but if those people are no longer able to view the content they may not get off to a great start, may abandon their comic... may no longer become potential subscribers.
I would encourage you to consider to put a lot of the basics up for free, such as discussion of starting buffers, important web design notes and that sort of thing. Newbies that stumble across this information may then succeed at their comic instead of fail - may recognise the role that webcomics.com has had in this success and then will be more willing to subscribe.
Actually also as many people are suggesting the monthly subscription fee it reminds me of a business concept I heard once: present an option merely to make the other look better. If your monthly subscription fee was $5, some people might sign up out of curiousity who would not have otherwise, and a number of people will balk at the idea of paying double the price and will just opt in for the yearly subscription. Just a thought.
I don't see a problem with the move to a subscription wall, to be honest. If this were information that EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD needed to know RIGHT NOW then yes, sticking up a sub wall would be a problem. But this is a website that is only of interest to a remarkably small number of people. Millions of people *read* webcomics, but there can't be more than a few thousand people who are *creating* them, and only a fraction of those creators are doing so as more than just a hobby.
I'm not in a financial position right now to subscribe, but as soon as I am you guys are getting my $20 a year. You've done cracking work here over the last year or two.
I'm glad you guys are doing this. I'm expecting and holding ya to what you promise but am excited to see what you guys do and how it helps me out in this new year.
Good Luck Brad and the others on making this a great year for web comics.
After I got over the surprise I can understand all the points made - although I still agree a day's notice would have been nice so that I could have gotten my cash together.
I also agree a monthly option would be highly beneficial - I agree with Scott's point that if you can't afford it you're probably not in the position to USE the site to it's full potential, but many of your devotees are young, probably casual workers who have been using this valuable information to turn their hobby into something more viable and to whom right now $30 can be a lot. However, a monthly (or even half yearly, I could do half yearly right now where as a month is just over my cut off for non-essentials) option may not only entice a greater number of new readers but also lure back the (hopefully) small number of offended high and mighties who have blasted you up until now.
As such, unless a half-yearly or monthly is brought in I'll have to wait at least a month before picking this up. Be sure to let us know if this happens!
@Brad, Scott
Since you keep alluding to new things on the horizon, could you let us in on what are the "new and exciting" things you'll be giving members now that this is a pay-site?
Will it be more indepth business advice? Will you restart the website-analyses? Will members receive personalized and direct advice for their individual webcomics?
I'd like to know what will make webcomics.com worth more than it was when it was free.
@Brad - I agree with you. Your time is worth something, and it's very unpleasant to have a project that takes your time and doesn't give you much in return.
However, when this was first announced the thumbnail of the next article wasn't up. Everything was gone and the message was "Trust us, our information is worth it.". No sample articles. No table of contents.
Now that I see that you'll have the abstracts of future articles, it's a bit different. I'm hesitant, but will probably drop by and see if they meet my needs.
But I suppose I'll have to find somewhere else to put my articles on collaboration now.
I'm disappointed in this move, but only because of my own personal wants. I'm not a web cartoonist, but work in print comics as a Colourist, so reading the information (although informative) was just a general interest for me. Entertainment. I'm going to miss out on that now, because as we all know, print is not paying enough for me to splash out even thirty dollars a year when it could go towards an extra meal somewhere.
Best of luck to you Brad, you of all people deserve some monetary gain after the work you've put in to this project. It's unfortunate that I won't be able to contribute the way I planned on - on the old model.
I don't mind the subscription change, but I'm really sad to hear WW pronounced officially dead. Is there any chance of the episodes that have been recorded but not posted showing up, to wrap up the run?
For me, it's not that I can't afford the $30 for the year of service, it's just that I can't spare $30 right now. Christmas did a number on my bank account and I just can't justify that expense. I think it would probably be worth it, but there are a lot of other things I need to get in order before I can just blow a lump sum of $30 all in one place this month. I realize that it costs $30 per year, not per month, but it does cost $30 this month and that's something I just can't do. I agree that a monthly fee, even a slightly higher one, would be more palatable to me. I'd rather pay $3.50 a month for a year than $30 right now.
Um. I literally just stumbled on this website yesterday. There was a tutorial on setting up Wordpress.
Came back today to check it again only there was this login... only I couldn't log in.
And there was a threat saying that if I continued to try and log in, I'd be locked out forever.
I checked the front page only to find that it was a subscription site now. Ok. Well thak god Google saves the entire internet and I could get the tutorial anyway.
There was NO WARNING of such a move yesterday. If there had been I would have read over as much content as possible to help me consider if it was worth it...
Alas there wasn't...
So I give you my $30 bucks...
1. How do I know what's going be available? There are no previews of content. Nothing.
2. How do I know the subscription won't suddenly and without warning change to $35... $40 bucks next year? Or a month or so from now?
Hmm... money to see a blog.... That's ahh... interesting.
I'll have to think about that...
@Brad
A couple of previous contributors have stated in the comments so far that they are unhappy at their work being behind a payment wall like this. I'm presuming that this suggests that you have not contacted any past contributors (who have had their work on the main webcomics.com feed.
Over the last few weeks I have been re-listening to past WW podcasts and some of the more recent I have listened to dealt with the HalfPixel Crew's views on the "Orphaned Works Act". With these thoughts in mind do you not think that it is hypocritical that you not contact the contributors asking for permission BEFORE making (in essence) a change to the conditions of use of their work for your own personal profit (be you operating at a loss or not at this point). I would hope that you remove all contributions that are not your own before getting express permission from each and every person who contributed.
Brad, If you had put up a $30.00 DONATE button, I'd be right on top of that. I have constantly been amazed that this site has been going as long as it has w/o ads or anything. And you put a lot of effort into it while the rest of Halfpixel just does there own thing. The book you guys put out got me off my arse and your podcasts were motivating as well as entertaining. But as I said before, the Forums were where most of the helpful action was. Advice from my peers, some of which were at the same starting level as me. And I am fundamentally opposed to this the way it's been done.
The promise of new stuff sounds great, if it's something we haven't already heard 100 times already. I'll wait and see just how many times Kurtz chimes in before he loses interest, and I'll wait and see how much this Khoo fellow contributes before I plunk down any cash. Of course, I'll have to ask someone who DOES pay to keep me updated, but then that's what other Forums are for.
Pardon the pun, but I'm more in the same pool as Andy Poole (above). I've been a long-time casual lurker and occasional commenter, and so, I will miss the "old" webcomics.com.
Personally, as a cartoonist and professional educator, I'm a strong supporter of the pay-for-content model -- be it for information AND/OR entertainment. When Alan Gardner of the Daily Cartoonist recently held his annual donation campaign, I didn't hesitate paying him for his time. Considering the fact that I visit his website several times a day and it has become my primary source of industry news, I donated accordingly.
And so, I wish Brad and the rest of the webcomics.com gang the best of luck with this transition.
It's about time.
That said, I do not agree with Brad's suggestion that information carries more commercial value than entertainment. It's that mentality alone which prevents me from supporting this site any further.
So long webcomics.com.
Am I the only one super excited about this? Brad has done such a great job over the last two years that I didn't even have to think
twiceonce before sending him my $30. Now that he has it, I know he's going to make damn sure that I get my moneys worth and a heck of a lot more over the coming year. That's how much faith I have in him.Monthly contribution from Scott Kurtz and Robert Khoo? Icing on the cake my friend. 2010 is going to be a great year for my webcomic and I wouldn't miss this opportunity for the world.
For those of you who can't afford $30 right now or are still on the fence. That's is all right, just keep an eye on the site and see whats posted over the next couple of weeks/months. You just might see something worth investing $30 for your webcomic.
Experience of Salon.com
This is a reasonable fee for a great site. That said, I don't know that I'll sign up just yet. This strikes me as swimming against the current.
I think this is a worthwhile experiment. It seems to me that the more broad of an audience you try to appeal to the less viable a subscription model becomes. That's why the NYTimes makes it's content available for free, but the Wall Street Journal can still charge.
I have mixed feelings on this.
On one hand, Brad deserves to benefit from his hard work. It's the freelance artist's perogative to set the price for his services, and buyers can take it or leave. I believe in that model.
On the other hand, I believe 30.00 falls far over the sweet spot. My own comic makes pizza money more or less every month, and I have to watch every outgoing cent. I can understand sometimes breaking even, but loosing money on this venture just seems to gall me. As a freelance illustrator, 2009 was the worst year in terms of jobs ever.
What would have been a price with a sweet spot that would get me to part with my cash? 5 bucks, yeah, maybe as much as 10 bucks, or maybe not.
I'm not saying this as a criticism against Mr. Guigar, but his own book and business model taught us to take this craft seriously, carefully gaurd every little revenue stream coming in, and be very frugal on outbound expenditures.
So, will I join? Maybe someday, if I see the value of the advice/articles coming to merrit the price tag. But, no, not today, and not anytime in the near future.
Good luck, Brad! Hope it works out really well for you! I say that wholeheartedly, without irony.
Scott.
I completely understand Brad's justification for the move. It's hard to put in a lot of work into something that doesn't pay off, especially with a family and other commitments.
Having said that, it feels like a bad move to me. I agree that this is very niche, and I wonder if there are enough of these niche folks who are willing to pay 30 bucks a year to make it worth your while.
Part of what made this site worthwhile to me was the discussion forum. I'm very surprised that will be behind the wall. And while I have valued many of Brad's posts, I don't feel like I want to pay 30 bucks a year for them.
@Brad - had you at all considered a article-by-article purchase price? I have to admit that it would be the one thing that might appeal to me, purchasing an article I might be interested in for say $2. While you might get me on that, you'll probably never get me on a subscription - definitely not at 30 bucks.
Anyway, I do wish you guys luck, and I will be curious to see how it turns out. I'll miss some of the lively discussions we had too :)
Happy Birthday to me, this subscription and my annual hosting bill lined up on the same day. I guess I'll count both as a present to myself.
When I initially heard about the subscription plan and read the back and forth in the comments I admit I was a little upset. I guess I was in the "A little warning would have been nice" camp, at least at first. I'm pretty sure that I've received more than $30 worth of information from webcomics.com and Brad over the past few years so I think I can justify paying for one year's subscription on that point alone.
I'm sure a lot of the negative feelings here may be coming from the lovely web phenomena of "it was free before, why do I have to pay now?" No one likes to pay for something that they have always gotten for free in the past.
I liken it to the situation I recently encountered with a friend of mine. He is a Macintosh guru and I've picked his brains for answers several times in the past. A few weeks ago he started his own business and became a Mac consultant. People now call him with Mac problems and he answers questions, does installs, etc. Basically he is now getting paid to do the things I've asked of him for free in the past. So now I feel a little weird asking him any computer questions. It's like asking a doctor you meet at a party about that rash you have.
It was easy, after a while, to think of webcomics.com as a public service or just a bunch of people on the internet sharing ideas. But it became apparent from the level of professionalism that Brad brought to the table that this was something more. Many of the people reading the site were also readers from the old forums and to them the idea of paying to talk to your 'friends' was a bit of a turn off. But this site has become more than a discussion amongst random people on the internet. I agree that it has become a valuable resource. I will also say that if it was anyone but Brad doing it I'd say goodbye and not miss it.
Having been a regular reader of webcomics.com for a while now I have no problem endorsing the fact that Brad consistently produces. Whether it's informative tips, constructive criticisms, or insightful articles, you can count on Guigar (heh, Guigar counter). That alone is worth the price of admission. Add Khoo and it's a deal that's hard to beat.
I actually don't expect to get too much out of the site with regards to becoming successful. The HalfPixel guys have already revealed that secret in previous WW podcasts. I'll share it here in the free zone for those that may have missed it, "Work your ass off for 10 years and improve" That seems to be the common secret amongst all of the professional cartoonist I've met. What I do expect from this site is how to most efficiently work my ass off for 10 years and how best to improve by not repeating mistakes that other professionals have already made.
My only remaining complaint is that if this was going to happen, I would like for it to have happened a little earlier so that I could have put it on this years taxes as a Professional Subscription. :)
Here's what concerns me the most as this discussion rages on and is not being addressed by Mr. Guigar. He wants us to pay $30 dollars for "business advice", yet rolls out a business model charging $30 dollars annually and there is NO TERMS OF SERVICE. There is nothing to state what the refund policy would be if unhappy with service/product, or if he closes the business before the years subscription expires. He has put free content offered by others behind a subscription wall w/o prior consent or terms of payment and is only now offering to remove it after the fact. These are all things that should have been dealt with before hand. He is opening himself up to a 1/2 dozen liability issues and this "business plan" Isn't even 24 hours old.
I'm not saying this to be an arse, please make sure the legalities of a subscription business /productservice are in place. A "simple "buyer beware" doesn't hold up in many states anymore. You need a terms and conditions to cover yourself. Thats business 101!
The people that have already paid... you have little legal recourse should he fold up 6 months from now and feel you deserve a partial refund for not fulfilling the obligation because he is unhappy with profits from this business. YIKES!