All you need to do is make an easy to navigate site, and include a relevant blog and commentary so that search engines can see it. There are *plenty* of examples of this within the webcomic community. I seriously doubt that most successful webcomic artists are stressing out that much about SEO.

1) As mentioned, the lack of SEO. There’s no relevant text on his website that will draw relevant traffic from Google.

2) The ads placed on his site are very generic. (I’m getting a lose 30 pounds spammy type ad, a study at an online university ad, and an insurance ad.) Nothing is geared towards his specific audience.

3) His merchandise (besides books) is being sold through CafePress. CafePress has high margins (I should know, I use them). Not the best business model for making money off of merchandise. (Although, probably the least amount of work)

If he addressed all three of these issues, I bet he would do pretty well. Especially since he probably already has a decent following.

Also, I checked out your animated cartoons, I liked them.

One way to help relevance is to get larger sites to link to you, which is obvious since that will garner more hits. Kind feel stupid saying that now.

Google ranks a website based on an algorithm that calculates Google ‘relevance’ to the search term/keyword. A big part of the calculation is the number and relevance of incoming links to pages on your site that include the search term/keyword. Being new, my site is an unknown with no incoming links and hence no Google ‘relevance’ to any subject. It’s a common problem that can be overcome with time and the application of the techniques outlined in the SEO how-to books. I’ve read them.

But a new topical site presents an uncommon challenge. My videos are produced new every few days or so, and have a peak shelf life of about three days since they are editorial cartoons about a current event in the news. That means that the keywords that are actually relevant to the subject of the videos will change each time a new video is produced. So they will never get enough links to gain Google ‘relevance’. Keywords that might be permanently associated with my site (animated, editorial, cartoon, etc) might build up some Google relevance, but won’t help on a daily basis with individual videos because people will be searching using the terms related to the story, which change with every story.

How would you solve that conundrum?

That’s not meaning I personally am not looking into every aspect of how to monetize my comic y2cl this year. In fact I’ve dedicated this year to learning anything and everything I can about creating a money maker around my comic and expanding it as much as I can for new readers and new revenue.

Rstevens: I agree with you, merch sales are a GREAT source. I run a small comic and I sell my merch pretty well to what fans I have. I’m still looking at where and how to get merch made and to my readers, research is the hardest part!

Howard: that’s a good point about your wifes book vs your book. Did she have a fan base before the book came out or was it sort of she wrote it and put it out to the world? Do you think it would have sold better if you could have some how slapped your name and brand on it? Just curious.

C’mon, my man. You’re smarter than this. The “t-shirts and merchandise doesn’t work!” refrain is a great talking point, but it’s not the real world any more.

I’m not getting into the “mine’s bigger” data fight that often happens on this topic, but you know how I make my living. I’m not alone.

You’ll understand eventually. I’ll even hook you up with my printer and mailing software if you like.