[Comics Madness blog] Oooh, I kind of like doing this

[Ron Edwards]

Here's how I did it. Last month, I listed about seventy topics I'd like to sound off about, regarding comics, history, politics, personal experiences, role-playing superheroes, and ... stuff. A few of them turned into paragraphs almost right away, and I worked on those simultaneously, as any and all of the others developed as well. I essentially write on all of them all the time, and more get added steadily. For example, I just remembered the dynamic content of the villain group Jihad in the Suicide Squad title, as it changed dramatically with pre-1991, 1991, and post-1991 events, and how Iran-Contra got folded in there subversively, even as the authors were forced to display overt party-line patriotism. So in it went into the primary "big blog posts file."

Whenever I get one of them to a near-finish, I transfer it into the blog queue and start hunting for pictures to use, and that generates a final creative phase for each post. But the scheduling is such that I am putting them into this near-usable form as a block, for a given month. So by the time a month arrives, I have finished all those posts and they're waiting in line, subject only to minor tweaks as I preview them. If it seems like one I finish later is better suited for sooner posting, I can change the order however I want. At the moment, for instance, all the slots for April are full, although each post is still subject to tweaking and additions.

The nice thing is that I can always work on the ones that interest me the most at the moment, without stressing about having to finish it for immediate posting.

The problem is ... this is effectively unpaid work. I'm sort of justifying it by associating it with the Patreon, but I haven't yet been able to make myself conform with my intention, which was to restrict blog usage to patrons. That ... well, dammit, it just seems wrong for blog culture. People don't like to see blog restrictions, it puts them right off, and they won't come back.

Yet I have to monetize this somehow, with any luck somewhat associated with the game. How?

I especially want to work this out because it seems as if I can do this for a long time without too much stress, and in fact, it's really quite liberating to write this way ... and modestly, I think it'll get some traction. There have even been some surprising responses on the private side; maybe this could be bigger than I imagined.

The other thing is damn comments. I need comments, people, no one wants to see a blog with 0 comments, 0 comments, 0 comments, or if they're there, with the same person every single time. You're an argumentative, contrary bunch of irritating netgeeks - you are perfectly capable of taking my clickbait. Don't be so damn Forge and friendly, get in there and argue (sanely) with me. This is comics for God's sake. Or if you think something's funny, laugh out loud, share it, tell a friend.

I'm not talking for a fake viral campaign, just a little genuine enthusiasm and recklessness. I'm having fun with it, I want to make it a party jam instead of a soapbox.

[Moreno R.]

Do you take request? I would like to see posts about the "red" (as in communist...) villains in Stan Lee comics in the early 60s (in Iron Man and Hulk most of all, but they were in Thor, FF, and a lot of other series...

Some interesting aspects:
- they were really Stan Lee villains. They were practically absent from series where the artists had more control of the plot (Ditko and Kirby most of all - and this mean that they were almost absent from Captain America, of all places..), and instead they were all over the place in Stan lee plots.
- They practically disappeared suddenly at the end of the '60s, and suddenly Tony Stark didn't want to sell weapon anymore...  :-)

About the money issue... I understand the problem of dedicating so much time to something that doesn't pay, but I understand (and share) the aversion to the idea of paying to follow a blog. It feels... strange, as having to pay to talk to people.  And I realize it's simply an habit, I pay people to read what they write all the time (books, magazines, newspapers), but it still feel strange doing that for a blog.

Thinking about that... maybe you could publish a book with the blog's content at the end (edited, corrected, and with some new parts added, to avoid having the exact same content of the blog).  And I have really no idea about how much it pay, but I see a lot of comic book blog that raise money with links to amazon or other shops.

[Eero Tuovinen]

First - I'm enjoying the blog tremendously, it's roughly as interesting as I expected you might get on that sort of a platform. I'm not commentariating in there all the time to leave notional space for new readers to react. The piece on Kobra was quite interesting, partly because it's one of those characters who I barely recognize visually, while I never knew there's a '70s psionic saga related to him.

Second, regarding monetizing this sort of thing... I've got the feeling that something along the lines of Patreon will be, in time, entirely feasible for monetizing a blog. Just as much as it is for web comics, serial novels and broadcasting yourself playing video games. We might not be at the crest of the trend yet, but it seems to me like patronizing free content has some legs in this regard. It is a process rooted in patience, of course - all the really successful crowd-patronized artists and such seem to have been doing that same thing regularly for years, long enough to slowly grow that crowd. Not a quick way to make money, and obviously something that only works if doing the work is natural for you anyway.

One thing you could do with the blog is to drop in a post explicitly about Doctor Xaos now and then, or about other game design concerns related to it, just so new readers (who will start coming in, it just takes a bit of time for a blog to be discovered by the people excited about the topic) will be made aware of the bread project lurking in the background. Writing about your economic goals as an artist is also an obvious soft play for money, one that I find pretty natural in the new economy - it is true that, as Moreno said, we generally expect "a blog" to be free to read, but it is also true that we are getting used to the idea that spice must flow through some channels for the open cultural environment of the Internet to remain funded and vital.

I'd ponder on this more, but we've got a first session of Doctor Xaos scheduled for noon, and I need to clean up the place a bit before then...

[ndpaoletta]

Blog comments are like actual play reports. The find blog -> read blog -> have something to say -> actually say it funnel means you just don't end up with rollicking commentary until you have a relatively large general audience.

Maybe you should share each post on G+ when you make it? I mean, building awareness is the first step and that's where "engagement" happens these days.

I'd also suggest a top-of-the-sidebar "Support This Blog" entry with a link to the Patreon (that maybe says "My posts here are supported by the Dr. Xaos Art Patreon, click here to pledge now!" or something like that). I know you break it down in the "pledge pitch" section but it's all about reducing the number of clicks, you know?

[Ron Edwards]

That is all very helpful. (Eero, I do appreciate both your posting and your attention to keeping it occasional.)

I'll figure out how to get a new sidebar thing up - it's sort of easy to screw it up, unfortunately ...

I ran a vote at G+ which overwhelmingly favored an automatic post there for each new blog post, so that's now set for tomorrow. Well, if I formatted it right.

Just you wait, about content! It's going to get provocative.

Moreno, I'd love to do requests except that ... well, I don't really have much of a response in this case. It didn't tie directly to my life-experience or engagement with the comics - that would be more in tune with Captain America, which is totally in the queue already. Perhaps you could do a guest blog post some time?

[Eero Tuovinen]

Guest posts, yes! That's a perfect way to entice people about the new blog, as you get the attention of the acquaintance you ask to write, as well as their audience (as they mention it in their own circles), while making for a potentially invigorating clash of perspectives.

[Ron Edwards]

I think I figured it out. Weak on the monetizing, but until and (very) if the general culture feels like paying for what it gets for free, I don't have much choice.

1. No pay-to-comment. Comments and access are open all the time.

2. The blog only runs if there's a pledge at the Patreon. All it takes it one at the lowest level ($2), but that's what it takes.

3. I run an extra post in a given month per $10 pledge. Right now there's one, so I scheduled it for the Tuesday (ordinary posting Sunday and Thursday).

I think that's about as much coordination between Patreon and blog that the internet can bear.

Traffic to the blog is pretty good, so I should find a way to get people to the Patreon a little easier, preferably itching to pony up. There's a Pledge Pitch page big as life, right at the top, which even turns villain-ass green when you scroll over it, but you know how it is. I think my only reasonable tactic is to chat up the Patreon in the blog itself every so often.

Guest posts also strike me as a good idea, especially if they're a bonus post too (and not Patreon-linked). Given a couple of $10 pledges and a couple of bonus posts a month, that puts the blog at 3 per week. The thing is, I want to establish a very definite think-and-feel identity for the blog first, so guest posts have to be in line with that, not just be whatever the person would have put on his or her blog anyway.

I need to start connecting to other blogs and stuff too, because I run into them all the time when I'm searching for stuff, and some of them are amazing. I'm amassing a list as I go, but still figuring out how it's done via the interface.

Speaking of the interface, you know what I really want? I want the page to show the headline, featured image, and first couple lines of the past few posts, like Respectful Insolence, instead of just the latest post in full. Then I'd get rid of the widget on the right which lists the last few posts. Person with the password, if you're reading this, that's a cry for help, right there.

Last thing - James is busting out some portraits already and I'm really liking them. We're getting geeky over each other's character ideas and imagery, which is not only enjoyable but very reassuring regarding the work itself.

[Eero Tuovinen]

I've done my share of Wordpress configuration; if you'll give me admin access on the blog temporarily (there's a setting for that in the blog settings where you can give other accounts various levels of access; it's the same function you'd use to enable a guest to post at the blog), I can help configure it to look the way you want. I certainly agree that the one post at a time thing is pretty clunky.

[Ron Edwards]

Thanks Eero; however, I have already enlisted my secret weapon person, and now it looks the way I want.

I can't believe someone posted "politics should be kept out of comics" there. Not gonna happen at my blog.

[Miskatonic]

Every goddamn entry so far has been a treat.

[Ron Edwards]

This is ridiculous! I have scheduled finished or mostly-finished posts into the website through the end of May. I went through my list of remaining possible topics (some of which have paragraphs and notes written into them), trimmed out ones that didn't seem too good, combined redundant ones ... and there are enough, not counting bonus posts or guest posts or a couple that could be turned into multi-parters, to last through the end of May 2016.

edited to fix a miscount - and it was more than I thought, not less.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Clearly, a new star has been born in the blogging scene.