Back to webcomics hosting themselves (thoughts on the “mature” iOS restrictions)

[Milhamah]

This sounds like the internet in the late 1990s before Google became mainstream. Everyone had their own site on Geocities and Lycos, and they were grouped by hobby. Most content wasn't slick, but it was charming.

[rajillustration]

But also back in the day (of like what, 15 years ago?) having ads on your site used to give you way more money and that's why you would host your own comics and blogs--for that sweet sweet ad money. Nowadays ads are super different in how they work so having one on your page doesn't make nearly as much. That's part of the reason why we've turned to platforms like tapas and webtoon. I don't think ads would even pay my yearly fee for my site itself (and I do have one, but it's just a portfolio site, I don't drive any comic traffic that direction)

[vothnthorvaldson]

Yes! I remember these times with a lot of nostalgia! Even if there was way less content, in an hour I could see so much content I actually was looking for, find people with common interests from everywhere in the world etc.
Now there is so much more content and so many social media, but the actual 'good' (as helpful, pertinent) interactions are very difficult to make.

[Darth_Biomech]

Pros of sites like Tapas: webcomic cross-pollination with readers and basically free advertising.
Pros of a standalone site: Total control over the design of the pages, what is presented to the reader and how.

With Tapas I can't change the layout, or how it presents pages to the readers, I can't even put in a bonus section with fanarts or character info. I would actually consider Tapas being a secondary platform in relation to my main site, since it is so much more limited in what it allows me to do. I can't even change the background color! Bright white works so well with mostly dark pages!

[CodeMonkeyArts]

I am currently working on building my own website but linking to Tapas for my WebNovels. I suppose I can post my Webnovels there too, but since I just started, I kinda want it to just be a blog and art gallery to help promote where my work can be read. I dunno shrug I'm just flying by the seat of my pants.

[rajillustration]

Oh man what I would give if Tapas would allow me to put even just a little bit of scripting on my own pages. Like the stark white is so freakin hard on my eyes, and people on mobile might be using dark mode so like...what color do I make my gutters then? It's real annoying.

[Schwa]

How do you make a website formatted for a long scroller comic? Can Word Press do it?

[Iris-Grimoire]

There's a plugin called ComicPress that pretty much every webcomic I follow uses, and I believe there are others to install Disqus or whatever comment structure you think is necessary. What I don't know is that if Wordpress lets you use that big of a plugin without a domain of your own, but I was going to cross that bridge when I got there with enough comic content to need an archive.

[Schwa]

Hey thanks so much T^T