How many of you have a website, separate from here?

[DTSaranya]

I've got one for Waffles and Pancakes here. I've only just gotten it recently, so I haven't quite set all the pages up or anything, but it's mine, and it works.

@vonblinden22 Let me know if you need wordpress help/advice. I'm not an expert, but I've had some time to familiarize myself with the plugins and pick which ones I want for comic purposes.

[WintreKitty]

I have an outside location for my reviews since Tapastic doesn't support their layout. I've debated paying for web hosting, but I'm finding it difficult to outweigh the cons currently. So my reviews remain here for now :)

[jmhenry]

That I do! Updates are easier to find there than here on tapastic, there's also a nice section for fanart from readers.

[vonblinden22]

Thanks. I really might need your help!

[vonblinden22]

I can't really get anything done yet, but I guess the real problem is that the site hasn't finished registering, and doesn't exist yet, so I can't effectuate anything yet.

[ToonDoctor]

I think that everybody should have a hub that they control to some extent. Doesn't have to be your own website but something similar like a Blogger, Tumbrl account.

[quietsnooze]

Most definitely! Radio Silence has its own dedicated website. It'll be easier down the line to expand if I wanted to sell things, customize to add music or playlist related info, or talk more in depth about character bios, all of which can't happen on my tapastic mirror.

[DTSaranya]

You've said that you've got ComicPress loaded, but you'll also probably want:

-ComicEasel (gives you an upload system for adding pages easily - click "add comic" and then use "featured image" in the top right to pick the image, also gives you a navigation bar that you can customize or reskin and an organization system for chapters, characters, locations)
-Google Analytics (Lets you see your traffic, where your traffic's coming from, what pages people visited, etc.)
-Photo Gallery (Let's you add/organize galleries and then easily add them to your pages. There are other plugins that do this, but Photo Gallery seems the least limited in the free version)
-UpdraftPlus (helps you easily create backups and restore them in case something goes wrong, you get hacked, or you need to migrate your site)
-W3 Total Cache (optimizes your site so that pages load much faster and you use less resources - will be necessary to withstand high traffic - just remember to clear the cache after you make changes or they may not show up for other people)

Those are my personal choices, anyway. Other people may have other suggestions, and ultimately it's up to you.

Also, post your stuff on reddit. Even if some of your posts don't do as well as you hope or a few nasty people say something mean, be tough and keep posting. It's the best way to generate traffic for your site and accumulate returning visitors. If you don't post there already, there's /r/webcomics and /r/comics.

Hope this helps!

[quietsnooze]

There's also r/webcomicbooks! It's a new community so it's still small, but I've had very friendly and positive feedback there as opposed to elsewhere on reddit.

[PotooGryphon]

You don't need Photo Gallery, UpdraftPlus, W3 Total Cache, and other plugins if you install Jetpack. That has all of that and more like mobile optimization, carousel image galleries, infinite canvas, so much.

I agree that Google Analytics is definitely a great tool to use though.

[DTSaranya]

Hm... I like my current setup, but I may have to try that instead. Any chance you could elaborate on the settings it offers? Particularly with the image gallery, because I went through a bunch before settling on the one I have. How invasive are the descriptions of the photos, and how customizable is the lightbox?

Also, in terms of caching and performance, does it have more advanced options than the one in the screenshot you linked? I like all the different options W3 total cache gives me so that I can select which methods work well for my machine and enable/disable specific types. The screenshot only says "Speed up images and photos," if I'm not mistaken. Can you also customize it for page, object, minify, database, etc?

Also, in the screenshot you linked, it seems like VaultPress does the backups, and that it's paid. I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay for that if UpdraftPlus is free.

Also, what is infinite canvas?

Sorry to bombard you with questions. Trying to figure out what's optimal for my needs.

[PotooGryphon]

The link to Jetpack gives more details and specs.

How invasive are the descriptions of the photos, and how customizable is the lightbox?

I don't find it very invasive.

When you create a new comic page/post it's a simple check box

To further customize it you can by going to the settings in the plugin.

Also, what is infinite canvas?

Infinite canvas is what Tapastic uses for their site, the page infinitely scrolls vertically revealing the next page. Or like Tumblr as well.

I recommend Jetpack over W3 total cache because that plugin caused a lot of trouble on my site to the point I had to call in Go Daddy's tech support to help uninstall it. Both manually uninstalling and uninstalling through my wordpress dashboard couldn't completely get rid of it and it was conflicting with other features I was wanting to use from Jetpack.

Jetpack has over 28 features, making it like having 28 plugins rolled into one which is easier to managed than installing a bunch of specialized plugins and hoping the work together.

[DTSaranya]

Hm, I'll keep it in mind. Thanks for the help.

I'm not looking to use an infinite canvas, and I like the added features of W3 Total Cache. Plus, I'm familiar enough with my VPS to go in and manually delete/rearrange things if anything goes wrong, so I think I'll be okay. VonBlinden will probably like your setup better, though. Seems like it makes the process a lot easier.

Really nice to know more about jetpack, though... I've seen it in the recommended plugins but never thoroughly read through what it did.

[DsCashewsOfficial]

Yep! Definitely a feeling of achievement to be able to tell people "hey...I have my own website "

But aside from the bragging, like other have said its a good place to setup your own store when you start getting a bigger audience. I am in the process of setting one up for myself now.

The only downside to having your own site means you will devote less time to building your satellite content sites (like tapastic )

[UzukiCheverie]

Yes and no. I do have a domain, it's "live", but the website itself you can't visit without hitting a "Coming soon" page, as we're working on the design and uploads.

So after we get the site going, yes, we'll finally have an official website for Time Gate ^_^ (the design will have to be changed a bit when the second book comes out, but I'm hoping we'll find someone to help us out with that by the time that day comes).

[Shanny8]

Geez.

You guys are killing me. I just want to try to get some insight on creating my own site, and seeing all this stuff you "gotta" do makes me feel like I should have a job in programming/I.T. That's the stuff I'm trying NOT to do...I just wanna build a site, load my comics/art to the site, and have it all not be such a pain in the butt. I tried to do it about a year ago, and between having to think up a design/format/interface and the reality that I may have to do extra art(on top of the extra art that I'm ALREADY doing) just killed a lot of enthusiasm/momentum towards getting the site done.

[avalonmao]

oh god yeah. Honestly I just have a comicfury thing I post on on the regs for Motsuro Project (though of course im less active there....something about the interface just deters me completely for some reason). I hear that at comicfury you can have your own domain or smth. Never tried that out tho.

[aspiderjonny]

I have a main site at JonnyAlekseyDrawsComics.com. I mostly have it so that I could have all the comics I work on in one place. It would be nice if I it would start more attention that the Tapastic mirrors. Also, the pages tend to upload earlier then on Tap.

[jeffanime1]

How do you get people to come to your site?

[PotooGryphon]

Like any other online location, I promote it. My official site gets top promoting focus over my other locations [even over Tapastic].

I advertise online through free ad spaces on Project Wonderful, through online communities like #Webcomicchat, organically on my social media profiles for each page update, when I live stream I have a banner with my URL on it, any art event I participate in I include my main site URL, gotta make sure it's everywhere but only where it's called for and not obnoxious like at the end of every comment adding a url lol

Also, link swapping with friends online is another way to cross promote and help each other.

And I advertise offline. I have a 5 page mini comic, with a unique Oops story [not yet shared online] that gives a sample of our comic, a URL to our site, and a contact email address, and we use these as promo freebies and business cards.

I drop off batches of them at comic book stores, take hundreds to comic conventions, libraries, normal book stores, community centers, and wherever they'll let me leave them for the most part. And people LOVE free mini comics. Out of the thousands we've handed out at fairs and conventions, I've never seen one of our mini among the flyer debris littering the floor.

Also after each comic convention we attend, I look for comic book stores in the area and leave any extra minis [if any are left] at the store [with manager permission of course].

So yep, I draw people to our site through a BUNCH of hard work, and hope that it also spreads by word of mouth.