Is the traditional webcomic business model DEAD?

[Jrej]

I really think paywalls and in app purshases are the way to go.
I hope Tapastic is working on such thing for the site.

A collab of artists could definitely built up a webcomic app.
I think readers would be more interested in extra stories rather than sketches and thumbnails for the extra content...

[Kneon]

Yeah, I know firsthand that some people who were making $3,000 / month off ad revenue in 2008/2009 are now making $200-300 off the same amount of traffic in 2015. It's been a SHARP decline.

[keii4ii]

I would think those people were exceptions rather than the norm? I know I didn't have anywhere near enough readership back when I was doing my previous comic during that time frame. Maybe I just suck, but I think I was still well above the median.

That said, even if there were enough creators making a living from ads back then, I don't think it lasted long enough to be called "the traditional business model."

[elixiadragmire]

I really think paywalls and in app purshases are the way to go. I hope Tapastic is working on such thing for the site.

They are, thats the reasons the support program was shutdown.

[nikacomics]

To @dracoplato's point, I think the webcomic "model" changes pretty significantly every 2-3 years, if not more quickly. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around crowdfunding and Patreon. That model, while popular now, just doesn't seem sustainable as more and more creatives try to utilize them. From a fan's perspective, there will become a point where every new crowdfunding campaign or Patreon request just becomes overwhelming noise. I can't imagine that those who can afford to give money regularly will do so for more than 4-5 creators at a time.

Part of me hates to say it, because I love the idea of everyone being independently successful creators, but I think publishing sites that offer monetary compensation like Tapastic and Webtoons are probably the future for turning webcomics into a scalable industry...

[nobody]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around crowdfunding and Patreon. That model, while popular now, just doesn't seem sustainable as more and more creatives try to utilize them. From a fan's perspective, there will become a point where every new crowdfunding campaign or Patreon request just becomes overwhelming noise. I can't imagine that those who can afford to give money regularly will do so for more than 4-5 creators at a time.

I've been thinking a lot about this too. I wonder how long it will take before the market is kind of...pushed to its limits? Is there a limit? How much are people willing to spend overall? How many will they support and how much are they willing to support each creator with? And for how long? For the same amount of money you spend on separate creators on Patreon you will usually get a lot more content if you buy a comic at the store. But then again, you might not get content from your favourite creator at the store.

I don't know, I feel like things are moving forward very quickly. Kickstarter was the big thing not too long ago, and right now it seems Patreon has sort of taken over - although Kickstarter still seems like the preferred method for certain types of projects. Either way, these methods require a lot of self-promotion and marketing, which is a full-time job all in itself.

[nikacomics]

The time commitment is a great point. It's kind of a funny circular logic that you produce more work to support work you're already doing.

I know for myself, I have a set budget that I will spend on Patreon and Kickstarter. Because, as much as I want to give all the monies to the awesome creators out there, I do need to eat and pay the rent too. So, the more I give to one creator, the less another creator gets... Kickstarter might be the exception, since if the goal is to print a book, then I usually will pay the minimum needed for a hard copy. But that means I can't afford to back more than a certain number of KS projects at any given time.

All the above is not to say that Patreon and KS can't be profitable (though I've heard KS is not a great way to make income, since most of it goes back into production costs + shipping), only that it's pretty competitive and I have difficulty seeing it as a long-term solution for your average creator. But then, maybe there isn't such a thing for us webcomic folks xD

[ToonDoctor]

Kickstarter has become an important means through which comic projects are funded and how fans connect with them. It rivals the numbers in money earned of North American distributor Diamond Comic - according to ComixLaunch's Tyler James. He has a podcast series on how to market for Kickstarter If Kickstarter were a publisher, it would be one of the largest ones.

The saturation that some of you fear may be the very way users start supporting comics and similar project in the future as opposed to opening the catalog every month and seeing what's new from your usual publisher.

The challenge of Kickstarter is that it forces the creator to become a salesman more than ever before and to be aware of the projects they create. That's why I started my survey for my comic and I encourage you to fill it just for the sake of understanding what you need to do to reach out an audience in 2016.

Do answer the survey. There's a free comic for respondents who complete it.

[KreativeConfusion]

I think relying on ads isn't a good way to make money at this point. So many people have adblock installed now and while I'm going to whitelist tapastic not everyone will do so. It's good for making a little extra cash and so on, but I liked the previous option better where people could fund the artist monthly. You could honestly make a lot more off that then just adds.

It's why I think Patreon has a good chance of lasting a while tho getting it to work for you involves some serious marketing and a strong following to begin with.

[sketchbooksage]

Does Webtoons have a ad revenue program like Tapastic?

[Kneon]

Not sure. As I understand it, they do pay some creators for exclusive content, but I'm uncertain if other creators participate in any kind of ad revenue program.

[alakotila]

Good points, @dracoplato. That's what I was thinking. I've been doing webcomics for... 12 years. At first it was like yelling into a void. If you were lucky people would maybe find you. I was on keenspace, praying to get enough traffic so that I could move up to keenspot (with the potential to get paid). That site is now comic genesis. If there was a traditional model then, I sure don't know it. Things have changed a lot in the past few years! The way I promo/market and make money off my second comic (current)... well, it's actually feasible now. I probably made two dollars total off my first one.

At the time I was just grateful I could put my comic online and didn't have to publish traditionally. But then, I have the same realization as @keii4ii ... maybe I just sucked! (Very likely I just sucked.)

I do think that sites that can generate income and pay creators via ad revenue, or based on traffic, etc is going in the right direction, though I am not sure if it's sustainable yet. Does anyone know any that work? I know that some creators pulled in a primary income from sites like Inkblazers, like that was basically their job.

Kickstarters and Patreon can help Indie creators see their work come into print when it otherwise would've been impossible. Kickstarters are not easily undertaken; do them only if you treat your work very professionally already, and do your research. I agree with @kpalmarin on patreon: Obviously not everyone is successful via patreon and it can be a bit of a headache trying to make it work, but it is very possible to make a good income, or even supplemental income through it. These things can work. A thousand drops in a bucket.

[scythe]

I think you're underestimating the potential for sites like Patreon. For indie creators' requirements, the limits are practically endless. As long as you're constantly creating content and finding new readers, there's no reason the platform should dry up for you or become too saturated to offer any benefit. More competitive, definitely, but that's just how things go when money's changing hands.

I just did a quick calculation, and even if you somehow shared your comic with 1000 unique people a day for a lifetime, you'd still only have shared it with 0.003% of the world's population. Even with non-linear methods of promoting, you'd probably be hard pressed to ever reach 1%. What I'm saying is, there will always be untapped potential out there, no matter how saturated a single site gets.

[sketchbooksage]

Thanks for the intel.

[kambreapratt]

Up until the last couple of years the standard was ad revenue and merch sales. I think the use of "traditional" was meaning that for webcomics, that was the way it has been the longest. I will argue that webcomics have been around long enough to establish some business models. They have been around since the 90's. I think it is the same with the internet in general, it hasn't been around that long (commercially) but long enough to notice trends. I agree it has had so many transformations, but so has any industry. There are still business models and trends that people have followed. For at least 3/4 of webcomics exsistance the business model was ad rev, donations, and t-shirts. That would establish a "traditional" business model for this industry, it doesn't mean it is successful, but it has shown to be the "traditional." Crowdfunding is relatively new mode of monetization and I think that is going down now.

I will totally agree that the best business model has not been discovered, that was kind of the point. The point was that is changing and people that had found sustainability have to move to other things to stay sustainable. It's just much harder to monetize and get seen now. This is one reason why we always tell people to come here, a lot of eyeballs are already here and it might be easier to gain support and find an audience.

[kambreapratt]

We have been around for years and know a lot of others who have as well. They will also tell you how they made thousands a month on ad rev but now are lucky to do a few hundred.

[nobody]

@Kneon Finally listened to the podcast! Thumbs up Interesting and informative!

[Kneon]

Thanks for listening!

[nikacomics]

Sure, you could go broad rather than deep by expanding your reach and trying to get people who maybe are new to Patreon or even the webcomic community to support you first, but I guess I still assume that webcomics are a niche form of entertainment... Happy to be proven wrong, though!

[scythe]

Nah, you're probably right to assume that webcomics and even normal comics will always be a niche form of entertainment when compared to other forms. All I'm saying is it's still getting more and more popular, and that with today's internet, there's never been more ways to gain fans and perhaps even new converts to the medium.