Making a web page for your comic?

Valyson 2016-04-02 22:03:35 UTC #1

When you decide to get your own website for your comic, where do you go to do it?

There are a lot of sites out there that you can use to build your own webpage, how in the world do you
choose one best for displaying your comics and other artwork?

Elliwiny 2016-04-03 01:28:31 UTC #2

I don't know much about where to go to find a host, but once you find something in your range, I'd look into using comicpress to build a site. It's similar to wordpress, but geared towards webcomics, and relatively straightforward to use.

PotooGryphon 2016-04-03 02:17:22 UTC #3

Comicpress is a theme template for Wordpress sites. They're aren't separate website tools. And actually, Comic Easel has replace Comicpress. Frumph, the creator of Comicpress has discounted updates for that theme to focus on Comic Easel which is similar to Comicpress but with a few more bells and whistles. However, I agree and second that Comicpress/Comic Easel more so, are a pretty good start to building a website for a webcomic.

For hosting, I use Godaddy.com and their cheapest Wordpress hosting package which comes with Wordpress already installed on your site.

DTSaranya 2016-04-03 04:41:20 UTC #4

As CindiFoster said, ComicEasel is a plugin for wordpress.

The wordpress package CindiFoster mentioned will be the easiest way to get your site up and running quickly, and will not limit your bandwidth.
It will, however, limit your users (number of unique people who can visit your site during a 30-day period), and is actually not the most cost-efficient option.

If you're feeling tech-savvy, want to make sure you're getting a good deal, and anticipate that you might outgrow your user limit, you'll want to look into getting a VPS (Virtual Private Server).
I started with the GoDaddy plan CindiFoster mentioned, but thanks to a couple successful social media posts, then ended up having to migrate to a VPS. Migrations are a headache (even though wordpress makes them easier) so you may want to go with the VPS from the beginning. In retrospect, I wish I had.

OVH has their VPS plans listed here:
https://www.ovh.com/us/vps/
It'll give you the option to pick a machine that has wordpress pre-installed, and OVH will email you your login information upon the purchase. All you need to do then is add your domain name in the Wordpress settings.

I use their cheapest SSD option.
The VPS route is a little trickier than the GoDaddy Wordpress package, but it gives you more room for growth for a cheaper price, as it will not limit how many readers you have. It also gives you SSH access to the actual machine, so you can go in and make changes yourself rather than having to call up your host to do it.

If anyone here ends up using a VPS and has trouble with the setup, feel free to message me and ask for help. I'm no tech-expert but I'm familiar enough with Linux and Wordpress to get you up and running.

Edit:
Forgot to mention - there are companies other than OVH, such as DigitalOcean, that offer VPS plans. I chose OVH because it was the most cost-efficient and I like having a per-second bandwidth limit rather than per-month. According to friends and research, OVH is the cheapest, but slightly more expensive options such as DigitalOcean tend to have better tech support.

guilhermecahu 2016-04-03 04:57:13 UTC #5

There is this free comic theme for Tumblr that's very good: https://www.tumblr.com/theme/39018
Alex Lee uses it for this Blue Cat Cafe and I used for my Badger Badger (though I stopped updating on Tumblr).

By the way, the theme is super easy to install and to make the proper edits. There are instructions on that first link for that and you don't need to touch in a single line of code. The additional gain you have is that Tumblr allows reblogs, so people sharing your pages will help spread the word about your comic and you can also insert a Disqus comment box in the end of the page for people to talk about each episode, similar to what happens here on Tapastic.

Hope this helps you =)