Rebeldog Comics: The Swingin'est Party That No One's Attending

Well, clearly I have no idea what I'm doing.

I am greatly disheartened by the fact that I can't seem to drum up any readership for my comic strip. Can't seem to get anybody to link to it. Can't seem to get anybody to share it on a social networking site. Can't seem to get anybody to say shit about it. Oh well, I can't expect the world to beat a path to my door, I guess.

The comics have only been up online since December of last year, but I'm an impatient type. Mostly because I've been working at this so long offline before now. It's just a lot easier to stay motivated and create comics if there's actually someone interested in reading them.

But the truth is, this is it for me. It's all I'm interested in doing. It's all I'm qualified to do. And so, I would like to find a way to do it full-time. Judging by most other webcomics, it takes a year to three to drum up readership. And the leading business model seems to be to use your strip as a loss leader while you make your money off of merchandising. That and a small percentage of income from advertising and donations. What I really would like is for readers to pay me a salary which would allow me to post five days a week. Just a big lump sum that would allow me the privilege of drawing my little heart out. But I can't very well live off reader donations if I haven't any readers, now can I?

Big sigh.

I'll bet if I posted some bootleg Michael Jackson mp3s I could get people looking in a hurry. Though not necessarily sticking around.

Maybe I'll just draw up two years worth of strips, have 'em upload automatically, and walk away for a while. Get a job as a bank teller. Come back and see if anybody's reading by then. (Gad! Imagine the comment spam!) (Wouldn't that be something if I died suddenly and the strips were still posting on a regular basis? That would be creepy.) Or maybe I'll just walk away.

Anybody else out there with a successful webcomic? How long did it take you to get poeple reading? What did you do right and what were your biggest mistakes along the way?

Once again, Tuesdays and Thursdays, new comics are being posted here:
http://rebeldogcomics.com

And I'll leave you with this thought, as Clockwork Orange's Alex says, "Cabbages, knickers, It hasn't got A BEAK!"