So, here’s the deal. I’ve been doing pretty good with the updates within the last few weeks. The Dracula story is going to be coming to a close, most likely, early next year. The gods willing, that is. So, with this countdown in mind, I have been thinking about promoting the comic and what things I could do to further that end. I use twitter a lot and have been blogging a little bit more, but really what I needed was some advice. So, I went to a very wise website and asked, basically, how I could get my readership back. The advice was – relaunch. Effectively, end COTC and start up a new comic, even if it is w/ the same characters. Wow. Several emotions came running through me at the same time, but mostly I was just kind of stunned. Basically, this means that COTC can’t be saved. I know that this was one person’s opinion and in the end I’ll have to decide what to do, still it’s a bit of an eye opener.
After the Dracula story I had planned to move in another direction anyway, MUCH shorter stories, with more emphasis on character. Starting fresh and leaving COTC, well, that’s something I’ll have to think about. Please, let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
No, never, not wise. Your readership you have and the story you have with such wonderful characters are cultivated through years of experience.
Yes .. this storyline has been long and dragging, yes. But you said yourself that times they be a changing and the wrapping up the storyline with dracula is coming to a close and then you can evolve again.
What you have here is a good thing and there are other things that you can do to build readership.
- Phil
Don’t end COTC, not everyone’s opinions are worth listening to. I think go for shorter story arcs, and more character development. Then along with that look for a new demographic to advertise too? Idk, I just don’t think you should give up or anything. you’ve got great art and it shouldn’t be wasted.
It can take a long time to build up a loyal following, isnt there a huge risk of losing your current fan-base if you start-over? Okay, you may get a few new followers, but as Phil says, there are other things you can do to help build up your readership.
Good luck whatever you decide to do, but I personally think ending COTC purely to gain new readers by starting a new comic would be a mistake.
Relaunch doesn’t mean total full redesign overkill. Let’s call it “realignment” – or what some wise man once said: “Good designers redesign, great designers REALIGN”. A total relaunch in itself wouldn’t help much, if you’re not going to do additional stuff for marketing this site.
I’d stick to the name et all, but do a slight refresh of the site, starting by making the font size more readable, or removing all the clutter in the left and right sidebar, and thining them out a bit. Maybe widening the main page itself, to a fluid (eg. 90% of the current viewport with a min-width like “980 px”) rather than a static design, which by now lets the site look rather overflown with ads + stuff.
If you need some professional help (even it was just some basic advice), just ask
ps: the CAPTCHA’s great – ikea
not sure you understand that it’s not a site redesign he is talking about but a comic relaunch…and I like his site design =)
I definitly understand, dear Mr. Hofer, what this all is about
cu, w0lf.
Unless someone has a giant load of cash they are not doing anything with, the ads must unfortunately stay. I know, it is cluttered, but the second a million dollars drops in my lap, the ads go bye-bye.
The size of the fonts, however, could stand a little bit of a bump.
I agree with the others. The Dracula thread got very heavy – it had to, because of what it is, and it may have cost readers who want to see a cute sexy witch with her pet cat… There is always, amazingly, another day after the wars, after the huge campaigns, and so it can be with CotC. Crossovers seem to be a neat way to further character development and to get your work out where people who might have been fans before can see you and remember how amazing your work remains. IF it doesn’t work, you can try rebranding, but you can’t undo something that big.
Allow me to explain a bit. I do see the benefits of a relaunch. From a purely business standpoint, if the brand is tainted, then it needs to change. Unfortunately, because of a too long story, because of the many missed updates of the past, the brand has been tainted. In other words, if there is any negativity associated with a product then the product must either change or go away. On that level, the logical conclusion is a relaunch. There are other arguments for it too, the archives are HUGE and daunting to many would-be new readers and the early art is quite messy. So, I do see the logic.
At its highest point, COTC was hitting over 7000 unique hits a day. (That number is from Keenspot’s webalizer usage statistics). According to Google Analytics, the comic is averaging less than 2000 a day. To be fair, I was updating more often back then, 3 times a week, and the webalizer was more accurate than most hit counters. Still, even if you factor a margin of error and say COTC is getting 3000 a day, that’s quite a drop. There is some good news, however. According to my Google Analytics, readership is growing, if only by a small margin.
All this said, I don’t want to end COTC. It’s not just something I cooked up to pass the time away. There is purpose to it, for me anyway. There is a story behind it. Maybe one day I’ll write about it. For now, I’m caught between the dilemma of rationality and emotional connection. I just have to figure a way to meld the two together. Thank you all for your thoughts.
Oh, and one more thing. I like the new site too. It’s gorgeous. As I said earlier, Phil, you are a blessing. Take care.
I love the comic. Most issues for me are with the sometimes sporadic update schedule but most of that has been medically related and that’s beyond your control. If you’re looking for different arcs, I miss Chelsea the cat. Not near enough of her in panther form. It’s your baby. Do what you feel. I’ll be here.
You know, when you ask the readers who did stay (or left and returned to look whether you picked up again), of course the response is “Nooo, don’t end CotC!”
And if you’re considering relaunch and rename, please don’t give up the old characters – and have somewhere the link to these archives. I’m sure there would be people who would love to learn about the past arcs. I knew how hungrily I read through them when I came here!
The Aftermath sounds intriguing – somehow it feels that after the end of the story, the real drama begins, as only then will the whole cast have some time to come to terms with what happened and how others and themselves acted… or not come to terms with it.
And that is my response, too. I liked the shorter arcs better, so I’m glad you’re considering something shorter now, but you still have something interesting going on here.
I love the sense of humour you put into the comic in its early stages, too, that’s mostly what hooked me – along with wonderful characters.
So for me, CotC is not tainted, it’s still a quality brand
So there
I sure want to witness it!
Now, this is coming from a new reader perspective. I am a reader who insists from starting at the beginning of the story. This is quite daunting for this strip. And it’s not so much the quality of the early art because I can see how it has developed from the most recent pages. It’s just feeling like I need to read the whole story to be able to understand it. After you conclude the Dracula arc (which I still haven’t even gotten to), I think a new story arc that accentuates a “jumping on” point for new readers would be most effective, while still writing an arc that continues to drive the whole story forward for established readers. Write a story that isn’t dependent heavily on back story but alludes to things in the past (like editor’s notes e.g. “for more about this–check pages xxx-xxx”). I think you’re facing a crisis that other long standing characters in comics run across. Maybe look to reboots of other characters and take cues from that. I hope this is helpful.
Thanks, Paul. Those are good points and is an example of what I am up against in getting new readers. Providing links to past incidents is a good idea. I’ve been trying to tag the comics too, but it’s slow going. Thanks again!
Noooooo! Please, please don’t give up! I’ve been following cotc for at least five years, and I totally disagree that it “can’t be saved.” I also disagree about the archives. They are not daunting. They’re like “the other books” in a good series. More is a good thing. Watching an artist grow and improve is also pleasurable, when it’s not one’s own art. Your drop in hits-per-day reflects your drop in posts per week, not the quality of the product. I check this site less often than I used to because a non-update is disappointing, not because I think any less of your site, your storyline or your art.
Relaunching is for situations that have become stale, where the storyline is dull, where the artist or writer feels trapped or bored, longing for a new direction, or a different style, or different characters, or different whatever. That’s not you is it? I hope not. From everything that I can see, you do still love your characters and their world. If I’m right, then “newness” in the form of a new comic is not what’s called for.
The newness that’s needed is a new schedule, something new to see more often. People look more frequently when the reward for checking (more of the story) is more likely. I feel terribly guilty even saying that, because I know you’ve had some tremendous difficulties, which at times have made it impossible for you to update. Normally, I would never complain, I assume you post when you can, take it or leave it, but this! No. I don’t think the advice you’ve been given is good, unless you’re tired of your characters.
Better advice would be, do much, much less, much more often. I’m not assuming it’s possible for you, but I want to call your attention to this: If your story were advancing every day, I’d be checking every day. Period. Even if it was only one panel. Even it was black and white, even if it was only pencil sketches, for gosh sakes. Your art is that good, color or not, but more importantly, your storytelling is that good.
People will forgive just about anything for the sake of a riveting story, even no pictures at all. Anything but silence. When the storyteller falls silent for too long, people wander off. But that doesn’t taint the story. When the storyteller resumes, people come back. So long as the story is good, and keeps going, all is forgiven. People come crowding around for the sake of the story, not because the storyteller “relaunched,” any more than it would matter whether the storyteller got new shoes.
The true challenge is, how can it be possible for you to keep telling a bit more of the story every day (-or even every other day)? As it stands, this is too much to ask of you. Could you do it if it was only one panel? Or not in color? What would it take? Rather than rebranding, consider a way to make it easier for you to update more frequently, make it possible for you to not fall silent. Don’t be fooled by Marketing, and its concern with Appearances. You have good stories. Silence is your only enemy.
Thank you, Juanita, for that very passionate post. Thanks to all of you. I do have a schedule now. It’s Monday and Friday w/ some filler on Wednesday. When the Dracula story is over, the comics will be smaller, basically half the size they are now, and I will go to a 4 times a week update schedule. MTuThF. If I can get a good buffer, I may go to 5 days a week. Thank you again. I do appreciate it very much.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to say, “which you’ve already begun doing,” after saying, “something to see more often.” O joy, to have more days a week! If you find yourself needing to ration your energy, please know that I, for one, would follow just as avidly if you went back to the format you were using ten years ago. The color art is glorious, but all that extra work could be reserved for a special treat. I say that not just from selfish greed (which is there but you don’t need to hear it), but because I know for absolute certain that, when the goal is to grow your audience, daily output feeds the fire like nothing else in the world.
Paul summed up my thoughts on it the best. What is needed is a the start of a second season, reintroduce the characters and relationship to get new readers up to speed but a brand new adventure not needing so much “previously on Clan of the Cats.”
I’ve been a loyal reader for a while now, and there have been character showing up in “Dracula” that I don’t remember. I would have a link to a wiki into past details at the top of the site along with editorial links “first seen in this comic.”
I think updating more frequently (maybe moving back to the size of strips you had before) would work.
I don’t think an outright relaunch is needed, but a clean break would probably help. Basically, your next story AD should be written as if it were the first story in a new comic that just so happens to have all of the previous events of Clan of the Cats as its backstory. Have the next story serve as a re-introduction to these characters and this world in such a way that someone who hasn’t gone through the full archives can read it and know basically everything they need to know in order to properly follow any future storylines.
Jamie, I know I’m getting around to contributing to this topic a bit late, but here are my two cents (followed by about $20 worth of free opinion): Don’t end COTC. The comic hasn’t failed in terms of either story or artwork, though I’ll admit that the Revenge of Dracula arc has gotten a little long in the tooth. Reading it from the start instead of taking the pages separately, however, it’s a great tale.
I’ve been a reader since 2001, and I’m one of those folks that used to visit the site like clockwork on update days. Unfortunately, as the delays between updates grew longer, so did the gaps between my visits to the website. I know that sometimes a person’s health is out of his or her control, but having updates become the surprising events and the down-time become the norm probably did more to damage the reader-base than anything else. On the other hand, now that you’re updating more regularly I’m visiting COTC three or four times a week to check for more story and comments. Keep up the consistent updates, and I think there won’t be too much of a problem. Put another way…If you update it, they will come.
On the story: You’re the one telling the tale, and darn well, too, so take this with a BIG grain of salt. It’s just my opinion, and I honestly feel like I might be overstepping myself by offering it in this case. I agree with what some others have said about starting a “new season” after the Aftermath arc. This is a climactic point, and it’ll be hard to top. Keep the characters, keep the background and backstory, but go back to showing how they cope in their everyday lives, maybe picking up a month or more later. These people are probably going to NEED some day-to-day life just to recharge and redefine what “normal” means to them, even if it means something different than it did before due to consequences of their ordeal. It’s easy to lose track of oneself during such massive events. Plus, as they get to know themselves again, new readers will get to know them without having to read the whole archive. Little recaps when past events are relevant or the “see page ____ for the full story” idea could neatly connect the history to the current story, but a full archive dive probably shouldn’t be required to get a plot point.
So, in a nutshell: Keep the comic, keep the story, but bring things back to a more personal scale to let characters heal and give new readers a chance to care about them before they get thrown into more wild adventures.
I’ve been a reader since the beginning, I love COTC and can’t imagine it ending. At least not without a concrete closure to the world. I would not end the comic, I think it has plenty of life left in it. Its of course your decision but I want more COTC. There are so many things I want to know and the world is so big; please continue!
My advice:
1. Keep the comic. Don’t end it and start another with the same characters.
2. If you want to make any real money at this, adopt the same basic strategy as Howard Taylor (Schlock Mercenary). Always, without fail, publish the comic on time. Build up a backlog of comics so you can skip a day or a week when needed and still publish on time. Uncertain publishing loses readers.
That’s it – short and simple.
Good to see real epxreiste on display. Your contribution is most welcome.
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