At least here, anyways...

The day has finally arrived. I will no longer be updating this blog.

Now you can find me at:

Arcadiacomics.blogspot.com

There are no blog posts there yet. I will be making my first blog post next week.

This new blog is super exciting to me because it's very focused on what I like to make. I don't feel like I'm doing double duty, making a comic and writing blog posts. I can update my blog with comic pages, art, and blog posts.

Speaking of comics, Mandy & Molly is now live.

Start reading it now on my new blog, arcadiacomics.blogspot.com, Tapastic, or Smackjeeves.

So this really isn't an end, but a new beginning. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you over at my new site.

I have the date March 26th highlighted on my calendar. That's when I'll start posting pages of my new comic, Mandy & Molly.

Webcomic artists are not known for having money. In fact, I work and make comics on the side. So that being the case, any advice on how to do effective promotion for free is totally appreciated.

The other day when I was reading through the Tapastic forums, I came across this thread called Building a Social Media Presence With No Budget. You can read it here.

I have already tried most of what's on the list. Twitter is great. I like using it to keep up with what other artists are doing. I'm not as vocal as some are--I post sketches here and there, but I don't often get into discussions. However, it's a great way of seeing what's going on with the webcomic community.

I also like Project Wonderful.(Note: This site does not show correctly in Chrome. Use Firefox or Internet Explorer) I've used it for Mascara and Couture, and it works. Most webcomic sites have Project Wonderful ads on their pages, so webcomic readers are exposed to new comics. When I was working on Mascara, it wasn't unusual for me to see an interesting ad for a comic via Project Wonderful while waiting for comic pages to upload. Sometimes I would click on it to check it out.

I am a loyal ad-blocker user, but I do allow ads on webcomic sites because I don't know what I might miss. Also, that's how many artists make revenue.

I will be using Project Wonderful to get the word out about Mandy & Molly before I start posting it. Also, I'm simplifying the whole ad creating process by using ad templates on Canva instead of firing up Photoshop.

There are other tips in that forum thread that I would like to try, such as submitting my comic to webcomic lists. If you're working on a comic and are planning on sharing it with the world, I hope you find some of the tips as helpful as I did.


And if you know of any other free methods of webcomic promotion, feel free to comment on what you have found to work.

For awhile now I've been dreaming of a site where I can gather all of my comics and stories in one place.

Page 12 Sketch

Lately I've been seeing the comic progress sheets of other artists going around, and everytime I see one, I'm like,  "I really need one of those!"

Beyond keeping organized, having a comic page progress sheet is motivating. With every page crossed out and marked as done, that's another step towards finishing a chapter.

So I took some time and created a sheet of my own on Canva. I really like it and I'm looking forward to using it to keep motivated.

And if you would like a copy of the Comic Page Progress Tracker, you can download the PDF here from my Google drive. For some reason it looks a little weird in Adobe Reader, but it prints perfectly.

In the PDF is a link to a version of the sheet that can be edited with Canva. There you can change the colors and even the workflow to fit the way you operate.

One note about Canva, when moving the squares from one page from another, they may show up without dividing lines. Simply move the square back a layer and the lines will reappear.

I think something like this would be great for novel and stories too.

How I almost got totally side-tracked by looking at other people's work...