Right, so my web comic is beginning to get some traffic. No one is more surprised than me, frankly. And we’re approaching our 100th update.
So I want to start offering some items for sale. What do you guys recommend?
CafePress seems simple enough but they don’t do books and signed prints and such.
Topatoco won’t look at us until our traffic is much higher
Others?
Little help? We’re hoping to offer
Tshirts
Books
Signed prints
Again… Help?
Everybody has coffee mugs
tote bags
refrigerator magnets
I can’t think of anything else to suggest without knowing something about your comic. Is there some item like a particular desk or chair or pencil holder always in the frame?
I appreciate it, Jim
What about which service to use? Any ideas?
My ignorance about that is complete and comprehensive.
I can’t claim any knowledge about potential suppliers either, but perhaps another webcomic author would able to point you the right way? From my uneducated perspective, it seems like many online artists truly do their best to answer a huge volume of fan mail, and appear to be the people who would be happy to help out.
It might also be worth it to call the organizers of any decently-sized webcomic convention…perhaps they are familiar with vendors who advertise their services at the conventions.
Care to share the site? As Boyo Jim says, it’s hard to know what would appeal to fans of the comic without knowing the comic.
I’ve been following it since Jonathan originally mentioned it, and I’m not sure what merchandise would have appeal, necessarily. Last Res0rt has character-themed bottle openers, of all things, but I don’t think the characters designs are really distinctive enough for that. Still–maybe character/popular scene bookmarks? Like one with the brownies chasing Key with a flyswatter?
Books–if you print “dead trees editions”, start with a small first edition print run. Include a little bonus material.
If one character is female & good looking, offer a cheesecake art download for $5 or so.
Thanks for the replies.
We’re looking at shirts, printed books, and original artwork to start. Nothing too complicated.
Once you have a reasonably loyal base of readers, why don’t you try and organize a Kickstarter (if you are in the US) or Indiegogo (if your are outside the US) campaign to raise enough money to do, for instance, a print run of your comic?
I am sure that it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a printer to do a print run of your comic. Besides, by what I see, your comic is B/W – that would make the printing cheaper!
The only problem is volume --you need a minimum number of copies to print, and it can be expensive. But going for a Kickstarter or Kickstarter-style in order to get the initial capital is always worth trying!
Good luck with your webcomic and your projects!