Patent Morality

It's been one good year for POPsickle comics. On May 29th, 2008 I decided I would release at least one comic per day, every day of the week. A good painter will tell you that the fastest way to get better is quantity over quality. If you try to make your first thing perfect, you'll never get to your second. 557 strips later, I've released about 1.5 strips per day. Most of them bad, a few of them good. I don't know if I've gotten any better, but I sure got a lot of practice. On May 29th, 2009 I decided it was time for something new.

Now it's time to make good on a promise I made to my readers at the beginning. I said I would never fall into a boring rut or a stale routine. It's time for a change. It's time for me to push myself. It's time to learn how to draw. This next year, you'll see me continuing to experiment with humor styles. I will work to improve my drawing skills while developing new styles of artwork. In fact, it will be easier to list the things that will not change. This site will continue to have the most boring web design in webcomics and I will continue to offend my fellow webcomic artists with periodic tasteless parodies.

The truth is, when you've been doing something every day for a year, it hurts to stop. I still feel the compulsion to attempt a funny picture each night. However, I feel the POPsickle style has came into fruition. Compare my first first stick figures with my last. It's about simplicity, efficiency, principles, and the naked truth. POPsickleSTICKs are drawn with a regular optical mouse, eleven lines, and no borders. I can't take it any further. I can only enter the POPsickleUNIVERSE and bring back stories of Dude. I can no longer develop that universe. It is what it is.

909sickle is not so much a comic as it is an anti-comic. If everyone else goes pop, I plan to go anti-pop. And if you flip POP around, you get 909. Although website traffic has doubled about every month, my goal is still to avoid popularity. I do not wish to scare everyone away, only those looking for a cheap laugh. There are plenty of gag comics on the Internet already. I know I could loose many readers by starting over from scratch, but those are the ones I want to loose. This is an experiment in experimentation, not a quest for a predictable demographic. So that's why /s is changing. That, and... you guys don't donate worth shit and you're costing hundreds of dollars a month in bandwidth. So maybe this will scare enough people away that my host doesn't kick me out on the street. But mainly it's all the artsy stuff. (Although, much thanks goes out to the few who have contributed. You give me hope for the Interwebs.)

/s is just a side project. It's for fun. To everyone who has asked nicely and/or threatened my safety if I don't continue making comics, I say this - let's work together. Give me ideas on how I can do this for a living. I'm not much of a business dude. I'd rather just make comics. Until my comics can support themselves, I'll be on the "Abstruse Goose schedule", meaning I'll release new comics whenever I damn well feel like it.

For those who were just getting to know Dude and Tech Dude, fear not. I have a feeling they will be coming back in a big way.

Update: I felt bad about that crack I made about donations. Of course they're always welcome, and they do help, but I understand that donations are awkward and inconvenient. Obviously, I would take the site down if I didn't want to share my comics. The real hero here is my host, in particular, Matt. Without his help, this site wouldn't be here. It would really make me happy if you took the time to write him a thank you email, letting him know his efforts do not go unnoticed. Or even better, try out his hosting service. HostTDS is the best. =] Let him know Steve sent you - this is actually a practical way you can support the comics.

-swb

COMMENTS (36)

557 times thanks from Spain. Do whatever you think you should do. I ,for example, will keep leeching your bandwith.Anonymous10 months ago#1819reply

I'M READING A COMIC FROM THE FUTURE!! AGH!

/endcruisecontrol

that is allJaggyboo10 months ago#1820reply

Abstruse Goose schedule is fine with me. xkcd schedule is fine. Whichever schedule is fine, as long as you don't stop... :)

Coming here to your site has never been about the art, but about the humor. You may feel you need to "improve your drawing skills", but personally I don't see the need.

Donation models rarely work out it seems. I know I have never bothered to donate, here or elsewhere. I sometimes click on banner ads. I suck.

Selling scarce goods, such as mugs, caps and T-Shirts isn't something you want to do? Some of the panels you've done would work great I think.

As for bandwidth, out of curiosity, how much do you chew up in a month?Anonymous10 months ago#1821reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

Makin' Cash (obviously)There are all sorts of ways to make money on the 'net. The donation model is certainly not the only one around. There are subscription services (do it and i'll kill you even more), advertising, sponsorship, and a hundred other ways to do things. Let me give you a break down of the most simple methods.

1. Donations. It takes no work at all. You've already got it. We'll need to change how it's done, but we'll come back to that.

2. Memberships. Most people will hate you for this, but the core fanbase will stick with you now that you've proven, and, depending on price, i'm sure you'll still have quite a few readers. As you yourself said, quantity has a quality all its own. 5 dollars a year from 1000 fans would cover all operating expenses and give you a nice wad of pocket change. You'll get criticized a lot for a membership model though, it seems people prefer 'free' to 'capitalist', even though, well, thats kind of our economic system of choice.

3. Advertising. Advertising bars are great. Especially Project Wonderful Ad bars. Very unobtrusive, pay a little bit of cash for almost no work. You're definitely not going to make enough from an Ad Bar though. rather, i'd suggest if you want your comics to stay free (or, as i'll explain in a bit, do a combination of the 3), you use a more obtrusive method of advertising. The easiest of these is to force people to watch a 10 second ad at the beginning of every comic. This would scare away new readers, going through the archives, but not the readers who are already caught up, so you can amend that to only having the ad in strips less than, say a week or two old. These sorts of ads tends to fetch FAR more money then a simple bar.

4. Sponsorship. You've got the right idea with your host. I might make it a bit more prominent though. Sponsors love to hear the people they sponsor talk about them. You'd be surprised how many rich people and large businesses like comics. I would be beside myself in shock if Google isn't sponsoring several web comics. Very lighthearted company, from what I hear... that is, once you get in. I'll report back on that if/when I make it. =P At any rate, if you make it known that you're available to be sponsored and you'll talk and walk for the sponsor, there's a fair chance that someone will wander in interested.

5. 909SickleStore. People like to trade things for money. They don't like to trade money for nothing.

By far, however, the most sound economic model for such a thing is a layered system. It'll be a bit more complicated, but the net revenue will be exponentially better. To begin with, make donation a bit more obvious. .. like a donate bar right above the comic title.

Next, throw your standard Project Wonderful Ad below your archive column, or even better, between it and the comic. You want it noticeable without driving people insane however, and the final call on the insanity point is going to have to be you (actually, you could have friends look at it and give you there opinions to, which would be even better).

Then, you can put the 10 second Ads in front of the comics two weeks old or newer, with a message such as "To help keep 909 free for readers, short Ads are placed before the most recent strips" [fade to Ad... then to comic].

After this, it's time to implement membership. Basically, for a low fixed rate (per month or year, if you like), which will remove all advertising, including from the newest strips. Additionally, you should consider granting the members some special privilege or other, like being able to view comics a day in advance, or occasionally doing a "members only" strip.

Once that is done, consider ways of making your sponsorship more evident, and set up a "Sponsor me!" button on your sponsors bar. Obviously, you'd ad a link on your navbar as well.

Finally, you really ought set up an official 909sickleStore. as you well know, fans like to have physical objects they can touch to justify giving out their money. People love products from their favorite comics. You can make a bit of money with a site store, or, if that's too complicated for you, partner up with a distributor that is already set up. You won't make as much money, but it'll be simpler and take less maintenance.

I don't know if you havn't already kicked these ideas around and dismissed them for some reason or another, but I do think you can really give it a shot if you want to. I'm sure you have other Tech Dude readers and friends besides myself, but if it comes down to it, I wouldn't mind donating a few hours of my programming companies time to helping you implement this. It'd be good practice for my newer coders.

Good luck! ...and don't take away my favorite source of comics... *evil eye*Josh10 months ago#1822reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

It's been a good year, and I look forward to seeing what you have to offer in future. Good luck man!thewisestfool10 months ago#1823reply

good on you mate, nice one!

Daan10 months ago#1824reply

Cool. If it's what you want to do then do it...

(sp *lose 4th paragraph)Anonymous10 months ago#1825reply

909sickle-dude, you are teh awesome.brian10 months ago#1826reply

Now I feel guilty for not donating. I promise I'll do that some time in the future!

Also, this comic is fucking hilarious.Kew10 months ago#1827reply

relieftough story, but yes, web comic work is expensive, we understand that, most webcomic series artists like yourself tend to release cheap merchandise for more than their worth simply because it has something to do with the webcomic itself, look at Cyanide and happiness at Explosm.com, they're releasing a friggin plush toy in the shape of their most famous characters, so u should follow suit, release hats and shirts, sure its an investment, but chances are you will make a profit, hope you continue your work, your one of the greatest on the interwebzhopeful fan10 months ago#1828reply

Raising money!!!Do what Scott Adams did with Dilbert, create 50 strips to send of to different places where they might get published and hope for the bets...he's been going for twenty years now and hasn't deteriorated one bit!5butjam10 months ago#1829reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

I understand what you said, I think that is good to re invent yourself, I'm sorry I can't donate, I'm from argentina, giving you a dolar costs me about 2kilos worth in tomatoes, I'm not poor, but close. this strip has been a tranquility lagoon in my workdays, and in my 10 to 12 hs shifts.

Thanks!leo10 months ago#1830reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

Damn man! Keep up the good work!

BTW: ...my goal is still to avoid popularity...

"...I'd rather just make comics. Until my comics can support themselves..."

"I highly doubt these two ideas can live with each other.

Look at the big famous web comic that can support themselves. One can tell how much they had 'fallen'... they pretty much are in the state you wanted to avoid most. To quote you again: "I said I would never fall into a boring rut or a stale routine."

Crap, this was meant to be an encouragement post, now it looks more like discouragement.

Anyways! Keep it up & stay strong! To whatever path you chooses!Anonymous10 months ago#1831reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

I'm really glad you decided not to quit after all. I saw thousands of different webcomics but yours is one of the very few i chose to read regularly. Cheers133710 months ago#1832reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

In reply to Anonymous, comment #1821:

Hey, humor is an art form too.

The donation model may never work for me, but I can still do my part to bring it into the public consciousness. You know, for future generations of webcomic artists. Aren't I noble?

Usually, I don't think my comics would make good shirts. Which ones are you thinking of?

And to answer your last question, it's been using well over half a terabyte a month. But the problem is, it just keeps going up. I'll have to move to my own dedicated server if the trend continues. The index file is only 20kb and the average comic is only 100-300kb, so there's not really any way to cut back there. And now I'm doing more detailed drawings. I may have just shot myself in the foot. :0swb10 months ago#1835reply

Anonymous replied 10 months ago.

i have to say i prefer the stick figures. inevitably you will get better at doing comics the new way, but i'm going to miss the sticklike gestalt of dude and tech dude. maybe you could lose some followers if you promised to keep going with this new style and then suddenly switched back to sticks...

keep doing some stick figure ones every once in a while, for old times sakesympth10 months ago#1836reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

In reply to Josh, comment #1822:

Donations: The thing about donations is this. From the producer's perspective contributors are not paying for nothing, they're simply giving back for what the producer gave to them for free. It's an honor system. However, from the consumer's perspective, they have already received the goods for free, so why pay for it? Also, in the case of comics, if you support one webcomic, doesn't that mean you should support all the other comics you read? It's a scary proposition and no one wants to go down that road. But a few do, and it makes me wonder what is the difference between those who donate and those who don't. So occasionally I'll mention the donations to feel people out. I really am curious.

Memberships: I have actually been working on a subscription service model. The idea is to release the comics for free, like always, but add extras that only subscribes pay for. The subscription fee would be very small, so as to be enticing to most fans. But the regular content would still be accessible to all, so no gets turned off.

Advertising: I also plan to start a 909ads system. It will be similar to Project W. in that ad slots can be bid on, but it will all be done in house. I want to keep it tasteful, so it would most likely just be a header banner and the square ads under "sponsor" on the left.

Sponsorship: I'm a little leery about official sponsors, as they tend to want to take control of things. I prefer the ads system, where anyone can be a sponsor. However, I'm not totally against the idea if it's done right.

909store: This is also in the works, but I haven't decided what products I would sell. I have done one shirt design based on the mac-pc comic, but have not decided on a manufacturer yet.

I would definitely be against 10 second ads, or anything obtrusive to the comic viewing process.

Thank you for the feedback. This really helps put things into perspective.swb10 months ago#1837reply

Josh replied 10 months ago.

In reply to 5butjam, comment #1829:

Are you talking about syndication? I'm pretty sure no one would want to syndicate my comics here. They are so random and poorly drawn. And offensive to most people. :)swb10 months ago#1838reply

5butjam replied 10 months ago.

In reply to leo, comment #1830:

Mmm... tomatoes.swb10 months ago#1839reply

In reply to Anonymous, comment #1831:

The problem is, once you find something that works, you don't want to change the pattern. That's why comics go stale.

I think the solution is both to have a clob and a real comic. I plan to try this out myself. The idea is, the clob keeps you fresh and experimenting, while the comic actually supports you.swb10 months ago#1840reply

Anonymous replied 10 months ago.

In reply to 1337, comment #1832:

Hey, I never said I was going to quit!swb10 months ago#1841reply

1337 replied 10 months ago.

In reply to sympth, comment #1836:

I'm currently in negotiations with Dude on doing future comics. He has a lot of demands, but I see us reaching a compromise in the near future.

*fingers crossed*swb10 months ago#1842reply

In reply to swb, comment #1840:

I see what you mean...True. Just...just don't turn into CAD-like...

I wish you reach you goal for the comic to become self-support.

Keep up the randomness & awesomeness! Anonymous10 months ago#1845reply

In reply to swb, comment #1841:

Oh.. I guess I misunderstood your comment on your last comic. You can see why: "Well, folks. The end is here. It's been fun."

I see what you really meant now that I've read it again :)133710 months ago#1846reply

In reply to swb, comment #1835:

500GB / month? Wonder if I could host some of that for you, we just got this unlimited bandwidth link...

As for which panel I'd love to see on a shirt / mug / cap? "man fish" comes to mind; if xkcd could do it with sudo, why not that.

I don't know what it is with your strip that struck a chord with me. But this is like the third time I comment on a webcomic in my life. And funny enough, all three comments have been made to your little corner of the world.

So, truly, thanks for all the sticks.Anonymous10 months ago#1847reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

If you do open a store, maybe you could implement a rating system on the strips, or a poll and make merchandise with the most popular ones.SomeGuy10 months ago#1848reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

In reply to swb, comment #1837:

RE: Makin' MoneyHaha, the Mac vs. PC comic was gold, especially considering that in the part time job I work while getting my startup company going, i'm the only PC in the room. =P

At any rate, i'm curious as to why you're so against more intrusive ads. They don't cause much harm, most people are used to them, and it keeps things free. Especially if the ad was only on the newest strip, then people wouldn't even have to deal with it often. They could skip it entirely if they didn't mind reading comics a day or two late. I think that adding a bonus-for-members and a store as well as a bit more hard advertising might solve the problem and let you at least break even, without inconveniencing readers too much.

Nonetheless, thats your choice, I guess, not mine, just so long as I keep getting my fix. =PJosh10 months ago#1850reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

In reply to Anonymous, comment #1847:

Unlimited? *perks up* Feel free to shoot me an email. I'm pretty sure 909 will stay with my current host, but there is another comic project of mine that you may be very interested in.swb10 months ago#1852reply

In reply to SomeGuy, comment #1848:

I have been thinking about a ratings system. But I hadn't thought about how that could be used for merch. Usually, it's fairly easy to tell which strips are resonating with people from the traffic. But occasionally they'll sit dormant for up to a month before they take off.swb10 months ago#1853reply

In reply to Josh, comment #1850:

Because they're intrusive! :)

I don't want other sites to use them, so I avoid it. Yes, how empathetic of me.

What kind of software do you guys write?swb10 months ago#1854reply

Yay you're not going away!

So a year from now I expect you be drawing some near life-like pictures of the Pope, Sir swb.

I wouldn't mind clicking an ad or 577 for you.Waltz10 months ago#1855reply

I'm glad to hear you're avoiding obtrusive ads. I often find myself re-evaluating whether or not i should continue frequenting a website when they introduce an obtrusive ad.

I fully support the idea of putting normal banner ads on your website. I often click on them just to support a website in a free way to me. Sometimes they even advertise something i want.

Love the comics, it's one of the few webcomics i frequent and i hope you continue to make them in the future.

p.s. i love the dude and tech dude comics (whatever happened to the dude switches to linux storyline?)ET10 months ago#1858reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

In reply to swb, comment #1838:

Hell yeah!In case you haven't noticed the massive influx of people you've got following you on the internet, you could probably get it set up with a tabloid. All you need is a convincing resumè, I.E. I have been in circulation for quite a while now and currently take up half a Terabyte of Bandwidth per month and still growing.

Etc. etc....it takes a while but it'd be worth it...Dilbert is connected to 2000 NEwspapers at the moment...so of course you won't get to that level without a couple of decades...but he managed to hold a job for 6 years of it!5butjam10 months ago#1861reply

swb replied 10 months ago.

In reply to ET, comment #1858:

The Linux story will be completed. Between work and work and I simply don't have the time to properly finish it right now.swb10 months ago#1871reply

In reply to 5butjam, comment #1861:

Personally, I think it would be rather easy to write a newspaper comic. They're pretty much all exactly the same. The formula is "relate to large demographic in consistent humor style and charming visual style without offending that demographic". BooOOoring!

Calvin and Hobbes is the only newspaper comic I've read which managed to make something interesting within that framework. Dilbert is pretty good, but even the workplace joke factory gets tiring after a while. Also, I feel the older Peanuts comics are consistently good.swb10 months ago#1872reply

Steve, I'm begging you: include more ads on here. This is one of the maybe three sites I'd willingly disable my ad blocker just to try to earn you some money. Honestly, I can't afford donating (I'm amazingly poor right now...) but I would love to get you some cash in any way possible short of selling my body.Zerp6410 months ago#1873reply