Chewing Pencils

Tip 5:- Develop a Web presence.

The internet has had a dramatic impact on the way we conduct business, and cartooning is no different. In fact, it may be that the internet is the best thing to happen to the cartoon trade since the invention of erasures!

Here are just a few benefits the internet has contributed to the cartoonist and illustrator:

1. Access to resources. With a simple mouse click, we have access to vast databases of photos we can use for reference, online encyclopedias, other cartoonists and, of course, reference sites like Chewing Pencils!

2. New markets have opened up. I doubt any cartoonist twenty years ago would have dreamed of their work appearing in digital form on something called a ‘web page.’

3. We also have new access to traditional markets. Often print publications will have an online version that is updated on a more regular basis than the print version is published.

4. New access to global markets means that you can target potential clients in your niche regardless of whether they live next door or in the outer most parts of Mongolia.

5. On a similar note, the internet means we can potentially get exposure on a world-wide scale.

6. Self publishing is simple and inexpensive.

Some of the more traditional types might disagree with me here, but I firmly believe that a web presence is essential if you want to earn money from drawing cartoons. The first place many of your potential clients will go when looking for a cartoonist is no longer the Yellow Pages, but Google. If you have no web presence, they will never find you.

At the very least, your web site should be an online folio that contains examples of your work and your contact details. At the other end of the scale, your web site may have a shop front to sell your work, a daily blog, forums and feedback forms.

For the beginner, the idea of setting up a web site can seem a bit daunting, and while some of the jargon and technical aspects can be a bit confusing, most cartoonists with a scanner, computer and internet connection have all they need to get ‘online.’

Here are a few tips to help you establish a presence on the World Wide Web:

1. Get good, reliable access to the internet. Hopefully this is common sense, but if you’re going to be working over the net, you need to make sure your access is going to let you on whenever you want, for however long you want. Sometimes sending and receiving cartoons files can take a while, so you don’t want a plan that only lets you stay logged on for an hour at a time. Of course, broadband or adsl are the best choice, but dial-up is still acceptable if you have budget restrictions.

2. Purchase a domain name. This is the address that your web browser uses to find the site you’re after. For example, the domain name for this site is www.chewingpencils.com. Domain names need to be easily remembered and short! Often your internet service provider (isp) will allocate you 5 - 10Mb of web space, but to access it directly the domain name looks something like www.your_isp.com/~your_login/folder_name/file.htm. This is way too long, particularly if you try and print it on a business card! Instead, it is much better to purchase a domain name and have it redirected (a free service) to your isp-provided web space. Domain names can be purchased from most internet service providers or other online web companies.

When you get your domain name, make sure you have it printed on all your stationery and include it in the signature of your emails.

3. While your isp-provided web space will be adequate to start with, you will find that most don’t allow commerical web sites and have limited functionality. This is when you start shopping around for a web host - basically a company that will host your site on one of their computers. You have full responsibility for maintaining the site and they make sure it is available for everyone to see. There are many web hosting companies advertising for your business, but you need to be aware that not all are created equal. When looking for a web host for Chewing Pencils I wanted a host that regularly backed up my information, provided good technical support, gave plenty of web space and was compatible with the sort of site I was wanting to put together. In the end, I went with a company called WebbleYou - at US$5 per month and everything else I was after, it seemed like a good deal. So far I am very pleased.

There are far more expensive options available, but generally a cartoonist won’t need that sort of package. Do keep a look out for packages where you can register your domain name and purchase some web space in the one price.

If you decide to go with WebbleYou, tell them I sent you and Chewing Pencils gets a free month…;)

4. Software is also important. You don’t need the latest and greatest, but simply something that will let you put your site together and load it to your web space. I initially used the html function of the word-processing software that was already installed on my computer. Then I upgraded to Microsoft Frontpage, but eventually found it a bit clunky and not compatible with many hosts. Now I use Macromedia’s Dreamweaver - it’s getting on a bit now, but it lets me put my site together without needing to know any code, plus uploading it to the web is just a matter of a mouse click. Again, there are more and less expensive options, but most have trial versions you can play around with.

More recently, some cartoonists and illustrators have moved away from traditional web pages to blogs for their web sites. A blog (like Chewing Pencils) has the advantage that it can be easily updated plus it automatically builds an accessible archive of your work. Chewing Pencils uses Word Press as it’s platform. Type Pad is another well regarded platform, plus there are several others with a little less functionality. Blogs can be set up and hosted entirely for free, but paying for hosting means you have more scope to customize what your blog/site looks like.

The approach I have found most profitable is to use both. The static pages show my online folio, contact details and the like, while work in progress and other oddities are discussed on the blog.

5. Take the time to design and present your site professionally. There are people that make their living designing web sites and they all say that the right look is very important when it comes to conducting a business. If your site looks like a hobby rather than a business, potential clients will not take you seriously. It needs to be clean and uncluttered, easy to navigate and free from any “bells and whistles” that slow down loading times. It also needs to be designed for optimal search engine results using the right key words and tags. Your software should be able to help in this regard and there are plenty of free online tutorials.

6. Cartoon sites are graphic rich and thus can  take a while to download. Therefore it is absolutely, postively, inescapably essential that you optimize your images for web viewing. Images should be resampled to 72dpi as monitors won’t display anymore than that anyway, and the size should be kept to roughly that of a playing card. Detailed work can be displayed at full size, but it is worth putting a link to these on your site, rather than having them open up directly on your main page.

Web surfers aren’t known for their patience. If your site takes longer than about 10-20 seconds to download on dial-up, they’ll be off looking for the next thing before you know it.

7. Include your email address in a prominent position. You need to be easily contactable through your site, so don’t make potential clients search for a way to contact you. It is generally thought of as a bad idea to put your physical address and home phone number on a web site, but a mobile number is fine.

8. Update your site often. This keeps people coming back, increasing your traffic and exposure to potential clients. Updating your site daily builds traffic and loyalty quickly, particularly if you’re good at what you do! Weekly is ok, though some people forget to come back as it is not part of their daily routine. Monthly is probably too long, but is better than not at all.

It also worth giving your site a complete overhall every 12 - 18 months. You’ll find that as you learn more about setting up and maintaining a site, you’ll get bored with what you’ve got and want to change it completely anyway!

9. If you get stuck for ideas, check out what other cartoonists are doing with their sites. Don’t copy them, but use them for inspiration.

There is so much to learn about the web that it is easy to be totally consumed by all the technicalities and forget to draw any cartoons! Make the web work for you but don’t become a slave to the web. If you’re finding something too difficult, don’t spend days trying to work it out yourself, but visit one of the many helpful forums, ring a help desk, ask another cartoonist or pay the 15 year old kid that lives next door to do it for you.

The web is one of the tools in your box to help you earn money from drawing cartoons, so use it and use it well!