AWSOM News Announcement updated to version 1.1.1
A new update is available for the AWSOM News Announcement plugin for WordPress. Version 1.1.1 is a minor update to compensate for an annoying bug in the new WordPress 2.2 release. No functionality has changed. You can get the new zip file from it’s product page.
Comic Navigation Arrows Plugin
It’s pretty traditional on a webcomic site to have some sort of navigation system for the comic archive. In most cases it’s as simple as a next/previous set of arrows, and a first/last link setup to go to the beginning and end of the comic run. WordPress doesn’t really have the second set of links standard, and the regular next/previous links will go through all of your posts regardless of whether you posted a comic that day or not. The MyComic plugin adds the ability to tag each of your news posts as to whether it was associated with a comic and then creates it’s own navigation arrows to move through them and a first/last link. It’s not too hard to use, but does require you to remember to use a part of WordPress that isn’t normally used by most people (the custom key/value area). Great idea for ComicPress users.
link: http://borkweb.com/story/wordpress-plugin-mycomic-browser
A Return To Advertising, Maybe
I’m testing out a new series of Ads on the site and I’m watching them like a hawk. If you notice any page loading slowdown as a result of the ads, or are presented with any inappropriate ads (of an adult nature or otherwise offensive) please let me know as soon as possible. It is my intention to only host ads that are family friendly to help offset the cost of bandwidth and development.
Thanks,
Harknell
Where’s All The Webcomic News Fit To Read?
Webcomics are not yet a mainstream news item on cnn.com, so where can you go to get information on new developments in the field? There are a wide number of blogs out there reporting and reviewing webcomics, two that I read are Fleen and Comixpedia. They also are pretty easy to submit news to (if it’s not trivial or spam), and in most cases you can expect them to post about it on their main page. It’s always good to know who’s out there and what they’re doing, especially when you are just getting started.
links: Fleen.com
Comixpedia.com
Little Tips No.1
During the discussion on a Webcomic panel I was part of at Balticon this weekend I was reminded of an important tip that I always tell people who are starting out: Even if your website will be hosted at a community website or some other site that you don’t own, the best idea is to buy a URL and point it at where your site will be.
What this means is, if you are on Drunk Duck or Webcomics Nation, or even at a friend’s webserver–if you go out and buy a domain name called say “TheBestComicYouKnow.com” and then forward to the actual website location (which might be Comicgenesis.com/TheBestComicYouKnow), whenever anyone links to your comic have them use the URL you bought, not the actual location.
Why? Well, if you get very successful you’ll eventually want to move to your own server or location using your bought URL, and you DON’T want links that mentioned you going to that old location at Comicgenesis–essentially you would end up losing those links and Google pagerank and any press or writeups since you aren’t there anymore (and don’t expect the old places to forward to your new location) –so they would go to a dead end, and traffic numbers and things on the Internet need to find you to be important.
It costs practically nothing to buy a URL per year ($15 or less per year) and forwarding costs almost nothing. In the end you’ll be thankful you thought ahead.