My comic is currently ranked #183 in Comic Strips, and #771 Overall. This makes me feel pretty giddy, especially considering it's a pencil drawn stick figure comic.
But what about you? Do you actually care how your comic is ranked?
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Comic Talk and General Discussion *
DD Ranks: does it actually matter to you?
When i first started ooooh yeah i did. I was up in the top 10 here frequently and even #3 at one point, i'd check my hits almost every 15 minutes and the first thing i did when i got up was go to the bookmarked 'hits' tab. I also got around 60 comments per pages and my head was stuffed to the seams with egotism…
Then i pretty much grew out of it and now i'm more into making comics casually and getting readers without $$$ advertising.
I worked on projects long ago and had that mindset. Advertised like crazy and threw my name out there on as many forums as I could (so yeah, not necessary in the top on DD, but in the webcomics community in general). I'm sure most people are that way, starting out.
The only problem, is that what little fan-base you might have generated almost feels pushed to the side, as if their viewership isn't appreciated. So now, I respect the fans I have, even if they are as little as one or two.
In conclusion, I keep making because I enjoy it, not for the numbers. I'm always happy to get viewers that appreciate what I enjoy doing, and my ultimate goal is to continue to consistently provide quality content that viewers of mine have already come to read.
The only problem, is that what little fan-base you might have generated almost feels pushed to the side, as if their viewership isn't appreciated. So now, I respect the fans I have, even if they are as little as one or two.Yes.
It depends on your goals and aims of course, but for me it's similar- the few loyal readers and commentators I have are worth more than 30 or 40K empty page hits or a simple rank.
Popularity is not an end in itself. Popularity opens doors, and THOSE are the reasons for achieving it.
But you have to be prepared for whether you can really deal with it, or whether your project is really right for it. Stuff like publishing opportunities, lucrative advertising deals, offers from other popular artists, work offers… Or just creating an audience to sell your own products to (published comics, T-shirts etc).
In my case, my readers are my friends, family, and whoever is friends with me on Facebook. Anyone else, be it comments from DD users or just random pageviews, is just the cherry on top.
But hey, it's natural human behavior to like it when people like the things you make, right?
For me, it's a matter of consistency. I like to see I can maintain a relative position, rather than getting the high score or some such. I had some moments in the top 100. It was good, but it isn't a burning goal right now. What I like is I can think back to what I averaged in previous years and see I've done a little better each time. For me, gradually doing better is better than spiking to the top.
Yeah popularity can be a rocky road and you can lose sight of why you started in the first place in order to persue it. I can think of a bunch of things that would make my comic more popular (I don't check very often but it's never been above 1000 I think) but I don't do them because then it wouldn't be the comic I set out to make.
If the reason you started was to be popular, then good luck and follow those stats, but I can think of a lot of easier ways to be popular than making webcomics!
If the reason you started was to be popular, then good luck and follow those stats, but I can think of a lot of easier ways to be popular than making webcomics!It's not that sort of popularity… I think "recognition" might be a better term.
I know that through doing my webcomic and putting my art on the net in various popular web galleries over the years that my work has been seen by literally millions of people. That's far more than most of my peers in art school could ever lay claim to.
But the main thing with trying for "popularity" in webcomics in the end is making something out of your idea- pushing it forward, getting it known, creating your own piece of immortality, competing and measuring yourself against the other great comics out there, and maybe even in the end: making some money out of your work, if you ever want think that far ahead or go down that road :)
But the main thing with trying for "popularity" in webcomics in the end is making something out of your idea- pushing it forward, getting it known, creating your own piece of immortality, competing and measuring yourself against the other great comics out there, and maybe even in the end: making some money out of your work, if you ever want think that far ahead or go down that road :)
Has to be I suppose, otherwise why post it in the first place? I know when I'm dead, someone is going to look at my comic and say "Hey - this dead guy was actually pretty good!" before going back to Questionable Content. It's immortality, of a kind!
But what about you? Do you actually care how your comic is ranked?In a world this capricious and uncertain, I'll take whatever quantifiable reward mechanism I can get my grubby little paws on, even if it's as abstract as a digital number. Feels more real than any grade I got in school, and the competition seems more authentic than any contest I entered in school. Lots of views isnt necessarily a goal for me, but it's a decent measuring stick for some of my real goals.
Has to be I suppose, otherwise why post it in the first place? I know when I'm dead, someone is going to look at my comic and say "Hey - this dead guy was actually pretty good!" before going back to Questionable Content. It's immortality, of a kind!I'm on the 1000 year plan. I'm going to take over the world eventually, even if I don't live to see it happen :p
I cry myself to sleep every night because I don't have a comic in the top 10.
But really, I guess I kind of care. My comics are both surprisingly high ranked (in the 500's overall last time I looked) which makes me smile every time I see it. But when they slip back in to the 800's on occasion I don't mind.
That said, if I ever make the top hundred I will shit myself with joy and do a happy dance or something.
My comic's popularity fluctuates too much for me to care. If it starts to dip in the rankings I feel that it stopped being funny, other times I think the comic was never funny to begin with. I guess when you have low brow humor, it's hard to tell what others like and dislike.
… If it starts to dip in the rankings I feel that it stopped being funny, other times I think the comic was never funny to begin with. I guess when you have low brow humor, it's hard to tell what others like and dislike.Trust me, your comic is very funny! It's one of the few "gag" comics I read regularly.
My comic was originally made for a very small and very particular niche audience, so I had some serious misgivings as to how well it would be received at a more mainstream venue. In that regard, the rankings were very important to me initially because, had the comic not done well, I simply would have stopped posting it here.
And it's not that the rankings are important because they tell you how well your comic is competing with others; it's just that having some comparative measure gives meaning to the otherwise arbitrary stats. Getting a thousand page views in a day is awesome under any circumstance, but on a site where the average is, say, ten thousand, that tells you that you could potentially be doing much better.
When you start out with two strikes against you you take what you can get.
Let's be realistic here. You look at my comics and you see photos (Strike #1!) and dolls (Strike #2!) and at least fifty percent of would be readers are gone. Self-promotion is hard when you know you have two strikes against you before you ever get into the batter's box.
And it doesn't help that I'm an erratic writer at best. ;)
But you know quality has never equalled page views. Absolute garbage can be extremely popular and that provides some comfort and keeps me going until I can get something decent posted. I really do have decent scripts laying around I'm just stuck with nowhere to do any shooting right now. lol!
I think the ranking this, to an extent matters. For me, it translates into the thought that I am getting more views. Even if it isn't the case (which I doubt), the thought that people are finding and reading the comic increases my confidence.
Without something like that, I don't think I could keep up with an update system. It's not that I don't enjoy doing them, but I want my work to be seen, and the ranking system at least gives the impression that it is, and that there's a possibility of more in the future.
Rank used to be a HUGE, I mean HUGE deal to me! hehehe xD! I used to promote my comics like nobody's business! xD My comic has had times where it's shot up to the top 10 before. Although short-lived, I have to admit that it was really nice! I think what matters more than random pageviews though is an active readership.
I've come to realize that the idea of knowing there are folks out there reading and enjoying what you've brought to the table is golden. I still set goals and expectations for my comic, but they are nowhere near as high as they once where. My main goal as of late is to update on time every week and hope for the best :S!
What I would really like to know: Has any of your comics' ranking ever changed anything for you? Has it had any real effect? Except on your ego? ^_^
As for me, I've been lucky enough to have had three comics featured, so some of them have gone from somewhere in the 300s to somewhere in the 50s. But I can't say it ever really mattered to me. What's great is to have exposure, but that was connected to the feature, not the rank. Of course, everything would change if I had a top 10 comic :p
The only thing I really care about on dd is to interact with readers, to get responses.
like a lotta people here, i used to follow it alot more closely, specially when PM really started climbing in rank, but i've been workin at this thing for almost 4 years now and ya tend to chill out about rank, i still check em every now and then. though i do like of corse when it climbs.
not only is it nice to feel some appreciation come from it, but the higher it climbs in rank, the more people'll probably see it, since the browse is sorted by rank.
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