There was one time when I cared, and that was when I got featured and leapt up to rank #23 in Comic Book/Story. Yeah, that's right, I was at the bottom of the first page of the "browse comics" section if you toggled the options just so.
But now I don't really mind now that I've got a regular group of about a dozen readers, I think they'll spread the word around on their own time and as long as there's comments coming from someplace, I can keep Elements going.
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Comic Talk and General Discussion *
DD Ranks: does it actually matter to you?
The rankings are sort of like how many print comics you sell. Face it, if we didn't want readers we wouldn't put our work online. I have artwork I don't care if anyone sees… and no one will because it stays in my studio. I want people to read my comics, to enjoy themselves the same way I do when I read other comics… and one measure of how many people are enjoying your work is the rankings.
Time Girls is now in the top 100, and it just got it's first day of pageviews over 1000… not bad for only having 22 pages up so far. The only advertising I've done is on this forum and on my Deviantart page (which get's a whopping 10 hits a day :-)
Time Girls will soon be a print comic, so even the webcomic is advertising for something else. The rankings are important to me because each pageview is a person saying, 'Let's give this one a shot.'
The only reason artists have comics on DD is so other people can read them (duh!) and no one says, 'I want to have 10 readers. That's all. Give me ten readers and block everyone else.' We put our comics out to the public hoping to get millions of readers, period. Otherwise we'd just send pages to our friends via email.
We're a wicked lot of whores, we comic artists are… it's all about numbers. It's the pay, not the lay.
It used to matter to me, but my comics have settled into their spots and remained there for years, so I almost never look at those numbers anymore. I guess they don't matter to me now.
In terms of feedback/stats, the thing I still find significant is comments. I get particularly bummed when more than one of my regular commenters is absent and giddy when one that has been away awhile returns). I also find the referral links (found out through PW and site counter/stats) somewhat interesting. I like to know who is linking to me and why. I haven't seen any new URLs on those lists in some time, but every now and then, one shows up and brightens my day.
~~~
I just checked in for anyone who is interested in my numbers.
UB is #208 overall (usually it stays in the 200's or 300's)
Gelotology is #297 overall (actually higher than I expected, I haven't been able to update in awhile)
Both of them have been in the top 100 at one point or another. (UB hit it a couple times; Gelotology managed only by the grace of a feature. XD ) That was a nice but short-lived ego boost.
I can't even figure out why some of my comics are ranked the way they are, so I just don't even pay attention. :]
For example:
my "test comic" where I just toss up images or test html code once every couple of months is #1,818 in Comic Strip #5,426 Overall. That's higher than about half of the actual (if all defunct) comics on my profile. And my lowest is Adventure Sister (overall 10,000th or something) which is one of the more recent one with more pages than some others.
Abby Sanders is #90 in Comic Strip #416 Overall and I am newly udpating it, once a week.
But,
The RDT is #46 in Comic Strip #261 Overall and hasn't seen a new page since 2007, which was just an archive dump anyway since the comic ended in like 2004. So… why is this comic twice as popular? >:[ (I am sorry it is taking up valuable ranking space, seriously IDK)
I didn't really pay attention to the Rankings at first when I started, because I was something like…. 400th overall or something I don't even remember. But recently I've start of kinda focussing on it, in particular its sudden spike. At the moment its hovering around #7 in Comic strips (WHICH IS AWESOME) and #23 overall, (WHICH IS ALSO AWESOME). But yeah, its cool, though, I'd like to know how the ranking is calculated, is it views based, favourites based, what?
So yeah, its important to me because I have a crumbling sense of self worth and self esteem…
Ranking is pretty much entirely based on unique visitors. Being featured does generally get you a spike since lots of people come and view at least the current page. But they way to keep that rank is to get lots of people coming back, frequently. (So, either frequent updates and a moderate fanbase, or a huge fanbase but infrequent updates.)
I used to care a lot, and at times have been in the top 4-500 or so, but my comic never got very popular here, rarely more than 50 hits/day. It's enough for me that some people here like it. On WeVolt, I'm usually in the top 10 without even updating much… just different crowds, I guess… then, on my own site, I'm now up to about 5.6k hits/day…
With Jake at least, it's been mostly screwing around and having fun with it, but my future projects will probably be much more audience-oriented, so who knows, it might be the next PVP ;)
So I guess I do care, but I don't let it make or break what I'm doing :)
Yes, because my doujinshi just started and it's an indicator that it's getting some attention. I think ranks are a fun advantage that this site has over SmackJeeves. I don't think I'll ever get in the top… 10 is too optimistic… 100 though. Not with a weird, psuedo-Dragon Balldoujinshi at my skill level.
I cared a lot about ranks and views when I first joined, but then I had to step away from my webcomics for a few years for lots of personal reasons… one of which taught me not to use the mindset of "the more views and fans you have, the better your comic is." In fact, I was starting to publish comics just so people would view/comment on them, which was changing and kind of ruining what the comic was about. Plus, the quality deteriorated because I was more focused on posting frequently instead of taking my time to publish good comics.
Now, with my new comic, Biker Rage & The Ska Kid (PLUG! lol), it's more about doing a comic that I want to do the way I want to do it. What makes your comic great is what those that read it think, not what they think compared to how many people don't read it or know about it. I had a pretty good group of supporters on my old comics, and now, I realize that I should've just been happy with what I had.
But still, it does feel good when you get a boost. Just don't let it affect your self-esteem. You're the artist, which means you should do things the way you want to and not worry about your rank. If you have people following it, then great! If not, don't worry, you're just not as mainstream as the top whatever comics. But, if you've got loyal readers, regardless of how many, who cares! Just make comics because making comics makes you happy, not the feedback, and I guarentee you, the rest will follow in time. :)
Never forget there is a huge pile of awful crap ahead of you in the ranks. Unless you're in the top ten or something.
And never, ever seek an explanation for it. There isn't one because the likes and dislikes of a reading audience are not easily explained.
People like crap and just because they do doesn't mean they'll ever like your crap.
In fact for certain of us in this world it's guaranteed they won't like our crap.
lol!
- Unlimited Evil is currently #635 in Comic Book/Story & #838 overall with an average of 110 page views per day.
- Coolstar Comics Master Files is #1,788 in Comic Book/Story & #2,623 overall with an average of 19 page views per day.
The CCMF "comic" is just character profiles and various bits of info about my comics' universe so it's not really a comic and I don't promote it like I do U.E. which is my actual main storyline comic right now. I'm happy with it being where it is, but of course I would love for it to be higher, who wouldn't? I am curious to see how my rankings change with the impending change over to the new site.
Apparently I'm higher ranked than I thought. I'm at #231 at last glimpse, and I'm seeing a lot of you guys saying you're in the 5-700s, which I guess is the average?
Maybe I just don't understand what factors influence the ratings. If it's the ratings from the comments then I guess it would make sense.
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