Website Extras: what are your favorites?

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:11 pm

Every couple of months, I get an inch to rebuild my site. The itch is back, and I'm currently making sketches of a new template. I am however, at a loss to decide on what extras and features to keep, and which to end. That's where I need you guys.

I'm going to introduce a hypothetical situation:

hypothetical situation wrote:Say you like a comic casually. It's not your favorite, but it's bookmarked. You may not check it everyday, but you do on the days when it's supposed to update. You've really only read the archives, and have never explored the site before. So what would make you WANT to explore the site?

We all have these kinds of readers, the casual ones. Other than updating more (egad, I'd rather not die at my laptop at the age of 20), what extras would make you want to explore the site? What features could you be enticed to use and how?

The only real feature I've tried has been Cast Q/A, which over the course of more than a year has been pretty successful, IMO. I've got a bunch of questions, and I usually get them in spurts. On the site as a whole, I have an average of 5 pageviews/person. Not the greatest, but it's better than 1. I want more people to explore the site though. Those who do usually leave a message of some sort saying how much they like the extras and secrets.

So, I ask again, as that "hypothetical" webcomic reader, what would make you stick around and explore? What are your favorite webpages on other comics, and why?

*hopes the above post makes sense since it's now 3am EST*

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:30 pm

What makes me want to explore the site? The comic. If the comic is interesting enough, then I'd go and find more stuff that's interesting.

Not a very useful reply in context but true. I went to read the character summaries in Gunnerkrigg Court because I was interested in the comic and it's characters, not because they were character summaries.

- Joel Fagin

RPin · Post by **RPin** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 4:13 am

My comic browsing usually goes like this: I find a new comic, and if what's on the first page interests me enough I usually jump straight to the plot and characters's pages to see if they still keep me curious. Only then I start reading the actual archives.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:42 am

I've been told a few times now that my History page is one of the better examples out there. Dunno if that helps bring in the readers, but it's a page that at least has had some recognition.

I generally don't check out the cast pages unless I have enough of an interest in the strip past a cursory glance. If there's too much there, or it's not really set out very well, then I usually move on without reading them though. If it mentions stuff like blood groups and what not then I just shut down the entire page. That's not character development, that's just waffle.

Adobedragon · Post by **Adobedragon** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:03 am

Say you like a comic casually. It's not your favorite, but it's bookmarked. You may not check it everyday, but you do on the days when it's supposed to update. You've really only read the archives, and have never explored the site before. So what would make you WANT to explore the site?

Short answer: Boredom.

If the comic is as "Hypothetical Sich" described, a casual read, then something about the comic attracted me (art, dialogue), but it never really captivated me. On a day like today (typical Friday) when I'm not in the mood to do anything productive, I might snoop around the site.

In general, with any comic, a well-designed, attractive page makes me more interested in exploring. I find cast pages interesting, and galleries as well. With galleries, I like it when the artist has a short blurb about each piece. Insight into how the artist's mind works, as it were.

On the other hand, an overbuilt site, with too many bells and whistles, and a hideously slow load time on my dialup connection, will scare me off of any exploring.

Jameslong · Post by **Jameslong** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:24 am

hrm.. my 2 cents:

a cast page, an archive page, and a fanart section (even though mine is pretty empty) are the three must-have extras.

Aside from those, the other obvious choices are links and a personal gallery of some sort. I've also got a biography page up, though I think that's totally optional. In my younger days I was paranoid of putting myself out there, but now i'm a 30yr old fart and don't care.

I've recently redone me site to accomodate a Forums button in the navbar, and now I wish I would have added a link in there to the Wiki. I get a good chunk of my readers from the Wiki, so I think it's a pretty important tool to utilize. Although... part of that might be because my comic shows up above all the other SCI-FI stuff because it's sub-catagorized as cyberpunk.

Great ideas in this thread though. Thanks for bringing it up.

Jameslong · Post by **Jameslong** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:27 am

Dutch! wrote:If it mentions stuff like blood groups and what not then I just shut down the entire page. That's not character development, that's just waffle.

What is a blood group and what on earth is it doing in the waffles?

Rusty Knight · Post by **Rusty Knight** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:48 am

jameslong wrote:
Dutch! wrote:If it mentions stuff like blood groups and what not then I just shut down the entire page. That's not character development, that's just waffle.
What is a blood group and what on earth is it doing in the waffles?

...and why do I get the feeling ye aren't talking about nice potatoe waffles?

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:31 am

jameslong wrote:
Dutch! wrote:If it mentions stuff like blood groups and what not then I just shut down the entire page. That's not character development, that's just waffle.
What is a blood group and what on earth is it doing in the waffles?

Hehehe, certain manga goes and lists blood type next to the characters with height, hair and eye color, etc. Certain comics emulate this, though the Japanese keep the blood types true to personality and body type(according to that theory), while in the West, I'm pretty sure that whole blood-type/personality got lost, and some think it's just cool to have or something.

Thank you for your replies all, please keep 'em coming. This is very interesting.

Jameslong · Post by **Jameslong** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:24 am

warofwinds wrote:
Hehehe, certain manga goes and lists blood type next to the characters with height, hair and eye color, etc. Certain comics emulate this, though the Japanese keep the blood types true to personality and body type(according to that theory), while in the West, I'm pretty sure that whole blood-type/personality got lost, and some think it's just cool to have or something.

Thank you for your replies all, please keep 'em coming. This is very interesting.

ah... sorry to be such a B positive. I'm pretty dense sometimes.

C.w. · Post by **C.w.** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:56 am

I like to see an 'about' page for comics that have some monsterous plot. (As opposed to those with a cuddly plot.)

Because all of your new readers will have no idea what's going on, an about page is really nice for them because they can go there and get their bearings. Lots of people just go straight to the characters page, so they know who is who, but i'd rather know what's going on.

If nothing else, put on it what your comic is about and enough info about the plot so that a person could read it and skip to the current chapter without feeling lost (while not giving so much away that they don't read the archive).

Also: my about page is not a good example.

Geekblather · Post by **Geekblather** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:06 pm

Hm. I have a lot of different extras on my site. I'm working on building the obligatory archive page (which I'm doing differently than most, as it is not a calendar). There's a cast page, links to my gallery, and to fanart, forum, community etc. I grouped some of the more extravagant extras together under one heading of "extras" which takes you to a page where you can jump to some of the weirder stuff, like a video of me inking the strip, a process of how I create the comic, how the comic came to life, a glossary with a map of the city, and (my personal favorite) a paper doll dress-up game. That's all fun stuff that makes the site a little more fun, but I have them off in their own section so that they don't take up space on the frontpage.

The dress-up game is really popular, and I'll definitely make more of them. People also really seem to like the video as well.

Really, I just like tweedling with extras and things, so people who do stick around the site are rewarded

Webkilla · Post by **Webkilla** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 2:16 pm

my fav extras will always be Character profile pages and About pages about the cartoonist(s)

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:16 pm

Joel Fagin wrote:What makes me want to explore the site? The comic. If the comic is interesting enough, then I'd go and find more stuff that's interesting.

QFT.

If the comic is interesting to me, and I see extras, I'll assume that they might be interesting, too.

Your basic extras, like 'Characters' and 'Archives' people are probably going to use at the same rate no matter what you do, so long as they're of decent quality and and actually usable.

If you want people to regularly use your extras (not just glance at them once and then never look at them again), then they're going to have to have some reason to. If I've already read your comic all the way through and catch most of your updates, I'm not going to use the archives page. If your characters are pretty easy to keep track of, I'm not going to need your characters page, although I might read it anyway to see if there's anything I've missed.

However, if you've got a comic with tons of characters and sprawling, long-term plots (think Sluggy Freelance or Something Positive), then I might want to go to your characters page when you start using a character whom I haven't seen in a while--particularly if you link to their entry/the Char. page on the page where they show up in the comic--something like "Remember Bob(link)? He first showed up in comic #347(link)" Then I'm likely to click.

As for any other extras, the most important element I can think of which would make people want to use/click on them is <i>change</i>. Such as a 'Mailbag' page where characters answer questions from readers. Maybe once a month you announce on the main page that a new Mailbag is up.

Or if your characters have any hobbies which you share (say, horticulture or playing the guitar,) then you could have a page where they post songs they've written or pictures of their plants, that sort of thing.

Or if your characters are out adventuring/exploring, you could have a cool world map which updates when they explore new areas.

Anyway, my point is, add new content to your extras if you want people to read them more than once, and announce it on your main page when you do.

Dark Spider · Post by **Dark Spider** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:43 pm

If I were interested in a comic, I would check out the story and character pages to learn (or review) some info on the comic. I also like looking at stuff that peers into the mind of the artist like commentary and personal art (since I'm an artist myself, and its nice to see what's in the minds of my peers).

GtF · Post by **GtF** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:36 am

To be honest I'm really quite new to the world of webcomics (I think theres about 3 I frequent regularly) but what I like most is definately the artists' comments and the artists info pages. As people have said its interesting to learn about whats going on in the artists noggin.

One thing though, I'm not a big fan of character pages and plot summaries because I like to read a comic to discover the characters for myself. After being told what every characters traits are I don't see much point in reading it anymore. :/

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:45 am

That's why you make your character pages with the bare essentials... name, and a quick summary of how they fit into the comic. Nothing majorly important should be there, that's what the comic itself is for, eh?

At least, that's my side of it.

Cheers.

Wyldcherry · Post by **Wyldcherry** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:03 pm

Once I'm hooked on a comic, I tend to look for some sort of feedback thing (forums, shoutbox, guestbook) to show the love. Actually, forums are great because you can discuss with other readers their thoughts about the comic.

The next thing I like to look for is some sort of blog/news area. It's nice to know what is going on with the author. Especially to give the readers the heads up if the comic is on hiatus.

Another extra I like to look for is the link area. Mostly to check out what comics the author recommends. I found many good comics this way (some that I would of never thought of reading).

Paul Escobar · Post by **Paul Escobar** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:52 pm

The comic itself has to grab my attention. If the comic appeals to me, I'll look at the extras, too. If I find the comic uninteresting, I won't.

My favourite extra is extra art - character/prop/background sketches, preliminary pencil versions of comic pages, etc.

Fan art is fun, too, if there is any. That goes both for art sent by readers of the comic and art by the author made for other comics.

A news box thingie with information about updates, delays or such is good reader service.

A little bit of information about the author is good, too.

If there's an active forum with some good conversation going on, that's definitely an attraction. (But I've read good comics that had utterly dead forums, or forums filled with dyslexic twats posting bollocks. Not an attraction!)

I'll be the odd man out here and say that people should leave out character pages or story synopses - because I should get all the information I need about the characters and the story from reading the comic. If the character pages tell me nothing that isn't in the comic, they're superfluous. If they tell me something that is irrelevant to the story, they're still superfluous. And if I need to have read the character pages or the synopsis to understand what's going on in the comic, then the comic's badly written - and I'll most likely stop reading it. I've seen one too many webcomic that had nice character profiles laid out, but completely failed to deliver the goods in the actual comic.

Oh yeah, a bunch of links to some other good comics that I haven't read before is good, too!

Hellbenders · Post by **Hellbenders** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 7:14 pm

Maybe one of those digital pincushion maps where fans can plop down a pin noting where they came from?