Hi everyone,
First off, I must apologize for the long silence. I have been very negligent in doing many updates. What started out as a series of great ideas for the webcomic has ballooned to a point where it’s out of control and I am over-committed to a lot of work that (as reality catches up to me) just doesn’t turn out to be very feasible. I need to reassess how I do things, and what I deliver, to provide everyone with the greatest value. Here’s my current line of thinking:
- Weekly strip: this is working fine and will keep happening on a weekly basis. I have heard lots of requests for more frequent updates, but this is a financial committment that I just can’t make. For now, I will take these requests as a compliment (under the assumption that it’s because you folks enjoy these little weekly perversions), and will see in the future if there’s a way to make your wishes come true.
- Members benefits: I’m not happy with this. It’s a very complex process to update everything several days a week, and frankly, I’m not sure the members are REALLY get a big kick out of what I’m delivering in there. Instead of the weekly art piece, I’m thinking of a bi-weekly (once every other week) bonus strip that would be slightly more sexual than the frontpage webcomic. I’d also like to update everything (scripts, roughs, etc.) only once a week instead of on different days. And finally, I want to bring back a forum system (I just need to figure out the coding side of things). There’s enough activity around the strip now that it would be more active than the old version.
- Advertisement: I really need to figure out the revenue streams for the webcomic. Without this, in the long term, I’m really doomed. (The drain is of several thousand dollars a year, which isn’t sustainable.) Ideas are welcome! I’m a rookie at this, so I’m sure all of you are smarter than one of me. 🙂
- Blog narrative: this is one of the things that makes this site distinctive, I’m told, and I want to keep it. I think it’s a great way for everyone to come back here once in a while and find new content even if there’s no new strip. On that side, however, I’m also struggling with the amount of content that needs to be updated.
- Webmastering: this is definitely the area where I need the most help. I’ve learned a good deal of stuff in the last year, but I’m neither good nor fast with all this webmastering stuff. I also need to figure out if there’s a way for me to delegate some of the work to helpful hands (assuming there are helpful hands out there). So to do this, I need to run some tests.
So the conclusion of all this is that I need to take some time off in the next few weeks to figure some of these things out. The webcomic will continue being updated (that’s the MOST critical thing), but all other activities will be on hold until April 1, at which point they’ll resume normally. For the members, I will make sure you are properly compensated for your patience and understanding. To the non-members, I am grateful for your support and continued readership. To all of you, I will ask that you don’t be shy about recommending Bloomin’ Faeries! to your friends; increasing the readership can only have a positive effect on the site’s revenues.
Thank you everyone, and have a great month of March!
–Jaycee
3 thoughts on “March Hiatus”
Mouse
I’ve actually sent the link for Blooming Fairies! to a few friends lately who’ve started reading the comic constantly.
On advertisement, the nature of the webcomic in general kinda limits the locations you could potentially advertise in, but there is still a lot of area out there for it. I just personally don’t know how you’d get in contact with some of the places. But thinking things like webcomic review sites, listings, and as you do have the blog section, you could also try setting out a bit of focus on that as well.
Perhaps someone else who reads this will have some better ideas or even know of the way to get into some of those. 🙂
Do what you need to do, Jaycee. I read some comics that only update about once a month. So once a week isn’t bad at all, and if you felt like you had to do less, I for one wouldn’t stop checking in.
Tirus
I always support an artist need to keep things going. W/e the price. Glad to hear that the Comic will keep updating. Hope you get this sorted out, too many good comics have died from poor management. (and alot of bad ones too, but they deserved it.)
KiTA
Sell a book? You could do a small book of Sir Thane’s arc, perhaps with a few pages of author and artist notes intermixed in? Ditto with Heather’s arc (whenever it ends)? As well as a few pin-ups? Menage A 3 did post-cards with pin-ups as a preorder bonus, for example.