Hi everyone,
I’ve been doing Bloomin’ Faeries! for 3+ years now. It’s been (and remains) an amazing ride. I’m having tons of fun working with Wondollar and watching how he makes the strips come to life. Not only is he a fantastic partner to work with, he produces high quality art that’s worth every penny. But having said all this, I must also look at the facts and ensure the financials make sense. The sad news, however, is that every single month for the last 3 years, the strip has been in the red. At the end of last year, I made the decision to double the number of strips a week in an attempt to increase readership and make some of the money back through advertisement.
That, unfortunately, has not proven successful.
The reality is that the costs of producing Bloomin’ Faeries! are 70% covered by membership fees; the rest (30%) is from advertisement, marginal sales from the store, and my own personal funds. It’s really thanks to the generosity of the paying members that this site keeps on running. Whatever solution I bring to the problem needs to respect their ongoing support (that means I want to give them more than ever before).
So after several months of thinking it over, I’m making the call. Starting in September, we’re returning to a weekly schedule (every Monday, as before). We’ll focus mainly on the (mis)adventures of Heather and some of the characters around her. Wondollar will continue to illustrate those strips at the same level of quality you’re used to. In ADDITION, he will be creating 2+ strips every month as part of a members-only series (I’ll share details on this during the month of August). For the members, this will stack up with the content that I’ve been consistently adding to the site every month. This is my way of saying “thank you” for their support over the years.
But it’s not all bad news for the non-members. While I’m going to put more strips in the member area, I’m going to return the blog to the general public (yes, even the old entries that were marked members only). So while you won’t get a new strip on Thursday, there’ll be a blog entry waiting for you if you decide to pay us a visit. 🙂
I’m sure this is very disappointing to many of you out there. I share your sentiment. This is, however, only a minor setback. I will put renewed efforts in better managing the site’s finances in the coming months so that I can some day return to a twice-a-week schedule.
In the meantime, however, I thank you all for your continued support and understanding.
–Jaycee
“I’m doing it.”
11 thoughts on “Strip Schedule”
Gallstone
Hmmm. Seems like a reasonable trade-off to me. You do have to try and keep in the black numbers.
charles81
Totally understandable.
I think too many webcomics continue on with poor finance books in the hopes that it’ll simply get better with time and possible new readership but reality is that it just stays the same unless action is taken.
I think the regular stip-a-week to keep the fresh readership coming and membership-only strips/stories is a good way to both reward members and make membership more attractive for readers who want more Bloomin’ Faeries.
One thing to be wary of. I know Exiern faced the problem with members who reviewed every year getting only the up-coming strips for the year while a new member would come in for the same price and get immediate access to all previous material that longer-term member had been supporting for some-time. Heck, you’ve got monthly membership, so someone could decide to catch up on all the back-log with only a couple of payments there a year. In the end, Exiern simply came up with a cheaper payment for renewals compared to new membership which might be a good idea once you have some comic content built up in 6 months time or so. It also encourages the renewals since missing them would mean more expensive signup later if they want to access the membership content again.
I think Exiern has since dropped the membership content and now sells the additional stories and un-censored stips as one-purchase items. That could be a good additional option for those who don’t want membership but want the additional strips. And as you build up more and more of a set you’ll have more and more to sell to fresh readers.
Good luck and hope it all starts adding up.
Jaycee
For me, this was always a labor of love and a hobby, so as long as my personal finances could support it, I really didn’t mind. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case, so I have to be a bit more pragmatic about the whole thing.
Hopefully not for too long, though. 🙂
–Jaycee
“I’m doing it.”
Khamya9
Just tossing out the question because I’ve heard conflicing answers from different comic authors: how much does ad blocking software hurt you? Do you only get paid per click or is it per view?
I know dreamland chronicles did a test several years back and even with only a few people turning off the ad blockers it more than doubled the ad revenue. Ever since then I have a specific browser I use for reading web comics and it doesn’t have a blocker.
Maybe if all or a significant number of the free readers did the same it might help?
Jaycee
The ad revenues have varied depending on the method used, but they’ve been pretty consistent. When I was using Project Wonderful, it was a “per-day” cost using some sophisticated bidding system. Advertisers had access to statistics for pageviews and would make their decisions based on that. Ad-blocking software would have hurt me as much as the next guy, so I guess this was a level playing field all ’round.
I’m currently selling advertisement directly to companies, and so far they haven’t complained about anything. Again, this is a case of level playing field: these blockers don’t hurt me any more than they hurt anybody else. (But I guess the real answer to your question is no, I’m not really earning money based on click-thrus.)
–Jaycee
“I’m doing it.”
Sabrina Pandora
I feel you there. One year in and I adore my artist and we’d love to do a daily strip- but the financial truth is that I’m just carrying it all on my back, even without a members area. Hoping the merchandise might start giving us some income to keep it running itself at least… the goal was self-sufficient in a year, and that ain’t happened. but we do what we do for the love of the story, eh?
~SP
Jaycee
Wow, break-even in the first 6 months is very ambitious. I had similar hopes when I started and was told it takes about 3 years. And here I am, 3 years into it, and I’m finally going to break even. Couldn’t do it without the members, though. They rock.
–Jaycee
“I’m doing it.”
P.S.: feel me all you want (there or elsewhere), I won’t resist. 😉
Jaycee
Wot? Wot? You KNOW I HAD to, right? 😛
–Jaycee
“I’m doing it.”
TJ
I hate this info, but I feel ya too. I will continue to support as I can, no mater what you decide, and good luck 🙂
Lurker
> While I’m going to put more strips in the member area, I’m going to return the blog to the general public (yes, even the old entries that were marked members only).
Apparently not yet.
Jaycee
September 1st.
–Jaycee
“I’m doing it.”