Step #3 Deploy

The good news is that you have hundreds of ways to present your work online. The bad news is you have hundreds of ways to present your work online. Here are are a few recommendations.

Mix & Match

A good deployment strategy will probably include a mixture of some or all of these.

Comics Communities

Comics Portals and networks like Web Comics Nation and ComicSpace are a great way to get your work exposed to an audience that is already looking for Comics. There are hundreds of Comics portals so choose wisely and be sure to find a service that allows you to categorize your work so that like-minded vistors have a better chance of finding you.

Once of the other drawbacks of online comics communities is that they are supported by advertising which often displays above your work. Keep that in mind.

Comics communities can be used to tease visitors to your main website where you can control the display of you work better.

Social Networking

mySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites are a great way to promote your work and discover new audiences. Remember to keep a link back to your main webcomics site.

Branding and presentation are also difficult to control. Try not to become one of those crazy mySpace people. Limit unnecessary multimedia elements like music players that autostart and funky, random animations. Just because you can "pimp your mySpace," doesn't mean that you should.

Blogs

Blog publishing systems can be used successfully to post comics. The nicest thing about them is that they provide an easy-to-use content management system that relieves you of daily programming duties. The biggest challenge is that blogs tend to look, well "bloggy." But with a little effort some webcomics are achieving great looking results, especially with WordPress. Welcome to Pixelton and Draw Write Play are 2 examples of sites that are using the ComicPress theme with great success. With careful selection other WordPress themes also work well. ClipClop Comix is a good example.

Private Label

Sooner than later you should consider getting your own website. This will give you complete control over the delivery and framing of your work. Setting up a site is easier and cheaper than you think. WordPress is installed on many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) which can serve as a nice content management system for publishing your work. Ask your ISP before signing up. Many ISPs use a collection of add-ons called "Fantastico scripts." These include WordPress which can be "turned on" with the click of a button. Be sure to register your domain separately from your ISP. This ensures that you have complete control over ownership of the name. Godaddy.com is a good place to register your name. We recommend WebhostingBuzz for site hosting since they are reliable and have a very inexpensive, yet full featured starter package for only $3.95 per month.

Widgets

Don't forget to add a widget to your deployment mix. Widgets are self-contained interactive modules that can be inserted within your website to add a viral element to it. They can include images, movies, audio, and more. Any visitor to your site can take that widget and embed it in their own webpages as well. You can update the widget at any time and it immediately redeploys new content to all of your widgets on the internet. Be sure to include links back your main website. Sprout is probably the easiest and most customizable widget around, although Widgetbox has been around longer.

Everything Else

The internet is loaded with ways to display and share your work. Don't forget flickr and other photo gallery sites. A number of "slideshow" sharing sites are also gaining popularity. SlideShare is one of the biggest. Always keep your eyes open for new ways to deploy your work.