Project Wonderful advertising strategy

I watch my Google stats to see who sticks around. If I get good CPC but no one sticks, there's no point in advertising. I've had good success with Khaos in the past. I'll be interested to see what happens for you.

Hi Meilin:

Well, I will absolutely let you know. Whatever tricks I find that work, I'll share, as much as I have time for.

Since I wrote the above I have learned that you can drill down further than I thought in Google Analytics, so yes, it's all there.

(Those who don't know: CPC = cost per click.)

What freaked me out most was seeing that the average time on my site by people who came from Khaos was 35 seconds. 35 seconds to grab them... as opposed to 54 seconds by people from Tales of MU. Man, you don't have long. (Write your "cover" blurbs, folks!!!) And yet I landed a patron, someone who obviously really liked what he saw in those 35 or 54 seconds. Woo-hoo!

I advertised on Tales of Mu once, back when I had money in my PW account. I ran a two-week campaign, I think.

My results were good, but not earth-shattering. I got maybe 45 hits in two weeks--not many, compared to getfreeebooks, in which I got over 700. The difference, of course, was the average time spent on the page. 45 minutes from Tales of Mu. 14 minutes from getfreeebooks. (These are stats for two weeks, though, so I'm not sure how they compare to your stats for a day.)

I'll probably run another campaign on Tales of Mu as soon as my balance builds back up. I checked out Khaos Komix, and I'm not sure if that comic's audience base would mesh well with my stuff or not... Hmm.

I wonder if people from Tales of MU know what they're getting a bit better than people from Khaos, and that accounts for the time difference.

Yes, and when they get to my site they're like "Eww, not a webcomic, I'd have to do actual reading...forget that." Not all, obviously, but some. I have to look at the bounce rates, too.

Ahhh...good ol' Khaos. I've advertised there before with moderate success. Recently I got very little clicks. It could have been because I was advertising during downtime or my new banner ad wasn't appealing to the crowd.

I always try to advertise to folks who would either expect reading a novel/text story of some sort, or who would be interested in the subject matter of my site. Webcomics, even some of the fringe ones, get WAAY more traffic than I do, so I place bids in spots that I think would garner more clicks. Just being on a webcomic site isn't enough for me though. If the banner isn't around or near the actual comic then I don't bother. There's some publishers who try to have ads only around their blogs at the bottom of the page. As a reader myself, unless I'm head over heels for the work, my butt doesn't bother with anything beyond the comic space. I'm even iffy about ads in the header, near the site title. I've had more success when the banner was NEXT to the comic art in some way.

Depending on the volume of traffic and cost of my bid, if I don't get atleast a few clicks within the first day or two, then I quit it.

In my most recent campaign, some good spots for me were:

Heard, with .03 CPC and 8 unique clicks in a day.

Mysteries of the Arcana, with .01 CPC and 284 unique clicks over 6 days.

Exiern, with 468 unique clicks over 6 days at .01 CPC

And Penny and Aggie with 464 unique clicks in 2 days at .03 CPC (this was the most expensive, but still worth it IMO)

I wish I had more long time data, but I ended up switching all of my focus to Exiern, Mysteries of the Arcana, and Penny and Aggie (among some other very low cost bids--which weren't successful at all.) Visitors stayed for anything between 40secs-1min on average. I think the straightforward start page and my new cast page helped with that. I expected most to leave, but I always try to look at the bright side: some of them might come back. I've had more search engine hits than usual, so it makes me hopeful.

You know, just before I came on here today, I was thinking, "I've got to expand the advertising and try some other venues... but which? Where?" And just like an angel you came along, Illise, and gave me some answers. Thank you! I'll take a look at these at the very least.

One thing I know is that I need to animate. And do a trailer. It's in the works...