If you were to move a comic off of Drunk Duck and onto its own domain, how would you do it? Would you suddenly stop updating the comic on DD, leaving only a link to the new website? Would you gradually update only on the comic's new domain, warning your readers a few weeks in advance? Would you update it both on DD, and the new domain, until the comic is done?

Also, would you delete the entire comic from Drunk Duck, or leave it as is?

I'm wondering what others think about this, as I plan to have a website for Timothy Green by this summer. I just haven't decided just how I'm going to do it, though I'm leaning towards eventually stopping my updates on DD.

I've moved mi site, i wanted to delete the DD one but i have too many comments to do it without regret.

What I'm going to do is post 2-3 new updates here....only have 'PLASTIC HAS MOVED DURHUR' in huge hideous serif text on the page so they have to click to the new and improved site. I'll pretty much stop updating here after that.

I intend to one day move BffSatan to its own adress, but I want to keep updating here as I update on my new adress, I like the community element of drunk duck, the fact that my readers are also making awesome comics is cool.

I'd do it all at once. That's always how I did my site moves before I found a stable host. Big fat link to the new place (and a redirect, if possible).

I'd warn first though, a good bit in advance.

I'm currently updating on both the Duck and on my own URL. The only incentive to head towards my own site currently is the update a couple hours early. *shrug*

I just like the Duck too much to leave ^.^

Isn't it like $50 to $100 dollars a year to have your own domain?

I got my domain names and all that...but I don't want to have to fork out all that money every year when I'm still going to school. Maybe when I get a job after I'm finished with college...

Also comicpress (comixpress?)..that program I guess makes it easier to make a website. I'm not that website making savvy at all so that stops me too.

For mirrors? Why not. Even if you want to compile your hits for ads all you have to do is put one PW ad on all sites. I hear that many people at DD read mostly comics on DD because of the convenience. And that won't stop people from buying your books/merchandise if it's wanted. Templar Arizona(before keenspot took it), Two Moons and Crow Feathers were/are doing a good job with mirrors.

I pay like 15$ a year at dotster. :)

Its the hosting that usually costs. Fortunately though, there are a lot of hosting companies now that charge very reasonable prices. Like, we're talking 5-9$ a month for quite a decent chunk of bandwidth. That's less than two coffees at Starbucks. I use one called Omnis.com, and it costs me about 9$ a month to host like 5 domains. You could probably easily get that back in Project Wonderful cash if you were smart about it. ComicPress is a part of word press and my hosting company will set it up for you if you don't want to try it yourself, but honestly, its ridiculously easy. Really. Just a few bits of information, press a button and you are done.

Customizing the CSS is a bit harder if you aren't particularly websavvy,but it does come with a default template. But all and all, its really not that expensive.

Personally I think mirrors are nice to have, for a couple of reasons. One, they reach a particular audience of convenience that you might not otherwise tap, and second, redundancy in case one site goes down is a good thing.

I am planning to get my own URL and hosting for George the Dragon. However, its on hold now until my wife OK's the expenditure of funds :D


Should I eventually get my own site, I still plan to update on DD. The same page on the same day, just on two separate sites. This place has a nice community with good discussions and I would hate to lose out on that. Also, the readers I have here would not necessarily all jump ship to the external site. There is an ease of use inherent in having thousands of comics available on one site like this. So, I imagine that there would be people who would stop reading my comic if I moved to an external site and deleted my account here.

So, I'm staying. You can't get rid of me :)

ShadowsMyst
I pay like 15$ a year at dotster. :)

Its the hosting that usually costs. Fortunately though, there are a lot of hosting companies now that charge very reasonable prices. Like, we're talking 5-9$ a month for quite a decent chunk of bandwidth. That's less than two coffees at Starbucks. I use one called Omnis.com, and it costs me about 9$ a month to host like 5 domains. You could probably easily get that back in Project Wonderful cash if you were smart about it. ComicPress is a part of word press and my hosting company will set it up for you if you don't want to try it yourself, but honestly, its ridiculously easy. Really. Just a few bits of information, press a button and you are done.

Customizing the CSS is a bit harder if you aren't particularly websavvy,but it does come with a default template. But all and all, its really not that expensive.

Personally I think mirrors are nice to have, for a couple of reasons. One, they reach a particular audience of convenience that you might not otherwise tap, and second, redundancy in case one site goes down is a good thing.

Oops I meant hosting costs $50-100... well then I'm ahead at getting the domain. It was like $40 to get two names for two years for me.

Glimmer moved over to a new domain but I'll still update on Drunk Duck for several reasons:

1: There's no point in deleting it. It takes 30 seconds to upload a new comic?

2: There are still more people who browse Drunk Duck than my own URL since it's brand new.

3: The more eyes that see it the more publicity.

4: In the off chance it's featured that will only drive up more page views.

The more people who see my comic the better. As far as I'm concerned, Drunk Duck is free publicity. I'm thinking about putting up comic genesis, smackjeeves, and webcomicsnation pages.

angry_black_guy
I'm thinking about putting up comic genesis, smackjeeves, and webcomicsnation pages.

I actually have a mirror page at SmackJeeves.

I just hate the community over there. Whenever I update it's on the front page for like two seconds until it's pushed off by the hordes of Sonic Sprite comics.

I still have developed a good group of regular readers over there, that's why I continue to update over there.

As for Webcomics Nation. I tried them first, but just uploading a page turned out to be a major hassle, so I left.

I have my own domain, I'm just to lazy to post the website.

Don't forget DeviantArt. It's easier for you to build readers without effort on dA than anywhere else. Until recently my dA page had more hits than my domain and my drunk duck page combined.

I noticed Smackjeeves's community isn't nearly as fun as this one. Nor as nice. I dunno, the service itself is just as fine as here, but something...

I'm hosted with Xepher, who, with an application process, will host your comic for free, unlimited space and bandwidth.

The other day I took advantage of a special year's hosting offer with Dreamhost, $9 for a year of hosting and a domain name. I found out on the last day of the offer and I couldn't pass it up... like seeing a free Xbox sitting around when you have one already, lol. But I'm still hosted with Xepher. (Decided to use my Dreamhost space to create a better blog and mess around with MediaWiki.) Both are very, very nice.

It looks like $100+/yr for Dreamhost isn't unreasonable, considering how immensely easy it is to set up everything with them.

Anyway, it's not a good idea to have your comic pages on DA alone, although you may get more audience by occasionally posting your pages there.

I won't ever move my comics off of DD. I like the community too much. :D I wish I'd been more involved in it sooner, considering how long I've been mirroring here.

strange . i guess having your own domain is like a phase people go through , like having your own car . i had both and now i ride the bus and use drunkduck , its just less hassle with the added bonus that i can be more drunk when using either

Exzachly
Don't forget DeviantArt. It's easier for you to build readers without effort on dA than anywhere else. Until recently my dA page had more hits than my domain and my drunk duck page combined.

I used to have a deviantart page but people started trolling my pictures because I mislabeled them.

It's not difficult to get 1,000+ hits a day when your tags include "naruto, one piece, furry, catgirl, sonic, sprite, kingdom hearts, loli, manga, shonen, shota, yaoi, yuri, wolf, fursona, anthropomorph, kawai, sugoi, etc."

I've been thinking about moving Living With Insanity to my own domain soon.

My plan is to do mirror updates for a week after announcing the new website, and then start updating the main site as normal, but move the DD updates to a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday so that anyone who wants to see the updates early can check the main website. After a while, the main site will have more pages added than the drunkduck account.

Hopefully after a few months, all my readers will move to my main site and then I can post a page saying "No more drunkduck updates. Head over to livingwithinsanity.com for new strips".

i update both at the same time... too much work to do the exclusive updates and what not.

I run Shades at my own website, as well as at DD (and, whisper it softly!) one or two other places.

Having my own site is great in that it allows me more freedom to customise what I do, but I wouldn't stop updating at DD. In my experience, there is little overlap between the fans I have at each of the sites. There's very little evidence of "cannibalisation" with one site taking readers from another, and so stopping any of them would result in a net reduction in overall readership. Many DD readers only read comics on DD (it's just convenient that way!) and so, although some of your existing fans might follow you to a domain of your own, I doubt you'd retain them all by any means.

Starting a new site of your own can be a lot of fun (and a lot of hassle!) but, if you've already built any kind of a fanbase here, I think it would be a mistake to stop updating at DD.

I wouldn't, and I don't plan on it. I have a separate url set up and am working on eventually hosting the comic there as well, but for now, I re-direct everyone to here. I got my start here, and I tend to be both loyal and lazy when it comes to moving stuff around that much.

Truth be told, exposure on both sites can't be a bad thing in the long run.

i'd have it on both. twice as likely to be seen.

I couldn't leave DD... Because I'm too cheap to pay $5 a month for my own .com site.

lothar
strange . i guess having your own domain is like a phase people go through , like having your own car . i had both and now i ride the bus and use drunkduck , its just less hassle with the added bonus that i can be more drunk when using either

Owning a car isn't a phase; it's a commitment. So's owning a domain and your own webspace.
I prefer the control in both cases.