This is pretty comic related I'd imagine, so I thought a discussion would be a good idea.

Are there any project wonderful users here on DD? How are you doing so far with it? Maybe we can use this thread to discuss the system and mention when we have really cheap or free slots as well as milestones we've achieved.

For those of you who don't know, Project Wonderful is a bid-based advertising system for webcomic authors. You can sign up and bid on slots that webcomic authors place on their site, or you can set up your own slots that people can bid on. So far, for being on it for about 4 months, I've made about 40 dollars, most of which goes right back into buying ad-time for my own comic at other people's sites.

A few places on DD I've seen them on are:
http://www.drunkduck.com/No_Need_for_Bushido/
http://www.drunkduck.com/TheNewLuciefer/
http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Adventures_Of_Vindibudd_Superhero_In_Training/
http://www.drunkduck.com/Pinky_TA/

So, any other Project Wonderful users out there? Have you checked out Project Wonderful Talk ?

By all means, if you have any cheap slots, or free spaces, let us know, I'd love to set an opening bid on somebody's site. :D

As for me, I just overhauled my website , so I have 7 new button slots available right at the top of the page. Opening bid is completely free. Hell, you could actually make a bid of once-cent right now that can nab you at least a year of ad-time (provide nobody outbids you of course :P).

I use it. So does Sarah from Purgatory Tower. And Due East, I believe? :-P

Heh, D0m and Silent Kitty talked me into Project Wonderful, it's a good system. I find it earns more from ads than Ad systems like Google ever do!

Yup, I've been using it for a long time now, and I really like it. I've gotten great results with it, both using it for advertising and in having a couple of ads up on my site. (I've actually found several comics that I now read regularly because they bought ad space on my site, lol.) My ads are both hovering between $1.50~$2.50 right now, which may be a good deal if you have a fantasy themed comic (from looking at my stats, comics that have a similar theme or feel get quite a lot of hits from my ads).

I know Hyp also uses it on The Realms of Aegis.

I'm sure there's a few others I've seen it on aside from the ones that have already been mentioned, but I can't think of them right now. D:

I use it and have seen wonderful (pun intended) pageview increases. I endorse it heartily! :)

What a great topic. I've been wondering about this myself. Seems like it's worth a look, thanks.

I've been using PW for a few months and have also made about $40-50. Most of that so far (other than what is still sitting in my account there) has been recycled into ads, and that seems to work nicely. :)

The amount it gets varies incredibly. Some days it can be 2 cents, other days a few dollars. The highest it's been is $5.10 (thankyou Riot! :D), and it's currently 30 cents (STILL Riot, who has vowed to hang on to it for as long as possible).

I enjoy it very much, even when I'm not really making any money off it. For whatever reason, I love following stats and things, and I love the little graphs and the thing that shows me my top referrers for the day/week.

How would you file something like ad revenue on a tax return? Or would it be applicable or under such jurisdictions? We all know the internet and money made from it isn't actually real, right?

Bump for Volte to move this thread into the other forum.

I've seen several comics use this type of advertisement (Allan, for one).

I've considered it at first, but then I just realized that I like the idea of just giving away free, permanent ad space on my comic. Don't know why, but making money just didn't seem all that important to me.

But who knows, I might use it one day.

I use it too. I've had the ads up a couple of months and made like $10.
Yeah my ads are dirt cheap, often they are free.

I guess I should do some advertising of my own, but it's hard to decide where to buy ads on.

I use it. On Drunk Duck I have a Leaderboard and a Banner that usually run really cheap. Over on my main site BT runs two towers and a banner. I've seen it jump to some pretty awesome amounts and I've used the system to get some ads on some sites I like to support.

I like that when my minimum bid isn't met I can run ads for my books or other projects. That is a truly awesome thing about it. :D

My only issue is I like to know that my ad is going to run for a full day and I've always been a fan of hard-coded, one fee ad systems. I don't like guesswork when it comes to my advertising. I blame working in the media industry for this. I'm getting over it. Slowly...

I'm registered for Project Wonderful but haven't used it at all yet.

The problem I'm running into is that my first intent was to sell ad space on my own site and then I'd be happy to roll anything I make back into putting my own ads out, but ever since I signed up I've just been "on hold" waiting for codes to put ad boxes on my site. The information said it had something to do with Project Wonderful scaling up and wanting to slowly add more users. However, it's been several months at least now and still no permission to put ads on my site.

Anyone else run into this problem? I'm even wondering whether buying some adspace would bump me up in line to have ads of my own?

-Bryan "the Imp" Imhoff
theimp@bustakappakappa.com
www.bustakappakappa.com
www.drunkduck.com/Seer

BKKiMP
I'm registered for Project Wonderful but haven't used it at all yet.

Heh, I'd say that's your problem right there man. ;)
I think they like you to put some money into the system first.

Honestly, just send them an email.

I was using it to buy adspace before I had my own ads up, and I was also "on hold" for a couple of months before I finally got annoyed and emailed them asking for an invitation code. The next day I had a code and an apology in my inbox. =P I don't know how backed up they are, but I don't think it has anything to do with whether or not you've put money into their system.

(They get money from you either way, btw - they take, I believe, 20% or so of what you make from your ads back into their system. I can't remember the exact number.)

I started with Project Wonderful a couple weeks ago. I'm only pulling in like 10 cents a day on ad space, but really, I signed up for it more to get incoming traffic for Modern Day Witchdoctor than to make monies. I've increased my daily hits by like 300% and it ranks in the top fifty comics on DD now (yay!)

I just signed up and placed an ad box. (It took less than one day from sign up to approval.) The skyscraper type fits nicely into my layout. :)

i may have to try this. i had google ads back when i had my own website but the google ads sucked. they were inconsistant and the google ad page views never matched up with my counters page views and when i cancelled my account they were supposed to send me a check for what i made but they never did.

Demon Eater is on PW. http://www.drunkduck.com/Demon_Eater/

There is only one large banner on the top so it's not competing for clicks as much compared to sites covered with multiple PW ads.

For now I'm enjoying looking at the who-came-from-where to my site statistics and am saving money to be used in high hit sites.

can someone tell me how to set up the code for pw ads on here? I pasted it into my comics homepage but it doesnt show up.

I just opened up an account on PW.

I didn't actually know that the system saved money on the website, instead of sending it to checking account or something. It's pretty cool.

It looks like Project Wonderful must have dumped their backlog. When I checked back at the site a few days ago I put a new application in and was ready to make adboxes the next day. I'm really enjoying it so far. I've made my first nickel off of online advertising and I'm hooked. :)
The thought of a revenue stream, no matter how small, while I sit back and do nothing is pure bliss. Nevermind all the hard work that goes into the website, comic, etc. Heh.
I'll definitely be trying putting some ads of my own out there soon.

-Bryan "the Imp" Imhoff
http://www.bustakappakappa.com
theimp@bustakappakappa.com

Used Google adsense for a short time. Google adsense has a lot of bad points:
- They don't cash out until you hit $100
- Text ads are worth crap
- If your IP clicks on an ad, you will be in breach of agreement, and they will suspend your account

The third point especially is where I'd caution you. See, several people in my place of work (4 or 5 people) decided to "help" me get more commission by clicking on the ads. Google didn't want to hear it, they canceled my account and never replied back to my requests, except to give me a canned response from their email department.

Reason I bring up all of these bad points is that PW is so NOT like Google Adsense, and that's a great thing. There is nothing I don't like about PW.

I still haven't MADE as much as I've spent, but I know it's getting our name out there more. I love it!

http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Gods_of_ArrKelaan/

Oh, btw, Volte, ozone, and JT talked me into it. ;)

This seems like a great idea, I'm SO checking this out. Thanks guys!

i also signed up but never heard anything back, i'll have to try sending an email to get the invitation code. i'm glad to hear i wasn't the only one that being invited.

So, I wonder what the odds are of DD setting up a few PW ad slots.

I bet those would fill up quick and make a lot of money.

hpkomic
So, I wonder what the odds are of DD setting up a few PW ad slots.

I bet those would fill up quick and make a lot of money.

I asked. DD uses a sponsor system that makes a lot of money for the site right now. I don't know if PW would give that kind of guaranteed income. Although the ads would probably be more relevant.

What I am really thankful for is that DD allows us to put ads on our pages. Some comic communities don't.

ShadowDion
i also signed up but never heard anything back, I'll have to try sending an email to get the invitation code. I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one that being invited.

Through my own correspondence, they really seem like a nice group of people, so I don't think you'll have any trouble if you email them. ;)

My God, it took long enough but I finally have PW.

...

They must really be backed up.

dueeast
I use it and have seen wonderful (pun intended) pageview increases. I endorse it heartily! :)

Agreed. It's pulling me a lot of throwweight with a comic that has only published 12 pages so far. I use it often and hope to sell space with it soon, too.

PW is one of several reasons why the future of comics is on the Web. Back in the 1930s--when Action Comics had its debut--print advertising was very cheap and publishing a 20-something page comic book in four colors was easy. The first comic books were developed by printers to sell ADVERTISING. They eventually caught on as PRODUCT, but comic books in the early Golden Age were often advertising flyers more than anything else. Not onlike those restaurant placemats with display ads you often see in small-town cafes and restaurants.

Nowadays, print costs for any sort of periodical, not just comic books, are enormous. And comic books, with their small, socially inbred (and mostly direct market) audience, do not have any advertising clout. So advertising support for the print comics market is dissolving.

Nowadays comic strips are reverting to their roots on the web, selling ads again.

it sounds good