Apologies for no post again. I'm afk again this week and next

Is it life hack or lifehack?

I don't know why they do, but life hack videos should not make me this angry. To be honest they don't really. Not much makes me angry, but some of the videos I find inane and annoying. Especially ones in the format of those in the comic. Ones that make you feel like doing the simplest of tasks is beyond your capacity because the person in the video only just discovered a way, from a different video, that is different, not better, than the way everyone has always done it. And oftentimes this new "better" way is slower or worse than other ways. To be fair to TC, short for Tooth esCargot, and his banana peeling life hack, it's actually easier… that's assuming TC does actually peel it the way I am thinking of, we didn't actually see how he does it. Knowing TC, he'd probably just bite into it with his snail teeth. Which I guess is easier and quicker but does not preserve the integrity of the fruit itself.

TC isn't really his name btw. I still don't really have a name for any of the characters. I like TC and Hatty as names. Sam's was the first name I came up with but I don't like it. I like the androgineity of the name, which is the point of it, but I am not sure the name and character work together. Neither the character nor the name stand out enough.

Btw… I am actually lying that TC is short for Tooth esCargot, I just made that up. In my head TC was always short for Tooth Snail… And, I am slightly ashamed to admit, only just noticed it should be shortened to TS. But in my notes, going back years now, it's always been TC for some reason. No idea how that happened. TC feels more correct though, and easier to say… TeeCee. So instead of admitting that I forced a semi-bacronym, I am going to say it was always Tooth esCargot.

Anyways, I hope you have a good week.

I love you all.

I'm kinda back but I'll be away for a bit soon. Need to whip up another backlog. Going to be a busy week!

Have a good one!

Apologies for the missing comic last week. I was in some pretty remote areas and was not able to do much with spotty data and some weird dns issues. I was able to post on instagram and tiktok so follow there incase it happens again.

I am semi back now but not able to make comics from scratch, just post from my backlog which is now depleted (excluding one that has a spelling mistake I noticed quite late... which I won't post until fixed)

Anyways, have a good Monday.

So… I’m not sure what I want to do with this comic or what the end game is or if there even needs to be an end game. I DO know, I’d like to work for myself. Like properly for myself not in the IT contractor way I currently am where I have my own company and I pay myself and do invoices and have an account and a business account but ultimately I work for a manager, who has a manager, who has a manager, who then works for the business owner. I am essentially a somewhat easily replaceable costing on a balance sheet. So maybe I have a business, but it’s not really a business. I am a contractor, which I enjoy! It gives way more freedom than being full-time… even if that freedom is just in my head… which I would argue is where it matters most. But, I do want to attempt to TRULY work for myself. So… maybe this comic is that? I don’t know, but I am going to do the best I can with it and see where it goes.

So… preface out of the way… marketing is tough. I’ve been posting on my website, reddit, instagram, and most recently tiktok. Aaaand… the analytics are dismal! On instagram, I have the most followers, 24 as of writing this, they’re all friends from my personal account… except one… actually except two… because my personal account is one of the followers.

Aside… I hate the term followers. I often try to correct myself and call them readers. I find the term insulting. I’m not a follower, I like your work or I take an interest in what you are doing or I admire you and what you are doing. [“Admirers” can also be a bit creepy]. I’ve always made an active effort not to put anyone on a pedestal, so I do not “follow” you, you are not my leader, I go my own way. And I like to think of my readers in the same way. That they have the same level of independence as what I aspire to. And actually now that I look at the list again, they actually all are quite independent! And also all people I admire!

Anyways… when I post on instagram and I get 60 views, maybe 150 views max if I also share it from my personal account. And 10 likes max for each comic. And all of those views come from accounts it’s been shared with directly through either account. So only people I know personally and my new friend Kevin from reddit. So my audience is not growing. Just to clarify, I love sharing it, it makes me giddy to see how it performs. But I am not doing it for the likes and views per se... BUT… if I want to make a living from it, I need to grow my readership. Instagram doesn’t let you do that for images, aka, comics the main thing I am doing. You have to create a video reel which will then be shared to a small number of randoms outside of the people you know. So I have to make a video to promote an image?! How much dumb is that? 20 dumb at least. And the videos seem more effort than they’re worth. Nothing seems to have come from them but that could be because my account is currently bare with only 10 or so comics/posts on there and they're not compelled to take more interest.

Tiktok by comparison seems way better. I have 0 “followers” there but I still get 200+ views  and between 6 - 20 likes per comic. And I have analytics that says people are checking out my account but it’s REALLY bare there with only 2 posts. So there is no compelitivity to join the cult there either. 

Reddit, I get most of my views from reddit but like… it’s such a dice roll. I had my best ever views and likes with the butter comic but nothing has come from it. No pledges to do my bidding (follows) on reddit, instagram, or tiktok and zero click throughs to my website.

Eh… not sure. I’ll need to keep trying things… but also, a quote from somewhere comes to mind, “Be as patient as you are persistent"