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"