Building a Brand

[raerae]

Branding is a big part of webcomic business.

There was an article on Webcomic Planet

The Fifth P of Marketing also gives some food for thought.

Everything you post under your known name is linked to your 'brand'.

[LegendWoodsman]

I've read some Twitter posts about how an aspiring artist should make their screen name their real name. Because it's all about branding and for an artist, their name is their brand. I would have to agree with one caveat: If you are an artist working on multiple projects, you should definitely be using your real name. If you are only working on one project, I would side with using the project's name. The reason being that the project may require more of the spotlight.

[Gibson]

I've noticed this belonging to a few communities that blend online presence with professional interests, and I've often wondered what kind of confusion was waiting for someone who did all their networking/advertising/foruming under a name like LOLcat123 or SONICfan and yet never credits the comic to themselves. "MY GREAT COMIC by ladygagagirl" I think to myself "When they go to a con, what do they write on their name tag?"

I don't necessarily think that people should always use their real names as screen names, though it does make for less confusion, especially in a place like deviantArt. It's made a lot easier, too, when your professional name isn't your real name, which is something I encourage people to do. Gibson Twist isn't my real name, but all my work is done under it. It's probably good to have a screen name that's at least close to your professional name, like Ran or Rob, then it's a lateral move in thought for readers. I would say that if you're using a different name in networking than you want to be known by professionally, you should make damn sure your real name is on your work in big, bold letters.

[Miluette]

I kind of go with Jessica "Senshuu" Cantlope, since I neither want to eschew my web name nor want to only be known by it. Luckily that's on all my websites, so it's hard for people to forget either of them.

I'm kind of in favor of people using their real names now, but there is one special case I learned of recently where a web name got somebody more work because it was memorable: Scrotumnose. On top of just being a killer artist, he said people remembered him because of his web name. It's the only one he uses, and it's even the web address of his new portfolio website. I LOVE that. XD (Of course his real name is also on his work. It's just so badass.)

[raerae]

I know a few artists like KirikoMoth register their name as a fictious name for their business due to not wanting to use their real name.

[Gibson]

I know a few artists like KirikoMoth register their name as a fictious name for their business due to not wanting to use their real name.

That's what I do. Makes it easier to cash cheques too.

I kind of go with Jessica "Senshuu" Cantlope

That's a smart way to do it, and it harkens back to the old American Silver Age comics where everyone had nicknames. You've got a name that lends itself well to that sort of thing too. It would be less professional to be, say, Jessica "w00tgoatse69" Cantlope.

[Rob]

I used to use Quikthnkr for everything. A lot of people on the internet knew that name but when I wanted to get serious I knew I was going to have to choose something closer to a "real" name. I think the only place where Quikthnkr is still used now is DeviantArt and that's only because I haven't figured out how to change it.

Any place where Rob or Rob_T is taken I'll use RemedialRob which is a comb of Remedial Comics and Rob.

[harkovast]

I make sure everything I post links back to Harkovast.
I've even asked friends of mine to link to Harkovast from their forum posts!

[ran]

Yeah, I've made a point of using my real name on everything ever since I sold at my first convention and had about fifty girls approach my booth over the weekend and proclaim loudly 'Oh my god, it's AUGEST from deviantart! Hey you guys, it's AUGEST! Hi AUGEST, can I you sketch me something? Can I take a picture with you?'

I wanted to crawl into a hole and die I was so weirded out. So yeah, using my real name makes everything better.

[JR]

I've thought about brand-generating, off and on, ever since I read How to Make Webcomics.  What kind of extra stuff have you tried to add to your site to give your readers an extra bang for their buck.  I know that Ran has occasionally posted a video showing her work-in-progress.  Any other cool ideas?

[JGray]

I've got a few side things going. One is notes from one of the characters on the various arcana she's visited. We also have wallpapers, of course. We're doing a serialized prose story telling an early adventure of one of the main characters as well.

[Miluette]

My sites have, and always will have, tons of extra content. Now I just need to update the main content more...lol.

I love sites with lots of extra content though. Shows that the comic's more than just a comic, and that the creators have been extra-thoughtful. I totally dig through sites like that.

[Gibson]

Some people already know this, but in the past I've offered "soundtracks" with Pictures of You. They're really just lists of songs people should listen to while they read individual books...you know, seeing that I can't afford to buy the rights to this stuff. Coming up soon, with Pandora, I'm going to be launching a Pictures of You radio station.

I've toyed with the idea of recording a demo to be released when the band in the comic does one, but only if the popularity of the site increases a lot. Otherwise, cost prohibitive.

[Gar]

I've toyed with the idea of recording a demo to be released when the band in the comic does one, but only if the popularity of the site increases a lot. Otherwise, cost prohibitive.

Possibly worth it if the song's any good though, especially if you can put together a good funny video for YouTube on a low budget.

[raerae]

My co-creator for Overlord of Ravenfell wants to render and animate 3-D versions of our characters and do short films with them, which I think would be rather awesome for extra content.

Granted, her college workload it way too much for such a project right now since she has 2 animation courses, but once classes end we'll be working on it.