Projects — Ed Appleby

Goals

After a short analysis of the project, we identified a few goals and problems that the new user focused design will have:

Increase readership: Readership had been dwindling over the years, from a high of 2000 unique views per day to just 150-200. The new site should assist in bringing in new readership.

Increases the ease of rereading. In the years since Ed's R Us started it has moved to a more serialized, longer form story from the daily strips that It began with. The new sites should be easy to navigate, bookmark and jump into.

Monetization. Currently the site makes money through advertising, and Pateron subscriptions, as well as convention appearances where the author sells the books. There is no online store. 2016's income from the site was around $400 in total. The author would like to make more in order to support the comic's growth.

Streamline the posting process. The current site is very outdated with regards to it's social media features. The difficulty has lead to no social media posts in months, and over a year since the last Patreon post. This is an area that will affect the first goal and make it easier on the artist to continue their work.

The Brand Identity:

The brand identity we are working with is fractured. There are two comics under the author, with other works in progress.

Ed's R Us is a serialized urban fantasy, with a funny optimistic tone. It is heavily inspired from Mythology, Fantasy RPGs and Pop culture, as well as '90s sitcoms.

The other regular comic is Betty and The Beast, which is primarily a '90s style sitcom, with some sexual and pop culture overtones.

The artist and his works focus on relationships, optimism, humour, satire, and a very “Pacific Northwest” tone.

Literature Review

In reviewing several reports on demographics and trends in the realm of comics & webcomics I stumbled across some interesting notes:

- Trends in comics, conventions and webcomics are showing that the number of female readers are growing, and are effectively half of all fans. Traditional “Comics” skew more male, while Fantasy skews female. The majority of these women are under 30. These women tend to visit conventions and spend money as much as their male counterparts. (MTV: 12/22/2015)

- While traditional comics are mostly catering to the +30 male demographic. Digital comics pull more of a 20-30 mix. As the diversity of comics expands, so does the age spread of readership (Newsarama 2/2/2017)

- Library comic books, both digital and hardcopy, are skewing young, with 40% of readers between 18-25 and 25% under 18. (Boopsie 1/21/2017)

- Monetization of comics are leading towards Patreon. Most users find ads inconvenient or annoying, and they tend to yield low returns. Website traffic really doesn't matter anymore, as most people will read the comic on social media. Social media, constant updates, and fan base building are all being used to support Patreon subscribers. (Observer, 11/16/2015)

Contextual Inquiry:

In interviewing and talking with other creators;

- consistent updates are more important than frequency.

- Social media focus for most are on Instagram and Patreon.

- Most have low page views, but a few fans that are massively supportive.

Success Matrices:

We will gage the success of the project through the following measurable factors, to be measured 3 months after launch;

- Daily Unique views to increase by 200% (from a monthly average of 100 to 300)
- Average Daily page views by 1000% (from 432 to 4320)
- Increase Social Media Superscriptions by 200%
Facebook: 117 to 234
Twitter: 69 to 138
Tumblr: 30 to 60
Instagram: 143 to 286
- Increase Patereon monthly profits by 300%; From $8 to $25
- Reduce number of steps per post: (Post working files to Patreon, upload to site, Tag images, Post to Instagram, Repost to Tumblr, Post to Patreon.)