Fan comic hosting advice?

[Deleted]

So uh, I think this is the right place to put this, since it is art-related...

I draw a Pokemon fan comic and post it on SmackJeeves, a free webcomic hosting site I've used for a while and know my way around. However, recently I received a complaint/suggestion from a good friend who dislikes SJ's policy of showing SJ ads on comics unless the creator pays an annual fee to give them a special, ad-free status. He thinks it would be beneficial if I put the comic someplace where it either wouldn't have any ads, or I would have some control over which ads display.

I gathered feedback from both my readers and people on the comics board on Gaia Online about this, and at least one of my readers practically begged me to keep it on SJ, while the response on Gaia suggested that most other good/paying hosting sites don't accept fan comics and I would have to learn coding and pay for hosting anyway if I used something like WordPress.

Now my friend is suggesting that I contact various Pokemon fan sites asking if they would be interested in hosting my comic, but I'm hesitant for several reasons:

- I'm not sure how well they'd take to an unsolicited hosting request
- The only fan site I myself use is Bulbapedia--I'm pretty unfamiliar with the other ones and I feel like it'd be kind of rude to basically say "hey, I have no interest in your website except as potential hosting for my creation"
- I may alienate a large portion of my SJ readerbase

I'd really appreciate the advice of those on this board as to what I should do. I'm okay with shelling out the $20/year to remove ads from the SJ site, but I'm not sure if I should be looking into other options.

[Pacmanite]

I haven't tried to host a comic online before, but I can say that if you wanted to use Wordpress, there's two versions of it - Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org. And the one I'm using for my blog, Wordpress.com, doesn't require you to know anything more than the most basic coding. I found it real easy to set up and start posting right away. Of course, the drawback to Wordpress.com is that you can only choose from a set of styles and change like the header and background images, but not the coding - but in exchange you get a free, easy site to update.

But personally, I would say it's probably better just to stay on SmackJeeves. That's where you've built your loyal readership, and it already works for you, it's free and lets you post fan comics. I'm tempted to say, ask your friend to download firefox adblocker if the ads are that annoying. Because thanks to that, I didn't see any annoying ads on your comic when I first clicked on it.

By the way, your pokemon comic is awesome. Keep up the great work.

[Deleted]

Pacmanite - Ooh, I see. Yeah, the person who told me about WP said that you need some sort of add-on in order to use it for comics, and you can only use that add-on with the version that requires you to know more coding and pay for your own hosting.

But thanks for being another SJ advocate. It really is my favorite comic hosting site and I'd hate to leave my readership in an attempt to redefine my hosting. I'll continue to consider giving the comic Donator status, but seeing as my friend's the only one who's complained about the ads so far, it may not be worth the trouble.

Thanks! I'm really enjoying drawing it.

[Komori]

Yeah, unless there's some sort of huge outcry against the ads, I'd keep it on the same site. Unless that site allows for you to automatically redirect to a new URL (which I sort of doubt it does), it's not worth having to force all your readers to learn a new URL just because a single user can't figure out Adblock. XD;

And then, even if there IS a big outcry against the ads, you could probably just start a donation pool for that $20 annual fee. Have your readers put their money where their mouth is.

[Deleted]

Komori - Good points. I think I'll just go ahead and leave the comic as-is. I get the impression most of my readers use Adblock anyway.