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News
7/31/08–12/28/08
December 10, 2008
I Have Absolutely No Idea What I’m Doing, and Clearly I Must Be Stopped
That blog-gy/comment-y thing you see (or perhaps, don’t see) above these words? It’s something I’m trying out. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get it to do what I want it to do, and therefore I may dismantle it shortly in a fit of pique. I have only a very tenuous grasp of this kind of stuff, so the only way I can ever know what something is going to do is to slap it up on the site and tinker with it while the world watches and smirks. Anyway, I’m tinkerin’ as we speak. I could go into detail about what I’m trying to make it do, but I have even less interest in trying to explain that as you would likely have in reading about it. So, anyway, there it is, a little comments section that you may use or ignore, and please be aware that it may disappear at any time (and your comments along with it), so if you think you’re on the verge of making The Most Important Statement of Your Life, I’d suggest not doing it here.
Oh, and no cussin’, neither.
December 3, 2008
But Who are You?
I’m trying to increase my readership by purchasing advertising on various sites, but I confess I don’t really know what I’m doing. My main problem is one of not really knowing who my audience is. This strip is designed to have broad appeal, but therein lies the dilemma… it’s a lot easier to market to a targeted group than to “the world”, which is what I’m trying to do. A few people have suggested to me that there are “groups” that I should be targeting, and I just need to find out what they are.
Well, okay. I’m going to need help with that. I’m going to ask everyone who is willing to do so to post here and answer some basic questions. I know, it’s obnoxious. Hey, no one’s forcing you to do it.
November 4, 2008
Now That the Horses Have Fled the Barn…
I was finally able to determine the source of the ads I mentioned yesterday (see below), and have taken the necessary steps to prevent them from being displayed on my site. Of course, since the “steps” amount to “typing a URL and clicking a button and hoping that actually does something,” I’m predicting the ads will disappear from my site about an hour after the polls close in California. I’m about as cynical about technology as I am about politics.
Which should not be taken to mean I don’t urge everyone who lives in these United States to go and vote today, because I do, in fact, urge you to do exactly that. Happy Election Day, américanos.
November 3, 2008
The Views Expressed Do Not Necessarily Reflect, Bla Bla Bla…
I noticed some ads popping up on my site today urging folks to vote a certain way on a certain proposition in a certain state that I happen to live in and it happens to be the opposite way I’ll be voting. The views expressed in the ads are solely the views of the advertisers, and do not reflect my personal views, merely my personal inability to control the ads that appear on my site. Most people would probably presume this to be the case, but I’m just steppin’ up here to add that extra layer of assurance. You can never be too careful.
The ads on my site are served by various Internet advertising networks. Most of these networks allow publishers (that’s me, in this case) to automatically reject certain “types” of ads (read “adult”), but sometimes their opinion on what constitutes “adult” may differ from mine, or yours. Just know that I do my best to keep your innocent eyes shielded from the evils of icky pornography and ickier partisan politics.
By the by, if you ever see some ad that offends you so horribly that you can’t resist e-mailing me to tell me about it, feel free to do so, just be aware I may be powerless to stop it. Often it’s hard to track down which ad network is serving the ad, and in some cases I’m unable to do anything about it anyway. It’s sort of like a drive-by shooting, but with less blood and more bad composition, gaudy color schemes, and inappropriate typefaces. Oh, how those inappropriate typefaces gall me.
October 18, 2008
“The Next Round” is Here!
That's the second Out There book collection, featuring 23-pages of all-new material, plus the entire second year of the strip. You can order it here, and you’ll make my day if you do.
October 13, 2008
New Feature! Storyline-Based Archive Navigation
New to this site, that is. Other webcomics have been doing it for years, but I'm a little slow sometimes. Anyway, mosey on over to the Archives page, and you'll see a spankin' new drop-down menu above that familiar monolith of a calendar. Ideally, this makes it easier to find that specific strip you're looking for. As a practical matter, though, the difficulty of deciphering my cryptic story titles probably defeats the purpose. But hey, it looks cool.
Also, always remember you can use the Oh No Robot search function at the bottom of this page if you know a few of the words in the strip you're looking for.
October 7, 2008
“Fortune” smiles on me
If you're not familiar with MJ Almon’s and Mel Olm’s brilliant historical farce Fortune's Fool’s, I urge you to check it out; I've been a fan of this fun and unique webcomic since its inception. It’s still a pretty quick read because updates have been spotty in the past but it seems the duo have all their ducks in a row now and are spitting out a page every coupla weeks. And what pages! You’ll have to see them to appreciate them. Anyway, Mel, the artist, recently surprised me with a stunning rendering of a petrified John flanked by a positively sinister Miriam and Sherry. You can see it here. And yeah, it's embarrassing that everyone who submits drawings of my characters draws them better than I do. But I'm stubborn, I keep drawing ’em anyway.
August 1, 2008
WOWIO Redux
Well, that was fast. WOWIO has already roped in a sponsor, so if you click here you can start downloadin'! I guess the free PDFs will be available from time to time, and right now is one of those times. Happy downloading!
July 31, 2008
The WOWIO Deal
WOWIO is (or was) a company that had a web site you could go to and download free e-books (PDFs). The first two years' worth of Out There strips, compiled into ten volumes, were among the goodies that you could get for free. Many of my readers took advantage of this, and while they were getting free PDFs, I was getting paid by WOWIO for each download. All was right with the world.
WOWIO is now under new ownership, and things have changed. The good news is that you can still go to the WOWIO site, and the Out There e-books are still there. As things stand right now, though, you can't download them as PDFs anymore, but you can now view them on the website without downloading them. I make a little bit of money from this, but it's not as good a deal for me as it used to be. That's okay; I'll survive.
The downloadable PDFs will return if and when WOWIO is able to find advertisers to sponsor them. This may happen soon. It may not happen ever. I'm hoping that it does, because I'll be getting paid per download again, and anyway, the idea of free books appeals to me. But we'll just have to wait and see.
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December 28, 2008
I Gave Up
The two commenting systems that I briefly featured on this page are gone now; I just didn’t have the time or smarts to figure out how to make them do what I wanted them to do. What I wanted was a system that:
If there’s anybody out there who knows how to do that and can walk me through it, please let me know. Meantime, my apologies to anyone who had grown fond of the comments boxes; to me, they only served as a glaring monument to my technical inadequacy. I felt the best recourse was to smite them.
Milestones
To celebrate the new year and the 800th Out There strip (December 30), I’ll be trying something new later in the week. I’ve had it with Out There being stereotyped as a highbrow, elitist, self-consciously intellectual strip. Mark my words, those labels will come crashing down in a matter of days. You’ll see.
December 21, 2008
Still Tinkerin’
So now I have two comments systems on the home page, and neither of them are doing what I want them to do. I must again warn you, one or both of these commenting systems are going to be shown the door, so please don’t get mad at me if your comments go away. I would like to say thank you for the many suggestions I’ve gotten with regards to blog commenting systems, advertising, marketing, and the like.