Mirror, Mirror,
On the wall,
One webcomic site?
Or do I do them all?
Nowadays there are a plethora of options available to creators and the question is no longer where to post your work, but how many websites should you feature it on? Do you opt in for exclusivity on one site or spread the love across multiple platforms? This is the first of a two-part article discussing why and where to post your beloved creation and how you can get eyes on it.
A quick google search leads you to a variety of opinions. There are users that believe placing your webcomic on multiple sites opens you up to spreading yourself too thin and potentially dividing your audience base. Others believe it maximises the chance of your work being seen and, in turn, raise its profile in the general internet zeitgeist.
The trend these days is to upload your work on different sites as a user’s behaviour is to source content from multiple platforms, be it video streaming, news and current affairs or music. The internet allows people to shop around. It is not uncommon now to be able to follow an artist on different webcomic hosts. In next Friday’s post I’ll go through some of the top ones on the market and one that is on the horizon, so be sure to tune in for that.
The question remains then, how many?
There is no rule for this.
Generally, creators post their work to the big two, Webtoons and Tapas (more on those next week) and then maybe a third community they are particularly attached to. In our case, we posted to four, including the two I just mentioned. Webtoons and Tapas had huge audiences for us to tap into. This, from a marketing perspective, was our best option. Smackjeeves had been a giant in its day and it had the added benefit of forums for us to engage in, so we included that in the mix.
As for our beloved Drunk Duck? This was a personal one for me. Drunk Duck gave me my start in webcomics many years ago. I met so many wonderful people here, and though it had been a while, they were always warm and inviting. This was less about analytics and more about the community we wanted to join.
So you can see that there was a mix of strategic thinking and emotional connection to the communities we wanted to bring our work into.
These are just some of the things you need to ask yourself when considered whether to mirror your webcomic and where. Next Friday, I’ll be presenting a rundown on which sites creators mirror on and why they might be good for you.
Don't forget! If you do have a mirror Drunk Duck has you covered! 
We also have versions for those who've been featured… or just want to pretend they have :D
Go ahead, use whichever you like!
Leave a comment letting us know where you might mirror your comic and how your experience has been.
Till next week!
Mirror, Mirror Part 1
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Dec. 8, 2017
4 likes!
©2011 WOWIO, Inc. All Rights Reserved Mastodon
cdmalcolm1 at 6:38PM, Dec. 9, 2017
I was thinking about join WebToons for the scrolling feature and music option. SolarCell Will be on WebToons Next Year as a Scroll-er comic. Right now, I'm testing DD to it's limits on a page submission as a scroll-er. Once I figure it out, I'm going reformat SolarCells Pages Here to Match the one I plan to put on WebToons.
phinmagic at 6:01PM, Dec. 9, 2017
I started with Comicgenesis, then joined Drunk Duck. Ive been over at Rampage, Wevolt, then hosted at Old Dying Kitty and now my own domain. I've come back to Drunk Duck, cause I missed the community.
Banes at 3:46PM, Dec. 8, 2017
Agreed with KL and UB - I started uploading to comicfury when the Duck went down but let go of the massive archive upload shortly after the Duck resurfaced! For the few readers over there i wouldn't mind getting the whole thing up at some point! Welcome to the weekly newsposting; good topic!
usedbooks at 12:52PM, Dec. 8, 2017
KimLuster brought up a valid point. It's very hard (nigh impossible) to add a mirror after you've established an archive, so plan ahead. I didn't have all my archives on my own domain for a long time. (It is also a good idea to have at least one mirror/backup. Things can happen to any host, and a storm shelter helps.)
fallopiancrusader at 10:49AM, Dec. 8, 2017
I do some of both. GirlsquadX and Rimjob are only hosted here. Mindfold, my only active webcomic, is also mirrored on Comic Fury and Smackjeeves. I just figure that the myriad webcomic communities don't completely overlap, so mirroring gets more eyes on the product. I also upload some individual panels to ArtStation and Conceptart.org, just as stand-alone art pieces. I have an archive of all the comics that I have ever done, which is my own website under my own domain name. I just use that as a portfolio website. I doubt that anyone ever stumbles across that one unless I personally direct them.
Ozoneocean at 7:28AM, Dec. 8, 2017
Yeah, we went down badly at times, but mainly due to site and company management more than programming. Now we have management that are 100% focussed on the site and programming that runs lean, and a site that runs of expensive, super stable systems with backups and redundancy. We don't have the features of the others but I would say that neither Webtoon, Tapastic, Comic Fury or ANY of the rest are as stable as we are now or have the same gold plated level of hosting. All of them will crash and go comatose before we will now. ^_^
bravo1102 at 7:26AM, Dec. 8, 2017
Battle of the Robofemoids and Mask of the Aryans both have mirrors on Comic Fury. Interstellar Blood Beasts was about two thirds done when the site's owners proved how intolerant and mean spirited they are.
KAM at 7:01AM, Dec. 8, 2017
When the Duck was down for over a month that last time I did create a mirror at Comic Fury because there was a local mini-comic con and I wanted to hand out cards with a link to my comic that could actually be seen. There are some nice features over there, but Comic Fury readers only comment on my comic once every three months, so I prefer the readers over here. The Duck is much friendlier.
KimLuster at 6:23AM, Dec. 8, 2017
I've looked at other sites and DD seems the most amenable to my wants and needs (for a variety of reasons). I looked hard at other sites after being here a year or two, but decided my comic the Godstrain was too far into the story to load 200+ pages to another site... With my new project, the Good Walker, I may give this some more thought...
usedbooks at 4:33AM, Dec. 8, 2017
I joined DD in 2007 because reviews if webcomic hosts said it had the most welcoming community and the most html customization (this was before html customization here got shackled). When DD went comatose for the fourth time, I knew a mirror was advisable, so I upload to my own domain. I also upload to Deviant Art. DD is basically primary while my paid domain is a mirror since it contains no community, just a safe, stable place for my work.
bravo1102 at 3:38AM, Dec. 8, 2017
Just too lazy. I barely have enough time to post pages to this site.
plymayer at 12:23AM, Dec. 8, 2017
DD was my first ever comic web site. Both because I found it first and because I posted here first. The community is very supportive and full of knowledge. Been to and joined a few others over the last few years. Comic Fury has a mirror of X_Up (called X-it). Pretty much just post to these two. The others have their good qualities but would not like the stuff I post as a lot of it is NSFW.