How can I generate traffic/$$$ for my webcomic?

Read up on SEO and make sure your site is maximized for the appropriate key words. Take a look at a site called www.hubspot.com. They have a free web site grader. They also offer some free webinars with tips on increasing traffic.

Search for blogs in your subject area and make the bloggers aware of your site. Comment on topics on blogs in the subject area (not spammy promotion, but real input) and include a link to your site. Start your own blog.

Create outside links to your site, which increases your Google ranking. Do it by creating pages on social network sites that allow you to link back to your web site. Bookmark your site on del.icio.us. (Ask friends to do the same.) Join LinkedIn and mention your site in your profile. Promote it on Stumble Upon. There are too many to list here. You get the idea.

Issue a press release on the Web announcing the launch of your site.

Good luck.

Good traffic ideas – but what about making cash online?

Well, PnT, you can’t make cash if no one knows your site is there so that has to be the first goal. That is how you will get click throughs on your Google ads.

@MrBlueSky85 PupnTaco makes a good point. What is the goal for revenue? Only Google ads? Are you selling the strips via download? Other?

If you generate enough traffic you can sell banner space to advertisers.

rickmarshall got it. once I get enough traffic, I’d like to sell banner space.

thanks a lot for the tips. it looks like there’s a lot to do. I’m also hoping I could throw a few comics on digg or reddit and see if any of them take off.

Great idea MBS85!

”Starting a blog solely to make money is like learning ventriloquism to meet girls. ”

So i looked through your site, and i feel like you have got it wrong. You have 250 comic strip pages up there and I believe thats all you have. Uploading all the comic strip at once is a bad idea because now i have no reason to visit your site the next day. Why not start by uploading only the first ten or twenty strips and add new strips everyday. This gives readers a reason to visit your site the next day.

Now to answer your question, how to generate traffic to my website: social spam.

First of all get since you are using Tumblr, why not get listed in the Tumblr Art Directory which is featured on their homepage and sends plenty of traffic. Its easy just send the editors an email with your link.
Secondly you are in college, so i am pretty sure you have a facebook. While linkedin is great for professionals, its no whereas popular as facebook. Post your site’s link on facebook. Theres a nice Facebook application that even displays the content from your tumblr on your facebook profile and the mini feed. Since the comic is about college, why not first try to get the college kids to read it ? Send an email or IM to all your friends saying how you started a new blog and to let them know what you think
As marina said, get all your blog friends to put a link to your site. Be nice to people on the internet and they will do this for you for free. For example, a while ago i helped this girl design her site for free. It turned out that shes an AOL exec and now she puts a link and my picture to my site on some of AOL’s blogs like Urlesque stories on social networking site. Also try to submit your stories to the smaller or new social networking site because you have a better chance of making it to their front page then sites like digg that get thousands of stories a day.

Heres three more important things:
1. Get your own domain – it costs only $ 8 or $1.99 if its your first time. It makes it easier to type. Also comes higher on Google search results.
2. Ditch imageshack – use Flickr. A normal person cannot browse through your images on imageshack but on flickr they can.If they like your comic on flickr they’ll blog it, giving you even more promotion. You could you flickr for future uploads to your site.
3. Users first, ads later. You just started this tumblelog two days ago. Right now your main focus should be on getting more users. Keep the ads as limited as possible. Ads turn people off and also affect the user experience in a site. Also theres no point of having an ad if your only getting like 0–15 visitors a day. If i were you, I’d wait till i had a decent amount of people visitors each day and then

As for whats the site for generating ad revenue, I will have to say its the Rubicon Project. Rubicon lets you combine all different ad networks like Google adsense, Microsoft ads, etc to have the maximum revenue. it has a nice option to customize which ad networks you want to use too.

@mirza, Brilliant!

mirza, lets be best friends, k? cuz you basically helped me IMMENSELY with every step of this so far. awesome.

you were dead-on right about featuring new content. i’d like to start with an archive already there, however, since I have a decent fanbase that would enjoy seeing their favorite strips from the paper in color instead of black and white.

a domain name is also a great idea. what site were you referencing that charged only $2 for the first one?

finally, i’m a little mad at myself for not doing flickr earlier. that’s a great idea not only because it’s better for imagehosting, but it’s also infinitely more social and could draw people to do the site. looks like I’ll have to redo the 220 posts AGAIN. (sigh)

these are all great suggestions. i’ll be sure to do a followup post as things get rolling. thanks a TON!

@misterblue: Yahoo has domains for $ 1.99 for new customers and please try sticking to a .com domain. Also i forgot to add that you dont seem to have any site analytics tool on your website that tracks visitors. Try Google Analytics.

@ztraffic: judging from the site design of wealthyandrich, it looks like spam to me.

Agree with everyone. SEO is the place to start, you need to get your traffic up, and then the banners and Adsense programs will begin to pay off. It’s all about getting that traffic started. I’d recommend blog seeding, and using your link everywhere you go on forums, or any other social community you participate in.

Wow, Mizra. Your advice is really detailed and practical!

Mr.Blue Sky – you might consider submitting your comic to competitions like http://www.zudacomics.com/
That will heighten your exposure not only to your current fans and friends, but also to the wider world of (web) comic fans. It’ll also get you friends and potential collaborators in the circle.
I had a friend who submitted his work, who ended up 4th place, got invited to the Comic Convention in SF and benefited immensely from the networking.