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Online Syndicates by Brad J. Guigar

An alternative to buying hosting for your Web site is signing with an online syndicate. These act very much like a newspaper syndicate, handling the distribution and promotion of your cartooning. Few are offering significant income to their members, unless those cartoonists are generating a high volume of traffic. However, online syndicates are still young.

There are many advantages to signing with an online syndicate. For example, many syndicates have automatic updating and archiving software as part of the hosting plan. Also, few syndicates limit their members' hard drive space, bandwidth, or data transfer. In short, online syndicates oversee the business end of Webcomics, freeing you to concentrate on the creative aspect.

Furthermore, online syndicates offer something that a Web host cannot: community. First of all, you will become part of a group of established Webcartoonists who can guide you through the finer details of publishing on the Web. Second, online syndicates cross-promote their strips — that is, they will promote your strip on the site of a larger, established Webcomic. Exposing your title to people who are already predisposed to reading Webcomics will increase your traffic exponentially.

Different online syndicates offer different services to members. For example, some of them also publish some of their members' comics in book form. Pay as close attention to their TOS and membership agreements as you would those of any other prospective Web host. Here are a few established online syndicates:

  • Keenspot ( www.keenspot.com): Membership by invitation only, but you can e-mail a submission asking Keenspot to consider your Webcomic. Your site must run banner ads and a daily cross-promotional newsbox. Profits from the site are split 50/50 between cartoonist and Keenspot.

  • Keenspace ( www.keenspace.com): Free Web hosting for Web-cartoonists, with Keenspot's automatic updating/archiving software. Webcartoonists exceeding certain traffic amount may be eligible for a cut of the profits. The waiting list for a site can be quite long.

  • Keenprime ( www.keenprime.com): Membership by paid subscription. Web hosting service from Keenspot. Several levels of hosting options for cartoonists with different needs.

  • Modern Tales ( www.moderntales.com): Membership by submission/ acceptance. Modern Tales is a subscription site, so the current strip can be seen for free, but archives and site extras are available only to subscribers. Cartoonist and syndicate split the profits from subscriptions.

  • WebcomicsNation ( www.webcomicsnation.com): Membership by paid subscription. Web hosting service from Modern Tales. Several levels of hosting options for cartoonists with different needs.

  • Purrsia ( www.purrsia.com): Membership by submission/acceptance. Purrsia is a noncommercial and nonadvertisement syndicate — the owners pay the hosting fees out of pocket. Therefore, there are no profits to divide from the Web site itself.

  • Comics Sherpa ( www.comicssherpa.com): Membership by submission/ acceptance. Comics Sherpa has connections to Universal Press Syndicate (UPS), a newspaper syndicate.

  • Wirepop ( www.wirepop.com): Membership by submission/acceptance. Wirepop is for manga-style comics only. Creator gets a percentage of the profits.

    • If your site features a new cartoon every day, you'll want automatic updating and archiving. That way, every day a new comic appears on your site and the old one gets filed in a searchable archive. Keenspot cofounder Darren Bleuel wrote a CGI script you can download at www.keenspot.com.

    Many Webcartoonists turn to self-hosting once they become established. None of the creators who make a living doing Webcomics are hosted by an online syndicate. That's not to say that it's impossible — it just hasn't happened yet.

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