It is possible to make money doing a Webcomic, but it's difficult. Much depends on your abilities as a businessperson. It's not enough to generate large amounts of traffic through your Webcomic. You have to find ways to get those readers to open up their wallets. You can do this directly, through selling them merchandise, or you can do it indirectly, through presenting advertisements for goods and services they will buy from someone else.

Advertising on Your Site

Most Internet advertising is sold according to a CPM measurement. CPM stands for “cost per thousand” impressions (M is the Roman numeral that stands for 1,000). An impression is counted each time a page loads on your site with an ad on it — regardless of whether the reader clicks on the ad.

If you decide to sell advertising on your site on your own, you will need to buy software that rotates the banners that appear on your site. The banners must be rotated so a company doesn't use up a huge amount of its CPMs on one reader clicking through your archives. Central Ad ( www.centralad.com) and Open AdStream ( www.247realmedia.com/products/adserve.html) are two such engines.

Another option is to enter into a partnership with a company that distributes Internet advertising. This frees you from the responsibility of selling ads for your site. However, you'll receive a smaller amount of revenue since you're now splitting the profits with a third party. Furthermore, many Internet advertising companies refuse to do business with sites that don't generate a hefty amount of traffic. Doubleclick ( www.doubleclick.com), Adtegrity ( www.adtegrity.com), and Engage ( www.engage.com) are only a few of the many companies that distribute Internet advertising.

If you don't generate the kind of traffic that makes you a good candidate and you don't want to be a salesperson yourself, you still have another option. The Internet search engine Google ( www.google.com) offers AdSense. AdSense distributes ads that correspond with a Web site's content. However, you get paid only for the ads that readers click.

Selling Merchandise

Another way to produce revenue from your Web site is to sell your readers merchandise based on your comic. You can freely merchandise just about anything with your characters printed on it. T-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, posters, and books are often popular with fans.

Perhaps the best way to handle merchandising is to do it yourself. A local printer or T-shirt shop will probably offer you the best price for your budget. On the downside, you'll need to buy the merchandise in bulk — few companies can print just a dozen mugs or T-shirts. If the merchandise doesn't sell on your site, not only will you lose your initial investment, but you'll be stuck with a garage full of merchandise. One additional note of caution: You are providing entertainment to an international audience, so be prepared to handle overseas shipping.

CafePress ( www.cafepress.com) offers a service through which you can upload an original image and arrange for it to be printed on demand. They offer several types of merchandise, from apparel to gift items. They also provide an online store through which purchasing and delivery is handled automatically. They print using a heat-offset system (similar to ironons), so they're able to print merchandise in the necessary quantities after it is ordered.

Another way to merchandise your Webcomic is to arrange for the individual cartoons to be collected and printed in book form. Plan Nine Publishing ( www.plan9.org) specializes in such books for Webcomics. You must submit at least 270 cartoons in print to be considered. If accepted, Plan Nine also acts as seller and distributor of the books. The profits are split between Plan Nine and the creator at a predetermined percentage.