I’m guessing this post will make sense to no one outside of the webcomic world, but I feel the need to recognize the passing of a company that contributed mightily to said webcomic world — a company that has now passed into the ether.
Project Wonderful was an indie ad service that catered almost exclusively to webcomics and blogs. It was started by Ryan North, creator of Dinosaur Comics, and it was brought into existence as a better, nobler concept for an ad platform. It was a great and affordable way for webcomics to spread the word about their art. If you ever saw an ad for Puck, chances are it was through Project Wonderful. I’m guessing most of my readership really came from those ads – either that, or Top Web Comics. But Project Wonderful was key to my formula for getting the word out about Puck.
I’ve been using PW since around 2013, and in those five years, I’ve spent over $10,000 US on ads through them. It’s a lot of coin, but it was always money well spent, and most of that money went to independent webcomic creators who ran PW ads on their sites. Now it’s gone.
Not really sure what I’m going to do from here on in. One of the cornerstones of my webcomic approach has just crumbled. And as Ryan North noted, the whole ‘indie webcomic/blog’ thing is really dying. Indie comics are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Facebook and Instagram try to minimize external links and keep people in their walled gardens. Every month, it gets harder and harder for me to find an audience.
This doesn’t mean the end of Puck, but it does mean that a major support network has ceased to exist for me. Not sure how I’ll progress from here.
Ryan, if you’re out there, I salute you and your spunky chutzpah, sticking up for us little guys and trying to make something cool. You helped me out big. And I thank you and anyone else at Project Wonderful. While it lasted, it was, indeed, wonderful.
