How to Make Money from Your Webcomic

Top Ten Ways To Earn a Living as an Online Cartoonist

Those who enter into the realm of creating webcomics fall into one of two camps: passionate hobbyists or those who wish to make a career as cartoonists. If you fall into the later camp, the question you ask is how exactly does one go about earning a living from cartooning, and more specifically from webcomics? Hopefully once you are done reading this article, you should have a better idea of how to do so.

Before we dig into it, just some quick notes.

Before you start trying to figure out ways to monetize your webcomic, you have to make sure that you have gained enough of a loyal readership base who would willingly fork out the cash to support anything you have to offer for sale. It makes no sense for example to start an online store for a brand new webcomic with no readers. Focus first on developing your craft as a cartoonist and publishing your webcomic on a regular basis. Post on social media, engage with your readers, get your audience to love your comic (and by extension you the creator) so much that they will willingly support anything you have to offer. Be patient, and get yourself to a point you can justify monetizing your webcomic. I wrote about the various ways you can grow an audience for your webcomic here. Give it a read. Remember, above all else, it is always the art before the business!

The other thing I want you to be cognizant of is that you have to diversify as a cartoonist. So, if you for example are creating a daily comic strip, you cannot rely on that being your sole revenue stream. The world of online comics has become so competitive, with a glut thousands of comics being published every day, that you will be a facing an uphill climb to standout and gain some traction with readers, let alone earning an income from it. There is only a select few webcomic creators that are able to earn a decent enough of an income based solely on one source of revenue. The more income streams you can think of dipping into, the more likely you are to eventually quit your day job.

Alright then, let us take a look at some of the ways you can earn that dough!

1. Subscriptions
   The way this works is that you basically ask your readers to fund your webcomic, or any other projects related to your comic, with small regular payments. The benefits of a subscription model include receiving payments at regular intervals and the ability to develop a direct relationship with your readers. There are various platforms that can give you the ability to setup a subscription service for your webcomic:
   • Patreon
   • Ko-fi
   • Buy Me a Coffee
2. Paywall
   If you have developed enough of a comic archive catalog, and your webcomic has a large enough audience, it may be time to consider putting part or all of your comics behind a paywall. This would entail restricting access to users who have paid to subscribe to your comic. A word of caution, webcomic readers are used to reading comics for free online, so you would have to have consider this route carefully. Comic creators that have been able to succeed with paywalls tend to have widely popular comics or Not safe for work (NSFW) comics. Here is a short tutorial on how you can set up a Paywall on your website with Patreon.
3. Tip Jar/Donations
   Giving your readers the ability to donate to you on your website is another way you can earn income from your comic. There are several payment gateways that give you the ability to add a “Donation Button” to your website in a matter of minutes. These include PayPal, Ko-fi, Patreon, and Buy Me a Coffee
4. Commissions
   When your comics gain a wide enough of an audience, it will be inevitable that some of your readers will want to pay you to draw for them. It may be a personal comic, caricature, poster or a greeting card. Make sure to publicize the fact that you offer commissions on both your website and your social media profiles
5. Merchandise
   Merchandising is a fun way of earning a living from your comic as it offers limitless possibilities. You can self-fulfill your products by setting up an online store on your own website, or sell the merchandise on 3^rd party dropshipping services like Shopify, Redbubble, TeePublic and Amazon Merch. It comes down to how much you are willing to take on in terms of upfront costs, shipping, storage, quality and the profit margins you are looking for. Basic rule of thumb: self-fulfill small stuff (like greeting cards, posters and stickers) and use dropship services for bigger things like t-shirts.
6. Print Collections
   This is one of the best ways for a creator to make money from their work. There is nothing like the immersive experience of reading a comic on a printed page. Print collections do involve a bit of heavy lifting and you may have to partner up with an established published company or self-publishing with Print on Demand (P.O.D.) services. Examples of P.O.D. services include Lulu, Ka-Blam, ComiXpress, Blurb and CreateSpace. It can be overwhelming deciding how to go about printing and selling your comic collections. The following article gives a good breakdown of things to consider when choosing your best options for printing.
7. Conventions (Cons)
   Aside from selling your merchandise and print collections online, another good avenue for selling your products is at comic book conventions. Cons have the added benefit of getting you to meet fans, create new ones and network with fellow creators. Popular cons include: San-Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic Con, Heroes Con, Emerald City Comicon and Small Press Expo.
8. Crowdfunding
   Crowdfunding is a great way of financing projects by raising small amounts of money from a large readership base. It gives you the ability to work on projects that you would otherwise have never considered working on. The way it works is you propose the project, request a total amount that is required for the project and then you publicize the project as much as possible. The two platforms that webcomic creators usually use are Kickstarter and Indiegogo. When determining your funding goal, make sure to factor in potential delays and unexpected expenses.
9. LINE Webtoon
   LINE Webtoon is a webcomic publishing portal that is aimed specifically at comics. Think of it as the Youtube for webcomics. It is one of the few platforms out there that pay creators to publish their comics online (the other being Tapas which we will cover shortly). LINE Webtoon provides three avenues for getting paid to publish on their website. There are certain thresholds that you have to meet to qualify for the payments.
   • Ad Revenue Sharing Program
     Creators can earn 50% from advertisements displayed on their comic pages. You have to hit 1000 subscribers, and 40,000 US monthly page views for your comic.
   • WEBTOON CANVAS Creator Rewards Program
     LINE Webtoon periodically also pays artists on their Canvas platform that meet the following thresholds: $100 for 40,000 page views, $300 for 200,000 page views, $800 for 600,000 page views and $1000 for 1,500,000 page views.
   • WEBTOON Original Platform
     Webtoon also periodically selects a group of creators that they would like to feature on their Original The featured artists are offered a unique compensation program to reward series that have become serialized within the service. These artists are regularly featured within the LINE Webtoon service to further expand their audiences and readership.
10. Tapas
    Tapas is another webcomic publishing portal that also gives creators a few ways to get paid for their work.
    • Ad Revenue
      Qualifying creators get 70% of the ad-revenue. They have to have at a minimum 100 subscribers to qualify.
    • Tapas Ink and Support
      Tapas has what they call their in-app currency (Tapas Ink) which makes it easy for creators to earn money in a fun and friendly way. Fans can support their favorite creators directly with Tapas Ink, or by unlocking episodes of their Premium series. Users can purchase Tapas Ink on the website and apps, or they can earn Ink for free by completing sponsored offers, watching video ads, inviting friends to Tapas, or participating in special events.Readers can support creators on Tapas by sending Ink to them directly. For creators, Support can be turned on from their Dashboard once 250 subscribers have been reached for any one of their series. When readers use Ink for Support, roughly 85% goes to creators (after any 3rd party fees) and the remaining 15% helps fund Tapas.
    • Premium Program
      This program gives a select few top-notch creators the opportunity to get paid regularly by Tapas. The first few episodes of a comic series are generally free to read, and the rest are unlocked via Tapas Ink. The creators receive a 50-50 revenue share, and in return, creators get professional editing and marketing. Tapas’ editors will guide the premium creators through the publishing process and they will also get proofreading and suggestions for each episode. A Premium series qualifies for special banners and marketing on the Tapas website and app, helping them expand their audience and directly reach new readers.

That should just about cover it. Hopefully, you now have a better sense of how you can start earning money from your cartooning.

Happy Tooning!