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Email any questions you have about rewards, karma or maybe a special request for a reward to bking@inkoutbreak.com.

October 8th Update : 

WOW! It is amazingly warm, and fuzzy feeling when you know that that you are backed moving forward with a project. All the shout outs, comments, tweets, and emails have made my day for the past 25. I really appreciate the support, and the compliments about my hard work. I know it is “just” some webcomics, but I like to take projects pretty serious especially when I have put a lot of time and money already into it. I get pretty motivated about comics because I am a comic creator myself ….So it is easy for me to relate to the problems we all have in webcomics. Also it really helps when brainstorming new ideas / finding values in the services already in place for webcomics. I am heavily looking forward to the work I will be doing in the next year because of this indiegogo. 

I know I haven’t been updating this campaign as much as I should have, but to me I don’t need to make a huge pile of cash plus I do have a full time job that keeps me very busy. I just needed that 1 year of full dedication to developing, problem solving, bug crushing, think tanking and brainstorming. Trust me though every bit over the $3,000 goal is a HUGE help for everything from domain names, backups, software, and I am hoping I may be able to get a real desk or a new desktop ( I am currently a bit dated on my home setup, but so be it ).

So….What have I been working on since this campaign started. I really wanted to show people how much could get done when I am just focusing on the project and not running around with my hands flailing in the air stressing about how to cover expenses. Ahhhh the power of crowdfunding. Now remember these are in the works, and things may change just a tad bit. I am always available for brainstorming ideas, or just listening to your thoughts on this or other projects ( bking@inkoutbreak.com ).

WebcomicSearch.com ( Up and Running )

Headed to your homepage / search? Try webcomicsearch.com where you will get a random comic before getting your search results from Google. This is an opt-in service just to get more eyes on webcomics. The comics used are older than 2 weeks and no older than 6 months. So no one is going to be able to see your whole archive from this site.

This is an amazingly simple idea, and it could be a huge failure but it is one of those things that once it was made it was completed. Since I announced it only a week ago the response has been quite amazing with comics like Toonhole, Maximumble,Zen Pencils, MercWorks, Blue Milk Special, Deathbulge and many more opting-in. This site will always be a simple search with a random webcomic, maybe later toss in some rating filters, but for the most part this thing is done. If you would like to opt-in either check it off at ink, or you can tweet @webcomicsearch.

I had this idea years ago, and just never acted on it. Even if its a total flop and never gets a ton of traffic, its worth a shot. To creators there is no more work then just saying “add me”, the work load for me is almost nothing.

( This is all done with a handoff from an ink api script )

The ink ad network

Webcomics can be a tricky market to advertise, and earn a good payout per your advertising. Having a comic I know how annoying it can be to earn a tiny amount of money on an adspace when you have a huge spike of traffic. I feel if you can produce traffic, that should be worth more than $0.05 for a whole day, or $0.15 per every thousand page views. To me the most valuable thing in webcomics, is readers and exposure. The more readers the better the merch sales / ad rates / and the more people talking about your comic.

When Justin Boyd ( invisible bread ) hopped on to help with the exchange, we both brainstormed about things being better. Then after 100% funding for ink I decided we should move forward. This will be a free ad network for any comic creator to use, there will be a premium account where you will have more options. The premium will link to your site, the free will link to your comic on inkoutbreak (yup thats our catch! ).

The main point of this network will be that there is a tick for tack system, every exposure you produce will be used elsewhere. These exposures can be saved up over time, and used in a burst or they can be constantly cycling out.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up adspace, you can use ink to create an adroll. You will set your daily exposure limits / or your percentages of exposures and then rotate with your other ad networks ( Project Wonderful / adsense / Hiveworks ). So a good example would be say you have 50,000 pageviews a day, you set the ink network to 1,000 you will “earn” that 1,000 exposures by randomly displaying ink + adnetworks and then once that 1,000 is earned it will only display your ad networks. Now if you set this for 10% your ink+adnetworks would continue randomizing at 10% throughout the whole day.

These spots will not be for sale, or will there be any reward system like the jackpots in the banner exchange. This is 100% tick for tack. Down the road it may be a point based system where prime spots can cost more exposures then others, but that is currently in debate right now.

Grab the premium membership for $20 for 1 year as part of this indiegogo! After the campaign ends it will be $30 per year.

The membership is to maintain the scale of the ad network, this will most likely be bigger than the banner exchange and that currently exceeds 1 million views a day. It comes down to less than 4$ per month. Or... you can just have it for free!

This is in development now, and we should have a beta going up by end of October.

Sitemapping

When ink started it was a bit of a hodgepodge way of mapping sites, I actually only had the links for 2011+ and thats only if you added your comic in 2011. My friend Kristian made an attempt at putting together a site crawler, but with no one watching it things can get a bit messy, or not crawl right. So I have looked into a few ways for creators to set up feeds / sitemaps so they can accurately map out their comic with xml. Now the basics of it is url, date, title…. these are things that a wordpress plugin can do. I want to let people ( with minimal work ) manage their list with ratings, thumbnails and inclusion in ink api projects.

Also along with listing out your data I always want to give you a way to look at your links, and your social trends. I have been collecting this data since Feb 2012, and I will finally be putting it to use. These will be graphs and reports that are created in real-time so that you can track how well you are doing.

WebcomicDelivery.com

Every week a collection of webcomics is slammed into a digital document for people to take with them and read offline. We have delayed this project a bit until we can get a quicker output and an easier way to review. You can opt in to be part of CD by checking a box in your comics settings on ink.

( This is all done with a handoff from an ink api script )

Events

So a while back I started integrating comic convetions into ink, creators could click a button and then it shows they are attending and they can put details of where they will be. I finally found a way to manage it, and it will be crowd managed on ink. This will let us hear more about cons, and also keep info very up to date. The data will also be available for export with JSON / ink api.

The readers that subscribe to your comic will be alerted that you are attending a con, or if there is just a convention in their area that has webcomics attending it will also alert them. I figure this may be a good way to get more readers out to conventions. I will also have a box you can insert into your site that will show what cons you will be attending.

Another thing I will be tying to events is the forum, being able to chat up people that will be attending may make it easier to share booths, hotel rooms, or just get together for some brainstorming.

This will probably be wrapped up around the end of November.

WebcomicWiki.com

This was started a few months back when I heard that 1 ) webcomics were not able to get onto wikipedia unless they were notable and 2 ) the wiki site that users did like and use went offline. So I started a wiki, I really have done much work on it besides installing but there are people that want to start populating it ( http://inkoutbreak.com/forum/discussion/871/project-wiki ). As this gets populated I will get more into tying the data together and providing it for output.

Old School Reader

Some people are not a fan of the ink “reader”, so I have created a little “last step taken” tracking for webcomic readers. This will just hop you to a page right before the url that is newer than

I used to have a widget on the comic sites that would keep track of the urls that users were reading while they were on the site but I removed it when I was having some usage issues about a year back before I got onto the server I am on now.

I am wrapping this up soon, should be done by December.

Things you probably do not care about :

Changelog : I will be making changelog updates of every change I make on ink, if you are the kind of person who likes to see changes or track an issue on ink. Then this link is for you : http://inkoutbreak.com/forum/categories/changelog

Webcomic News / Interviews / Articles : This is still something I very much want to do, and I started linking to webcomic news from inkoutbreak tracking updates just like I do with comics. I am still looking for a good way to present news to reader. I feel there are so many great webcomic news sources, and they fall short on how many people actually keep up to date with them ( Fleen, webcomic overlook, and many more ). Plus with things like Makingwebcomics.com where there will be classes for comic creators it would be good to have a more structured and constant news source. That is just my opinion as an outsider. I get my webcomic news from the creators I follow and their sites usually but sometimes I miss kickstarters or other newsworthy stuff. I have some ideas on how to better connect readers with news, and I hope I can implement it this year with some other peoples help.

Forming a Non-Profit : This project has always been just that to me, a project… I am looking into forming a non-profit as a company that helps the expansion of “digital comics”. It seems crazy to even type, but to me it stabilizes what I am trying to do with ink and comics. I just want to help, I have a full time gig and I make a decent living so I have never looked at ink as a business venture. Being a non-profit I think helps people understand what I am doing, and hopefully I gain some like minded people to help me as well. Hey its just a thought, I figured I would share.

Closing notes : 

Nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy, and I am glad I get to keep going with ink. I am more excited and motivated then before this campaign started. I know my projects are not perfect, and they probably never will be ( until I find a better programmer )…. but I will keep working hard on ink thanks to your support.

It has been an amazing project to work on so far. I have met some people that I can bug for the rest of my life, I have learned tons about programming and how to make a square peg fit in a round hole. I have traveled to places I would have never gone without a convention to attend, and toasted to good health with people I call friends now. I hope to keep working in comics for years to come. Either showing off the amazing talent that is online, or forcing people to enjoy my own doodles.

“Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.” 
― Winston Churchill

All that old Jazz from when the campaign started:

Getting Real with Ink

In the last 2 and a half years I have created a tool to drive new readers to webcomics, and keep up to date with them no matter how many comics they follow. Also suggesting comics to them based on what they like.

Now ink is not perfect, its far from it in my mind. I have a lot of work to do with what I have learned about the webcomic community. This is why I want to get back into developing and away from trying to cover the server cost month after month.

The ink outbreak model works traffic stats show us that at thousands of webcomic sites, and with improvement it could push even more readers to comics as well as introducing tons of new readers to webcomics as a whole.

Rewards :

Supporter List : There will be a list of names of every supporter of this campaign on a supporters page.

Personal Thank You : Each backer for anything over the 15$ tier will receive a personal thank you postcard from Brian King the creator of inkoutbreak.com.

Reader Rewards :

QUEUE Immunity : Your reading will never be interrupted by creators advertising their comics to users. All your suggestions will be completely organic.

Improved Influence : Your thumbed up comics will show up on inks main page, as well as in a community spotlight in a list of "Suggestions".

Creator Rewards :

KARMA : This is the ink currency used to promote your comic, this means leaderboard ads / jackpots / and boosting your comic into reader QUEUEs.

Supporter Image :  On each page through out inkoutbreak.com and the forum, there will be a rotating image of all the comics who back this campaign beyond the 50$ rewards. This will be a 500x200 image with your logo and characters.

Cover the Cost

The first step is covering the server cost that hits month to month. This is the starting goal of $3,000. This will keep ink running for over a year. We have recently haggled with our hosting to lower cost a bit, but as ink improves so does traffic.

The majority of the expense comes from inks free banner exchange, this is a service that we provide to creators to help them reach across to other webcomics. With over 1.2 million views a day it can take a toll on the server.

The server cost is not all I want to cover, I have a lot of things planned if we want to move forward. These things will be hush hush until we get closer to covering our first goal.

What Does This Mean for Inkoutbreak?

If we have made it this far scraping by for 2 years, can you imagine how far we could make it with a net of support. I am a huge supporter of webcomics, and I would love to see them be more accepted by people online. I don't mean shared on social networks, and read from time to time. I mean getting people connected to comics they can really dig into. This is a great time in creating content on many platforms, but I feel webcomics can go so much further still. All it takes is an audience.

That is why is for the next year I will be working hard with a few other developers to bring webcomics more into the light. This means mobile / delivery solutions for all types of readers as well as advertising in new avenues to try and reach new readers.

Sept 20th Update :

We are 2/3 of the way to our goal for one year of ink! Thanks for getting us this far.

I have updated the video, and some information on the new ink API.

The first project that will be using the ink API is just around the corner ( Oct 1st ) ComicPocket will be creating a digital "funny pages" just like we read as kids to help people discover comics. Read more at comicpocket.com 

NEW! ink API feeds ComicPocket :

The ink API I will handing data to a new service that will be creating a "Funny Pages" digital zine in a sense, this is an opt-in service and will be available for reading offline. We are hoping this helps people who have never heard of webcomics before get more familiar with the comics, just as the "Sunday Funnies" helped us find great comics like Calvin and Hobbes and Foxtrot. Read more at comicpocket.com

I am excited to see I have more time to work on ink, and its thanks to you guys. Hopefully next time I post an update we are at 100%!

Thanks again,

Brian King

No Funds to Back With?

If you are unable to back the project, don't feel like it stops at just money. Spread the word, hop onto the forum and let us know how we can make ink better for new users and yourself. Every bit of help is appreciated.

Follow inkoutbreak.com on facebook or twitter

Ever wonder how many takes it took to make a video? Even though it was short it took over 130 takes to find one that was good enough. Take a look at the bloopers.