I put in about 20-30 hours a week on my online projects. This includes working on my webcomic, PSI, and the webcomic podcast, The Webcomic Beacon. Aside from those two main offenders, there are several side projects which are incomplete, that I would like to finish, but probably won’t. Plus I work my real job on the weekend (overnights), and sleep during the day. My “free” time is filled with a LOT of things that don’t net very much income… well, none really. I maybe may ~$20 a month on ads. If I want to keep doing what I like, there’s a few things I’m going to need to do:
- Earn more on existing projects (via ads or merch).
- Increase the audience of my projects (this helps #1).
- Cut back on the number of projects I am doing.
- Sell myself for assorted services, such as coloring, podcast production, or site creation.
Now I know I’ve mentioned dropping The Webcomic Beacon as a project a couple of times. For now I’ve decided to cut at least one Sunday a month, to give me more time for other things. The podcast alone can take me 5-7 hours alone, for any given episode, for everything involved. People needn’t worry about The Beacon for now. I’ve committed to several shows, of this format, through May 2010.
My comic, PSI, is something that keeps me sane. So I always plan to keep doing that… at least until I can tie off all the loose plot ends, and bring everything full circle, essentially completing what I’m dubbing “Act 2″ of PSI. Other small projects may pop up. I have 3 short comic (less than 10 pages), sorta planned, and a couple other longer comics I’m still generating ideas for… but these will likely need to wait.
In the mean time, to avoid getting a 2nd job, and thus, severely affecting my web projects, I’ve decided to sell myself. I get paid less than $11/hr plus benefits for my night job. I figure I’ll start selling myself at a rate of $10/hr for almost any job I can do from home. I’m likely selling myself short, as I’ve been told, but I want to see how this goes. If this goes really well (and I mean REALLY well), I may need to increase my rates for demand… but that’s a big if.
Jobs I’d be able to do (but not limited to):
Comic coloring; Podcast recording and production; or WordPress webcomic website conversion/creation (using Webcomic+Inkblot).
Commissions could be a possibility too, but that may have to be per piece, as my drawing skills are not swift enough for a timed wage. Coloring is something that can vary depending on how you want it colored (I can try a few samples for you). Podcasting recording and production will likely take a total of 2.5-3 times the length of the actual podcast length (i.e. A 30 minute podcast could take me a hour and a half, from recording to full master… or just 1.5 to 2 times, if just a quick master).
For the WordPress site creation, it entirely depends on how many comics you have, and even if you are converting from a different webcomic WordPress publishing tool. I can help design and create the website for you, on my computer. We can set up a WordPress wherever you have space with access to a database, and I can create the theme, and set all of the comic images in places to work as they should, in order, etc. This would likely take a lot of time to do, but I know my way well enough around WordPress and Webcomic+Inkblot, to set someone up with something they can use.
You can see my website work here: PSI, Ardra, Hidden Disguises, Between Failures.
