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A few months ago I discovered XKCD.  It was hard to ignore as every comic was religiously submitted to digg.  I ended up reading a number of strips in one sitting and found I was really enjoying the whit mixed with humor.  It wasn’t long until I started asking the question: how is this making any money?

XKCD is a very straight forward site.  There are no ads on the blog – no typical blog monetization.  So I started reading about how people are able to make a living out of giving these comics away online.  Based on some readings and models, here is a skeleton step by step to monetize a webcomic.  Before we begin, we must assume two things: One, the comic is good and say something that people want to hear.  Two, you are already familiar with how to monetize a more mainstream blog. 

4 Steps to Monetize a Webcomic

1. Give them away

The way of the subscription is out.  Free content is in.  This is nothing new, but webcomics are a different sort of beast.  Because of the ease of reading a simple strip, web traffic and page views can easily exceed the standard expectancy.  How many times have you sat and read 5 or 10 different issues at once?

With this in mind, navigation is the key.  Sometimes comics work very linearly and therefore step by step navigation makes sense.  Other times, a “most popular” list can generate a large number of page views for single visitors.  The “random” button make a lot of sense with the webcomic as you can shoot the reader into a stream and draw them into the comic through any post. The navigation you require should reflect what is best for your comic.  Make the comics easy to find and follow.