A hearty thank you to everyone who submitted a survey. I wasn’t sure how useful it would be, but I’m glad I did it. I need to go through and pick out the winners and the grand prize winner (custom sketch). I will post those results soon. In the meantime, here are the results. You can get the main idea from the summary or read further for more detail.

Summary – The Big Picture

There was one loud and clear message from the survey. It’s the comic, stupid. Of all the peripheral things that I tend to worry about or expend energy, the only thing that really matters is the comic strip. Anything else is a nice-to-have but no big deal.

Second, they want more. More updates was the most common suggestion. Along with that was a minor sub thread of wanting to move the pace along a bit, with the caveat that some of those people understood that the pace was due to the twice a week update schedule. One person even remarked that when they read the comics as a group in the archive the pacing was just fine.

Third, RSS seems to be the choice of most readers in how they consume the comic, and many of those people rarely if ever visit the site. I will definitely do some follow up on you RSS folks. I want to find out how I can serve you better.

Fourth, what keeps people coming back is the story and the characters. That is definitely a big win for me.

Fifth, in regards to supporting the comic, many people are readers of many comics online. Supporting one can be difficult. There’s also a reflection of the economic troubles we face today. There were a handful of folks who would like to support the comic but don’t have jobs, or have jobs but are limited in their means. (Which is fine, the fact that they are reading is definitely a means of supporting me!)

There seems to be some interest in other things other than the book that I might offer. Most surprising was something like a 20% interest in donations. I’ve never once gotten a donation when I’ve had buttons available. (In fact, one is available now). I’m not big on pushing it, and maybe that’s why. I also think it helps to get something back for your donation. Something I will think about.

Lastly, there was a serious lack of negative input. I asked for honesty and I really feel I got it. There were a few critical comments. But by and large people seem really happy with the strip, and that’s very gratifying.

I do think there might be some confusion about what I mean when I talk about Marooned as a business or having Marooned help support me financially. I’m not looking to quit my day job! I don’t think Marooned is the type of thing that will take off and suddenly become wildly popular. It feels more like a niche thing, and that’s fine.

I do think it’s good enough to eventually grow into something modest, if I keep improving. My main interest is turning Marooned into a positive cash flow thing instead of a negative one. Right now it *costs* money to produce Marooned. Certainly not a lot, and it doesn’t strain my budget. Basically we’re talking hosting and art supply fees (which can be more than you realize) as well as some small cost for advertising. But still, I’d rather be on the good side. The old “pizza money” income would be just fine by me, and that’s more along what my short term goals are. I hope that clears things up on that account.

For more detail, continue reading.

Question: How did you first learn of Marooned?

Nearly 60% of respondents stated they saw some kind of ad on another comic site. I must say I was quite surprised by this. I knew that my advertising was working to some degree, but I didn’t realize it was such a large number. That makes me feel good about doing it, and I will certainly continue to do so.

For other comic creators out there, if you are wondering if Project Wonderful is worth it, I think this is a pretty clear signal that in my case, it has definitely been fruitful.

Secondly, many readers saw my comment on another comic and followed the link to my site. I don’t think it’s any secret that comic authors post to other strips in the very hope that this might happen. While I’m certainly aware of it, I don’t go around posting comments to other comics hoping to snag readers. Frankly I hardly have time for doing that sort of thing. But I do occasionally comment on comics I like. It only makes sense that those people might like Marooned since I like the same comic they are reading.

The other category was quite a mixed bag, and not everyone was clear about it. Some heard from a friend, one person got some kind of flyer at a convention that had Marooned on it, some heard from a podcast or another comic artist.

Comic Rank and Reviews accounted for a small handful. I’ve always felt that reviews were nice but didn’t lead to users, and that’s pretty clear in my case. It seems the main people who read those reviews are other artists or the person being reviewed, but that’s about it. Maybe some of my readers have read reviews I’ve posted, but they are already readers, so there’s no gain.

Lastly we have Facebook. One person. I’m not finding the Social Networking game working at all for me. Again it seems that those who have joined my Facebook page or Twitter are already fans. I don’t seem to connect with anyone new that way at all. In addition, I’m not even sure the current connection with these services is of any value to the readers. As stated in the summary, the readers only care about the comic and they consume that comic directly via RSS, e-mail or the site. Even were I to provide extras to these social services, the feedback I got suggests people are not really interested in the extras to any serious degree.

While it’s possible I’m “doing it wrong,” I rather feel like the effectiveness of Social Networks is overblown. Twitter in particular is one big waste of time, I am finding out, regarding the connection of me to my readers. There are only a couple of readers that connect via Twitter, and the majority of them are other artists. That’s fine, but it doesn’t grow my comic. (Note, I’ve had upwards of 1,400 followers on Twitter at one point, so it’s not like I wasn’t trying to pull people in.)

Question: How do you keep up with the comic?

The majority of respondents cited RSS feeds as their primary method for consuming the comic. It’s difficult to gauge how reflective this is of my total readership, because it’s difficult to gauge true numbers of readers. Comic Rank puts me at around 1,200 right now, which would put the 100 responses at less than 10% of readers. Were RSS readers more likely to respond to the survey? I have on way of knowing.

It’s probably safe to say a majority of readers use RSS, but I’m not sure it would actually be above 40%. That does bring up the question of how could I serve those people better? There were a couple comments asking for more links in the feed or separate feeds (comic vs. news). There was even one suggestion that I remove the comic from the feed so they’d visit the site. I doubt that is what most people want though.

I think it’s important I get a better feel for how these readers interact with the comic via their readers. I will be asking some follow up questions via polling in that regard soon, so see how I can improve things for them.

Lots of people still doing it the old fashioned way, just typing in the URL and coming to the site. Frankly it’s hard to say what “Your own custom bookmark” really means. I have some insight based on analytics. I believe some of those answers would be social bookmarks like Delicious, I’ve seen custom HTML pages with links, Netvibes, and there are also quite a few comic bookmarking sites out there. It’s a good sign that people are making sure they have some kind of reminder to return to the comic.

Only a few e-mail subscriptions. Feedburner reports I have 44 e-mail subscribers (some of which are inactive.) But that number slowly grows each month by a few, so people do use it. I think it’s definitely something worth having. Not everyone likes or understands RSS, particularly the older generation like my parents (who use e-mail to keep up).

Question: In what ways might you support the comic?

Lots of positive response for the book, although with one caveat. There were a good amount of people who checked the book, but then listed reasons why they probably couldn’t buy one at this time. Some of it was economic trouble, or just general financial tightness. Some few mentioned how the shipping cost would be prohibative based on their location. (Not necessarily true with First Class/Air mail – we’ll see how that shakes out.) While you can never base future orders on what people say in a survey or poll, I’m encouraged by the interest in the book, that it may at least sell the number I need to pay for the initial order.

A good number of people showed interest in a floppy comic which is really ODD. Because there is a floppy comic available for purchase right now at IndyPlanet and it was also available at Heavy Ink for awhile, and the site links there – and I have had hardly any orders at all for it (in fact, only ONE order at IndyPlanet). Is this possibly an RSS issue? Do those people not know? Is it a problem with the comic – the content is too old? Hard to say. I hope to produce some more floppies in the future with fresh content and see how they do.

As I said the donations interest surprised me, because when I’ve put buttons out there nobody has ever donated. I may try something in the future and promote it more to see what happens, but I’m not crazy about asking for donations. Perhaps if they get something in return, it would be better. It’s more like a transaction that way.

There was scattered interest in art and prints, again interesting because these things have been unsuccessfully offered in the past. (As in ZERO sales). Maybe it was my method. I should mention it has been quite some time since I last offered these things though, and the comic and my readership has definitely changed.

There were 10 people who showed some interest in some kind of figurine. I’d love to do something like that, but man is it expensive. Time will tell. (Same thing goes for plushies).

There were some good suggestions that I will be looking into. I think there’s things that my readers want if they were presented properly, at a fair price and were quality items.

Question: Tell me one thing I can do to increase your enjoyment of Marooned. It can be about the comic or the website.

Here we see the resounding call for more comics! On the one hand it’s flattering, and I’m glad I’m leaving them wanting more. But it’s discouraging too, because I’m doing nearly all I can right now. I know many folks realize how much work goes into the comic. I’m not sure people realize that I essentially do a Sunday sized comic twice a week – double size. It’s generally six panels, or fewer than that, but with a big panel or two. The amount of work really equates to four updates a week. It just happens to fit better in two updates for my writing style and how the story works.

Steve Ogden has suggested to me on multiple occasions that I ought to stop messing around with side things like movie trailers, guest strips and such and do an extra update. While he has something of a point, I’m not doing those things all the time, and sometimes time spent on those things has bled into family time, and that’s not a good thing.

I think the best thing I can do at this point is put aside any side projects and post extra updates when time permits. (I did this a week or so ago.) That is probably what I will try and do.

The second most popular response was “do nothing.” I was surprised at how many people just said to keep on keeping on. Good to hear.

There is some interest in side and back story, but that goes to my point above about extra updates. It would have to be one or the other for now. And I think people would prefer more updates.

There was a handful of comments for a faster pace. I addressed this in the summary. The issue is really the update schedule, not the pace of the story.

A couple comments for navigation on top of the comic. This will be added in the new redesign, and maybe sooner. A couple people asked for a calendar archive instead of a list archive. Frankly I hate those. But I will probably do a poll and see what people want. Maybe I could have both.

Question: Do you find “extras” like the Marooned movie trailer, FlashPuppet Theatre and Encylopedia Maroonica valuable and worth exploring?

The majority of response for this question was that these things are not necessary. And again this goes to the update issue. While some people enjoy them (and some people say it even enhanced their experience of Marooned) it’s still the comic that is the main thing they want to experience. In addition, most RSS followers had no idea these things existed. Again an issue of am I serving the RSS folks properly. The lesson here is that the comic must take precedence.

Question: What do you like most about Marooned?

The resounding answer here was Story and Character. I couldn’t be more pleased with the answers. There were lots and lots of nice comments in this field, and some people really elaborated on their favorite characters. I think this is a big vote for as an artist “do what you think is right and forget everyone else.”

That’s it. Again I’m very happy with the results and I will definitely be changing some peripheral things to make things better for the reader, but I can guarantee that the comic will continue as it has been. Straight out of my twisted mind directly to paper.

Thanks for reading!