Ask Samantha
Hello! It’s Wednesday and time for Ask Samantha. Every week I answer questions sent in by Life’s a Witch readers. If you have a question, please email it to me at samantha (at) witchytech (dot) com.
Q- What’s your drawing schedule like (e.g., draw for a couple hours early every morning, and finish a new strip every other day, etc.), and do you run with a buffer of strips?
- The only firm drawing time I have are the Watch Me Draw days, which is every Tuesday morning at 9am Central Time at the “Watch Me Draw” tab above or here at the uStream.tv show site. I also draw in the afternoons and evenings, but it’s not a set time. I used to have a buffer, but once I used it up, I have had a very hard time regaining it. I would love to have the comics set to go months in advance, tho.
Q- Why did you unfollow/un-friend me on twitter/facebook/something else?
- There are a few reasons I unfollow people. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like you anymore, tho. I unfollow people for too much swearing. The occasional swear word is to be expected, but if you’re constantly using them as adjectives in regular conversation I really don’t want to read that. I unfollow for too much political/religious/issue talk. Again, we all have our causes and want to support “our side” of any issues, but if all your posts are on these issues, especially if stating your side means bashing the other side, then I unfollow. If your posts are just announcements of your latest comic or blog post, I find that irritating… especially if I already get your feed, I unfollow. If your tweets are just a long string of RT’s in mutual promotion of your blog or comic with other comickers.. especially if I also follow the original posters.. I find that irritating. I may unfollow.. There are exceptions to most of these rules, of course. And there are probably other reasons which I may unfollow you. If I like you, I will re follow/friend after a time. That’s all I can think of.
Q- Some of the comics I read have a “tip” jar so we can show our appreciation with a couple of dollars. Why don’t you have one?
- I actually get asked this a lot. It is nice to know that people want to give me tips for my little comic! I have considered putting one up on a trial basis to see how it goes, but I am undecided as to how I really feel about accepting tips. I suppose street musicians and street poets do their art all the time for tips. One of my comic friends put up a tip jar for a specific purpose and I thought that was a great idea. (Keith Smith of L.O.S.T comic.. here he is opening the box of his new tablet, bought with the contributions of his friends and fans.) I may do something like that.
WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK about tip jars in general, and having one for Life’s a Witch in particular? Let me know in the comments below.
That’s all the questions this week! Send me some questions for next week at samantha (at) witchytech (dot) com.
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Comments
The tip jar worked rather well for me, I think the fact that I was offering free sketches with donations of $10 or more helped immensely.
@Chris Watkins: I agree that once you have other revenue streams in place you should remove the tip jar. However, I was catching up on some webcomic reading the other day and noticed that Question Content still has a donate link. I thought that was a tad odd.
Here is an “interesting” view on tip jars ( http://floatinglightbulb.blogspot.com/search?q=tip+jar )
@Chris: I like “sponsorship” better than tips, for sure!
@Keith: OH YES! I do remember that you gave original art out, now that you mention it. I do like that very much.
I read the article linked in Keith’s comment. The article didn’t do anything for me, but I found the comments very interesting. “Winston” used the word “patronage” which I liked as much as Chris’s suggestion of “sponsorship.” One of the non-webcomic sites I visit has a “Patron” level membership. However, this did not come about until the site membership became HUGE and it was about helping cover the cost of running the site (and you get extras like a private area of the forum, previews and extra content, etc.)
I found the comments much better than the article, but that is mostly because I think he is WAY off base with the statement that having a tip jar equates to begging for money on a street corner.
Interesting reading, Keith–thanks for sharing the link. (I liked the photo he placed with the article) 
In the end, it seems like the context around the “tip jar,” especially its name and how you solicit for it, makes a big psychological difference.
A tip jar that isn’t shoved in the readers’ faces (sort of hard to do on a Website, anyway) doesn’t bother me, although I’ve only ever tipped once. It may seem something like “good form” to take the tip jar down after a site initiates other forms of revenue, but then again, even Dunkin Donuts staffers put out tip jars in front of their registers these days
I do very much like the idea of offering something in return to the tip-givers (wallpapers are popular, but I like that your friend shared how he spent the money on tools that would improve his comic-making). In those cases, is it really even a “tip” jar, technically speaking? Maybe a “sponsorship” jar 