Should I Have My Own Domain?
Some webcomic hosts and even collectives impose a domain name of their choice upon members.
Example: WebcomicName.HostSiteName.com
Sometimes the reason is to bind you to the site, because your address is your brand, and changing it means squandering the your investment in it. The host reaps your traffic and claims it as his own, and you are lucky to get data let alone credit for it.
If I am using Project Wonderful to advertise, and then place ads on comics hosted by Webcomic Nation, my site analytics will report all that traffic as a being from Webcomic Nation. I am forced to rely on less dependable Project Wonderful data.
Sometimes you are offered free hosting, but you have to be affiliated with the host's domain, at least initially. Later, you can often add your preferred name and set up a forward to the host's domain. However, this sort of arrangement creates havoc with your analytics reports, and it becomes difficult to track the performance of your site. I don't recommend it.
One of the messages of this site is not to set up obstacles to your success. We refer to it mostly in terms like optimization, in which we discuss smoothing the way and eliminating hassles for readers, but it's very easy to do things that make being a reader harder. We're out to flag those items and talk about how to manage them.
Your address is a big one, because no one can read your work without it. Webcomics do not derive nearly the amount of traffic from search engines that merchant sites do, but if you want to equip your site for optimum search engine performance, give your site and your webcomic the same title. Otherwise, to the search engines, you are selling two brands.
Watching and learning, I have noticed that comics often move from host domain names, but rarely change their own names. Odds are if you choose a domain name issued by a host, you will regret it and have to make the cumbersome move to your own site.
Some of the reasons people accept undesirable names which come with a host are:
- The host is free;
- They lack the skills to set up their own site, and the host provides them;
- They are using a free host/editor system to compensate for low coding skills;
- They follow the footsteps of a friend;
- An opinionated person tells them that a certain way is the best way;
- A sincere advisor offers an informed opinion that does not consider the webcomic site design elements involved in a comic's name.
You'll need to know workarounds or you won't know what suits you best.
Data transfer to and from a web site is measured in bandwidth, and hosts that charge usually offer plans: a certain amount of bandwidth per month for a set fee. If you exceed that amount, the cost can rise sharply. The dedicated hosting sites tend not to charge for bandwidth, but undoubtedly have caps in the fine print.
For people with minimal programming skills, setting up a web site feels daunting. There are workarounds for this, but it's a good time to caution readers about relying on other parties to program a web site for them. There are people who do this who are very reliable and skilled, and, unfortunately, hard to find.
There are a lot of people who can do a decent job, but a fair number will leave you helpless a lot of the time, and/or stick you with the site design they prefer. Do you really want every new idea you have for improving your website to require being able to reach someone with a busy life? Do you really want to pay them what it will take to ensure their loyalty? I have seen entire sites, even cooperatives, collapse because the webmaster wandered off. Finding a replacement can be hard because the new person might prefer a different system than the one previously chosen, and may urge a start-over.
Some of us just don't like the idea of feeling helpless regarding our own web site.
Free hosts with editors are something that excites me personally, and I use one for all my sites except my blog, including this one. I was very lucky to receive a suggestion to look at Synthasite, because they seem to be the best in the business, if their growth, prestigious awards, reviews, coding quality and customer satisfaction are any indicator.
Within the webcomic community, Synthasite is not well known, and people will often lump it into the general free host category, which includes a lot of duds. Your choices seem to be: take my informed word for it, take the uninformed word of others, or ignore us all and play with it yourself, for free, to see if you bond.
If learning basic coding takes months or even years, Synthasite requires about two weeks to get smooth, though it's not unusual for people to be doing interesting things after a few hours. Plus, they are one of the least frustrating systems of any kind to learn: they have outstanding customer services reps; their engineers and even CEO will step in to answer tricky questions, they have a help archive that is searchable, and good FAQ and tutorial resources. Plus, the other users on the help site are happy to assist newcomers when they can. I've gotten a lot of help from other users, and given some as well.
For me, Yola (formerly Synthasite) has been a good first step to enter self-taught coding. Using it helped me learn how web sites work, and I have moved into teaching myself basic languages using web tutorials. Yola offers the option of using your own domain name for about $20, meaning you can take it with you if one of your sites leaves the Yola platform. Note, however, that it's not just a matter of zipping up your Yola site and opening it somewhere else: you will generally need to clean up the code and rebuild substantial portions of your site using the files you already have.
Community free host sites dedicated to comics, like SmackJeeves, Drunk Duck, ComicSpace and ComicsGenesis, are among the packages offering you a compromised domain name in exchange for a free host/instant community, comic management system package. Some great comics have come out of these sites, or remain there today, but they are regarded, rightly or wrongly, as the home of amateur effort. This suggests they are a good place for beginners to try out some ideas, before getting serious about a resume-quality commercial effort. Your hosting decision should probably include a scout trip to each of these sites to learn what they offer.
Some people like it when you follow their recommendation, and make a pretty strong case as to why you should. I'd rather you learn your options and make your own decisions, but solutions that allow you to have a domain name worth keeping for the long term should probably be given an edge. Every external connection, from readers to links to reviews to PageRank, focuses on your unique brand. If you keep changing its address, you will lose many of these assets.
Any site optimization consultant will tell you that selecting a name is a webcomic site design commitment with long term consequences.
