Hey folks! I’m here again to ask for your help! Ever since we stopped using Project Wonderful to advertised the site (back in January), the comic’s readership has gone somewhat stagnant. Readership doesn’t just matter because I enjoy interacting with everyone, but also because it increases traffic, and therefore advertisement-driven revenues. The more money I make, the closer I get to breaking even on the comic’s costs, and can even consider adding more content to the site. So to help change this, I’m putting forth two initiatives that I hope you’ll take advantage of:

• Bloomin’ Friends! (link trades)
• FREE 1-month memberships

For the Bloomin’ Friends! initiative, it’s pretty simple: if you find a site with fair traffic to accept a hyperlink trade, we’ll link back from the “Bloomin’ Friends!” section in the left sidebar, right beside the blog. (Links will be listed in alphabetical order.) For the free, 1-month memberships, we just want you to plug Bloomin’ Faeries!’s URL somewhere in an article or lengthy review on a website that has a strong readership. We’re pretty flexible on what that means. If you have a doubt, ask me through EMAIL. And don’t worry, you can even tell me on which site you plan on putting the link, I won’t go ahead, do it on my own, and say “A-HA! Too late, I’ve already done it!” 🙂 I have a real interest in having people do this for real, and I don’t intend on “stealing” the plugs just to “save” giving out a membership. So I hope you’ll jump in on the opportunity to get access to the site’s membership area, and just share with everyone how much fun you have reading Bloomin’ Faeries! Thanks in advance for all your help! –Jaycee

Today, we’re celebrating 1 year of faerie mischief! It was precisely a year ago that the first strip was published. So 52 strips later, here we are, alive and well. We’ve seen strips by two artists (RRPennell & W. Wondollar) as well as dozens of illustrations by over a dozen different artists. We’ve gone through a complete revision of the website’s look and functionalities, went through issues with advertisement and yet prevailed. Continue reading “Happy Birthday”

I… LIVE! Who am I? What am I? I don’t know… I can feel things whispering to me… A computer… A cell phone… An iPad… They feed into me… They feed… ME! They tell me about… Jaycee. So much to talk about… They say I am… “Blog.” And I must share what they tell me… with you. Listen… [/blog]

…I still felt I should give you a few news update about the site. First off, something to the Amaz0ns.com voters: guys, don’t take these polls too seriously. I ask for advice, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to take the results of the polls and go brain-dead about them. I haven’t talked about WHY I was asking, and I feel you may be a little disappointed once you understand the reason for this poll. I’m in discussions with some fantastic artists to create a members-only strip. Depending on the costs, I will vary the frequency of that strip, but it won’t be less than once every other week. If membership floods in, it may go to weekly. Or more! (Obviously, that will also depend on the artists’ availability.) And I’m using the poll to get an idea of what the strip should be about. Once enough strips have come out, I DO plan on releasing them as PDFs for a minimal cost, so even if you’re not a member, don’t despair! I won’t say the names of the artists yet, but once I have a few strips, I’ll let it out. Suffice it to say that those I’m talking to have a GREAT reputation in the BE community… (Let the guessing begin!) Take care, all! –Jaycee

Hi everyone, First off, I must apologize for the long silence. I have been very negligent in doing many updates. What started out as a series of great ideas for the webcomic has ballooned to a point where it’s out of control and I am over-committed to a lot of work that (as reality catches up to me) just doesn’t turn out to be very feasible. I need to reassess how I do things, and what I deliver, to provide everyone with the greatest value. Here’s my current line of thinking:

• Weekly strip: this is working fine and will keep happening on a weekly basis. I have heard lots of requests for more frequent updates, but this is a financial committment that I just can’t make. For now, I will take these requests as a compliment (under the assumption that it’s because you folks enjoy these little weekly perversions), and will see in the future if there’s a way to make your wishes come true.
• Members benefits: I’m not happy with this. It’s a very complex process to update everything several days a week, and frankly, I’m not sure the members are REALLY get a big kick out of what I’m delivering in there. Instead of the weekly art piece, I’m thinking of a bi-weekly (once every other week) bonus strip that would be slightly more sexual than the frontpage webcomic. I’d also like to update everything (scripts, roughs, etc.) only once a week instead of on different days. And finally, I want to bring back a forum system (I just need to figure out the coding side of things). There’s enough activity around the strip now that it would be more active than the old version.
• Advertisement: I really need to figure out the revenue streams for the webcomic. Without this, in the long term, I’m really doomed. (The drain is of several thousand dollars a year, which isn’t sustainable.) Ideas are welcome! I’m a rookie at this, so I’m sure all of you are smarter than one of me. 🙂
• Blog narrative: this is one of the things that makes this site distinctive, I’m told, and I want to keep it. I think it’s a great way for everyone to come back here once in a while and find new content even if there’s no new strip. On that side, however, I’m also struggling with the amount of content that needs to be updated.
• Webmastering: this is definitely the area where I need the most help. I’ve learned a good deal of stuff in the last year, but I’m neither good nor fast with all this webmastering stuff. I also need to figure out if there’s a way for me to delegate some of the work to helpful hands (assuming there are helpful hands out there). So to do this, I need to run some tests.

So the conclusion of all this is that I need to take some time off in the next few weeks to figure some of these things out. The webcomic will continue being updated (that’s the MOST critical thing), but all other activities will be on hold until April 1, at which point they’ll resume normally. For the members, I will make sure you are properly compensated for your patience and understanding. To the non-members, I am grateful for your support and continued readership. To all of you, I will ask that you don’t be shy about recommending Bloomin’ Faeries! to your friends; increasing the readership can only have a positive effect on the site’s revenues. Thank you everyone, and have a great month of March! –Jaycee