Currently well over 2000 from the United States alone and other countries tend to visit CBO more than people in the UK.
Pageviews by Countries |
So I started again and built up revenue and then I got an email that one of the adverts Adsense popped up was of a sexual nature. So I checked because I was not having that -people viewing CBO in certain countries can get in trouble if those kind of things suddenly pop up. I checked and it was quite adult orientated. So I sense Adsense an email explaining I had specified family safe advertising only.
Adsense got back to me. They had noticed "unusual activity" on my blog. What? What were they talking about? It all boiled down to the fact that I had clicked on the advert to check it out. "We are therefore with holding your funds".
Seriously, Adsense broke the agreement and my catching them out meant I had broken the agreement. So I wrote back and explained they could shove their agreement up their arses. That was it, twice Adsense had stiffed me on payments for allowing its adverts on my blog.
I then got reminded that on the old WordPress CBO I had accumulated $50 but Adsense never paid and come a new month...it was gone.
Quite by accident I found a non-comics related blog and read it. The blog owner had accrued Adsense money and tried to claim it. Nothing from Adsense. Then the money vanished. But, apparently, he decided to set things up again. Guess what? Yep, he never got the next lot of money either. Here is another "Guess what?"....guess what he is thinking of doing after a year with "a few more visitors now"? Yeah...get Adsense back on his blog.
Once...bad luck.
Twice...you been ripped off. Learn the lesson.
"I am going back for a third try!"......do you have a responsible adult who looks after you?
So I checked -you can do the same if you want to, I ended up with ten blogs were the total Adsense never paid out was $500 in total.
See, Adsense is about getting their adverts on to YOUR blog to make money....for themselves. They are an advertising company. So, no, I am NOT putting Adsense back on CBO!
Now as a lot of those views involve seeing a post about Black Tower Comics and Books -people clicking straight on to that particular post- you might think that means there is interest? It seems not. Last month there were 59, 801 views. So, take away casual one off visitors and look at how many views a post got....combining all the views for Black Tower posts...54,000. That is 54,000 views of Black Tower posts alone in a 28 day month.
Sales from those views? The above Revenue Information says it all.
I keep trying to explain to Ben Dilworth, currently living in Japan but one of the UKs most under rated comic creators (who should be getting paying graphic novel contracts!), that comics and the Small Press is not what it was. Lots of little friends niches and if you aint in a certain clique..do you even exist??
I have always been open about my business. In UK comics that is...rarer than a unicorn walking through Marble Arch with Lady Godiva on its back. The reason has not been, as some might want you to believe for their own petty lying reasons, that I hope to get sympathy buying. That is almost black humour. EVERYONE has seen my business nose diving to a point where I have no idea how I am surviving day-to-day (that stuff I do NOT tell you) and look at all those sympathy sales!! If I could eat internet revenue statements I would!
Like with tips on the materials and tools you need to draw comics, you do not have to buy the highest quality, ultra expensive pens or brushes (IF you can draw without a computer). Cheap tools do the same thing. If you are thinking of getting into comics I want you to know it is not "Have art....look at all that money rolling in!!" Since the 1930s, comic book artists have struggled. Ask why alcoholism was such a big problem along with depression and even being homeless. And suicide.
You are going to have to work day-in and day-out, long hours (mine were around 20 hour days) and not just pop down the pub or go off to meet friends every night. You can work hard and long and produce some of the best artwork going and some cant-draw editor is going to scratch his balls and say "yeah. You need to progress a bit more in your art" and that's it. Where did you go wrong? Are you NOT a good artist??
Editors can be arschlochs who are self important because they see themselves as almost being god-like (Not every editor -Archie Goodwin was the kind of editor you hope for!) and they only care about their pay cheque and self importance. Look how some former UK comic editors are parading themselves as wonderful gods who did so much good....look at the hangers on wanting some of that brown nose glory. You go by the hype and books and you ask "If he was so fantastic, such a fantastic thinker who was keeping these great comics going...what happened?" They will say "Oh it is YOU the public. I created these works and you lot could not appreciate it and buy the things!"
No. Crooks and incompetence ruined comics in the UK...and to an extent the US (though the US survived!).
If you are going to get into comics know the score. No one wants to buy your work (not in the UK anyway) so self publish? Look at the books and genres on my online store -90+ titles and 9 pages. Over the last year a couple million have seen my posts. Sales are very rare. Be aware of that and if having an empty stomach is "not you" get out quickly!!
Now, I need to go eat...the feckin mice are NOT getting that cheese!!
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