I was researching how to attract more visitors to Harold the Astronaut. Basically because more people need to know about this comic. Right above these words are drawings of a kitten and a gorilla astronaut—a kitten and a gorilla astronaut! Who doesn’t need that in his or her life?

Anyway, most everyone’s advice is the same—make a lot of comics, make them on a regular schedule, tell people about them using social technology (which isn’t, I was sad to learn, robots that you befriend—but, boy, I sure wish it were). Post on webcomic message boards. Hand out business cards at trade and boat shows (not really, that’s my own idea). Buy ads. Etc., etc.

I think everyone’s advice is the same because there’s no real effective way to put eyes on your work. Like, if I were looking up advice on how to secure a home loan, there would be a few very concrete pieces of advice I could use to secure a home loan. And upon successfully using that advice, I would have a decent home loan.

But that’s totally not the case with promoting your webcomic! I could take every piece of advice I find, and I might still never get a home loan—if you know what I mean.

Plus, judging from this post on Kate Beaton’s Tumblr, every other person in the world is currently drawing a webcomic. And when I submitted Harold to a webcomic directory, I was shocked to discover 20,000 comics registered there.

Cause for pause!

But here’s my point (finally): one bit of advice I decided to take was starting a Tumblr. (Never have been able to figure out that missing “e.” Did they blow their vowel budget on the “u”?) So there now exists a Harold the Astronaut Tumblr site, where I’m going to post rough drafts, miscellaneous sketches, and other bits of Harold ephemera I have floating around.

Who knows? Maybe this’ll be what primes the pump! Stranger things happen every day!