Starting a Webcomic for Beginners

Steps to Get Started 

1. 
   
   

   
   
   Get a "niche" idea:
   
   Think of your audience. A niche idea is a nice idea. Who is going to read your webcomic? If it is office workers, a Dilbert-like webcomic will be popular. If it is geeks who you pander to, maybe a xkcd-like blog is what you are after. Trying to be a generalist is difficult with a webcomic audience (although by no means impossible).
   
   If you want to please the nerdy, digg, reddit, slashdot crowd your webcomic needs to be geeky and nerdy. If your audience consists solely of entomologists maybe writing about insects is the best way to get their attention.
   
   You need to be observant in your field (that child picked up a used diaper: can I make a funny cartoon out of that?) and have a notebook to jot down your ideas. Always keep your audience in mind and think what they may find funny. Although nobody will stop you from writing a webcomic that will make people sad and depressed, I think humorous ones will find its audience coming back for more. If you really want to make people sad, go write a novel.
2. Decide on a format:
   
   Will it be a one-panel comic? Will it be several panels? Several dozen-panels? You decide.
   
   I find that the shorter it is the better.
3. Decide your hosting:
   
   Where will you put it up for all the world to see? You can put it on a website or a blog. I prefer blogs. I find blogs easier to use. You just post your image and there it is, ready with a datetime stamp, organized into archives and tagged into categories.
   
   You can have your own website/blog or you can use hosting services. There are more hosting schemes, combinations, plans, permutations than I can shake a stick at. Some are free, some are paying. Check Typepad.com, Blogger.com, Wordpress.com if you don't want to install your own software and update it (some other hosting plans also offer it, and some are one-click installs). If you want to be very flexible and have the expertise and time then maybe go with an independent hosting plan and install Wordpress on your own. I just use Typepad - no need to maintain it, no need to backup or update my software.
4. Get pen and paper:
   
   Although you can use anything, I find an ink-pen is the best instrument. You can use any kind of paper. I just use notebook pages.
   
   Now you need to start drawing. Drawing may naturally come to you, or not. Have no fear ! Look at my site (www.packetlog.com) to see some examples - I make do with stick figures. I can't draw very well. What is more important is that you can communicate your idea in terms of figures (how realistic these figures are is besides the point).
   
   Just put your pen to paper. Draw a large rectangle. Make two stick figures, as if one is saying something to the other. Now write down the words and put it in a balloon and point that balloon to your "speaker". And sign your first webcomic with a flourish!
   
   If you are good at drawing or would like to improve upon it, read some good books. In the links below I have put some pointers to some books that may help you.
5. Scan:
   
   Get a good scanner. I use a sheetfeed scanner so that I can scan batches of cartoons in one go: Fujitsu ScanSnap s510m is an excellent choice, taking up very little table space and giving you high quality results. Scan your images in high resolution but post them in web pages/blogs in low resolution so that the pages load quickly.
6. Post it to your site:
   
   Now just upload or post it to your blog and watch user feedback. You can use www.statcounter.com or Google Analytics to analyze which of your postings have been popular, and which ones hardly get a hit at all.