238 - Pre Orders & Thursday update!
Posted on 2010-02-22 00:00:55

Just letting everyone know that we are almost to out pre-order goal :) We are alllmost there!
Also there will be a THURSDAY UPDATE! :D

Hey guys! I made a facebook page thing. I figure this could be useful when it comes to updates, con promotion stuff, and other things, so you don't have to wait until Monday to know whats going on :) Have a look! Become a fan! And watch me facebook fail haha. I hope the link was working, if you were apart of my "WHY IS THE LINK NOT WORKING." Rampage I apologize, again. Hopefully it's working. Ugh.




Now time for some comic tips!
Choosing your website Host and domain name:

Jenny’s Domain name guideline:
You wouldn't think it, but choosing a domain can be tricky. I only lived by 2 rules when making a domain name for my comic. Easy to spell, AND easy to remember. This will help when it comes to plugging yourself to potential readers or if your comic comes up in random conversation, and no one has a pen or paper to write it down, and you're all out of business cards (which is another important thing to invest in). If your domain is hard to pronounce, hard to spell, or too long it can do yourself a real disservice in the end.

Greg's choosing a host guideline:
When choosing a hosting solution, you want to do two things:

First, register your domain name independently of your hosting solution. This way, when you eventually change hosts, you don't have to fight with the old host to get your name back.

Second, bear in mind that you WILL change hosts. Don't think that you have to choose one host now that will host you forever and ever.

The host that you pick when you're starting out should be small, cheap, and pretty decently reliable. Prices vary based on features; don't buy features that you don't need, but at the same time, know what you're going to use when you build your website. For example, a site built using only a static page layout won't need a MySQL server, but if you want to use one of the many WordPress templates, you will need MySQL. It doesn't matter how great a host is if they lack a feature that you absolutely have to have- they're still unsuitable. So find a balance, and get the cheapest host that will fit your needs.
Don't sign a contract saying you have to use their services for X years, unless that gets you a price SO cheap that you can bail after a few months and still save money.

Once you get larger, you'll start noticing that fans complain about slow load times, or you may start exceeding your bandwidth allowance. As you grow, you'll want to look at hosts that have better capabilities. You want reliability, and if possible, a host you can develop a good relationship with is nice- though not necessarily required. If you get better service for a better price from a large faceless corporation, go with the large faceless corporation.

TZH is currently hosted through Bookworm Computing; a smaller host, but one we're extremely happy with, because we can always talk to a human when we call in. On the flip side, when we had that data center explosion a couple of years ago, it did take a couple of days to get everything back up and running, because Bookworm really wasn't so large that they had extra resources in multiple data centers. It's really a question about what you value most- the service, or the capabilities. You are the only one who can make that call for your comic, so it's up to you to decide what is most important.

In the end, remember that your goal is maximum uptime for minimum cost. Get there however you can, and you win (at hosting).