Schlock RSS – You Choose
Posted August 23rd, 2008 by Howard Tayler
It’s been just over a week since we introduced an RSS feed here at Schlock Mercenary. In that time almost 1500 of you have subscribed. Some of you are consuming the feed via Live Journal, others are using Google Reader (my personal favorite).
What’s important is that you’re now getting the comic however you want to get it. Save up for a week, and pop Schlock into seven tabs using Firefox’s Bookmarks Toolbar. Install the link into your myAol, Newsgator, or My Yahoo! page. If you copy the javascript from this Live Journal post, you can install Schlock onto any webpage of your choosing.
Or, now available, Get Schlock Mercenary via email.
You choose.
Explore posts in the same categories: Internet, Site News
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Just a thought, if you do end up getting a hit financially from the lack of advertising… you could have a PHP script that embeded an advertisment below the comic (it load the comic image, resize, paste the non-animated-advertisement into the new space, and then serve up that image to the RSS, email, etc).
I used to do something like this for forum signatures. It didn’t take up too much server resources, but then again I doubt I had 1500 people accessing that image at any given time.
Depending on how frequently the advertisement changes though, you might get away with this method with hardly any hit to your bandwidth AND server processor. (I better stop now or I will rant on and on about how you could do this and might be tempted to throw some code at you…. I get fanatical about PHP sometimes)
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Howard
While I have the utmost confidence in your ability to make good business decisions, I do have to voice concerns about the flow of ad cash, also.
As long as you keep getting paid for the work you do, I’ll smile and cheer on the RSS and wotnot. I would, honestly, have Schlock a click away, than have you feel a pinch..
But you say you good, you good. *nods*
Great work, been here every morning since #79!
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
In the last week my ad revenue has gone up. Go figure.
I don’t like feeds with ads in them, and I really don’t like no-content feeds. I’ve said from day one, I’m making the comic I want to read, and now I’m running the RSS feed I want to consume. I figure that’s good business.
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I really think you should have a set of counters somewhere — 3,000 plus days, 7 gadzillion clicks, 1500 RSS feeds, etc. And down at the bottom, you can say something about zillions and zillions of laughs served?
August 23rd, 2008 at 7:11 pm
i’ve just signed up for e-mail delivery, though i’ll still stop in here for the comments and blog. thanks for making the options available howard.
“gunner”
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Firefox isn’t the only browser with a built-in RSS reader. I’m reading it in Safari.
And there is an ad in the feed – I seem to recall Howard saying the “Buy Schlock Stuff” button was his most lucrative ad, and I’d say it’s more prominent in the feed than on the front page, if only because it doesn’t have a stack of similar-looking buttons under it.
That ad’s okay – it fits neatly into the navigation, it doesn’t move or assault the retina, and it’s always the same image, which probably makes loading more efficient.
Anyone who still doubts Howard’s business sense needs to consider how important PR is to merchandising.
August 24th, 2008 at 1:26 am
interknight: Feedburner caches feeds for up to 30 minutes, so the RSS is really only being pulled a couple times an hour.
August 24th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Just gotta say, I am LOVING this! I am using Firefox’s Livebookmark and I have all my fave Webcomics right up top, ready to be used by me :-)
Keep up the good work. I am continually impressed with how steady your output is and just how consistent everything is…
August 24th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I use livejournal friends. When I come across it in the friend feed, I click on the link and go to your page. Because I usually have missed a few strips, and using your navigation is the easiest way to catch up.
August 25th, 2008 at 7:32 am
So many choices… I so rarely check my home-page while at home, so my Google Reader tends to fill over the weekend… I am thinking Schlock-by-Mail, even though I will still have to stop by the website…
For the sake of your ad revenue… :)
August 25th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Wow, that was only a week ago??? That was a very long week…. X_X
August 25th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Well, at this point it’s almost two weeks, Linxan. I wrote the post on Saturday the 23rd. The beta of the feed appeared on Tuesday the 12th, and we went live on Thursday the 14th. So… at the time of writing it had been 9 days, which is “just over a week.”
Right now, though, it’s been 13 full days since the beta, which might as well be called “two weeks.”