The reason I am not impressed with the book is most of the writing feels like filler and a lot of long drawn out rants. As I already said, there is some great stuff in the book, but if all the fluff was taken out the book would be half the size.
The One Paragraph Start-up Plan
One of the great things that is brought out in the book is the idea of the one paragraph business plan. I have taken entire courses on business plans while getting my MBA. They are long, boring, and really mean nothing.
Side Note:
Even with that said, I hope to create a series of posts in the near future that is basically a business plan for web comics that all of you can read.
The One Paragraph Start-up Plan for my Web Comic
The outline:
What am I selling (income)?
My Business will make money by selling merchandise, digital products, and advertise for other companies.
How am I selling it?
- For selling merchandise we will buy some in bulk, then store and ship products ourselves and the rest we will do print on demand.
- Digital products will be delivered using a third party service that specializes in that.
- Advertisement will be done through third party services as well.
Who am I selling to? (Target Market/Stereotype)
I want to make it clear that I welcome everyone to my comic and consider all of you my friends. I am not trying to stereotype, but this is the data that exists about the people who tend to buy comic books.
- My costumers are comic book lovers.
- Tend to be white males between the ages of 18 – 35.
- They already read several online web comics and go to the comic book shop (if they have a local one) every few weeks to pick up new reading material.
- They love new technology, spend a lot of time on their computer, love video games, and use Social Media a lot.
Awareness?
I will market primarily using online resources. It will be a mix of:
- direct marketing through social media (contacting people directly)
- trying to get reviews/articles on other people’s blogs
- writing great articles on this blog and asking people to check out the comic
- being active on forums
- get street teams to put out stickers
- buying a small amount of ad space through AdWords and some of the social media sites
Competition?
The great thing about web comics is that we can consider each other peers instead of competitors. In fact, I know I buy a lot of other web comics merchandise and I assume many of them are also my costumers. There is plenty of space for all of us and people will buy what they like.
I do stand out in the fact my comic book has a political angle, is written for adults, and has a unique (non-comic book) art style.
NOTE: All web comics have things that make them stand out. You need to figure out what makes your comic different in order to better market it and pitch it to people who are interested in learning more.
Expansion?
I can use all my systems, costumer base, and experience to expand into animation or possibly partner up with other web comic artists to help them make money as well.
First Draft:
Madman of Magic the Comic Book is a web comic that posts two pages per week for free on the website www.madmanofmagic.com. The site makes money through sales of physical goods such as comic books, t-shirts, stickers, etc; digital products such as .pdf comics and apps; and hosting ads on the website and inside the comic book. The company will utilize 3rd party businesses and freelancers to execute all aspects of the company besides creating the comic book, product design, and marketing. The company will focus its promotional efforts on utilizing direct marketing through social media, leveraging media coverage on other websites, and some online ads.
The Madman of Magic comic book views other comic book creators as friends and not competitors. They hope to help promote other projects by other artists and create a community around sharing great content for comic book readers and comic book creators. With these connection the Madman of Magic comic book can expand into a network of artists and/or move into other forms of media (such as video, audio dramas, literature, etc)
It is long and a little wordy, but good for a first draft!
What’s cool about the one paragraph Start-up plan?
- As Mr. Gerber writes in his book, “The One-Paragraph Start-Up Plan is designed to test your hypothesis through daily experimentation”.
- I can start my business today now that I have written the plan. Normally the plan takes several months to complete.
- It covers everything that is important and leaves all the guessing out of the plan
If you see anything I missed or something you disagree with, feel free to respond to my “one-paragraph start-up plan” in the comments section below.
