Do Not Hide From RSS

I've just started reading the webcomic Girls With Slingshots, so naturally I started looking for a link to its RSS feed to add it to my vast collection of webcomics I follow on Google Reader.

There isn't one. I put the URL into Google Reader just to check, but no, it comes up with nothing. Then I find this interview from December of 2008 with Danielle Corsetto, the artist.

There are two reasons that I don’t have a feed yet. One, I simply don’t know how to create and maintain one! But I can learn that. So two, and most importantly, this is my only source of income, and I’m afraid I’ll lose advertising and merchandise revenue if people are ONLY seeing the strip. Even people who never click on ads are helping my advertising revenue by simply visiting the website and increasing the visits to that page (and thus, the value of my ad spaces).

I've heard this before, and I honestly believe artists like Corsetto, and content producers generally, are shooting themselves in the foot by not embracing RSS.

I have a lot of webcomics that I follow through Google Reader. Eyeballing it, I'd say I have over forty, with a few that have gone inactive. The only reason that I'm able to enjoy this many is because I don't have to actually go to each and every one of them to check if they've updated.

Webcomics are in general quirky about their updates, at times. Sure, the artists who are doing it for a living are usually more reliable, but even they have their slip-ups, and frankly I wouldn't want to limit myself to just the people able to make a living off of it. After all, none of these guys started out able to quit their day jobs.

The cumulative amount of time spent going to comic websites that had not yet updated would be enormous if I attempted to keep up with the same number that I do now without relying on RSS feeds. It would not be worth my time. I would read only a fraction of what I do now--and I know this from experience, because I was reading webcomics years before I started using Google Reader.

RSS reduces the cost of keeping up with a comic by a gigantic amount. It is basic economics that the lower the cost of an activity, the more people will engage in that activity. I like Girls With Slingshots, and I may keep up with it, if I think of it. But it's asking a lot more of me than all of the other webcomics I read.

Sometimes I get lucky with the more popular comics that are stubbornly refusing to provide feeds and discover that a tech-saavy fan has managed to gerryrig some kind of proxy RSS feed themselves.

Let make this simple. Top reasons why content producers have nothing to fear from RSS:

1. There are people who will not stick by your stuff if you don't provide them with the ease of access that RSS provides
2. You can advertise right in each item in your RSS feed!
   
3. You can track how many people subscribe to your feed, and provide that information to your advertisers. I've got Feedburner, which is so-so, but if this is your livelihood there are many more options out there just like any variety of analytics.

And if you're still uncertain, you can always do what David Willis does for Shortpacked! and have a blog that links to each new update. I prefer to be able to read all of my comics from Google Reader, but I can live with Willis' compromise. At least I only go to the website when there's a new comic up!