Okay, here's a bunch of things that will really help anybody new to the the webcartoonin' world

Not all of them are iron bar law, but there are a few that you should definatly stick too to get popular.

Do's

1. Stick to your Genre (don't do something completely comedic if you're a serious drama comic)
2. Make sure you do your Genre right. The last thing you want is a comedy that isn't funny, but just because one person doesn't find you funny doesn't mean the world is the exact same.
3. Find your audience, though this takes a good deal of time, once you've found the type of people that enjoy your comic, it'll be much easier to please them.
4. Know your characters well, don't just say, "He's Bobby, he likes pie." and that's all you know at the time. Make a short history of the character and his personality.
5. Try and think outside the box. Nobody like the same slice of pie after the 20th time...though just because it's different doesn't mean it's cool...(it's always good to have a few friends look it over first). Remember, these are webcomics, they aren't restricted to being exactly like our printed brethern. Have fun with the fact that you're on a website and not stuck in paper.
6. Quantity vs. Quality, Quality viturally always wins, put effort into your comic, and if it doesn't look king of kings, then make sure you balance it out with quantity.
7. Keep your update rate consistant, the standard for many is either 3x a week with Monday, Tuesday, Friday, or 1x a week with Monday or Friday.
8. Before you upload your comic (site and all), at least have an archive of 5 to 8 comics. If you're listed on a toplist site and someone see's your comics name and think's it could be something special, one comic will probably not impress them enough to bookmark it.
   
9. Check your grammer and spelling, and DO NOT use net or l33t speak...There are few exceptions to this rule, though...
10. Learn To Take Criticism, and distance yourself from your work. It's hard to have our flaws pointed out, but it comes with the territory, and even bad critics about your art or writing say nothing about your worth as an artist, writer or as a person. Should they actually say something about "you" though. Ignore them, they are merely the lower chain of the internet dogs that constantly drag the rest of the world down.
11. Due to the fact that these are placed on the internet, a good site doesn't hurt either. Though, do not make the site the priority, merely make sure it looks nice and is able to be navigated easily. Make sure the site also puts focus on the comic.
12. Also make sure you have backwards and forwards buttons on your site, it makes archives navigation much easier.
13. There's almost never a wrong time to talk about your webcomic. Try to reference to it...just make sure it's actually within the proper context of what you're talking about.

Don'ts

1. Do not constantly promise something and never do it...it get's really annoying...
2. Do not start up 50 webcomics just because the idea seemed cool at the time, because sometimes they are really cool, but you'll never have enough time to update it because you're too busy with a brand new comic...1 or 3 comics are enough. If you think you can handle 4 or 5, don't let it mess up your original comics updating system.
3. Do not spam other message boards just to get free advertisement...though a couple of comics actually worked out pretty well for this...most of them aren't burnt...really badly...
4. Do not run in the game without a plan, many heed the sound advice 'know how the story begins, how it will end, and fill between', but they forget the 'fill between' part and loose steam there.
5. Do not expect an immediate fanbase after only a month of webtooning...It generally takes time for a comic to reach great heights, though there are some exceptions, it rarely happens to a complete newbie of the internet, so you should really start this for the fun of it. (I know I did)
6. Do not think randomly blurting curse words together will make you number one on the top lists...
7. Do not start fights with other comics just to get popularity...you have a reputation on the internet...keep it clean.

• Good - Not put in actual plot (if continous), just extra comics (holidays, celebrations, ect)
• Bad - Jokes about laziness/suckage/selfhate/blah inside the comic itself (it's overused...trust me) as the MAIN joke. If it's a secondary and not used so much (like once every 15 or so pages) then it's okay, just don't make it so apparent...

There are many more, post them and I'll add them on.

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...wee?

Good initiative Akira, it's helpful to neophytes such as I. I would add to this list: Learn To Take Criticism, and distance yourself from your work. It's hard to have our flaws pointed out, but it comes with the territory, and even bad critics about your art say nothing about your worth as an artist or as a person.

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Beauty In Diversity

Added with a bit of change an a bit more, because this is not just art, it's partially writing too.

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...wee?

Doesn't don't forget to copyright thing go under do's?

...starts with do not...really anything in the do not can be placed in do...

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...wee?

Great list!

To that I would add:

Don't expect to make money on your toon.

Do it for the pleasure of tooning.

I think you should add that there are exceptions to every do/don't.

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http://www.ele-mentalfury.com/ - The way comics used to be.

...humorous comics that are not funny are good?

Oh and serveral people live off of their comics.

Brian of 8-bit, and Fred of Megatokyo.

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...wee?

Ian of RPG World makes money off his comic, doesn't he?

Just because a few people make money from their comics doesn't mean that most of us should expect to ^_^;

If you use one of those bandwidth tools that lets you enter a domain name you'll see just how much traffic those profitable sites get.

I *think* you still own the copyright to your work even if you don't explicitly say so. You have to make a statement to give it to some one else, or to release it to the public domain. But it still is a good idea to claim a copyright on your work to keep people who may not be aware of this from copying your stuff.

A lot of people make money of their sites, they just put it back into the comic itself. People that sell their swag just use the profits to keep the server they're runnin' on. Though you shouldn't just jump into the field yellin' "I'm gonna be a millionare" (...*stabs idiot with blunt fish*), but that doesn't mean you won't make any money at all.

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...wee?

sometimes i love you akira.

 

Back in the day when I constantly talked on my site about quitting making my comic I had lots of offers from people to pay me to keep the thing going. And when I finally quit some guy offered to pay me for my old website(because it has links indirectly from 8bit theatre and gets good hits in general even though theres no content being made). And then I invited him to join me on my new site where I was making my comic again... Weird huh?

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http://www.ele-mentalfury.com/ - The way comics used to be.

I take issue with one of the Do's, actually: sticking to one's genre.
I find that a truly well written comic can accomplish whatever genre they seek to pull off-take Dino Comics, for example. It's form allows it to explore philosophical questions of serious import in a comedic manner. And well, too. limitation on an artist's creativity is a thing that severely prevents an artist's own growth.



LG

Err, I mean, you start as a comedy comic, you end it as a comedy comic. Sure you can chuck in drama and other stuffs, but if you lose the comedy, you lose the fan-base that you started with. You may still have a fan-base...but a lot of them aren't the same people...

Though I may do all comedy comics (I just can't help but make yah laugh), I've done serious writin' that was well enjoyed...not by the internet though...

Oui? ^^

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...wee?