Aside from merchandising, one thing that you may want to look into is A&M (that's Advertising and Marketing, for those who didn't stay awake during Business Ed.) If you want your endeavor to be successful, you have to get the word out there; it's rare when they come looking for you from the very start. So you have to make the effort.
I'll get this right out of the way: advertising and marketing sucks. It's a specialized skill, and not many have the knack to do it. There are a very few who are a natural when it comes to it and they usually find new and unique ways of approaching it (my favorite is Scott Stratten's UnMarketing methodology). Chances are, you're like me and abhor it. Well, it sucks but it has to be done, and with that in mind, let's get cracking.
(Oh, and forewarning: due to the examples of just sheer wrongness people do, this post is slightly NSFW. No naughty bits, just lots of language.)
First off, advertising. You not only have to make a conscious decision whether you want to advertise or not, but also whether you want to accept advertising on your own site. We won't get much into allowing ads on your own site (also known as passive income), because eventually someone here at Fan to Pro is probably going to have to write something regarding that (hint hint, Steven). No, what we're going to do instead is talk about your own advertising efforts.
For starters, keep in mind that rarely is advertising subtle.
Oh, wait. I forgot, this is Fan to Pro, so your ad probably won't look like that. It'll probably end up looking like this one instead.
Okay, maybe not that blatant. But the point is, you're going to need to tailor your ad to your audience. Now this sounds like mind-bending common sense, but you'd be surprised how often that gets tossed out the window in the search for a bigger audience/more sales/etc. Seriously. People will go completely and utterly bonkers with the idea that people who could care less about something would be interested. And I don't mean remotely interested or are willing to try something new, I mean genuinely not interested. It's like Elvis Presley, the Sex Pistols and Nirvana doing a world tour: probably not going to happen.
I'll give you an example. Three years ago I was tapped to participate in a focus group for a videogame company (I'll tell you who, but I signed an NDA and like not being sued, so…sorry.) This was a gaming company with a long and proud history of first-person shooters, and they were looking to find ways to attract the female gamer. At first this seemed like a good idea; in fact, one of the other testers was a Gamer Grrl going by the name of Shotgun Bunny. She had plenty of ideas how they could appeal to the gamer girl segment. Here's roughly how the conversation went.
SGBunny: Well, speaking as a girl, the best way to get the attention of other girls is to give the option of female characters. After all, we're not so much worried about "empowerment" or whatever, but we just want to get into the character mindframe. Kinda like Lara Croft, you know?
GAMECO: I think you misunderstand. We already have you guys. We want the girls who usually play stuff like the Sims, or Bejewelled. We want the new markets.
Me (logged on as Megami): So you're saying that instead of working with gamer girls to expand the market, you just want people who have zero interest in [GAMECO's current FPS at the time].
GAMECO: Well, I wouldn't word it exactly like that.
SGBunny: FML. You people are idiots.
GAMECO: That's an unfair assumption. Our previous market studies have shown that we can increase our profits 80% if we go after this untapped market (ed. That is actually what the rep from the game company said!)
Me: So you're gong to just ignore an existing fan in hopes you'll get a cash grab?
SGBunny: Oh, frak this – I'm gone. Hey, Megami, you wanna go play [competing company's current FPS]?
Needless to say, things went downhill from there, and the focus group disbanded by the end of the following week. Of course you could say that many of these companies' marketing divisions are run by marketdroids whose only thought is GET CASH! SCREW CUSTOMER! GET CASH! SCREW CUSTOMER! And…well, in many cases, you'd be right (see: Ubisoft) But in many cases, it's simply that they take the existing customer for granted. There's a saying in business that it takes years to build a new customer but seconds to lose an existing one. Well, more and more businesses are so focused on gaining the former, that they tend to give short shrift to the latter. It's why you'll always see tons of sales to earn new customers, but why there are very few frequent-shopper/VIP programs.
I'm going to tell you more common sense: target your core audience first. Don't target anyone else, just get those people who you want to start off with, and turn them into evangelists. Studies have shown that geeks are poor conversationalists (no duh!) but when it comes to something they really love, you can't shut them up. The key to this is to get them on your side and have them stay there. Interact with your audience. Make them feel special, make them feel like you actually think of them as more than a revenue stream. Kindness and courtesy go a long, long way and you'd be surprised that if you keep them in your good graces how much they will go to bat for you. The best kind of ad is the one unbidden (i.e. word of mouth).
Also, as mentioned above, when you're targeting your advertising (I recommend Project Wonderful as a starter network; move on to Google AdWords once you've got enough capital but don't abandon PW) don't forget to keep to your core constituency. If your webcomic is an all-ages affair, you neither want nor need to advertise on NSFWSEXXXXYWEBKOMYX.com; likewise, if you've got a fun social game, pitching it on Facebook to the residents of the official Call of Duty and Halo pages is probably not going to be worth your time.
In the end, only you can decide how much of sticking to your core audience will help you, but it's probably vital to do that regardless. That's why they're your core.
Tomorrow: Day 10 – Crunchtime Begins: Design