Best advertising method for webcomic?

[Richardjx]

I'm currently running a webcomic that updates (currently) about 2-3 times a day. I have a steady growth in traffic at the moment that comes mostly from word of mouth and backlinks rather than search engine traffic. I'm looking for a way that i could throw some ads on the page that would give the best experience for not only the advertisers, but for my visitors too. I'm currently using adsense and because the pages tend to lack text, the ads aren't really that well targeted and as a result have quite a poor CTR. Is there a better option that i could use that might be more appropriate (and profitable) in this case? I'd appreciate any advice that the forum members could give me on this topic :). Thanks in advance.

[kodaks]

Have you considered any affiliate programs such as comedy books and such?

[Richardjx]

I suppose that is a possibility, the only thing that would worry me in that case is the availability in all geographical regions. I fear it might limit targetting towards some of my reader-base, as the affiliate programs i've used in the past have tended to be USA-centric. But it is an option.

[kodaks]

Yes that may be a problem. You could also sign up to some affiliate directory such as CJ, and put a number of affiliate programs on a rotator (i think it's called a smartzone), that way if one affiliate progam does not match the user's country the next one may.

You may also want to consider offering someone to sponsor your comic, so it would display their logo at the bottom of a comic.

[Richardjx]

Thanks for the advice, this is something i'm going to consider :). Another idea that i had just now which i'm going to look into is that some of the affiliate programs on maxbounty seem to pay out small amounts for actions that don't require paying any money. If they were to allow me to design my own creatives for the affiliate links, i'm sure i could get quite high conversion rates.

[kodaks]

Yes, that is another great idea you should consider. Good luck!