Tracy Brady Cartoons

Most bloggers and webcomic artist strive to have their newest posts published by 12:00 AM (0000 hours) of their particular time zones. This is mostly becuase most readers tend to expect new posts at that time and often come looking even if others, including the blogger/artist, are usually in bed (or at least away from their pc’s) at that time.

To meet that reader anticipation many publishers either make themselves available to update at 12AM or use automated scheduling features that often come included in their Content Management Systems to pre-set times and dates for publishing.

But what do you do if your scheduling function doesn’t work?

Some webcomic artists, like Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, publish their comics during the work day as an alternative to 12AM posting. That way, if something goes awry with their posts or sites, the author won’t find out about it hours later and can be on scene to fix them.

The first key to using this alterative is that the author first advises their readers of the arrangement. The second key is stick with the schedule times. 8AM means on, around or close to 8AM, but definitely not 10AM.

Let’s review:
• You must advise readers of post times.
• You may schedule posts to auto-publish.
• You may manually publish posts.
• You can change a publishing time to one convenient for you.
• You must adhere to publishing deadlines.

Yes, while times for publishing can be flexible, preparation and rigid resolve are necessary on your part to acclimatize your readers to whatever time you have decided upon for posting, so that on a regular basis readers may know when to come looking around your site for new comics or posts.