By Zack Quaintance — Like many Kickstarters, we had a relatively robust first week (more than we expected, to be certain), followed by a slower Week 2. So, as with all things with this project, I reached out to others who have knowledge of the space for advice on how to continue to market the first comic that I’ve written, Next Door (back it on Kickstarter now!). And the main piece of advice I got back was to pivot my focus from soliciting coverage by wider comics news outlets, to building support within the Kickstarter platform.

And the way to do that? Co-Promotion.

The idea behind co-promotion is a simple one…that what’s good for one Kickstarter is good for another. It presumes (in my experience correctly) that the audience for comics on Kickstarter is perhaps an insulated one, with members that primarily experience comics through that platform. So someone who backs my campaign, for example, might not realize that I have a presence on Twitter, and thereby might not see me promoting my project or others on there. A backer update for that person that shouts-out one a concurrent campaign might be the only way that person is exposed to new Kickstarter comics.

Which brings me to today’s…

ACTIONABLE KICKSTARTER COMICS TIPS: Include a link/shout-out to other ongoing campaigns in all your backer updates. There’s two reasons for this…the most nakedly self-serving is that it often encourages other campaigns to do the same for you. You certainly shouldn’t do that as the sole motivation. You should cultivate good recommendations for the sake of your backers and your own credibility. In addition, helping others is just the right thing to do. Everybody wins, especially if doing the right thing induces an influx of even three or four backers during a lull in your campaign.

Join us back here tomorrow for a blog about how to stay creative while continuing to promote online as the campaign wears on…and on…and on.

Oh! And by the way, here are some ongoing Kickstarters right now that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND supporting:

Back Next Door on Kickstarter now!

Check out the rest of our Kickstarter Comics Tips blog!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.