I've been following this Keenspot forum thread because of its strong potential for TEH WEBCOMICS DRAMAAAH. So far, that hasn't happened, but Tiffany Ross reveals something interesting about Keenspot's terms that I should very much like to know more about (from the second page of the thread):
Without ads, keeping the site there does nothing for Keenspot and nothing for me but possibly starts building debt (I don't want to imagine what pull over 2mill pageviews a month is financially, especially not with anything to balance it out if most of them aren't displaying anything) and I already owe Keenspot enough money. (I imagine I'll find out when the quarter shows.)
What? I had heard things about Keenspot's terms before. I knew that Keenspot deducted hosting costs for any comic from that comic's share of ad revenue, but my understanding was always that cartoonists would not end up paying for Keenspot hosting them. Was I wrong?
If Keenspot cartoonists end up with a big invoice at the end of each quarter, then they are better off elsewhere, either self-hosting, forming a new network or paying $10 a month for a Webcomicsnation site. Those are not good terms for a publishing operation.
Update (November 8, 2005): It now appears that Keenspot foots its own server bills and that artists can't run up debts to them.
