Today, let's have an interview with Prélude, the french Webcomicer who's behind a new banner exchange community on the French blogosphere. For sceptical readers, this means of promotion has proved its worth on the other side of the Atlantic, where inter-blog advertising networks such as  Rubyfruit or Project Wonderful, have contributed to the reinforcement of the webcomic communities. Straightforward : you dedicate an add space on your website, which will display banners from members of the network. Some systems are free, some are commercial. There weren't much choice for French speaking communities till quite recently ; you can now use services like BlogBang, ComicsBooster, or the latest on the French scene,  BDExchange(1).

Enough talking, let's move on to the point. We'll try and interview the owners of the two promotion network that we use for now on our French websites, ComicsBooster and BDExchange. Today, I'm interviewing with Prélude, who'll present BD Exchange, the brand new French webcomics promotion community he's just set up.

Oghme Comics : Who are you ? Could you tell us more about yourself ?

Prélude : I am "Prélude". Behind this nickname hides a guy called Jean-François RENAULD. In true life, I'm into webmastering. It's my day job. I'm a technical director. I'm 40 since May 17 2009. With almost all my teeth, and still to much hair.

Oghme Comics : You're also doing a webcomic called Gouik : how long have you been interested in webcomics ? Let's talk about that a little ;)

Prélude : I've always enjoyed all things creative. As for comics, I've dreamt about doing some like anybody else. But I lacked the talent of a real illustrator. I then designed a simple character, according to my abilities. I figured that if I could work on it everyday for ten years, something could come out of it. No pain, no gain... I created it in February 2009. So it's still very new, but I can see it improve day after day. I enjoy that. When I look back at my first Gouik drawings, I'm glad to be able to tell it has evolved. I'm still amazed at how a tiny 1 milimeter thick line can impact a drawing. It's far from being perfect (will he ever be?), but I enjoy it and am having a lot of fun doing it. This is what matters most. Surprisingly, quite a few people enjoy Gouik too, which is encouraging. As for comic books, my education is limited. I like Enki Bilal's works very much, and I've worked with a friend of mine on a stereogram for Léo's Aldébaran. It was featured on the first and last pages of the comic book. In the second volume "La blonde", if I remeber right.

Oghme Comics : We found your banner exchange community after reading the BlogsBD.fr blog. Could you tell our readers what are its purposes ? Is this advertising ?

Prélude : I've designed BD Exchange because we really lacked, in France, a banner exchange system for webcomics and illustrated blogs...  Mine is not the first, but considering the alternatives, either the exchange rules aren't clear, or the system reserves an unknown percentage of the traffic, or displays other commercial adds, or both 3.

I didn't want any of that. Hence I designed my own system. In fact, this is not my first attempt, as I've already set up such a system for alternative/indie online gamer communities,  and the results were very probing. This is why I did the same for webcomics. And it's free. This service is hosted on a dedicated server, so hopefully there won't be much downtime.

To apply, you only need to be running a website about comics. No commercial sites are allowed. Banners are validated by myself, and members can refuse the displaying of particular adds, either because they don't fit with their policy, or for competition reasons. This system should evolve according to users requests. I'm open to anything which serves users who need this system.

Oghme Comics : let's talk some more about the one for one click rule. Does that mean I get a credit for each click, and then my adds are displayed on the network untill I spend it ? Regarless of my weight in terms of impressions ?

Prélude : Yes. A member's adds are displayed on the network as long as this member has credits left. All members weight the same. If a member threatens to unbalance the system by emiting to many clicks, I contact hime directly and ask him to lower his add-dispalying rate. Nobody is penalizes. I don't take the number of impressions into account, even if they're available for each user in the stats.

Oghme Comics : Mrs Cristal Ball question : how do you account for the lack of promotion networks available to French websites' owners, in our very active French blogosphere ?

Prélude : Interesting question, to which I have no direct answer. I've been active on online communities for quite some time now (94 I believe), and have always noticed a strong tendency towards individualism. People just mind their business without taking care of others. I also observe a strong competition, even between amateurs, which in my opinion is a shame. I've witnessed that personally : as soon as a website starts growing, it has a strong tendency to forget that he began small. It doesn't any more help small websites, which contributed to its growth in the first place, and doesn't share with them it's newly acquired visibility. The internet is very human after all :-)

The blogosphere remains a bunch of enthusiastic buffs and dedicated amateurs. Few professionals can make a living out of it.

Oghme Comics : do you intend to do some add targeting in the near future ? (like : i want my adds to display first on blogs which entered "gag a day", "manga", ... in their description )

Prélude : Yup, that's a good idea !

Buuuut, I'd need some time to develop this feature ; I do have some other projects in my schedule, but I'm taking note. If I can add this functionality, I'll do it.

I remain open to all new ideas, of course. Let's keep developing.

But having no means of sustaining myself on this activity, (and not wishing to), I'll develop in my spare time, out of passion. My spare time is limited, however. And my family life  naturally takes quite significant part of my "free time".

Oghme Comics : Just one last question then : if you had to convince a blogger who didn't know anything about your  BD Exchange system, what would you tell them to prompt their decision to join the gang ?

Prélude : This is the point where I realize I'm no salesman ! To tell you the truth, I don't like prompting people into doing something, I'd rather they choose for themselves. I often advise my clients to go see my competitors before they make their choice.

But hell, for your information, I'd say this system is built upon a "fair trade" model. Concurrent systems never use the 1:1 ratio because one has to pay for server fees. I don't have that specific problem, so why not share it ?

Apart from that, I believe all systems offer the same sort of services : detailed stats, ease of use, choice amongst the adds to be displayed on your add spaces, no email spamming, and no using of the email database for marketing purposes...

Oghme Comics : Thanks a lot !

Prélude : Hey, thank YOU !

(1) : BD stands for "Bande Dessinée", lit. "illustrated strip", which is the term used in France for Comic Books or Graphic Novels.