1 What kind of comic do you want to make? This is an important question that should be answered before you start creating characters. Is it going to be set in the future? The present? Is it going to be about demons? Robots? Superheroes? In general, you should pick what seems most interesting to you. If you like it, others may like it as well.
2 If you are on the fence about your skill or dedication to a comic, try to do something small. Either one stand-alone story, or just cut your comic up into very small chapters. Chapters as little as 6-12 pages can help make a comic series seem less challenging.
3 You don't need to plan out years in advance, but you want to try to have some future plans for the comic. You want to have some idea where the comic is going, instead of just randomly moving in one direction after another.
4 If you are uncertain or unhappy with your own writing skill, you could probably find a writer to help you.
5 Just a lead or two might not be enough character planning. You should design every major character in advance who may appear in the first comic/chapter.
6 Try to be original with the character designs. Both compared to other comics, and also between each other. You want your readers to be able to easily tell the characters apart. Varying hair color and style can be an easy way to manage this, but try to be as creative as possible. Make them different heights, use different body shapes, and different facial features.
7 When in doubt about the name for your comic, just use the name of the lead character.
1 An important step would be to decide if you want a full-page comic, or you want to draw a comic strip style comic. A comic strip style might be easier for someone less experienced.
2 When planning your layout for each page, you want to consider that you usually don't want to leave the story hanging from one page to the next. You don't want someone asking a question, and then making the reader wait until the next page for the answer. In general, your want most pages to resolve themselves, and also you want most multi-page scenes to complete at the end of a page. Instead of having one scene start on the top half of a page, and another scene to start half-way through the page.
3 Something you should always consider is that every page needs something important. As most comics update one page at a time, you want your reader to feel the current update was worth it.
4 During the production of your comic, remember that most panels should be read from left to right and/or up to down. This is important in both the position of the characters (and action), but also the order of the word bubbles.
5 I'm not expecting to go very far into tips for the actual process of drawing, scanning, and lettering comics. Even if I were an expert on those things, it would take far too long, and it's difficult to predict what problems or questions people might have.
6 Color isn't essential for a comic, but appearance is important. If you aren't inking your comic, you should be careful to adjust the contrast and brightness of a comic. Many pencil comics are either too light, or look messy because the mid-range colors are too dark.
7 DON'T HAND-LETTER YOUR COMIC! Unless your have very very good handwriting, you should NEVER hand-letter your comic. Most of the time, you'll end up with a comic that most people cannot read.
8 Fonts! Don't be afraid of them. Please don't just use whatever came installed on your computer to letter your comic. Comics needs comic fonts! There are many free comic fonts to be found on the internet (and pay ones as well).
9 When lettering, be careful to spellcheck your work (at least as far as is humanly possible), and be careful to pick a font size that is big enough to be read... to do that, you may need to experiment by actually producing a page, and then correcting it if needed.
1 Every page of every comic should list the author, the name of the comic, the page number, and possibly the web address of the comic.
2 Your final comic size should be small enough that most people won't have to scroll horizontally (to the left). Your comic in general should not be more than 800 or 900 pixels wide. But by example, my comics are usually 630 pixels wide. The height of your comic is less important, as scrolling down is less of a problem.
3 You want to carefully pick out which file type you plan to use for your comic. One method would be to just try each of the choices, and then see which is the smallest file size, but still looks good. JPEG, PNG, and GIF are the most likely choices.
1 Pick your host carefully. You have the obvious option to self-host your comic, as well as several free options. Each of the major free comic hosts have some restrictions, or have more or less features that another.
2 Consider the layout of your comic site. Unless you picked ComicSpace, you should try to give a little personality to your comic site.
3 Have a page for links! I see so many comics who have no links to other comics, either with a page of links, or just having links on the side. If you have a popular comic, it's only fair to share your success with either comics you like (who might be less popular), or similar comics that your visitors might like.
4 It might be best to show your comic on the front page. Unless you have several comics on your site (my excuse), you should display the current page of your comic on the front page. Many comics instead show a big page of news with a small graphic linking to the current page. It just makes it easier for people to quickly view the comic without needing to scan your front page for a link to the current comic.
1 Once your comic has been viewed by people, don't blast everyone who makes a negative comment about it. Chances are even if you don't think so now, you might end up agreeing with them. Consider what people have to say, or you might feel silly later.
2 You'll burn yourself out if you try to set unreasonable goals. Try to pick a clear update day (or days if you're adventurous), and make it clear to your readers when to expect updates. Consistency of updates is the most important thing.
3 Don't be a slave to your readers. Fans anywhere of anything will ask and ask for stuff. Personalized comics, specific artwork, etc. If you were to even try to follow every request, you'll eventually become overwhelmed and have to limit yourself.
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