Are you ready to have your beliefs challenged and your sides split with laughter? Look no further than ‘The Oatmeal,’ the wildly popular webcomic that has taken the internet by storm. Created by Matthew Inman, ‘The Oatmeal’ is a one-stop-shop for hilarious comics that cover a wide range of topics, from science to pop culture to everyday life.
With its clever wit and irreverent humor, ‘The Oatmeal’ is guaranteed to have you laughing out loud and maybe even questioning some of your long-held assumptions. So sit back, relax, and get ready to dive into the wacky world of ‘The Oatmeal’!
This article was originally published on worldtravelling.com and has been republished here with permission.
It All Started In 2009
This webcomic series was created in 2009. Matthew Inman shows us how people react to looking at each other, what they think about, and who is looking at whom. He has now been making comics for over a decade, and people love them.
Social media-wise, he has more than 3.8 million Facebook followers and 1.1 Million Instagram followers, which shows just how many people are attracted to his work. More are attracted every day.
Five Million Unique Visitors
Andrew: How many people visited your website last month, TheOatmeal.com?
Matt: What was your last month? I don’t know for sure, but I think the average is between three and five million unique. It was probably right there in the middle because traffic was quite well last month.
Getting a lot of traffic to a site is the first hurdle. Keeping people engaged so that they click through various pages is just as important once you have an audience.
The Success Doesn’t Depend on People Searching Keywords
Andrew: Many of us don’t know much or are interested in search engine optimization.
Matt: The success of my comics does not depend on people searching keywords. It relies on the humor, the insight, and the utility of those comics.
It’s not going to matter if someone searches the term “dinosaur” or “bear with indigestion” to find my comic. It can be helpful, but it is not enough; sometimes more is needed.
Reputational Damage And SEO
Matt further shared how being involved with SEO has damaged his reputation online. Reddit has a lot of threads about me, including one that says, “The Oatmeal is a spammer. His site’s purpose is SEO.”
I haven’t done any SEO in over two years. Even though I have had a brief stint in link-building, many people still view me as this slimy, greasy SEO. This is because I used to do a lot more aggressive link-building.
Why The Webcomics Characters Aren’t Handsome
Andrew: You are a handsome man. I am looking at the comic version, and it is a fat man with a ridiculously pointed hat. You are one of the few SEO tech professionals who is attractive. You should show it off!
Matt: I have noticed that humor is more enjoyable when my characters are bloated, sallow, and obese than if they are lean and good-looking. This is also true for standup comics like Zach Galifianakis.
Less Is More With Comic Characters
Matt: Also, I don’t try to add too much detail. Because I have found that the more details you put into a comic character, the less funny it becomes. The more detail you leave out, the reader will project their own humor onto it.
They’ll also see their own humor in character. Comics are a great medium because you can draw as simply as you like. Animation allows you to add voice narration and movement, changing the character’s perceptions.
What Is The Best Way To Start Drawing?
Matt: I began programming as a child and wanted to become an artist as I grew older. After I learned to code, it was a thing that I put on the back burner. Then I became a web developer and learned how to draw icons, logos, and websites.
This led to comics. I used the same tool I used to draw websites to draw comics. This is a good place for other artists to start drawing.
The Best Tool
Andrew: What is that tool?
Matt: It’s Adobe Fireworks. Adobe Fireworks was actually a Macromedia product. It is a package for website design. It is a bit old, so I wouldn’t recommend it to comic artists.
It’s better to use Illustrator than pen and paper with Photoshop. It’s what I know and the best I have, so I stick to it. Other artists can learn a lot from using it and improve their work.
A Mix Of Content To Get Started
Andrew: When you launched TheOatmeal.com, I thought that I was seeing a series of quizzes. That’s what you launched with?
Matt: No. It was a mixture. It was six comics and two to three quizzes with one or two illustrated stories. I just tried to pick as many different things as I knew would work.
This is a good method for other new creators to follow, as visitors to your site can interact with a variety of content. That way, you can see which content is more interesting for them.
When The Oatmeal Was Really Launched
Andrew: This was July 2009, when you launched the website? Why did you launch a website in the first place?
Matt: Yup. I believe that when I quit SEOmoz, part of my motivation to start my own business was to create my own website.
It would be mine. It would be mine. That was what I did with Mingle2, the dating site. Then, when Mingle2 was purchased, I had to go back to work for the people who acquired it.
Time To Take Back Control
Matt: So, I went back to where it was. I was working for people. This was the umbrella that controlled my creative process.
With “The Oatmeal,” it was “All right, let us do it for real this year.”
Let’s create our own website that generates enough money and doesn’t have to be paid for by anyone.” That was my actual decision. After seeing the success of my previous comics, I realized that I could make a comic website that would work well.
A Webcomic As A Business
Andrew: It was always going to exist as a business.
Matt: I had hoped it would be in the beginning. I self-published a book and wanted to make at least some secondary income. Two months later, it was clear that this book could not be turned into a business.
This was something I considered a side project. However, I do not think I could make this a full-time job. I started creating more comics and working harder. When traffic spiked, I realized I could make a living at it.
Generating Web Traffic
Andrew: How did you generate traffic to your site in the first few months?
Matt: It was initially mostly StumbleUpon. I believe I may have even gotten on Digg once or twice. No, I was banned from Digg for the first two months when “The Oatmeal” was online. This is funny because Diggers now love me.
They actually banned me at the beginning. This, combined with sharing it on Facebook, spreading it there, and other things, led to me being banned.
Getting Unbanned From Digg
Andrew: How’d you get yourself unbanned?
Matt: I believe I emailed them and said, “Hey, please remove me.” I swear I wasn’t spamming. They did, and I think they unbanned my account in about 10 minutes. They are usually very responsive.
This is a good tip for any new webcomic artists who find themselves in a similar situation. Nobody wants to be banned from posting content.
Why The Website Had To Be A Success
Andrew: Why did you keep going with it in that time lull? When you didn’t get a lot of traffic to the site and didn’t look like it would be a business? Why didn’t your answer be, “I’m going away from this website, and I’m going to find other projects.”
Matt: I don’t know. It was a stark reminder that I hated doing client work while I was doing my client work. Also, I believe I had a few very successful comics, and I realized that I could make more profitable comics to sustain my income.
Monetizing The Oatmeal Became Essential
Andrew: How did you think the revenue that would sustain your life would come from when you said: “sustain me”?
Matt: I started with a self-published book.
I wanted all the revenue to come from that book. This was my goal. Then ads from AdSense and elsewhere. That was the initial goal. Then, that evolved into: I do better with posters than any other. It is always important to play to your strengths and that is what Matt did.
Goodbye Donations, Hello Merchandise
Andrew: It was at first a book, then it became ads. How did they split the revenue between them? Did that mean that 80 percent of the book was read in the first few months?
Matt: It’s right where it is today. Advertising about 20 to 80 percent of the merchandise, in my opinion. I made some donations initially, but that was only a small part. After about a month, I put up a donation page. Then I removed it when I could actually have merchandise
Donations Versus Merchandise
Andrew: Why don’t you think the donation did as well as the merchandise?
Matt: Donations are not about getting products but giving money to someone. It was a short-term goal, but I did only make donations.
I enjoyed a temporary period of high traffic and visibility, but it wasn’t a long-term goal. I spent about three to four grand per month hosting all the images I was creating and not getting any money back for the work.
The Creation Of The Donation Page
Matt: So I made a donation page asking for donations to “The Oatmeal.” Send me five to ten dollars, and I’ll buy you a beer.” This was enough money to cover the hosting fees until I had posters and other items so that I could sell stuff on the website.
Every website needs some income at first in order to stay operational. Donations are a good way to monetize some of that traffic if visitors are willing to pay a small fee.
The First Comic Book
Andrew: What was the original book?
Matt: Actually, it’s the same title as my new book. It’s called “Five Very Good Reasons To Punch a Dolphin In the Mouth.” It was 17 comics I created, and it was printed abroad.
It was printed twice: once in Seattle and again overseas. All of them were sold, and I was offered a book deal. The new book’s title is the same. It contains a year’s worth of comics as well as a lot of new comics.
How The Book Grabs People’s Attention
Andrew: I’ve seen many people take free content from the Internet and repackage it in a book. Then they sell it. How valuable is the book for those with access to online content?
Matt: The book is tangible and can be given as a gift. It’s a little more difficult to share a website. Zwei, the book contains new material, so it’s easier to share that.
What Is The New Material?
Matt: There were seven to eight comics I didn’t publish on the Internet. People will support artists they like. It doesn’t seem like it would make a big difference in the music industry, but for me, it worked.
Many people supported me and said, “We want The Oatmeal to be able to do it full-time.” We don’t want him working with clients, so let’s buy his book.
The Cost Of Hosting Images
Andrew: You were paying thousands of dollars per month for bandwidth.
Matt: It’s the first time I’ve ever seen it happen. It’s probably because my comics were high-resolution PNGs that weren’t optimized well, and my main material was imaged.
Because I hadn’t encountered this problem before, I didn’t pay attention to the cost. I had been using a Seattle-based hosting company and switched to Amazon S3. I could cut down on hosting costs by switching to Amazon S3.
Time To Degrade Some Images
Andrew: Andrew, why didn’t you degrade the quality of the images? Most people won’t notice.
Matt: Yes, I did. The quality didn’t suffer. I discovered a cool script that can be run on a 24-bit image. It will make the file look exactly like it did before. However, it is smaller in size. To cut costs, I ran it on all images.
Why Not Lower Image Quality?
Andrew: Why not go even further? You’re spending thousands even though you switched. According to Reddit, you actually saw an increase in costs after switching. However, a lot of it was due to increased traffic. Why not lower the quality of your images?
Matt: I’m not sure. With vector graphics, I believe that the best way to reduce costs would be to convert everything to a JPEG.
A Special Love For JPEGs
Matt: JPEG is my favorite format for vector graphics. It’s just artifact garbage. The money is worth it, especially if you’re interested in selling posters or other items.
It doesn’t sell well if you have a blurry pixelated nightmare next to a poster that says, “Hey, get a poster version!” It’s mostly because the price difference at this point isn’t that significant, so I’m fine with it being PNG.
Gaining Momentum With The Comic Book
Andrew: How did it do when you launched the book?
Matt: It was actually quite terrible the first month. I also expected to get tons of traffic and sell them all. It was difficult to sell something like this at the beginning. It took me two to three months to sell just a few hundred copies.
The Oatmeal’s sales started to pick up, so I ordered another couple thousand copies. I sold them all in three weeks.
Getting Name Recognition
Andrew: I have heard a statistic that you must visit a website 10-12 or 30 times before you can remember which website it was. While you may read an article or an illustration, you don’t actually commit to the logo.
Matt: For “The Oatmeal,” they had to visit my website at least 10 to 12 times to remember my name.
Posters Sell Very Well
Matt: Another thing I discovered was that utility sells more than humor. The grammar posters are what we sell most often with my posters. They can be used for things such as “How to Use A Semicolon” or “How To Use an Apostrophe.”
They can be bought in bulk by teachers and hung in their classrooms. It is much more profitable to sell something you use than something that makes people laugh.
Grammar 101
Andrew: As someone who didn’t know how it worked and was suddenly reading it, how worried were you about the possibility that you had misunderstood it or were teaching incorrectly in regard to the posters?
Matt: I was afraid. You can imagine creating a comic that says, “This is how you use a semicolon,” but the Internet will correct you if you are wrong.
Grammar 101 Continued
Matt: This is especially true if you have built a reputation as a grammar man. Actually, I have an editor who helps me with this kind of stuff now. It was sent to her.
Although she has a degree in library sciences, or something similar, she is the expert. It was just for me to be sure, and she returned with any minor errors.
Common Grammar Mistakes Revealed
Andrew: What were the mistakes she found?
Matt: It was probably when I was comparing “then” to “than.” But, actually, it’s from a different comic. It’s from “Ten Words you Need to Stop Misspelling.”
I had an example that said, “I’m better at holding onto my liquor than a Panda Bear,” which means I can drink more than a Panda bear can. Also, it doesn’t have a panda bear vomiting.
The Internet Weighs In On Grammar
Matt: People argued that my example meant I was better at holding a panda bear’s hand than a bottle. It’s a matter of context and then and there.
It’s not a case of me spelling it wrong or misspelling it. It all depends on how you view it. It happens; even though they may be right in the context of the poster, it is also correct.
Posting Often Makes All The Difference
Andrew: Ben Huh said that this was one of the things he did when Lolcats and I can have Cheezburger were acquired. He said, “You just post more often.”
“People know there will be more frequent posts and they are more likely to return more often. This just builds upon itself.” Sounds like you’ve had the same experience.
How Matt Approaches Posting
Matt: Yeah. I have to be able to post at least four times per day and can’t afford to do it every day. I try not to limit myself to posting daily because comics are better if I make them when I can.
If I force comics, the humor is less effective. Yes, posting more often, in the beginning, was a good idea.
How The Oatmeal Got Its Name
Andrew: I’d like to ask you. It’s something I know, but it’s not something my audience knows. What made you name the website “The Oatmeal?” Where did it come from?
Matt: When I was a teenager, I used to play Quake. I also used the name Quaker Oatmeal online. When I signed up for the Internet, I used the name Oatmeal.
Comics That Were Turned Into Posters
Andrew: How did you choose the comic to be made into a poster?
Matt: It was initially the grammar ones. Everybody who read them would email me to say, “Hey, this should be made into a poster.”
It should be in my classroom. That was the beginning. It is based on whether it is poster-worthy and the feedback I receive.
Cats And Grammar
Matt: One comic I did a month back is “Cat vs. Internet.” It doesn’t have a poster, and there’s no merchandise. But everyone has been emailing about it so much that I think I might turn it into a flipbook, a poster, or some other kind of thing.
Andrew: What was the effectiveness or success rate of the poster when it was first launched?Matt: It was a success. When I launched “How to Use an Apostrophe,” I thought I had already published a grammar comic. The traffic came from both comics, which fed off one another.
Taking Negative Feedback Is Hard
Andrew: What was your feedback when you first started getting it?
Matt: It was terrible. Digg users will see your comic and say, “This is the most horrible thing they’ve ever seen.”
This makes the Internet less humorous and other horrible things. However, I noticed that people liked my comics and that I was consistently putting out new ones; the positive feedback began to outweigh any negative ones.
How To Respond To Negative Feedback
Andrew: What do you say to someone who claims, “This is probably the worst comic I’ve ever seen in my life”?
Matt: I was a diplomat when I worked for people.
I was forced to reply, “Well, I’m sorry that you feel that way. I appreciate your criticism,” and blah blah blah blah. Since I am now independent, no one can stop me from saying what I think.
Letting Go
Andrew: You can let go of something you don’t like because it isn’t perfect. What can you do to deal with this? These are your issues. How do you handle them?
Matt: I often feel a sense of urgency when making comics. It’s like, “Oh, I have to make a comic.” I must hurry. I must hurry.
Comic Content Generation
Andrew: How do you go from having no idea to creating something everyone Diggs and interacts with?
Matt: I have noticed a shift in my attention since becoming a comic artist.
We all feel we all do and see, but we don’t communicate in the right ways. My girlfriend and I were on a plane talking about apps and that’s what led to some ideas.
Stressing About App Purchases
Matt: One app was $1.99 or $1.00. I was stressed about the $2.00 price. I am on a plane, the ticket cost $600, and the Starbucks I had before I boarded the plane was $7.
It struck me that many people in my generation stress about app purchases at $1.00, even though they buy iPhones and houses and $8.00 mochas. I decided to make a comic about it.
Notebooks Galore
Matt: This is how I do it with all my stuff lately. These little notebooks are my favorite. I have notebooks all around my house. They are always in my pocket, and I keep them there to write down any ideas that come to me.
It’ll then sit in my notebook for a few weeks until I decide it’s good enough and worthy of being turned into a comic.
The Comic Creation Process
Matt: Usually, I will semi-script something and then put it in a notepad. Next, I will get on the computer to draw it. Sometimes, the humor changes as I draw it. As I draw them, they grow and change.
Then I cut them up and put them on the site. Usually, Digg is the first thing I submit. Digg, Twitter, and Facebook are my next stops. After that, I just let it sit and watched the traffic grow.
The Best Sites To Post On
Andrew: Digg is number 1. Which is number two? What’s number two? Facebook or Twitter? Traffic.
Matt: What is the best way to generate traffic? These are two things, at least in my view. Digg is what I consider outside traffic. It’s someone else’s website. With Facebook and Twitter, these are my own followers who have pledged to follow me.
Understanding The Reddit Community
Andrew: Why do you think you can’t submit it? Why is it different there?
Matt: There is a core group who hate me on Redditors. It’s likely between 300-1000 people.
Recently, I have noticed that when I submit my own comic, it receives more negative feedback than if left alone. If they wish to see it on Reddit’s homepage, they can.
Reddit Is Not The Be-All End All
Andrew: What was happening in your head? Reddit was something you thought of while you were creating your comics, you said. How did this influence the comics you created? Did it hinder you from creating? Did you try to escape their wrath while you were designing?
Matt: It used to be something I thought was useful. But I found it more dangerous than anything else. Reddit is not the only place to find it. Negative comments on the Internet can make it very difficult to create.
Themes That Drive Traffic
Andrew: How do the comments affect the comics?
Matt: I believe the feedback that changed my comics somewhat was not from comments. It was traffic. I discovered certain themes that I attack would drive traffic like crazy, while other things won’t.
Writing about a problem is a good idea. This is the standup routine in which someone says, “What’s up with airline food?” Then you take that and make a comic.
Gary Larson Provides Some Advice
Matt: Gary Larson was actually my lunch companion a few weeks back. One of my questions was, “What kind of feedback have you received on your work?” And he replied that it had changed his work.
He said, almost exactly, that he had worked for 15 years in a small dark hole with no feedback and didn’t go on a book tour. He wrote only what he enjoyed and what he found funny, and his humor was a match for his fans.
Newsletters Aren’t That Effective
Andrew: I receive one of Larson’s daily drawings via an email newsletter.
Matt: Okay. I have a newsletter, and it has a following.
Still, it doesn’t compare to Facebook fan pages when communicating with people. People are more likely to click “like” on Facebook than to enter their email address into a place where they might get spam.
Embedding Facebook Comments
Andrew: It was easy to embed one of the Facebook commenting systems into your website. What did this do to your site?
Matt: It was integrated into my blog section because I wanted to see what it would look like if there were comments. Although I did not want comments on my major comics, I considered it a blog section.
How Comments Make You Feel
Matt: I don’t remember when you last saw a YouTube video. You scrolled through the comments and thought, “Oh, I feel better now that those are my books.” You don’t. That is the worst, most horrible, and worst thing I have ever read.
It’s not that they are being mean. They just seem to have room-temperature IQs when commenting on YouTube comments.
Landing A Book Deal
Andrew: Although I find this section funny, I noticed that people were complaining, so I decided to bring it up. You self-published your book. How did you land a book deal?
Matt: It was just enough exposure and visibility that a few publishing houses noticed. The grammar comics then placed my comics on every American editor’s desk. It was a strange way for me to do it.
Why Publishing Is More Profitable
Andrew: What makes a publishing deal more profitable?
Matt: I believe having more creative control over your work is good. I was most interested in not being told by someone, “You can’t use that word,” or “You must make this comic less gross.”
Andrews McMeel was the publisher that I chose. This is the same publisher that published Gary Larson’s The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes.
Cover Art
Andrew: How about the cover design? I see that this is often an issue for writers.
Matt: That was fine by me.
My book is visual-oriented, and I believe most of it is. Maybe many writers think that the only visual in a book is the cover. They focus on that as if it were a big deal. For me, the cover was, pfft.
Overcoming Writer’s Block
Andrew: Is there ever writer’s block?
Matt: Sometimes. Sometimes it’s just a feeling of being uninspired and a lack of ideas. Coffee and flying seem to help me with this. Caffeinated coffee seems to be a good choice.
After the caffeine glow has faded, I find that I am actually the most creative at night. A weird, strung-out creative burst occurs around 10:00 p.m. when I get the most ideas.
Sparking Creativity
Andrew: What can you do to spark creativity other than getting on a plane or caffeine?
Matt: I recommend listening, thinking, and communicating what we are all saying, doing and how we communicate it.
Whether it is something, we are having a problem with (like the BS we have to go through to get on an airplane) or something minor, such as when you walk through a web and think you have a spider on your body, that’s okay.
Dipping Your Feet Into Web Comics
Andrew: What’s the best way to get started with webcomics?
Matt: At first, I made quizzes. As I said about the dating site, they were meant to help you build links. So comics have been my hobby for just a little more than two years.
My drawing style can be described as very poor but well-done. The actual character is rough but has gradients, drop shadows, and all the other stuff web designers use to enhance work.
Incredible Story
Andrew Warner: How can a webcomic make $1,000 per day in revenue? Matthew Inman, a webcomic creator and publisher of “The Oatmeal,” was profiled by many magazines.
They claimed he made $1,000 per day in sales and earned $70,000 on Black Friday last year. I was interested in the details of this incredible story, and that is one of the many reasons I invited Matt back for an interview.