Hey guys!
As you can see from the title, I sold more t-shirts on Merch by Amazon in December 2018 than I have any previous month. I’ve been selling on Merch for 29 months now, so this is a pretty big deal for me.
Merch by Amazon, at this point, is a 100% passive income business for me. (I’ll explain more about this later in the post).
Finding vectors and logos for Merch by Amazon is hard. I often find myself trudging through site after site looking for the “perfect” vector to use on my Merch shirts.
Once I finally find the image I like, I go to download it…and end up getting redirected to a paid resource like Shutterstock. Annoyed, I head back to Google to start the research process again. I’ll probably find a couple more that would work, but then I have to go through the trouble of figuring out if these vectors can be used commercially.
Most of you research vectors and artwork the same way. We’re all looking for the cheapest way to create t-shirts. Our thought process is “If I can create a design using free fonts and free vectors and upload that to Amazon, then any of my sales will be pure profit!
When a platform like Merch by Amazon comes into existence, new tools and services are bound to emerge. Developing a “first to market” product is usually a great way to solidify yourself as the defacto “best tool” for that particular platform.
For example, you’ve probably heard of Merch Informer, Pretty Merch, and Merch Buddy. Those were all the “first” products created in their respective categories. Merch Informer dominated the t-shirt research market, Pretty Merch dominates analytics, and Merch Buddy streamlines and simplifies the t-shirt uploading process.
But, being first to market doesn’t always mean you are the best. When I created MerchReadyDesigns, I wasn’t the first to market. I just did it better than everyone else at the time.
In the world of Merch by Amazon, data is king.
New and longtime sellers alike have used data at one point or another to boost t-shirt sales. Data is used to determine which t-shirt colors sell the best, which genders to target, which niches to upload to, and which trends are popular.
Now that Merch has been around for several years (and millions of shirts have been uploaded), getting your shirts noticed is getting even harder. Tools like Merch Informer have made it easier to find best-selling shirts, but when it comes to finding out trending shirts, it’s not always the best solution. A lot of these Merch by Amazon research tools use historical data.
At one point or another along your Merch by Amazon journey, you’ve probably thought to yourself:
“What if a t-shirt phrase I use gets trademarked later on?”
There’s a good chance this could and will happen to you. It’s happened to me. Usually, out of the clear blue you will receive that terrifying email from Amazon stating that your designs has been taken down. That means you are one step closer to losing your Merch account permanently. Thankfully, after several years selling on Merch it’s only happened twice to me, but if I had been monitoring my phrases a little better, this probably wouldn’t have happened at all.
Over the past 23 months on Merch Pursuits, there’s always been one thing that constantly amazes me: the amount of opportunity that presents itself in world of Print on Demand.
We’ve seen a lot of extremely useful Merch Resources pop up, such as Merch Informer, Pretty Merch, or Merch Buddy. I even capitalized on this market by creating a website called Merch Ready Designs, which is a website that allows you to purchase pre-made Merch by Amazon designs that are “ready to upload”.
The part I never really got into was WHY I created MRD in the first place. Essentially, I had become so efficient at outsourcing that I ended up with hundreds of stockpiled designs, but not enough slots in my Merch account to upload them all. I guess you could say MRD was created as a way to sell my unused designs.
A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post about taking a six month Merch “hiatus”. In my case, that was just a fancy way of saying I got lazy and let life get in the way of my Merch side gig.
So, what was holding me back?
One word: Time.
Hey everyone!
I know, it’s been a few months since my last update, so I thought I’d fill you in on what I’ve been up to. A lot of you have been asking for updates about me, whether or not my account was terminated, or what I’ve been up to.
So, here goes.
Have you ever wished for more data in your Merch dashboards? I know I have.
I’ve always wanted the ability to see things like what color t-shirts sold, what some of my top-selling shirts are, or whether my shirts were sold to a man, woman, or child. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to find these things with the built-in analytics.
If you’ve been craving more metrics, then you’re about to be very glad you read this post.
Hey guys!
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to reuse common brand names, titles, or bullets in your Merch by Amazon listings? Of course you have. We all upload more designs in niches that are selling well for us. We also upload designs variations, color variations, and make change designs to our best-selling designs in order to maximize profits.
Update 5/29/18: A new tool called Merch Buddy has emerged. I recommend this over MerchText.
Email [email protected] if you have any Merch questions, tips, or topics you think I should write about.
Note: I don't advertise or cross promote any products I don't personally use.