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Niches Get Stitches – T-Shirt Trends Recent And Future For Your Merch Business

For those of you who are new (Hi!) or have a short memory (we meet on Tuesday nights at the local rec center – there’s coffee), you may not be aware of the wealth of information hidden in the digital recesses of the Merch Informer blog. I recently remarked to the gentleman who created MerchInformer (along with BookBolt and Sale Samurai) that there is enough content in the blog section that it could be compiled and sold as a how-to manual. Turns out he’s too generous and insisted that it all remain free. However, he did agree that we should dig into the archives and showcase many of the substantive and helpful pieces sure to act as primers for the […]

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Basic Color Theory for T-shirt Graphics

Not everyone can be clever enough to come up with a single phrase that is original, clever or compelling enough to stand alone on a t-shirt and sell by the truckload. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just push a button and churn out hundreds of black t-shirts with brilliant catchphrases in white type (I’m looking at you, social media scammers selling get-rich-quick AI schemes)? For the rest of us, we have to rely on, oh, good design skills. Notice I didn’t say talent. Skills can be taught. So don’t think that if you’re not a born designer or never went to design school, you can’t create attractive, saleable designs. In fact, with just the knowledge in this piece, […]

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A.I.: Don’t Burn Your Fingers On The Hottest New Trend

No matter how successful your existing Merch By Amazon business is, you know it takes a lot of work. Coming up with ideas, designing them, hating them and doing them over again, refining them until you know they’re gonna sell… Wouldn’t it be great if there was something that could do all the work for you? If you believe the hucksters crying out from the postage-stamp-sized ads in the Facebook margins, A.I. will do it all for you! Well, to quote the late Harry Dean Stanton, Photo from “Alien” ©Twentieth Century Fox. Watch it here. I can say from experience that A.I. is not smart enough to create designs that will resonate with your customer base with a simple push […]

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Dad merch: What are the most profitable product types and niches paying homage to fathers?

Gone are the days when Father’s Day gifts were limited to ties and socks. Amazon Merch on Demand offers a world of opportunities to show appreciation to fathers, be it for a special occasion or a daily love reminder. Naturally, this creates a lucrative niche to explore for sellers. But what are the most profitable product categories and niches in the dad segment? Let’s find out. The dad merch with the highest profit potential As a seller on Amazon Merch on Demand, you can choose from a total of 12 categories to position your listings in. But the truth is that not all of them offer the same financial gains. To find out which merch types are most lucrative in […]

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YHWH t-shirts: What do they stand for and why are they so popular right now?

Adorned with the sacred Hebrew name of God, YHWH t-shirts are more than just a trend. They’re a testament to faith and a whisper of spirituality in the world of style. In the following sections, we take a deep dive into YHWH t-shirts on Amazon Merch on Demand. We explore what they stand for and why they’ve become a pinnacle of popularity recently. If you’re a seller looking for new niches to tap into, keep reading. What do YHWH t-shirts stand for? YHWH t-shirts represent the Tetragrammaton – the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. It is composed of the Hebrew letters Yod, He, Vav, and He. Interesting to note is that in Judaism, the name of God is […]

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Branding Module Pt. 2: Maximizing Your Brand Impact on Merch by Amazon Listing and Brand Pages

In our previous essay, we talked about your product as the brand. While this ultimately helps identify your product as yours when seen by itself, the container should complement, if not match, the contents. You could make the best damn baked beans in the world, but if the can is a generic white with the word “BEANS” printed in blue Helvetica, all it will do is force the customer to reach over for that can of Heinz’s. Your containers are a) your brand page and b) your product listings. How you design and write them is as much a part of your brand as the products they promote. THINKING INSIDE THE BOX “The enemy of art is the absence of […]

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Branding Module Pt. 1: Leveraging Your Merch by Amazon Products for Effective Branding

In the sprawling marketplace of Merch by Amazon (MBA), your brand needs to shout louder than a New Yorker hailing a cab in rush hour. So, buckle up! We’re about to take a deep dive into the art of using your own MBA product to brand itself, from strategic logo placement to creating a style so distinct, it’s recognizable from a mile away. We’re not just slapping designs on products; we’re building a brand empire. STRATEGIC LOGO/BRAND PLACEMENT ON MBA PRODUCTS The apparel and fashion worlds are full of examples where the designer’s name or the company’s brand are incorporated into the product’s design. Since the days of Calvin Klein jeans, designers no longer hide behind their work, but feature […]

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Branding Module Pt. 3: Building Your Merch by Amazon Brand on Social Media: A Complete Strategy

Social media. The blessing and curse of marketers. Back in the day, your promotion went in one direction: toward the customer. The only way the customer talked back was through the wallet. If they bought, they liked you. If they didn’t, then they didn’t. Now, the customer talks back. And boy howdy do they. Your brand on social media is a complex mixture of planning, content generation and babysitting, um, I mean, customer service. Like everything else you do as an independent entrepreneur, you’re going to need to juggle many elements to successfully tailor your social media to represent your brand. VISUAL BRANDING ON SOCIAL MEDIA It’s the first thing potential customers see. Think of your social media as window […]

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Marketing Module Pt. 1: Mastering Marketing Strategies for Your Merch by Amazon Store

After three weeks focusing on branding, now we’re going to focus on marketing. And it important to make the distinction between the two. Branding is like your window display, and marketing is like handing out flyers on the corner directing people to your store. They’re different, but they are intrinsically linked. Your branding may be spectacular, but unless your marketing is successful, no-one will see it; if your marketing is successful but your branding sucks, don’t count on a return visit. The good thing about being an MBA entrepreneur is the many built-in advantages Amazon offers. So, even if you have no capital or man-hours to devote to conventional marketing, learn how to take advantage of all the opportunities Amazon […]

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Marketing Module Pt. 2: Effective Use of Social Media for Marketing Your MBA Business

If this article seems familiar at first glance, it’s because we only just discussed social media for branding your MBA business a few weeks ago. Branding and marketing are two completely difference disciplines, of course. We’re going to assume that by now you’ve optimized your social media branding and are ready to go out and get eyeballs. You can do this, of course, but like all the other elements of this endeavor, the devil is in the details. And the speed and volume of social media activity and platforms necessitate attention to every detail. CREATING ENGAGING PRODUCT IMAGERY AND VIDEO FOR SOCIAL MEDIA Again, we drove the need for compelling social media visuals in the branding article. Now you need […]

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