Source: Wired
“...as much as these moves help with public relations, there are strategic businesses decisions behind extending a helping hand to the small businesses on their platforms, especially ahead of the holiday season.
For one thing, chasing big budgets from large companies might be how these platforms grow, but the advertising budgets and revenue small businesses bring in are their bread-and-butter. Out of the six million active advertisers on Facebook, the majority are small and medium-sized businesses, according to a Facebook spokesperson. And, on Amazon, half of all goods sold are from small and medium-sized businesses.
“The most solid long-term play is a diverse portfolio of clients,” said Alice Fournier, vp of e-commerce and digital at Kantar Retail. “The small-businesses play a key role in many ways, especially in keeping shoppers excited about unique, exclusive brands.”
Hey, entrepreneurs -- if you have something exciting and unique cooking, understand the power that gives you over pricing, over access, etc. Forge your community and serve them well. Only you can.
Source: digiday.com
“Make a Group, Not a Page” -- via How to Monetize a YouTube Channel: 12 Tactics the Whiskey Tribe Used to Reach Nearly $20k/mo on Patreon
“One of the biggest priorities for us right now is protecting what works,” he explained. “We want to grow the Tribe, but not at the expense of making things stressful and not fun. The core of why people are spending time with us and our content is because it's fun... We'll sacrifice numbers for a really good culture.”
Introducing Print-On-Demand Laminated Vinyl Stickers -- You can order in Bulk or have them made On-Demand only after a customer buys one from you. And every Sticker can easily be treated like a Sticker sheet. Easy peasy.
Signup anytime: https://my.amplifier.com/signup and plug in your Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, etc. in seconds.
And here’s more on our Platform: https://amplifier.com/platform. Drop us a line. We love talking shop.
Source: blog.amplifier.com
Merchify adds Racerbacks, Baseball Tees, Totes and More.
INTRODUCING RACERBACK TANKS
LIGHTWEIGHT, TRI-BLEND PERFORMANCE WEAR IN 8 INITIAL COLORS
You asked for them, you got them. We've brought Tri-Blend Racerback Women's Tanks to Merchify. These are all the rage right now. Stylish and lightweight, these Racerbank tanks are especially popular among fitness conscious customers. Available immediately.
But that’s not all...
Let the Crowdpleasing Begin
Crowdfunding has quickly become one of the most exciting financing trends of the decade. Never before has it been so easy for individuals, businesses, and non-profits to raise funds to launch new creative, entrepreneurial, and cause-related projects.
At Amplifier, we’re helping clients deliver on the promise of crowdfunding, by entering into a partnership with the largest global funding platform, Indiegogo. Together, we're building an end-to-end solution that allows Crowdfunders to easily manage every stage of a typical project, including;
- Raising funds for their new project
- Administering their crowdfunding project online via easy-to-use online tools
- Producing, packaging and shipping perks, including shirts, hats, mugs, posters and other items used to reward contributors for their financial support
- Shipping out their finished project to their contributors all across the globe
- Supporting the ongoing needs of their project contributors
We'll have more details on what this partnership means for Crowdfunders in the weeks ahead.
In the meantime, if you're looking to launch your next crowdfunding project, or produce and deliver perks and products for an existing one, let us hear about it!
Introducing "Create Orders"
Introducing "Create Order"
Dear Amplifier clients, we're excited to announce you can now create new orders directly from within My Amplifier. No more emailing Client Service*. No more placing orders from your Online Store. Create Orders gives you an easy button to send out simple shipments. How it Works You can create your own order in 3 simple steps:
- Click the new "+ Order" Button at the top of your ORDERS page
- Fill out Sender, Recipient, Order Contents and Shipment Details
- Review Your Order Details then Place Your Order.
Using Create Orders is simple and straightforward. But we did want to call out one particular feature for you to be aware of...
Behind the Scenes of "This is Also Not a Kickstarter Shirt"
Amplifier recently had the chance to do a t-shirt printing and fulfillment job for Yancey Strickler at Kickstarter. It was an honor to be asked and a blast to do. So we shot a little video while the job was underway, for the backers of the shirt to enjoy.
Thanks, Yancey!
An oldie but a goodie.
In 2011, Amplifier co-founder Joel Bush hosted a SXSW panel entitled "Merch: The Other White Meat of Monetization." The title nods to the old Pork commercials and (before you go knocking the reference) remember... bacon is pork.
Joel brought together a supergroup made up of Rooster Teeth's Burnie Burns, Busted Tees' Mikhail Ledvich, LIVESTRONG's Mona Patel and Despair, Inc's Justin Sewell. In this spirited and informative discussion, panelists respond to a series of questions from Joel that seek to reveal "how successful web properties delight fans, earn revenue, and achieve self-sufficiency with a vibrant direct merchandise business.
Our friends from Reddit Gifts paid us a visit in Austin last week.
As you can see from this Twitter selfie, much fun was had. Especially enjoyed take their team our to experience Alamo Drafthouse... After it sank in that he was sitting at the greatest movie experience known to humankind, Reddit Gift's founder Dan McComas began to lament, "It's not fair that you get this..."
It is so not fair Dan. So deliciously, hilariously not fair. We will pour out a .40 for you next time we see a movie at Alamo. Some time next week.
Really enjoyed hanging out and getting to know you, thanks for making the trip! Hope to return the favor in SLC soon!
(Photo credit, from left to right, Topher Hyink, Dan McComas with Reddit Alien plush, Jessica Moreno, Gary Jense, Ellen Pao and Joel Bush.)
Zach Weinersmith and his awesome wife Kelly pilgrimaged to Amplifier's Austin headquarters today to autograph his latest Breadpig-published Kickstarter hit, TRIAL OF THE CLONE 2 - WRATH OF THE PACIFIST. Pizza was had. Books were signed. And signed. And signed.
If you missed out on this Kickstarter, here's Zach's video announcing it:
Wrath is the long-awaited sequel to Weinersmith's previous smash, TRIAL OF THE CLONE. For those who missed THAT Kickstarter, here's a flashback to Zach signing the very last of 2,500 books for previous backers.
Zach is on a crowdfunding tear lately. He also recently secured over $7000/month from his fans using the new Patreon platform. Fans can contribute as little as $1 a month to help Zach keep expressing his creativity.
It's a privilege for Amplifier to play a small part in the creative efforts of artists like Zach Weinersmith and publishers like Breadpig. They're not only exploring this emerging medium, they're building entirely new business models to boot.
Viva la crowd!
4 Reasons Why International Shipping DOES Work for a Kickstarter
Deadly Fredly’s post yesterday around Why International Shipping Doesn’t Work For A Kickstarter brought to the forefront some very real growing pains of Kickstarting a business. As makers, shippers, and general behind-the-scenes logistics sherpas for some wildly successful Kickstarter clients ourselves, we’ve seen many of these issues first hand.
Perspective is everything, though. When you evaluate a single Kickstarter campaign in isolation of the rest of your current and future business, the dollars dwindled away to international shipping premiums can seem enormous, but is that the only way to look at this issue?
To Deadly Fredly’s insights, we would respond:
1. Each member of your backer community delivers lifetime value beyond one campaign. International shipping costs can eat up some of the revenue of the pledge. This does not render the contribution moot at all.
- First, this isn’t a zero-sum game. Backers whose contributions end up closer to breakeven, particularly if you are able to limit these to minority tiers, are still extremely cheap customers to acquire. You may not profit from them on this particular campaign, but they are now customers. You can market to them in the future!
- Second, Kickstarter is a powerful, still-evolving social layer unto itself. For example, it enables people automatically to learn about projects backed by their friends. Its template, targets, stretch goals, backer updates, and other tools produce network effects that can help you build your community and grow your project and business. Involving international backers expands the possible community who can participate, and such networks become more valuable as each person joins.
2. Kickstarter is not simply a transaction engine. Patronage is also at work here. Passionate people who are invested in your community and your success will pay a bit more for shipping to get something of high perceived value to them. How much more? More than you might think. International customers are used to paying higher shipping rates across the board.
You can also reward international backers with special freebies. If you choose to charge significantly more for international shipments, what about offering those backers an exclusive (but cheap to produce) incentive? A cool bookmark? A badge? Something that might add <$1 in cost to you can still add a ton in perceived recognition and value to the international customer. In the end, no one backing a crowdfunded campaign is expecting Walmart-level pricing on products. They’re often already paying MORE for the chance to be a patron. So why not recognize their heroism in a low cost but meaningful (high reward) way?
There is also a lot more to fulfilling a Kickstarter campaign than just the reward items. Backer updates and other open communication are a big part of the value to the backer and have no shipping costs at all.
3. Kickstarter Creators should take a broader view of margin. Fred advocated analyzing margin (pledge dollars minus product and shipping costs) at each tier. Amen. Understanding the numbers is fundamental and critical.
- Rather than seeking the same percentage margin goal for all tiers, allow margin goals to vary by tier and/or for domestic versus international backers.
Your Margins May Vary. And that’s a GOOD thing. For example, movie theaters don’t make as much on tickets as they do on concessions. Distributors may make more money off the same product selling to one customer than they do to another. It’s common practice, and while it doesn’t mean that you should get into the practice of dismissing international tiers as loss leaders, it does mean you should feel free to consider international tiers a product that will likely yield lower margins. That’s perfectly normal. Look for creative ways to offset international expenses. If you feel your international shipping rates are far too high to be fair, consider looking at your domestic tiers, to see if an across-the-board price lift might offset the international premiums. What if you had even $0.25 or $0.50 cents extra for each domestic backer? And if you offer a digital download anywhere in the mix, those backers bring zero shipping costs. (For example, Zach Braff’s Kickstarter captured $386,670 for purely digital rewards, which represents more than 10% of the $3,105,473 he raised.)
$91,330... for a PDF! Nice.
Lastly, also appreciate volume discounts for production. While international backers may bring additional shipping expense, they also bring unit demand that could help you achieve deeper volume discounts in production, which benefits the economics of domestic and international backers alike. Bonus!
4. An expert partner can add tremendous value. Several times, Deadly Fredly talked about weighing the monetary cost of every decision vs. the impact it will have on his time. For example, he stated that only launching one international tier priced at $150.00 would yield the best margin return, but would cost him in time responding to the hundreds of complaints for offering so few international options.
In the comments, he even addressed the potential value of using a third-party vendor to handle customer service and fulfillment, but quickly dismissed the idea due to his hesitation to work with an unproven vendor. He’s completely correct on this one: never trust your brand, your products, and your reputation to a company or consultant that has not earned that right.
There are companies who deserve your consideration, though, our own being among them. If Kickstarter is a big part of your business model and your campaigns are wildly successful, you need a strategic partner to free your time and maximize your return on contributions. Consider just a few of the ways a proven vendor could help you:
- Reliability at scale. Domestic and international fulfillment can be significantly faster when you work with an expert in warehouse and order management who can ship tens of thousands of shipments in a shift.
- Dedicated customer service to you and your backers. Can’t handle all the questions, order-status inquiries, etc.? We can, following guidelines you set. Amplifier does this around the clock for some really amazing companies who are very serious about their communities.
- Integrated production. We also make many items popular as Kickstarter rewards. Having production handled inside the fulfillment warehouse saves significant time.
- More time for your community. With a reliable operation powering your making, fulfilling, and support, you can focus more time on backer updates and communication, which will help this project and beyond.
- The knowledge and infrastructure behind some of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns and for what comes next. The right partner can help you deliver on a Kickstarter success and also as you move into the future. Leading Kickstarter consultants and massive Internet communities such as Reddit, Breadpig, MailChimp, Glennz Tees, Rooster Teeth Productions, and Achewood utilize Amplifier as the merchandise-logistics backend for some of their enormously successful Kickstarter campaigns, ecommerce shops, and more.
Thanks again to Deadly Fredly for the thought-provoking post. We pay close attention to the unique challenges that professional Kickstarters encounter, and we relentlessly chip away at them one by one.
Stay tuned, and please hit us up with your campaigns, questions, and general Kickstarter rabblerousing.
Join our clients Rooster Teeth & LIVESTRONG this Wednesday
Rooster Teeth's Gavin Free (left) & Burnie Burns (right.)
We just learned that – in addition to Alexis Ohanian – two other Amplifier clients will be speaking Wednesday. Rooster Teeth's Burnie Burns and Gavin Free along with LIVESTRONG CFO Greg Lee will speak about the "Alternative Business Models" powering their respective businesses. If that weren't enough synchronicity, Goodwill's Michael Willard will be joining them. Goodwill honored Amplifier with their Business Partner of the Year award an event last week.
In the words of The Alternative event organizers:
This event will focus on alternative business models companies use to run their business. There will be guest speakers from a variety of different businesses and organizations present at the event to talk about what methods and strategies they use to run their company. These strategies are some that are not normally seen in the business world and are thus harder to study in an average classroom.
EVENT DETAILS:
Who: Rooster Teeth, Livestrong, Goodwill and more.
When: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 6PM
Where: Welch Shell Auditorium (WEL 3.502) at the University of Texas at Austin
More information here.
Trust us, the only excuse you have for missing THIS event is that you're attending Alexis' talk (and/or vice versa!)
Amplifier Client & REDDIT founder Alexis Ohanian in Austin Wednesday, Come Hear Him!
We ran into Alexis (right) two weeks ago @ JFK Airport
Alexis Ohanian has done more before 30 than most people do in a lifetime. In addition to co-founding powerhouse community Reddit, he's created a thriving not-for-profit called Breadpig, acted as an angel investor to the likes of Hipmunk, Hubspot, Crowdtilt and helped stop antipiracy legislation on Capitol Hill. Alexis' most amazing achievement may be that despite his success, he remains one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
Girl Scouts visit Amplifier, forget to bring us Thin Mints
We've hosted book signings and Kickstarter mavens but yesterday's visit by Girl Scout Troop 1252 will go down in Amplifier history as our first time staging an actual merit badge challenge.
We're pretty sure these girls will grow up to be creative kingpins. Every year, they design and print their own troop tees, with stencils and ink and amazing DIY grit and gristle.
This year, they asked us if Amplifier would teach them to screen print for real. Who can say no to girl scouts, even when they aren't selling cookies?
Our screen printing man, myth, and legend Chris Vreeland taught them the printing process, from art to film to screen to tee, and they took turns printing and curing their very own t-shirts.
The shirts look amazing. We'd like to say you can get your own Troop 1252 tee in our online store, but you can't. That would be... strange.
Thanks again for stopping in, taking the tour, and brightening our day with your questions about screen printing, glitter ink and unicorn posters, Troop 1252. Let us know when you're old enough for summer jobs!
More firepower arrived on our ship dock today. Secret equipment to help the Internet's most awesome communities spread their signals.
Our management team just wrapped a great shareholder meeting.