We all know the importance of video browsing platforms like Youtube and Twitch in today’s media industry. Video content attracts a huge audience towards itself, and if you have the passion and skills to make quality video content, then the opportunities are limitless. Talking about making money from videos, there are in fact plenty of options. And if your videos amass a good audience, then you can actually make a lot of money from platforms like Twitch and Youtube.
A great option to earn money from these platforms is to sell your own merchandise. You already provide your audience with a lot of quality videos, but selling merchandise is about offering them more than videos. It’s about attracting and motivating them to spend money on other valuable stuff that you can provide.
Here in this blog post, we will discuss everything you need to sell merchandise on youtube, twitch and similar platforms. So let’s start!
Why Sell Merch?
One may think that while they can earn money by simple methods such as ad revenue, donations and subscriptions, then why sell merch in the first place? After all, you will have to get it manufactured, set up the online shop and then promote them a lot to make the audience buy them. Seems like a lot of effort.
But this is not true! The efforts get minimised once you get the hang of it and the benefits are obviously many. For your clarity, here are the main benefits that selling merchandise on youtube and twitch brings to you:
- It diversifies your revenue streams. Apart from ad revenue and subscriptions, merch can be another great source of regular income for you. Your income from any one revenue source will always keep fluctuating. And that’s why having several revenue sources helps to maintain a steady income.
- It promotes your brand. With people donning apparel and accessories with your logo, you get more publicity, which is good for long term growth.
- It establishes a solid connection with your viewers. In fact, it helps to cultivate a sense of community among them.
Steps To Make Your Own Merchandise
How to get your merch designed and manufactured is one of the most common questions that trouble the content creators looking forward to selling their own stuff. That’s why we simplified the process into a list of steps you can follow to get things done.
1. Choose items to sell
What do you want to sell? There are many popular options like t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, bags, and mugs. These are some of the most commonly purchased pieces of merch.
However, make sure to get feedback from your viewers about what they would like to get.
Another great idea is to sell niche related products. For example, if your channel is about environmental causes, then you can sell eco-friendly products.
2. Have a design to print on your products
Plain clothes or accessories won’t sell. People can always buy them from regular shops. If you are selling on your youtube channel or twitch stream, then it needs to be something that people can’t find elsewhere. You need a design element that makes people feel connected with you and make them look cool as well.
Many content creators simply use their logos, which is a good idea as well, but it’s better to offer more value to your viewers than just logos. Find some images, phrases or slogans your channel is associated with and which also make your viewers feel something.
Finally, find a designer or freelancer to make cool designs from those images, phrases or slogans that you have picked.
3. Get your products manufactured
Now this is the part most people feel confused about, but it’s not that difficult actually. To sell merchandise on youtube and twitch, a really easy option in front of you is to start with a print on demand or POD service.
A print on demand service provider is a platform which can let you print your designs on a range of products that they manufacture. All you need to do is to submit your designs and then whenever a customer places an order, the POD will print your design on the ordered product and will deliver it to the customer. Try some popular POD platforms, compare their product and print quality along with the pricing model and find the one that works best for you.
Once your mech selling business starts to pick up and you start to get a lot of orders from your subscribers, you can also enter into a deal with a local business to manufacture your products. They can offer you a much better quality and customisation options, but they will also need you to order in bulk and pay it all in advance.
Practical Tips to Promote Your Merch
Now you have your cool items ready for sale. All you need to do is to promote and market them to your audience to sell as much as you can. And here are a few tips to help you.
Promote everywhere:
It has been proven that promoting your Shop actively increases your sales.
You can supplement your presence on YouTube with great content on Facebook and Instagram. You can keep your viewers engaged and informed about your merch by using your channel as well as other social media platforms.
You should also inform people about your merchandise in many of your videos, or you could even make some videos solely devoted to your merchandise. Producing promotional short videos and intros for your customised merchandise is another effective strategy.
Wear them yourself:
Put on some of your merch in every video you make. Wearing it whenever you’re representing your channel in the real world, is also a good idea. By wearing your own products, you can demonstrate to your audience that you yourself find them really cool and you are confident about the value of the products you’re offering.
It’s also a great way to show the audience how your products look when worn by a real person.
Launch exciting deals and offers:
Give your audience the advantage and attraction of special deals and discounts. People are always looking for a good deal, so make sure they know about it. A great number of e-commerce platforms regularly offer discounts that are site-wide. If you tell your fans about these deals, they will most likely take advantage of them and save money.
Keep your audience engaged:
Maintain your audience’s interest by keeping them involved. Asking viewers to post photos of themselves on Instagram while wearing your merchandise and using the hashtag for your channel is another fun way to accomplish this goal.
Combining this strategy with a reward, such as a giveaway or a shout out, will almost certainly result in the desired outcome. You can in fact grow a sense of community about your merchandise by holding meaningful giveaways and giving shoutouts to your most loyal customers.
Build excitement:
Make frequent announcements regarding new products and designs. Informing people about your newly designed items will keep them interested in what you have to offer and encourage them to return to check it out.
You can drive curiosity in your merch by creating suspense and anticipation first. If you have more than one idea, spread their release out over time and build anticipation by announcing them in interesting ways. You can say that new products are coming soon, something interesting is on the way, or that you have a surprise for them.
Keep the process easy
Be sure to make it simple for people to purchase your merchandise. Remember to post a link to buy your merch at many places. You can provide your audience with a simple and clickable way to find your merchandise. A link can be included in the bio section of all of your social media channels, in the description of your channel, as well as in many dedicated posts.
Final words
An important fact to note here is that you might not make a lot of profit out of selling merchandise if you are just starting out. Just think about it. You are new and at this stage, you haven’t been able to convince people to watch your videos. So why will they pay their hard-earned money to buy your products? They won’t. You can start selling your merchandise when you have gathered a good fan following on youtube. When people don’t just watch your videos, but they interact a lot in the form of comments and in other ways. IN short, you need to develop a sense of community within your viewers so they start to regard having your logo on their t-shirt as a valuable thing.
The audience is actually a very precious resource in marketing. And once you have the ability to capture the attention of the masses, then a lot of options open up for you. And selling your own products whether on youtube or on twitch is a great way to monetise your audience. And we believe that with the tips provided here, you will surely be able to up your game on youtube and on twitch as well.
