Introducing 7zeroFIRE Branded Merch on Amazon!

 

As of March 30, 2021, my first tier of Merch products became available on Amazon!  I’m so excited to explore this creative flow of [semi] passive income.  I’m still experimenting with designs and genres, and overall branding of merch I want to sell.  As you’ll see on my 7zeroFIRE Amazon Merch brand page, I currently have a mix of FIRE related themes and “girl power” themes, as well as some personal favorites which include unicorns.  Sorry – I can’t help myself!

My Amazon Merch designs are created using a drawing app called Procreate.  My family loves this app!  It’s so easy to use and intuitive to learn, and there are some really great tutorial content creators to assist with the navigation of learning all of the controls and tools built within the program.  Content creators on YouTube also walk you step by step through various projects, so you can follow along as you learn the features and controls while creating a great piece of art.  In fact, I’ll post one of my resulting “masterpieces” below for your enjoyment.  Ha!  I highly recommend Procreate because it’s very intuitive and so much fun to create unique pieces of art.

While some of my designs are completely original and organically created by myself, I also use some designs created by others.  My favorite source for inspiration and the use of unlicensed images is Pixabay.  Pixabay is “a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. All contents are released under the Pixabay License, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.”  Some of my future designs might exclusively be one of these Pixabay images, and some might be an original compilation where I piece together multiple images into a new, original design created by me.  This FIRE project is my opportunity to be creative!

In the Amazon Merch partnership, sellers are initiated through a series of Tiers as their product quality and sales grow.  All sellers start at Tier 10, meaning that only a total of 10 products are allowed, and a seller must sell 10 products before moving up to the next Tier.  I’ve included an image below of the Tier structure.  The second Tier is Tier 25 – and again, the seller can have a maximum of 25 products and must sell 25 products to graduate to the next level Tier.

Like any new business, the early days (years) are the hardest because you don’t have an audience, you don’t have any customers, and thus, you don’t have any sales.

So far, I’m my only customer.  But that’s okay!  And likely the “template” for many new business owners.  I purchased all my first 25 products so that I can up-level to the next tier, Tier 100. 

In my current Tier on Amazon Merch, I can only upload and submit 5 new product designs each day.  Therefore, at Tier 100 (balance of 75 open product slots), it will take me 15 days to fill the Tier with available products.  I’m not likely to upload every single day, so it could reasonably take me a month or more to complete the uploads.  That should finally give me enough breathing room for design uploads and potentially spend some time (and money) on advertising. 

It's also important for me to start reaching and engaging customers.  I need to know what customers are looking for and buying.  It doesn’t make sense to robotically keep uploading new designs if they aren’t the designs customers are searching for and buying.  Thus, I’m strategically slowing down and will shift some investment toward advertising and promotion so that my products can be discovered…and PURCHASED.  😊

If you have ideas for designs you would purchase on a T-shirt, Pop-Socket, Phone Case, Tote bag, or Throw Pillow – leave me a comment below and I’ll look into it!  As always thank you for your readership and support!

 As promised, for fun, here's one of my very early Procreate creations, following along with a YouTube tutorial.  (It's a blueberry bubble tea latte...in case it's not obvious.)  Enjoy!

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