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Spooky 1.3
Ok so progress on this project has been mixed, partly due to my own constraints, both energy, or perhaps inspiration and the skills needed, and also due to external factors. This is a side-hustle so does have to give way to my full time job, family and other commitments. I have also decided to try a ‘pivot’ on the main project, as it requires a master mould I don’t yet have the skills to create and some tools and equipment I can’t yet afford, at least not within the scope of a side-hustle at the moment, with the cost of living and all bills and food etc going up in…
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eCommerce 1.5
So we’re getting there, the MacOS account is created and I’m pretty much there on the setup. The website is bookmarked, as is the control panel, the ETSY store (more of this later), ETSY itself (as a reference) and all other handy bookmarks, the Canva account is logged into ready to create banners etc. I use Canva as its quick and easy, I have several editing Apps and can create banners, icons etc myself but as we have a Canva Pro account, that is my friends and family that we all share in a team for one subscription its worth the cost for the ease of use and speed I…
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PoD 1.4
So as this is a multi-stream approach of small and cost effective, in fact preferably free streams it’s time to report on the others. Cafepress and Zazzle the only 2 POD sites I’m currently on are ticking along. I shut the others down due to zero sales and it wasn’t worth the effort to maintain them. Cafepress and Zazzle I run now as entirely passive, Zazzle does do much in fact I think I have £10 or something like in there this year but being entirely passive it’s not worth shutting down as a tenner free is better than nothing! Cafepress I run as almost entirely passive, I do occasionally…
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PoD 1.3
After returning from holiday to a blank Merch sales report that was a little disappointing. Also I’d had a product removed due to alleged copyright infringement, now I say alleged because I’d done my homework and checked there was no copyright. The image I used was a meme on the Parental Advisory logo which being merely black and white bars with text was deemed as not sufficiently unique to be copyright. Here is a lesson that applies to all POD sites, if there is a complaint, rightly or wrongly they will take your product down, this is because it’s not worth their while, for your little product, to argue and…
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eCommerce 1.4
So another thing I do to try and get organised and make things easier is every time I start a new project I create a new user account on my iMac. So this may be a bit extreme but when you have a few projects on the go and some of them are undoubtably doomed and destined for disaster. Unfortunately this is a fact but we will learn from those failures and move on. But to keep all the logins, passwords, website links and branding images, banners and other assets separate and not all muddled together then a separate account is ideal So a new user account not only allows…
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eCommerce 1.3
The next online task for me is to decide if I need a new ETSY store, the one I already have started for the images isn’t really suitable for the new ‘project spooky’, they always advise an ETSY store should be focused, have its niche, and any products should be variations or complimentary to the main products. This isn’t. So there you go that’s decided I need a new ETSY store So in order to keep the project moving as I have a small blocker in printing out and testing the master mould I’ll be moving along the project online, as one door closes etc, and as with any project…
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eCommerce 1.2
So another passive or semi-passive income stream which can also compliment and expand my product line is having printed mugs. So I can’t print mugs, I don’t have the machinery and I don’t want to stock and hold a large amount of mugs (or other products), I don’t have the space or the money to do that for a start. So I’ve included a PoD plug-in, this is where you create a listing that once purchased and only then sends a job to the PoD site to produce, pack and ship the order to the customer. So same as any traditional PoD product you design it, setup any images, text,…
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eCommerce 1.1
I also hope to create passive income I’ve also added downloads to the product list. This is where you upload high resolution images that people can download, print and frame themselves. The advantages of this to the buyer is they get their image straightway, no waiting. This is of course better suited to clip art and stock images, but also applies to artworks etc. The advantage to the seller is there is no physical product, no stock, no packaging and postage, its purely a passive income once setup This took a little bit of work to setup as you need the images in several sizes, I made these to suit several…
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eCommerce 1.0
I have my own website, something I’ve run for my local pictures for several years now, its not that expensive and its essential to have an online presence. You could now just do that with social media, an Instagram account, Pinterest board and a Facebook business page – all for free! But I also like to have my own domain and web page, probably a bit old fashioned these days but there you go I could also turn this into an eCommerce store but I don’t want to, for several reasons, the constant upkeep and constant threat of being hacked put me off. I work in IT all day and…
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Collaboration 1.3
So after our collaboration chat and critique my friend has pivoted his project slightly. This isn’t the first time he’s had a few projects o the go and often these never get off the mark, sometimes they have issues and genuinely don’t work, or have issues, they don’t catch on with the customer, or in case of YouTube projects the viewer, but often these are non-starters due to procrastination or lack of enthusiasm So this is something we may have mentioned before, you side-hustle will succeed better if you have a passion for it, if its an existing hobby or something you’re always dreamed of or love doing, be it…