2018 Merch by Amazon Strategy Guide PDF

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Contents
Merch By Amazon 2018: Looking Backward to Look Forward ..................................................................... 2
Top Ten Tips for Merch By Amazon in 2018 ................................................................................................. 5
1. The 70/30 Evergreen-Seasonal Split ..................................................................................................... 5
2. Pick and Stick to Your Proprietary Blend .............................................................................................. 7
3. Late to the Party This Time? Be Early to the Next One ......................................................................... 8
4. Take it One Quarter at a Time ............................................................................................................ 10
5. Stop Selling Yourself Short ................................................................................................................. 12
6. A Big Future in Partnerships for POD ................................................................................................. 13
7. Give a Damn About Data..................................................................................................................... 15
8. Stop Thinking Exclusively Like a National Business ............................................................................. 17
9. Break The Old Scales ........................................................................................................................... 19
10. Have a Big Picture Plan ... And Not Just for 2018 ............................................................................. 21
Amy L. Herberger ........................................................................................................................................ 23
Daniel Caudill .............................................................................................................................................. 45
Ken Reil ....................................................................................................................................................... 51
Neil Lassen .................................................................................................................................................. 55
Matt Carlett................................................................................................................................................. 60
Joe Clay ....................................................................................................................................................... 63
Brianna Moller Greene ............................................................................................................................... 67
Harrison Caldwell ........................................................................................................................................ 74
Yong Jae Chong ........................................................................................................................................... 81
Margaret Collier .......................................................................................................................................... 89
Anthony Busciglio ....................................................................................................................................... 92
Fernando Sustaita ....................................................................................................................................... 94
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Merch By Amazon 2018: Looking Backward to Look Forward
“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to
what you can create.”
Those words from Roy T. Bennett, author of The Light in the Heart, ring
true for all, but especially for those in the POD industry.
Indeed, there was a lot that was out of our control in 2017. And, at
times, many of us -- myself included -- worried about those things,
allowing them to consume valuable energy that could have been better
spent creating opportunities both in and beyond Merch By Amazon.
With 2017 practically in the bag, there's a LOT of learning from this past
year that's now worth reflecting on. There's no question that the bumps
and scrapes we commonly experienced will make us all the more
intrepid and invincible in the new year.
And the new year is squarely where I'm focused today.
The time for making snowmen and Santa shirts has, in my opinion,
already come and gone. December is all about January and the year
ahead. The actions we take and the plans we make this month set the
tone and the agenda for the totality of our business in the year to come.
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The importance of starting fresh and refocusing against the backdrop of
lessons learned is such that I didn't want to tackle this task alone. For
this 2018 strategy guide, I also posed a series of somewhere between 5-
10 questions (mostly the same questions for each interview to facilitate
a balanced view of voices) to some of the best and brightest minds in
POD. They are:
• Ken Reil
• Neil Lassen
• Amy L. Herberger
• Daniel Caudill
• Anthony Busciglio
• Joe Clay
• Brianna Moller Greene
• Margaret Collier
• Matt Carlett
• Harrison Caldwell
• Yong Jae Chong
• Fernando Sustaita
The insight and advice that follows will undoubtedly help many of you
get your Merch business on the right track for the next 12 months.
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It's my hope that the content to come will empower you to hit the
ground running in 2018 and cruise into 2019 more successful than you
can presently imagine.
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Top Ten Tips for Merch By Amazon in 2018
By Michael Essany
For my contributed counsel to this guide, I've narrowed down ten

lessons and pearls of wisdom gleaned from fumbles and scores in 2017
that I feel are worth stressing as we knock on 2018's door.
1. The 70/30 Evergreen-Seasonal Split
On October 30, 2017, Amazon updated our Merch dashboards with the
following message:
“In order to ensure customer orders are shipped on time in

November and December, we may temporarily reduce the
availability of some products. During this time, these products may
not appear in Amazon search results or they may show as "Currently
Unavailable" on product detail pages.”
This move, commonly referred to as "throttling," can have an enormous

impact on sales. If it takes place, let's say, during the last two weeks of a
month in which a major holiday or seasonal event is to transpire, sales
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for shirts about that particular occasion will all but certainly fail to
achieve their true sales potential on Merch By Amazon.
Save for expanding your POD reach to other platforms and driving your
own traffic to Merch via paid or social media advertising, the prospect of
intermittent and ill-timed throttling poses a significant hazard to sellers
who have grown to rely on seasonal happenings and trends to generate
their largest paydays.
As Merch matures and new processes are enacted to improve printing

and capacity stresses on Amazon's inner workings (those improvements
are already taking place), we should see less throttling. But we could still
see it multiple times in short durations next year. To safeguard your
sales from taking the brunt of these moments, I've learned from
countless top sellers and from the experiences of my own content and
marketing strategies that a 70/30 evergreen - seasonal split may
represent the optimal design portfolio structure at this time.
Allowing for seasonal sales surges but relying chiefly on designs that can
sell year round, this balanced portfolio structure is advocated by many
sellers seeking to mitigate risk and optimize their accounts for consistent
monthly sales.
Relying more on evergreen designs in 2018 (about 70% of all new

designs) while allocating fewer but more well researched, better
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designed, and more creative seasonal offerings (30% of new designs) is a
new year content strategy that, to many successful sellers I know,
represents a smart approach to Merch in the new year that may deliver
steady results throughout 2018.
2. Pick and Stick to Your Proprietary Blend
Soft drinks have it. So do vitamins and supplements. Even the chicken at
KFC.
I'm referring to "proprietary blends" -- A.K.A. the so-called secret sauce

combination of mysterious ingredients in unannounced quantities mixed
and manufactured through an undisclosed series of steps and top secret
practices.
In addition to warding off competition, at the heart of any "propriety

blend" is the quest for quality control. That is to say, every batch of
product containing this enigmatic mixture of goods will always look, feel,
taste, or perform in the same way.
The reason many of our shirts don't always perform as well as others
we’ve launched is because we fail to take the same steps every time we
endeavor to create a shirt and list it. Put differently, many Merchers are
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either without a proprietary POD planning blend or they don't religiously
stick to one.
As we inch closer to a new year jam packed with new opportunities, now
is the time to determine YOUR propriety blend – the steps from which
you won't deviate in terms of researching, finding, and assessing the
strength or opportunity of a niche and then creating and listing the
finished, polished, and compliant design.
If you haven't already, take note of the research and planning steps you
take that tend to lead to smooth, rejection-free, successful creation,
uploading, and sales experiences. Build upon these winning tactics until
you've developed a series of 10 or so orderly steps in every shirt
creation process (from conceptualizing it to selling it) and never break
from this "blend."
Have your steps down to a science and commit to following those steps
EVERY time you make a shirt. Your work flow will improve, your stress
will subside, and your sales will continue to grow.
3. Late to the Party This Time? Be Early to the Next One
Throughout 2017 but especially in the second half of 2017, Merch sellers
became increasingly obsessed with where the market is today.
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Now, to be clear, I am a HUGE advocate of keeping a finger on the pulse
of trends and what consumers are searching for from day to day.
Millions of dollars were made in 2017 selling everything from eclipse to
funcle shirts as a direct result of seeing what is presently in demand.
But -- and this is a big BUT -- knowing where the market is should
definitely inspire some designs. It shouldn't inspire most of them. In fact,
more and more, I see designers filling up their daily uploads with shirts
designed in response to what's hot now. This is a great way for lower
tiered sellers to quickly grab a few sales and bust through to tiers 25 and
100. But piggybacking on what's trending isn't a long term overarching
strategy and shouldn't be confused for one.
Whenever you discover what's hot and make designs to meet the heat,
you're essentially arriving late to the party. Nonetheless, this is perfectly
fine and I encourage it... in moderation. My advice is this: only arrive late
to as many parties as you also arrive early to.
For example, at the start of every month (let's say it's August 1st), I start
thinking about the start to middle of the next month (September 1st-
15th). Last July, I coached dozens of designers obsessed with making last
minute "summer vacation" shirts. Those who were too stubborn to
change course ultimately made fewer sales than those I encouraged to
get ahead of the market with "back to school 2018" shirts.
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I learned a long time ago that there's only one thing in life that you
should enjoy waiting for. And that's for the rest of the world to catch up
to your thinking.
Those who wait for the next trend to hit or simply go with the flow can
never be ahead of their time. And the most common trait among leaders
across any field - including POD but particularly MBA -- is foresight.
4. Take it One Quarter at a Time
While market foresight is important, it's just as important to temper that

foresight into a realistic and actionable timeframe for new designs.
We tend to forget that we have a 90 day window to make sales before

our work is purged for not selling.
Timing is so important on Merch. Getting a jump start on any event or

holiday is pivotal. But starting too early can lead to minimal traction, if
any.
This is why we must focus on one quarter at a time, outlining at the start
of each quarter what designs we want to make over the next three-
month period with an eye trained on key seasonal/trendy events we
want to tackle. Regardless of season, the goal is always the same -- fill as
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many available slots as possible with a healthy balance of evergreen
shirts and seasonally attractive creations.
Looking ahead to Q1 of 2018, for example, there are three

holidays/themes that are "musts" for me to tackle based on what I know
are bankable seasonal sellers and have enormous viral potential. They
are: January's lunar eclipse, Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day.
The upcoming lunar eclipse, while poised to be nowhere near as

nationally entrancing as last summer's solar eclipse proved to be, should
still be one of January's most viral-friendly niches and is worth some
time and attention. With regard to Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day,
I'm not looking to pile on to the enormous mound of general tees
addressing these holidays. My initial focus will be to make distinct 2018-
themed shirts to commemorate celebrations unique to the new year.
While there are a million shirts available across the ecommerce
landscape today that address these occasions, few presently tackle
everything from Valentine's Day 2018 engagements to St. Patrick's Day
themed parties, retirement/baby announcements, and other crossover
niche opportunities. That weakness will become my strength. And it can
be yours too!
In summary, think three months at a time and it will be reflected in your

bottom line.
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5. Stop Selling Yourself Short
It's been said that the biggest financial mistake people tend to make is
when they sell themselves short.
Merch By Amazon is a case study in self-sabotage for designers who

continue to accelerate a race to the bottom with regard to pricing shirts.
It's such an ironic reality. We flock to Merch in hopes of making as much

money as possible by making the best shirts imaginable and yet we
continuously lack the courage and confidence to charge appropriately
for our labor.
There's no shame in pricing your shirts reasonably higher, particularly

when you're giving the marketplace a quality, well-researched, unique
offering.
I've never pretended to be a pricing expert or strategist. And I yield to

the more knowledgeable "big guys" in Merch who deploy countless
pricing strategies to kick start sales and keep them rolling in. But even
the vast majority of legendary Merch sellers rarely price at break-even
levels when launching a new design. Even for those who price in the $15
range, most of the time this is merely a starting point before raising
prices to $19.99 or higher.
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With a new royalty structure ahead for Jan. 15th, 2018, don't sabotage
your time, talents, and motivation by pricing yourself out of a long term
opportunity to build a thriving and profitable business or brand. Now
more than ever it is paramount that you put your best work forward and
charge accordingly for it, confident in yourself and your work.
The lower royalties will lead to a considerable flush out of poor

designers and raise the stakes for A-game Merchers who will do what it
takes to make their shirts worth $21.99 - $26.99.
2018 will be the year to not only raise your game but also your prices.
A lot of us sold ourselves short in 2017. For your own good and for the
future good of the Merch By Amazon platform, don't make that same
mistake again in 2018.
6. A Big Future in Partnerships for POD
In the streaming television and digital content market, one of the most
competitive struggles in the history of the entertainment business is
taking place today. The fight for exclusive content is hot and heavy.
From original films and cinema classics, to vintage sitcoms and new
unscripted series, all of the major players in steaming content -- Netflix,
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Hulu, and legions of others -- are clamoring to score exclusive rights to
coveted content.
In the tshirt business, scoring exclusives is important too. You may not
be fighting for the rights to Disney's catalog, but any deal you can strike
to exclusively offer anything that’s publicly recognizable within a niche
or unique against a backdrop of saturated similarity can accelerate your
apparel sales like no other strategy you've employed to date.
More and more Merch sellers are exploring the value of partnerships.
Some of the most brilliant people in POD -- guys like Ken Reil -- have
been doing this successfully for a long time. In fact, listening to Ken's
advice on social media and in some of his public commentaries, is what
introduced me and really opened my eyes to the power of partnerships.
For some POD entrepreneurs, this effort could be as simple as striking a

contractual agreement with a local artist that guarantees a royalty
percentage payment to him or her in return for your exclusive
commercial usage of that artist’s designs for a specified period of time.
In other cases, Merchers could reach out to small and mid-sized
businesses, endeavoring to secure a deal to create and sell exclusive
shirts promoting those businesses or their community involvement.
There are more ways to consider and construct partnerships than we

can succinctly cover here, and I'm not in the least bit as knowledgeable
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on this strategy as others in the POD space, but it's now exceeding clear
to me and countless savvy sellers on Merch that there is huge potential
in partnerships for MBA in 2018 and beyond.
7. Give a Damn About Data
If your reliance on "data" is limited to looking at a shirt's sales/ranking

history within a niche, or what's trending today on Twitter, you are
grossly underperforming as a data-driven Merch maker.
Now and in the future, data will determine sales success to an

increasingly larger degree.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that that you can automate the tshirt
making process through computer programs, software, or any AI-driven
tool you've been sold. What I am saying is that all the data-rich
resources we need are right in front of us waiting to be mined. And they
must be mined if we are going to blow past the competition.
In 2017, I had a string of hit scaled designs about Minimalism culled

straight from a book and Netflix documentary I soaked up for the
purpose of researching this quiet but hot niche. I made a dozen scaled
designs related to military and police families in direct response to
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insights gleaned from multiple Pollfish surveys I paid for (I surveyed
hundreds of military/police families about what they want and look for
in apparel related to their professions). I have subscribed to newsletters,
blogs, and websites that are leading resources within highly specialized
niches that 99.99% of mainstream media consumers have never heard
of. As a result, I've generated thousands of dollars in additional royalties
stemming directly from the data-based insight gleaned from various
niches.
Those who limit their research to digital tools designed to do research

for you will ultimately not be as successful as those who use these very
tools in conjunction with independent research and data procurement.
Going this extra mile time and again is what will ultimately separate the
Merchers making a decent living from the Merchers who make their first
million.
I'm going to brutally honest here. If you have $100 to invest in YOUR
Merch business and you can choose between buying pre-made designs
from me or spending that same amount on a Pollfish survey of
healthcare professionals to better understand what types of tshirts
nurses are more inclined to buy, I would not hesitate for one second to
advise you to tell me to hit the bricks. Any time and every time, invest in
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data that will help YOU make better shirts for your target audience over
and over again. I simply can't stress this enough.
One of the most crucial factors that separates me from sellers who have
better design skills than me but generate lower royalties than me is that
I am a ravenous consumer of data and I leverage what I learn to make
the kinds of designs that consumers want, don't presently have access
to, or are better in key ways when compared to products currently on
the market.
8. Stop Thinking Exclusively Like a National Business
Generally speaking, those of us fortunate enough to have a Merch

account think nationally (or even internationally). We endeavor to
engage with consumers across the nation and world with designs that
resonate with diverse peoples united by a common interest in the
underlying niche that inspired a shirt design.
But don't focus so intensely on the national market that you overlook
extremely lucrative opportunities within specific geographic markets.
Some of the world's most successful and wealthiest entrepreneurs have

businesses that only operate in small geographic regions or a handful of
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U.S. states. That is to say, they aren't national or global in their empire.
You don't have to be either.
Most designers are so obsessed with making shirts that are just as
attractive to a New Yorker as they are to a Californian that we forget to
make shirts that people only in the Midwest would love.
As a personal example of this type of approach, the state of Arizona has

been very, very good to me. I did a series of sarcastic humor designs this
past year about how people in Arizona are "freezing" when it drops
below 75 degrees. Across Merch, Teespring, and Redbubble, three text
based tshirts that took less than an hour to create and publish across
multiple PODs would generate north of $700 in revenue in total over the
coming months. Imagine the potential of dozens or even hundreds of
regionalized humor shirts available on Amazon.com!
There's ample opportunity in setting your sights on geographic regions

across the United States. Should it consume your entire focus? No. But
it's yet another innovative way to diversify your portfolio with evergreen
content that can sell any time of the year and not just during peak times
in Q4.
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9. Break The Old Scales
Unfortunately for many of you in a rhythm with scaling who have just
figured out what works really well in a few particular niches, it's
important to understand that everything that scaled in 2017 may not
scale as well in 2018.
From market saturation to just plain beating a dead horse to no

additional gains, plenty of niches may need to be retired in the new
year.
Auspiciously, however, just as old niches grow tired and worn, new ones
are there to present a wealth of fresh opportunities for our scaling
efforts.
While many of us have scaled ad nauseum designs that honor people

and professionals widely recognized and respected in our communities,
the new year brings with it a chance to jump on scaling opportunities for
the jobs and professionals of the future.
According to a recent report from the WSJ, the jobs of the future are
worth taking note of today, as they hold enormous potential for creative
tshirt designs. Per the WSJ post, occupations with the largest percentage
growth expected through 2018 are as follows:
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• Biomedical engineers 72%
• Network systems analysts 53%
• Home health aides 50%
• Personal and home-care aides 46%
• Financial examiners 41%
• Medical scientists 40%
• Physician assistants 39%
• Skin-care specialists 38%
• Biochemists and biophysicists 37%
• Athletic trainers 37%
What worked in scaling in 2017 may continue to work in 2018, but for
the niches that must be retired, let them go and move on to the long list
of niches that are ripe for attention from talented designers and savvy
POD professionals.
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10. Have a Big Picture Plan ... And Not Just for 2018
It's the most worn out advice there is in life: Always have a plan.
But it's true.
The importance of having a career plan or path cannot possibly be

overstated. But the concept of what this "plan" should entail needs to be
hammered out a little bit better by many Merchers.
If someone asks what my "plan" is for Merch By Amazon, I don't have to

hesitate to provide an answer. My plan is to work as hard as I can until I
reach a point where I have 10,000 live shirts that all sell at least 1 unit a
month.
In order to make "having a plan" be meaningful, it has to be specific. It's

not enough to say my plan is to "sell as many shirts as I can" or "sell
more shirts in 2018 than I did in 2017." You have to paint a big picture
and see it every morning and every night in your mind before you
dabble in Merch.
For as much as I try to avoid quoting media gurus and offering any
counsel that isn't actionable, I need to be flexible in this instance and
share an applicable nugget from Tony Robbins, who may as well have
been talking to practically everyone with a Merch account when he once
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suggested that people are notorious for overestimating what they can
achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve over many
years.
For most of you, 2018 will not make or break your POD career. But it will
set a tone for what's to come, so that by 2019, 2020, or sometime
thereafter, you have achieved the consistent financial gains you dream
of today and continue on cruising down a path of sustained growth
beyond.
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Amy L. Herberger
Q. From a research and design standpoint, how are you approaching

December and what steps would you advise other sellers to take if they
want to make the most of the final weeks of Q4?
A: From a research and design standpoint, the final weeks of 4Q are still
a time to hustle hard. Work Merch daily in some form or another.
While I might add more holiday themed shirts, shoppers are in gift-
giving mode right now. That is my focus right now.
Shoppers are looking for practical and somewhat personalized gifts for
their loved ones. Perhaps an Occupation themed shirt for their
daughter, or life event shirt for their son. They won’t forget that
Grandma loves her 6-pack either this holiday season. Most likely,
shoppers are also looking for something practical that may be worn all
year long…not just during the holidays.
Keep in mind that while Christmas derives from a Christian based

holiday, there are so many other religions and cultures that are under-
served at the holiday season. Educate yourself and add value to markets
that currently is not as saturated as it should be.
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I will also continue to pay close attention to what niches I am
dominating daily and create more designs and/or add other clothing
options with that design.
Keep in mind, Merch could initiate a freeze tomorrow. Work today as if

there will be a freeze tomorrow.
Additionally, sales don’t vanish once the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.
The t-shirt business can easily keep you at 4Q volumes (or close to it)
year-round, so don’t think that “this is it”. Keep hustling hard this month
to ensure more success next month.
There is literally something that takes place or can be celebrated every

single month of the year. Take advantage of those opportunities.
Don’t limit yourself to certain niches and think out of the box when you
are designing and planning for 2018 this December.
Q. What should every Merch seller, regardless of tier, be doing today in

preparation not only for December but for Merch By Amazon in 2018?
A: To prepare for not only December, but for Merch in 2018 and
beyond, I believe that every Merch Seller should work Merch like a
business starting right now, if you have not been doing so already.
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If you are a Tier 10 seller or a Tier 8K seller, congratulations – you own a
business now.
Treat it like one.
What that means to me is to continue to learn and grow. Take a few

UDEMY courses or read countless free articles and watch YouTube
videos on graphic design. Play around with design software for a few
hours and perfect your craft.
Plan your day and set a schedule for yourself. If you still work outside of
the home, I would probably design a few times a week and upload as
much as I can every day.
Assess what your strongest niches and styles were this year and build
upon that.
Learn about new niches. I hang around twitter when I am taking on a

new topic that I’m not very well versed in yet to find out what phrases
and lingo is used. That will help you reach your target market and help
with keywords. It will also allow you to discover new niches that you
may not have ever considered.
Regardless of your tier, it literally only takes ONE shirt to really become
popular…the 2017 Eclipse girls are a perfect example of this. Keep the
momentum and the faith.
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If you just want money to cover the grocery bill every month, money to
pay your mortgage or rent or want this to become a full-time job, set
short term and long-term goals for yourself and follow up with your
progress often.
Something that sometimes gets overlooked as we grow and scale our

business is to always keep your account pristine.
If there is even a SLIGHT possibility that you are trying to game the
system by omitting keywords, copying other people’s designs or tip
toeing into the land of infringement (or throwing your entire body into a
sea of Star Wars and Game of Thrones) …
STOP NOW.
Delete any existing envelope pushers and get to know many sellers like
myself who make great money on Merch by following the rules. No gray
area needed.
It may have made it through initial review, but Merch loves surprise
manual reviews.
Fast money is nice, but you will make much, much more by playing by
the rules. Not to mention, you will still have an account.
See the long-term potential on merch. I say this often but Merch is not
even out of diapers yet. You REALLY want to stick around as Merch
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grows. The money we are all making now will be considered chump
change a few years from now.
Q. What's the most important lesson you learned from December of 2016
that you're mindful of going into December 2017?
A: The freeze was the most important lesson I learned in December

2016. That was my 2nd December on merch and NO ONE saw that
coming.
All merch seller activity ceased very close to the start of the month.
No uploads. No edits. Nothing.
While I had a game plan in place last year, that curve ball put a pin in it
for over a month. Luckily, I had the bulk of my designs for the holidays
up months before the freeze but still intended to scale my business even
more, and that was just not possible. I resorted to Redbubble and other
PODs but feel that I missed out on more of an opportunity with Merch.
Daily uploads were established at that time (prior to that, it was a free
for all …if you were a tier 500 seller, and had one shirt live, you could
upload 499 that day) and as an 8K seller at the time, higher tiers were
eventually granted upload limits …to the tune of 2 uploads a day.
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That continued I believe through January.
So, this year, I made sure that my core designs for the next few months
were prepped and ready to go well before the middle of November. I
will follow this protocol going forward every 4Q.
The plan is to keep adding more shirts throughout December but being
very aware that the freeze could occur again. If it does, I will double
down on other PODs, while still making sure that I am designing daily for
merch (mainly evergreen) so that I am ready to go when they lift the
freeze. If anything, I will be ahead of the game.
I price high to begin with so don’t have to worry about being locked out
of revisions for pricing. Same with clean, TOS appropriate descriptions.
Last year I still had some “made in the USA” mentions and while I was
working on revising them daily, after the “No USA” rule went into effect,
with the revision freeze I ended up deleting many listings to be on the
safe side that I was unable to get to prior to the shutdown. Quite a lot of
best sellers were removed to ensure that my account was in compliance.
That stung, but, better safe than sorry.
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Q. For the Merch seller unsure of how to approach December, is now the
time to continue making seasonal designs or with such limited time
remaining for the demand for holiday t-shirts, should evergreen now be
fully in focus?
A: I discussed this in more detail in the first question, however, yes,

throw in a few more seasonal designs now but shirts that are ideal for
gift giving is where you are going to make the most money right now.
If you have the slots, keep your holiday shirts up until mid to late January
as people will still be buying those types t-shirts.
Q. For MBA sellers exhausted from a long year and now lacking ideas or
inspiration, where is the best place to find both today?
A: 2017 was a fun year but yes, at times tiring. Take day or two off and
just relax, recharge and reenergize yourself.
Inspiration and ideas are one thing you will never run out of for t-shirts.
Don’t overthink it.
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My #1 piece of advice for Merch is Design What You Know. My daughter
could talk about Science and Neurosurgery all day long (and has for the
past 12 years lol). She knows it inside and out. Terminology. Inside Jokes.
Everything you could possibly imagine.
Think about your passions. Now go and design something. Bet you can’t
stop at one, either and don’t discount Text Only designs. They sell very,
very well. There are plenty of people out there who are passionate
about the same subject. Tap into that market.
If you want to get deeper, there is a major holiday nearly every month of
the year, tons of evergreen designs that can even be scaled to save time,
and many obscure events that happen in cities, religions and cultures,
stop overthinking and have fun with this.
I do not use BSR tools to find inspiration in other people’s designs. Nor
do I search amazon for ideas.
So, what do I do?
Again, I do not overthink merch. I gave up doing just that early in my

Merch game and it’s still working well for me.
By just opening your eyes when you wake up in the morning is enough
opportunity to find inspiration.
It REALLY Is Everywhere.
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I can scroll through my Facebook feed and find an array of alcohol jokes,
animal pics, political memes, disease and other cause related illnesses
and afflictions, recipes, remember when posts, etc., and that is just from
my childhood friends
I follow businesses and causes to see what’s new and what tends to get
a lot of action as far as comments and likes.
I literally have cable news on in the background all day while I work so if
something noteworthy occurs, I’m there.
I can look around my living room, where I work from and find more
possibilities to draw inspiration from than I probably should.
Running errands, I am noticing peoples bumper stickers and window

decals (this, btw, is one of the best ways to find niches I knew nothing
about or would never think that there was a market for it)
My 16-year-old daughter is another source as hearing about her day or

the funny things she says are huge inspiration.
You really can do very well on Merch by just making “normal” or

personal type designs that speak to the customer when it comes to their
passion.
Want to REALLY take it a step further? Start a notebook and create a

Mind Map for any niche you can think of. Great for referencing months
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down the line, this is another method that may be used to spark your
creativity. To Learn More: http://www.mindmapping.com/
Q. How can a seller wisely leverage December to set themselves up for

sustained success in January and well into the new year?
A: In December, to wisely leverage yourself and your time for the year
ahead, think about events that happen daily in a person’s life as well as
all the holidays coming up in the months ahead.
Don’t forget the obscure “daily holidays” that some people get a kick out
of like “Panda day” or “Pastrami lovers day”. People buy weird stuff.
Make it readily available to them.
Regardless of the month of the year, I am always looking 3 months

ahead of me. Whatever designs I need 3 months from now have already
been created or slotted for creation. I apply this mentality to all of my
businesses.
I mentioned earlier in this interview that in THIS business, there is

literally always something that you can make a buck on. That said, you
can absolutely continue 4Q success every single month (or close to it).
Build upon your best sellers over the past year, taking special notice to
December sales because so many people are buying your shirts as gifts
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and are most likely basing the niches chosen by the gift recipients
interest. I am already seeing some niches really pick up that had some
activity, but not as much as I have seen recently. For instance, are you
seeing a huge spike in Beer shirts? Take that niche to another level in
January and see if you can really drill down (without going “all in”
initially) to see if you can continue to reap the rewards.
Q. For those looking to diversity and branch out beyond Merch in the new
year, which platforms (Etsy, Redbubble, Teepublic, etc.) would you
recommend and is NOW the time to begin loading up those platforms
with designs?
A. For anyone wanting to branch out to other POD and gain additional
income streams, why wait another day? YES! Start uploading to other
POD sites TODAY.
Etsy and Redbubble are the easiest sites to upload, in my opinion, even
though Redbubble can be tedious for some products. After you max out
your daily uploads on Merch, I STRONGLY suggest that you hit as many
PODs a day as possible.
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Even if you can only upload one a day to Redbubble, in 30 days you have
30 additional opportunities for revenue PLUS the number of products
you selected for that design (do all of them …seriously. You will be
pleasantly surprised) which equals a nice extra income source every
month
For low tier AND Waitlist sellers…there are no upload limits on these
sites.
Q. The January drop is an inevitable POD reality for many sellers and it can
be discouraging and depressing to many. How do you advise sellers to
deal with or make steps to reduce the severity of this looming
experience?
A. Regarding any concern over a “January drop” in sales, you don’t know
if that scenario will occur. January might very well be your best month
all year.
My best advice, if there IS a “drop” in business, (and there will be from

time to time) is to remember it is only temporary. Its ebb and flow of
any business.
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You will not die. Attitude is everything and self-doubt can attempt to
creep in at the least convenient time. Even to the most confident seller.
Things that I have always done during slower periods are building up
additional streams of income to compensate as well as targeting
different audiences that tend to have a lot of purchasing power for that
time of the year.
Staying busy and planting seeds for the future are what keeps me
moving when sales are a bit lackluster that month. We always bounce
back so take it in stride.
To remain in a driven, focused frame of mind…I also avoid “slow sales”

posts that you see in some Facebook groups like the plague. It does
nothing except allow more people to jump into the self-pity pot and is
unproductive to me. You’re basically dwelling on what you don’t want.
Dwell more on what you DO want and find ways to make that happen.
Don’t look at daily sales. You might have very few sales on Monday and
triple what you normally get on Wednesday. I pay attention to my
weekly sales, but focus more so on my monthly payouts.
I get that some months will be off the charts and others might not be.
And that’s ok.
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Take a negative and turn it into a positive. More downtime to me means
more opportunity to focus and grow, to hustle harder, to learn more,
etc. to have more productive months ahead of me.
Perception can be learned overtime. Same scenario, same person, a

different outlook is up to you. Different outcomes are also up to you.
You can curl into a ball and give up or decide that you are going to do
everything in your power to have a better result.
Maybe that means getting a mentor (even from afar) or taking some
classes. Hiring a designer, etc.
January can be an amazing month, regardless of the industry. More gift

cards to be spent and more frivolous and selfish purchases now that gift
giving is out of the way.
Same applies to February, and March and so forth. This really is one
industry that you can ride the tide 12 months a year if you plan well.
If you are at a low tier, do not let that stop you. Again, upload as much
as you can to other POD sites. Don’t allow a low tier to hinder your
goals.
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Q. With the royalty structure set to change in January, are you pricing all
new shirts now higher in anticipation or do you feel it's more prudent to
await the change potentially adjusting prices?
A. The Royalty structure slotted for January was inevitable. This isn’t the
first time Merch needed to change the structure and won’t be the last.
What does come along with the new structure is am smoother process
which helps them handle more volumes, and means more revenue for
us.
That said, I will probably not adjust my prices on anything currently

listed as they are respectably priced, but am adding an extra couple of
dollars to most new uploads for most designs now.
Q. Most sellers lack a long term business plan for their MBA business. In
your experience, what are the smartest questions an MBA seller should
be asking themselves today about where they want their business to be in
one year's time or longer?
A. Some of the smartest questions any Merch seller should ask

themselves today to plan for a year from now or several years from now
are:
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Are you willing to put in the work today that will allow you to reap more
later? Even when there is a learning curve, will you keep at it? That
could mean learning about additional features in the design program
you use. Learning about color theory. Overcoming that cool trick that is
exhaustingly hard on photoshop and sticking with it until you learn it.
Working for an extra hour a day instead of throwing on Netflix. Daily
uploads aside, there are so many things you can do daily to help secure
a better future on this platform. Taking a class, discovering a new niche,
mapping out how to drill down and dominate a niche that you are doing
very well in and so forth
Here’s a curveball…If BSR (Best Seller Rank) was removed from all Merch
shirts and you had zero ability to locate best sellers with just an amazon
search…would you survive on this platform? I don’t use any BSR tools,
nor do I search for bestsellers. I’m a high five figure seller, so yes, you
can be very successful on this platform without BSR tools and replicating
best sellers. I do it every day and I’m not special. I come from very
limited graphic design. That said, If I can do well , you can too.
Google, twitter, my Facebook feed, running errands and thinking of the

interests of my friends and family are what I rely on quite a bit for
inspiration …as well as knowing that I need to bulk up current niches or
learn new niches along the way from a business standpoint.
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Sometimes this is trial and error till you find a groove, but for one, I
sleep well as night not worried that someone will issue a takedown
notice because I “made their design better…but copied a little too
close”.
I also know that I won’t be wasting my time on a low BSR that sold crazy
well one day and then…crickets. That temporary low BSR is like candy to
some. However, those Replicaters have just wasted their time copying a
freak sale that resulted in a low bsr.
If you need a BSR tool, that’s cool and is your choice. Consider learning
other methods to find niches as well to provide yourself with alternative
solutions.
Are you willing to invest in yourself and in your business? I am a single

mom. By default, that makes me a cautious and a ridiculously frugal
business owner and someone who would rather do it herself than pay to
have it done.
However, let’s be real, sometimes you have to pay money to make

money.
To me, that means paying for more expensive and elaborate designs.
Spending money on commercial graphics and fonts. Investing in better
design equipment like my laptop and iPad pro. Taking a few UDEMY
courses and so forth.Full disclosure, I did not start dropping a lot of cash
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until I consistently earned at least $1,000 a month on merch, and yes, I
still design the bulk of my uploads myself but it’s something that I
wanted to learn and handle as designing is very enjoyable to me.
Are you REALLY adhering to the Terms of Service? And have you even
read the terms of service? If Leia from merch put your account on blast
today and reviewed each one of your listings manually, could you…
• Say with 100% confidence that your account was clean?

• Say that you would still have an account in the morning?
• See that long-time merch sellers really were not kidding
when we said that a big M on your shirt or other infringing
design may just cause you to lose your account?
• See that long-time merch sellers are killing it every month by
playing by the rules?
• See that the number of times long time sellers had to earn
money by gaming the system and uploading some mouse
ears with no keywords is a big, fat Zero.
• See that “just because it is on merch, doesn’t mean that it (or
the designer) will STAY on Merch”?
• See that long-term goals are what you really want and to
protect your account?
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Sure, fast cash is nice but will you be here when they start rolling out
tons of other products?
The Merch sellers that crush it every single month play it safe almost to
the point of paranoia because we know what is possible on this platform
and nothing is going to make us jeopardize it.
And, while I know reminding and “nagging” everyone about Terms of

Service comes across to some as “not minding my business” and “who
cares if that seller wants to rip off Star Wars”, I can say that Merch
changed my life and my family’s life in a way that I TRULY want to see
happen for each of you.
So, Be paranoid. Play by the rules. Keep your account safe.
If you have a slow month (or several) will you throw in the towel and
give up? My favorite life lesson (although it’s terrible to go through lol) is
that things get the hardest right before a breakthrough. If you can push
through it, you will come out on the other side and most likely in a
better place than what you were shooting for to begin with.
I have seen so many people (some of my friends included) get

ridiculously excited at the prospect of this platform and then not meet
their expected goals as soon as they want, feel bad for themselves and
deicide to sell their account or just give up.
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If they had pushed just a little bit further…
My all-time favorite quote is “Fall down 7 times, stand up 8”
Keep at it.
Are you willing to take the time to plan? As causal as I may approach
Merch when it comes to deciding what to design, I still have
spreadsheets and notes and a fancy little notepad where I track and plan
my progress, my ideas and goals.
Remember, you need to treat Merch like a business, because it is a

business.
I review my account few times a month to see what niches the bulk of
my sales are from.
Decide how and IF I should build a best-selling niche out.
Test the layout or color scheme for a different topic and see what
happens.
Pull up a few niches on google and see the kinds of results that are
popping up.
Have calendar reminders on my phone for the time frame I need to have
certain holiday or event designs locked and loaded and live on Merch.
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Review USPTO for any possible new registrations for designs I previously
uploaded.
Check Creative Market and such for the most popular graphics pack to
see if say, Llamas or football themed elements are climbing higher in
search and take that as a cue.
In short, have a to do list of things to fine tune and improve as well as

sustain your business.
Remember that burnout is a very real thing and to hustle hard but play
harder. To meet one goal and then set another one. To help someone
new who is struggling and to be smart enough to learn from someone at
ANY tier who has some useful information.
At the same time, to avoid the overwhelming feeling of “too much

merch noise” with one person advising you to do this and another
advising to do that. You will figure it out and what works well for me
might not work well for you, but you will eventually find a nice groove.
Just make sure to pay it forward and help the next person coming up.
Merch is the most amazing opportunity I have ever seen as an online
endeavor that anyone can be successful in. I really want the opportunity
to help others achieve and exceed their goals and know that ANYONE
can do very well on this platform. Safeguard your account and continue
to improve yourself which will allow you to improve your business.
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Thanks again, Michael for another round of very thought-provoking
questions and for asking me to participate. I look forward to a great
2018 for all of us.
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Daniel Caudill

A. At this point (post-Thanksgiving) I have already completed all of the

research and design things I would have liked to have had completed by
the time December gets here. I believe if by this point you haven’t,
you’re really going to have to get on it and work quickly to get the things
up you want to before it gets too late. Just the most basic advice I would
give is that for every day you wait to get something up, you’re likely
losing out on money, not only in the short-term, but in the long-term
because of a lack of sales not allowing the rank to increase like it may
have otherwise which could affect you for many months beyond
December.
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A. Just simply making sure you have a gameplan that you can stick to can
be one of the most important things you can do leading up to a new
year. Having goals set out with a specific, actionable, plan to get there
can be hugely impactful in your journey with anything, but especially
Merch By Amazon.
A. Making sure to do all the prep-work prior to November even getting

here. The earlier you do it, the less likely you are to not manage to get
something done that could have made you quite a bit of money.
remaining for the demand for holiday tshirts, should evergreen now be
fully in focus?
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A. Personally, I think evergreen should be the focus. That is what will
sustain you throughout the year. I hardly do any seasonal designs in
comparison to the number of evergreens I deal with.
A. My go-to recommendation for people lacking inspiration is to simply

go take a day “off” and head to the mall. And while you’re there, make
sure to read every t-shirt you can. That usually helps me quite a bit.

A. Not putting too much focus on Christmas and holiday designs, for
sure. If 95% of your sales are from Christmas designs then you’re all but
guaranteeing a 95% drop in sales come January.
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with designs?
A. I only have designs up on TeePublic and RedBubble at this point

outside or Merch and I didn’t see a large enough spike in sales at this
time last year on those platforms to feel that it is justifiable to take focus
away from Merch to get designs up on there. But if you have time come
January, I think it definitely doesn’t hurt.
experience?
A. I haven’t found an extremely effective way to reduce how severe the

drop is, because as you said, it’s just a natural reality of the landscape.
But as I have mentioned before, not putting so much focus on seasonal
designs can definitely aid in making the drop more manageable. And I
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would say just keeping everything in perspective will help with the
discouragement aspect. This season is just a blessing and is extra, come
January/February we all will likely be back to our August/September
numbers, so try to be thankful for the extra we’re allowed in these
months and not be too worried that the others aren’t as great.
await the change before potentially adjusting prices?
A. That price change is the very reason that I have priced my shirts high
from the beginning. I’m not planning on changing any prices in response
to the royalty-shift. But if someone was planning on changing their
prices in response, I would completely recommend doing it now because
ultimately you’ll just end up making more money over this Christmas
season than you would have otherwise, based on my experience.
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A. How clear are you about the legal aspects of everything to do with
your business? That is a question that is very important. The best thing I
have done for my Merch business was talk to a lawyer about all things
designing/rights/trademark/copyright/etc. Many people are doing things
that could have them in court within a month from today, and they’re
not even realizing it. I’m definitely not going to go into specifics with that
here, but I would highly recommend getting a lawyer who could help
you navigate this world. Once you get that down, determine where you
want to be in one year and get a specific plan down to get there. Don’t
be afraid to be ambitious. Just simple planning will be better than what
most do and you can be at least a step or two ahead of the competition
in terms of clarity.
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Ken Reil

A. My entire focus through December will be fattening current niche

content until a suspected freeze. This will pay off with returns from the
Christmas Holiday rush up until Dec 20-22. My entire year has been a
preparation for the December rush. Now the focus is two-fold as I
prepare to sustain sales goals for January with the expected decline of
sales. Never too late to start preparing for February events and St.
Patrick’s Day. To get the most out of the final weeks of Q4 you need to
be watching your selling content closely. Work the prices for maximum
profits and keep p4p copycats at bay. With fattening niches I also
“compete with myself” by smothering my top niche search results.

A. In my opinion sellers should be taking a close look at the foundations

to their accounts. The obvious push by Merch by Amazon is to increasing
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the quality of the catalog presented and towards brand. Take a hard
look at ways to expand your presence online to drive your own traffic to
listings. Merchers also be examining their niche concentrations and prop
up areas that they are strong in. This tends to be niches that you have
interest in or know a lot about.
A. The most important lesson learned was that Merch can turn at a
moment’s notice to freeze the system. Having variety of listings was key
to my success last year. When Anvil was throttled my American Apparel
crushed the sales. This was not because Anvil was out of stock. Merch
does not “run out of stock”. Merch hits limits on print capacity. The
algorithm balances printing to match expected customer delivery times.
Knowing this changed my entire focus through 2017 as I prepared for
the Q4. It is already paying dividends without a freeze in place. Treat any
day after November 1st like Russian roulette. Anything could and will
happen.
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A. Fatten your niches. This isn’t just about throwing cooked pasta
against a wall. You need to evaluate what pasta is sticking and throw
more quality content its way. Look hard at what is selling and snuff out
competition on the search page. Again as I mentioned “compete with
yourself”.
experience?
A. Start your focus on the upcoming Q1 holidays and events. The drop is
coming and that is a fact of life. Do not get bummed out when sales
plummet. Stay the course and keep putting up focused content. The
number one problem I find with people struggling is no focus to their
account. You have to build a foundation and stop randomly throwing
stuff at the wall.
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Take time to evaluate the following:
- How many shirts live do you have?

- How many niches are you in?
- How many shirts do you have in each niche?
- How drilled down are you in the sub-niches of your popular designs?
- Color and brand alterations of a design is not scaling but rather
customer options.
- How many shirts sell in your niches on a daily/weekly/monthly basis on
Merch? (i.e. not your sales but all of Merch)
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Neil Lassen

A. While everyone is thinking about the upcoming holiday (Christmas),

most people are trying to get up as many Christmas designs as possible.
From a research and design standpoint, I am sticking to what is working
and what I have seen be successful last year, which is focusing on ever
green designs. I have noticed that last year and so far this year, the
majority of the designs leading up to major holidays are always ever
green designs. Instead of buying your loved ones Christmas shirts, if you
do buy them clothing, it probably has to do with something they like to
do, such as hobbies, work, or play. These are always going to be popular
and outsell my Christmas related designs almost 100 to 1. Not only do
they do well during the holidays, but they will continue to sell year
round, so put your focus there.
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A. Every Merch seller out there should be identifying their strengths and
weaknesses in their business. If you have certain strength, then that is
what you should be doing. If you have a weakness, then that is
something you should start trying to outsource to someone who knows
what they are doing and is proficient where you are not. If you are not a
designer and do not WANT to be a designer, then your time is better
spent focusing on the marketing and research. If you spend your time
where you are not proficient, it will slow down growth, waste time, and
may even frustrate you. Do not let something like that hold you back
and begin identifying where you can outsource in your business.
A. The most important that I learned from December 2016 is that even if
you are not a designer, keyword research is the key to the Merch game
if you want organic sales. What I noticed in December of 2016 was that
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a lot of the shirts that I created myself when I first started actually sold
at an extremely high rate even though I personally thought they were
awful! The entire reason for them doing so well was because they had
been properly researched so I knew that those niches had demand. I
also made proper use of keywords in the listing so I could actually get
those shirts in front of the potential customers that wanted them.
This is important going into December 2017 because people should be

mindful that it is not ALL about the designs, or ALL about the keywords.
You want to have excellent designs, but you also need to have a good
grasp over your research and keyword usage. You could have the best
design out there, but if people are not seeing it, you are dead in the
water. Learn the ropes by testing, and make sure you are taking the time
to actually fill out your bullet points and description instead of skipping
them to save time. It will be worth it!

A. The massive uptick in shirts sold during December is really exciting to

see and many of us just want to pocket that money, buy ourselves
something nice, or simply waste it. If you really want to set yourself up
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for the New Year, reinvest it ALL back into the business, and reinvest it
as quickly as possible. After you have found out what works in terms of
research and design, then you can use all the money you make during
December work for you. Every dollar I have personally put into my
Merch business has returned itself 10 times over and in many cases a lot
more than that. Every massive seller I know is spending the time and
effort to get as many shirts as possible into their portfolio. The way you
do that is by putting your time and resources back into the business.
experience?
A. You should only focus on what you can actually control. That means
that you should have taken steps a few months ago to put a plan into
action but if not, this is what I would do. The first thing I would do is
start getting your portfolio on as many POD sites as possible. They might
not have the traffic that Amazon has, and you may not make as many
sales, but every little bit counts as you get your product in front of more
eyes. The second thing I would do, is start testing out paid traffic now.
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Marketing is the one thing that many POD sellers either spend no time
learning, or just have no interest in trying in the first place. Marketing is
hands down the way to get ahead of the competition and bring in the
sales when Organic slows down in January. Buyers are out there, you
just have to connect with them.
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Matt Carlett

A. To make the most out of Q4, take a look at what has been selling for
you right now. Consider your proven sellers and make variations of
those or put up Premium, Long Sleeve, or Distressed versions. Make the
most out of what's already selling. I'm approaching December like I do
every month for the most part and that's thinking what I think will sell
the following month. I try to stay at least a month ahead. So I am done
doing holiday designs and focusing on New Year’s and niche designs.
From a research standpoint I would look back at what kinds of things
sold in January last year. I know not everyone has the luxury of doing
that.
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A. The biggest things are research and design quality. They are the most
important parts of this business. If you are unable to make high quality
designs, find someone who can and focus on the research.
Q. What's the most important lesson you learned from December of

2016 that you're mindful of going into December 2017?
A. How important design quality is. Not that I thought it wasn't

important but especially now with competition and the new prices going
into effect. I think keywords are not as important as we once thought
they were and building a brand with high quality designs is very
important.

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A. Start researching and thinking about the designs people will want in
January. Think about the holidays associated with January and February.
Think about designing for those hot niches that sell all year. Keep
producing high quality well researched designs and you will be just fine
in January and the year to come.
Q. The January drop is an inevitable POD reality for many sellers and it
can be discouraging and depressing to many. How do you advise sellers to
experience?
A. Keep it business as usual. Keep researching and designing. Build this

business. There will inevitably be a drop in sales but It's not as bad as
people think. There are a ton of gift card given at Christmas burning a
hole is customers’ pockets. Also branch out to other PODS.
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Joe Clay

A. I am looking at what is selling already in my designs and I'm scaling

those designs. For example, if it's a text based designs. I'm making 5
different variations with 5 different Text. This strategy seems to be
working for me.

A. I think everyone one needs to be doing research looking ahead at the

upcoming events and holidays.
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fully in focus?
A. If you can find an untapped Holiday niche. I think it would be okay to

make some shirts but if not it would be better to just make some
evergreen designs.
A. I have found my new inspiration from YouTube videos and listening to

what others are doing.
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with designs?
A. I would say Etsy would be a good place to start and if you’re familiar
with doing your own customer service then I would start now but if
you're not I would wait until the new year.
experience?
A. I would say to take this time to educate yourself in all aspects of the
Merch business.
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A. Don't change your prices yet, wait until the price changes in January.
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Brianna Moller Greene

A. I love to use December for reevaluating my business practices,

reflecting on what has worked, is or isn’t working and what needs to be
revamped moving forward. So this includes identifying which designs
sold well and why (seasonal? trending topic? timing? evergreen niche?),
which designs I thought would sell well but actually fell flat and which of
my more successful designs I’ll be using as inspiration for the creation of
even more profitable designs.
December is also a fantastic time to finalize plans for the new year.
Don’t wait until January…. be ready to start already when it arrives. Set
monetary goals, design goals, reevaluation goals, seasonal goals, etc. for
each week, month and year. Also, create a special calendar that relates
to your business. Add weekly, monthly and annual reminders including
things such as “today you should have XXX t-shirts uploaded to your
account” or “start working on Hanukkah design research”.
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A. Every Merch seller should be reflecting on past months successes and

failures, emulating those successes and attempting to prevent future
failures of a similar nature.
Merch sellers should also be diversifying their income streams. Look

towards Print on Demand websites and even other online businesses of
a similar nature, to complement what you’re already doing. This ensures
that you’re prepared for any possible changes down the road and that
you have a back-up plan should you unfortunately lose your account.
A. The most important lesson I learned from December of 2016 is to

expect the unexpected. Anything can happen and Merch by Amazon can
institute change within the platform at any given moment. Go with the
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flow, have gratitude for the opportunity to sell on the platform in the
first place and be willing to evolve and adapt.
fully in focus?
A. Absolutely keep making seasonal designs…. just not for the current
Holiday season! Focus on holidays that are coming up in January through
March along with evergreen niches that will continue to sell year long.
Also, with a bit more “down time” from work over the next month you
can sneak in some research for trending ideas for designs.
A. If you’re lacking ideas or inspiration after a long year of MBA there are
a few things you can do to get out of your design funk. My current
favorite way is to look through our junk mail. I cannot believe the
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endless barrage of design ideas, quotes and new niches I come up with
DAILY from the large pile of store catalogs, flyers and information that
arrive in our mail each day.

A. In order to wisely leverage December in an effort to obtain and

sustain success into the new year, a seller needs to continue working
despite the distractions the month can bring. It’s imperative to use the
time wisely to reflect, revamp, research and design. Enjoy the fruits of
2017’s labor throughout the month but don’t go on a mental & physical
vacation from your business. Keep designing, keep uploading and keep
crushing goals.
with designs?
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A. Anytime is a good time to branch out to other marketplaces -
otherwise we’ll make excuses that it’s never a good time. If you’re able
to do some outsourcing, start hashing out procedures to put in place for
a VA or an employee to handle this diversification for you.
Q: The January drop is an inevitable POD reality for many sellers and it
experience?
A. The January slump is a very real time for all retailers. While all
businesses experience it, it can still be depressing to see sales drop off of
what seems like a cliff. How do you prevent this from discouraging you?
Go back to last January’s sales. I’ll bet you’ll see that you’ve grown
tremendously. Where were you then and where are you now? Look at
February’s sales. Did they grow in 2017 from January to February? Look
forward knowing that things will get better and look back to appreciate
how much your sales have grown. Realize that comparatively speaking,
most months of “slow sales” are realistically months of “decent sales”
when we logically evaluate the situation.
71
A. I will be awaiting changes to the royalty structure prior to potentially

adjusting prices. The customer doesn’t see or understand those behind
the scene changes so I’m planning on maintaining current prices,
realizing it’s just the cost of doing business. In fact, I may not adjust the
prices of old inventory at all - I’ll continue to adjust prices as I currently
do, but apply my new pricing strategy to future designs that I upload.
A. There are several questions MBA sellers should be asking themselves

to reach their long-term goals. The most important of which, is to not
just pinpoint what you want to achieve but define how you plan on
getting there as well. You need to lay out a well thought out executable
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plan - with concise procedures and direct tasks to complete along the
way. Also sellers need to ask themselves what they will require to get to
those end goals (money? employees? time? education?) and how those
items will be acquired.
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Harrison Caldwell
Q: From a research and design standpoint, how are you approaching

A. I published my Christmas designs in late October so by the time you

read this, it’ll probably be too late to capitalize on the holiday. I’d look
hard at where my shirts are priced and think about moving the prices
up. The closer we get to Christmas, the more people are feeling the
pressure to buy presents and in context of t-shirts, I don’t think cost
plays a huge part. If it’s a cool shirt, they’ll buy it at full price and more.
Don’t leave money on the table

A. Start looking out into 2018 and think about major Q1 holidays like
Valentine’s Day & St. Patrick’s Day. I’d also look back and see what
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worked for you in 2017 to see if you can go deeper into successful
niches with repurposed designs or ones that are new.
Q: What's the most important lesson you learned from December of 2016
A. Without question, there’s a correlation between my Merch success

and the amount of work I put in. The more time you spend building your
MBA business, the more you learn what works and what doesn’t. And
the smarter you are when it comes to the Merch game, the faster you'll
see success. At least for a new guy like me (started May 1), I don’t see
this as a passive income opportunity…maybe down the road when I
outsource certain aspects but right now, it’s all about grinding and
putting in the work.
Q: For the Merch seller unsure of how to approach December, is now the
fully in focus?
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A. The last day I’d put up a Christmas shirt is around December 10. After
that, I’d look into 2018 and evergreen. Put some good thought into your
evergreen strategy because you want a good base of evergreen designs
to keep you afloat and thriving in between holidays.
Q: For MBA sellers exhausted from a long year and now lacking ideas or
A. If you’re exhausted, unplug for a week or 2…decompress and

recharge the batteries. Once you’re mind is right, I believe ideas
naturally flow in because inspiration is everywhere and you’ll be more
perceptive. Use a tool like MerchInformer and see what’s selling. Get
lost in Amazon and see what shirt ideas are hot. Look 90-120 days down
the road…what holidays are around the corner? What are people talking
about on social media? Spring kicks in towards the back end of Q1…it’ll
come fast so start thinking about spring/warmer weather ideas.

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A. If you have some Q1 shirt ideas, get them up now and price them
low(er). Get sales going during the holiday shopping frenzy and establish
a foundation and lower BSR so when Q1 rolls around, you’ll be well
positioned.
with designs?
A. I’m gettin’ after it on 2 POD platforms:
1) Etsy (via Printful integration); I’m 2 months into my Etsy

adventure and can already see its potential. Planning to double
down on it in 2018.
2) GearBubble (for the integration into Amazon for mugs); been
doing mugs for about 8 months and its going OK. It’s a total
numbers game so you’ll need to invest time into building things
out. I have around 1,500 mugs on Amazon and sell 4-7 a day
during the regular season and 15-25 a day during the holidays.
I’d like to get to 5,000 mugs by next holiday season…many (not
all) shirt designs can be repurposed for mugs.
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3) Pushed up some products to Redbubble & Teespring…not
seeing much happening there but I know others do well.
experience?
A. As you said, it’s inevitable so wrap your head around this fact NOW.
Sure, it sucks to see sales plunge after the holidays but that’s the reality
of the retail game. Being depressed or discouraged around a drop of
sales is a mindset and totally within your control to change. Perhaps take
a few weeks off to relax and clear your mind. You should celebrate your
Q4 successes then move onto 2018 with the mindset you’ll do 10x
(shout out to the Jersey boys) more next time around…let positive
thoughts about the future drive you to new heights. As Chris Green says,
Merch is a tremendous opportunity and we’re just beginning.
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A. I’ll visit this when the dust settles on Q4. Not super concerned about
it. Price where you think shirts will sell now, not next year.
A. I’d ask myself (if I hadn’t already) “Why am I doing this?” and work
backwards from the answer to create a manageable/realistic set of
short-term 2018 goals as well as longer-term goals (2019 and beyond). I
don’t necessarily have a concrete long term plan but I do know it’d be
pretty sweet to be doing Merch, PODs and FBA full time. In order to
make this a reality, I‘m putting in as much work as I can over the next 18
months towards that “end” while respecting 2 other **priorities**: 1)
being a dad & husband and 2) respecting the “9 to 5” obligations of my
79
full time employer. If 1 & 2 are taken care of and I’m putting in the work
on Merch/FBA/PODs when I can, I’m confident everything will fall into
place.
80
Yong Jae Chong

A. For research, I would say look at ALL the holidays for December.
Christmas is obviously the major holiday, but there are other holidays
out there that most people don't focus on. I would say this, think outside
the U.S. culture. What other countries celebrate a holiday during the
month of December? As for design, keep it simple. For instance, I had
someone who wanted a critique on one of his designs, and he was trying
to do too much. He added effects to his text, drop shadow on his
graphics, every word had a stroke, and so on and so on. I told him to
keep it simple, and sure enough, after he made the changes he came
back and said he made a sale.
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A. Keep learning. I know I'm old-school when I say this, but education is
key to success. I'm not just talking formal education. I'm talking about
learning from your peers. If this were my soapbox moment, I would tell
everyone to network. I've said this probably a hundred times now on the
podcast. NETWORK! Attend conferences and if you can't afford to
attend one then organize a local meetup. If you live in a remote area,
then organize a mastermind group with people online. I've learned so
much from other people by just attending conferences. Not just that but
it created other opportunities, and I've made great friends including
yourself Michael even though we never met. Michael and I are part of a
small group of other influencers, not that I'm an influencer, and we're
always sharing ideas and talking business strategies.
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Q. What's the most important lesson you learned from December of
2016 that you're mindful of going into December 2017?
A. Upload all five colors! I remember there was a guy from Amazon who
did a webinar in the middle of 2016. One of his suggestions was to use
just 2-3 colors. That was the most ridiculous advise anyone could have
given and listening to other members of the community they all paid the
price. A lot of people took his advice and selected 2-3 colors, and when
they had the "big freeze" last December a lot of people lost a lot of
money. For instance, black and navy was and is still the most popular
color on Merch. So when people selected just black and navy by mid-
December Amazon was sold out, and their designs were no longer
available. Fortunately, I never took the advice, and to this day I always
select all five colors.
Q. For the Merch seller unsure of how to approach December, is now

the time to continue making seasonal designs or with such limited time
fully in focus?
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A. There is much more competition, and it seems like sales aren't as
much compared to last year. However, this December seems to be going
much smoother compared to last year. There haven't been any
restrictions other than Amazon lowering our daily upload limits. With
that said I would say keep uploading holiday designs. At the time of
doing this interview, there are exactly four weeks until Christmas. That is
more than enough time to upload holiday designs and make money
from it.
Q: For MBA sellers exhausted from a long year and now lacking ideas or
A. I'm very well-known in the Merch community for making "good

money" with just a few hundred live shirts at the 1k tier. I didn't even
start using Merch Informer until the middle of this year. I used to and
still find a lot of my designs just using Google. Also, keep up with the
trends. Regardless of who you voted for it seems as if Trump says or
does something every day that you can use on a shirt. There are tons of
ideas such as CNN, Yahoo!, BuzzFeed and all social media platforms. Find
out what's hot and capitalize off of it. As for evergreen designs you just
have to understand what's more popular. If I were debating whether to
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make a shirt about football or quilting, I would lean more towards the
football design. Football is much more popular than quilting and will
probably get more exposure.

A. Most people are going to make the most money in December. I would
take that money and reinvest it in your business. If you need better
designs, then take the money and hire good reputable designers. If you
want to do the designs yourself, then learn as much as you can about
graphic design. Graphic design is NOT hard. It's not rocket science. If you
learn the fundamentals and practice on a regular basis, you will get
better just like anything else. If you can do that, I promise that you will
see a slow and steady growth.
Q. For those looking to diversity and branch out beyond Merch in the
new year, which platforms (Etsy, Redbubble, Teepublic, etc.) would you
with designs?
85
A. Get on other POD platforms immediately! We didn't have this
opportunity last January because it wasn't available at the time but I
would tell everyone to get on the Etsy + Printful platform right now.
Sales will go down for Etsy and Printful as well, but you're creating
another income stream for yourself. Right now I will say that Etsy +
Printful is hands down the second best platform for POD with organic
traffic. In the last couple of days, I've seen a steady flow of orders
coming through on my Etsy account. It's a good thing, but it's also
making me nervous because of Printful's holiday deadlines.
Q: The January drop is an inevitable POD reality for many sellers and it
experience?
A. Oh man, the January drop is horrible, but it's a part of running any
business. Don't always focus on seasonal designs. I've heard too many
times now how people made a fortune during the eclipse and holidays,
but once it was over their numbers dropped to almost nothing. That's
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why most of my designs are evergreen, and I do just a handful of
seasonal designs.
A. I'm almost positive Amazon will have new apparel coming out soon. I
can't say that with certainty. I just have a feeling that they are going to
be offering hoodies, sweatshirts, and other products very near in the
future. With that said even though they are taking a huge chunk of our
royalties I believe we can make up the difference with the new products.
And to answer your question, I will adjust my prices higher in January,
but once the new apparels are offered, I will have to adjust my prices
again to find the sweet spot on ALL my apparels.
Q. Most sellers lack a long-term business plan for their MBA business. In
87
A. Ask yourself, "What do you want out of MBA? Be realistic. I'm going to
break many people's dreams right now by saying this. Chances are many
of you will get frustrated because you set an unsustainable goal for
yourself and then give up after a year. Be honest with yourself and ask
what can you honestly achieve within a reasonable timeframe? Start off
small. Give yourself a goal of making just a few hundred dollars by the
end of the year. If you achieve it make your goals bigger for the next
year. If you're honest with yourself, you will get honest results.
88
Margaret Collier

A. I've been digging in deeper to evergreen niches in which I have selling

designs. I've done a few holiday designs, but I'm trying to cast a wide
net with my uploads. I'd advise to look at what is working and do more
of that. If nothing has been working, look at what others are doing that
works and do that. :)

A. Diversification and Personal Improvement. Each of us has areas in

which we excel or are more comfortable. If you are really wanting to
improve, you have to keep learning and pushing, first in areas that you
need to become proficient, but then in areas where you are
89
comfortable. Continuing to branch out and learn new ways to design,
keyword, promote, and ultimately sell your designs across multiple
PODS will only increase your arsenal of skills.
A. December 2016 blew my mind. The profits were the highest by far for
that year. I started the year with $7 profit and ended with well over
$1k. I learned that people buy everything, but not to expect it to
last. January sales dropped off by about half and didn't regain that level
for a number of months. For December 2017, I'm just planning on
enjoying the ride.

A. It is likely that many sellers stuck will sell the appropriate amount of
shirts to tier up once the next round comes. I'd suggest having a wide
90
catalog of shirt designs/niches up that, if they sell, will be 'locked in' at
the 90 day removal.
experience?
A. I think just mentally preparing for it is all that really can be done. I also
encourage people (and myself) to keep listing shirts across all the PODs
they belong to, even when the slump hits. I have to tell myself that I am
front loading success. I'm not seeing the rewards right now, but I know
they are coming.
91
Anthony Busciglio

A. We are going heavy on AMS and putting ADS on every shirt that ever
sold… right now we aren’t making that many new designs, besides XMAS
and New Years. We are more focused on traffic and creating variations
of existing designs.

A. Learning outside traffic, weather its AMS, Pinterest or something else
Q. What’s the most important lesson you learned from December of 2016
that you’re mindful of going into December 2017?
92
A. We got an account in October 2016 and they put the freeze on a few
days later literally…so we didn’t get started till February 2017

A. Gotta get the sales to tier up. The higher tiers prevail and get treated
better by Amazon. Also stay ahead of the game. If there are trends in
March, do them now.
experience?
A. Stay focused and take action as if its December. Don’t get in your own
head.
93
Fernando Sustaita

A. The beauty of POD is that there isn’t really a formula that has to be
followed, to some, December is all about the Christmas designs and
perhaps New Years designs. Yes, I devoted some of my slots to the
typical Santa Claus, reindeers or snowman, some Hanukah or kwanza.
However, my main focus was on researching and adding designs that

would be better given as gifts. Not necessarily evergreen, but messages
on my shirts that would give a message.
People who have taken my course or follow me on my lives have heard

me say that the Print on Demand Industry is the Hallmark cards of this
generation. In the past you would buy a card with the message and a
cheap present to go with it. Today, with POD we can provide the
tangible gift with the message of love, peace, wishes, or plain old fashion
jokes. Our Shirts have to convey that message… what does a father want
to tell his daughter? The son to his mom? The man to his Fiancée? That’s
what we provide, the gift with the right message, and just like there is a
94
Hallmark for everything there has to be now a Print on Demand product
for everything.
Yes, Santa Sells well if you have that one design that shines next to the
1000 other Santa designs and there will be plenty of success stories
coming January of the people that sold 1000 Santa Shirts but I am not a
graphic designer nor my designers are the best, I am a content creator
and my designer are great at translating my ideas into designs. So, I
search places like Reddit, Pinterest, Twitter for phrases people say,
questions people ask or complains people have and make them a shirt.
How to make the most of the final weeks? Run those AMS ads, scale
your designs, always design thinking on how that design could be used
later on, saves you time and money. Christmas doesn’t end on
December the 20th when people stop ordering online. Christmas has a
second breath on December 26th when millions of dollars on gift cards
are going to be spent on Amazon or Etsy or Ebay and people will be
looking to buy those evergreens you have been designing. Everyone
should already have some New year’s resolution designs uploaded.
95
A. I think Amazon has sent us a very clear message with the price
increase and the affiliate program. They don’t want us to sell cheap and
they want us to drive traffic.
If you have a seller Central account you may be aware that if you have
more than a certain number of ASINS that haven’t sold a product in a
year you get charged a fee, is cents per ASIN but if you have thousands it
can add up to a lot of money. A listing has a database cost,
maintenance; in a few words is unused real state. They want us to
increase the quality of our designs. That’s why they began the 120 day
rule they want to see listed only products that sell.
With Long Sleeve being added to our portfolios, we saw the addition of a
product, yet we didn’t get an increase on slots for products. The logical
step would have been if you were on tier 2000 with 2 products to have
3000 slots now that you have 3 products. However, that wasn’t the case
Amazon was indirectly telling us, use your top sellers on Long Sleeves
and if you are maxed remove the junk to make space for Long Sleeves
which is what many sellers had to do.
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What I am doing on preparation for 2018? I am going to create a lot less
designs a month but with twice the quality. A year ago, the majority was
only uploading on Anvils then rumor began to make noise that Premium
sold as well as Anvils so people began uploading on both for most cases.
So out of 1000 shirts you would have 600 anvils and 400 premiums so
you needed 600 designs. But now if you have 1000 you may have 450
Anvils, 400 Premiums and 150 long sleeves. So a year ago you needed
1000 designs but now you only need 450 if you were paying $5 per
designs that was $5,000 on designs whereas now you only need $2250 I
think I can safely spend, and this is just for illustration of my point
purposes, another $1000 to have far better design quality or even the
same $5000 for less than half the designs but with far greater
probability of conversion and profitability because now I am providing
content and quality on the design instead of just the typical cookie
cutter that everyone offers.
So to answer your question, plan for quality 2018 is going to be far more
competitive, and for many the time to make the jump to other PODS,
where the ugly designs we sometimes sell on Amazon don’t stand a
chance.
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A. On 2016 I procrastinated, didn’t understand the times of when people

wanted those shirts, I was always late and for example when the big
upload freeze I didn’t have but 3 Christmas shirts, no new years, no
epiphany, and I was still loaded of Halloween and Pumpkin Spice and
Turkey shirts. The result? I had an awful December and not only that,
because I had removed my evergreens and Amazon didn’t allow uploads
until late January I missed the Gift card season and was very late for
Valentines. Now I upload 45-60 days ahead of any major holiday. I
update my keywords on day 30 to give my listing a boost and I never
delete my evergreens because those are the ones that feed your
business, the holiday ones are just boosts.
So, if you haven’t already be ready for New Years, and begin thinking
Valentines because before you know it those 2 will be here and be ready
for Gift card season it won’t be as big as Christmas but is what makes
January a great sales month.
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sustained success in January and well into the New Year?
A. Stop doing what everyone else is doing, stop looking for those top
sellers and “improving them” there is no such thing as improving
something that has 1000 copies of the same saying is just one more
copy maybe a better copy but a copy at the end. When you copy a shirt
that is selling 15 a month you are just dividing the sales between you
and the other seller and when 10 more sellers copy then all are just
selling 2-3 a month and some none because now there are dozens of
pages of the same search term.
On this video, I show you how I use reditt to come with ideas
https://youtu.be/HHspf7OBEDM I don’t need to see a design, just what
people is talking about. Get those designs with a message for any
occasion, create your hallmark cards for the whole year those are the
designs that will carry your business and pay the bills, then compliment
your business with Holidays and trends those are your bonuses.
99
experience?
A. If you prepare now, January will have sales, we have the gift cards and
we have people getting ready for Valentines. However, for the majority
will be a major let down after having so many sales in November and
December. Being on the sales industry we have to get on the mindset
that not all months are created equal. That some months are going to be
money makers while others are our preparation months.
For the past 8 months new comers have heard the season sellers talk
about Q4 and how great it is, to some we are already on December and
they haven’t feel it, they keep saying this Q4 sucks when in reality is
barely getting started in all reality Q4 is nothing but BlackFriday-Cyber
Monday weekend and 2 weeks of December. But Q4 last 3 months, 3
months were we research, prepare, list, promote, and when on other
selling platforms source for product, reprice, is a whole 2 months of
preparation for really no more than 25 days.
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January is not going to be a record breaking month on terms of sales, to
some may mean a tier up and with it increase on uploads, is the time to
research to get ready for those Valentines, Spring Break, Easter designs
and get on the mindset that in less than 9 months it will be Q4 again.
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Sold to

And the new year is squarely where I'm focused today.

For my contributed counsel to this guide, I've narrowed down ten

1. The 70/30 Evergreen-Seasonal Split

“In order to ensure customer orders are shipped on time in

This move, commonly referred to as "throttling," can have an enormous

As Merch matures and new processes are enacted to improve printing

Relying more on evergreen designs in 2018 (about 70% of all new

2. Pick and Stick to Your Proprietary Blend

I'm referring to "proprietary blends" -- A.K.A. the so-called secret sauce

In addition to warding off competition, at the heart of any "propriety

3. Late to the Party This Time? Be Early to the Next One

4. Take it One Quarter at a Time

While market foresight is important, it's just as important to temper that

We tend to forget that we have a 90 day window to make sales before

Timing is so important on Merch. Getting a jump start on any event or

Looking ahead to Q1 of 2018, for example, there are three

The upcoming lunar eclipse, while poised to be nowhere near as

In summary, think three months at a time and it will be reflected in your

Merch By Amazon is a case study in self-sabotage for designers who

It's such an ironic reality. We flock to Merch in hopes of making as much

There's no shame in pricing your shirts reasonably higher, particularly

I've never pretended to be a pricing expert or strategist. And I yield to

The lower royalties will lead to a considerable flush out of poor

6. A Big Future in Partnerships for POD

For some POD entrepreneurs, this effort could be as simple as striking a

There are more ways to consider and construct partnerships than we

7. Give a Damn About Data

If your reliance on "data" is limited to looking at a shirt's sales/ranking

Now and in the future, data will determine sales success to an

In 2017, I had a string of hit scaled designs about Minimalism culled

Those who limit their research to digital tools designed to do research

8. Stop Thinking Exclusively Like a National Business

Generally speaking, those of us fortunate enough to have a Merch

Some of the world's most successful and wealthiest entrepreneurs have

As a personal example of this type of approach, the state of Arizona has

There's ample opportunity in setting your sights on geographic regions

From market saturation to just plain beating a dead horse to no

While many of us have scaled ad nauseum designs that honor people

But it's true.

The importance of having a career plan or path cannot possibly be

If someone asks what my "plan" is for Merch By Amazon, I don't have to

In order to make "having a plan" be meaningful, it has to be specific. It's

Q. From a research and design standpoint, how are you approaching

Keep in mind that while Christmas derives from a Christian based

Keep in mind, Merch could initiate a freeze tomorrow. Work today as if

There is literally something that takes place or can be celebrated every

Q. What should every Merch seller, regardless of tier, be doing today in

Treat it like one.

What that means to me is to continue to learn and grow. Take a few

Learn about new niches. I hang around twitter when I am taking on a

Something that sometimes gets overlooked as we grow and scale our

A: The freeze was the most important lesson I learned in December

No uploads. No edits. Nothing.

A: I discussed this in more detail in the first question, however, yes,

Don’t overthink it.

So, what do I do?

Again, I do not overthink merch. I gave up doing just that early in my

Running errands, I am noticing peoples bumper stickers and window

My 16-year-old daughter is another source as hearing about her day or

You really can do very well on Merch by just making “normal” or

Want to REALLY take it a step further? Start a notebook and create a

Q. How can a seller wisely leverage December to set themselves up for