For those of you reading via RSS, pop over to my homepage real quick and check out the new front page and updated portfolio.
Why the change? I’m hoping that the front page will now be a more friendly portal to newcomers.
For those long-time readers, if you want to skip the frontpage and go straight to the blog, update your bookmarks:
http://www.austinkleon.com/blog/
I should also point out that there’s a new subscription options page. If the blog feed isn’t enough for you, you could always upgrade to the Blog + Tumblelog Superfeed!
And for those of you with eagle eyes, you’ll have noticed a (gasp!) shopping cart. Yeah, it’s just a teaser for now, but one of our projects this summer is trying to get some merchandise up for sale. We want to start small with maybe just some mini-poster prints, and then move on to bigger and better things.
A couple questions:
- What’s the most successful way to sell products online? Paypal? Etsy? Ebay?
- What would you like to see sold in my store? Prints of poems? Mini-comics? T-shirts?
If anybody has any advice or comments, please let me hear them!
In my experience, t-shirts, stickers, and posters are the way to go. Eyecandy.
Posters and stickers are quick, cheap, and sell well–they also make great bonus gifts for sales and holiday promotions (buy a shirt, get a poster/sticker). T-shirts always sell reliably and are profitable.
Additionally, any gimmick that you have for your OWN art would be awesome–for example, getting your blackout poems printed on recycled newspaper pulp mounted on cardboard or something would be cool I think.
I’ve had a PayPal business account for about 3 years and hate it now as much as I did when it was the only option. Google checkout is significantly better and friendlier to businesses (and waves fees for the first year of use).
As long as you have the site traffic to begin with and the time to pack and ship orders yourself, a nice little CSS storefront and Google Checkout’s API will serve your needs. I haven’t had much time to play with it myself, but if you know any PHP it’s not difficult. You can get an account with USPS, UPS, or FedEx which will enable you to integrate a shipping label option as well as pickup of shipments.
Wow, thanks Chris! Excellent suggestions!
I’d like to buy a blackout poem (or 10) in some sort of frame-able format. Newspaper-page size. Chris’ suggestion is good.
You could also do t-shirts using your woodcut style to deliver some sort of subversive message.
Muslin tote/shopping bags are good products right now too. And they’re pretty cheap to buy in their unprinted format.
Good luck. And yeah, I’d go with Google checkout. It’s easy and reliable.
Ummm…
…I want “Shaving” on t-shirt!! http://www.austinkleon.com/wp-content/uploads/portfolio/comics/shaving.jpg
…maybe a set of postcards?
…maybe you could cycle “Birdseed” into a long roll of that wallpaper border strip stuff?
So, we’ve talked about this a little in person, but seeing what the other guys said, maybe you could be a little more eccentric and have a great product. I mean, everyone loves stickers and I will of course put them all over my laptop/ds/ipod, but something quirkier may be in line. Maybe engraved Moleskines? A calendar? Buttons? Nalgene bottles?
I always think that these guys do great things, maybe there is some inspiration there: http://www.nakedandangry.com/
Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
you should make a silk-screened mini of the blackout poems.
I’m very glad to see the image you’re using for your banner – of all the drawings of yours I’ve seen, that one’s my favorite. T-shirts and posters, definitely.
Thanks everybody — so much! — for your input. It’s really, really helpful. Keep it coming!
We’re going to try to get the store up in a month or so — Meg is currently finishing up her finals, so she’ll have a lot more time to work on it soon.
Thanks again!
I think the orange buttons are a little big, but I really like it otherwise, and think the store is a good idea.
Personally I’d like to see a Paypal option at least, as I’ve got that account all set up and ready to go – I’m always more inclined to buy something if there’s a PP button.
Having said that, if you start selling stuff like mini-comics and stickers using Google Checkout, I’d definitely get an account for that sorted out and most likely thank you for it.
The new site is great!
Check this out, maybe?
http://fieldnotesbrand.com/2008/05/06/cust-o-mized/
Printing a favorite poem or print on the back.
I really like their company (Coudal) in general – its a local Chicago place.
I shall forward this information to my lovely assistant… ;-)