4 ms·

Surprisingly we don't have a ton of creators offering swag stuff, I'd have assumed that it would have been a bigger draw (Some of that might have to do with us

Surprisingly we don't have a ton of creators offering swag stuff, I'd have assumed that it would have been a bigger draw (Some of that might have to do with us not really offering any support on our platform, but it's not a common request either). If there's a "product" to sell, it's usually either the content itself, or access through things like community. But like I said in another comment, how much people spend isn't very correlated with what they get out of it at all.

deleted 4y ago
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CosmicShadow 4y ago
This is pretty interesting! I've been thinking about a platform for unique swag for podcasters, streamers, youtubers, etc. as I think there's definitely an opportunity to engage with fans there, but I imagine it's pretty overwhelming and expensive to figure out how to do it effectively if you are busy producing content. I sell an item that'd be perfect for those folks to giveaway/sell and I know how hard it is to figure out shipping and logistics.
- lozenge 4y ago
  This is what MCNs do. They're basically talent agencies for YouTubers, and they handle stuff like ad placement, sponsored content, and merch.
yojo 4y ago
Maybe it’s just early days? I remember in early internet times webcomics were one of the few niches where creators were trying to make a living on the internet. At first it was “easy” - ad rates were super inflated in the dot com boom, and people were making rent with “punch the monkey and win” banner ads. Then came the crash and the bottom fell out of the ad market. A lot of creators just went away, but the ones who held on generally monetized via merch. Granted, these were people that were both funny and had graphic design chops, so novelty t-shirts were a natural fit. Presumably the buyer demand was always there, but no one discovered it until they were forced to do the hard thing of flailing for cash. Possibly as the market matures and people test more monetization methods we’ll see more podcast shwag.

deleted 4y ago

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CosmicShadow 4y ago

This is pretty interesting! I've been thinking about a platform for unique swag for podcasters, streamers, youtubers, etc. as I think there's definitely an opportunity to engage with fans there, but I imagine it's pretty overwhelming and expensive to figure out how to do it effectively if you are busy producing content. I sell an item that'd be perfect for those folks to giveaway/sell and I know how hard it is to figure out shipping and logistics.

lozenge 4y ago
This is what MCNs do. They're basically talent agencies for YouTubers, and they handle stuff like ad placement, sponsored content, and merch.

yojo 4y ago

Maybe it’s just early days? I remember in early internet times webcomics were one of the few niches where creators were trying to make a living on the internet. At first it was “easy” - ad rates were super inflated in the dot com boom, and people were making rent with “punch the monkey and win” banner ads. Then came the crash and the bottom fell out of the ad market. A lot of creators just went away, but the ones who held on generally monetized via merch. Granted, these were people that were both funny and had graphic design chops, so novelty t-shirts were a natural fit. Presumably the buyer demand was always there, but no one discovered it until they were forced to do the hard thing of flailing for cash. Possibly as the market matures and people test more monetization methods we’ll see more podcast shwag.