My Wife Said Not To Write This Article On Branding. Save It For The Book!
I am in the middle of writing a book (my fourth literary endeavor) in which I explain how to gain exposure on the net by branding with a focus on POD (Print On Demand) services.
The book, as this article is, not trust fund babies, the extremely wealthy, someone who just tapped into a venture capitalist, etc. It is for the €average Joe or Jolene€ who is (hopefully) staying afloat doing his/her job. The reader possibly has the feeling of standing still, or not moving ahead; at least not living the American Dream (or the dream of the country from whence you hail).
My wife Lee suggested several months ago I should not blog its contents; and reveal such secrets in the book. I think she's right. I can't give away the store, but I can offer enough free advice so that the person can stay afloat long enough to start his/her own brand, and hopefully purchase the book. Where will it be? Probably at Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble, same as my other ones. Several of my cartoon books are also on Kindle.
But this is serious information. I was headed in a direction in which even keeping a roof over my head was becoming a challenge. This was back in the 1990s. After a series of €bad luck and decisions€, I found myself out of money. I had just experienced the Northridge Earthquake in Los Angeles which swallowed my home and all my belongings.
I was grateful to be alive, saved by my golden retriever puppy Otis, who felt it coming and lured me to go outdoors about 5am.
Many people are aware of POD services (mainly in the literary world). Places such as Lulu and Amazon's CreateSpace have become icons.
But there are other POD services for merchandise, which tends to be more profitable if your designes or quotes or combinations are marketable. But PODs are not a utopia. In fact they are not particularly on your side. They will give you a free store and place to put your graphics or text (or both) on €blank products€, but be very careful to put your name and copyright in large letters on your graphics because if you don't, when the customer buys, he/she won't even know who you are.
As far as they know, they are buying the article from the POD. Some of the larger PODs are Zazzle, Caf© Press, Threadless, Printfection and a myriad of others. The only one that offers a program titled €My Brand€ is Printfection which shows they do care a little about you (and me) but they don't even accept Paypal, which is the only payment method those who shop on the net by 90%+ which makes it a bit of a ghost town. That is sad since they have quality merchandise and customer service.
While building one's brand, they should not quit their day job. Becoming an Internet rock star does not happen overnight, and I'm not even sure I am one now after 16 years. I have a few landmarks that say maybe I've paid some dues (such as a verified Twitter account and Platinum Author account at Ezine.com) but that and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee if you have a time machine and the time to go back 100 years.
The book, as this article is, not trust fund babies, the extremely wealthy, someone who just tapped into a venture capitalist, etc. It is for the €average Joe or Jolene€ who is (hopefully) staying afloat doing his/her job. The reader possibly has the feeling of standing still, or not moving ahead; at least not living the American Dream (or the dream of the country from whence you hail).
My wife Lee suggested several months ago I should not blog its contents; and reveal such secrets in the book. I think she's right. I can't give away the store, but I can offer enough free advice so that the person can stay afloat long enough to start his/her own brand, and hopefully purchase the book. Where will it be? Probably at Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble, same as my other ones. Several of my cartoon books are also on Kindle.
But this is serious information. I was headed in a direction in which even keeping a roof over my head was becoming a challenge. This was back in the 1990s. After a series of €bad luck and decisions€, I found myself out of money. I had just experienced the Northridge Earthquake in Los Angeles which swallowed my home and all my belongings.
I was grateful to be alive, saved by my golden retriever puppy Otis, who felt it coming and lured me to go outdoors about 5am.
Many people are aware of POD services (mainly in the literary world). Places such as Lulu and Amazon's CreateSpace have become icons.
But there are other POD services for merchandise, which tends to be more profitable if your designes or quotes or combinations are marketable. But PODs are not a utopia. In fact they are not particularly on your side. They will give you a free store and place to put your graphics or text (or both) on €blank products€, but be very careful to put your name and copyright in large letters on your graphics because if you don't, when the customer buys, he/she won't even know who you are.
As far as they know, they are buying the article from the POD. Some of the larger PODs are Zazzle, Caf© Press, Threadless, Printfection and a myriad of others. The only one that offers a program titled €My Brand€ is Printfection which shows they do care a little about you (and me) but they don't even accept Paypal, which is the only payment method those who shop on the net by 90%+ which makes it a bit of a ghost town. That is sad since they have quality merchandise and customer service.
While building one's brand, they should not quit their day job. Becoming an Internet rock star does not happen overnight, and I'm not even sure I am one now after 16 years. I have a few landmarks that say maybe I've paid some dues (such as a verified Twitter account and Platinum Author account at Ezine.com) but that and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee if you have a time machine and the time to go back 100 years.