Merch Minds Podcast With Glen And Yong

On Episode 81 Yong had the opportunity to briefly talk to Manny about his Etsy business. Yong invited Manny back on the show so they can have a more in-depth conversation about what he's doing. Manny, who is a graphic designer, hadn't found much success on Merch so he focused his efforts on Etsy and it's paying off. Manny admits he's doing parody designs in a certain niche. However, he's working on eventually branching out to his own platform and creating a Shopify store. That way he's not solely relying on Etsy's marketplace. The good thing about Manny is that he was able to start and leverage social media early on. He created a huge following for his apparel line on Instagram. His stuff is so hot that he only does a pop-up shop one week per month and he clears $6k every time.   Sponsors Merch Informer https://merchinformer.com/223.html Merchinator https://merchinator.com/s/e66c4a55    

This week's episode is out a little early. With so much going on the boys decided to release the episode before the weekend. And as promised Yong delivered on his promise. Yong mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he was going to interview his personal CPA. So this week Abe Saghieh talk to the boys and provide general tax advice. As a disclaimer please talk to your own personal CPA because everyone's situation is different. Abe and the boys discuss everything from Amazon to eBay. Abe tells the boys why he thinks collecting royalties is a good business model. He recommends what bookkeeping software are the best. He even answers the question about the evil VAT. Also, Yong has been beta testing the Pretty Merch Pro Chrome extension for the past several days. While most people know about Pretty Merch the developer recently added the Auto Re-Login feature. Imagine a whole day without being logged out of your Merch account! However, Auto Re-Login will be available exclusively to Pretty Merch PRO users. The subscrip

After almost a two week hiatus the boys are back. Glen was in Washington DC to film his Outhustled series on YouTube. As much as he hates going there Yong was in Las Vegas for the Licensing Expo. In this episode, they recap what Yong experienced in Las Vegas. Amazon gave a keynote presentation on Tuesday morning and they introduced Merch Collab. What exactly is Merch Collab? It's an opportunity for REAL graphic designers to collaborate with influencers such as Shane Dawson, Rick & Morty, Crossfit and more. As a designer, you submit a design and the influencers will accept or deny them to be sold on Amazon. Yong also talks about some of the vendors at the expo. He talks about how overwhelming it was. There were some huge companies such as WWE, Dr. Seuss, Mattel, and Playstation at the expo. In order to talk to them you had to set up a meeting but also have deep pockets to even shake their hands. So Yong stuck to his strategy of talking to small vendors and he had some very interesting conversations. Also,

This week the Merch Minds Podcast comes to you live and direct from Las Vegas. Yong is in the Sin City for the Licensing Expo where Amazon Merch gave a keynote presentation. Fellow graphic designer Manny Pinedo and RJ Martinez accompanied him during the trip. They have a funny story that they share in this episode. While Yong was aboard a plane Manny and RJ were trying to check into their Airbnb. It's a funny and unforgettable story that will have all listeners laughing. All three of them talk about what their strategy going to the Licensing Expo. They agreed that a good strategy for smaller players like them would be to approach small vendors. Big companies like WWE and Disney require deep pockets so they agreed they would approach the smaller companies. Yong also talks to Manny about his Esty business. While Manny's Merch business has been subpar his Etsy business is booming. He's doing parody in a particular niche that brings in tons of traffic and sales. In fact, business is so good that he does a pop sho

The past couple of months Yong has been beta testing an app that allows him to upload his designs across several POD platforms outside of Amazon. Finally, the boys talk to the man responsible for introducing the app to them. Dennis Duncan has been consulting with a couple of developers who developed Orbitkit. So what makes Duncan special that he was one of the consultants for Orbitkit? Well, he's been in the POD business for years, and he's on the 20k tier on Merch. He not only scaled his Merch account but he's leveraging all PODs including Etsy Printful integration. In fact, Duncan developed an app that can help with your Etsy Printful integration. He created Printsy that will help streamline your uploads without a VA. You can now automate your uploads to your Printful & Etsy uploads with Printsy. Printsy is only $9.99 per month and will save you hundreds of dollars if not more. As for Orbitkit, the webinar is for this Thursday, May 17, 2018, at 1 pm PST. I was told they are capping the release to just 1

Yes, it's true! The boys finally have their first female guest of 2018. This week Kelli Roberts get interviewed by Glen and Yong. Kelli is now the official "First Lady of 2018" of the Merch Minds Podcast. Kelli has been around for a while. She's pretty quiet in the groups, but she is a go-getter and successful in her own right. While her numbers on Merch are average shes makes a killing on Createspace. Kelli talks about how she operates her Merch by Amazon business. Like the boys, she is a one-man operation, and she explains her routine when it comes to Merch. She also talks about her Createspace business and how she made $21,000 in December of 2017. She recently started her own channel so make sure and subscribe. While the channel is new, she has a lot of experience under her belt. So make sure and check out her channel below.   KelliPublish YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtIrgxIAX9x6nu3rJ_vfGiQ/ Sponsors Merch Informer https://merchinformer.com/223.html Merchinator https://merchinator.com

If there is one conference we should attend this year, it's the Rocky Mountain Reseller Conference. Travis Ross, the founder of the conference, stops by and talk to Glen and Yong in this week's episode. And don't let the name fool you. This conference will have plenty of Merch topics and experts. Travis talks about he founded the conference just a few years ago. Between him and his co-founder, he was able to scale the conference in only a few years where it attracts some of the biggest players in the reselling and the Merch community. He has a very impressive lineup this year. Check out some of the speakers that will be present at this year's Rocky Mountain Reseller Conference. Eddie Levine Casey Gauss Anna Hill Amit Desai Robyn Johnson Edward Ruffin Garland Sullivan Neil Lassen Harvey Spectre Anthony Busciglio Kevin Levonas Rachel Greer Assad Siddiqi Ashlin Hadden Tim Jordan Luke Humbrecht Ken Reil Make sure and register today before it sells out. Also, the fee will go up on May 1, 2018. Use our promo code

This week Glen and Yong talk to the million dollar man! In case you haven't heard Mike Gual has been the focal point of the Merch community the past few weeks. He made over a million dollars in royalty since starting Merch with just a little over 160 shirts live. So how did he do it? He did by implementing what's now being called the Local Merch Method. He's targeting local businesses in his town and offering them an opportunity to get customers with his t-shirts. Not just that but he's creating another source of income stream for them. The boys talk with Mike and pick his brain for a whole hour. This is an episode you don't want to miss out on. Mike explains how with the Local Merch Method there is no competition. You don't have to worry about copycats or keywords. Out of all the guests the boys have interviewed Mike is probably the most humble person they have ever met. Even after making a million dollars the guy continues to work his day job. Not just that but he absolutely loves helping people in hopes th

Are you guys using Merch Lister Pro? If so, this is going to be an exciting episode as the boy's interview, Johnny King, the creator of MLP. And if you're not using MLP, then you will after this episode. If you follow the podcast, you know Yong had a difficult time filling up his slots because he's a one-man operation. However, Yong gives credit to Johnny and MLP as the primary reason why he was able to scale so fast from the 2k tier to the 4k tier in a matter of months. Yong spoke very highly of MLP and invited Johnny to be on the show. Johnny talks about why he created MLP. He talks about how he's also a one-man operation and how the uploading process on Merch is tedious. He wanted to streamline the uploading process, and with that he created MLP. MLP is no longer available for a one-time price. It is now available as a monthly subscription, but even then it is worth every penny at $9.97. It will speed up your uploading process and save you some serious time. If there is one tool you need for your Merch by

Finally, Brother Hacks is on the show! This week Anthony Zubia, brother of Hustler Hacks, and a Jeremy Piven lookalike is a guest on the show. Anthony is also a graphic designer based out of Austin, Texas. Anthony talks about how he had his Merch by Amazon suspended. Since the suspension, he's not capitalizing off of other POD sites such as Etsy and TeePublic. He is also offering courses now on Skillshare that is relevant to the Merch by Amazon community. Anthony also talks about how he is available to do freelance work. If you're interested in hiring Anthony, you can find all his information below.   Facebook https://www.facebook.com/anthonymzubia Instagram https://www.instagram.com/anthonymzubia/ Skillshare http://bit.ly/2HtAJd7   Sponsors Merch Informer https://merchinformer.com/223.html Merchinator https://merchinator.com/s/e66c4a55

Eric Rosner is an internationally beloved illustrator based in Los Angeles. He started his career working in animation, but he's now trying to launch his Merch career. The guy is so talented his work has been featured in CB2 and various publications. He's also done work for celebrities such as Jeff Bridges, Alec Baldwin, and Ed Begley Jr. As talented as he is why is he struggling on Merch? The boys talk with Eric and give him an honest critique on how he can improve his numbers. After hearing his story both Glen and Yong gave him the following advice. He should follow trends and current events. As great as his artwork is people tend to purchase items that are currently trending. Eric should build a brand under his name. Eric is already an established artist. His style is so unique it will be difficult for people to copy his work without Eric taking action. Yong suggested he focus more on his Etsy store. The style of work Eric puts out has the potential to attract a large audience on Etsy. What do you guys thi

Glen might have his groove back! His editing skills seem to be back on point. Thank goodness because the people were demanding his head on a platter. This week Glen and Yong discuss what it takes to make $10k in royalties on Merch by Amazon. After talking to Michael Essek who makes double-digits in royalties almost every month, they were inspired and try and dissect what people can do to make $10k. Making $10k has been Yong's goal for some time now. However, he was never in a rush. His approach to Merch was to put out quality designs, and for the most part, it has worked for him. Tune is as the boys discuss what it takes to make $10k per month on Merch by Amazon. Sponsors Merch Informer https://merchinformer.com/223.html Merchinator https://merchinator.com/s/e66c4a55

Maybe Glen should be fired! It seems as if he's losing his mojo. His editing skill has been subpar, and the quality of the podcasts have been mediocre. That's okay, we still love him, and he promises the audio quality will get better. In the meantime, try and listen to this week's episode of the boy's interview with Michael Essek. Michael is one of the few people who found success early on Merch by Amazon. As a designer in the U.K., he utilized his skills to scale his account to where he's making significant income. Michael talks about he scaled his account to where now he's at the 16,000 tier. He has hired both his sister and brother-in-law to help him with his business full-time. He also hired two designers, and he's now playing the role of project manager and no longer designing. Make sure to follow Michael on his blog. It's a little outdated, but the content on there is still relevant today. His ebooks are also available for purchase on his site. Michael Essek https://www.michaelessek.com   Sponsors Merc

Glen was out of town and couldn't record this week's episode. Yong argues that he's lazy, but Glen was actually at a reselling event in Kansas. So Yong called upon the presence of the always reliable Chris Avalos aka The Thrift Hustler. There wasn't much Merch news this week. Amazon did post a video in the dashboard that clarifies their content policy. They also added Guideline 2.6, which discusses the promotion of violence on Merch by Amazon. So Yong and Chris took over Glen's YouTube channel. They talked Merch and POD in general. Chris has a unique strategy for his account. Instead of chasing trends and current events he just cruises along and is in no rush to scale his account. Make sure to subscribe to Chris's YouTube channel. He talks about all kinds of things on his channel from reselling to print on demand. Tell him Yong sent you and say "hello."   Thrift Shop Hustler YouTube Channel http://bit.ly/2DlgyKD   Sponsors Merch Informer https://merchinformer.com/223.html Merchinator https://merchinator.com/

In Episode 70 Glen and Yong talk about Saint Patty's Day shirts. If Saint Patty's day is anything like last year, then the shirts will sell. Hopefully, the listeners have designed some as well. Yong is one week into using Penji, which is a design agency that offers unlimited designs. While he can't compare it to other services, he gives Penji an honest review. So far he is very impressed by the designs that they have submitted. They also talk more about Glen's suspension. Glen is positive that he was suspended for some kind of IP address issue. He's confident that it had nothing to do with his design or trademark violations. Penji https://penji.co/ 10$ Discount Code: n0va (The "O" is the number zero) Sponsors Merch Informer https://merchinformer.com/223.html Merchinator https://merchinator.com/h/e66c4a55

Yes, you read the title correctly. Glen's Merch account was suspended. His account was actually suspended a month ago, and it was finally reinstated last week. While Glen was open to talking about it, he wanted to wait and see how it played out. First off, we should all be grateful for Glen being transparent and sharing his experience with everyone. Not everyone would be open to talking about what their suspension. However, Glen not only talks about it but he was open to answering questions that were thrown his way. So what happened? Glen received an email from Amazon asking questions about his IP address. There was a list about five to six questions. After Glen and Yong reviewed the questions, they concluded that the there was some issue with his IP address, While they're not certain, that was the conclusion they came to. Maybe there was a trademark violation but Glen always careful about the type of his designs. So there is really no way to know for sure. There is no way to be certain why Glen's account was

This week the boys talk to Johnathan Grzybowski from Penji. Johnathan is the co-founder of Penji, which is a design agency that offers high-end designs from in-house graphic designers. Unlike other agencies, they focus more on quality instead of quantity. Penji is unique because they have a streamlined back-end where you can communicate with your designer. They are also capping off their services to only 300 clients. Currently, there have 200 clients, but the spots will be filled up fast. Johnathan talks about how he hires students and graduates primarily from Rutgers University. He specifically hires students going through a design program. He also puts them through extensive training before they can be hired as a designer at Penji. You can submit unlimited designs and get unlimited revisions. Most of their work is completed within 48 hours. Their convenient month to month plan makes it easy to join with no contracts. You also get the original source files and have complete ownership of them. The best thing

Passive income is a term that is being thrown around in the Facebook groups. Many content creators are claiming that they are earning passive with Merch by Amazon. While it's been discussed by Glen and Yong in the past, they discuss in-depth in this week's episode on whether Merch is really passive income. By definition, passive income is when you do all the necessary work up front resulting in cash flow on a regular basis. Glen argues that Merch is the closest thing to passive income. However, Yong strongly believes that you have to constantly work on your Merch account. What do you guys think? Merch by Amazon is not hard labor, but it does require effort. Whether you are a designer or not Merch can bring in a nice income stream. Regardless of whether you believe Merch by Amazon is passive income or not let the boys know what your thoughts are. Sponsors Merch Informer https://merchinformer.com/223.html Merchinator https://merchinator.com/h/e66c4a55

Didn't Yong mention in a previous episode that he hasn't had a cold in over ten years? Well, he jinxed himself when he made that comment. He caught a cold, and he suffered big time. However, like Michael Jordan in the epic "flu game" Yong came and performed. This week Michael Essany from Merch Momentum stops by to talk to Glen and Yong. Michael shares his journey into Merch, but he also discusses his new weekly Merch Momentum Monday Strategy Guide. Guys, this isn't your typical guide. Michael goes in-depth on his own best-selling niches, but he also shares niches you could have never even thought of. Every week you get over 15-plus pages of Michael's insight of the Merch business. In fact, Yong is so certain that you will find value in the guide that he is doing something no one else dares. He is personally putting up his own ten dollars that you will find value in Michael Essany's strategy guide. Within two weeks of your initial subscription if you don't find value in Michael's guide Yong will personally you