MARCH 1, 2022

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs. Each edition is packed with the latest news, strategies, and tactics, plus inspiring creator stories and exclusive education, all to help you create, grow, and monetize better.

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In this issue:

• Full Tilt: Is It Merch Time?​
• Content Entrepreneur Spotlight: Forecaster Goes Solo​
• Please Complete This Survey on the State of Content Creators​

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Top content creators are making millions from merch. The earnings of Sidemen, MrBeast, Jake Paul, and KSI rival traditional celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande, according to NetCredit’s 2021 Celebrity Merchandise Index.

While you aren’t likely to earn MrBeast dollars – which NetCredit estimated at more than $19M – any time soon, you can generate another stream of income and provide a new way to connect with your audience.

But how do you know if it’s time for your own merch shop, and how do you go about setting it all up? We checked in with Damian Skoczylas at ICON talent agency and Caleb Dempsey of Hello Streamer, who have helped creators with merch shops.

Don’t open the merch store doors after your first few streams or posts – or even the first 100. Damian says it often comes from prompting from a merch vendor or your audience members, who keep pestering you about when they can get a T-shirt emblazoned with your logo.

But eager fans ready to don your hoodie aren’t the only sign. You need to be ready to do the work to make it successful, Damian says.

Selling merch involves a different skill set. Damian has worked with a streamer who had a social footprint of millions, but never earned more than $2K on merch because they didn’t take the time to promote it. On the other hand, he’s worked with a creator with a much smaller following who invested their time and energy into boosting their merch shop and has sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of products.

“When you’re shilling for yourself, that’s where it can be a little weird for creators,” Damian says. “In promotions, you have to gun it. Whatever your window is, you have to be kind of annoying about it, and creators are kind of hesitant to do that.”

The key is understanding your audience so you can be strategic about what you sell. “To make great merch, you need to have a pulse on your community and what they are enjoying in your content, but also really lean into you,” Caleb says.

You’re in the business of content creation – and probably not the business of merch design, online ordering, and fulfillment. That’s why most creators work with companies that help them. Big players include companies like StreamLabs, Merch by Amazon, StreamElements, Spring, and Represent. But there are smaller shops that offer similar services. Leesh Capeesh is using Press N’ Sow, a Black-owned business that caters to creators.

– Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

​Discover how Leesh Capeesh decided to do merch and get more tips.

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​The Publish Press is a project from longtime YouTubers Colin and Samir, who designed the newsletter to curate and analyze the most important new stories for creators, by creators.

Join nearly 20K readers by signing up here.

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Entrepreneur: Nick Pittmann

Biz: Nor’Easter Nick​

Tilt: South Jersey weather

Primary Channel: Facebook (80K)

Other Channels: Website, Instagram (9K); Twitter (8K)

Time to First Dollar: 14 days

Rev Streams: Sponsored posts, speaking engagements, spokesperson deals

Our Favorite Actionable Advice:

• Be visible: Growing a local brand requires being visible in the community. Attend that community event in an adjacent town, speak at the local school, plaster your name around as much as you can.
• Be OK with working odd hours: To build a platform, you need to put in the time, and some of that time likely will be outside 9-to-5 hours.
• Turn rejections into fuel to succeed: Losing his job but wanting to stay in the industry and his locale, Nick created his own content business.

– Annie Schiffmann

​Read all about Nor’Easter Nick and his expansion plans.

Know a content creator who’s going full tilt? DM us. Or email tilt@thetilt.com.​

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Caught on … Payments Journal​

“Creators are clearly becoming the new darling of both brands and social media platforms.” – Galia Beer-Gabel

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• ​The Buy Before Build Exercise (Content Inc.)
• ​Special Episode on Web3: Media, Marketing and the Metaverse (This Old Marketing)
• ​Why I’m Using a Credit Facility To Grow My Startup (Tech Crunch)
• ​Majority of Freelancers Getting Stiffed by Clients (Small Business Trends)
• ​How to Build a Successful Tech Startup From a Four-Time Founder (Fast Company)

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Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Laura Kozak, Marc Maxhimer, and Dave Anthony, with an assist from Angelina Kaminski, Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, Annie Schiffmann, and Don Borger.

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