Introduction
In today’s article, I’ve decided to review Michael Essany’s weekly Merch Momentum newsletter. Merch Momentum Monday Strategy Guide is a weekly resource that is delivered every Sunday to subscribers and is filled with information incredibly helpful to Merch by Amazon sellers.
Full disclosure: I contacted Michael to ask his permission to write this article and he graciously made me an affiliate. If you find this article helpful and want to buy me a cup of coffee when you subscribe, then feel free to use my link at the bottom of this article. If not, feel free to go directly to Michael. It’s the same price either way and my only motivation in this article is to share my experience with fellow Merch by Amazon designers who are looking to improve their craft. A better community of Merchers benefits the platform and the success of the platform benefits us all.
Merch Momentum Newsletter
I’ve been subscribed to the Merch Momentum newsletter since February of 2018; so roughly 7 months as of the time of writing this. I was skeptical at first, because there are so many tools and products being marketed to us. At $10 a month, I figured it was worth trying out and I knew I could always cancel if I didn’t like it. The product is delivered through the Gumroad platform, which makes it really easy to cancel if you don’t like the product.
Each of the weekly newsletters are about 30+ pages long. Michael leads off the newsletter with a column called “This Week in Merch”, which is a recap of what’s going on in the industry and some thoughts on the week that has passed.
This Week in Merch
In the opening pages of the newsletter, Michael shares many unique spins one can put on their design and keyword focus. The suggestions offer ways that you can take one selling concept and merge it with another to form unique products that will stand out among thousands of sellers doing the same tired bland stuff.
To give you an example of what I’m talking about, in recent newsletters Michael has discussed how sarcastic pun type tshirts are doing really well. In the most current issue, he paired that concept with circular oriented designs that are good sellers and stand out from the usual offerings on Merch. He mocked up a steering wheel with a peanut on it and text reading “You’re Driving Me Nuts” to illustrate his point of a possible way readers could combine the two ideas to make a winning product listing.
I really like the concepts he introduces every week, because it gets my own creativity flowing. I won’t go and just copy some idea he introduced in the newsletter; instead I apply it in a different way that has my own unique spin on it. I feel like this is a far more effective way of running our businesses and brainstorming new ideas. It’s also a way to guarantee that no matter how many people subscribe to the newsletter, I’m always going to get value out of the information because I’m not just parroting what Michael suggests.
Merch Radar: Seasonal & Viral Merch Watch
Following the weekly recap, there is a column called “Merch Radar: Seasonal / Viral Merch Watch” that covers emerging trends and upcoming seasonal niches we should be looking at. Michael goes deeper in this section than the general trend stuff you’re seeing on tools like Merch Informer. While I love Merch Informer, the reality is that by time you see things emerging on the platform, the market has already begun getting saturated with designs.
Michael identifies a lot of emerging trends that lend themselves to “evergreen” designing. For those of you who are new to Merch by Amazon, the term evergreen means a design that will sell year-round. Seasonal shirts are great for spiking sales for a month or two, but evergreen shirts will deliver sustainable income throughout all the seasons of the year. Ideally you want to be designing both types of content, but you should realize that evergreen shirts are going to ensure reliable income on a monthly basis.
Merch by Amazon Keyword Research
Arguably one of the most valuable aspects of the newsletter is the “Keyword and Niche Leads” section. This is broken out by the apparel types available to designers on Merch by Amazon. These leads aren’t magic bullets, but they are very useful in revealing niches and long tail keywords you wouldn’t have otherwise considered. I’ve had a number of obscure niches that I got tipped off to in the newsletter that have become consistent sellers for me since I launched designs related to them.
The way I use the newsletter and specifically the keyword section is by taking notes as I read the content. I’ll look at what keywords interest me from a design perspective and then I’ll do my own validation to see what type of market there is for them. I’ll then start to use his leads as the basis for finding long tail keyword searches that might be even more untapped then the keywords Michael suggested.
Merch by Amazon Success Stories
The next part of the newsletter is the Q&A section. I’m not 100% sure this has been in every single newsletter he has put out, but it’s in many of them. Michael reaches out to people in the print-on-demand and graphic design communities to ask questions that benefit his readers. I find it very motivating and informative to hear what these giant sellers have to say. The thing we must realize about folks like Ken Reil and Amy Herberger is that they didn’t start out as Merch behemoths. In some cases, they didn’t necessarily come from design backgrounds.
If you’re just starting out on Merch by Amazon and other design platforms (you really should be on multiple platforms), you should try to learn from the wisdom of the people who have been around a while. There are a lot of easily avoidable mistakes we can sidestep if we study what has worked for the people who have gone ahead of us. I think we all need to humbly remember, regardless of our tier level, that there is always something new to learn.
Print on Demand Mindset
The final piece of Merch Momentum newsletter is a column called “Monday Mindset”. In this section, Michael offers final thoughts on the current state of Merch and motivation for the week ahead. I especially like this, because a strong mindset is crucial to succeeding in Merch, as well as business in general. If you have been doing print-on-demand for any decent length of time, you know how much of a grind it can be. Getting encouragement and guidance every week helps my focus as I strive to hit more sales and higher tiers.
Merch Momentum: Pros & Cons
In any review I do, I try to objectively look at where there is room for improvement. The only needs-improvement aspect of Michael’s newsletter is the lack of PopSockets keyword leads. I asked him about this and he said, “It’s on the drawing board. I’m trying to amass more data and cull more insight from my own sales. When I feel as though I have a high quality consistent approach and have tested my lead generation practices (for PopSockets) long enough, I’ll incorporate them into the guide.”
I think that attitude reflects highly on the newsletter and Michael himself in that he doesn’t want to offer anything other than premium quality content. I first heard of Michael almost a year ago on a podcast where he talked about how much money and time he spends on research.
Michael literally set up surveys to niche markets and drove traffic to explore what consumers really want. Outside of maybe Amazon themselves, I don’t know anyone else in the Merch community going this far above and beyond the norm to do product research. This deep level of study is what sets the Merch Momentum newsletter apart from other research tools and resources that I subscribe to.
The only other potential pitfall of Michael’s newsletter is that it has so much information that you could easily get overwhelmed. When I first started reading the newsletter, I would try to chase literally every lead he gave. That was a bad strategy. It was too much for me to possibly design in a week and even if you are outsourcing your design work, I think it would still be a tall order. Nowadays, I really hone in on the niche leads that interest me the most. If I’m intrigued by topic or feel a creative draw to it, I’m going to design better products for that niche.
Aside from getting overwhelmed, you have to actually open the newsletter and read it. There is no magic pill for Merch by Amazon. You need to do the research, trademark compliance, designing, and listing creation if you’re going to make money on Merch. Even if you outsource some stuff, you’re still the person who has to be the quarterback for your team. Michael’s newsletter works as a good assistant coach and playbook for you to expedite research, as well explore topics you wouldn’t have figured out on your own.
Final Review of Merch Momentum
The bottom line is that the Merch Momentum newsletter is an incredible resource delivered for a price far below what it’s worth. Getting four newsletters every month for $10 works out to $2.50 per newsletter. That’s cheaper than picking up the Sunday newspaper at a gas station. My subscription has certainly given me hundreds of dollars in results, so I’d say that’s about the best value proposition you’re going to find in the Merch community; both for newbies and seasoned pros.
One last item worth mentioning… Michael also gives away free graphic packs to subscribers. In the past few months that I’ve been a subscriber, he has given packs covering the following niches: military, casino gaming, Halloween, Sci-Fi, and firefighting. These in themselves are worth the price of admission. It baffles me that he only charges $10 bucks a month for the massive value he delivers.
Merch Momentum sign up can be done here: https://gumroad.com/a/203469939
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