It's about 5:30am CST; I just spent a number of hours (I'm not telling you how many haha I'll embarrass myself) getting new hi-res images of the posters I designed prepared for the new website. However many hours this has taken overall, it was all working on my own future and passive income.
Over the last few months, I have been creating/gathering content and designing a poster that's based on the concept of certain actions in life being awarded "man points." Some of them are pretty stereotypical, but some of them a bit more important. I'm very happy with the designs I've created, and I'm very proud to say that my dad inspired a number of the actions on the poster... such as "Beating Cancer." 😀 :icon_super:
With the new hi-res images uploaded, visitors can now read what's on the posters when you hover over the image for zoom. Six different colors. If you would like to check out the poster design, they are at ManPointsPoster
I was stuck at a crossroads between Shopify and BigCommerce for my hosted cart, but I said "f*ck it" and pulled the trigger on BigCommerce a few days ago. Since I've kept "Ready, Fire, Aim" at the top of my mind, it's been easier to have that mindset and take action. (Thank goodness I did; Within 72 hours of the designs being launched, I had my first online sale! I don't even have the final packaging in yet! Haha. Full disclosure: does it matter that I know the person who ordered it? I posted a link to the first version of the site on my Facebook status, and I know the guy who bought it. It still hints at fastlane since it's a product I created and sold, BUT, I definitely understand that there will be a difference in someone buying it who I have never met.)
Why BigCommerce? I found that it has more customization options, easier access to the source code, better SEO (from what I read in reviews), cleaner URLs, no transaction fee, and I only need the $25/mo plan. The cart/inventory is based on products (which can have different options) rather than SKUs (each variation is its own SKU), and while that isn't very important on this particular project, I want to become more familiar with BigCommerce so it's easier to use in the future. I'm actually still on the free 15-day trial and have a little over a week left.
Shopify has an introductory $14/mo plan for the just-getting-started stores, with very limited functionality and a 2% transaction fee. Shopify is a good platform for simpler shops from what I can interpret. That's not me recommending against it, it's just not what I want. I also set up the sitemap and some basic SEO stuff; we'll see what kind of traffic this bad boy gets. I'm stoked to do A/B split testing! I love design and marketing psychology and I finally get to apply both outside the classroom.
(If you're in the US and want to own one of the posters, you can use the promo code FASTLANE to get another $5 off each poster. Valid for the first 15 people who type it in! I hope that I'm not coming off as spammy, I just want to add a little value to the community that has been adding value to my life over that last year and a half.)
Branding is really important to this project. I have some ideas on how to make the experience of opening the posters a bit more exciting/special to the recipient. The posters are going to be shipped in badass brown kraft paper tubes with plastic end caps (using Yazoo Mills at the suggestion of Kevin Tong from tragicsunshine.com). I ordered black paper to roll with the posters before going inside the tube, mainly to keep the ink from rubbing on the back of the poster. To keep the rolled-up poster/black paper secured so it doesn't unravel and get stuck inside the tube, I would like to have stickers made with a Man Points logo (tbd) on them. If the stickers are 2" DIA, I could also use them on the end caps of the tube and add a little brand visibility from the second the recipient sees the tube.
I've been brainstorming about what else could be included in the tube with the poster: coupon code for future orders, stickers for Harley Davidson, a free trial membership to Bacon Of The Month club... at MINIMUM some sort of well-designed "thank you" card that fits with the brand. I thought about hosting a Facebook contest, too: What's the most manly thing you (or someone close to you) has done? Might be a randomly-picked winner or most-manly-thing-done as the winner -- the winner will get a badass Gerber survival knife like Bear Grylls Folding (Sheath) Knife
Just FYI: The list of actions to take to earn "Man Points" ended up at over 200 actions, with some help from my brother and my friend Erin, so if you're wondering why something didn't make it on this version of the poster, don't worry. I will be working on getting that layout together. It's going to take some time to find a good balance between text space used and legibility.
Any and all feedback on my project is welcome. Thank you in advance for any advice or suggestions you have. If nothing else, I hope that a few of you get a smile out of the poster design and idea behind it, and read something that encourages you or reminds you of someone in your life.
Over the last few months, I have been creating/gathering content and designing a poster that's based on the concept of certain actions in life being awarded "man points." Some of them are pretty stereotypical, but some of them a bit more important. I'm very happy with the designs I've created, and I'm very proud to say that my dad inspired a number of the actions on the poster... such as "Beating Cancer." 😀 :icon_super:
With the new hi-res images uploaded, visitors can now read what's on the posters when you hover over the image for zoom. Six different colors. If you would like to check out the poster design, they are at ManPointsPoster
I was stuck at a crossroads between Shopify and BigCommerce for my hosted cart, but I said "f*ck it" and pulled the trigger on BigCommerce a few days ago. Since I've kept "Ready, Fire, Aim" at the top of my mind, it's been easier to have that mindset and take action. (Thank goodness I did; Within 72 hours of the designs being launched, I had my first online sale! I don't even have the final packaging in yet! Haha. Full disclosure: does it matter that I know the person who ordered it? I posted a link to the first version of the site on my Facebook status, and I know the guy who bought it. It still hints at fastlane since it's a product I created and sold, BUT, I definitely understand that there will be a difference in someone buying it who I have never met.)
Why BigCommerce? I found that it has more customization options, easier access to the source code, better SEO (from what I read in reviews), cleaner URLs, no transaction fee, and I only need the $25/mo plan. The cart/inventory is based on products (which can have different options) rather than SKUs (each variation is its own SKU), and while that isn't very important on this particular project, I want to become more familiar with BigCommerce so it's easier to use in the future. I'm actually still on the free 15-day trial and have a little over a week left.
Shopify has an introductory $14/mo plan for the just-getting-started stores, with very limited functionality and a 2% transaction fee. Shopify is a good platform for simpler shops from what I can interpret. That's not me recommending against it, it's just not what I want. I also set up the sitemap and some basic SEO stuff; we'll see what kind of traffic this bad boy gets. I'm stoked to do A/B split testing! I love design and marketing psychology and I finally get to apply both outside the classroom.
(If you're in the US and want to own one of the posters, you can use the promo code FASTLANE to get another $5 off each poster. Valid for the first 15 people who type it in! I hope that I'm not coming off as spammy, I just want to add a little value to the community that has been adding value to my life over that last year and a half.)
Branding is really important to this project. I have some ideas on how to make the experience of opening the posters a bit more exciting/special to the recipient. The posters are going to be shipped in badass brown kraft paper tubes with plastic end caps (using Yazoo Mills at the suggestion of Kevin Tong from tragicsunshine.com). I ordered black paper to roll with the posters before going inside the tube, mainly to keep the ink from rubbing on the back of the poster. To keep the rolled-up poster/black paper secured so it doesn't unravel and get stuck inside the tube, I would like to have stickers made with a Man Points logo (tbd) on them. If the stickers are 2" DIA, I could also use them on the end caps of the tube and add a little brand visibility from the second the recipient sees the tube.
I've been brainstorming about what else could be included in the tube with the poster: coupon code for future orders, stickers for Harley Davidson, a free trial membership to Bacon Of The Month club... at MINIMUM some sort of well-designed "thank you" card that fits with the brand. I thought about hosting a Facebook contest, too: What's the most manly thing you (or someone close to you) has done? Might be a randomly-picked winner or most-manly-thing-done as the winner -- the winner will get a badass Gerber survival knife like Bear Grylls Folding (Sheath) Knife
Just FYI: The list of actions to take to earn "Man Points" ended up at over 200 actions, with some help from my brother and my friend Erin, so if you're wondering why something didn't make it on this version of the poster, don't worry. I will be working on getting that layout together. It's going to take some time to find a good balance between text space used and legibility.
Any and all feedback on my project is welcome. Thank you in advance for any advice or suggestions you have. If nothing else, I hope that a few of you get a smile out of the poster design and idea behind it, and read something that encourages you or reminds you of someone in your life.
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