YouTube is a great platform to earn money. You can be a part of affiliate programs, sponsorship programs, or collaborate with brands. These programs pay you to promote their products on the platform. But what about selling your own merch? Today, many YouTubers earn a lot of money by selling customized YouTube merch.
You must have come across customized T-shirts, hoodies, and products inspired by famous movies or TV series. These products sell well and get the fans rushing to place their order. If you are struggling to understand what kind of merchandise will sell on YouTube, here are some ideas that will help you make money.
Why YouTubers Should Sell Merch?
YouTubers shouldn’t rely only on ad revenue. The YouTube Shopping feature can help you diversify your income. Your earning potential will increase, and you can better serve your community. Additionally, when your viewers wear your merch, it will promote your merch and your channel.
Benefits for creators
- An additional income source within YouTube
- Control over price, distribution, and designs, unlike the YouTube ads
- The channel will be established as a brand, strengthening the viewership.
- Give fans a sense of token to show their love and appreciation.
- You can access the early monetization in the YouTube Partner Program
Benefits for fans
- Fans can show direct support to their creator by making a purchase
- They can showcase their favorite creator and represent within the community
- Unique items will be available, which increases the rarity of products
YouTuber Merch Ideas for Your Channel
Here are some merch ideas for YouTubers to help them cater to their community and grow their earnings.
In-House Products
You can sell your own products, which you often talk about in the videos. For example, the YouTuber Emma Chamberlain often talks about coffee, so the product is associated with her personality, and viewers like to taste what their favorite YouTuber is having. It’s a great way to start your own business and use your fame currency.
Niche-related products
You can sell products that are widely used in your niche. For example, the above channel talks about tech and hardware. In the YouTube shop, he has listed essentials that can be bought on Amazon as well, but the creator is famous and reliable enough to sell the product by adding his name to the merchandise. Since the products are niche-based, apart from viewers, the general public who doesn’t watch his videos might also buy them.
Apparles
Sell the apples that you use in your videos or your studio. The channel “The Studio” is a sister channel of MKBHD, where the whole team wears the apparel that they sell. They also sell merchandise featured in the video. For example, the pillows, dog straps, watch bands, and hoodies. Viewers comments asking where they purchased the cloth. A great way to fulfill viewer demand and earn from it.
Mobile cases
Every hand has a mobile in it, and to protect it, a case. The cases turned out to be a way to showcase the user’s personality. You can add phone cases to your YouTube merch. The channel theme can be implemented on the case and viewer who resonate with it like to have it behind their phone.
Stickers
A small but best merch from YouTubers. The stickers are used by the young generation, and YouTube has a billion young people. Stickers are used by teenagers on laptops, bags, study tables, phones, etc. If you think it has gone out of fashion, big brands still use them for soft promotion. For example, Apple stickers are sent with every product.
Wall Posters
You can showcase your creativity with wall posters and keep prices high to earn a large margin. The wall posters are decorative, and people can spend on them. A perfect way to showcase your channel brand identity. You can place the wall posters in your video to increase the product’s appeal.
Soft Toys
If you run a YouTube kids channel, you can showcase soft toys in your videos to attract kids. Or you can add your collection to your studio to increase the chances of sales.
Desk Mats
Many professionals and students like to upgrade their desks. You can add a desk mat to the YouTube Shop. Many people will buy it. A desk is used by almost everyone, so statistically, the chances of selling a desk mat are high.
Sell handcrafted merch
Many YouTube creators craft handmade items at home with their creativity and sell them to their fans. For example, top YouTuber Markiplier has his website that sells tees, hoodies, socks, caps, etc. He started from scratch and now has 29.2 million YouTube subscribers, with half of his earnings donated to charities.
Tips for creating YouTube Merch
For the best YouTuber merch ideas, the first and foremost thing is to know your audience. Once identified, rest follows easily. Let’s see some tips:
Audience and strategy
- Add merch that resembles your channel and is easily recognizable by people
- Use inner jokes, catchphrases, and context on your merch for a fun backstory
- Start by adding a few things. Once it gets caught up, you can add more merch to the list
Design of products
- Keep the merch design minimalist and straightforward
- Use fonts, colour, and logos that represent your channel theme
- The design should adapt to most formats, such as mugs, cloths, stickers, products, etc
Production of merch
- Invest in quality software and use the best format to produce high-quality designs
- Do research, analysis, and other channels, surf Pinterest, and the internet before designing
- Always order samples before committing to bulk production
Pricing Strategy for YouTube Merch
The YouTube merch pricing should cover the cost of the product, profit margin, platform fee, shipping charges, etc. Let’s review some key points to help decode YouTubers merch ideas on pricing.
- The profit should be on each sale (per unit profit)
- Calculate expenses, product value, shipping, platform fee, printing, return logistics, and miscellaneous
- The USP of the product should justify the merch value
- Determine price based on your audience’s purchasing power
- Use sale pricing such as $9 or $99
- Give temporary discounts, free coupons, and promote
- Test the products yourself and set up the price
- Research your niche competitors
Along with YouTuber merch ideas, you should also consider the pricing strategy. Setting unrealistic pricing to increase your earnings will damage your channel.
Conclusion
Selling YouTube merch can impact your YouTube earnings. The channel identity will be established. Viewers will wear or display your products, serving as soft marketing to promote your channel. In the blog, we saw a list of merch ideas, real-life examples from YouTubers’ channels, and tips for using the YouTube shopping feature. At last, we also emphasized the product’s pricing. You need to take a strategic approach when determining your audience’s pricing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What do most YouTubers use for merch?
Most YouTubers sell merch such as t-shirts, hoodies, apparel, phone cases, stickers, mugs, etc. These are popular among viewers.
Q2. Which YouTuber sells the best merch?
MrBeast, Emma Chamberlain, and Mark Rober are top contenders when it comes to selling YouTube merchs.
Q3. What are the most popular merch items?
The popular ones are t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, Tumblr, tote bags, phone cases, stickers, magnets, etc, are popular YouTube creator merchandise ideas for the YouTube Shop.
