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Category Archive › Commerce
Previously in Undependent…
We profiled Tiki Bar TV’s Lala Pinup Calendar and praised it for:
Its direct function as a wall calendar
Its value as a shibboleth for Tiki Bar TV fans…
Its deepening of the Tiki Bar TV brand thanks in part to its perfectly executed Vargas-style retro aesthetic
So now we’re introducing to Undependent readers Tiki Bar TV’s […]
Penny Arcade today pulled the curtain off of their new Print-on-Demand Comics. Now almost every comic they’ve ever made is available as a super high quality 11×17 (or 11×11) poster.
Ordering couldn’t be simpler. The familiar navigator located beneath each comic strip simply has a new button that reads “Buy a Print.” Click it and you’re done. No Ajax, no Logins, the item is automatically added to the Penny Arcade shopping cart. You can return to the navigator to add more strips, shop for other PA merch in their store, or just checkout.
A simple, subtle, nearly frictionless purchase process. You can read more about it in Gabe’s announcement here.
So today Despair soft-launched their new line of Gift Cards.
These cards parody the seemingly endless number of precious-metal credit cards. Despair’s Card comes in Rust, Pyrite (shown) and Tin. But this isn’t everything. The cards are working physical gift certificates. Each is serialized, like any gift card, each can be redeemed online at their store. They’re printed on metallic card stocks, feature embossed alphanumeric gift codes as well as a scratch off panel on the back. (What’s under the scratch off? I’ll never tell.)
To create and to connect directly with their fans, Undies have tremendous tools and techniques at their disposal. More cool stuff shows up regularly as the web continues to evolve. We will try to profile these developments over time here at undependent.com.
Some of the best tricks are really simple. Here’s one small example:
Ask a Ninja smartly boosts online sales by advertising their own store at the end of their videos. Sometimes, they even share coupon codes in these ads as well. I’m pretty sure that they use CastFire for these ads. The best trick is that when they update their ad, it plays at the end of every video in their entire archive. That’s great because as more new fans continue to discover the Ninja, they all get to learn about the great stuff available in the Ninja Mart.
Thus, viewership isn’t the only stat that climbs when a new episode is released. Sales rise, too.
We’ve talked about conventions here. In case you missed it, I recommend episode 4 of Web Comics Weekly.
These four folks offer tons of good advice and insight related to their experiences in comics conventions. Give it a listen.
And as always, support these Undies by going to their sites, browsing their stores, and buying lots of stuff.
