how to promote fractal merchandise ....

[cKleinhuis]

dear forums members, i need some help and advice

the calendar project isnt finished yet, but it showed many many things,

- first of all it showed how many work it is to create a product that is available via bookstore, amazon, ebay and stuff.
some things occured can be handled by me, e.g. writing a small database to keep track of orderings, and sendings, none of the publicly available selling system was able to handle different
ordering locations

- organization of a calendar product has to be due in mid of previous year

- distributing - it showed that a world wide distribution of a product from one source in germany leads to exorbitant shipping costs, and takes a loong time to delive over-seas
   the least i need is a distributor that can take a package of 50 items, and i will then contact and transfer money to the person when an order is placed, alternatively it could
   be sold by the person directly, but this is not my intention, i think i would  like to keep control over everything, but if someone wants to place a bigger ordering ( >10 ) to distribute
   it it is ok to make a better price so that the person can earn money as well with it... some solution needs to be found for this...

- HOW TO Advertise ? trhis year showed, that the real buyers are all somehow connected to the forums, so, this was a "freak buyout" barely some calendars where sold, but the question is: "how to sell those stuff to 'non-fractalists'?"
    * dudes, anyone holding an  exhibition next year, please contact me at least 3 weeks before, so that i can send some exemplars
    * my personal idea to increase popularity of fractals is to make a web-tv show at the beginning on a monthly base, which will then later on be used to announce the calendar, usually the people when they "saw" the calendar they wanted to have it ...
    * google adwords has been tried out, but didnt lead to any significant effects .....
    * people that bought calendars, hang them out publicly

- what products could be sold as well through a shop system that i am willing to build up ?
            - one idea is to create a crystal-glass-ball-with-3d-mandelbulb-printed-inside
            - usual stuff, e.g. sell coffe-cups mousepads, or other fractal merchandise ...

A NOTE ABOUT PAYMENT TO CONTRIBUTORS

this year was a complete test, to check out how this works, and how much revenue is generated, the answer is: NONE REVENUE was generated ( calculating in the real amount of money on my bank account, and the spend time to organize and ship the stuff ) my personal calculation would allow a small payment ( e.g. 250€ for each entry ) that could be generated if 1.000 exemplars are sold for the full price, roughly 10% of earnings could be used to give out
to contributors....
   
ABOUT MY ROLE IN THIS WHOLE STUFF:

i wont create art that is for sure, my plan is to live by selling fractal merchandise in near future, selling 2.500 - 5.000 calendars a year would bring me into the position to make a dream come true, to create a living based on fractals
i want to be fair to all contributors, but i need to keep track of my own needs, the support of the forum is incredible

my future plan is to create the "fractal bible" containing the whole development and programming stuff that is needed to enter fractal world, especially detailed description of last decades fractal developments ( e.g. flame fractals, triplex fractals....)

so, the question is:

HOW WOULD YOU POPULARIZE 3d FRACTAL MERCHANDISE? 

[cbuchner1]

Check out what Scott Draves does, he lives from selling the Full HD version of crowdsourced generative art (fractal flames).

[Sockratease]

so, the question is:

HOW WOULD YOU POPULARIZE 3d FRACTAL MERCHANDISE? 

With 3D Stuff!

Look at how much the 3D obj files have generated interest ever since the first Mandelbulb fell on a Cow's Head!



Then there 3D stuffs you can hold in your hand like genuine Mandelbulbs made from 3D Printers - or even Rubber Mandelbulbs that would bounce around chaotically due to all the bumpy bits.

Mandelbox Bookends would work.

Once you leave the 2D realm, The Possibilities are Infinite!  (why does that phrase sound familiar?)

And I think I may be interested in that US Distributor idea - it may be the only way I can afford a Calendar!

How many other US Residents have an interest but are put off by the shipping costs?  Post Here and let us know!

[bib]

Check out what Scott Draves does, he lives from selling the Full HD version of crowdsourced generative art (fractal flames).

Reading his bio it seems that selling fractal artwork is not sufficient to make a living
http://scottdraves.com/about.html

Draves is now an engineer in the mapping division at Google Inc.

[Syntopia]

Some ideas:

What about curating a DVD/BluRay disc with the best animations, all rendered in HD? (And compile a speciel 3D BluRay version - people need something to demonstrate on their expensive TV's :-) Pay your own salary from the sales, and share any profit beyond that with the artists.

I'd also consider making a high-quality large-format coffee table book (think Phaidon - perhaps even ask them) instead of a calender. Perhaps with small notes of each contributing artist.

If you need to reach 'non-fractalists', you'll probably need to partner with some physical stores. I don't think advertising yourself is much good (my own experiences with adwords are not good).

You could also consider setting up a online gallery, where fractal artists could sell their images, and you'd do the logistics (printing, framing, and transportation). There are of course several of these already, but perhaps a niché market like fractals would make sense.

As for accessories, some 3D models of Mandelbulb in a high-quality material might work. Look how far this guy with the Gomboc has come (http://www.gomboc-shop.com/) - and that is a fairly uninteresting object. But he is very good at telling the story! It might be possible to sell through some kind of scientific store (for instance science museum stores) - like this nice Calabi-Yau Manifold: http://www.scientificsonline.com/calabi-yau-manifold-crystal.html

[mkbrouse]

I'll have to dig, think about it, and make a notepad document of ideas for you. I looked at the calendar - it's very nice. 

Am I correct on thinking that you are having the calendars printed either locally, or they are printed and shipped to your home? Then you're listing them at eBay and other areas - pack them up yourself and ship them out yourself?  Is that how you are working things right now?

Wonder if you can find a company like "Kunaki" (they may only do discs) or perhaps Zazzle, Cafe Press, etc - a company who would print, and ship, then give you a cut of the profits? Everything would be done digitally - the physical end would be theirs (so they take payment for that obviously) - but you would still make a profit while reaching a bigger audience.

Depending on what you want to do, you could sell fractals digitally. You can sell them for stock images to people like me who build ebook covers, templates, blog headers, etc.
Other ways of getting fractals out there is by creating a website for them, and on your website you can sell them for prints/posters, most likely mugs, calendars, tshirts, shoes, heck. lol! It could get really interesting. You would just send them to your "zazzle" link for instance - or whatever company would be printing on demand and shipping.

Let me know if you need more info and I'll gather some resources for you.

Thanks!
Michelle
PS - I'd be interested in trying to make a fractal good enough to be in a calendar! :-)

[cKleinhuis]

everything is done by hand, because zazzle or similar companies suffer from to less revenue, when done by hand it is much more reliable!