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5 Shops Saving Our Seas with Merch

The extent of the destruction caused by plastic in our oceans is catastrophic. Turtles mistake bags for jellyfish, fish eat particles instead of plankton, and seals get caught in nets. We need to turn around our bad plastic habits, and we need to do it now. These 5 hero shops have long ago recognized this and dedicated themselves to fighting plastic waste and supporting other regenerative projects. Their Spreadshops offer merchandise to save the seas and make a change by earning money to finance their vital work.

Their Spreadshops are full of ocean hues, and their designs help highlight the issues that are so important to protecting our planet. Get inspired to use your Spreadshop for your own cause!

Marine Mammals of Maine – marine wildlife conservation

Marine Mammals of Maine, or MMoME, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection, rescue, research, and care of marine mammals and sea turtles. They rescue marine wildlife along Maine’s approximately 2,500-mile-long coastline, where thousands of marine mammals and sea turtles become stranded each year. Not only does MMoME provide short-term relief, but – as a federal organization authorized to perform long-term rehabilitation – they provide long-term, sustainable support.

On Facebook and Instagram they use their reach to share their work and educate their followers. In doing so, MMoME aims to motivate responsible stewardship of the marine environment and promote marine conservation.

MMoME is financed almost exclusively by private donations. With its Spreadshop, the non-profit organization generates additional money, 100% of which goes toward their mission. In keeping with the sea, most of their designs feature shades of blue or show their iconic seal motif.

MMoME operates in one of the busiest areas for seal strandings. The blue “Fish Freezer Fundraiser” design, for example, shows a cute seal snacking on a fish. Fun fact: the design is also available on a sustainable coffee mug that avoids producing more plastic.

The “Seaglass Series Sea Turtle” design features small sea glass shards in the shape of a sea turtle. The blue and green glass stones are becoming increasingly rare and make the design stand out.

Biru Biru – an ocean store for marine conservation

Behind Biru Biru are Melissa and Yvonne, two women who have great love for the sea. They have set out to protect what they love by generating funds, offering bracelets, notebooks, necklaces, and much more in their online shop. All proceeds go directly to marine conservation projects supporting coral gardening (the planting of coral seedlings grown in a laboratory), education or NGOs that promote ocean knowledge, and beach clean-ups. On Instagram and Facebook, the two show their sustainable products and the reality in our oceans. They also support other organizations and people who work to protect our oceans.

In their Biru Biru Spreadshop, you can find merch for ocean lovers, travelers, and surfers. All their designs have clear ocean themes and marine-inspired coloring. The minimalistic white tote bag with blue waves and the signature “OCEAN IS CALLING” mantra is both stylish and helps to avoid plastic and paper bags.

With the snapback cap “We belong to the sea”, Yvonne and Melissa express their love for the sea, offer stylish yet practical sun protection, and give people the opportunity to do something for marine conservation. It’s not always easy to know how to get involved, but their Spreadshop gives you a chance to do good and get some nice merch in return.

Defend The Ocean – sustainable merch from Germany

Making the protection of our oceans and marine topical – that’s Defend The Ocean’s goal. Their work is all about motivating people everywhere to spread the word about the importance of environmental and animal protection in our oceans. It is up to all of us to make a clear statement against the use of plastic and against the pollution of our oceans.

The merch in the Defend The Ocean Spreadshop is perfect to achieve just that. All products are printed on products by Stanley/Stella and EarthPositive, meaning they are produced under the highest environmental and social standards. Many of the designs are dedicated to a marine animal. The “Defend the Whale” design, for example, focuses on the plight of the whale. Simply sketched in blue, it shows the different whale species and comes out particularly well on white shirts.

The seahorse also has its own design. The accompanying slogan “Small actions, big impact” encourages everyone to do their part.

Madagascar Volunteer – an experience in paradise

As the name suggests, Madagascar Volunteer offer volunteer programs in Madagascar. The aim is to protect the environment, promote research and conservation projects, and educate the local people. The paradise-like landscape there unfortunately doesn’t mean that the marine animals are in less need of protection: on the contrary, the turtles are especially vulnerable.

You can take a look at the projects on Instagram and YouTube or directly support the work at Madagascar Volunteer Spreadshop.

Their simple design “DO IT FOR A CAUSE NOT FOR APPLAUSE” says it all: it’s about the cause, the environment, the animals, and oceans – and not about drawing attention to yourself. The red mug expresses this idea particularly strongly.

The white shirt with the “Volunteer in Paradise” lettering is perfect for all volunteers, and it also offers a great way to make others aware of their opportunity to help in Paradise.

Ocean Conservation Namibia – seals and marine wildlife

The original goal of Naude and Katja Dreyer, founder of Ocean Conservation Namibia, was to help entangled seals and other marine animals along the Namibian coast. From there, Ocean Conservation Namibia – or OCN – has grown to include outreach and education around plastic pollution in the oceans. Their purpose is to motivate people around the world to reflect on their own behavior for a better and more sustainable future. OCN is self-sufficient and receives no government support. All their actions and initiatives are financed by private donations from all over the world, and their merchandise. On Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook you’ll find many insights into their work.

The OCN-Spreadshop is super important in further helping marine animals – because OCN needs money for their rescue and education actions. In the Shop, supporters can find simple merch with the OCN logo, like the snapback cap.

The “Smiling Seal” design shows a cute seal, referencing OCN’s core efforts. This adorable design is available for even the smallest conservationists among us on baby bodysuits.

Need money for your project? Want to make people aware of an issue and help our oceans? Then a free Spreadshop is just the thing for you. Start with your logo or create a few individual designs in ocean colors – and you’re ready to go.

Open Your Spreadshop

Monitor Social Media Trends to Grow Your Reach

The ultimate goal with social media is connection and the ability to reach as many people as possible. Monitoring social media trends can help determine the path you should follow with your content so you can achieve growth.

At Spreadshop, we give people the tools to make and sell their own merch for FREE. But what they do after that is up to them. Same goes for a typical content creator. Merch is a way to get their name out there and relate to followers, but it needs to be effective and show results.

Monitoring social media trends and going to your audience directly is going to help grow your reach. Check out our tips below!

Find the Right Tools

By understanding what’s popular on social media, you can create content that resonates with your audience and helps you grow your reach. And when you have a large reach, you can sell more merch! So, how do you go about monitoring social media trends? Here are a few different ways:

– Use social media listening tools: These tools will help you track conversations and hashtags so you can see what people are talking about in real-time

– Set up Google Alerts: You can use Google Alerts to get notified whenever someone mentions a specific keyword or phrase. This is a great way to monitor competitor activity or keep tabs on industry news.

– Check out social media trend reports: There are a number of companies that publish regular reports on social media trends. These can be helpful for getting an overview of what’s popular and understanding long-term trends.

Google Alerts is a good way to monitor competitor activity or keep tabs on industry news. Checking out social media trend reports can also be helpful for getting an overview of what’s popular and understanding long-term trends. Monitoring social media trends is a great way to stay ahead of the curve and ensure that your content is always relevant. You’ve got to stay on top of these trends.

What’s in Fashion?

If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need to be engagement-savvy. Check out what’s trending on social media and look for ways to get involved. There’s fashion subsets of TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube, where people are heavily engaged. You can also use this information to grow your reach by creating content that appeals to your target audience.

When it comes to fashion, trends are always changing. By keeping an eye on social media, you can see what’s popular and adapt your merch accordingly. This way, you’ll always have the latest and greatest products that your fans will love. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need to be engagement-savvy. Check out what’s trending on social media and look for ways to get involved. There’s fashion subsets of TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube, where people are heavily engaged. You can also use this information to grow your reach by creating content that appeals to your target audience. When it comes to fashion, trends are always changing. By keeping an eye on social media, you can see what’s popular and adapt your merch accordingly. This way, you’ll always have the latest and greatest products that your fans will love. At Spreadshop, we’re constantly adding to our product line with items we know our customers will love. Fanny packs and bucket hats are trendy, fun staples, especially for summer. Sell fashion items like this in your shop and appeal to a younger demographic yearning for nostalgia.”>Spreadshop, we’re constantly adding to our product line with items we know our customers will love. Fanny packs and bucket hats are trendy, fun staples, especially for summer. Sell fashion items like this in your shop and appeal to a younger demographic that’s yearning for nostalgia.

Tune into Trends on TikTok

Adding trending songs to your videos is a great way to get more engagement on TikTok, in general. TikTok will boost content that is relevant to what’s currently trendy among different audiences. You can find trending songs when you browse the Discover tab. Check out the top hashtags and see what songs are being used. You can click the song and add it to your favorites to save it for later.

Creator Sicily Rose showed off her new merch by lip syncing to a trending song in one of her TikToks. She’s known for singing and dancing, so this kind of video works with the rest of her feed and comes off as being more authentic. You can use these trendy songs, but you need to keep your personality in the content you make.

Creators of all different niches are competing for attention and a chance to get noticed on TikTok. When you promote your merch, it needs to tie into your brand. Even though you’re trying to sell somebody something, it shouldn’t feel like it

Know Where Your Audience Is

If you’re putting effort into your content and want it to get engagement, you need to be on the right channels. TikTok is a great platform for monitoring trends and engagement. It can also help open up personal and profitable doors for creators. Make sure you’re active on other relevant social channels, too, like Instagram and Twitter. The type of content you post on these channels matters.

Once you’re on the right channels, you need to start creating engaging content. Video is one of the best ways to do this, and TikTok videos and Instagram Reels are especially favored by the algorithm right now. So, get creative and make some fun videos that your target audience will enjoy watching. If you can get them laughing, they’re more likely to remember your brand and come back for more. And don’t forget to include a call-to-action at the end of each video so people know how to find your merch shop. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to growing your reach and engagement on social media. Happy trending!

Start engaging your audience with relevant content when you monitor social media trends. Launch your shop for FREE today!

Grow Your Small Business With Merch

If you’re looking to grow your small business, there’s no better tool than merch! At Spreadshop, we have thousands of shop owners that run their own small businesses and side hustles. And they all have unique merch to match their mission.

It’s easy to slap your logo on a t-shirt and start selling, but it’s not as effective as other design strategies. Why not create a likeness of yourself, or design a fun graphic to use as a symbol for your brand? Merch has the potential to connect you with new customers and partners. If it’s done right, there’s no telling how far you can take your business.

Check out what some of our shop/business owners are doing to promote their brand and make a profit in the process!

Make Your Brand Feel Like You

Your personality and overall presence are key factors in selling your brand AND merch. Having that personal connection with others is going to set you apart from competitors. It also shows you don’t take yourself too seriously.

Bake It Out Witch is a one-woman (or one-witch, we should say) show run by Payton Stantis. Payton is a boutique baker from Biringham, Alabama who concocts delicious and spooky creations. She claims her “witchcraft” is just combining the right ingredients, but her appropriately designed logo suggests otherwise. A pastel hair-colored witch winking and wielding a whisk is on brand and a cute, cartoon take on her likeness.

When you see that design, you instantly get a sense of who Payton is and what her business is about. This is a logo that would look just as great on t-shirts as it would on delivery boxes or bags. It translates in all areas of her business. The likeness also doesn’t need to necessarily be associated with her business – it can stand on its own.

Grab Attention With Key Symbols

Text alone sometimes isn’t enough to engage people and bring them into learning more about your business. Strong graphics or symbols can help to catch peoples eye and make it easier for them to form an association with you. It’s a more engaging and visual business card. Take something that is obvious or more of a play-on-words depending on what you want the vibe of your brand to be.

Kimberly runs Born in a Barn Boutique, a business that specializes in restoring old furniture and giving it new life. She’s all about the rustic, homestead look, so having a barn as part of her logo makes perfect sense. Symbols like that are great to help attract people with similar interests. A barn conjures up different images than a log cabin would. What’s a graphic that would work well with your brand? There’s got to be something that can easily connect you to your audience. These kind of symbols stand out on tote bags, water bottles, and more.

Sell Your Name Multiple Ways

You might have a classic logo that feels tried and true that works for you. But what about changing it up for your Spreadshop? Different fonts can attract different people and help diversify your brand. Your business doesn’t have to feel static – it can be ever-changing.

CFL Plants is a plant swap business run by Cayla, a passionate plant mom. She cares about the impact plants have on her community and wants to educate others on how they can be the best plant parents. Her merch is clean and aesthetically pleasing. She has different phrases she uses and logos that reflect her social handles and look of her business.

Cayla takes some awesome photos that showcase her merch and plant progress. The large leaves resemble one of the icons you can find in her logo. Having merch available is one thing, but you’ve got to promote it. Take advice from some of our favorite content creators and see how you can use their strategies for your business.

Think Outside the Box

Maybe logos and symbols are too ordinary for your business. We love to see the creative ways shop owners interpret their brand, like Emily and the Kind Mind. The Kind Mind Project is a podcast Emily launched to help women achieve personal growth through a better mindset. One of the podcast’s mottos – To put more honey in my head, one drop at a time – has made it’s way into Emily’s merch line for her business.

This type of merch is ideal for people who have been following your brand because they’ll know what these insider phrases mean. It also forms a deeper connection. For those that don’t know, it provokes conversation and creates and opportunity for you to talk about your business. Making this extra effort emphasizes your creativity, too. You’re able to look at your brand from a different point of view that feels fresh. Merch is a fun way to promote your small business and help take it to the next level.

We hope these shop owners inspired you to come up with your own merch ideas for your small business. Making and selling merch is easy when you use Spreadshop. You upload the designs and we take care of the rest. Plus, it’s FREE!

Start designing your own merch line today!

5 Ways to Engage Your Audience

Your audience isn’t going to automatically engage with everything you post, you’ve got to work for it. That means putting out content that encourages engagement and translates to comments, likes, and shares.

There’s a real power in owning your niche. We’ve seen shop owners succeed in these areas because they know who their audience is and how to engage with them. Merch is a powerful tool you can use to connect with your followers – it takes engagement to the next level. Here are 5 ways to start engaging with your audience today!

Be Interactive, Not Inactive

You could be posting consistently on socials and still not be getting engagement back from your followers. A big reason: your content isn’t interactive! You need to be providing value to your followers first and foremost, but if they’re not responding then it’s pointless. Interactive content doesn’t need to be overpowering, either. Simply asking a question at the end of a video or caption is a good start to gauge peoples’ thoughts. But there are so many ways to encourage people to interact with your content:

– Pose questions

– Collaborate with other businesses/creators

– Share user-generated content (people wearing your merch)

– Offer something of value (merch, content tips)

Asking questions gets people talking, but you can also use hashtags, run contests, or give shoutouts to get peoples’ attention; it makes them feel more involved. Sharing merch photos and updates is a great way to keep people engaged, but you’re more than just a shop owner. As a creator or business owner, you have insight that would be valuable to your followers and help them succeed in their lives. Interactive content builds a solid connection.

Don’t Leave Your Followers on Read

Now that you’ve determined how to make interactive content, you’ve got to keep the conversation going. Responding to comments can be a pain, but it shows you’re invested in your audience. It also allows you to build relationships with the people who follow you. Having a big following is a goal for many creators, but it’s important to have a dedicated group of people that support you and you can turn to for honest advice and feedback. Just responding to comments can leave a big impact.

At Spreadshop, we have brand ambassadors that talk about us in their content and showcase their own merch. Why not recruit your followers to do the same and promote your brand? Send the dedicated commenters merch and let them show it off to their followers. You’ll be surprised at how quickly your engagement will grow when you start showing your audience some love and making the extra effort!

Embrace Trends in Your Content

It’s essential to have a defined social presence and brand, and merch can help solidify that. But it can be fun and generate engagement from different people on socials when you incorporate trends into your content. Use a trending song in a TikTok video, see what the latest aesthetic or style that’s dominating the online fashion space. We have plenty of merch products for different seasons and styles that will spice up your content.

Just because you embrace a trend, that doesn’t mean you lose sight of who you are and your core values. It’s a fun way to pop up in hot topic hashtags and connect with different types of people, but staying true to your personality and brand is the most important thing. Merch helps establish your brand and gives you the freedom to embrace whatever trends and fads are dominating the market.

Your Followers Make the Decisions

Creating merch designs that will resonate with your customers AND generate sales can be difficult. So, why not go directly to the source? Your followers have a different perspective of your brand and content. They might know you better than you know yourself and catch on to the fact that you repeat certain “catch phrases” or mannerisms. Use thus to your advantage to help you create merch that will have a personal connection.

You’ll already be engaging with your audience, so why not bring merch into the conversation more? If your followers are involved in the process, it just motivates them to support you with merch. Making short-form videos or having call-to-action captions are essential social components. Instagram Stories are also an easy way to generate engagement:

– Ask an open-ended question

– Run a poll for followers to pick their favorite design

– Go live to talk about your merch

– Collaborate with other influencers to find new followers

It’s Promo Time!

Every month, Spreadshop has promos for our shop owners to blast out to their customers. Discounts and other offers like free shipping run nearly every week. This is a great way to engage your followers and motivate them to buy your merch. Every loves a good sale, but how you run your promos is key.

Set a strategy for yourself. Maybe you want to push new merch designs or seasonal products. Your followers will find it more digestible when you pull their focus instead of trying to promote your entire shop. Be personal with your messaging. Come up with catchy phrases or tag lines that tie into the theme of your shop. It should still feel like content you would normally put out on socials. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, we make graphics for every promo and post them on our community page.

After a promo has ended, measure your results to see if it was a success. Did your followers like and comment on your posts? How much did you make in merch sales since the promo started? This will help you determine what you need to tweak the next time there’s a promo.

Engaging your audience takes extra effort, but it’s worth it. Talking to your customers directly will generate trust and brand loyalty. And who knows, maybe it will turn them into potential collaborators down the line. Merch builds that connection instantly. Looking to design your own merch line. Launch your shop for FREE today!

Shop Spotlight: TiktokTare

TikTok creator Taryn only launched her Spreadshop a month ago, but is already getting amazing feedback and engagement from her followers. After all, they were the ones that convinced her to design merch in the first place!

Taryn, better known as Tiktoktare, specializes in making fun fashion content with sleek transitions. She gives fellow creators tips on how to make similar looking content and grow their channels. She has a story not unlike many content creators today: leaving an established career to pursue a lifelong passion. Learn more about Taryn’s journey to becoming a creator and how merch creates a connection with her audience.

What inspired you to become a full-time content creator?

I’ve always been an artsy soul. Come undergrad, I ended up talking myself out of the creative field to pursue a more stable career with the Department of Justice (DOJ), instead. I spent the past decade on that path up until the last year or so, which was pretty life changing for me. Without going into too much detail, I survived a shooting where I witnessed 2 people very dear to me get shot to death and saw my other friends get severely wounded. Since then, I’ve lost a lot of close friends, my job became unbearable, and PTSD is now something I battle everyday.

With that said, thankfully I had the support of my family and TikTok become even more of an outlet for me. Although I’d only been on TikTok since 2020, it was incredibly therapeutic to create, connect with, and inspire others through my journey. It reignited my childhood love for acting, film, and photography and was the exact creative space I had envisioned for myself growing up. I felt like I had given my best to my career in law enforcement and just couldn’t bear anymore after the trauma I endured. Ultimately, I decided to take a leap of faith in choosing myself, pursuing something that has always set my soul on fire, and become a full-time content creator.

If there was one piece of advice you could give to other creators, what would it be?

My biggest piece of advice to other creators is to remember WHY you started when you feel like giving up. Regardless of all the struggles we encounter as creators, whether it’s getting caught up in the numbers, feeling discouraged seeing others succeed, spending hours on a video for it not to perform, or receiving hate comments, I always come back to why I began in the first place.

I think the reason is the same for most of us: we love creating! We all found a safe space where we could be ourselves, have fun, and connect with others along the way. Had it not been for that, I would’ve given up a long time ago. Being a content creator can be exhausting, overwhelming, and downright discouraging. But if you’re willing to acknowledge and overcome those challenges and allow your love to outweigh all of that, then you’ll be successful no matter what.

What does fashion and dressing colorful and fun mean to you?

Growing up, I was the “quiet kid” – very introverted and shy – which made public speaking and articulating myself quite the challenge. However, I’ve always had a passion for fun fashion, colorful clothing, and anything saturated in sparkles simply because it makes my heart happy. You know how you always hear that fashion is another form of self-expression? Well, that’s exactly what it is for me, an outlet for my personality to shine through and connect with others in ways that my words rarely ever could. So much so that my colorful closet is now something I’m known for on social media.

How did you hear about Spreadshop?

Spreadshirt came highly recommended to me by the same friend who created my logo. It wasn’t until after that that I started seriously researching merchandise and came across Spreadshop, which was perfect since I’d already had a great experience with Spreadshirt. As much as I hoped to do merch myself so I could personalize the packaging, not having to worry about the inventory, printing, handling, and shipping was huge for me.

Spreadshop not only allowed me to use my custom design and create a customized shop for FREE, it removed the time, stress, and money that I would’ve encountered otherwise. Best of all, I’m able to provide a variety of high-quality products for my audience to choose from and still make money selling my designs.

What inspired your merch designs?

My merch design was inspired by “Queen T”, a nickname my audience created for me since I wear a tiara in some of my transition videos. I knew I wanted to incorporate the letter “T” and a tiara, so I created a rough draft of my idea and then passed it along to my fellow artist friend to refine and design my official logo. I jokingly suggested that it would be cool if she could incorporate my TikTok tiara used in my videos. Little did I know that she would later design an exact replica down to the sparkling gemstones. We almost stopped there, but I felt like it was still missing a splash of color. That’s exactly what we did with the background by incorporating some of my favorite magical colors.

How do you think merch helps content creators?

Merch is a great way for content creators to promote their brand and begin monetizing their platforms. But more importantly, it’s a great way for us to continue building a relationship with our followers. If my audience hadn’t repeatedly requested merch, I probably would’ve waited until I was a large creator to do so, but I’m so glad that I did because it has only made our TikTok family stronger. It’s been about a month since I launched my Spreadshop and they still tag me in their merch unboxings which is so exciting to see!

Do you have any merch designs in the works? Give us all the deets!

Without giving too much away on future designs, I do have a few ideas in the works that may or may not include elements of my well-known TikTok transitions. Possibly uneven some special limited-edition products for when we hit our 100K milestone. But for now, I’m really excited just to share my official logo and focus on incorporating more summer pieces and fun accessories. My audience has been incredible at providing feedback on what they’d like to see in the future, so my priority right now is them and releasing some new products each month with variations on my current logo.

Are you looking to make and sell your own merch like Taryn? There’s no better time than right now. Open a Spreadshop for FREE today!