I was going to wait until everything was ready before I said anything... but once I put a picture of my little buttons up on Friday, I've been getting emails and comments from people wanting them.
Well, soon enough you will be able to get them.
The idea for buttons came up months ago during the T-shirt voting for Blogiversary III. There were people who were passionate about one design or another, and I felt bad that not everybody was going to get their first choice. I then had an idea that no matter which design won, I'd make little pin-back buttons of ALL the designs and include them with the winning shirt design (which ended up being "Zombies Ate My Brain").
Simple, right?
Not so much. I thought the stupid little things would cost me a nickel or something (since I would be ordering hundreds of them in bulk)... turns out they would cost anywhere from fifty cents to a dollar each! And since I certainly couldn't afford that kind of money, I abandoned the idea. But then my friend Meagan came to the rescue. After explaining my problem, she devised a way to make the buttons for about 25 cents each... far closer to my budget.
So I designed the T-shirt buttons.
But then I found I couldn't stop drawing buttons.
After a week of goofing off, I had over 200 designs, and I wanted to make ALL of them into buttons...
So then I came up with the idea to sell little 1-inch buttons on my website.
But, just like the T-shirts, I wanted them to be cheap so people could afford them. This ruled out CafePress and many of the online shops I looked at, because they would end up selling for $1.25... EACH!! (which meant that even with my profit set to zero, they would end up at almost $2.00 once shipping was added!). This may be fine when you get to design your own... but for a pre-made button?!? Rip-off. There was no way I would pay that, and I didn't expect anybody else to have to do it either.
And then there was the problem of filling the orders. The T-shirt fiasco where people had to wait TWO MONTHS for their order is just not acceptable. My busy life can't get in the way of people getting their buttons in a timely manner. So this meant I not only had to find a way of having cheap buttons made... but I also had to find somebody who would ship them as well.
And then I became worried that my designs wouldn't look good when reduced to 1-inch.
So, after a long brainstorming session with Meagan, we came up with a plan. First I sent in a handful of designs to CafePress to see what the buttons would look like. If they looked good, then everything else was in place... We had a place to manufacture them. We had a place to handle the orders. We had a pricing structure that was fair. We even had a cool little button-card worked up to protect the buttons in the mail! Everything was ready to go... IF the print test turned out okay.
Well it did, so now we are getting things ready to go. I am guessing that the store will be online in early July (its hard to tell, because I've got work piled so high it's going to take me a few weeks to get through it).
Once we added up the cost of the buttons, the button card, the fulfillment labor, and all the other expenses, we were pleased to discover that we could price a card of seven buttons for $5.00 (plus whatever the exact shipping charges are) and still make a profit of twenty-two cents per card! Woohoo! So that means even with shipping you should be able to get the buttons for less than a buck each domestically, and only a little over that internationally. Sweet!
Even better, I'm trying to come up with a way to sell bulk-buttons to my fellow bloggers for as cheap as possible. It's a lot of fun having blog-related things to sell or give away, and I think it would be great if everybody had a way to promote their site that isn't super-expensive. Wouldn't it be cool to go to a blogger gathering where everybody could trade buttons? It would be a great way to keep track of the people you've met.
Anyway, to everybody who ordered T-shirts from the Blogiversary III Celebration, you'll be getting a set of all four T-shirt buttons for free (just as I wanted to do in the first place) along with a half-off coupon for your first button-set purchase. Hopefully it will at least partially make up for the long wait you had to endure while the shirts were printed and shipped. Since I am running out of ways to say "sorry" I figure a little gift can't hurt.
So watch this space for further developments, and let me know if you might be interested in getting buttons for promoting your blog (if enough people are interested, we're hoping to get even better pricing).
Alrighty then... back to work.
Oh, and for everybody who's curious, the buttons shown above are as follows... Bad Monkey Head, Green Eye, Pepper & Salt, No Farting, Orange Slice, Red Heart, George, Penis Salad, Crown, Mac Whore, Purple Swirly Thing, Dave is 20% Gay, Artificial Duck Red, Demon Monkey, Earth: Americas, Clown, Dave Enlightenment, Cosmic Banana, Butter on Butter Action, and I am the Decider.
I suspected that you were not going to keep these buttons for you. C'est une super idée. J'adore tes badges. I love them. I want them. You have my support.
If I want to wear some for going to work, there are 2 or 3 that I will not be able to wear. I let you guess which... ;-)
In fact, me, I have no objections to wear them. But, my colleagues of work are not ready to see them... (They have not a sense of humour. It's a drama !)
Posted by Laurence on June 18, 2006 | Reply
I love the buttons! I'll order some when they come out. :)
Posted by Kentucky Girl on June 18, 2006 | Reply
I'm going to use my half off button coupon. That is so super sweet. Though hopefully all of the coupons aren't redeemed at the same time, though if you have someone else who will ship them that's another story.
Oh by the way. Not that I'm a nit picker about spelling, but one your shop page currently is spelt wrong. Just though I'd let you know.
You keep forgetting that you shouldn't feel bad about taking a long time to get buttons done or shirts printed, because you rock for doing it in the first place! I'd wait six months for a kick-ass blogography shirt. Not that I've ordered one. Yet.
Posted by James on June 18, 2006 | Reply
Those buttons rock Dave!! Great idea having them all over, like blogger trading cards. I know an awesome young blogger, writing in the U.K., writing about his feelings as he is about to come out to his parents for being gay. He made stickers up of his blog logo and mails them out to whoever is interested and have the people stick them or hold them near kewl things in their home area and email the pics to him. He then posts those pics on a page of his blogsite, it's very kewl. I just sent him pics of his sticker at the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I am going to have to break you of this unGodly phobia about making money, Dave. Honestly. Profit is ugly when it comes in spite of what people want - think about it. But a person deserves to be rewarded for their work. If you stole it all and made a profit - that would just be wrong. But if you created it, and people wanted it, and pay for it, any extra income above and beyond your costs is totally honorable.
Well, I'm still looking forward to your next trip in. Can't wait to see you, even if you are a commie! :-)
mmmm...buttons...
i have a couple ziploc gallon bags full of various buttons (mostly bands). i should like to add blogography buttons.
very cool, indeed!
Posted by nick sizzle on June 18, 2006 | Reply
Way cool. Trading buttons!
The problem is the less creative of us need help designing said buttons.
I'm needing that Mac Whore button.
I'm sure I'll find some others to fill up the card too. (Enlightenment and penis salad for sure.)
Posted by Gary LaPointe on June 19, 2006 | Reply
I don't even have any buttons, I've never had a button, I never thought I'd WANT a button, but I think I need one of your buttons.
I think the eyeball one.
Or maybe the world one.
Or maybe the dave head one.
Can you make one that has they eyeball superimposed on the world, with a mini-dave reflection in the cornea, so it looks like someone's wearing globe-themed contact lenses and Dave is taking their picture?
Oh wait, I didn't check to see if you were taking requests. Maybe requests bother you. Maybe they offend or piss you off. OMG, maybe they crawl under your skin like Prez Bush paying for the War on Terror with Paypal, made up of all the stolen money they've taken from unsuspecting bloggers!!!!!
If it bothers you, fine then. I'll make my own darn 1-inch buttons that say "Dave won't do what I say, waaaaaahhhhh."
If it doesn't bother you, then please make this button. If it's not too much trouble, you can put zombie-satisfied Liz behind the mini-Dave taking the picture nibbling in mini-Dave's ear, and then a microscopic caption of her saying "Man, those contacts get my motor runnin' if you know what I mean, Dave... will you show me the world too?"
Posted by Wayne Hall on June 30, 2006 | Reply
I love your button idea but I want to buy a machine to make little ones at home. Can you tell me how and where to get the equiptment?
Thank you
Posted by Zan on July 06, 2006 | Reply
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