T-Shirts for my Mastodon instance metalhead.club

Two things are usually in short supply when you run a Mastodon instance: Funding and public attention. But both are important so that the instance can continue to operate and - if desired - achieve growth or reach.

My goal with metalhead.club is to offer a professionally hosted platform for everyone who feels at home in the metal music genre. In order for such a theme-based instance to be viable and its users to benefit from it to the greatest extent, it must achieve a certain level of popularity. Nevertheless, the usual advertising media are only of limited use - either because they do not implement my idea of data protection or because they are currently not readily financially viable. Precious donations have to be used sparingly.

In addition, the target group is large but relatively specific: while you can probably sell an LED light bulb to anyone, it’s not quite so easy to sell a social network for metal fans. The right people have to be addressed in their “language”.

… and what could be better than selling something that has a high status in the scene and is highly visible? T-shirts! As band shirts, they can be seen everywhere at home, at festivals or concerts and show which bands the wearer likes to listen to. It should work in a similar way with the Instanz T-shirts: As someone wearing a t-shirt of their Instanz, you can function as a kind of mobile advertising medium and at the same time promote what you yourself find worth supporting - the metalhead.club Mastodon Instanz!

After some metalhead.club members had been enthusiastically demanding them for a long time, I announced the first T-shirt order campaign in summer 2023 and ordered 100 metalhead.club T-shirts and sold them to the members. Now - in spring 2024 - it was time for the second campaign with a different T-shirt model.

In the following, I will describe how I approached the “metalhead.club T-shirts” project and give a few tips. Perhaps it will help some people who are also thinking about offering merchandise for their Mastodon instance.

Do it yourself or lean back?

There are numerous stores on the internet and in cities that offer a wide variety of merchandise and often even ship directly to the buyer. Examples include Spreadshirt, Red Bubble and Printful. In some cases, the suppliers can even be commissioned automatically via online store plugins, so that the seller of the items no longer has to do much: The customer orders in an online store, the supplier carries out the production, processes the payment and sends the goods to the customer. The store operator collects a few euros from the sale at the end.

However, I want to take a different approach with my T-shirts. As long as the quantities (approx. 100 items per campaign) allow it, I want to be involved in the ordering process myself: I take payment and do the shipping myself - even if it is sometimes tedious work. In this way, I can avoid unnecessary money flowing to third parties in the form of commissions and fees and I am also in a position to enable data protection-friendly purchasing: Only I know the customers and their address data. They can be deleted after use. I can also check the quality myself and choose the packaging, as well as add any extras I like, such as metalhead.club business cards.

Although I initially toyed with the idea of printing the T-shirts myself, I quickly abandoned the idea. Because in addition to the right equipment, you also need a lot of time and space - all things that I don’t have. I have my T-shirts purchased and printed by a supplier. I then sell the result myself.

The ingredients: T-shirts and (screen) printing

When it comes to merchandise or team clothing with printing, there is a big name in the industry: Stanley/Stella. The company has been producing high-quality clothing since 2012, which can then be further customized by third parties - a kind of “blank clothing”. A special feature is the organic cotton certification.

The brand’s T-shirts were highly recommended to me in conversation with some metalhead.club members, who confirmed their high quality. In the meantime, I can also give an absolute recommendation - the clothing has proven itself and the price is right. So the name was set.

The choice of model is a matter of taste. The first order campaign focused on the “Presenter” and “Evoker” models - for the second campaign, I limited myself to the “Crafter” model to avoid additional effort. I also limited the color to black in order to have only the dress sizes as the only variable. This makes processing easier and therefore less error-prone. It is advisable to order a few more pieces of all sizes. This may be to compensate for quality defects, to replace lost items or simply to achieve a better unit price with a larger quantity. I got rid of surplus T-shirts relatively quickly during the 2023 order campaign, as not everyone who was interested found out about the campaign or missed it for other reasons.

In terms of the printing process, it was clear to me pretty quickly that I wanted a screen print. In comparison, it is not necessarily the cheapest or fastest method, but it promises a very high durability, especially with frequent washing, as the color can penetrate deep into the fabric and hold there well. What would a metalhead.club T-shirt be that can’t withstand Mosphits and is no longer legible after a few washes?

I have my T-shirts printed by Promoyard - a regional company that impressed me from the very first order. They print with OekoTex-certified, skin-friendly inks.

The ordering process

Once I had decided on the T-shirt manufacturer and printer, I started to advertise the campaign. On the one hand, I wrote a post on my 650thz.de Services Blog summarizing the information about the T-shirts and ordering information - on the other hand, I also wrote posts about the campaign on Mastodon and posted an admin announcement for my instance metalhead.club. Every member will be informed about the T-shirt promotion via a separate message in the web and app.

After the first order campaign in summer 2023, it was clear that I would have to draw attention to the campaign more frequently in order to reach as many interested parties as possible. Although the order period was 6 weeks long, not everyone found out about the order campaign due to the vacation period and relatively concentrated information.

The second time in spring 2024, I sent out a post every morning at the beginning to reach members (at least in Germany) in the morning before work or on the way if they had time for Mastodon. Apparently I was still able to reach some interested parties this way. I reduced my tips towards the end of the six-week order period so as not to bore anyone, but posted more shortly before the end of the period to catch those who made a last-minute decision.

Technically, I handled the orders very simply: Anyone who was interested in a T-shirt wrote me an e-mail with the number of T-shirts, size and address. The customer was then sent an e-mail with a confirmation of receipt and the bank details as well as a Stripe.com link for payment. I manually reconciled and noted the payments on a daily basis. Once payment had been received, another payment confirmation was sent by email. I recorded all orders and the payment status in an unspectacular LibreOffice Calc spreadsheet.

After the first T-shirt campaign at the latest, I had a simple Django-based order management interface in mind for a while, but I didn’t have enough time to develop it. For orders in the order of 100 pieces, a simple spreadsheet application was also fine - albeit less practical.

Incidentally, I chose to pay in advance to minimize the risk on my side, for example through late or non-payment. Fortunately, the members on metalhead.club (and those who ordered from other instances) proved to be extremely conscientious and reliable. There were no problems with payment.

The dispatch

Once the orders had been collected and the order period had ended, I commissioned my supplier to produce the T-shirts. The T-shirts were delivered within about 2 weeks and I set about sending them out to the members one by one.

Shipping material

I put a lot of thought into the shipping material, because it should not only get the goods to their destination dry and safe, but also be as environmentally friendly and reusable as possible. With Biobiene.com I have found exactly the right supplier for this! The store offers various grass paper-based shipping materials and other environmentally friendly alternatives.

The following materials were used for the first metalhead.club T-shirt campaign:

• Paper garment covers
• Grass paper mailing bags
• Grass paper delivery note envelopes
• Printable address labels

With their DIN A3 dimensions, the garment covers are a little too large, but they are all the more convenient to fill with the T-shirts. The alternative - “polybags” made of paper are cheaper per item, but can only be bought in quantities of 250 or more. So I opted for the former.

The grass paper mailing bags can be used a second time after being torn open: A second, internal adhesive strip allows them to be used several times.

The delivery note envelopes are intended for invoices, which are required for customs in the case of international shipments (non-EU countries). A customs declaration must also be affixed to the shipping envelopes - with details of the contents, weight and value.

I initially printed out the recipient addresses on paper and stuck them on, but unsurprisingly this turned out to be very time-consuming. Later, I ordered printable stickers in A4 size, printed the addresses on them and cut them out. When entering several addresses online, Deutsche Post combines all the addresses into one PDF page (max. 10 addresses per page) and offers this for printing. Once printed, the addresses can then be cut out and stuck on directly.

For the second campaign, I also wanted to use environmentally friendly address labels and ordered Heisap paper labels HEI027.

Shipping rates with Deutsche Post and DHL

I have used Deutsche Post for shipping to recipients in Germany. The Warensendung 500 can also be used to send 3 T-shirts in one envelope without any problems.

I have sent shipments to other EU countries and worldwide via DHL. The “Päckchen EU / or International XS 2 kg” is suitable for this.

Shipments within Germany were usually delivered to the recipients within 3 working days. However, international shipments sometimes took several weeks. Patience was particularly required for shipments to Canada and Mexico. But items to Spain and Hungary also seemed to be lost at first, before they were found in post offices many days after the expected date of receipt. It is therefore worth being patient (and, if necessary, instructing the recipient to ask again and have the parcel searched for).

Sending the T-shirts

As soon as the T-shirts and the shipping material have arrived, you can get started. Last time, I stretched out the dispatch of the almost 100 T-shirts over approx. 3 weeks so as not to lose concentration. This is because mistakes in shipping can quickly become relatively expensive - especially when it comes to recipients abroad.

The 2023 T-shirt campaign was a complete success and the order phase for the spring 2024 campaign ended last week. I’m looking forward to seeing the many photos of metalhead.club members with their T-shirts! It’s nice to see the members in a kind of common uniform in the photos!