So I'm starting an online store, Pt. 1

It's taking quite a bit longer than I'd hoped. Trying to find a brand name, and then getting all the pieces in place to utilize my new brand has been crazy. I'm trying to use as many free utilities as possible to get it up and going.

Step 1: Free myself from eBay - check!

If you've read this blog much, you know that eBay and I go way back to a time when it was actually a useful commerce site. It's still good for finding hard-to-find items, but the prices keep creeping up. I've mentioned my issues with eBay here and here, so I'm going to paraphrase now. Basically, they charge 3 fees for the same item, the selling window is too small, and charging for an unsuccessful listing is not cool. So after some experimentation and research, I'm going with Bonanza for my storefront. Reasonable fees, easy interfaces, and long term selling windows hooked me in fast. Granted, they don't do auctions, but they do allow best offers and have a great freebie feature.

Step 2: Create a brand - check!

I knew the types of items I wanted to sell, but trying to find a name to fit them that wasn't already taken was extremely difficult. After countless tries with Google research (read: searching for names I came up with on Google), I realized I was going to have to work this one out a different way. My long time blogging comrade Trevor Danger, had a great name for his blog that encompassed my interests (and inventory). "Pop Culture Panopticon" was it's moniker, and it's now Pop Culture Panopticon 3.0. I wanted to use the "pop culture" part, because I keep going to San Diego Comic-Con, which "celebrates the popular arts" and a lot of my inventory comes from that event. So, now I needed one word to describe my items. I tried several fancy, difficult-to-spell words, and settled on one people have heard of, but is still not too easy to spell - "memorabilia". So, my brand name is Pop Culture Memorabilia.

Now what?
Step 3: Create a logo and image for the brand 
Step 4: Establish a social marketing structure
Step 5: Cross-pollinate
Step 6: Build the store

Read about these steps and more in my next post. Sorry, but this is the first time I've tried to launch a large-scale internet venture (beyond this blog), and there's only so many hours in a day.

As a bonus, here's a picture of the Pop Culture Memorabilia spokesperson: