what's up guys today i'm gonna draw some
inspiration from my amazon merch
facebook group
and i'm gonna answer probably the most
common question that pops up there
also this question tends to pop up in
comments on youtube
and anywhere else you can imagine is
this niche
safe in this video i'm gonna show you
how to answer that question so let's get
straight to it
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so a couple weeks ago in my top five
niches of the week video i recommended
the june 23rd
weird holiday called let it go day
and then when i was looking for a
picture i realized let it go
are lyrics to a popular song from the
disney movie frozen
so why don't we use that as an example
to see if this niche is okay i think
this is a good one
and i honestly don't know the answer
we're gonna do it in real time
the first thing i'm gonna do is i'm
gonna go to tmsearch.uspto.gov i'll put
all of the
steps in the description so you can
follow along i'm going to click basic
word mark search
and then i'm going to type let it go
enter
all right now here's a little hack
because there are quite a few records
i like to hit control f i don't know if
this works
on mac i know it works on windows i'm
just going to type let it go
now it'll highlight in yellow whenever
there's a match but
here's the thing it needs to be an exact
match so if it says like let it go llc
well we don't need to worry about that
let it go let it flow we don't need to
worry about that up here are some exact
matches but here's the thing
this reg number column the second column
is empty which means these are not
registered trademarks which means we
don't even have to worry about it
if they don't have a number under the
reg column we do not need
to worry all right let's keep scrolling
is there anything
at all that we need to worry about nope
it does not look like it so does that
mean we're in the clear
i recommend taking one more precaution
so we'll go to the search merge tool
and here i will type let it go and then
i'll click
search t-shirts and here on amazon we
have
468 results by the way we use the search
merge tool to again
filter out non-amazon merch listings so
all that we should see here on the
results
are amazon merch listings which is a
good indicator if something is safe
or not so 468 results is a
good indicator and then also i'm going
to use the control f again
and i am going to type let it go because
i
also like to see
an exact phrase match of the words
so i don't just want to see shirts
indexed on
let it go because that's the algorithm
maybe understanding it
but we know that on merch by amazon
there are land mines
and we need to avoid them so this is
interesting because look first row no
hits second row
no hits third row one hit but look oh
it's actually behind me
hopefully i'm not blocking you see this
right here we finally got a hit on
let it go the phrase match meaning those
words in that exact order
and what do you know it's a disney brand
shirt so i didn't even plan this ahead
of time this might have been like the
greatest example possible
and you see brand disney and of course
it's referring to that movie
so let's keep scrolling uh here we go so
now we have
a couple other non-disney shirts let's
see if we hover over the shirt
when is it posted so date first
available march 10 2019
february 27 2019 january 7 2019
so the fact that they were posted in
2019 doesn't inspire confidence in me
either
i would love to see one that was posted
this year in 2021 that would definitely
make me feel better if i really wanted
to go after this
let it go post it in 2019 again because
guys sometimes the algorithm like won't
go backwards and remove everything
backwards but it will prevent anybody
from moving forwards
submitting i know that sounds crazy i'm
just speaking to what i've seen
with the merch by amazon algorithm keep
in mind that like doing a full scan of a
massive catalog
is a lot more resource intensive than
just updating the algorithm to say
no more moving forward i don't know for
sure if that's what they did here but
just having gone through page one i do
not feel confident at all whatsoever
uploading a shirt that says let it go
and when i say a shirt that says what i
really mean is
what the algorithm is going to catch is
if you put it in your title your bullets
your description
your brand that's what will get you
rejected in this case so my
initial inclination when i did that top
five niches of the week video and then i
put it across through it and i said
guys this is a holiday but i don't think
it's safe
i think i was correct there i'm not
going to be submitting a shirt to
confirm that
all right and then real quick before we
wrap the video why don't we look at beer
olympics this is another example that
is gonna be interesting i didn't vet it
beforehand
um i was inspired because um my sister
wants to throw a beer olympics party on
july 4th i don't know if i'll make it
because my girlfriend's birthday is the
next day so we'll see what happens
hopefully i'll get to go but yeah you
know you know how it goes anyways i'm
sure july 4th will be a good time
so same process go to trademarks
usptmsearch.uspto.gov
basic word mark and type in beer
olympics okay we
when it takes you immediately to the
record that means that there's only one
record found
and you can see right here uh live dead
indicator
is dead that tells us all we need to
know
next thing before we submit anything put
it in the search merch
hit search t-shirts and we see 118
results but we know not to just trust
that
so let's do again ctrl f beer olympics
uh
one match two match but those are not on
shirts so first row does not have any
matches
second row does have matches
when are they posted 2020
and 2020 interesting
but not many matches here's another one
posted in 2020
but yeah overall guys i think there's
only these
three matches you know one two three
uh that does not inspire confidence in
me for moving forward
with beer olympics so guys in summary
like what did we really do to validate
here we checked the trademark database
and we went and actually looked at the
marketplace we intend to sell on now the
example i used here was merged by amazon
because i think everybody watching this
probably knows that that is where you're
going to find the strictest
approval disapproval algorithm and the
strictest content policy
now lots of other websites have a
content policy written down but they
don't enforce it
algorithmically and they pretty much
don't you know like if we talk about
like redbubble
like sometimes you'll get products
removed but it is
not common and even less common
on ebay or etsy who both have their
content policies yet don't really
enforce it so
that by the way that's not me saying to
that's not me suggesting to break the
content policy it's just me
suggesting to be familiar with the
marketplaces you intend to sell on okay
and over time you will get more and more
familiar uh but in the case of amazon
guys you do want to
at a minimum check the trademark
database and then
check amazon also a quick note you also
should strongly consider checking
international trademark databases if you
intend
to push to the international markets
which
a lot more people can do now if i see i
see more and more people in the facebook
group getting their accounts upgraded
so they can push to all products in all
marketplaces which is awesome i want you
to take advantage
but if you're on the fence about
something that maybe
will get you in trouble in one of those
international trademark databases
then you should absolutely look at them
and as a shortcut
and i didn't actually plan to show this
but you can actually use
flying research and you can do trademark
searches here
and it will return international
trademarks just gotta find something to
search that actually has something
that's registered internationally
okay so i typed in unicorn under office
you can see gb
is great britain uh em is europe
gb uh united kingdom de germany
us is u.s uh so wo
is world okay so if you need a shortcut
for doing international trademark
searches
flying research is where i go to do mine
i'll put a link in the description also
shout out to them they do sponsor the
weekly giveaways
speaking of weekly giveaways you can
enter my free weekly print on demand
giveaway two winners are selected every
sunday there is a link in the
description takes like 10 seconds to
enter this week sponsored by
merch titans upload automation merch
ninja research tools
all sunsets premium graphics and bubble
scout the only redbubble niche research
and validation tool
again you'll find a link in the
description to the giveaway also in the
description i wrote
a very thorough free mini course that'll
get you started with the printful etsy
integration
one lesson delivered to your email inbox
each day you can take advantage of that
in the description and you'll find
a link to my print on demand facebook
group in the description guys
and one last thing i guess we gotta get
the rest of the business out the way i
did write a full print on demand course
it's over a hundred lectures it's
literally a full knowledge transfer from
me to you
i've been working a lot behind the
scenes recently on updating it and
adding new content
if you join you get access to everything
from the past and everything in the
future so check that out guys
thank you so much for watching if you
learned anything please all i ask hit
that like button and if you're not
subscribed and you want to do that that
would be greatly appreciated but have a
good day guys
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you