đ» [OBO DIGEST] Knitters Assemble
Lessons from the Knitting.com drama, why celebrities are talking about NFTs, how to support Ukrainian refugees, social media newsâŠ
Written by: Online Business Owner âą March 14, 2022
This week, Iâm excited to share that our new blog at OnlineBusinessOwner.com will be launching next month on April 11!
Social media is super noisy.
Courses and coaches can be expensive.
And the amount of content online from personal brands and creators is impossible to consume.
Weâre launching a blog because finding information and insights for starting and growing an online business can feel overwhelming, and we want to help make it easier.
The blog at OnlineBusinessOwner.com will become your go-to hub for online business news, insights, education, and inspiration.
We also believe there is no single right way to run an online business â there are 1,000,001+ ways.
That means our blog will feature diverse voices and unique content written for readers of all backgrounds, abilities, business models, income levels, and stages of entrepreneurship.
We canât wait to share unique content with you from our network of expert contributors, along with original reporting from myself and our team.
News + Happenings
Donât F**k with Knitters
Image Source: (www.unsplash.com/@disguise_truth)
Two middle-aged white guys walk into a knitting shop. Well, kinda? The true story behind todayâs Knitting.com drama may sound like the beginning of a bad joke. Let me explainâŠ
Meet Michael Jackness and Dave Bryant â founders of EcomCrew. An online business that specializes in creating content and resources for entrepreneurs who want to start or grow their own e-commerce business.
Through their blog, podcast, income reports, and premium membership, Jackness and Bryant have amassed a large following (and, according to the details theyâve shared, large bankroll to go along with it).
Then, earlier this year, the pair embarked on their newest e-commerce venture â Knitting.com. They planned to build in public, as they have with other brands theyâve started, grown, and sold.
New reporting from Chris Stokel-Walker for Input Magazine details what happened next and how itâs gone wrong.
On February 16, EcomCrew published a blog post and accompanying podcast outlining their latest attempt to launch an e-commerce business. The since-deleted post explained how the duo were going to build a seven-figure brand in the next 12 months based around the knitting niche. The pair revealed that theyâd spent $80,000âŠin order to buy the dormant domain knitting.com. The plan was to launch an Amazon-based direct-to-consumer retail brand.
Shortly after the post and podcast went live, the story was picked up by knitters and makers on Reddit in the r/craftsnark subreddit. As you can imagine, fiber arts enthusiasts werenât too excited about the newly created brand.
âTo give you an analogy, it was like two guys with an air fryer under their arm, walking into the oldest restaurant in the country and proudly explaining how they were going to make a million dollars in a year selling air-fried frozen chicken nuggets from Costco,â says Amy Nowacoski, a New Yorkâbased marketing strategist and knitter who was one of those to highlight the issues with the Knitting.com plan.
The root of the issue? Non-knitting outsiders were seeking to capitalize on a niche they knew nothing about.
Jackness and Bryant made some pretty bold and inaccurate assumptions about the knitting world in their initial podcast and blog post. A few of them are that knitters are all old grandmas, that itâs a craft thatâs not taken seriously, that itâs an industry that can be interrupted, and that knitters buy yarn and supplies from Amazon.
âThe knitting world is not white grandmas,â Nowacoski adds. âItâs incredibly diverse, progressive, feminist, and anti-racist.â
The last bit of Nowacoskiâs remarks are about some odd statements made during the initial podcast announcing the new brand. One of the men talked about how much of the yarn sold online is from Chinese manufacturers and said, âYou canât really have Chinese models in your videos.â
In the end, Jackness and Bryant are still on track to launch Knitting.com later this year. Theyâve hired a marketing and branding pro to join their team and stated that theyâve already made substantial investments of time and money and arenât planning to back down.
How the knitting community will respond once the website is live is yet to be seen. For now, a simple landing page with email opt-in sits on the Knitting.com site along with a message from the founders. It reads: âKnitting.com is a brand new crafty collaboration. Our goal with this new resource is to provide all of the knowledge and support youâll need to get started knitting. If youâve never touched a pair of knitting needles in your life, youâre in the right place!â
Why this matters for online business â
While so much of business is about looking for opportunities to create something new, itâs essential to understand the ins and outs of a niche before you dive in.
This story is an excellent example of how a lack of research and understanding paired with incorrect assumptions can create a flawed business idea and could cause harm.
Itâs also an example of an industry or niche that is already well established and fiercely protective of what theyâve created. In these spaces, outsiders who are choosing to enter the space for the sake of profit and arenât interested in actually being integrated into the already established community arenât typically welcomed.
Lastly, donât be racist. And donât say stupid stuff. âșïž
Why Are All These Celebrities Talking About NFTs?
Get out your tinfoil hats and red string because we have some conspiracy theories to sort out today!
It doesnât take long scrolling on start-up/entrepreneur/small business Twitter to find yourself knee deep in ramblings about Web3 and NFTs.
And while we here are OnlineBusinessOwner.com arenât really bought into the idea that NFTs will revolutionize the internet and the world as we know it anytime soon, it doesnât hurt to at least keep a gentle finger on the pulse of whatâs happening with Crypto and Web3.
(Side note: if youâre not sure what NFTs are then you can check out this deep dive from The Verge; but, be warned, even reading it may not really make it make senseâŠ)
Lately, thereâs been a sharp increase in celebrities talking about NFTs and how theyâre getting into the Web3 space (just take for example this weird segment of Paris Hilton discussing her Bored Ape NFT with fellow Bored Ape Yacht Club member Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show).
Recently, writer Max Read dug into this world in an article for his Read Max Substack titled âMapping the Celebrity NFT Complex.â He writes,
If you pay attention to both the Hollywood trades and the crypto press, and smoke enough weed, you can begin to pick out the contours of an expanding, interconnected, celebrity-based web3 financial-cultural complexâŠ
There is Jimmy Fallon, who is represented by CAAâŠ
CAA, which is an investor in the NFT marketplace OpenSeaâŠ
And CAA, which signed the person behind the 0xb1 NFT personaâŠ
0xb1 who owns NFTs from Bored Ape and World of WomenâŠ
World of Women NFTs are the ones Reese Witherspoon lovesâŠ
Reese Witherspoon, who is married to a CAA agentâŠ
CAA, who also represents Ashton KutcherâŠ
Kutcher, who is an investor in OpenSea through his Sound VenturesâŠ
Sound Ventures which Kutcher runs with Guy OsearyâŠ
Oseary, who also runs pearpop, a platform for TikTok influencersâŠ
And a platform used by none other than Paris HiltonâŠ
Read goes into even more detail in his Substack article (all credit to this deep dive goes to him, of course). Check it out here!
In short, the reason all of your favorite celebrities are all of a sudden talking about NFTs and Web3 and Crypto is becauseâŠwellâŠtheyâre supposed to.
Their agent probably got them into it!
Itâs the ânext big thing,â after all! And theyâve got to be in on it. đ
But just because THEY are, doesnât mean YOU have to be! đ
How Online Business Owners Are Supporting Ukrainian Refugees
As we shared in last weekâs Digest, Munich-based online business owner Ginny Krauss is on the ground in Germany working to support Ukrainian refugees as they flee the war in their country.
Sheâs working alongside three other moms and business owners in Germany to raise funds, purchase supplies, and provide real-time mutual aid support to Ukrainian women and children.
So far, they have raised nearly $20,000 and are putting that money directly into supplies for refugees, including food, clothing, diapers, medicine, hygiene products, and items needed for sleeping like air mattresses, sleeping bags, and pillows.
You can support their work today by sending money via PayPal to Ginny. Simply send as Friends/Family to @ginnykrauss and put âUkraineâ in the subject.
And follow Ginny on Instagram to learn more about the work she and others are doing in Germany.
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