How to engage your online community with swag 

Building an online community is fun, but it can also be daunting. Even with a lot of members there may be very little activity. As a community manager it’s your job to activate your community and engage them with a variety of activities. 

One way to do this is by using swag, or free gifts. Done correctly and at the right times, swag campaigns can improve overall engagement, increase excitement about your community, get members to use word-of-mouth marketing, and grow your community to astounding numbers.  

## Why swag works for engaging your community

Swag can be a cost-effective way to reward community members. It works because it gives members the opportunity to show off their excitement for the community in real life. 

This often encourages others to investigate the site or brand name to see why this person is so enamored. Assuming everything else in the community is optimized this should lead to more activity, sign ups and engagement. 

But rewards like this must be used correctly, or the campaign could backfire turning into a massive waste of money with few new users gained.

## Successfully giving swag to your community

### Start by identifying a specific goal for your campaign. 
Do you want more members (hopefully active members), more traffic, more engagement from current members, or more referrals from current members? 

All of these things might sound nice, but choose 1 or 2 goals that would impact the community most and focus on making these things happen.

### Choose a specific action you want members to take. 
What do you want members to do? Put stickers up around San Francisco, Boston or NYC? Wear your t-shirts to big events? Share an image on social media with an explanation of why they love being active in the community? 

Be creative here, since that will get more members active in the campaign. Think big, you’ll want maximum exposure. 

### Decide who gets the items. 
You can thank new members for joining, reward the most active members by sending them an unexpected gift, give to members who used to be active but have recently slowed down, or you could choose to entice influencers who could share about your community. 

### Run the campaign.
If you are going to incorporate social media, giveaways or sweepstakes, now is the time to run it. If you are not using these things or you want to give away the items first, skip this step. 

### Ship items to recipients. 
Packaging is important here, you can go the extra mile to engage your recipients without spending a lot. Include a handwritten note, give them instructions or ask them to share on social media (“We’d love it if you could take a pic and share it on Twitter”) but don’t demand anything. 

## Common swag & stories of success

It’s a lot easier to imagine your campaign once you’ve heard about others who have been successful. We’ve put together a list of items and some stories of success to help jumpstart your creativity.

**T-shirts**- Not especially low cost when you are scaling, but an exciting prize for the most dedicated members of your community. Be sure to pick a quality, soft t-shirt to get people wearing it for you.

**Examples**: [Inbound.org](http://inbound.org) used t-shirts to reward their most loyal evangelist members. For a short time, anyone who referred 5 members to the site got a free t-shirt, anywhere in the world. 

Sujan Patel wrote about giving away t-shirts in his popular ebook on growth. By giving away t-shirts (that people wore) the company received a lot of word of mouth and were able to growth hack their way to more users. 

**Stickers**- One of the most economical ways to give physical products to your members, because they can be quite inexpensive and cheap to ship. A lot of companies will include [die cut stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/die-cut-stickers) as additional gifts in shipping because they are fun and low cost. 

Be smart and give your users a list of ideas of where to use your stickers , too. 

Some ideas: 

* Laptop covers
* Back of their tablets
* On street posts
* Posted to bulletin boards
* On skateboards or helmets
* Vehicles
* Moleskine notebooks

**Example**: Reddit is one of the most popular communities sites online and they’ve [used stickers quite extensively to help their brand grow]( https://www.fastcompany.com/1841389/how-reddit-built-its-empire-500-bucks-stickers-and-giving-people-what-they-want).

A quick search on Google will display several subreddits that have used stickers to connect with their communities as well. Here are a few from that search:

![sticker subreddits](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/88a1c0ce2a7c3e35572963b777799f38d19c58ba)

These stickers have been used all around towns to get people exposed to new brands, on packages for the same reason, in sticker exchanges, on game consoles, bikes, briefcases, laptop bags and more. 

**Notebooks** - Business people are constantly taking notes and writing things down, and a moleskine notebook is the perfect place to do it. That’s why we love branded notebooks. 

**Examples**: 
Here is a moleskine notebook Elevator Agency got from HubSpot. As an added bonus for HubSpot, the agency posted it on Twitter (exposure). 

![Moleskine notebook from HubSpot](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/aaceb1c626f577d0a466782dd6bec2366c6b239f)

When I first joined [Coschedule](http://coschedule.com) in 2014 as a paid member I received a notebook and a couple of stickers in the mail. 

A month later when I unexpectedly stopped blogging I continued as a paying member for a few more months because I loved the notebook so much and wanted to support them.

Another option for getting your swag out to members when you don’t have a budget for it, is to set up a store they can shop. There are several companies that act as fulfillment centers and you can put your brand on a lot of items without having to worry about ordering, stocking and shipping. 

## Swag can get expensive & here’s how to fix it

One of the main drawbacks of using swag is the cost. Sending 1000 t-shirts can cost $15,000 or more with shipping. Stickers can cost $500-$1000 to send to the same number of members with shipping and often get more exposure. 

A few ways you can lower swag expenses:

**Only send swag to the most active members**- many people will want free gifts so you’ll need to be selective. Sending gifts to members who are never active can be a huge waste of resources.

**Choose items within your budget**- T-shirts and gift cards are for communities with big budgets. Notebooks and stickers are great for communities of all budgets. What really matters is the presentation of the gifts.

**Avoid low quality gifts**- Totes seem like a great gift, but are often low quality, unless you are willing to foot a higher cost. Skip items that are low quality, like stiff t-shirts, because you’ll end up replacing them, or the member won’t use them as you’d hoped.

**Don’t offer items your audience won’t want**- If you’ve recently wrote a book, you might be inclined to offer the book as a gift (this helps increase your sales and promotes the book to your members), but you still end up footing the bill. If they want your book, they will buy it, swag should be a gift just for them.

### Conclusion
Offering your community gifts or swag is a great way to encourage more engagement, word-of-mouth and new members. 

By following the tips we’ve included here, you should be able to stay within your campaign budgets, while getting the most return on investment. 

If you have a community you'd like to reward with swag, why not start with stickers? [Get $10 off your first order](https://www.stickermule.com/unlock?ref_id=7980330701&ref=blog) when you sign up by clicking the button below.

<ButtonCta text="Get $10 credit" href="https://www.stickermule.com/unlock?ref_id=7980330701&ref=blog" />

Learn how swag helps improve engagement, increases word-of-mouth marketing, and grows your community. 

Introducing transfer stickers 

<WistiaVideo videoId="uiehr72ygz" />

We soft launched [transfer stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers) in late 2015. Since then we’ve been quietly polishing the manufacturing process to prepare for a bigger, official launch. 

Transfer stickers are, by far, the most difficult product we make. Not only is the manufacturing challenging, but proofing and artwork setup are especially difficult too. Now that we solved most of the challenges with making these at scale we think transfer stickers are going to be our biggest product ever. 

Starting today, we're excited to announce transfer stickers are *officially available in white & black* in quantities up to 1,000 units per design. After uploading your design, simply choose if you want your design in black or white vinyl.

![How to pick your vinyl decal color](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/ac9a6c4d142300f7e53b7a466024a9122e406bde)

Just like the rest of our product line, you can benefit from free worldwide shipping, [automatic discounts](https://www.stickermule.com/automatic-discounts) and [multiple design discounts](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/introducing-multiple-design-discount) when you order (you can also include other products like [custom magnets](https://www.stickermule.com/products/custom-magnets) to your order for a discount). Beyond that, ordering transfer stickers from Sticker Mule comes with a few exclusive benefits we think you’ll love including:

## Design flexibility
Existing vendors for transfer stickers have extreme limitations on the types of designs they’re willing to make. This is because the more complicated the design the more difficult it becomes to make. Consequently, most vendors want to review the design before accepting it and frequently reject designs that are too complex. We still have some restrictions on what we can do, but ultimately we offer more flexibility than you’ll find elsewhere. 

## Simple pricing
In addition to being willing & able to accept more complex designs than other vendors, we also offer simple pricing model that doesn’t care about the complexity of your design. While other vendors need to review your design to estimate what they’ll charge you to make it, we offer low prices upfront before seeing your design. 

## Bulk ordering
Making transfer stickers in bulk quantities is a big challenge that we’ve happily solved. Every transfer sticker order ships in 5 days or less. By comparison, other vendors insist on reviewing your order before sharing turnaround and frequently take weeks to make them. It’s typical for other vendors to quote 6 - 8 weeks to produce a large order. At Sticker Mule, we’ll always do it in 5 days with free shipping. 

![White and Black Custom Transfer Stickers or Vinyl Decals](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/c5c50d197c5e72d6f2423ec85d812e8496f35297)

## What's next
So far, the response to our transfer stickers has been tremendous. Reviews are overwhelmingly positive, but, more importantly, our customers are sending us [amazingly unique designs](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/15-awesome-transfer-sticker-designs)  that they say no one has ever been able to make. We have big ideas on how to continue improving this product and plan to continue pushing to make it a success over the coming months.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, try our [transfer stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers) today and let us know what you think. 

<ButtonCta text="Try transfer stickers" href="https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers?ref=blog" />

We're excited to announce transfer stickers are officially available in white & black vinyl in quantities up to 1,000 units per design. 

Decision making principles 

Not only is our team remote, but we also tend to work independently. Generally, after a 2 - 4 week onboarding period, new team members at Sticker Mule are able to independently decide what makes the most sense for them to pursue. To keep us aligned, we manage via mutually agreed upon principles that guide our decision making. 

As our team grows and we add new areas of responsibility to our organization, we decided to codify the decision principles we have followed to get us to this point. I thought it helpful to share these for the benefit of prospective team members as well as anyone else that’s curious how we operate Sticker Mule. 

## The 10 principles that guide all of our decisions at Sticker Mule

__1. Do not waste time.__

"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” - George Patton. Time is finite and the rate at which we complete projects drives growth and profitability. 

__2. Saving time > saving money.__

Since time is finite and fixed, it’s more important than money. We cannot make more time, and fast execution makes us more money.

__3. Recurring savings > 1 time savings.__

Do not fret about 1 time savings or expenses. Recurring costs are what matter. 

__4. Revenue = traffic * conversion rate * avg. order size.__

There are only 3 ways to increase revenue: 1) increase traffic, 2) improve conversion, and 3) raise the avg. order size. 

__5. Process improvements > capital investment > adding staff.__

It’s better to fix a broken process than to make capital investments and better to make capital investments than increase headcount. 

__6. Prioritize based on benefit and time to implement.__

Pursue quick wins with high return before difficult projects with moderate return. 

__7. Delegate when possible.__

If a subordinate can do a task let them do it, but don’t push work onto people that are already busy or unable to do the work you are delegating. 

__8. Avoid ideas that do not scale.__

If you find yourself saying “well as long as this doesn’t become too popular we should be okay” then you’re probably discussing something that’s not worth doing. 

__9. Do not undercut competition.__

Let competition win on price to avoid a race to the bottom. Our aim is to win on service & experience. 

__10. Do not be dogmatic.__

At times, it makes sense to ignore these principles but we should do so knowingly. 

## Concluding thoughts

Our team works extraordinarily well together not just because we share the same decision making principles, but because we share a similar perspective on work. 

We all tend to be [humble, independent, logical, thoughtful and autodidactic](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/characteristics-we-look-for-in-team-members). If you share these characteristics too, [we're hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).

Here are 10 principles that guide all of our decisions at Sticker Mule. 

How to build an international ecommerce company 

![How to build an international ecommerce company](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/966a6654690f5f5ae42f0f3e478060cf95362dd5)

Last year, Sticker Mule shipped to __87 countries__. It's been a long process to lay a foundation to support international customers and we still have a lot to do. Since the decision to go international is one faced by every ecommerce company, I thought it’d be worth sharing our approach. 

Anyone looking to go international should understand 2 things before embarking on the journey: 

* International business is difficult and initially unprofitable. In order to effectively support foreign customers, you’ll likely take a loss early on as you build international volume. 
* Shipping worldwide is expensive and customers don’t want to be penalized for being far from your fulfillment center. 

Despite the costs involved in growing internationally, there are a number of upsides.

## Why you should sell internationally 
Aside from the obvious potential to acquire international revenue, there are three additional benefits to growing internationally that are worth considering.

### There's a lot of international web traffic to acquire.
Between paid and search traffic there’s a tremendous amount of international traffic to capture. International markets are not as saturated as the U.S. so it's easier to build both paid and organic search traffic.

> International markets are not as saturated as the U.S. so it's easier to build both paid and organic search traffic. [Click to Tweet](https://ctt.ec/2mgNH)

The downside is you need to manage a variety of country specific SEO & SEM strategies whereas in the U.S. you need to execute one strategy for a large market. 

### Internationalizing exposes you to additional partnerships.
I loosely define partnerships to include anyone that can send you traffic. By supporting an international audience you'll quickly notice that the variety of websites and people willing to send you traffic grows. Even bloggers that have a primarily domestic audience want to write about companies that support their foreign readers. 

### It aids your recruiting efforts to become international. 
Recruiting internationally is a tremendous benefit to us. The best talent and potential team members live all over the world. To date, only 10% of our development team works domestically. We pay domestic wages regardless of location because it’s fair and hiring the best people is more important than saving a buck. 

## 13 steps to building an international ecommerce company

Our 13 steps to becoming international are roughly sorted based on difficulty and importance. Steps that are easier and more important are at the top. We suspect most businesses will find it advantageous to implement these improvements from top to bottom.

### 1. Ship to foreign countries
An obvious starting point, but easier said than done. To start here, you’ll need a shipping system that supports international shipments. Initially, we used a 3rd party application until we were ready to build our own. 

### 2. Ship to foreign countries with tracking
Initially, it’s tempting to ship without tracking because it’s considerably more expensive to provide it. However, as your international volume grows you’ll find not having package tracking is a substantial burden. Delays and lost packages are more common internationally so tracking is necessary to troubleshoot problematic shipments. 

### 3. Ship to foreign countries quickly and with delivery estimates
Once you add support for package tracking you’ll find the next concern for your customers is to get their packages faster and with guaranteed delivery dates. This is mostly possible but at a considerable expense. 

### 4. Support international currencies
Inevitably it will make sense to add support for international currencies too. We started with the most popular ones including Canadian Dollars, British Pounds and the Euro. 

### 5. Support the metric system 
Depending on your product offering this is more or less important but since size is a critical aspect of our product line we decided it was necessary to support the metric system. 

### 6. Internationalize address forms
International addresses have different formats and it’s ideal to provide customers with an experience they recognize to help them fill in addresses correctly and avoid shipping delays. This is something I haven’t seen anyone implement effectively but it’s on our roadmap. 

### 7. Internationalize text content 
There are a variety of translation services and agencies to help with internationalizing content. It can be a considerable expense initially and challenging to maintain, but it’s a necessary step to becoming completely international. 

### 8. Internationalize video content
The next step beyond internationalizing your text content is to internationalize videos. We took a small step in this direction with internationalized captions but eventually we want to internationalize the voiceovers and footage too. 

### 9. Internationalize images
Familiar images help make customers feel more comfortable with your brand. Product photos, customer lists and screenshots all benefit from internationalization at some point. 

### 10. Internationalize hosting
As your international traffic grows it’s worth looking at how to further globalize your hosting configuration. Your site might be fast domestically but you’ll want to ensure visitors from your most popular regions have a similar experience. 

### 11. Provide customer support in foreign languages
Foreign customers are always happier to receive support in their native language. This is a considerable challenge and one we only started to undertake. 

### 12. Operate international fulfillment centers
Hopefully, international revenue will grow to the point where you can justify regional fulfillment centers which will finally position you to provide foreign customers with the same experience you provide customers in your home country. 

### 13. Advertise in international markets
Inevitably, you’ll want to build out an international advertising strategy. This is likely easier to do profitably once you operate regionally, but you could consider doing it sooner to build volume faster. 

International advertising tends to be less expensive, but, unless you’re operating locally, your margins may already be so diminished that justifying an ad budget is difficult. 

## Concluding thought
At Sticker Mule, our small team works from 8 countries including England, Ireland, Poland, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Italy, Canada and the United States. Cultural diversity has been immensely beneficial. It’s both encouraged and enabled us to build a platform for international growth. 

We still have a long way to go to fully execute the international roadmap identified this article, but we’re excited to continue growing our community of customers and colleagues worldwide. If you believe you can play a part in our international growth, [we're hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).

Building an international ecommerce company isn't easy. So we've broken down the steps we've been following to help you get started. 

Introducing multiple design discounts 

<WistiaVideo videoKey="multiple_designs" />

In the past year, we've added new products and features to help our customers save time and money. This week we're highlighting our multiple design discount feature for custom made products. Although customers have been saving with this feature for over a year, we've improved it to include our newest products like [transfer stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers), [circle roll labels](https://www.stickermule.com/products/circle-roll-labels), and [custom magnets](https://www.stickermule.com/products/custom-magnets).

Sticker Mule's multiple design discount saves you money when you add different artwork, sizes, and products to your cart at the same time. More individual line items in your cart results in a larger discount. The discount works in addition to our bulk order discounts for each product.

To calculate the discount, we determine the total amount of material and labor required to process the entire batch of designs you want.

The feature is flexible, calculated automatically and can be used to order different quantities of each line item. This allows you to save more by ordering different designs, sizes and products — or all three at once.

![Multiple design discount GIF](https://cl.ly/3u1A3w1W1q3O/faq-multiple-design-discount.gif)

## Different designs

If you’re rebranding a logo, testing a new product label, or experimenting with a few designs, it’s only fair that you can make all of the variations into custom stickers for cheap. Even in small quantities, you’ll see your discount add up quickly when you upload your designs.

## Different sizes

You can also order different sizes of the same design or of different designs. It’s common for small businesses that use Sticker Mule to have one logo or design made into different sizes for different uses. For example, a small business might have one artwork that is made into three different sizes for packaging their products, sealing thank you notes, or giving away to customers. 

## Different products

Multiple design discounts apply across product lines too. To see the greatest savings, order transfer stickers (custom vinyl decals), custom magnets, wall graphics, die cut stickers, kiss cut stickers (and more) together. You’ll still receive a discount if you use the same artwork and size across different products.

## Average savings

A typical order with multiple designs receives more than $24 in discounts. Recently, we’ve seen this number increase as people add [transfer stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers) and [custom magnets](https://www.stickermule.com/products/custom-magnets) to their orders.

So next time you order, try a few extra designs or grab a [wall graphic](https://www.stickermule.com/products/wall-graphics) for the office before you checkout.


Test different designs at the same time and take advantage of our multiple design discount. 

Introducing custom magnets 

Starting today, we're excited to announce [custom magnets](https://www.stickermule.com/products/custom-magnets) are officially available. While very similar to stickers in look, the production of magnets is unique. Like our other new products, we invested heavily in the best machines and technology. Our custom magnets have a better print quality and a more precise cut than was previously available.

![Introducing die cut custom magnets](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/e369a4f9d59ef83cd8bbbb21519233d591356d7c)

### Quality
Our [magnets](https://www.stickermule.com/products/custom-magnets) are printed with a matte finish on a 30 mil thick flexible magnetic material and are suitable for indoor metallic surfaces. We intentionally chose better, stronger magnet material to offer a superior product. 

In the coming months, we’ll offer outdoor magnets that feature a protective laminate and an even stronger magnetism.

### No designer, no problem
Our magnets are cut precisely to fit the shape of your design and in any size. We automatically figure out the cut line based on the artwork you upload making it easy to order business card magnets, photo magnets, calendar magnets, save the date magnets, ribbon magnets, logo magnets and more. 

While we accept any file type, it’s important to know that you do not need templates, a professional designer or Photoshop to submit your artwork. Simply upload your photo or artwork as is and our team will create a free digital proof for you in less than 4 hours. 

### Experience
As with all of our products, ordering [custom magnets](https://www.stickermule.com/products/custom-magnets) from Sticker Mule is as affordable as it is easy. Magnets are part of our [automatic discounts](https://www.stickermule.com/automatic-discounts) so that you pay only for the exact size of your magnet. If you order a 3" x 3" magnet, but the size is actually 2.8" x 3" your price will be adjusted automatically during proofing.  You’ll also receive discounts when you [order multiple designs](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/introducing-multiple-design-discount).

Want to try custom magnets for yourself? Order [10 custom magnets with your design](https://www.stickermule.com/products/magnet-samples) for just $9.

<ButtonCta text="Get 10 custom magnets for $9" href="https://www.stickermule.com/products/magnet-samples?ref=blog" />


Custom magnets from Sticker Mule are printed with a matte finish, can be cut to any shape, and feature a flexible magnetic sheeting. 

How a viral blog uses stickers 

- __About Space Beards:__ Space Beards is a popular Tumblr blog (30,000+ followers) that replaces the hairy beards of celebrities (past and present) with cosmic galaxies created by Joshua Arter.
- __How he uses stickers:__ Space Beards went viral early on. Josh uses galaxy styled mustaches and beards as stickers to continue growing traffic and bringing attention to the popular site.
- __Results:__ Space Beard stickers have driven traffic and awareness for the site as it continues to grow beyond this galaxy.

>It was the perfect storm of internet gold: beards plus space.

At first, Josh Arter's popular Tumblr blog "[Space Beards: The Facial Frontier](https://web.archive.org/web/20140309023539/http://spacebeards.com/)" was just a joke that Josh shared with friends. Those friends said he should start a blog so Josh set up a Tumblr site.

Within a few months, it was featured on major sites including Mashable and The Daily Dot. Then, it was featured as a trending blog on Tumblr Tuesday's "Blogs you should be following."

He knew he was on to something when his traffic took off through organic shares and went viral, "It was the perfect storm of internet gold: Beards plus space."

![SpaceBeards Stickers for a Viral Blog](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/9b77fb9d2e89b8fd39169adb0369c0349b2363e1)

So he took his galactic momentum and set up an online shop with t-shirts, phone cases, and coffee cups.

##Building a constellation
As part of his strategy to keep growing traffic, he printed off stickers with Sticker Mule of the space beards he posted on Tumblr.

When asked about how a digital blog bridges the gap between online and offline worlds, Josh says, "The key is to stay true to yourself. If you have a strong brand, stick to it and keep it consistent across all channels."

Josh wasn't content to just make stickers that were selfishly self promotional. Instead of stickers with a URL or his name, he made the stickers as whimsical as the blog itself. Each design is a die-cut sticker in the exact shape of the beard design. With rich, full color on quality vinyl, the stickers are as original as Josh's blog.

"The Space Beards stickers are essentially the blog logo, but like the characters Space Bearded on the site, each sticker represents a different look at the cosmos, keeping the Space Beards offline brand fresh yet familiar."

"I wanted to give away something others could put up around town to gain organic, local traffic to my site. Friends gave them to their friends, I see them around town and in bars."

> People will walk up when they see the sticker and say 'Hey I love that site!'

When traveling around Milwaukee, the center of his bearded galaxy, Josh (and now many others) has space beard stickers on his car, laptop, and bike helmet. And when he's traveling, he brings a stash of stickers and puts them up around cities in prominent places.

"Space is infinite, the chances of creating a viral blog just the same, discovering a Space Beards sticker wild on the street is just as fun. People will walk up when they see the sticker and say 'Hey I love that site!'"

Others asked to have their own stickers and placed them in famous spots around the U.S including Seattle's infamous Market Theater Gum Wall.

![Eddie-Murphy-SpaceBeards](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/eae63e21ea97127ed4f03a8f91f722b173a1b063)

##An Ever-expanding Universe

Josh attributes the stickers to increasing blog traffic, stoking interest, and driving sales of his other products like t-shirts.

"Stickers definitely brought in more traffic. In Milwaukee, some of the stickers are used in hip parts of town… The stickers stand out because of their shape and unusual mix of color."

Josh has found other ways to promote his blog and keep it trimmed and fresh.

>Stickers definitely brought in more traffic.

Last November, Josh partnered with a blog about Milwaukee mustaches (yes, there is a blog for everything) for a Movember event. The theme of the party? Facial hair for a good cause! It was complete with custom shirts. The party was an easy way to promote his blog within his community.

At the event, [mustache stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/mustache-stickers "Custom mustache stickers") were available for attendees to pick up to show their beard love and to continue to boost traffic to the site.

An altruistic artist, Josh has shared his artistic power away through a space beards app for iPhone and iPad.

##Why Sticker Mule?
He originally heard about Sticker Mule through a friend. “All he could talk about was quality” and said that they last forever.

Before Space Beards, Josh used Sticker Mule for another blog "[Thanks for the love MKE](http://thanksforthelovemke.tumblr.com/)" — a website that showcases the city of Milwaukee through photos taken by residents to give a more intimate view of the city.

"I love the city and wanted to show it off. It's underrated and a well kept secret."

The stickers he made for the MKE blog have become a common sight throughout the city.

> The quality, reordering, and turnaround time is the best in the business.

"At one of our meetups, we handed out stickers and ran a campaign for people to take a photo involving their sticker and their favorite Milwaukee spot. It ended up being a broader campaign as people threw them up around the city in general.”

With two popular blogs that use stickers to drive traffic, Josh exclusively uses Sticker Mule because of "the quality, easy reordering, and turnaround time is the best in the business".

<ButtonCta text="Try the best in the business for $1" href="https://www.stickermule.com/samples?ref=blog" />

The viral Tumblr Space Beards shares their experience, advice, and strategy for bridging the online/offline gap with readers. 

Characteristics we look for in Sticker Mule team members 

Recently, we decided to codify the characteristics we look for in new team members to help maintain our culture as we grow. Since our inception, we have always hired for a particular type of person although it was never explicit. As hiring became more distributed we spent a while thinking about what it is that unites us.

> Culture is even more important when you're remote.

The importance of culture isn't immediately apparent when you’re small but it becomes quite obvious once you grow. Without care, culture can change quickly; especially when you’re hiring fast. It only takes a few people that do not fit your model to create a cultural change that quickly spreads. That’s why we are relentless about hiring people that strengthen our culture and avoiding people that don’t. 

Culture is even more important when you're remote. Since we spend little time together in person, and in some cases never see each other, a shared outlook helps us understand each other even if we never met. We might come from all over the world, but we all tend to be humble, independent, logical, thoughtful and autodidactic. We try to hire other people that have these characteristics too. 

Here's a glimpse at the characteristics of people we look to hire at Sticker Mule and why:

## Humble
Possesses a modest view of one’s abilities and importance. 

__Why:__ People fail when the disparity between what they can do and what they think they can do becomes too vast. Humility is a prerequisite for improving and in a fast growing company there’s a constant need to scale your abilities as the needs of the company change. 

## Independent
Good to work with but able to get stuff done on their own too. 

__Why:__ Time is finite so it’s important to respect each other’s time by working independently when possible, yet being pleasant to collaborate with when necessary. The best teams, in companies, sports or otherwise, are comprised of talented people that know how and when to interact to achieve a goal. 

## Logical
Strong decision making skills that we can trust. 

__Why:__ Success is the result the sum of our decisions and actions. Decision making skills are incredibly hard to train so we avoid people that lack them. Responsibilities change as we grow, so we favor logical people over those who are merely experienced.

## Thoughtful
Concerned about the well-being of others and the company as a whole. 

__Why:__ People that put the well-being of each other first can be trusted to make optimal decisions. Anyone that is inconsiderate towards the feelings of others is difficult to trust no matter how intelligent, logical or experienced because they tend to optimize for their own benefit. 

## Autodidactic
Willing and able to learn from others and on their own. 

__Why:__ Organizations require new skills as they evolve. People that are unable to self educate run the risk of eventually becoming a burden because it can be hard to place them if our needs change.

## Concluding thought

At Sticker Mule, we hire for two things: skill and personality. It’s hard to pass on a skilled person because their personality doesn’t fit, but if you aim for longevity it’s critical that you do. We intend to be around for a long time. I suspect and hope most of our team will retire from Sticker Mule. 

If you feel like you will fit in well with our team then you should [apply to join us](https://www.stickermule.com/careers). We'd love to hear from you.

We look for 5 characteristics in new Sticker Mule team members to help maintain our culture as we grow. 

15 awesome transfer sticker designs 

Since launching [transfer stickers or vinyl decals](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers) we've seen thousands of incredible designs. Transfer stickers are significantly more difficult to create at every stage from proofing to artwork creation to manufacturing. 

The weeding process is extremely intricate and so our teams have worked closely with our customers to produce their designs. And while we've created [videos and guidelines](https://www.stickermule.com/support/how-do-i-design-a-transfer-sticker) to help, Sticker Mule is proud to reproduce and improve on most transfer design artwork for free. We offer unprecedented design freedom and our free proofing process makes ordering a breeze. 

Since soft launching, we’ve already produced transfer sticker designs for hundreds of customers that were turned away from other vendors. 

Here are 15 awesome transfer sticker designs:

### 1. _I'm Local_ by Corey Sweeter



![Im Local Transfer Sticker](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/2110006d8a5c0da0c1b8e3221b6d0b91f4751afc)



### 2. _Intricately_ by JoAnn Barron



![Intricately Transfer Vinyl Decal Sticker](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/affd9f7321857bbcfc744cf55060e08603e60012)




### 3. _Impact Ink_ by Giv Parvaneh



![MtVernonTX ImpactINK-Transfer Decal](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/d57f6f7c762af4f6a4a82a49481367af7af109cf)



### 4. _Cody Mack Putters_ by Keith Cansler



![Cody Mack Putters Transfer Sticker](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/4a8b3a303f52cda4d6040cbd19f7d89c95b0981c)




### 5. _Focus on the Beer_ by Ryan Hannigan



![Focus on the Beer Transfer Sticker Design](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/e77ddb5c1dd0c537dc8e6f52a37505c9b5f448a0)




### 6. _Vox_ by Kim Steins



![Vox Transfer Sticker Design](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/6c6479e31b8744009645381303fd1e559967f15f) 




### 7. _Dove_ by Julia Sprow



![Dove Transfer Sticker Design](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/5bae7210c9efe9b9a9b86daa22606d44e1ee3075) 




### 8. _Honestly Co_ by David Horne



![Intricate vinyl decal](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/a634e2a03a3c004081503b9b6557cf18103ea5ea) 




### 9. _Threatwave_ by Karen Sears



![ThreatWave Transfer Sticker Design](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/e3bfe250ab5506d6df6e1e21063ca0ea43709452)




### 10. _Sasquatch_ by Haden Farrell



![Sasquatch Transfer Sticker](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/007e73875d47a6cb066fc80a7cd9f1c2f992338f)




### 11. _Tigger Welding_ by Tyler 



![Welding Transfer sticker](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/dec2125160b7785b6eb5091f419e969712fbd4a4)




### 12. _TriLion Studios_ by Brian White



![Tri Lion-Intricate-Decal](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/493e6c760524178ea1fedae68b97de2b84ad74f8)




### 13. _Smile_ by Traveling Chris



![Traveling Chris Transfer Design Vinyl](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/ed74361382c621c3f5a279ec8d1ca67891a2949b)




### 14. _I/L_ by Greg Dundas



![IntricateVinylDecalTransferSticker](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/ce4ab889c3b4a7063ea379914300cda97a1ff4f8)




### 15. _TrainEat_ by Mario



![TrainEat Transfer Sticker](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/5da4c5a98d1bb7beabfaf36351cc6db6d2db9e75)

If you want to try your hand at creating [custom transfer stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers), why not start today with $10 off your first order. Just sign up by clicking the button below.

<ButtonCta text="Get $10 credit" href="https://www.stickermule.com/unlock?ref_id=7980330701&ref=blog" />

Transfer stickers can be tricky to design. Check out these 15 incredible transfer sticker designs. 

How Wordnik used stickers for Kickstarter rewards 

- __About Wordnik__: Wordnik is the world's biggest online English dictionary, by number of words. 
- __How they use stickers__: As a nonprofit, Wordnik is always looking for innovative ways to drive donations and engagement like their Adopt-a-Word program. Most recently, Wordnik has used stickers in different support levels in their Kickstarter campaign.
- __Results__: Wordnik has seen hundreds of words adopted and they raised over $50,000 in their successful Kickstarter campaign to add a million missing words to the dictionary.

> Stickers are a perfect reward for any Kickstarter campaign. 

When Erin McKean stepped off of the TED stage in March 2007, she had done the seemingly impossible: [make the job of a lexicographer sound actually exciting](https://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_redefines_the_dictionary).

She gave a vision to the English language that goes beyond the confines of paper and online dictionaries. The way paper and digital interact has to be different than how we think of it now.

That was the start of Wordnik, the world's biggest online English dictionary.

As a lexicographer (for those unwilling to look it up, a lexicographer is a person who compiles dictionaries), Erin worked for years on the New Oxford American Dictionary (which is the dictionary used by Mac OS X and Kindle.) Although dictionaries may seem dull and dry, they are living databases that are the output of thousands of individual decisions, including the actual words being used (and allowed), what goes into updating it, and the format it's published in.

## Making words more lookupable

The problem? The English language is composed of millions and millions of words (and possible words)! Far too many to fit into a paper dictionary. And further to complicate matters, words are being added and created in English faster than dictionaries can be updated. With a few colleagues, Erin formed Wordnik with the goal of making every word in the English language "lookupable" – including the 52% of unique English words that aren't currently in any dictionary.

The philosophy of Wordnik is simple: people learn words best by example and so any word used in a sentence, even in casual use, gets a page. If a word is looked up that doesn’t have any information, not even a sentence, the word still gets a page that is updated as more information becomes available—including the number of times the word has been looked up! "If you’re curious about a word, some information is always better than no information," says Erin. This way people can find out information about a word even before a traditional definition has been written.

> If you’re curious about a word, some information is always better than no information.

One of the hidden gems of Wordnik is its lists feature. It has more than 40,000 lists (see [words that make us hungry](https://www.wordnik.com/lists/words-to-describe-the-taste-of-food) or [crayon colors](https://www.wordnik.com/lists/crayola-old-style)), some hundreds of words long. And while Wordnik is a brilliant place to inspire a writer, the team had an equally smart idea when they launched a Kickstarter campaign.


## Finding one million missing words 
Erin and her team started a [Kickstarter campaign](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1574790974/lets-add-a-million-missing-words-to-the-dictionary/description) to achieve their goal of: __Finding a million words that haven't been included in major English dictionaries and give them each a home on the Internet.__

With a goal of raising $50,000, the Wordnik project set out to [create reward levels for an online living dictionar)](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1574790974/lets-add-a-million-missing-words-to-the-dictionary/description)--something that you can't exactly hold in your hand! Without a physical product, it can be difficult to come up with meaningful rewards for crowdfunding campaigns. 

The Wordnik team came up with brilliant rewards that fit perfectly with their target audience, project positioning, and let their backers participate in the creation! 

![Wordnik custom stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/35d4cd1d1c383198df22a159c84615ee27eb6001)

## Your reward: an excuse to talk about words 

Wordnik found a way to literally put words into their backers’ hands using stickers from Sticker Mule. For backers pledging $10 or more, Wordnik offered a complete set of stickers, including a sticker for the Semicolon Appreciation Society (literature lovers unite!).

At the next level, backers pledging $25 or more could “Adopt A Word”. These backers got the set of stickers, plus a special word adoption sticker with space to add a word of their choice.

> Stickers are a perfect reward for any Kickstarter campaign.

They're a simple, low-cost way to deliver something physical. Stickers can serve as delightful marketing tool that doesn’t feel like marketing. Backers can get involved quickly at any level. With the right design, your stickers will be placed on laptops, notebooks, and other spots that are seen every day.

![Smart kickstarter reward ideas like stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/6b61c1ca6ee9db435af3cede1fd00ce0bc205944)

## More sticky reward ideas
Every project is different and coming up with ways to use stickers for your own campaign might be tough. Here are a few ideas to inspire your own:

__Reward level stickers:__ Reward your smallest and biggest backers with a sticker that shows your logo and their level of support. It creates a sense of community and encourages larger pledges.

__Themed pack of stickers:__ Get more creative than a logo with a set of designs themed to go along with your product.

> People want something they can hold in their hands. Stickers give people an excuse to talk about their love for words and Wordnik.

With the help of 726 backers, Wordnik successfully raised $58,407 (nearly $10,000 more than their goal). The team continues to add thousands of words each day and has made stickers a staple of their promotion strategy to "get the word out". 

> Stickers are an inexpensive and fun way to make people feel good about what you do. I don’t think any of us ever get over our little kid love of stickers.

Today, Wordnik uses five different stickers to promote their efforts, reward backers, and to raise additional donations with the Adopt-A-Word program. Backers and donors proudly display their "I Love Words" stickers at home and on their cars. 

For more creative ideas for using custom stickers, buttons, magnets and more, [check out our gallery of uses](https://www.stickermule.com/uses).

<ButtonCta text="100+ ways to use Sticker Mule" href="https://www.stickermule.com/uses?ref=blog" />

Wordnik raised more than $50,000 on Kickstarter. Now they're using stickers to add more than a million missing words to the dictionary. 