4.2 KiB
TASK 54 — Marcom round: free-forever positioning + merch (queued 2026-10-08)
Catalog:
TASKS.md— status and requirements live here.
Why: the monetization decision changed. LlamaCasty launches watermark-free and free as in beer, forever — no paid tiers, no branding flash. The old watermark-paid-delta plan (TASK 10) is superseded. Money, if any, comes from gratuity and branded merch, never from gating the app.
History of the ruling (creator-led, 2026-10-08): feature set is locked for v1; there are no new pricing tiers to build. The compensation decision: ship the app free and watermark-free, put a coffee jar / merch storefront in front of people, done. Assistant recommendation that was accepted: print-on-demand merch instead of a tip jar for the main channel, because a t-shirt the viewer wears is free advertising a donation is not.
Done so far:
- ✅ llamacasty.com stripped of ALL pricing (2026-10-08): plans ($0/$10/$400), the feature chart,
the "made with LlamaCasty!" flash copy, and the
#pricingsection replaced with a free-forever band: "Free forever. Completely yours." — no watermark, no branding on stream, no subscription, no account. Nav + footer relinked to#free. Deployed + verified live (0 pricing refs). - ✅ Ruling recorded: no watermark, no branding-flash, app ships as-is.
Merch plan (accepted, corrected 2026-10-08):
- Printful as the producer/fulfillment (quality + creative control). Storefront-layer facts
(verified via websearch 2026-10-08 — there is NO free one-site tier that integrates Printful):
- Printful's built-in storefront ("Quick Stores") = US-seller/US-buyer only, no custom domain.
- Ecwid: free Starter plan has no third-party app integrations — Printful's own doc states Printful requires Venture, Business, or Unlimited (Venture ≈ $29/mo annual). Dead on a free tier.
- PROVIDER DECISION (2026-10-08, after websearch of the POD market): Fourthwall, not Printful. It eliminates the storefront-layer problem entirely:
- Real free plan ($0/mo, not a trial), built-in storefront, connect own domain
(
shop.llamacasty.com) for free (Pro $19/mo adds .store domain, 0% digital fees). - Native creator integrations: YouTube Merch Shelf, Twitch product gifting, TikTok Shop, Discord — where the young audience buys.
- Fulfillment incl. Mexico (US/UK/EU/CA/MX/AU/JP partners); Merchant of Record (tax/VAT handled); Fourthwall handles catalog-order customer support.
- No platform fee on physical products — base cost + processing (2.9%+30¢ domestic) only; you keep 100% of markup. Quality-first curated partners (max-ink printing), not supplier lottery.
- vs rivals: Printful/POD = production-only (storefront friction = the whole Square/BigCartel/ Ecwid saga above); Printify = cheapest bases but needs third-party store + own tax/support.
- GO/NO-GO to verify at signup: Fourthwall seller payout to a Mexico-based account (MX shipping is confirmed; seller payouts unverified).
- Design assets (llama 816×1645 @300dpi PNG, back-URL text) port as-is; re-confirm the catalog picks (hoodie, tee, stickers, bottle) in Fourthwall's catalog.
- Small lineup: 3–5 items to start (t-shirt, mug, sticker set — the llama logo is the obvious
draw). Assets live in
llamacasty.web/assets/img/(icon-512.png, logo.webp, gramps-480.webp).
In-app tasks bundled here (small, App-layer only):
- ☐ Branding-flash text becomes "llamacasty.com" (single small mention) instead of the "made with LlamaCasty!" overlay — pending the "no branding, completely yours" wording conflict: a streamer showing zero branding and a streamer showing "llamacasty.com" are different promises; creator to pick.
- ☐ Add the merch/storefront links to the About pop-up so the store is reachable from inside the app at all times.
Marcom write-up: capture this whole decision (positioning, competitor note — Meld Studio runs free core + paid AI tiers and a merch store; ArtCraft monetizes AI credits — the free-forever difference) into the dedicated marcom.md file once the creator creates it. This task file is the working copy until then.