STeaP: The Tea Vodcast

Future Direction of STeaP

We’ve traveled a long way since starting STeaP, from an off the cuff whim to actually traveling and filming an episode in NYC. Along the way, we’ve met some great people (you) and had a whole lot of fun drinking some great teas.

Brandice and I have recently been thinking of expanding the show past my dining room and going to more tea rooms and tea events throughout the country. We also want to upgrade some equipment, like microphones and cameras, and get more prizes to give away like the last showdown (which we both thought was a blast). There’s even a cool event in NY in April called the Coffee and Tea Festival that would be awesome to go to but it would cost about $300.

All of this will require financial backing of some sort. So far, nearly everything has been out of pocket for us. Getting outside money will allow us to do a lot more with STeaP in general. This, of course, is a big step for us and I wanted to get the community’s input on how it could go down. I think there are a couple of options here, but I wanted to get people’s input into what everyone thought was best.

Options I see are:

  1. Get a sponsor or three. This would mean that there would be ads on the show. I wouldn’t want it to be blatant and I wouldn’t want to be beholden to liking a tea I thought was gross, but it would mean advertising and logos in the actual episodes.
  2. Ask for donations, NPR-style. That would mean money from all of you and a slower “growth” cycle. Also, you’ll be giving us money to go to cool places and buy you prizes. It seems weird to me, but maybe it does make sense.
  3. We could sell something of value. There’s a concept! We’ve thought of doing T Shirts and maybe even a quick reference book. There could be DVDs (If you’re all gluttons for punishment!). With this, we could make a small overhead and use that towards the things we want.
  4. We don’t do anything different. We could just live on the equipment we have now, stay in our dining room and just give away prizes that tea shops donate. With all the free tea donations, I don’t think I’ll be buying tea for a while so future expenditures look to be pretty low. This would be called the “Don’t sell out” option, I guess and if that’s what people want, then that would be fine with us.

If you would like to leave your two cents on the subject, please comment below. What would you like the future of STeaP to be? If we should grow, what’s the best way? Are you avidly against ads in the show? What about on the blog?

Site News

  • http://felicitea.com/news/news.html Summer

    Before I say too much, I’ll remind you I am a small tea store owner.

    1. If you sell advertising, in the vids or on the site, why not sell small ads, keeping them all the same size and letting small and big tea companies, pot suppliers, etc advertise. If you keep the prices reasonable you might get more small tea shops who could advertise – not the same as some big ol’ sponsorship, but often sponsorship comes with other ties you might not wish for.

    Try Blogads (I can send you an invite still hanging around from my “real” blogging days) or something similar where you have a lot of control over size, pricing etc. To get an idea, I use them on my site to advertise my specials, but if you go to blogads.com you’ll see lots of examples and be able to get an idea on pricing. If you had some small advertising on the blog, you wouldn’t be beholden to any one or three companies, and be able to keep the show your own.

    I’m against ads in the show, personally, even if they were mine. Such things always seem obvioius or stilted to me. Besides you guys are reviewing tea and tea products. If you had an in show sponsor, people might wonder if you were tilted towards them.

    2. Put up a donation button. You never know. Lots of bloggers do this, never beg for the money, and get some once in a while. It’s a nice thing people can do. And it’s just a link, so it doesn’t take much time or space to just let it sit there.

    3. Do sell stuff. Your NYC tshirts were very cool. It’s be nice to have something like that to wear. Imagine drinking out a SteapTV mug… that’s be very cool.

    4. Re: prizes. Don’t be afraid to solicit for prizes. I’ll tell you right now that when I send you guys samples, I plan to send you some extra goodies to give away. First off, if a company is sending you their tea to be sampled, they want two things: a good review and their name out there. The thing about sending samples is you might not get a good review, but either way, your name is out if your tea is used. If I send you prize goodies, then not only do you get my tea, so does someone else, plus whoever didn’t win, might go buy my tea to try it.

    It doesn’t take an overly savvy business person to figure that out. And if it does, well, I just spelled it out for them. :)

    5. (yes, I just made my own point) I like what you guys do, as a tea drinker, not just a tea professional. I’d hate to see your opinions altered by advertising, but I’d love to see you guys be able to do more. It sounds like you have no problem getting new teas, but I’d love to see more tea room reviews. Should you come to Charlotte, ours are wonderful and could most certainly use a little attention.

    And now, 5 cents later, I’ll hush up. :)

  • http://brandice.net Brandice

    Wonderful (and very helpful) comments, Summer. I really appreciate such well thought out feedback, and you make a lot of excellent points. Joe and I will have a lot to talk about just from your comment! :)

  • http://michellesolomon.blogspot.com/ Michelle

    I think if you’d like to expand your circuitry (if you will), then there’s at least a modicum of sense in accepting advertising. I guess some folks might be touchy about that, but I’m not. I don’t see advertising as an endorsement – especially if one were to review the product and offer one’s own opinion (the way you do with tea samples) (and if that’s an option) – and even more especially if you had input as to which ads you were permitted to show. However, if that makes you very uncomfortable – being beholden to a company whose politics you didn’t agree with, as opposed a product you might just personally not have a taste for – then don’t allow such advertising. Strangely, people (or at least I) can often tell when strong distaste for the company come through, and that can affect the quality of the show.

    I like the idea of a donation button. I also like the idea of buying t-shirts (or whatever) and a tea reference book (you might get a bit more $ by offering something in return, and it’s probably a bit less irritating that in-show ads. If I hear one more ad for Go Daddy…)

  • http://www.deliberatepixel.com/ Jen

    I have no problem with a reasonable amount of ads. I don’t think it’s selling out at all – just enabling you to make the show even better. Also, I think merchandise in general and a reference book in particular are great ideas.

  • Mat

    OK, let me start by saying I would never have been a tea drinker now if it wasn’t for the show. Having said that, I obviously base my limited tea knowledge of what to order based on what I see on the show. Advertising is a great way to bring money into the show, and as the show producers, you have the right to accept or deny any advertising that would be presented. If you didn’t like the product, you could say no. In addition to that, the viewers are more beholden to an advertiser that you would actually allow to be on the show. I think donations would be ok, I think merchandising would be cool, but I think advertising would allow the biggest bang for the buck, as well as still giving you the freedom to decide what is on the show.

  • Mat

    OK, wasn’t done yet.

    Live ads are a great way to go, actually using the product on the show, but making a seperate part of the show. Plus, I know how much of a genius the two of you are, (and others in Joe’s family…), and actual commercial like advertising could even been done once in a while. Of course, the more work involved, the more an ad costs, yada yada yada. Being that I work in sales and marketing, I know of no other high impact way of making revenue than by advertising, and allowing that advertising on your show would do the same for you.

  • http://felicitea.com/news/news.html Summer

    Back when I blogged for fun, not work (it’s amazing how running your own business can suck up your entire life) I went through the same issue. I was blogging, working hard at it and enjoying. Plus I was getting bundles of hits. What I was doing was important, helpful and creative.

    I, personally, went with blog ads, and dropped google ads after trying them for a while, because I found them to be least obtrusive, best money for the acreage they took up on my sidebar. (I checked, and I do have an invite left, so you let me know if you want it.)

    I really like Mat’s idea of live commercials. I can see you guys doing supremely awesome things with that. If you can figure out how to price it, it could be very cool.

  • Rachel

    Merchandise is a great way to go! Get up a cafepress store (they have a lot of options including mugs! Who wouldn’t want a STeaP mug!?) I like the donation button as well! As for the sponser, I’m not too fond of that idea, but if you get a nice sponser that you think we can all live with then that’ll be cool.

  • http://www.firstclown.us/ FirstClown

    This is why I love doing this show. I knew all of you would have great input on this.

    This was all great input and I’m slowly formulating a plan for all this. I’ll be sure to post it to the blog once it all solidifies in my head.

    Thank you all for your great feedback and if you have anything more to say, feel free to post it here.

  • samantha

    I’m all for expansion, and I would definitely buy some merchandise if you put it out there. The only draw back about putting ads in the show is that you need to be careful not to cross the selling out/cheesy commercial line (or, at least, I would be upset if you did). But I dont think you will.

    I hope to see great things in the future!

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