Behind the scenes with thefandoms.net

I had the pleasure of interviewing the owner of the amazing Instagram account @thefandoms Maddy! If you haven't heard, Maddy runs a online fandom merchandise website which sells The Mortal Instruments, The Hunger Games, One Direction, Divergent and Harry Potter jewelry and everything in her store is under $15!

Here's a little interview:

When asked how she got the idea for her shop this was her response:

A while back, before my Instagram account, my mum and I used to sell Hunger Games merchandise but then stopped after a year or so. When I started my Instagram account, I decided I wanted to sell merchandise again because of the many fandoms I had joined and thought it would be fun. I decided to make a website to sell from and also post up to date fandom news. Originally I wasn't in it for the money, I actually just wanted to give Australians like me a chance to get merchandise at a decent price since we have almost no merchandise here, although I later made my store available to worldwide buyers for only a few more dollars per item.

What's the process of creating and maintaining you're website?

When I was in grade 6-7 I had a website about a game I played online. I shut it down after I grew out of the game but I still had an understanding of how to work a website, coding, layout and so on. I have a Wordpress website so it's a pretty easy and a similar layout to my first website. When you first start, it's very hard to understand and there is so many things you can do on the website, so it is very overwhelming. But once I had an understanding of it and some help form my mum who builds websites, I now run the website on my own. I can't really go through the process because there are literally unlimited things you can do I guess you just really have to know what you want the website for exactly and will it be worth while. I highly recommend Wordpress for beginners as it is simple and easy to work with.

About how long did this all take to set up?

I've had this website for a few months now and haven't had much time to really make it look good but it's still in progress. I still have loads more to do! With setting up the online store, I obviously needed help from my mum since there was coding I didn't know. Each item we had to set up individually but I did all the photography and I physically pack each item I sell and walk up to the post box everyday to send it off.

Sending and receiving:

I order the merchandise I sell in bulk (around 20-hundreds) at a time. It normally takes from a week to two weeks depending on when it was sent and if that time was partially busy. With domestic sales I get (sales within Australia) I post them the day I get them and with international sales normally towards the end of the week and we post the lot at the post office since there is paper we have to fill out.

So overall what have you taken from this experience?

This experience has been amazing and I am looking forward to hopefully continue it in the coming years. There is a lot of work involved and I am going into grade 9 this year but it is fun and amazing to make fangirls and fanboys happy all over the world. Not only is it fun, but I have learnt a lot about money and I physically have to write down and work out profit from each item I sell, but in the end it's all worth it.

I personally have bought nearly everything from Maddy's store and I love the things that I have gotten! I hope you check out her website, love and buy her merchandised!

Article By: Ashley