Most Barbershop choruses and quartets have a web site. Some of them use that site to gain additional revenue for the group. Others do not, some by choice, and others because they simply don't know how. For those in this last group, here are some ideas for turning your web site into dollars for the organization.
There is a website, CafePress, that enables groups or individuals to open an online store, with t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, mugs, and many other items of merchandise. CafePress handles all the manufacturing, order fulfillment, and billing. The only thing the "shopkeeper" has to do is to set up the store, a very simple process, and to upload the desired graphics. Chapters and quartets could put their logos on merchandise, and make them available to their members and fans. CafePress has a base price for each item, and the shopkeeper can decide on an appropriate mark-up. That mark-up is the profit for the group.
Several Chapters and quartets from different Barbershop societies have done this. Among them are Houston Tidelanders, Queen City Sound, and the Coastal Chordsmen, as well as Acappellics Anonymous. Your chapter or quartet could do the same.
Of course, once your shop is functioning, you need to have customers. It would make sense to put a link from your web site to the shop. If you have a fan web site, the links will be taken care of for sending your fans to the shop. And simply let us know about your shop here at BarbershopStuff, and we will be sure to include a link to your shop.
CafePress also has an Affiliate program. If you sign up as an affiliate, you can set-up links to other CafePress shops, and any sales as a result of those links will net you a 20% commission on the base price of the merchandise. You can not earn this commission on sales at your own shop, but there are plenty of other Barbershop-related shops you could link to, including BarbershopStuff, BarbershopStep, and others.
Idea #3 - Other Affiliate Programs
There are many other online businesses that offer affiliate programs as an incentive to send customers to their site. Some of these businesses produce products or services that are appropriate for a Barbershop audience. Our favorite is Singing Success a course that we have tried, and can vouch for its effectiveness. If you sign-up for their affiliate program and put a link to them on your site, each sale that results could net your group $50. For a product that could benefit virtually any Barbershop singer, this is a great opportunity.
This works best on content-oriented pages, but if you are willing to share some space on your website with advertising, Google AdSense makes it easy to place appropriate ads on your page. Google has many advertisers who are focussing on certain keywords, and Google analyzes your site to place appropriate ads in real time. When visitors click on the ads on your page, Google shares some of the ad revenue with you. You may need to experiment to see whether this will work well for you.