With the project plan done, one of the first things I wanted to do was get a website built for my future Star Atlas merch store. I am a big believer in the power of websites, even with social media and community platforms. Part of this is to get a domain name and have a place on the Internet that I fully control.

Domain names are complicated now days because all the good names are already taken. But I got lucky because I had already found a name for my Star Atlas blog and newsletter website, Intergalactic Herald. I did some brainstorming, and the word “gear” sounded good for a merch store.

I started building the actual website. I run a digital marketing agency and build websites in WordPress for clients, so this was one of the easier parts of this process. As part of the Star Star IP Build program, we have access to Star Atlas images. This helped give the website a nice alignment with Star Atlas. I also set up email accounts matching the domain name.

I started creating a merch survey after getting a basic home page, about page, and contact page. I wanted the Star Atlas community’s thoughts on what merch they wanted to purchase.

The next step was to create an official business.