# How to get customers to see your t-shirt site?



## Rodney

This is a popular question, and while there is no "easy" answer, this article from entrepeneur magazine is a good starter:



Susan LaPlante-Dube said:


> Smart Marketing Tips for Your Website
> 
> *These success strategies will help you power up your Web presence, attract your target market and create a site that has customers coming back for more.*


http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,316498,00.html

Another good resource (as Phil recently mentioned) is: www.selfpromotion.com

You don't have to spend millions to advertise your site effectively, although it is a good idea to put away some money towards a marketing/advertising budget.

Other ways to get targeted traffic (and customers) to your t-shirt site include search engine listings (both paid and free listings through search engine optimization), directories aimed at your niche (gaming, pets, t-shirts, cars?), newsletter ads in established opt-in newsletters in your niche, magazines.

Once you know who your target market is, it makes it easier to find ways to advertise to them.

What other methods have you found effective?


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## TeeShirtSamurai

The main way I've been getting people to my site is pretty simple and direct. 

*Forums!*

My target market are teenagers/gamers/anime fans. I post on quite a few different message boards that deal with gaming and anime. I put my site in my signature and try and contribute to the boards as much as possible so people pay attention to my posts (my signature) and when possible I post a relevant link to my site. This is pretty cheap and effective.


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## Rodney

> This is pretty cheap and effective.


Agreed! Although not all forums allow that type of "marketing", if you can find the ones that do that also fit right in your target market, it can be a great way to find new customers.

Even in forums you may already visit and be an established member (like if you are part of a knitting forum for years), you could start selling knitting t-shirts and let your fellow community members know about it.


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## TeeShirtSamurai

Rodney said:


> Agreed! Although not all forums allow that type of "marketing", if you can find the ones that do that also fit right in your target market, it can be a great way to find new customers.


Yes, I forgot to mention that bit.


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## ShirtHappens

Thanks alot for for helpful tips gives me ideas on how to get people on my site when I do set one up, ive seen people do this and I usually do click on the link when I know what its going to lead me too (example Phils link I know its a shirt place because of the name)


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## Despotte

Yeah I have been posting on Christian Forums for a while. When I started my tshirt site it was natural to ad my site to my sig line. Also occasionally I can answer a question by directing them to some of my Information sites that also have ads pointing back to my store (and other stores too but that is another discussion)


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## Ball Fish

selfpromotion.com - excellent read
thanks for that one


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## RAHchills

great links Rodney, as usual.

Another way to promote your T-shirt business would be to start an informational web page that deals with the other aspects of your niche market. A blog perhaps, or a complete website with reviews, tips, and links to other pertinent sites. The word of the day is free information. For example, if you're selling t-shirts to an audience of video game enthusiasts then your informational webpage can offer reviews on games and systems that you own. You can make it as big or as small as you want but the key is that you don't have to pay yourself to advertise your t-shirt site on your informational site. This extra outlet also offers credibility to your target audience. They will be able to tell that you know what you're talking about. 

Plus you can try and cash in on affliate programs through Amazon or where-ever based on your reviews. If you give a product a high review then you are, in turn, recommending it to others... why shouldn't you get a cut if someone buys it because they trust your opinion? Which also leads to your credibility as an authority within your niche.

Then there is always myspace and forum sig blocks as Phil mentioned. I'm still putting everything together, but this is the route I'm taking because it costs me more time then it does money and time is on my side, at the moment.


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## Rodney

> Another way to promote your T-shirt business would be to start an informational web page that deals with the other aspects of your niche market.


Another great idea!

Actually, this is EXACTLY what I did when I started in 1996. 

There was no "Google", and the other search engines weren't as good at returning relevant listings yet. There was Yahoo (just a directory), Altavista, and maybe 1 other major engine. No adwords, no overture (yet). 

More people navigated the web via links on sites they were already at, and people more easily linked to sites they just "liked". Webrings actually worked back then. 

So I started the first t-shirt webring (T-Shirts Around the Web) and although there was one other "t-shirt directory" site out there (t-shirtshopper.com, which is still around), I thought I could do it differently and hopefully promote it better, so I created teefinder.com

I've seen the "build content" strategy work in many ways, and I think it's a great long term strategy for success online. 

I've even seen it work by accident (which was sort of the theme of the WSJ article). People start great content sites about topics they are interested in, and as a natural progression, they start selling t-shirts related to that topic either at the request of their visitors or as a way to monetize the site.

What other great ideas are floating out there?


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## Buechee

Thanks Rod.


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## Despotte

I also have a Christian Content site I point to LOTS of Tshirt shops there (Not just my own.) I actually point to a lot of places from there. I try to have a new article or devotional or something every day. Content sites are SLOW though because building an audience takes time is just as hard as getting them strait to your store and it doesn't pay as well LOL. A quick content site is of course your Blog. Don't forget to leave (ON TOPIC) comments in other peoples blogs too. There are also Cheap and Free places to advertise all over the place. Topsites are usually free.


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## bjmason32

After you get indexed......

Write articles, syndicate. Repeat steps 1 and 2....over and over again.

Supplement steps 1 and 2 with:

1. VERY SPECIFIC paid keywords
2. Press Releases (when you have something of value to say)
3. Backlink Development

It will take time, but you'll get traffic.


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## Vtec44

Rodney said:


> Agreed! Although not all forums allow that type of "marketing"


That's why it's best to have your own!  I advertise on forums a lot, including my own. Also, "sex sells" or should I say "sex appeal sells". Depending on your demographic, an attractive looking gal wearing one of your shirts at a high traffic area can be great for business.


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## Xenyo

So many online and offline promotions which works for different types of shops.

One of the most important things I think is to know your niche and target that first. The internet is such a big place and its getting harder and harder to get your site on the map.

I've found that its much easier if you know your niche and target market that area at the start. Methods include search engines, PPC, advertisements on related websites, link exchanges,Forum participation, Myspace, classifieds, anything really.


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## queerrep

Someone submitted my t-shirt site to a major blog read by my target market and the blog wrote a "review" of my site and posted some of my designs (unbeknownst to me at the time). I was totally unprepared for the results. I received one order after the other ... even ran out of transfer paper. The first day the write-up was posted I had something like 700 unique visitors and it slowly dwindled down after about 3 days but within that timeframe, I had over 1000 unique visitors.

So now I'm looking at advertising on blogs since the demographics show that blog readers tend to be fashion-forward, educated, decision-makers and trend setters with disposable income.

Check out www.blogads.com if you're interested.

As for MySpace, my experience with using that as a marketing tool is that you may get a ton of hits but most of the users are teenagers who don't have money to purchase anything.


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## RAHchills

rlfreshwater said:


> Someone submitted my t-shirt site to a major blog read by my target market and the blog wrote a "review" of my site and posted some of my designs (unbeknownst to me at the time). I was totally unprepared for the results. I received one order after the other ... even ran out of transfer paper. The first day the write-up was posted I had something like 700 unique visitors and it slowly dwindled down after about 3 days but within that timeframe, I had over 1000 unique visitors.
> 
> So now I'm looking at advertising on blogs since the demographics show that blog readers tend to be fashion-forward, educated, decision-makers and trend setters with disposable income.
> 
> Check out www.blogads.com if you're interested.
> 
> As for MySpace, my experience with using that as a marketing tool is that you may get a ton of hits but most of the users are teenagers who don't have money to purchase anything.


holy cow, good call Rhonda. I never thought of that, thanks for the tip.


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## queerrep

You're welcome, Chris. Another option is to send a free t-shirt to the owner of a blog which may get you a free plug. That's cheap advertising and I'm all about that.


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## gedapear

What are some differnt blogs site and how do you find these blogs?


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## Rodney

> What are some differnt blogs site and how do you find these blogs?


I'd prefer not to start listing the various blog sites here. But if you do a Google search for t-shirt blogs or something like that (or even blogs that match your site theme: fishing blogs, anime blogs, etc), you'll find lots of them.


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## normsbrand

Have you tried sending some shirts to the t-shirt reviewer's out there?

I have also been selling a few from MySpace. I have created a MySpace page that advertises my shirts, and people like 'em, and buy them.

I am currently trying to get my shirts into boutiques via consignment or wholesale, but I am not having much luck with that in Dallas.

n o r m


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## Buechee

Does flyers help? Do any of you try handing out flyer with your site name on it?


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## Rodney

> Does flyers help? Do any of you try handing out flyer with your site name on it?


It seems like it would have to be a very targeted venue where you pass out your flyers. Most of the time I avoid people handing out flyers and if I get them, I throw them away.


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## hongkongdmz

You could always have packaging and offer free stuff with a membership card that said register on the website. Free membership card with a cool design might encourage people to look at your URL more then just flyers that were obvious advertising. I guess its about convincing people to see your URL.


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## kahseong

thanks folks for the wonderful tips! i am a newbies in term of t shirt selling,just started a shop in www.cafepress.com, really glad to see passion and business got combined together!


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## EngBulldog

It is neat to see all of these clever/unique ways for marketing. Right now I am still clueless about website recognition, adwords, etc. How do you go about paying for google adwords. Is there a website that you register with? I really need to start researching this but kind of confused on where to start.


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## Rodney

> How do you go about paying for google adwords. Is there a website that you register with?


The Google Adwords signup and information page is right here:
https://adwords.google.com/select/Login4


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## EngBulldog

Rodney, you are a damn fine site moderator/administrator. Thanks for the link. It is a little bit like apples and oranges but getting info here is alot faster than screenprinters.net. Take care


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## EngBulldog

Well I have been reading about how adwords work. What is the norm or average a t-shirt site should pay for adwords. Especialy one that is diverse with several different designs. If all I did was political shirts, then I can see a strategy with adwords. But we have some political, sports, boating, dogs, urban, country, etc. etc. How many adwords should a shirt company have that doesn't really specialize in one type of design?


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## Rodney

> But we have some political, sports, boating, dogs, urban, country, etc. etc. How many adwords should a shirt company have that doesn't really specialize in one type of design?


You wouldn't advertise your whole site. You would just advertise on keywords for specific designs/categories.

For example, if you have a section that is all boating designs, then you might want to buy Adwords keywords like "boating t-shirts" "boating gifts" "nautical t-shirts", etc.

That way, when a person is searching google for "boating t-shirts", then your website would come up in the Sponsored Links locations (like they show on their sample pages). Your ad would then direct the shopper to the Boating T-Shirts category of your website where the shopper can pick from your available designs and make a purchase.

By narrowing down your subject and keywords to be as specific as possible, you not only get a more targeted shopper, you also have a bit less competition for those keywords so you won't have to pay as much per click.

Bidding on the keyword "t-shirts" would probably be pretty expensive, but "boating t-shirts" would probably be much less expensive and still give you good visitors.

You can bid on as many keywords or as few keywords as you like and link the shopper to wherever you want on your site. The deeper into your site that you link the shopper, the better chance you have at converting the sale. The person doesn't want to have to search around your site just to find the boating t-shirt you were just advertising.

If you had a yellow catamaran t-shirt, you could even bid on the keyword "yellow catamaran t-shirt" and link the ad directly to the specific page in your online catalog where the shopper can click add to cart for that t-shirt design. Talk about targeted advertisng 

You can find lots of great tips and suggestions for adwords in the webmasterworld adwords forum: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adwords/

Even browsing through their "library" of past topics will give you a head start on your Adwords experience: http://www.webmasterworld.com/libraryv4.cgi?viewforum=81


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## vivi

in my view, firstly your website itself should be attractive to the others, and optimize it for the keywords.secondly, you could post ads on the relatived sites such yellow pages, classified, marketplace and etc. Also, google is very powerful for promoting your business, it's my computer main page!


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## MotoskinGraphix

It really is all about search engine optimization (SEO). Before you go out and spend countless dollars for adwords or pay per click etc you need to get inside your site and realize how search engines find you. You have to understand how the system works. There are tons of free SEO tools and articles to help you learn and achieve this realization. The top ten sites on any topic search have figured it out. Google up a topic and grab the number one result. Right click your mouse and choose view source code. You should be able to see exactly how their title page is set up....its just a reference but sometimes very enlightening. If you do that within the market you are trying to get into it will help you in choosing your keywords. This can go on and on but the info is out there and SEO is the first, most basic and initial way to be seen on the web. Something that most folks overlook and dont spend the time tooling. The real deal is that its ever changing and evolving and you should spend time revamping your site until things click...they will but it does take time.


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## kahseong

rough estimation, how much would it cost to buy the adword for a tees website?


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## Rodney

> rough estimation, how much would it cost to buy the adword for a tees website?


You'd have to look it up  I think you can signup and check the bid amounts. The prices vary a lot per keyword though.


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## hongkongdmz

Are Adwords worth it for a start-up business?


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## monkeylantern

kahseong said:


> rough estimation, how much would it cost to buy the adword for a tees website?


https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal


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## hongkongdmz

Thanks for the URL...


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## MissC

That is a great way I have tried that and it has also been effective for me. I have not had my online store for long but I already have some pretty good customers.


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## hongkongdmz

So its worth trying then...


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## farennikov

hongkongdmz said:


> Are Adwords worth it for a start-up business?


in my experience, when I pay $0.5 per click on Yahoo, same key phrase is around $1.5 - $2 on AdWords.


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## Xenyo

I have found Yahoo and MSN PPCs are much cheaper than Google's too. Maybe try those before you spend mega bucks on Adwords.

Also Rodney's advice for not using Adwords for your general site is probably the best advice you'll hear.

As with all forms of marketing adwords needs time and effort. Spend a bit more time in setting up your campaign to target specifics on good keywords will save you alot of money and get better traffic.


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## The Boston Joka

I am amazed at how much there is going on!! I just came up with this idea I thought LOL Thanks Guys ALOT


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## xprexu

Has anyone had any experiences on the shopping sites like shopping.com, shopzilla, etc. I had a negative experience on shopping.com. I had been conscientiously tracking my store's site visitors to better gauge the traffic from shopping.com. For my category I had to bid $1.09 just to get a couple of visitors a day. All of a sudden one day I was charged for 25 clicks (you can do the math) however, my store site did not reflect any of those visitors, I just had 1 visitor that day (which was probably me, ha ha) Anyway, I submitted a case review with the company and they got back with me after several days and sent a report which supposedly contained the i.p addresses of people who had clicked on my products and had been linked to my site. The weird thing is, it did not show the 25 clicks in one day as my account was charged. Not sure what the deal was but it left me with a bad impression on the pay per click advertising. Anyone have any experiences or thoughts?


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## T-BOT

xprexu said:


> Anyone have any experiences or thoughts?


PPC type ads you need to research it a lot and almost make it your full time job to work it and supervise it.


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## trackthistee

xprexu said:


> Has anyone had any experiences on the shopping sites like shopping.com, shopzilla, etc. I had a negative experience on shopping.com. I had been conscientiously tracking my store's site visitors to better gauge the traffic from shopping.com. For my category I had to bid $1.09 just to get a couple of visitors a day. All of a sudden one day I was charged for 25 clicks (you can do the math) however, my store site did not reflect any of those visitors, I just had 1 visitor that day (which was probably me, ha ha) Anyway, I submitted a case review with the company and they got back with me after several days and sent a report which supposedly contained the i.p addresses of people who had clicked on my products and had been linked to my site. The weird thing is, it did not show the 25 clicks in one day as my account was charged. Not sure what the deal was but it left me with a bad impression on the pay per click advertising. Anyone have any experiences or thoughts?


I had a somewhat similar experience with Yahoo! Search Marketing. As a result, I'm very apprehensive with regard to PPC advertising. Obviously, the more research you arm yourself with, the better. But at the end of the day... you have to look at your advertising budget, and you have to ask yourself: "How much of this am I willing to lose?". I know I'm oversimplifying everything, but my point is we need to remind ourselves that there are no guarantees with any form of advertising. I think MotoskinGraphix has a VERY valid point. Use the help resources available, but it's best to really understand your site (and yourself) inside and out. Otherwise, you're just buying a sales pitch.


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## cottagecraftsmen

There is nothing that beats person to person contact. Sometimes you just gotta knock on doors. I've also noticed this... $200 ad in the local newspaper (not even a 1/4 page in the daily with a circulation of 75,000, but buys two in the weekly with a circulation of 8,000) gets you nothing. $200 worth of advertising on the web gets you less. $200 worth of direct mail followed up by personal contacts will get you easily $1,000 short time and much more long term. Heck, even $200 worth of listings on eBay gets more than what you will generate from most sites.
That "in your face factor" makes sales. Too many static sites selling more of the same. My work is not overly brilliant, clever or creative, yet I make a living, because I'm always in my customers face, not using passive advertising.


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## Buechee

cottagecraftsmen said:


> There is nothing that beats person to person contact. Sometimes you just gotta knock on doors. I've also noticed this... $200 ad in the local newspaper (not even a 1/4 page in the daily with a circulation of 75,000, but buys two in the weekly with a circulation of 8,000) gets you nothing. $200 worth of advertising on the web gets you less. $200 worth of direct mail followed up by personal contacts will get you easily $1,000 short time and much more long term. Heck, even $200 worth of listings on eBay gets more than what you will generate from most sites.
> That "in your face factor" makes sales. Too many static sites selling more of the same. My work is not overly brilliant, clever or creative, yet I make a living, because I'm always in my customers face, not using passive advertising.


 
This is the main reason why I would rather do shows and events. You can get that BAM, here you go going on. And it is harder to say no and walk off as suppose to just closing out a window.


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## MotoskinGraphix

We just finished up a small import event in San Antonio this past Sunday. One day event about five solid hours of selling time...we did $600 in custom vinyl and stock plastisol shirts. There are much better shows but this promoter lets us have a 10x20 booth for zero. A simple days work.


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## Buechee

Moto I like that shirt. The clown looks good on black. 

Now that's what I'm talking bout. $600 for a day. It's folks that work all week and don't see that much money. Now if you can do that every weekend, you'd have about $2400 for 4 days work. Add fri. and sat. on and you'd be looking nice.


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## TaylorTees

MotoskinGraphix said:


> We just finished up a small import event in San Antonio this past Sunday. One day event about five solid hours of selling time...we did $600 in custom vinyl and stock plastisol shirts. There are much better shows but this promoter lets us have a 10x20 booth for zero. A simple days work.


Do you have any pics of what your booth normally looks like?? Do you have preprinted shirts, or just the transfers and heat press and vinyl cutter sitting right there?? We have never done anything like this, it would be neat to see pictures if you or anyone else has any. What amount of stock do you take to average shows? Blanks, rolls.. etc... Do you have price lists set up for everyone to see, are they laying on the table.. are things individually marked ..??


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## Solmu

TaylorTees said:


> We have never done anything like this, it would be neat to see pictures if you or anyone else has any.


This thread (_Pics of your set-up, display, store_) has a few pictures members have posted (although it could always use more if anyone has any lying around )


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## yummymom007

I have been interested in this myself although I want to get my site up and running better


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## MotoskinGraphix

TaylorTees said:


> Do you have any pics of what your booth normally looks like?? Do you have preprinted shirts, or just the transfers and heat press and vinyl cutter sitting right there?? We have never done anything like this, it would be neat to see pictures if you or anyone else has any. What amount of stock do you take to average shows? Blanks, rolls.. etc... Do you have price lists set up for everyone to see, are they laying on the table.. are things individually marked ..??


As with most events I take the camera but get busy and dont have time to take pics. We were fighting the wind at this event so very busy with customers and booth upkeep.

I take the computer, plotter, sign vinyl and heatpress vinyl as well as the heatpress. I bring two bins of blank shirts, about 75 of white and black in S-2XL with a couple 3XL thrown in. I also have a box of various sized hoodies for this time of year in black.

I am trying to get all the sample shirts off the tables so I built a portable expandable hanging rail system to drape the shirts. I can display around fourty different designs which make up the backdrop and sides of the booth. I have all the designs printed on L-XL shirts except for the ladies tanks hanging as the backdrop previously mentioned. People can see what they want and we print on demand with the stock transfers. When its busy you take the order, payment and the customers cell and call them when the shirt is ready.

The custom vinyl shirts are done the same way but chosen from a catalog of fonts available and my graphics catalog. Vinyl shirts start at between $15-$20 depending on the event and size of the crowd. Most sell for at least $25 and the hoodies around $25-$30.

I have no price lists unless I am blowing something out....simple mistakes or old dispay gear. I try and sell the customer...if you engage the folks you can sell your shirts.

The vinyl cutter as well as weeding and the heatpress are a free show..trust me, people will watch you create your product.


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## Gusto

David thanks for sharing. Very clever and insightfull. It seems like you've been doing it for quite a while. The only thing I was not clear on was how you go about pricing. Do you have a set price for your products and then negotiate with the customers?


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## MotoskinGraphix

Gusto said:


> David thanks for sharing. Very clever and insightfull. It seems like you've been doing it for quite a while. The only thing I was not clear on was how you go about pricing. Do you have a set price for your products and then negotiate with the customers?


Yes we do...the stock trransfer shirts start at $15 and the custom shirts start at $20. I say start because if you throw out a final price in the beginning of the sale you will shoot yourself by the end. Folks ask for all kinds of things on shirts. A stock transfer on the front and one on the back...price goes up. Transfer on the front and a name on the back...price goes up. Custom shirts can go just about anywhere...starting at $20 they can easily reach $25-$30 depending on how much info they want you to cut or multiple colors etc.


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## Gusto

Thanks again david, Seems like you got down packed.


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## MotoskinGraphix

Gusto said:


> Thanks again david, Seems like you got down packed.


I learned everything the hard way or should I say my way. My first four events were scheduled and payed for before I even had a plotter, vinyl and software. I literally got my gear a week before our first show and basically learned by doing at the events. I bought the vinyl on the way to the show. I dont have it all down pat, probably not even half of it actually. I do have the most important thing down solid...I believe in myself and I can wake up everyday with a smile humming a tune. Failures along the way for sure so you learn and adapt, move on and try again. Probably why I am on this board is to help when I can, give an honest answer and most of all learn from our fellow participants.


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## Gusto

MotoskinGraphix said:


> I do have the most important thing down solid...I believe in myself and I can wake up everyday with a smile humming a tune. Failures along the way for sure so you learn and adapt, move on and try again. Probably why I am on this board is to help when I can, give an honest answer and most of all learn from our fellow participants.


 I have to agree with you about believing in yourself, You are what you think.
And if you can envision success it's a great catapult to making it happen and taking advantage of opurtunities as they arise. You and our fellow participants have been a great help & inspiration to me. So thank you Tshirtforums & rodney.
I have contributing my 2 cents when possible & i intend on showing some of my work on here as i grow in this bussiness for others to take/learn what they can from it.


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## T-BOT

*How to get customers to see your t-shirt site?*

One way is to advertise in a High Traffic site.  

I mean, in all probability, exposing a Site Crasher Ad special in 1 single high traffic site, earning $ 1000 - $ 2000 per day in sales is not out of this world. Trickee yes.


:


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## rejoice

There is no advertising allowed, so if you google "big cartel" you will find
a company that allows you to setup your own online shop for free, and then if you need more options you can upgrade.

All shops are also advertised internally and they have a forum where you may showcase your work. Really easy to use and a professional setup. Check it out if you like, if not... happy advertising.


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## Rodney

> There is no advertising allowed, so if you google "big cartel"


Recommendations are fine, as long as it's not *your* site  It's just self promotion that's not allowed.

Big Cartel » Bringing the Art to the Cart has been mentioned a few times in the forums before


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## rejoice

alright cool... glad to hear it


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## AkoiApparel

God article

Sales, Marketing - How to Attract Visitors to Your Site


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## adguypaul1

Rodney,

I see that you are in Sac. and you have been in business a while. Let me ask you? Have you had any experience in running direct response display ads in targeted publications to drive traffic to your t-shirt site? 

Do you have any information on how well companies in "The Post" section of Rolling Stone do? What about other magazines that target that same buying trend?

Paul


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## mylo

Have anyone of you have tried those web traffic packages they sell? Im thinkikng of buying one but I would like to have some feedback first...

Thanks
Mylo


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## Rodney

mylo said:


> Have anyone of you have tried those web traffic packages they sell? Im thinkikng of buying one but I would like to have some feedback first...
> 
> Thanks
> Mylo


Web traffic offers (like $10 for 50,000 hits to your site) are worthless.


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## clothmoth

queerrep said:


> Someone submitted my t-shirt site to a major blog read by my target market and the blog wrote a "review" of my site and posted some of my designs (unbeknownst to me at the time). I was totally unprepared for the results. I received one order after the other ... even ran out of transfer paper. The first day the write-up was posted I had something like 700 unique visitors and it slowly dwindled down after about 3 days but within that timeframe, I had over 1000 unique visitors.
> 
> So now I'm looking at advertising on blogs since the demographics show that blog readers tend to be fashion-forward, educated, decision-makers and trend setters with disposable income.
> 
> Check out Blog advertising makes opinions - Blogads stir opinion makers if you're interested.
> 
> As for MySpace, my experience with using that as a marketing tool is that you may get a ton of hits but most of the users are teenagers who don't have money to purchase anything.


I'll be interested in hearing how this works for you (advertising in blogs through blogads). Never know until you try! 

I would tread cautiously at first and put a small amount into it to be safe. . . my day job is marketing for a major software company, and banner ads on a whole have an average click through rate of well under 1%. A 2% click through rate for a banner would be considered great. So of the 100,000 impressions in a week you might buy for 50 - 100 bucks, you could probably count on 500 - 600 or so visits to your site. If you were to convert 2% of those to sales, you'd be looking at around ten customers out of the deal. There is no exact math to this game, but it's good to at least get an idea of industry average projections to baseline your efforts against (and to help you make smart decisions buying media).

The best advertising ever is the kind you got from the blog that wrote a review on your site. . . it costs you nothing, and you benefit from actually being written about (and endorsed) by a trusted source. This lends quite a bit of credibility to your site, and as you witnessed, drives sales. 

Ideally, instead of purchasing banner ads, you could contact the bloggers themselves and see if you could cut a "product placement" deal with them. You know how you always see brand name products in movies, sometimes inconspicuously and sometimes shamelessly. . . if you can actually get the blogger to drop a mention / show a picture of your site or product within the blog itself, your results would be much greater. 

Blog advertising is definitely newer territory, so the industry standards aren't as well defined. Mostly, I just wanted to point out that blogads is definitely selling banner placements, which are less likely to yield the high response rates you could expect from getting your product incorporated directly within the blog copy. If you go with blogads, be sure to post back some metrics when your campaign concludes. . . number of impressions, number of click throughs, and number of conversions (i.e. sales) would be great. 

Also, the way to win at this game is to get the lowest price per impression while still reaching a highly targeted demographic. Sometimes the best performers are hidden gems, not necessarily the most mainstream sites but ones that have smaller, highly dedicated readerships.


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## wirenut103

Great info Joshua!! Thanks for the numbers from a marketing standpoint, I was trying to figure out the average percentages.


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## Misdirected Male

I've dabbled in Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Facebook flyers. Yahoo has been generally cheaper than Google for the same keywords. Facebook was even cheaper, but very inconsistent. Also, it's often difficult for me to get one of my designs to look good on the banner size allowed. Text looks lousy at 100x100. I've found that the content network part of Adwords gives me good placement at cheaper rates, and it uses your keywords whether they're in the bid range or not, so I don't worry so much about getting clicks from direct searches. Either way, these have all had dismal conversion rates on my small budget. I like the idea I saw in a previous post--I'm going to hit the bricks and canvass some neighborhoods. The worst that happens is I lose a few pounds.


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## SICK

AkoiApparel said:


> God article
> 
> Sales, Marketing - How to Attract Visitors to Your Site


That article was written in 2005 ... it is totally obsolete.


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## Rodney

SICK said:


> That article was written in 2005 ... it is totally obsolete.


Actually, it's not totally obsolete. As I said in my original post:



Rodney said:


> This is a popular question, and while there is no "easy" answer, this article from entrepeneur magazine is a *good starter*:


Also, the theme of the thread is sharing what tips you have for getting customers to your site.



Rodney said:


> What other methods have you found effective?


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## SICK

I started seo and internet marketing way back in 2002, the best place in world for info on how to get traffic with the latest trends, can be found on digitalpoint.com's forums..

Webmaster Forum - Internet Marketing & Search Engine Forums

try this forum:

General Marketing Forum

This is a link to the general internet marketing.


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## Rodney

SICK said:


> I started seo and internet marketing way back in 2002, the best place in world for info on how to get traffic with the latest trends, can be found on digitalpoint.com's forums..
> 
> Webmaster Forum - Internet Marketing & Search Engine Forums
> 
> try this forum:
> 
> General Marketing Forum
> 
> This is a link to the general internet marketing.


Thanks for sharing the links. I've been doing this quite a while as well  (since 1996)

Along with those I would include webmasterworld.com and searchenginewatch.com as two great places to learn from.


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## RegularJOE

Ball Fish said:


> selfpromotion.com - excellent read
> thanks for that one


I agree ! Man this site is useful.


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## RegularJOE

We have been back and forth on how we will market our t-shirt at an affordable price effectively. How do you allow the public to explore your website? With an excellent selection of keywords?Spending the money on pay-per-click ect.? I worry more about how to direct traffic to my site then starting and investing in a business all together. I certainly welcome any advise on success or failure in getting your company name out there. Success to all.

Regular Joe


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## nikkirae420

TeeShirtSamurai said:


> The main way I've been getting people to my site is pretty simple and direct.
> 
> *Forums!*
> 
> My target market are teenagers/gamers/anime fans. I post on quite a few different message boards that deal with gaming and anime. I put my site in my signature and try and contribute to the boards as much as possible so people pay attention to my posts (my signature) and when possible I post a relevant link to my site. This is pretty cheap and effective.


What a good idea! Thanks for the helpful tip!!


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## mpstrategies

i still perfer direct marketing, expersive but it works


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## www.frustone.com

RAHchills said:


> great links Rodney, as usual.
> 
> Another way to promote your T-shirt business would be to start an informational web page that deals with the other aspects of your niche market. A blog perhaps, or a complete website with reviews, tips, and links to other pertinent sites. The word of the day is free information. For example, if you're selling t-shirts to an audience of video game enthusiasts then your informational webpage can offer reviews on games and systems that you own. You can make it as big or as small as you want but the key is that you don't have to pay yourself to advertise your t-shirt site on your informational site. This extra outlet also offers credibility to your target audience. They will be able to tell that you know what you're talking about.
> 
> Plus you can try and cash in on affliate programs through Amazon or where-ever based on your reviews. If you give a product a high review then you are, in turn, recommending it to others... why shouldn't you get a cut if someone buys it because they trust your opinion? Which also leads to your credibility as an authority within your niche.
> 
> Then there is always myspace and forum sig blocks as Phil mentioned. I'm still putting everything together, but this is the route I'm taking because it costs me more time then it does money and time is on my side, at the moment.


I agree with you,
I just started a business online of tshirts in supersoft bamboo cotton and what I'm mainly concentrating on is letting people know a bit more about tshirts business and the material used, its sustainability and such. Note: if you feel like you're overselling yourself creating this content, you have to understand that you'rre not saying BS to people, you're just making them aware of a field in which you have more experience that them, and they'll be interested in what you say


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## shersher

Another way is using Craigslist.com

I have had phone calls and email from people and actually had some sales from this


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## SoloStampede

There's tons and tons of free ways of marketing your site that can bring in substantial amounts of traffic:
- If you have discount offers, collect & add yourself to coupon/discount sites.
- If you have a blog, add it to RSS/blog search engines & directories.
- etc


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## pham

I'm really spoilt for choice man. Each time I browse through this website I get more and more educated. Great posts....

I now believe that the BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE!


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## kamilski81

Have you guys ever heard of the 30 Day Challenge. In 30 days, it teaches you a boat load about online marketing, it takes about 30 minutes per day, and I highly recommend it. I am on Day 23 right now. Oh yeah, and it's free.....


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## queerrep

kamilski81 said:


> Have you guys ever heard of the 30 Day Challenge. In 30 days, it teaches you a boat load about online marketing, it takes about 30 minutes per day, and I highly recommend it. I am on Day 23 right now. Oh yeah, and it's free.....


Can you supply a link for this? Thanks!


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## CandyFloss

Putting stickers up all over town, distributing cool flyers that grab attention, doing shows and events, and online marketing, are all great ways to get people to your site. The problem is a lot of people will check out the site and and might not buy something right then and there, and there is no way of you ever being able to reach then again. Having a member login is a good solution to the problem, but if people don't have a vested interest in what you do, then most likely they won't sign up. Myspace and facebook are great social networks. So I would suggest putting your myspace or facebook link right on the home page of your website, and say something like find us on facebook/myspace. A really great way to have people participate in such a network is have contests or giveaways on your myspace/facebok. In other words, there has to be something there for poeple to join your social network. Weather it's pre-releases of new products, contests, giveaways... Just getting people to your website is half the story. To have them join a social network or even a mailing list, is really what counts, because they give you their permission to send them updates about your company, and they are more likely to be more involved in the future. Hope this helps!


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## martinwoods

Rhonda, I am not sure if this could be it but it does say 30 day challenge about making money.
I hope this is it.
Thirty Day Challenge


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## Leatherneck

queerrep said:


> Can you supply a link for this? Thanks!


I would definately like a link for this, can't never have to much marketing advice. thanks


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## kamilski81

That link is correct...let me know what you guys think of the program.


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## queerrep

Thanks, I just signed up.


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## Pumpy

Hi! New to this forum.

Has anyone had success with Facebook ads? I've had lots of clicks, but few sales. Thanks!


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## CandyFloss

I've never done facebook ads, so can't really give advice on that, but i take facebook for what it is; a social network. It's a way to get the community involved and get more prospect buyers to get to your site. If you release products and news on facebook, then you can get people to your site and hopefully buy merchandise.


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## the.one

You could also try posting your shirts on review sites. I run a website (check my signature) that has reviews of anything that users submit. 

Another ideas is Amazon.com. Amazon will take on inventory that you're selling. Basically you would just be using Amazon as a marketplace for your items.

eBay is another idea, but this isn't as nice as Amazon as it's a short time frame that your product is up. It might be nice for testing to see how well your product sells, but I wouldn't use it as an end all to how well your product will sell.


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## Rodney

Pumpy said:


> Hi! New to this forum.
> 
> Has anyone had success with Facebook ads? I've had lots of clicks, but few sales. Thanks!


If you search for facebook using the search box at the top of the page, you'll find a few member's experience with those type ads.


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## micromaui-closed

everyone likes pizza- but I'm not going to a website to look at pictures-or order there. I used postcards for other businesses and it worked. I used the paper and spent 3x as much and never got a call. I'm am now going to use postcard to market my tshirt line- but with a twist I am not reavealing till I see if it works. Keep everyone posted%%%*
Greg


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## bigluelok

im posting here so i dont have to search for it later


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## Antigon

Thanks for all the info...


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## PILIF83

I followed your advices and is starting to be visible  Thanks!!


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## BanTshirts

Lots of great suggestions and ideas. The main ingredients: persistence and hard work! Sooner or later people will get to know and recognise you, and the longer you do it the better you will get at it! Practice makes perfect


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## AnalogJunkie

I know this post is old.. but added a reply anyway for people who might be looking at this thread (like I am). : )

I've tried Facebook ads for other things, and it's a hard market.

You will get LOTS of clicks, but conversions are hard. And they are more expensive than adwords even.

You CAN target keywords, interests, demographics, ect. easily. However, people on Facebook are happy to click but hesitant to spend money. If you have something to give them for free like a giveaway, online game, ect. it might be beneficial to you. Just thought I'd add my experience on this venue.


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## dptk

I did Facebook ads and found the best conversion I got was a cost of $3.00 per shirt sold ($3000 in ads sold 1000 shirts) which I found to be very good, but that is the BEST , lots & lots of not so good results with Facebook ads too, all depends on the quality of the designs


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## SunEmbroidery

One thing I think that people often ignore when marketing their site is that every page on the site is a portal for visitors. Yes, your home page is very important but don't neglect internal pages when marketing. Often inner pages have the potential to attract more buyers because they are more specific keyword-wise or at least they should be.

Another thing I try to do is very the type of text used in page content. Yes, you should maintain a specific page title made up of keywords and this title should be supported by the same key words in your content, H and alt tags, etc but IMO its a good idea to vary text so you don't seem spammy but also so you attract people who search using terms you wouldn't think to use. If your don't already use some type of analytics tool such as Google Analytics you should because you can learn a lot about how people get to your site.

Also, whatever marketing you're doing (blogs, forums, articles, press releases) may not seem like its doing much at first but if you have something unique to say in time people will see it and you will gain more visibility.


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## freak001

Hi,

All of the posts are really very helpful specially for me because i am just going to start my own business of t-shirts very soon so all of your tips will help me a lot. Thanks to all of you and keep sharing tips like this.


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## cookie99

Thank you, that's good articles!


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## Ingenuitee

I am quite new to marketing t-shirt online. At the moment I am trying out Facebook and blog. I have created a Facebook group for my t-shirts. I have some traffic coming to my online store but no sale yet. I have also created a blog where I post articles about t-shirts in general and I link the blog to my online store. Have yet to see the results but I do hope to bring in some traffic from there as well.


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## TparTees

This is very informative. Thanks a million.


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## dinotheweirdo

I'm on about 32 forums to 'target market " my stuff. I operate a Forum myself for this "target Market" and of course have a Store Page for the Shirts and Decals that apply .Always did this -it works.Way back in the 80's My Line was "I Wanted A T-Shirt Shop, so I created an auto event" (50's style cruise night) to sell shirts OF THE EVENT. Backwards marketing.. but Create the demand ( Event) and sell the "souvineers of the event" ! Did car shows like that too ....Now the Forum works with a facebook page leading them to it. Dino 'The Weirdo' hey-maybe they'll by my name ?


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## muneca

super good info. i am trying to get a site together and was wondering the same thing.


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## northerntees

I have been using twitter, Facebook forums etc got my first orders in on my new site tonight! It's gna b hard work but I cnt wait! Here's tO the journey ahead!


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## garmentinkguy

Getting incoming links and writing good content is the key, however good SEO friendly architecture is a starting point. 

Google and the other search engines are not in the business of selling your products, it's relevant results for their customers they're after. It puts people with eCommerce sites in a tough position (or disadvantage) because generally they are not built to display content, rather a catalog of descriptions.

I use to be weary when SEO guru's made comments about site architecture however I have found there *are* certain programs that the search engines LOVE. Of all the eCommerce sites i've had, Magento has proved to be the most SEO friendly. Using built in shopping carts from Godaddy or other hosted and managed solutions look ok, but from my experience don't have the architecture that Google eats up.

Same goes for Joomla (content management system). Goggle, Yahoo and Bing just love it, while it seems no matter what you do to a .asp or static .php site it takes forever to get organic results.

My point is....make sure you start with a web solution that's sound and SEO friendly.


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## northerntees

The advice on this forum is brilliant I noticed the hits on my site have jumped up but 70 ppl over nite  I no it's not alot but for a site active only a week I'm pleased


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## goodschoose01

forum is a good way. and with the sexy word,haha


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## northerntees

Guys cnt believe that yesterday I got over 200 hits on my site with a few buyers, looks like the hard work I startin to pay off!


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## SunEmbroidery

The key to ecommerce sites is to have the capability to control the different elements of your site (robots.txt file, meta information, page names, redirects [if needed] and add your own content so you can have a content rich site and distinguish yourself from the thousands of other sites that sell T-shirts. You must be able to add information in addition to style/catalogue descriptions to rank well. Elements such as backlinks, clear navigation, secure payment, optimized images, accessible contact information and established trust are also essential.


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## SunEmbroidery

BTW checkout Google's Webmaster Central Channel on YouTube for lots of helpful info on how to create and maintain a Google-friendly site.

YouTube - GoogleWebmasterHelp's Channel

You might want to start with the tutorials.


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## Louie2010

I checked out that video. When he is talking about all those links a site may have, is that just when another site has a permanent link to your site?


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## SunEmbroidery

Yes. I wasn't referring to that video in particular though - just the site.


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## MacCannon

You can use blogs to advertise your brand. Employ google adsense to make some money from the traffic and take advantage of their ad sense program. Sometimes they are offering free advertisements that you can create promotions on the fly, use them to attract more visitors and eventually be at the stage where you get daily traffic that is worthwhile. You also want an e-commerce section so that customers can buy your T-shirt if they like it strait away. You can incorporate flash animations into your scripts by easily downloading some material and start advertising, and if you have enough time after all that printing, just offer that service to someone else. That way people are seeing your shirts, seeing your advertisements and listening for helping co-operative hand when it comes to others


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## saltys

This is really great information. My wife and I just started our own clothing line and we are expanding into Polos, button downs, etc. Thanks for all the great info!


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## Theprintbar

Also look into the deconetwork; it means you don't have to keep any stock or invest any money but you can team up with a Direct to Garment printer or a screen printer who can print on demand for you. We are about to launch the affiliate program which gives anyone a free website which they can customise and upload their products too; and as someone buys a product on their website we get the order and 'blind ship' to their customer.


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## sobergoose

Rodney said:


> You wouldn't advertise your whole site. You would just advertise on keywords for specific designs/categories.
> 
> For example, if you have a section that is all boating designs, then you might want to buy Adwords keywords like "boating t-shirts" "boating gifts" "nautical t-shirts", etc.
> 
> That way, when a person is searching google for "boating t-shirts", then your website would come up in the Sponsored Links locations (like they show on their sample pages). Your ad would then direct the shopper to the Boating T-Shirts category of your website where the shopper can pick from your available designs and make a purchase.
> 
> By narrowing down your subject and keywords to be as specific as possible, you not only get a more targeted shopper, you also have a bit less competition for those keywords so you won't have to pay as much per click.
> 
> Bidding on the keyword "t-shirts" would probably be pretty expensive, but "boating t-shirts" would probably be much less expensive and still give you good visitors.
> 
> You can bid on as many keywords or as few keywords as you like and link the shopper to wherever you want on your site. The deeper into your site that you link the shopper, the better chance you have at converting the sale. The person doesn't want to have to search around your site just to find the boating t-shirt you were just advertising.
> 
> If you had a yellow catamaran t-shirt, you could even bid on the keyword "yellow catamaran t-shirt" and link the ad directly to the specific page in your online catalog where the shopper can click add to cart for that t-shirt design. Talk about targeted advertisng
> 
> You can find lots of great tips and suggestions for adwords in the webmasterworld adwords forum: Google AdWords:
> 
> Even browsing through their "library" of past topics will give you a head start on your Adwords experience: WebmasterWorld Content Library



Thanks Rodney 

Absolutely great advice as always. I am very new to the site so a bit overwhelmed by all the information and the considertaions in marketing my product but find that your comments are always very useful. Thanks 
Chris


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## sobergoose

Ball Fish said:


> selfpromotion.com - excellent read
> thanks for that one


Yeah 'self promotion' is very helpful, well worth a visit and free advice. You can make a donation if you want to unlock further tools and automated aids to SEO. 

Thanks for the advice Rodney


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## sobergoose

northerntees said:


> The advice on this forum is brilliant I noticed the hits on my site have jumped up but 70 ppl over nite  I no it's not alot but for a site active only a week I'm pleased


You sound like a happy customer....good for you! 
Would you be able to summarise what you think has been most effective for you please mate. I am about to launch soon and would apprecaite as much info as possible. 
Have picked up some useful info from selfpromotion.com 
have started a blog, but not sure what else I can do prior to launching? 

Cheers and good luck with the sales ....


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## BradsLee

A lot of great stuff in here. I started my t-shirt line about a year ago and I am going to start using a lot of these tips for my online marketing. We just launched our brand new website so that is perfect. I have also found that going to events (concerts, music festivals, parties, etc) and promoting my brand has been a big help. I have been able to secure booth space at various festivals all over the country and it is definitely starting to help. 

One of the biggest things has been to make stickers that list my website right on it. We hand out stickers to people that features the logo and right underneath it lists the website. We were down in Miami and we handed out over 15,000 stickers and they were the hit of the festival (Ultra Music Fest). We ran out and people were begging for more, the following days we definitely saw a big jump in our online traffic.


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## shirtnewbie

Forums that are targeted to your niche are the best way to go. It will take some dedication, but will pay off


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## sobergoose

butlermarie38 said:


> I am just starting my business on t-shirts. I am working on the name and logo. I am planning to create a page on Facebook, twitter and Youtube; I hope that would get me some traffic. My only query is: Are there more social networking sites which are as good as Facebook& Twitter, kindly name some of them.


Well Google has just launched what they hope will be a competitor/replacement to Facebook called Google+. 
Its in its infancy at the moment and you need to be invited. If you send me you e mail I will invite you. That goes for anyone else too, just send me your e mail address and I will invite you, you can't join otherwise. 

Good luck with your networking


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