# Getting a Trademark noticed!



## cmasonchil (Jun 5, 2013)

Looking for ideas on getting my Christian trademark noticed. Some people mentioned concerts in a previous post, what is involved in landing a vendor spot at a concert? 

I didn't know if anyone here had experience finding someone willing to invest in or promote a Christian trademark? I believe I have a unique concept just from a small town and need help getting the design/logo out there.

Thanks...


----------



## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

What do you mean by getting your trademark noticed...
Are you trying to sell shirts you have in inventory? Or are you looking to license your trademark to other companies?


----------



## cmasonchil (Jun 5, 2013)

Yes, I am currently trying to sell shirts in my inventory, but I would consider licensing to other companies if the terms were reasonable.

I am new to this business so I apologize for the lack of knowledge. I believe I have a great concept I am just lacking on the business side of things at this point.


Thanks...


----------



## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Well it may help some if you put your web address in your signature.....


----------



## Preston (Mar 21, 2006)

cmasonchil said:


> Yes, I am currently trying to sell shirts in my inventory, but I would consider licensing to other companies if the terms were reasonable.
> 
> I am new to this business so I apologize for the lack of knowledge. I believe I have a great concept I am just lacking on the business side of things at this point.
> 
> ...


You say you are a christian. Go to your church and see if the congregation snap all your shirts up. If they do the you have a great concept. If they do not then you don't.


----------



## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

This is an impossible question to answer because you didn't ask anything.

It's like saying "How can I sell my method of transportation?" Is it a car? A bike? An airplane? Is it red or blue or black?

A trademark has no value if the is no one interested in it. None of my brand names have trademarks because I never saw a reason to waste time and money registering them.

The first thing is -- did you print shirts already? If so, did you print shirts that display your brand name prominently? If that's the case, your shirts are probably not goin to sell. Brand named T-shirts don't sell, unless the brand name is well known.

I recommend against trying to sell your shirts in church. A lot of faithful people frown at bringing capitalism into the door of the church.

I'd recommend getting input from people on your designs. Ask for honest criticism. Post a link here, I'll tell you why you're not selling shirts. Good designs get people interested in them; bad designs are ignored.


----------



## Preston (Mar 21, 2006)

treefox2118 said:


> I recommend against trying to sell your shirts in church. A lot of faithful people frown at bringing capitalism into the door of the church.
> 
> I'd recommend getting input from people on your designs. Ask for honest criticism. Post a link here, I'll tell you why you're not selling shirts. Good designs get people interested in them; bad designs are ignored.


I did not suggest he setup a booth inside the church. If he shows them to the congregation and they want one then that tells him his idea is a good one without him actually asking anyone to buy one.

Besides, church going people support each other and will be honest about what they think. At least that is how it is in small towns.


----------



## cmasonchil (Jun 5, 2013)

Thanks for all of the feedback. My local church community has been very supportive. I live in a small town so at this point just trying to reach a larger audience and get a feel for how it will be received.

Thanks again for your time and feedback!


----------



## GordonM (May 21, 2012)

My guess is that people are confused by your meaning of "getting your trademark noticed." Perhaps you mean getting your brand noticed. You promote your brand, and the trademark is how you protect that brand. 

Assuming you do mean doing a better job getting your brand and your shirts in front of the public, then yes, church is the best place. Also Christian book stores. Be prepared to sell to them on consignment, though. Try a 90 or 120 day trial, and if they sell, they'll come back for more.


----------



## Preston (Mar 21, 2006)

cmasonchil said:


> Thanks for all of the feedback. My local church community has been very supportive. I live in a small town so at this point just trying to reach a larger audience and get a feel for how it will be received.
> 
> Thanks again for your time and feedback!


That is good and shows there could be some real interest in your product.

I looked at your site and this is one thing that is wrong.

```
<title>Torture The Devil</title>

	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
	<meta name="description" content="" />
	<meta name="keywords" content="" />
```
No description and no keywords. You will never get found in a search with a good description and some good keywords. Fix this now.

Now make sure your keywords and description are mentioned over and over in the website content.

Then go to Create your Google Sitemap Online - XML Sitemaps Generator and generate site maps for your website. You can use the free generator but I would strongly suggest to purchase the unlimited version as it only cost 20 bucks and you can use it on as many sites as you want. Plus you can run it as a cron job so your site maps get updated automatically. The other advantages to this is it will ping the search engines when it creates a new or updated sitemap and the search engine spiders will come to your site to see what is going on.


----------



## cmasonchil (Jun 5, 2013)

Thanks Roy. 

I appreciate your help. I will get with my web guy on your advice.

I should of joined this forum months ago!


----------



## GordonM (May 21, 2012)

Agree that for getting noticed a good Website is a must. But a page that lacks keywords and description aren't hammered as much as most people think, at least not these days. No modern search engine (we're talking Google and Bing here mostly) even bothers with the keyword tag, and any keywords you've provided are ignored -- in fact, there is some suggestion that the content of the keywords tag may be used by the search engine to look for blackhat tactics, such as keyword stuffing.

When the description tag is missing, the search engine will pick up the first text of your page, and is then what's used in the search results page.

If you've done your page correctly, the first sentence of your site will be the kind of short description you want anyway. The mistake people make is to keyword stuff the description tag, but the search engines are on to that. In those cases they may just penalize the site, and use the opening paragraph from the page anyway.

That said, the description tag is your opportunity to fine tune the text that surfers see in the search results, so you might as well use it to your advantage. The text is not used to build site relevance in the search engine though, opposite of what people think.

The biggest problem is the title tag. Of all elements on the page it's the most important, and the way this page is named, "Torture The Devil," no one will find it looking for Christian t-shirts. Put another way, the title tag should be about what people are looking for. You have plenty of opportunity to build your brand elsewhere on your pages.


----------



## Preston (Mar 21, 2006)

GordonM said:


> Agree that for getting noticed a good Website is a must. But a page that lacks keywords and description aren't hammered as much as most people think, at least not these days. No modern search engine (we're talking Google and Bing here mostly) even bothers with the keyword tag, and any keywords you've provided are ignored -- in fact, there is some suggestion that the content of the keywords tag may be used by the search engine to look for blackhat tactics, such as keyword stuffing.
> 
> When the description tag is missing, the search engine will pick up the first text of your page, and is then what's used in the search results page.
> 
> ...



Keywords are still looked at even though Google says they are not and one must also remember that Google is not the only search engine in town. The trick with keywords is to not spam them. What Google and other search engines do even though Google says it does not, is it looks at the keywords but does not use them for search placement but instead sees if the website content matches the keywords. In test that I have done when I removed the keywords the search page placement went farther down the page or even to another page. When I replaced the keyword the placement went back up to a higher placement. This tells me that despite what Google say, the spiders still use keywords as part of the relevancy.

According to top SEO experts;


Generic Keywords tag doesn’t much matter, but can't hurt. Just don't spam it.
A Meta Description with well crafted keywords AND that offers brand uniqueness is most likely to win.
Google (temporarily) featuring brand first in Meta Title - A Potential De-valuing of keyword ordering.
Newer Rich Snippets assisting CTR and trust - Authorship, reviews, and beyond

On this forum Rodney still uses them;

```
<meta name="keywords" content="t-shirts,discussion,information,starting a business,company,screen printing,wholesale,trade shows,bulletin board,newsgroups" /> 

<meta name="description" content="The official friendly t-shirt forum and community  to discuss custom t-shirts, starting a business, screen printing, embroidery, dtg, heat transfers,  relabeling, hard to find t-shirts, and read the latest t-shirt industry news." />
```
Are you saying he should remove all of that? I do not think he will.


----------



## kotan (Jan 28, 2012)

GordonM is correct. In terms of SEO, keyword and description meta is useless and ignored. This has been known in the SEO and Domain industry for so long now. I know because I am a web developer myself who practices SEO alongside WP Devt. Reason is many people tend to spam and pack so many keywords and false descriptions thinking this will bring them "good SEO," which is why SEs have managed to overlook these fields and make an algorithm to decide these kinds of things on their own.

As for the question, assuming this is a brand of apparel - 
Considering how it's a Christian-themed line and you are active in your Church, then ask for support from the organization. Church goers are very supportive when it comes to any activity done in favor of their religion. You can always set up a deal wherein part of your earnings will be donated to the church, that way they'll be more supportive and you become a very generous member who, not only supports the projects of the Church financially, but also puts great value in clothing for the benefit of its members


----------



## Studio ell (Jun 16, 2013)

I have no experience with launching brands so you will need some salt with this. 
Is the product/brand developed enough? Having a good "punch line" is great (and I think you have one), but is it enough to keep people interested?


----------

