# Is anyone here making money with an Online Design website?



## abmcdan (Sep 14, 2007)

I'm curious if anyone is actually making a profit or even a decent amount of sales using an online design a shirt program on their own website?

Software brand doesn't really matter to me and I'm more interested in hearing about small shops not Cafepress or Customink.com types.

They seem to be popular but everyone I know that tried them and even marketed them fairly hard didn't really get much sales out of them.

What's your experience?


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## RobP614 (Jun 26, 2011)

I had an Open Shirt Site for 6 months or so and no one used it! I switched over to just using my Bodek and Rhodes design studio.

I also just have given up on having an ecommerce site all together...since then my new informational (yet professional looking site) has brought me a ton of business!


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## Badgoat (Aug 25, 2013)

Good question, I decided to try it out for myself and let me tell you, if you don't have someone on the payroll that can spend hour after hour making you look good on the net and getting you out there in the top 5 of every t shirt tag line forget it.... At a cost of $150 a month just to tell folks you have it, it isn't worth it. Very time consuming and it's a lot easier and more profitable to take one day a week and go out and shake the trees. The work is out there, the question is how bad do you want it???


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## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

Makes you wonder what sort of marketing these businesses were doing? If you have a decent looking site, a solid platform and 'TARGETED' traffic then it should convert into sales.

A small shop will just have to find their targeted traffic. ie, a place in Los Vegas might market and acquire traffic in the local area ,and sell themselves as being able to offer them a localised service.


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## codyjoe (May 6, 2013)

I could point you to several that are doing great in regards to sales.

Really all of the sites that are doing well (even the small shops) are using Google AdWords for their marketing.


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## trackvw (Jul 29, 2013)

I wonder if the websites that "work" are because the company name is already known so people put that in a google search ?


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## codyjoe (May 6, 2013)

trackvw said:


> I wonder if the websites that "work" are because the company name is already known so people put that in a google search ?


Not the case at all. I've recently found dozens that are small but are marketing correctly and that makes a HUGE difference.


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## AdvancedArtist (Nov 23, 2006)

Website ah the websites... Design sites or whatever sites. Long post I know but it needs to be posted and understood.

I started AdvancedArtist.com in 2006 it was well after 2007 before it starting making a little money. It can take months just for google to really let your site out of its sand box.

Custom Dri-FIT Shirts | Wicking & Performance T-Shirts | Promotional Products was the last project I finished working as the Art Director for that company. The site now generates 10s of thousands of $$ss a month in sales. 

I did the site to defend CustomLogo from customink... Who I viewed as a threat to our local customer base. My understanding of the circumstance proved to be correct. The solution we developed worked as far as the search engines are concerned.

https://www.google.com/?hl=en#hl=en&q=custom+tshirt+syracuse

You will notice that customlogousa.com is right at the top of the list and shortly below that is customink.com.

You will also notice that local search is getting big on google also...

https://www.google.com/?hl=en#hl=en&q=custom+t-shirts+syracuse

*Fact! Over 90% of local consumers now shop or pre-shop online.*

Nearly All Consumers (97%) Now Use Online Media to Shop Locally, According to... -- CHANTILLY, Va., March 10 /PRNewswire/ --

Fortunately, we dealt with this at Custom Logo and they are ranking over the nationals and the locals and it is paying off big time.

But you as a screen printer now have two issues two deal with.

1. The nationals see the local markets as the new place to grow their businesses. In fact they are custom tailoring their sites to target local markets.

Syracuse T-Shirts - Custom Tee Shirts - Design Ideas & Free Clip Art at CustomInk.com

2. Local shops with professional sites will get high ranks as Google expands local search functionality. Your local competitors that have a professional site that is properly equipped will beat you in the game of the fact that over 90% of local consumers now shop online.


A design system? Great question.


A complete website with a design system, shopping cart, galleries of your work and information about what you can do for your clients is a complete solution. Design studio functionality is just a piece of the puzzle it’s a tool. 


IMHO a complete professional overall website with all the functionality a potential customer will find anywhere else on the web is your best bet. It gives the impression that you are every bit as serious about the business as anyone else including local or national competition.


Given the fact that my own websites generate what they do and looking at what I have seen OT sites do I would spell it out like this….


1. Do you need website?

I believe it is a must… but if it looks like something from 90s well it probably is not going to produce much.

2. Should you have a design studio?

I believe that if you want to look like you are just as serious as everyone else online you should consider it.


With OT this is what we see typically and have some that are doing very very well but they are doing pay per click and effective online marketing strategies….


The beak down….


10% to 15% of sales will design and buy right in the system….


Another 20% to 35% will create and save a few designs and then call. I believe this is just because anyone that is going ding their credit card for $500 wants to talk to a human being first.


The rest don’t touch the design system and do not want to be bothered with make the design and call for more information.


This is not exact but general figures based on what I have seen so far.


At the end of the day and I can stress this enough. A design studio is not the key it is a part of the market channel you have thru a website. That website marketing channel needs to include more than just a Design Studio solution.


Your marketing channels also need consist of what we call a marketing mix…


That should include 


Shaking trees and hands..
Getting free sample tees out there..
Getting catalogs and fliers out there…
Radio and TV if you can afford it..
Print media..
A complete professional website..
Social Media.. Youtube, Face Book Etc
and more…


A Design Studios incorporated into your site is just a piece of the puzzle and the more marketing channels you work effectively the better your marketing results are going to be.

However I do believe that we are going to see major changes in the next 2 to 5 years as local search grows up and HTML5 evolves. 

I believe many changes will take place! I also believe some now prosperous businesses will wonder what happened to them and some new businesses will revel in their success. And some established business such as Custom Logo was and is will find that getting serious about the web was got them thru hard economic times and let them grow on the other side.


Once again all IMHO! But most all of it I can back up with facts.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

My most popular website draws tons of Google searches because I sell designs people search for. We also offer an "upload your image" tool -- not a design tool. That accounts for 5% of our sales -- pretty significant.

We are alpha testing our own "upload your image and see a preview" site on that site.

The new site gives people one free shirt if they "share" their design on Facebook and at least a few people pop over to take a look at the site. That's 1 free shirt even if they buy at least 4. Pretty solid deal, and it definitely helps with traffic.

The problem is that without good SEO, you're going to lose to zazzle, etc. Since we have solid SEO on all our designs (300-1000 visitors a day from search engines alone), it helps bump up our upload-and-print option. We also follow up all regular orders in 30 days with a 'try your own file' coupon code. That has about a 5% bite rate, too.


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## BandPrints (Feb 4, 2007)

We used InkSoft for about 1.5 years and shot it down. We actually do a lot more business through our site and simple quote requests from clothing lines than the online designers. I do see how they can work and can be efficient for certain types of customers. I will say that we spent a lot of time setting it up, I wish we had spent that time doing grass roots/door to door advertising and marketing.


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## AdvancedArtist (Nov 23, 2006)

Interesting replies. This video might shed some light on this question. Is the design studio everything off course not. However in IMHO you need a serious professional website capable of *capturing client data*.

Design studio or not especially if the majority of your business is your local market.

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCSoimrf_JQ[/MEDIA]

We are all seeing it, the customink designs coming thru the doors in the clients hands.

I can tell you that the nationals are looking to *capture your local consumers into their databases* as much as they are looking to sell them custom t-shirts.

There is far more to the online game and websites than many people realize. And there are changes coming in the next 2 to 5 years that will be very close to complete reboot of eCommerce into an entirely different land scape with functionality beyond what we can imagine.

Only 15 yeas ago most would not have imagined much of what we see now. And the technologies are moving much faster now then they were back then.

But as I said in my previous post..

Your website is just one of your marketing channels. In the next few years I believe it will be one of the most important aspects of your marketing channels.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

My websites are not generic either. I brand them with my name and face to give them personal touches.

The nationals are welcome to come and play -- I offer customers a coupon if they share their national horror stories on our websites. I can play ball better than data crunchers.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using T-Shirt Forums


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## codyjoe (May 6, 2013)

I think a lot of people assume that the old adage of "Built it and they will come" applies to websites when that's absolutely not the case. With us, we're actively pursuing multiple online marketing techniques and establishing a proper SEO campaign and it makes a MASSIVE difference. Getting a sweet website and then a design studio is one thing, it's a whole nother venture to get listed on Google. Again, when you do the proper SEO you can bring in loads of people that will use your Design Studio on a daily basis.

I also want to add onto what @AdvancedArtist stated about changes coming. There's a reason we have a mobile-responsive site. Massive changes in the online world are coming and the next big project for us in a couple years is the implementation of a design studio that isn't based on flash at all. There are ways to create studios that work perfectly on all devices and in order to even think about getting close to CustomInk, we need to stay innovative. Of course the main thing that causes CustomInk customers to capture their designs and then come to us for printing are the prices. I don't get how CustomInk can even think of charging the outrageous amounts they attempt to pass onto consumers.


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