# Average Cost for Marketing Online T-Shirt Store



## Raggedshirts (Jul 22, 2009)

Hello everyone. I'm running two online stores using PODS exclusively. Made good money last year on just marketplace sale alone with basically $0 cost for marketing. Now I want to drive traffic into my main shops. Working the web for cheap SEO links right now. But I'm interested to know from those who are making a living running POD type stores, the costs for marketing per site (eg. SEO, adwords, newspaper magazine ads, billboards, etc.). I'm planning to start my makering blitz within the next 2 months so I would like to get a feel for the right amount of marketing investment. My goal is at least 15 shirts sold per day before the Christmas with my sight at 30-40 shirts per day in the near future.

Also, any advice from you SEO geniuses there or multi-millionaire shirt gurus (POD or brick or mortar) concerning how to run a successrul online shirt store will be more than appreciated. 
Thanks


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## princessracer (May 31, 2009)

Great question.. i'm interested as well.. 

Anyone?


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## ruch1v (Jun 9, 2008)

what is POD?


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## curiousity (Feb 15, 2009)

ruch1v said:


> what is POD?


(I'm guessing) it stands for print-on-demand sites like CafePress and Zazzle.


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## RandBPhoto (Jul 21, 2009)

Interesting question. I hope the thread creates a lot of discussion. I'm P/T but would love to make this my livelihood.

Richard - R&B Photo & Promo
"Spreading the Gospel through visual communications"


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## Raggedshirts (Jul 22, 2009)

curiousity said:


> (I'm guessing) it stands for print-on-demand sites like CafePress and Zazzle.


Yup that's Print on demand also Spreadshirts, printfection. I don't have the numbers but I believe a lot of people makes a living on simply using this business model ( I was one of them a year ago) now I just need to know from those in the know how they market their sites. Just need to get a good idea of what is usual cost and Return of investment from those who have gone through or are already experts at this.


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## Obstructees (Sep 22, 2008)

It sounds like your kind of in the same boat I am in. You have a good site up, everything is taken care besides online marketing. I've been researching SEO for awhile now talking to different agencies and they've all pretty much told me the same thing. Trying to optimize a site for "funny t-shirts" is almost as hard optimizing one for "SEO company." 

It's a saturated field with companies that can afford to shell out the big bucks. An Seo company called me today and their starter package was 1500 a month for at least six months. There is another seo company i talked to yesterday called ebrandz or something which is only 250 a month but ive read some reviews that they use some black hat tricks.

My solution which is probably what you don't want to hear is try it on your own. Buy some software, I recommend Ibusinesspromoter, and at least learn the ins and outs of SEO while at the same time optimizing your site. Optimizing a site takes time either way, so in the down time you might as well be familarizing yourself with it. After awhile you'll know alot more about what to look for in a SEO company and won't be fooled by scams or black hat gimicks.

Hope this helps


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## Raggedshirts (Jul 22, 2009)

Obstructees said:


> It sounds like your kind of in the same boat I am in. You have a good site up, everything is taken care besides online marketing. I've been researching SEO for awhile now talking to different agencies and they've all pretty much told me the same thing. Trying to optimize a site for "funny t-shirts" is almost as hard optimizing one for "SEO company."
> 
> It's a saturated field with companies that can afford to shell out the big bucks. An Seo company called me today and their starter package was 1500 a month for at least six months. There is another seo company i talked to yesterday called ebrandz or something which is only 250 a month but ive read some reviews that they use some black hat tricks.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your reply. I'll look into Ibusinessprometer this week. Yes I'm all up to my ears in SEO right now. I don't think I'm going to use an SEO company to do it for the same reasons you have, but thanks for providing the price for one, that's helpful. My "strategy" this month is go local and purchase newpaper ads, flyers around local cafe shops and universities, (maybe billboard...hmmm). But we'll see. I'll keep up with the SEO but I won't see much of anything from the SEO campaign until probably next year so for now my thinking is "traditional marketing". I agree that going for a keyword such as "funny t-shirt" would likely be a big mountain to climb. But hopefully I might be able to get some trickling to mine. Hopefully


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## jkruse (Oct 10, 2008)

I was reading an article in Fast Company where an advertising agency started making their own products. What was so interesting is they did no paid advertising for their products, it was all word of mouth blogs SEO and everything that is relatively cheap.

In this economy it seems like advertising is dying because it just doesn't work as well as it once did and there are new forms that let you connect with your audience for far less.

If you want SEO you need to make your website have tons of content. My how to start a clothing company blog gets 300 hits every month. There were 2,611 different keywords searched this last month alone.


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## Raggedshirts (Jul 22, 2009)

jkruse said:


> I was reading an article in Fast Company where an advertising agency started making their own products. What was so interesting is they did no paid advertising for their products, it was all word of mouth blogs SEO and everything that is relatively cheap.
> 
> In this economy it seems like advertising is dying because it just doesn't work as well as it once did and there are new forms that let you connect with your audience for far less.
> 
> If you want SEO you need to make your website have tons of content. My how to start a clothing company blog gets 300 hits every month. There were 2,611 different keywords searched this last month alone.


Thanks for the reply you got some sweet designs at your site Shreds! You happen to have a link of the Fast Company article? Sounds encouraging if that is the case. It's just that SEO is still such a black box to me until you actually get some "conversion"---real sales. Then again so is conventional marketing.


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