# Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT when to start advertising?



## WallyJ_26 (Nov 9, 2007)

I was wondering when is it a good time to start letting people know about my Clothing Line??? i'm forsure going to have my shirts ready for sale by march, i already have a domain name and a website, im just looking for a graphic designer to help me with my website, the artist that does my shirt design's told me he could design my website for $1200 bucks, now is that too much, if so where can i go to find some graphic desingers that do really good work for a reasonable price??? i was also wondering i have a myspace page for my clothing line too, should i start advertising that im coming out in march? when is a good time to start advertising? please help me with my Question's thank you​


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## Catbox (Oct 3, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*

1200 bucks... seems a little steep...
That being said... If he is going to make all the graphics and make the site look amazing(adding flash content and shopping cart etc... then it's not that unreasonable... 


You can also use a free web template or buy one for 50-60 bucks... Joomla has some great templates... and wordpress has some good templates... just to get some practice until you go live in March... I would let everyone know that you are going to be up and running in March... customers are good...lol

good luck to you... 

I'm also finally getting a shirt biz going btw... hopefully my graphics are cool enough that people buy them...haha?


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## WallyJ_26 (Nov 9, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*

thanxs....anyother people care to respond, PLEASE DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## WallyJ_26 (Nov 9, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*

yeah he said he would deck out the whole website out, that it would take him atleast a month to do??? is that right, a month to do a website???


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## Catbox (Oct 3, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*

Depends on what he is designing... A new fully interactive site for Nike... or a basic site that does what you need it to do and it looks good...

This is a 40 dollar Joomla template... You change the header to the name of your site and add your own photos and text through an administrator template...
Aqualine Joomla Template Demo - Home

and there is a flash gallery for your shirt designs... thats free and looks very pro...

here's a site i started for a friend... this is using a free Joomla template i d/l
I'm just waiting for him to upload new photos and what text he wants on the site
bruinsigns.com


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## Teve17 (Sep 25, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*



Catbox said:


> Depends on what he is designing... A new fully interactive site for Nike... or a basic site that does what you need it to do and it looks good...
> 
> This is a 40 dollar Joomla template... You change the header to the name of your site and add your own photos and text through an administrator template...
> Aqualine Joomla Template Demo - Home
> ...


 
How much did it cost to register the WWW address?


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## Catbox (Oct 3, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*

It's 10 bucks a month and the domain was free for a year... i believe... Godaddy is what he used...


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## dmm26 (Mar 21, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*



WallyJ_26 said:


> I was wondering when is it a good time to start letting people know about my Clothing Line??? i'm forsure going to have my shirts ready for sale by march, i already have a domain name and a website, im just looking for a graphic designer to help me with my website, the artist that does my shirt design's told me he could design my website for $1200 bucks, now is that too much, if so where can i go to find some graphic desingers that do really good work for a reasonable price??? i was also wondering i have a myspace page for my clothing line too, should i start advertising that im coming out in march? when is a good time to start advertising? please help me with my Question's thank you​



Ok first, what type of clothing line are you putting out? Do you want to a sell in stores? Online?
$1200 is a bit much but it all comes down to what you want and the money you have.

Definitely start advertising now!!! March isn't that far away and you want to have a demand before there's supply.


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## majesticmind (Sep 1, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*

$ 4o template is great but now you will need a security certificate $$$$ a shopping cart ??? A program to interact with your orders ???? if you are using credit cards a merchant account??? if you are going to continually add merchandise or make changes ???? unless you learn how to yourself. I didnt plan on seling anything till beginning of december, I sold 1 shirt to a friend in september and word of mouth made things crazy busy for me.no looking back now. I had a friend design a site with all the above and all kinds of pics and uploads etcc..... but i am so busy that we cant get together to put it up. in the meantime i use a couple sites that my distributors provide to me for free.I dont like the sites but they work and bring in money.a lot of clothing manufacturers provide free website for their distibutors. open some accounts and you will see.


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## Catbox (Oct 3, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*

security certificate is available through godaddy...
https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/ssl/ssl.asp?ci=9173 25 bucks a year
and there are free Joomla shopping carts... and some shopping carts that you can buy...
Joomla! Extensions Directory - EXP Shop

The 1200 seems kinda steep and it shouldnt take a month to do a site...
unless it's a big corporate site...


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## SeasonEnds (Sep 9, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*

$1200 is* really* not that steep. Everyone seems to want artists and web developers to just give things up for free. It all depends on what he is doing. For professional companies to do an outstanding website for you, the DESIGN of the website its self can be $1,000 and up. The lowest I have ever been quoted by a *professional* and custom web design company was $700 just for the layout design. The coding is a whole different story. For a customized storefront, custom content management system, and commenting on blogs or different areas of your website can cost $10,000+

I would want to see his work before I did anything. I definitely wouldn't pay him all money up front. Figure out what you need and what you don't need on your site. Look for other options. The fact of the matter is everyone has crappy templates now and most consumers can tell... what sets you apart from the rest?


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## WallyJ_26 (Nov 9, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*



dmm26 said:


> Ok first, what type of clothing line are you putting out? Do you want to a sell in stores? Online?
> $1200 is a bit much but it all comes down to what you want and the money you have.
> 
> Definitely start advertising now!!! March isn't that far away and you want to have a demand before there's supply.


 well it'll be like hiphop/skater/rockstar type wear, and yes eventually i do wanna see in stores, but right now im fine either online or just around here in Dallas...yeah i know $1200 hundred is to much for my pockets right now...i didnt know it was going to cost that much....I told johnny from johnny cupcakes and he told me a website would cost average? whats average????


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## BJMRamage (Oct 28, 2007)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*

$1200 for a fully functioning design from scatch site is reasonable.
that's anywhere from 12-24 hours of work. 

if you cannot do it ask to see how a few pages would look and pay him/her for that (don't ask and not pay) but see how the site will be done and then if you like have it continued and pay the rest.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

*Re: Ok...ok i should have shirts for sale by march, BUT*



> the artist that does my shirt design's told me he could design my website for $1200 bucks, now is that too much


No, that is a reasonable amount to pay for a custom website design.

You could probably get it done cheaper, it can take some time and legwork piecing it all together. If you do it all yourself it can be even cheaper.

But if you know this guy can do the job and do it well, then $1200 is a small price to pay for quality work.




> if so where can i go to find some graphic desingers that do really good work for a reasonable price?


Try freelance sites like elance.com, guru.com, rentacoder.com, or even on some of the forums for the various shopping cart softwares like the cubecart forums or zencart forums.

Start advertising when you have something to deliver to the people you are sending to your website. Otherwise you are wasting money when they get to your site and find nothing.

You can start "marketing" your site and getting the word out for free now, but you may want to put a newsletter (or blog) on your site so people can signup for updates when you officially launch.


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## chinoborracho (Jan 26, 2008)

In the web design world, you get what you pay for. If you want o save a few bucks, then your site will look like you tried to save a few bucks. 

Even if this guys can design somewhat decently, you still need someone to code it for you and set up the backend which is not cheap as well.

You best bet is to go with a pre-built content management solution.
Shopify.com is really good and easy to use and allows for various payment methods such as google checkout, paypal, and autorize.net

You can even redirect a domain and host the site so that www.mytshirtsite.com will look legit.


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## SoloStampede (Aug 4, 2007)

You should checkout templatemonster.com They have alot of very nice html, flash full site templates. All at very affordable prices ($20-$1000). The $1000+ is a unique price, which basically means you can buyout that template so noone else can use it.

cc proccessing: You have google checkout, paypal, even amazon. Or you could sell through bigcartel.com, merchdirect.com, etc

And for knowing when to advertise: You shouldn't advertise until you're fully stocked and have tested your site's cc processing, shipping method(s), etc.


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## G man (Jan 28, 2008)

Hey all, This is my 1st day on here and I ran across this thread. From another business I have I ran across the services at a web site for small business owners such as ourselves. Don't know if everyone is already aware of this site (probably) but its Custom Web Design and Programming. Freelance Programmers. Outsource Web Development Outsourcing hope this helps.

Geno


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## Xeon (Aug 11, 2007)

US$1200 is very steep if you're talking about a small site, not a mega-store.
You should visit www.monstertemplates.com or Web Templates | Flash Templates | Website Templates for Complete Websites.
They have awesome web templates and ready-built shopping carts for your needs.

You can save the remaining US$1100 or so on your marketing.


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## WallyJ_26 (Nov 9, 2007)

thanks i'll check it out


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## SoloStampede (Aug 4, 2007)

Xeon, no affiliate links please.


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## Xeon (Aug 11, 2007)

Dude, look carefully at the URL link....it's not an affiliate link!
How dare you insult me like this!

An affiliate link would have something like ".php?id=Xeon" appended to the end of the link.

I demand an apology now, or a free t-shirt from you.
One of the vector packs from Tshirt-Factory.ro would be good as well.


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## SoloStampede (Aug 4, 2007)

monstertemplates.com/ is just a redirect to your templatemonster.com affiliate link.


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## Xeon (Aug 11, 2007)

No!!!!!!! If you type monstertemplates.com yourself into the browser yourself, you'll see that it appends something like "?aff=EIS" behind and re-direct to templatemonster.com.

It's their own domain, not mine. Perhaps some web expert can clear this thing up.

Seriously, if I own monstertemplates.com, would I be here? I would be having a long holiday in Hawaii with cars and babes.

Thanks,
Xeon


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## jboitcet (Oct 7, 2006)

Some companies charge $1200 dollars for 1 web page! 

Just to see what your web pages might look like alone, you may spend $1200 on the website design. 

Building the actual web pages and/or the programming may add considerable cost. 

We haven't even talked about any flash animation that you might add later, or even maintenance of the site. Each may cost more than $1200.

If your guy is good ... you got a bargain!


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## dyingdecade (Apr 27, 2008)

DIY, or just have that guy make your first basic page and then use something like bigcartel.com or another similar cart system, and you can have your site up in half the time and with a third of the cost.


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## Xeon (Aug 11, 2007)

You can also try Boxedart.com.
Their offerings is very huge and affordable, especially the 3-months package.
Sign up the 3-month package and in that time frame, download and grab everything the site has for offer before the 3 month is up.


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