# How Long till you're successful? Marketing Tips?



## jacenuby

This reads like a major gripe session..sorry...I'm discouraged and looking to vent and get general advice.

Launched my site around July 7th. First 2 weks had no visitors except for friends and friends of friends. Starting paying for placement by search words with Yahoo..now averaging about 30 visitors per day.

No Orders.

My current stuff is a parody of a global line, and I think the art is good. It's simple and well executed. The website is easy to navigate and looks good, not great.

I'm certain my audience has not been exposed enough just yet, but I am surprised that with 300+ visitors, I have only sold shirts to supportive friends.

Could be: Bad Idea - Too Pricy ($14-18 plus shipping), Not enough time, Not reaching target audience - any or all of the above

How long has it taken anyone that is successful to get orders coming in?

Should I be selling down in the $10 range even though my shirts currently cost about $9 to make? (24 at a time -6 color art)

Are there too many Tee stores "out there"...now Wal-Mart and other big department stores have there own lines of "racy" t-shirts that they sell for $10 or less.

I would take specific critques, but I'm not sure I want to throw my design ideas out to potential competitors with stronger businesses just yet. Thanks for letting me vent.


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## skulltshirts

*Re: How Long?*

With only 30 people a day, it may take longer to get good sales coming in. Even with a 100 people day it may not convert over to more than 1-2 sales per week. You will do better, it just takes more time. I doubt if you are even listed in the major search engines yet. Just keep plugging away and get your link out there on as many quality sites as possible.
Join sites like tshirtcountdown, and tshirtshowdown and other ranking sites, this will help get targetted traffic coming to your site. The more times your link appears on other sites, you will do alot better with the search engines.
Make sure your website is set up with lots of descriptive text and use image tags and title tags and it will all come together soon.
Aim to have your site up to about 100 visitors a day by christmas cause sales around that time can be great!


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## jacenuby

*Re: How Long?*

Well thanks for a figure to shoot for. I guess going from 0 to 30 got my hopes up a little. I have considered the options you presented about t-shirtcountdown and others. I guess I'll need to keep plugging away on many fronts.


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## Rodney

*Re: How Long?*

If you aren't converting your visitors with at least a 1% conversion ratio (1 sale per 100 visitors), especially with paid ads in search engines, then you may need to rethink a few aspects.

Marking with paid keyword ads in Yahoo/Google Adwords is a bit of a science in and of itself. You can't just buy keywords and point the people to your homepage. 

You have to target the *right* keywords and make sure you are sending the visitor to the right page on your website after they click. After they are on your website, you need to make sure you are answering ALL of their potential questions with your website text: sizing chart, about your business, contact information, return policy, t-shirt quality, printing quality/method, payment methods accepted, shipping prices upfront.

At a price of $14-$18 per shirt, I don't think you're priced to high for original t-shirt designs. If a person can't get your design at walmart, then you never have to think of walmart as your competitor 

With the right design and right ads to the right market, you could make money within hours with a Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing ad. For example, if you make a design for people who love blue scissors and you buy the keywords related to blue scissors and your t-shirt is just what they are looking for, you could have sales right away. If your site isn't converting at least at 1%, then there are a few things you should look at modifying and testing. 

Without seeing your site, it's hard to give specifics other than what I wrote above


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## badalou

*Re: How Long?*

I have 8 sites up. 4 of them are retail sites and one is a directory service for pedigree cats. I get plenty of hits but they do not alway turn into buyers. so do I care. yes and no.. No because as long as I have been doing this I use my sites more as a catalog for my brick and mortar stores or for information about my business. Has any one counted the number of tee shirt shops online. The index reads over a million. So where are you? I came in 32nd for promotional tee shirts on google but do I get sales. Nope.. Not yet anyway. But I track where my hits come (This is the yes)from and what they are using as search terms to find me. This is important. I have used adwords for my cat directory service and was very successful. I have not done so with the tee shirts or promotional tee shirts yet. I think the key word bids would be high for that market. And I am not ready to pay that price yet. But I will. Also Google just settled a suit for false adword clicks. I got these myself. So how do I make money. I don't go after the funny words or fancy design business. I do more custom and institution markets. Everyone has an idea that what they have is the greatest product out there. But you better have a marketing plan.. The people who make it in this business spend dollars. The term build it and they will come, yeah if you build a baseball park.


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## jacenuby

*Re: How Long?*

Is there anybody in the forum selling 100 shirts or more per week? I read that busted tees does about $250,000 in monthly revenues. At an average 0f $18 per shirt that appears to be 135-140 shirts per week. Granted, they have college humor to promote busted tees, but I've also heard of many others doing at least $3,000 a month...that means around 50 shirts per week.

I guess my question really involves marketing budget and methods. I have been in advertising/marketing most of my career. I'm certain my product is marketable...My problem is having time to milk the free stuff, and capital to fund the paid stuff....I'm beginning to wonder if I need to shell out more money pumping the site.

Does anybody out there make $50,000 plus or more in anual sales and how much do you spend on marketing.


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## Rodney

> I guess my question really involves marketing budget and methods. I have been in advertising/marketing most of my career. I'm certain my product is marketable...My problem is having time to milk the free stuff, and capital to fund the paid stuff....I'm beginning to wonder if I need to shell out more money pumping the site.


That definitely sounds like a different concern than the original post 

You can be successful in the first month if you have it all planned out right and spend money in the right places for advertising.



> Granted, they have college humor to promote busted tees, but I've also heard of many others doing at least $3,000 a month...that means around 50 shirts per week.


It's definitely possible with the right advertising and marketing. 

For a marketing person like yourself, it should be easy to find the right spots to advertise once you've defined the target market for your t-shirts.

There are a lot of great marketing and advertising ideas right here in the forum  Here's one thread with some tips:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=4115

Here's another:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=3191

It does cost money to run a successful business. Whether you are in a local offline shopping mall, an online t-shirt store or a fortune 100 corporation. 

I've read that it's good to spend at least 1% of your revenue in continued advertising. That sounds like a pretty decent number. If you are just starting out, then you should definitely set aside some money for advertising and marketing your products.

As for where to advertise, what works for one company may not work for all t-shirt sites. Just try to put yourself in the mind of your potential customer and try to put your product wherever they are (radio stations, magazines, blogs, newsletters, websites, search terms, tv shows, local events, etc)


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## Rodney

I also wanted to reiterate that if you're spending money adverising on Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture), then you definitely need to take the time to research and learn the system.

That way you're spending money on the right keywords, doing the right testing of your ads to make sure that they are effective, testing your landing pages, etc. Without the right testing, keywords and information, you could be just throwing money away.

The same should be said for any advertising you decide to use.


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## jdr8271

> Is there anybody in the forum selling 100 shirts or more per week? I read that busted tees does about $250,000 in monthly revenues. At an average 0f $18 per shirt that appears to be 135-140 shirts per week. Granted, they have college humor to promote busted tees, but I've also heard of many others doing at least $3,000 a month...that means around 50 shirts per week.


My guess is busted tees is selling a few thousand shirts a week. 

I think there are quite a few people on this forum that retail 100+ shirts a week. That is around $50,000 - 60,000 a year, depending on hjow much you sell the shirts for.


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## MrApolloBu

good reading material.. damn yall are smart


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## badalou

No, we are not smart.. we are experienced. There is not one successful person on this forum that has not failed in one way are other. But those mistakes are knowledge and you build on that. 
What is success? I am retired so to me to me it is making enough money on the side so I don't touch my retirement money. keeps me connected to the outside world. keeps my brain activated. keeps me from getting under my wifes feet while she takes care of my grandson during the day. Lets me work with people on this forum to help them understand the business world as I have 40 years of it under my belt.


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## Twinge

I have a friend that has a t-shirt site doing around 10 shirts a day, so it is indeed possible. Thing is, he sold almost nothing his first year - it takes time to build up your name, and time to perfect website layout, products, pricing, advertising, etc. etc.


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## farennikov

*Re: How Long?*



jacenuby said:


> Is there anybody in the forum selling 100 shirts or more per week? I read that busted tees does about $250,000 in monthly revenues. At an average 0f $18 per shirt that appears to be 135-140 shirts per week.


actually that's more like 3,500 shirts per week


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## farennikov

I have almost same situation as the author of this thread. I started my tshirt line 2 weeks ago, and started advertising it on Myspace and via Yahoo immediately. I get an average of 40-100 visits / around 3 ppv per day, mostly from Myspace, and the rest from Yahoo ppc's. Sold more tshirts in the first week then in the second week, and kind of puzzled by that. 
My hypothesis is that I only have 1 tshirt on the site (even though I have more designs, I didn't print them yet) and probably visitors are discouraged because there's no variety. So I am planning to keep Yahoo ads going and meanwhile print at least 2-3 more designs. By the way does any of you think that this is a problem for a buyer - seeing only 1 item on the site? And in your opinion, what is the relevance between number of styles and number of purhcases?


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## T-BOT

farennikov said:


> By the way does any of you think that this is a problem for a buyer - seeing only 1 item on the site? And in your opinion, what is the relevance between number of styles and number of purhcases?


i like to look at collections. Sorta like a Music CD with different songs.


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## farennikov

T-BOT said:


> i like to look at collections. Sorta like a Music CD with different songs.


that's what I am thinking.


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## Twinge

farennikov said:


> My hypothesis is that I only have 1 tshirt on the site (even though I have more designs, I didn't print them yet) and probably visitors are discouraged because there's no variety. So I am planning to keep Yahoo ads going and meanwhile print at least 2-3 more designs. By the way does any of you think that this is a problem for a buyer - seeing only 1 item on the site? And in your opinion, what is the relevance between number of styles and number of purhcases?


Generally, I would say so. It's hard to go far on a lone design; people expect to see several they can browse and pick out one they like from a few different ones. This doesn't mean you need to be a jack of all trades and carry 100 shirts from 10 different genres, but some selection is important in most cases.


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## Solmu

farennikov said:


> By the way does any of you think that this is a problem for a buyer - seeing only 1 item on the site?


Definitely. Lowers the chances of a customer finding a shirt they like on the site, and raises questions in their mind about how legimitate your business is.



farennikov said:


> And in your opinion, what is the relevance between number of styles and number of purhcases?


Isn't that the million dollar question?


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## Rodney

> By the way does any of you think that this is a problem for a buyer - seeing only 1 item on the site?


I started out by selling just one t-shirt design. It can be done, but that one design has to be compelling. 

It has to be a design that people just WANT to buy (not like a design that hasn't really been proven yet). 

Sometimes this can be a timely t-shirt based on an event, or it can be a design that customers have been asking you about (like if you have an established site).



> and started advertising it on Myspace and via Yahoo immediately. I get an average of 40-100 visits / around 3 ppv per day, mostly from Myspace, and the rest from Yahoo ppc's.


I don't think your myspace visitors are going to convert very well. I don't think those visitors are generally in "buying" mode. You probably got some decent sales because of your site "launch", but you'll have to come up with more marketing methods to keep the sales coming in.


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## farennikov

Rodney said:


> I don't think your myspace visitors are going to convert very well. I don't think those visitors are generally in "buying" mode. You probably got some decent sales because of your site "launch", but you'll have to come up with more marketing methods to keep the sales coming in.


That's probably true. 

You know as I think about it, I think I am wasitng money and efforts on exposure and getting conversions just because I don't have much to offer. And at the other hand that also depends on how fast I can sell what I have to spend on more designs.


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## Royaltygirl

guys and gals,
I hear ya.. My site has only been up and running for about 2 weeks now and I advertised on a gossip website.. I got like 700 hits the first day and not 1 freaking sale! i didn't come close to the 1% ratio. I am hoping it will get better as I know it will.. & I love reading this stuff. At least I am not alone.


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## Rodney

> My site has only been up and running for about 2 weeks now and I advertised on a gossip website.. I got like 700 hits the first day and not 1 freaking sale! i didn't come close to the 1% ratio.


That can help you learn from those type of ad spends. Sometimes it can work for branding if that is your target market, but you may also realize that that particular website may not be your best outlet for advertising.

You just have to test, test, test till you find the right places to advertise, the right ways to market. Continually find ways to expose your products to your target market.


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## farennikov

Royaltygirl said:


> guys and gals,
> I hear ya.. My site has only been up and running for about 2 weeks now and I advertised on a gossip website.. I got like 700 hits the first day and not 1 freaking sale! i didn't come close to the 1% ratio. I am hoping it will get better as I know it will.. & I love reading this stuff. At least I am not alone.


well let's see, I had 1,040 visits to date, site is up for 2 weeks now too, and got 3 on-line sales 1 of each is by a friend, so I count 2 sales from people I don't know. That's kinda of sucks. I am going to pause my ppc ad campain now until I can put more products on my site.


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## farennikov

Royaltygirl said:


> guys and gals,
> I hear ya.. My site has only been up and running for about 2 weeks now and I advertised on a gossip website.. I got like 700 hits the first day and not 1 freaking sale! i didn't come close to the 1% ratio. I am hoping it will get better as I know it will.. & I love reading this stuff. At least I am not alone.


imo you got to make the actual shop more prominent, it took me some time to navigate, I didn't expect to see the shop link in the bottom right corner - the last place where visitors look actually (Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe). So basically you put the most important link to the most unlikely place to be found.


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## Vtec44

My site has been up since March, and I so far average about 8 shirts a month (a lot better than I thought LOL). I have given out more free shirts than I've sold though DOH!  I haven't done any agressive advertising campaign yet, because I still don't think that I have the right stuff. I'm redoing a lot of my shirts, and until I feel that it's the right time, I won't be spending too much money on advertising.


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## T-BOT

Vtec44 said:


> I have given out more free shirts DOH! .


that is good advertising you know.


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## badandy52

I'm starting up a new website and I was wondering if you guys get most of your visitors from search engines or elsewhere? Thanks.


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## PvN Captain

All of my designs and my entire website is built around a specific theme. In March 2006 I was interviewed on a major morning radio show here in Los Angeles about my theme. The interview generated about 2000 visitors to my site and of those 1% converted into sales. I think that 1% is a low number of sales, but I blame that on a few factors that I am still remedying: my site was a wreck, I had only three designs for sale, my store looked more like a fan site than a store. I really believe that if those three variables would have been better then sales would have been better. I am not complaining about my sales, but rather sharing an experience that has shaped my thinking. 

The number one tip I offer is to have many products well displayed. With only one design consider putting up "coming soon" artwork with approximate dates of arrival. My personal solution was to add printed content which will be reduced as I bring in more shirts. I don't think it's an optimal solution, but considering my niche I think it's important I have that sort of content. 

FYI, my site is still in the funk it was when the interview took place. I am going to overhaul it this fall.


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## farennikov

PvN Captain said:


> FYI, my site is still in the funk it was when the interview took place. I am going to overhaul it this fall.


Can I see your site?


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## PvN Captain

farennikov said:


> Can I see your site?


Huh, I thought it was in my signature [it is now ]


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## farennikov

PvN Captain said:


> Huh, I thought it was in my signature


I don't know if you have a specific reason for it, but the "store" link is way in the bottom of the links, so chance is that most people didn't even click on it.

What do you use to track your site stats?


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## Rodney

> The interview generated about 2000 visitors to my site and of those 1% converted into sales. I think that 1% is a low number of sales, but I blame that on a few factors that I am still remedying: my site was a wreck


While 1% is on the low end of normal conversions, I would still call it acceptable; especially given the source of the traffic. Not everyone that came, came there to buy, they may have just been curious.

It's always good to work for higher conversions, but I wouldn't beat yourself up over a 1% ratio


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## PvN Captain

farennikov said:


> I don't know if you have a specific reason for it, but the "store" link is way in the bottom of the links, so chance is that most people didn't even click on it.
> 
> What do you use to track your site stats?


My store is a Yahoo Store so I use their built-in tracking. Yeah, I know that the "store" link is way at the bottom. I'm not fooling myself about what's wrong with the site. It's really hard to know that I'm selling stuff and when I give the site the overhaul that's going to change. Basically, this is my first ever attempt at any business and I'm learning nearly everything through trial and error. The site hasn't been changed much in months and it's really only in these past couple of months that I've decided to figure out what's wrong with my model and fix it, therefore I still need to do a big modification to the site. I appreciate the feedback and I'm certainly open to lot more feedback... only I don't want to sidetrack this thread too much.


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## ZOKU

This is awesome info. 

Jace - good luck with the selling.


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## DecadentSavant

farennikov said:


> By the way does any of you think that this is a problem for a buyer - seeing only 1 item on the site?


My first thought was killing your chances of a repeat visitor this way. I personally wouldn't be inclined to ever go back to that site. On the other hand, if I saw a site with a lot of designs, even if I didn't like one enough to buy at that point, I'd come back later to check it out again. Next time I might be convinced to buy. 

And as long as I buy one time within 100 visits I'll account for 1%


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## Twinge

DecadentSavant said:


> My first thought was killing your chances of a repeat visitor this way. I personally wouldn't be inclined to ever go back to that site. On the other hand, if I saw a site with a lot of designs, even if I didn't like one enough to buy at that point, I'd come back later to check it out again. Next time I might be convinced to buy.


Good point. This is also why it's important to update your site and add now shirts occasionally.


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## farennikov

Twinge said:


> Good point. This is also why it's important to update your site and add now shirts occasionally.


I agree, I can't go on like that with just one shirt for sale, I'm just waisting my time and marketing money. Got to make a couple of websites for people and for those money print 5 new styles of tshirts.


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## jimiyo

ha.. i was reading on Guerilla Marketing... and viola, an article called 'How Long Till Marketing Works?'

GM is a bookabout marketing.. i assume, never read it, just heard about it. 

they seem to have other good articles. might be worth a look. they are free. unless you want to read the whole article... but the partials are pretty decent reads.

http://www.gmarketing.com/articles/


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## cuush.com

I went through this last week, here: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=5552

Now my new site is up and nothing has really changed...
Google and Yahoo seem to be terrible, out of 1300 uniques I made one sale.
That cost me in the range of $300.

I'm testing Adwords Site-Targeted campaigns right now, where you choose the site you want to be on...but it's still not looking good. 
I sell loosely themed 70's stoner rock designs, I'm advertising directly on sites that cater to this crowd (black sabbath, hippies, jambands, etc)...plenty of traffic, NO SALES!

The weird part...
when I walk into a bar wearing one of my shirts, strangers comment on it!!!
Someone even asked me if I had any in the trunk of my car (I discovered later this guy owned a t-shirt store on the beach).

Anyway, as an employee I've built quite a few businesses for other people...the last one was a business opportunity that converted great with PPC.
*Business Opportunities* are EXTREMELY difficult to sell because the people that are interested in them - get this - HAVE NO MONEY!!!

So I built this site from the ground-up, I marketed it to reasonable success: [removed link]

(Then I got completely disgusted with myself and the loser pr0n company that employed me - so I quit and decided to start a t-shirt business before I look for another day job.)

My point is...I know how to market a website.
and if the "foundation" sources of traffic like Adwords don't work, I'm thinking it's a lost cause.

Building a website one link at a time is wise advice...
but I'm used to seeing money come in within days, not years.
I'm not talking about "profit" here...I mean ANY money.

Adwords, Yahoo and eBay are supposed to provide a foundation to then build on...
if that foundation doesn't exist, it makes me question whether the rest of the long-term grunt work is worth the effort in the end.
I have to pay rent on the storage locker I work from, I have to pay Paypal to accept credit cards on my site...it costs me to be in business each month.

The online t-shirt industry appears saturated, but I thought a niche would cut through the bull...
well, right now I can literally touch my exact target market (and quickly), it's still not working. 

Going back "out" to the slow market of link building doesn't look like a path forwards to me...it will cost me thousands of dollars in loss before I even reach a break even (_*if*_ I ever break even).
And if that was part of the plan in the first place, I would have opened a brick-and-mortar store and played by the "traditional" rules of business.

I don't mean to sound harsh and negative with all this...
but I'm in the exact same boat as a few of you guys here, these are just my opinions of my current situation.


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## Rodney

> I don't mean to sound harsh and negative with all this...
> but I'm in the exact same boat as a few of you guys here, these are just my opinions of my current situation.


I'm 100% positive that your shirts can sell. I'm not sure if adwords/YSM is the way to go. You might still be getting more browsers than buyers, but I know your shirts are sellable.

It could just be that the ways you currently know of marketing a website just arent' working for your t-shirt store. Could be the ad wording drawing the wrong type customers, could be the wrong keywords, could be something else.

People are selling t-shirts worse than yours every day (including me...I wished my shirts looked that good ), so I don't think it's the market. Something else is missing.


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## jimiyo

cuush... i wouldnt lose hope. you have some pretty tight designs. you tried consignment yet? 

i would recommend posting your artwork on high trafficked art sites as well. theres a few that you can submit your work and people get to vote or critique. it will drive traffic to your site.

i just started but i at least sell a couple shirts a week. i have my website, myspace, etsy, and another site thats hardly built (probably nothing from that) ive also solicited my friends. they love my designs so i hook them up with a discounted price as well as a chance to just work to get a free shirt. if they are gonna hang at a party/bar, i send them on with a couple shirts... cause someone always asks where they got what they are wearing...

myspace is my next big push. or the main marketing experiment. i think its gonna really help once i amass a ton of friends.


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## farennikov

jimiyo said:


> myspace is my next big push. or the main marketing experiment. i think its gonna really help once i amass a ton of friends.


I agree, I think all people who bought my tshirts online (except friends) came from myspace. Even though I run Overture ads too.


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## arsie

cuush.com,

I definitely understand your predicament, especially as a person who has worked X number of years, and is now thinking of doing something for myself.

When I started thinking about this t-shirt idea, I had to decide whether to drop everything and throw myself behind it, or to take a more "college kid" approach to it, part-time.

I opted for the latter. I still have a day-job, and I am cost-conscious about every single decision about this t-shirt project.

Everyone's situation is different, but if you can manage your overheads, you give yourself more time to let your business take root.


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## cuush.com

arsie said:


> ...give yourself more time to let your business take root.


Thanks guys...

I should have stated in my post that I haven't totally given up yet...
but I'm starting to feel that way, which isn't a good sign.

I'm about to launch another site-targeted campaign with a flash skyscraper banner, which is big and visible to all the right customers...
so far it's only been text ads, which don't do much to pre-sell people when your selling a visual product.

I also have to give eBay a push, as well as etsy and a few others (anyone tried selling on Amazon Marketplace?)...
I'm just feeling the pressure now that I don't have the foundation buying me the time to do all the secondary marketing.

I've also been meaning to try out: www.adbrite.com
They let you choose the site you want to advertise on, and it's usually daily/weekly/monthly - which can be affordable.

I'm just bummed because the biggest markets aren't working for me...
I have to take a different approach now, which means breaking new trail.

After years of marketing I thought I had a good plan, 
which got shot to pieces right off the bat!

sigh...


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## T-BOT

there are independent sites that get a lot of visitors.
Have you tried them out yet?

sometimes the hits you get from these sites turn out to be a better return for your $.


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## anonymouschris

reading all this is so exciting for me. i can't wait to get my line started.


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## b_pudd

farennikov said:


> I have almost same situation as the author of this thread. I started my tshirt line 2 weeks ago, and started advertising it on Myspace and via Yahoo immediately. I get an average of 40-100 visits / around 3 ppv per day, mostly from Myspace, and the rest from Yahoo ppc's. Sold more tshirts in the first week then in the second week, and kind of puzzled by that.
> My hypothesis is that I only have 1 tshirt on the site (even though I have more designs, I didn't print them yet) and probably visitors are discouraged because there's no variety. So I am planning to keep Yahoo ads going and meanwhile print at least 2-3 more designs. By the way does any of you think that this is a problem for a buyer - seeing only 1 item on the site? And in your opinion, what is the relevance between number of styles and number of purhcases?


Yes....I see that as a big problem for your sales........no repeat customers. If someone likes one of your designs enough to buy the shirt, chances are they will like another unless they are totally out of category from each other. What i mean is if someone buys a christian t-shirt (not refering to your designs ...haven't seen them), they're probably not going to buy something with a pot leaf on it (no offense to anyone). You really need those repeat customers to build a business and survie.


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## mario70

after 3 years of doing this, my advice is get magazine editors to review your products, which means your stuff has to be good, really good, in order to get their attention. regarding print ads, good magazines most of us can't afford their rates, magazines that we can afford don't generate the good leads. i'm speaking from experience. search engine helps and it's affordable. at the end of the day, it's all about building a brand and this will take time, give yourself 3-5 years at the minimum. most famous clothing brands out there took at least 5-10 years to get to where they are. best of luck.


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## Vtec44

mario70 said:


> at the end of the day, it's all about building a brand and this will take time, give yourself 3-5 years at the minimum. most famous clothing brands out there took at least 5-10 years to get to where they are. best of luck.


Amen to that


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## farennikov

actually now that I have 2 designs available (since last Thursday), everyone who bought new designs were repeat customers. They were the first (and the only) ones to buy them. 

So at one hand it's encouraging, and yes reinforces the fact that it's cheaper to keep a customer then to acquire a new customer.

Also I have a lot of positive feedback about both of the designs, but it doesn't seem that people who comment my stuff actually buy it. The ones who buy it seem to comment it after they buy it.


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## Marcwest

this was a lot to read, but really helpful, i guess whenever i do kickoff my internet website...i know what to look forward to. I was reading on this site or another site, to make a catalog and pass them out before your clothing line dropped( i did a search on this site, but it didnt come up). That way you could create a buzz, before you had any product, i guess just another way to market.


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## Naddy

farennikov said:


> actually now that I have 2 designs available (since last Thursday), everyone who bought new designs were repeat customers. They were the first (and the only) ones to buy them.
> 
> So at one hand it's encouraging, and yes reinforces the fact that it's cheaper to keep a customer then to acquire a new customer.
> 
> Also I have a lot of positive feedback about both of the designs, but it doesn't seem that people who comment my stuff actually buy it. The ones who buy it seem to comment it after they buy it.


Alex,
Your website is amazing! Get some more designs on!


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## dmv01

i think it just takes time. everybody has their "time". some make money quicker than others. you just have to work work work, and sell sell sell. never be afraid of the word "no".


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## bbrenda88

farennikov said:


> I have almost same situation as the author of this thread. I started my tshirt line 2 weeks ago, and started advertising it on Myspace and via Yahoo immediately. I get an average of 40-100 visits / around 3 ppv per day, mostly from Myspace, and the rest from Yahoo ppc's. Sold more tshirts in the first week then in the second week, and kind of puzzled by that.
> My hypothesis is that I only have 1 tshirt on the site (even though I have more designs, I didn't print them yet) and probably visitors are discouraged because there's no variety. So I am planning to keep Yahoo ads going and meanwhile print at least 2-3 more designs. By the way does any of you think that this is a problem for a buyer - seeing only 1 item on the site? And in your opinion, what is the relevance between number of styles and number of purhcases?


I like to see variety personally but I'm kind of in the same boat. I don't have a website up yet but I've been trying to use Myspace to network and so on. I only have one design for sale at this time but I actually have two designs to work with for now. I was trying to go at this whole thing 100% on my own, website building and everything but I'm overwhelmed with the amount of work that is required, I don't have much time to build my own website so I'm thinking of hiring someone for it and just maintianing the rest from that point on.


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## bbrenda88

farennikov said:


> actually now that I have 2 designs available (since last Thursday), everyone who bought new designs were repeat customers. They were the first (and the only) ones to buy them.
> 
> So at one hand it's encouraging, and yes reinforces the fact that it's cheaper to keep a customer then to acquire a new customer.
> 
> Also I have a lot of positive feedback about both of the designs, but it doesn't seem that people who comment my stuff actually buy it. The ones who buy it seem to comment it after they buy it.


 
I have noticed the same thing as far as people who comment aren't the ones to buy.


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## RagnarssonSv

Bump.

An update on how some of the people that posted in here is doing right now would be interesting, how many couldnt continue? How many are still in the same situation and how many are making the big bux?

Ive tried the links etc but maybe some have changed name of their brand, site etc. If they themself cant post maybe some other folks know.


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## Inkblot

You may consider finding a niche and making t shirts that are targeted to it?

If you have hobbies or groups that you are involved in, maybe find a way to make shirts that would apply to those areas. Being that you may enjoy your hobby/group it would possibly make success flow more easily. At least you might enjoy making those types of shirts more. You likely already post on online discussion boards if you are involved in some kind of internet group and many times they let you put your website link in your posts. That would be a great tool to get traffic if your shirts related to the topics you were all discussing?

I tried the online t shirt site years ago and failed terribly. I had so much to learn about graphic design and printing back then that it was probably for the better. I'm too stubborn to quit doing something that I enjoy, so I plan to give it another go one day.

I would leverage social media if you could. Your friends on Facebook (if you have it) may already trust you enough to buy from you and would likely spread the word.

I don't know. If I had all the answers I would be sitting in the Carribean somewhere letting the money roll in while I was goofing off. LOL.

Some of the things I mentioned may help a little though.


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## EDMFLAVOR

I too would like to see how things have changed. 

Is the internet a much more viable selling medium now? The sales figures from 06 on this board seem disappointing!

It'd be really interesting to see how everyone has come along in the last 5 years.


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## rlaubert

You may want to try placing listings on ebay, craigslist and other sites that allow commercial ads. Also who is your target audiance? What makes you better than the competition? Are you in a niche market? If so, where do you find like people? How can you market to just those people.
Search engines are great for driving general traffic, but sometimes you need to market to a more specific audience. Just having traffic isnt good enough if the traffic is not really interested in what you are selling..


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## wear it your way

I think I may have found one of the more unusual ways of marketing!

When I opened my shop in 2008 I looked at rates for advertising in both print and web media. That proved to be un-affordable for a start up company. I had a conversation with badalou (Thanks for all the help and patience) and something he said about getting involved in the community was a good way to get known.

Well, we leased a good quality photo copier that had saddle stitch and started a community news paper!
We now have 10,000 print copies of the paper every two weeks and approx. 2400 online readers. The Capreol Press

This has given us unlimited advertising so that almost everyone knows the name Capreol Graphics in the area and sales are doing great! Oh, did I mention that we also generate advertising revenue from the paper in addition to store sales? 

David


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## CuriousInkling

Study SEO, that's an investment in your business you can't afford to miss out on. I've studied it for two years and I still learn new stuff all the time. While your site is new, SEO is key for you.

There's nothing wrong with your price structure. Folks buy tees online rather than Walmart because it's original so don't be afraid to charge a premium price, folks will pay it. 

While you are new, spend about 60% of your time learning and practicing SEO strategies. Spend the other 40% of your time on designing new shirts. A wider variety of shirts will equal more sales. 

Lastly, if this is really what you want to do, don't give up. It's frustrating at first but when you get where you want to be it's a lot of fun too. Lots of folks have great businesses so that means success is possible and there's always room for more because even in this down economy the market is vast.

Graphic Tee Shirts


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## OUTSERIES

A hefty read, but found tons of great advice!

We definitely have a lot to learn in this industry. We don't get a whole lot of traffic on our site, so we'll be working on increasing the number of hits per week. As a new brand, I think this is key. So far we've had the same problem as some other posters, where we've only been selling to supportive friends and friends of friends.

For the next little while we'll be doing research on SEO and SEO strategies.

Thanks for all the great advice!

--
OUTSERIES | a positive outlook
www.outseries.com


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## Geneva2011

good reading material..


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## wear it your way

Geneva2011 said:


> good reading material..


All I see is red x's


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## dave1

I agree with the idea that you need time to start getting your site noticed. It took a long time for me to get my first conversion. I learned a lot of things over the years and you must have a complete site to start off. A lot of products and several pages. Having a one page shop will not give people options. If your a beginner I would say start with at least a five page website that has different content. Example, a t-shirt page for artistic t-shirts and one for graphic tees. they all most be linked to you main page for easy navigation. Also, it is very important that each page has it's own set of meta tags that describe the content of the page. That is very important.
Then advertise your butt off. DO NOT SPAM Write a blog about your shirts and ask for comments. Make sure you have a links page and request link exchanges with other sites that sell tees.
I have found it to be more successful if you don't ask your competition. If they sell tees that are different than ours go for it.
My site has been around for a while and I get request from a lot of people. When you do be careful some people will never link to your site or maybe just for a week or two. You end up giving them free advertising. 
Always keep a list of link exchanges that you have made and check them every week to make sure that your site is still listed on theirs.


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## dave1

First things first, You should think of a design for shirts that people are looking for and want.
Some site I've seen here have nice designs but lack draw. That is a reason for someone to search for it.
think about somebody searching for t-shirts online first thing is your design a known type of shirt?
Think of a reason that people would want to wear your design. If you have an successful blog that gets a lot of visitors then that maybe a great time to introduce some new designs.


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## AngieinOhio

It all depends on advertising and quality & customer service. We started 4 years ago in our basement,moved in a year to a 5000sq feet building. We are now in the process of building our own building it has it's ups and downs. But in at the end of the day it's worth it. Good luck!


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## ghostmansports

For some free advertising I would recommend putting your gear on sites like pintrest, thefancy and svpply.


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## perzazz

im new to the industry and currently have a minimal website we offer personalized gifts including t-shirts however im starting to see the market for good t-shirt designs so i shall be branching out to a second site covering t-shirts as a whole with good designs 
im under no illusion that i will get very little traffic for the first 12-18 months thats business for you but i like many others will get there in the end i wish you luck in your endevours


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## bigswiss

good info here!!!


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## bigswiss

i have to say facebook has been the best marketing for me!


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## PreClassics

crazy to see some of the websites left abandoned from circa 2006. Reading through this thread only gives me more strength to continue.


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## Arizen Christian

wow thanks for all the advice listed above I learned some new things about the biz.
ARIZEN


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## ReggieTees

I'd say learning SEO is the best course of action, followed by utilizing Social Media. Our traffic has started to pick up a lot now that we're getting those two things cranking. Our conversion rate is terrible, but we'll keep at it.


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## ryan barker

s dot, for a minute there i thought all you did was sell tees with 'preferred classics' on them. i snooped around and found the other designs. am i missing something, or is there no other way to find the designs other than to go to the bottom of the 'collections' page? there was one design on the blog, but i'm not one to slog through 5 pages of junk to find a couple of designs. just curious....


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