Startup skills for a t-shirt company
An aspiring t-shirt entrepreneur is looking for startup ideas. What’s your advice?
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DiggGiveaways are common practice among bloggers seeking exposure and inbound links for their website. The most popular prize for these contests is one of the new game systems, most notably the Wii.
As long as you state the rules in your TOS there really are no legal repercussions for giving away YOUR T shirts. My largest marketing client has used this very same approach several times and yes, the ideas were run past the legal department. Offer to give the blog owner who has the winning entry a shirt, Wii or whatever.
I find this statement interesting, “it’s cut throat out there”. Out where? On the Internet? All business is competitive. If your market is available online monitor your competition and become a better merchant. SEO your site and out link them to dominate T shirt Internet sales in Google.
This approach happens everyday. Use unconventional sources to market your products. Create a Stumble campaign with your T shirts in photos with very attractive “people” as T shirt models. A good Stumble can send hundreds and even thousands of visitors within twenty four hours.
Regarding terrryreeves comment, be careful with contests. There are very stringent rules and regulations regarding any kind of giveaway, and you could find yourself in hot water with the law if you don’t abide by them.
As a successful t-shirt entrepreneur myself, my first suggestion would be know your market, know your customers, find your niche. It’s cutthroat out there.
Assuming you have a website, you will also need a blog attached to your website or have your website coded in the common blog code, PHP. PHP allows for a great deal of flexibility and simplicity in updating the site.
Once your blog/site is up, start with a contest. Network with bloggers in Mybloglog.com or Bumpzee.com and get bloggers to blog about your new site and the contest. The contest can be literally anything but I would ask for the most creative phrase or slogan to be put on a t shirt. You review all of the comments from the blogs participating and the blog that has the winning comment can also receive a number of t shirts to give out to it’s readers.
This is a simple idea that can immediately create some buzz around your new business and your website. Hold these contest every two or three months and in about a year you could easily have more traffic than you can handle.
Now that would be great problem to have.
There are other ways to sell t-shirts without getting your own printer. You can use sites like cafepress.com, spreadshirt.com, or zazzle.com. All these sites let set up your own storefront and sell t-shirts for less than $7 a month and they handle all the orders and you just earn commissions when your product sells. It is a great way to test the water before spending a lot of money on something you may not be good or or even like doing. You can read more about these companies at http://www.T-shirttalk.com and Selltees.com.
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T-shirts are immediately placed in the donation box at my house. Crew neck, men’s t-shirts look horrible on women. When a women’s cut tee is made available, I guarantee that they’ll be seen at the gym, the grocery store, the hardware store and anywhere else a woman doesn’t need to be dressed up. Wake up folks - unless you only want to advertise to men.