Should you just have only ONE theme on a t-shirt site?
If you want more than one theme, should you make more than one site?
Like if you want anti-bush shirts and offensive humor shirts, should they be on separate sites or highly separate parts of one site?
As for me, I like a variety of themes, but I guess if I had a whole hodge podge of random design types all jumbled together, then people wouldn't find what they like and most likely leave without buying anything? Is that right? I'm thinking if people come to look at one particular design that was advertised and they see other designs that are in the same theme or category, then they would be more likely to buy one of them, wouldn't they?
If you have one theme, it's easier to brand and position yourself. You can become THE authority on t-shirts about Gary Coleman as opposed to ANOTHER t-shirt site that has everything on it. The key is picking a 'theme' or niche that isn't too specific and thus large enough to sustain a market. Goodluck!
You should be able to achieve having different branding on the same site.
Instead of buying a separate site you can use/register "different domains" specific to your "themes" then when you submit your site to a search engine you use that domain name and the specific "theme main page" you want to point people to.
I've been thinking about this too. I've got some offensive humor shirt designs along with different categories, and I'm going to put it all on the same site. However, I've also thought about doing Christian shirts, since I grew up Baptist and know how Christians tend to think, so I will probably buy a separate domain name for that (else, they'd probably have a heart attack on seeing some of my more offensive designs!).
For a single website, you could go the subdomain route. For example, if your website is www.example.com, and you were starting an anti-Bush category, you can set up this address too: www.antibush.example.com. (Note: I don't own example.com and just made it up. Great domain name, though.)
Last edited by Rodney; April 24th, 2006 at 10:22 AM.
Reason: "example-ified" the URLs
My opinion is that you should stick to one theme per site. Im in the political t-shirt business, and one thing that really bothers me is a site that sells both anti bush and pro bush t-shirts. I know that alot of people (myself included) would not buy from a site that does this.
In my opinion selling all types of shirts cheapens your brand. If you are looking to build a brand, I wouldnt put lots of different types of shirts on one site. Of course you can be succesfull either way.
I think it partially depends on how disparate the themes are. If you're talking about two categories that are polar opposites (such as jdr's reference to anti and pro-bush shirts, or christian shirts and t-shirthell shirts), then, yeah, they probably shouldn't be on the same site (unless you run the mother of all t-shirt sites that offers everything under the sun). However, I think you could probably get away with anti-bush shirts and offensive humor shirts on the same site, assuming that there is a significant overlap between the targeted demographics. At that point, it probably depends more on how you lay out your site in terms of categories and functionality.
My site has about six different categories from political to religious. I don' think it's necessary to have a different site in fact it just gives you more to choose from. As long as you keep everything in it's specific category it's fine.
__________________ www.identityburn.com : t-shirt design for the individual - coming soon
My site has about six different categories from political to religious. I don' think it's necessary to have a different site in fact it just gives you more to choose from. As long as you keep everything in it's specific category it's fine.
do you have another site besides the coming soon one?
Just one theme per t-shirt site? 
Re: Just one theme per t-shirt site? 
