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dave1 · March 6th, 2007

I have been very successful with my site and I just want to share some ideas if you will.
After reviewing a lot of members websites I would like to make a few suggestions for things to consider.
1. What is your goal?
Answer: Make money.
2. How?
Answer: Selling T-shirts.
3. To who?
Answer: Everybody.

Some designs I have seen here seem to refect ones personal interest as to what they think they would like. It doesn't work that way. Everybody here has their own personal taste and you can't inforce that on others. If you are going to sell one type of shirt then that is the market you must focus on.
Do not waste your time trying to sell shirts about cars to a market about pets.
If you limit yourself to one type of product without much success then you must be willing to change.
Having a variety of designs gives you the opportunity to see what sells.

People buy t-shirts that they think are cool and they want people to see them.
If you want to be successful in this business then you need designs that people would be proud to wear. Not shirts that promote hatered or make fun of people.
One of the things I did before I designed my site was spend a lot time hanging around stores that sold only t-shirts. I did this in three different cities and it took me about four weeks.
What I did was listen to what the customers were saying about the tshirts they bought and didn't buy.
Why? It gave me a clear understanding of what they thought was cool and what they were willing to wear.
My point is that even though the design was cool looking or said something
slick on it they would not buy it because it was not acceptable by their parents or school and sometimes their friends.
So think about your designs and who would want to wear them.
Would you want your kids to wear them? What type of message are you promoting?
Remember walking down the street and seeing somebody wearing a really cool tshirts. Did it offend you?
All I'm trying to say people is think about what you are trying to market and try to sell what people are buying not what you want them to buy.
After your site starts making you some serious money then and only then you can feel safe to introduce some new products.
Good luck everyone

GatitaMala · March 14th, 2007

You make some interesting points about t-shirt content...in my research of other sites, especially really popular sites, I have long wondered, who buys this stuff? I have never walked down the street and seen these offensive t-shirts on actual live people. Believe me, I would notice, as I am always t-shirt watching, noting what people are wearing as I walk down the street. It is obvious that some people are willing to sell anything to make a buck...I saw a REALLY offensive t-shirt today on a popular site that featured a picture of a hanger, and I quickly had to back-click I was so disturbed. I am guessing that these types of attention-grabbers are mainly there to draw people to the site. I guess.

Anyway, I think t-shirt retailers that take the high road (limiting their wares to generally tasteful content...eschewing topics that reinforce hatred and stereotypes) are few and far between, but it is something that I personally am using as a marketing tool, and it is good to see there are others out there doing the same. Intelligence sells.

Fluid · March 14th, 2007

Quote:


	Anyway, I think t-shirt retailers that take the high road (limiting their wares to generally tasteful content...eschewing topics that reinforce hatred and stereotypes) are few and far between, but it is something that I personally am using as a marketing tool, and it is good to see there are others out there doing the same. Intelligence sells.

Cudos to the both of you

Bougie · March 16th, 2007

I don't care. I'll sell whatever makes me money and whatever I like. We have freedom of expression. It's our inalienable right. Sometimes people forget that.

mikiec · March 16th, 2007

Bougie, I think you have misunderstood what the OPs are saying.... from their research and experience, people are more likely to buy non-offensive t-shirts.

You can sell whatever you like, but whether you will sell more of the offensive compared to non-offensive is open for debate.

Just for the record, my designs are mainly self-deprecating and I decided to launch with quite non-offensive slogans at first. I havent sold that many but all of my designs have sold, except for the one that could be taken as being offensive which hasnt sold a one.

(ps sorry for the lack of apostrophes... Mozilla has got a weird bug which screws up certain key hits

)

GatitaMala · March 16th, 2007

I definitely support freedom of speech. I think people are way to "PC" these days, and the t-shirt may be the last great bastion of free thought. You won't see such off-color humor printed on other media distributed among the masses...and the thing that makes something funny is often the grain of truth behind it. I also peruse and lol at t-shirts with offensive humor...and sometimes it goes too far for my personal tastes...and sometimes the humor is just base and stupid. But I am just one person and there are many tastes for all of us to cater to...so yes, what we're talking about is what people actually buy and wear...from a marketing standpoint. And as always, the market will prevail. The business model that puts profit as the No. 1 concern may eventually make way for the social entrepreneurship model (something my site is striving for but has yet to implement) that takes into account a business' effect on society and, hopefully, makes money at the same time.

Rodney · March 16th, 2007

Quote:


	Bougie, I think you have misunderstood what the OPs are saying.... from their research and experience, people are more likely to buy non-offensive t-shirts.

I think the key is that "some" people are more likely to buy non-offensive t-shirts.

There is a big enough market for offensive t-shirts that several sites can do well and exist in that market. T-ShirtHell sells millions of dollars worth of shirts per year. Somebody's buyin' them

Whether it's as a gag, or whether it's for themselves, they buy them. I know I've bought a few (I have an eclectic t-shirt taste

)

Not everybody will buy an offensive shirt, but at the same time, not everyone will buy a funny t-shirts or a shirt with a butterfly or a shirt with cool art on it. There's no one shirt design type for "everyone".

The goal is finding out YOUR specific market and making the best t-shirts you can for that market. If your market won't buy offensive t-shirts because their parents wouldn't accept it, then that just means that YOU shouldn't be selling offensive t-shirts, not that anyone else shouldn't be selling offensive t-shirts.

If your market likes fancy scroll artwork, skulls and floral designs, that just means that you should concentrate on those type of designs.

The world is a diverse place.

Quote:


	Some designs I have seen here seem to refect ones personal interest as to what they think they would like. It doesn't work that way. Everybody here has their own personal taste and you can't inforce that on others. If you are going to sell one type of shirt then that is the market you must focus on.

I don't know if that's necessarily true. It's often that people draw from their own tastes to decide which market they want to sell to. People like themselves.

You can design a shirt that you like and if you're part of your target market, there's a good chance that they'll like it to.

This isn't always the case, but I think it helps to design t-shirts that you have some interest in. You just have to realize that not everyone is going to want to buy what you think is cool.

Quote:


	Do not waste your time trying to sell shirts about cars to a market about pets

If you're selling shirts about cars because you like cars, then I don't think pets would ever enter into it.

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