Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, link building, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
Re: How to get customers to see your t-shirt site?
It really is all about search engine optimization (SEO). Before you go out and spend countless dollars for adwords or pay per click etc you need to get inside your site and realize how search engines find you. You have to understand how the system works. There are tons of free SEO tools and articles to help you learn and achieve this realization. The top ten sites on any topic search have figured it out. Google up a topic and grab the number one result. Right click your mouse and choose view source code. You should be able to see exactly how their title page is set up....its just a reference but sometimes very enlightening. If you do that within the market you are trying to get into it will help you in choosing your keywords. This can go on and on but the info is out there and SEO is the first, most basic and initial way to be seen on the web. Something that most folks overlook and dont spend the time tooling. The real deal is that its ever changing and evolving and you should spend time revamping your site until things click...they will but it does take time.
Re: How to get customers to see your t-shirt site?
That is a great way I have tried that and it has also been effective for me. I have not had my online store for long but I already have some pretty good customers.
Re: How to get customers to see your t-shirt site?
I have found Yahoo and MSN PPCs are much cheaper than Google's too. Maybe try those before you spend mega bucks on Adwords.
Also Rodney's advice for not using Adwords for your general site is probably the best advice you'll hear.
As with all forms of marketing adwords needs time and effort. Spend a bit more time in setting up your campaign to target specifics on good keywords will save you alot of money and get better traffic.
Re: How to get customers to see your t-shirt site?
Has anyone had any experiences on the shopping sites like shopping.com, shopzilla, etc. I had a negative experience on shopping.com. I had been conscientiously tracking my store's site visitors to better gauge the traffic from shopping.com. For my category I had to bid $1.09 just to get a couple of visitors a day. All of a sudden one day I was charged for 25 clicks (you can do the math) however, my store site did not reflect any of those visitors, I just had 1 visitor that day (which was probably me, ha ha) Anyway, I submitted a case review with the company and they got back with me after several days and sent a report which supposedly contained the i.p addresses of people who had clicked on my products and had been linked to my site. The weird thing is, it did not show the 25 clicks in one day as my account was charged. Not sure what the deal was but it left me with a bad impression on the pay per click advertising. Anyone have any experiences or thoughts?
Re: How to get customers to see your t-shirt site?
Quote:
Originally Posted by xprexu
Has anyone had any experiences on the shopping sites like shopping.com, shopzilla, etc. I had a negative experience on shopping.com. I had been conscientiously tracking my store's site visitors to better gauge the traffic from shopping.com. For my category I had to bid $1.09 just to get a couple of visitors a day. All of a sudden one day I was charged for 25 clicks (you can do the math) however, my store site did not reflect any of those visitors, I just had 1 visitor that day (which was probably me, ha ha) Anyway, I submitted a case review with the company and they got back with me after several days and sent a report which supposedly contained the i.p addresses of people who had clicked on my products and had been linked to my site. The weird thing is, it did not show the 25 clicks in one day as my account was charged. Not sure what the deal was but it left me with a bad impression on the pay per click advertising. Anyone have any experiences or thoughts?
I had a somewhat similar experience with Yahoo! Search Marketing. As a result, I'm very apprehensive with regard to PPC advertising. Obviously, the more research you arm yourself with, the better. But at the end of the day... you have to look at your advertising budget, and you have to ask yourself: "How much of this am I willing to lose?". I know I'm oversimplifying everything, but my point is we need to remind ourselves that there are no guarantees with any form of advertising. I think MotoskinGraphix has a VERY valid point. Use the help resources available, but it's best to really understand your site (and yourself) inside and out. Otherwise, you're just buying a sales pitch.
Re: How to get customers to see your t-shirt site?
There is nothing that beats person to person contact. Sometimes you just gotta knock on doors. I've also noticed this... $200 ad in the local newspaper (not even a 1/4 page in the daily with a circulation of 75,000, but buys two in the weekly with a circulation of 8,000) gets you nothing. $200 worth of advertising on the web gets you less. $200 worth of direct mail followed up by personal contacts will get you easily $1,000 short time and much more long term. Heck, even $200 worth of listings on eBay gets more than what you will generate from most sites.
That "in your face factor" makes sales. Too many static sites selling more of the same. My work is not overly brilliant, clever or creative, yet I make a living, because I'm always in my customers face, not using passive advertising.
Re: How to get customers to see your t-shirt site? 
I think you can signup and check the bid amounts. The prices vary a lot per keyword though.
