monkeylantern said:
I know many of you purchase space and list on Rodney's site. How has that altered click-through/sales? Any noticable difference if you creep up the list? (Obviously, you have to be polite about tshirtcountdown.com, else Rodney will smack you.)
At the risk of offending people, I'm going to be completely honest about my opinion of T-Shirt Countdown. I've never advertised on the site, and I have no idea how useful it is for sales. My experience with T-Shirt Countdown has only been as a potential customer, and do bear in mind that my opinion reflects only that. Also, all my complaints are about the content of the sites on there, which Rodney is not responsible for - I am not addressing the mechanisms of the site he has put in place. I also have no intention of pointing fingers at specific sites.
People who don't like a site tend to leave without saying anything, so you never know what people don't like about a site. So for once I'm not going to do that. Two things to bear in mind 1) I am only one type of customer, and for some of you I am not your target customer. 2) Don't dismiss what I have to say too quickly though, because I definitely represent a certain t-shirt buying demographic. With that out of the way...
When I first came to T-Shirt Countdown, it was because I wanted to buy more t-shirts for myself. I knew people interested in getting into the business, but didn't think I would be one of them. So there was no ulterior business motivations - I was
only a (potential) customer.
On that visit, I found T-Shirt Countdown to be pretty much useless for my needs. I have a good memory for brands and websites, and only one stuck in my mind as being worth remembering -
paperplain.com. They were one of only a very small number of sites that was actually professional and selling a quality product (they didn't close a sale with me because 1) They don't have my size, 2) They might be a little
too plain (I'm still undecided). I still think of them as a good company and visit from time to time to see if anything's changed).
I found almost all the sites fell into one of three categories in my mind:
1) Anti and Pro Bush shirts. Mostly specifically Bush related rather than just political in general. Some of these were well done, but most weren't.
2) Really twee religious shirts. Some of these had good messages and ideas, but I didn't like the design of any of them.
3) Really, really crude shirts. I wasn't offended by them, but they simply weren't funny. Add to that the fact that they were all very badly drawn and they didn't capture my interest.
The sites that didn't fall into one of those three categories (e.g. paperplain) were the ones I was most likely to visit. I have no interest in group 1 or 2 from that list, and 3 needs to be clever (not just offensive for the sake of it) to attract my interest.
Personally I was looking for clever slogans or nice graphic design. Crude or geeky humour, random elements, etc. Or for something to take me by surprise - I would never go looking for a site like paperplain, but I did visit. I buy a pretty wide range of shirts, but T-Shirt Countdown featured a very narrow choice.
One of the results of this was that I paid extra attention to the paid advertisements. Normally I would ignore them astutely, but I was there because I wanted to buy t-shirts and those in the countdown just weren't doing it for me. I remember literally feeling desperate to get off the site, but wanting to leave with
something. Sites people had paid money to advertise were generally a lot better, so I paid more attention to those ads.
As a potential advertiser, I think this is actually a good sign for you. People come to T-Shirt Countdown because they want to buy a t-shirt - and yet there's nothing there worth buying. Advertise something worth buying and you can have a monopoly.
So that was then, what about now? Has the site changed
in my opinion? I went and had another look, stopping at 220 (I always stop around 200, how long does it go on for?).
Yes and no. There are a lot more dedicated websites, and less people running CP Shops. There's a lot more people selling screen printed t-shirts. To me those are both big plusses. In general the calibre has raised quite a bit, but I'm still a t-shirt buyer and I still didn't buy anything. There have been improvements, but the problems I mentioned about only being a narrow range of genres are still present.
Most of the humour is either related to penises or feces, more often than not combined with sexism or bigotry. I didn't find that funny when I was six, and I certainly don't now. There are a lot more graphical shirts, I wouldn't buy any of them but it's good to see some diversity.
There are a few companies who I think are doing a decent job, some were there before, some weren't (some examples:
parachutemonkey.com,
catch23.com,
ptees.com). I'd buy a couple of catch23 shirts if they didn't have their url on them, and I'd buy parachute's scurvy shirt if they weren't using AA. I might buy a couple of ptees shirts if they carried my size (I've liked that site ever since the owner first posted a message about it on these forums).
Others are flawed, but raising the quality standard, e.g.
cracksmokingshirts.com,
sackwear.com - I'm not a fan of either, but they're better than a lot of other sites doing the same thing.
grooveking.com - a site that is a great example of why you shouldn't use flash to design an eCommerce site, but they look professional and have some nice tees (the website looks good, but it's very annoying to actually
use).
In general I'd say the standard has raised, but there's still plenty of room for someone better to come along. Sites like Threadless & Busted Tees would blow any of these out of the water. I buy a lot of different webcomic t-shirts and most of those sites are run better than pretty much anything on T-Shirt Countdown (and often the t-shirts are just a sideline for them).
One piece of advice for those submitting t-shirts to the T-Shirt Countdown voting: if you have a good shirt printed on a colour (i.e. not black or white) then use that one. Colour attracts the eye more, but more importantly colour is one of the many subtle signs of a higher quality product (most of the shirts I end up buying are black, but I never start off looking for black).
Obviously the content will only improve as better sites start seeing it as a viable advertising outlet. I'd say in the short term it's worth considering because of the big-fish-small-pond scenario, and in the longer term as the quality raises everyone who survives will benefit. At the moment there's no reason for a customer to return to T-Shirt Countdown. After going once and finding very little worth your time, why would you go back? If it was full of vibrant submissions it would be worth returning to to check for updates.
Having had a quick look over the T-shirt Countdown advertising rates I'd say it's worth seriously considering. Obviously it'll be interesting to see what anyone here who has actually tried it has to say, but the rates do seem very affordable.