Creative Gumption

Meet Chaitanya Singh Arora: Linkedin T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

2009-03-23T06:00:00.001-05:00

This week, meet another member of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer advice.

• Chaitanya Singh Arora
• www.organicherbinfused.com
• www.organiccounts.com

What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"We handle all segments mentioned, right from the fiber state to the finished products. We handle all processes."

Tell us about your company and your role in it.

"We are manufacturers and stockists of Organic Natural dyed clothing,bed linens, towels etc. We only work with Organic cotton, Organic Silks and Bamboo. We are a company which is working very hard in order to change the way things are done. Change in order to save our environment is very important and we are trying very hard to work for the same.Shift from Conventional clothing to Organic clothing is very important. Just by buying 1 Organic Garment or product people in-directly contribute to the green movement as making 1 Organic Garment saves more than 2000 litres of water and 15 kgs of chemicals, please refer to our website for more info on the same.

So our aim is not just to sell Organic clothing but to educate people regarding the same. Our website also has all details about our Organic cottons and Natural dyes we use. We use Herbal/Natural dyes which are received from Medicinal herbs making the complete process of making and dyeing the cloth Organic. Also because we use medicinal herbs for the dyeing the fabrics also have therapeutic value in them, they work wonderfully for Asthma,skin allergies etc. Thus its a wonderful product people get. they get an Organic product and the therapeutic value with it is a bonus."

What makes you/your company remarkable?

"Please refer to the earlier answer. We also offer all custom developments and can also make as low as 1 Garment for a start up buyer in order to increase our client base and to make sure more and more people get interested in Organic products."

Tell us about your T-shirt expertise and areas of interest.

"We enjoy the development process and it gets some wonderful new ideas every time we develop a new design."

How did you get your start in the T-shirt industry?

"We are exporters for the past 35 years, its a family business we are working on."

From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"In certain Indian villages people without any technical knowledge or training people carry on Organic farming. This was an amazing process to see, also they carry on Natural dyeing with herbs and plants. This added to the level of interest i build in for Natural products.Plus the changing world opinion on Organic products helped us move forward and get motivated to work with Organic textiles."

What are some challenges you currently face or have overcome in your career? Lessons learned?

"We want Organic clothing and textiles to get to the mass market in India which is a task as changing the trend is something which takes time. More than anything peoples mind sets need to be changed which is a difficult thing to do."

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"Our products have been featured on the Oprah Winfrey show which really helped in marketing and educating people about the advantages of using Organic products. Also when a customer re-orders its a accomplishment in itself for us as we know more and more Organic products are getting to the people."

What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"Just have a vision and work towards it.Hard work conquers all and be patient as things take time. That is it."

What is something unique that you can contribute to the LinkedIn T-shirt Professionals group?

"I can offer all kinds of Manufacturing services, as explained earlier we offer all services which at times is difficult to find. We are a one-stop shop for all Organic Knitted Garments or T-shirts."

What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"I'm still new to Linkedin."

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and may be featured here. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

Meet Tom Rauen: Linkedin T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

2009-03-16T06:00:00.001-05:00

This week, meet another member of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer advice.

• Tom Rauen, envisionTees.com
• http://www.envisiontees.com/

What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

Printing

"Our fully automated facility is capable of printing thousands of tshirts per day, however you may notice there are no minimums!

a.. Custom Screen Printing
b.. Custom Direct to Garment Inkjet Printing
c.. Custom Embroidery
d.. Promotional Products
e.. In House Digitizing
f.. Full Time Artist on Staff
g.. Complete Customer Satisfaction"

Tell us about your company and your role in it.

"My main role in the company is running and overseeing the day to day operations. I also play a key role in the majority of the graphic design work. EnvisionTees.com is a family owned business located in the heart of the Midwest. Our central location and proximity to the UPS shipping hub allows us great delivery times anywhere in the continental United States. We are a company specializing in custom apparel screen printing, embroidery and promotional products.

We take pride in every aspect of our company serving our customers and strive to keep a competitive edge in our industry with every order we produce.

We at EnvisionTees.com look forward to building a long lasting and respectable relationship with you, your school, your team, or your company. We hope we to become the familiar friend and name that you are proud to do business with."

What makes you/your company remarkable?

"Fast and friendly service that is unmatched in our surrounding area."

Tell us about your T-shirt expertise and areas of interest.

"Sports Teams, Schools, Events, and Business."

How did you get your start in the T-shirt industry?

"Online forums and trade shows."

From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"The latest trends on the internet and television."

What are some challenges you currently face or have overcome in your career? Lessons learned?

"Being everything to everyone. When we first started we tried to be everything to everyone which we later found out is near impossible to do, so we've cut back in those areas and have been focusing on fewer select markets and products."

What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"The app has only recently been released to the public. So we are calling on the t-shirt design community to help build up the collection of designs in Shirt Shack. Early users of the application will have a chance to have their Cafepress designs highly visible in the app."

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"The steady growth of the business in the first 3 years and the national accounts we have secured."

What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"Don't be afraid to take a chance to dive in. The only thing that can hold you back is yourself."

What is something unique that you can contribute to the LinkedIn T-shirt Professionals group?

"A younger generations perspective on business and the industry."

What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"People from different demographics that I can share and learn different aspects of the industry and industries connected to screen printing."

Do you have an experience with the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group you’d like to share? Have you made some valuable connections?

"I am just getting started, but you have to start somewhere and the first step is making the connection and then developing that connection."

Are there any favorite online resources you’d like to share?

usscreen.com forum
dafont.com
slickdeals.net

Is there anything else you want the world to know about you or your company?

"The secret to life is to find something you love to do and do it better than anyone else. Have a passion and desire for it that reflects the work you do and in turn will satisfy any customer. With me, it's T-Shirts."

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and may be featured here. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

New Facebook App. to help Cafepress shopkeepers increase sales

2009-03-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

This week, meet another member of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer advice.

• Brian Buser
• Co-Founder, Shirt Shack
• Brian Buser's LinkedIn Profile
• http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=18119779549

What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"Marketing of Cafepress shops."

Tell us about your company and your role in it.

"Shirt Shack is a Facebook application that allows people to easily import their Cafepress designs into Facebook. Users of the app promote the designs by displaying them on their profiles and sending them as virtual gifts to friends. This is similar to the extremely popular apps Bumper Sticker and Pieces of Flair. Additionally, the designs in Shirt Shack link to marketplace pages in Cafepress, which enables interested app users to buy the shirts directly. So users’ Cafepress sales will grow as their designs are shared throughout Facebook."

What makes you/your company remarkable?

"Shirt Shack is bringing together the very active Cafepress and Facebook communities in a way that has not been done before. Facebook has over 175 Million users; each of which is a potential t-shirt buyer. But before Shirt Shack, there was no easy way for Cafepress designers to promote their designs within Facebook."

From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"We're just solving a need in the marketplace. The other Shirt Shack Co-Founder, Tom King, and I both have Cafepress shops and use Facebook daily. We figured there should be a way to promote our designs to the Facebook community. So, we designed an app that would not only accomplish this, but also be fun for the average Facebook user who is not a t-shirt designer."

What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"The app has only recently been released to the public. So we are calling on the t-shirt design community to help build up the collection of designs in Shirt Shack. Early users of the application will have a chance to have their Cafepress designs highly visible in the app."

Is there anything else you want the world to know about you or your company?

"Our goal is to create an app that helps designers increase sales in Cafepress. We'd love to hear your feedback of any kind. People can get in touch with us in our Facebook group. Everyone is welcome!"

Join the group here: Shirt Shack

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and may be featured here. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

Meet Brian D Gryphon: Linkedin T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

2009-03-02T06:00:00.000-06:00

This week, meet another member of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer advice.

• Brian D Gryphon
• Owner & Photographer: Digital Gryphon LLC
• Brian D Gryphon's LinkedIn Profile
• http://www.digitalgryphon.net

What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"Our primary focus is design, but we also work on marketing. On-line POD firms produce for hundreds of thousands of designers; they are most interested in marketing their own brand. "

Tell us about your company and your role in it.

"The Digital Gryphon LLC offers various merchandise featuring my photography- with an emphasis on florals and felines. We use POD ("print on demand") firms such as CafePress, PrintFection and Zazzle to do everything from production to customer service. I am pretty much the entire company."

What makes you/your company remarkable?

"I have 35 years of photographic and almost three decades of business experience combined with an artist's curiosity and desire to blend old and new."

Tell us about your T-shirt expertise and areas of interest.

"I began working with Screen Printers to produce t-shirts as fundraisers for various community organizations in the late 80s and early 90s. I investigated doing my own set up, but decided it was best to leave production in the hands of experts."

From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"My florals are mainly from the world-famous Whetstone Park of Roses in central Ohio, although I take a camera on all travels and so have images from a wide range of places.

My feline images are from the Cat Welfare Association, a 'no kill' shelter in central Ohio- used as a fundraiser for that organization."

What are some challenges you currently face or have overcome in your career? Lessons learned?

"Using POD firms guarantees I can't compete on Price. Fortunately my previous Sales experience included training on how to sell around pricing issues... it may sound cliche but there really are people who want service and quality and will pay for it."

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"I've reached the age of fifty- and still enjoy learning."

What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"Enjoy what you do- or move on."

What is something unique that you can contribute to the LinkedIn T-shirt Professionals group?

"I like to be a bridge between Designers and Producers; make sure everyone appreciates that while actors get the glory, 'the crew' is the foundation. I was both an Account Manager and a Customer Service Consultant- the former paid more, but I know that the latter position is where the real work gets done."

What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"I want to keep in touch with other small businesses- we sell product that might not seem 'luxurious' but which are most definitely 'discretionary'."

Do you have an experience with the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group you’d like to share? Have you made some valuable connections?

"Still very new here."

Is there anything else you want the world to know about you or your company?

"We take time to stop and smell the roses."

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and will each be featured here for one week. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

Meet Jesper Popma: Linkedin T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

2009-02-16T20:18:00.000-06:00

This week, meet another member of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer advice.

• Jesper Popma
• Co-founder/owner of Jazzy et James
• Jesper's LinkedIn Profile
• http://jazzyetjames.com/

What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"Wholesale, bulk, design, printing, promo wear"

Tell us about your company and your role in it.

"I’m a co-founder/owner at Jazzy et James. I can help you promote your brand by providing you with printed bamboo shirts that your target group will love to wear (because of its softness and fit). If you are thinking of using shirts to promote your brand, make sure you go with beautiful design. I have lots of promotional shirts in my closet witch I only use for “Dirty Jobs” (like painting my house). Because of their bad fit I don’t like to wear them in public. So where’s the promotional / commercial value of these shirts?"

What makes you/your company remarkable?

Our Perfect Fit Philosophy:
Our vision on promotional clothing - The Perfect Fit Philosophy – is based on three pillars:

1. A perfect fit for any size, in our own design.
2. Made from bamboo fabric for maximum comfort.
3. A sustainable raw material (bamboo).

Comfortable bamboo fabric:
Bamboo is a revolutionary discovery for the production of fabric: breathable, with a high absorption level (four times higher than cotton) and bacteria static and hypo-allergenic properties. Jazzy et James shirts are, by the use of silky bamboo, very comfortable to wear. That’s why we say: Joie the fibre!

Your own unique design or printing:
Order shirts from the Jazzy et James collection with or without imprint. You have a choice out of 3 lines: the Basique, the Basique en Plus and Unique.

Basique
Basique is our basic product, without imprint.

Basique and Plus
A basic shirt with your own logo, text or image as print. Give us your artwork and we take care of your Basique and Plus collection.

Unique
Your own unique shirts printed with a special design developed just for you. Based on your needs (for example, your theme or event), made by our own graphic designer.

In any color:
The Jazzy et James collection can be ordered in the color of your choice. What do you think of promotional clothing in your own corporate color?

From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"Inspiration for prints comes from the customers briefing, marketing values, image and line of business."

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"Development and design of our patterns, finding a good bamboo fabric/production supplier and the launch of our website."

What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"Be aware of properties of fabric you are using. All fabrics have different properties and act different during washing and wearing. Make sure you examine these properties before starting production."

Do you have an experience with the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group you’d like to share? Have you made some valuable connections?

"So far I’ve made a couple of connections of which one is particularly valuable to me."

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and will each be featured here for one week. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

Meet Ginny Albert: Linkedin T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

2009-02-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

I'm excited to introduce the members of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer useful advice.

• Ginny Albert
• Artist/T-shirt designer GinnyArt Online
• http://www.cafepress.com/ginnyart

What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"Design"

Tell us about your company and your role in it:

"My company is currently a sole proprietorship. I am the artist whose designs appear on what I call "Chic Shirts" The cafepress site places the designs on various items of my choosing -- greeting cards, tote bags, figurines, mouse pads, etc. Once in a while I use a outside silkscreener, particularly when I'm involved in a trade show."

What makes you/your company remarkable?

"The fact that everything is created by me, the concept of GinnyArt, which is expanding from T-shirts into art exhibits, a novel, and a screenplay. The novel entitled "Which Man," was published in July 2007, and is available at Amazon.com, etc. "Which Man" is also required reading at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is available on the shelves of Georgia State University (Book Store), where I am currently a film major. In December, 2008, I adapted "Which Man" to screenplay format and plan to pitch it to the film industry. My company is multi-facted -- arts and literature. On October 18, 2008 my ink drawings garnered 3rd prize at Smyrna, Georgia's Spirit Walk Art Exhibit. Such drawings will be displayed in 2 exhibits in early 2009. My writer's web site is www.ginnyalbertromanticsuspensemaven.com."

Tell us about your T-shirt expertise and areas of interest.

"I still have much to learn about the T-shirt industry. What I do know is that the T-shirt is so flexible, and will always be vogue. I immediately felt my designs were uniquely suited for display on T-shirts -- particularly the fitted tee."

How did you get your start in the T-shirt industry?

"In 2003 when I wasn't so certain I would ever have art exhibits, or indeed whether my work qualified as art. So, I felt the T-shirt would be the best place to display my designs. After taking a course in business, I launched the on-line store GinnyArt Online."

From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"Love and nature -- mostly botanicals"

What are some challenges you currently face or have overcome in your career? Lessons learned?

"Sharing my designs is a great drawback. In fact, numerous people have informed me that they saw one of my shirts somewhere. It never is completely my design, but I have found that people can make an offshoot of an already existing design, making it different enough that it isn't close enough to your design to be a forgery. I've learned to tread carefully."

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"My cafepress website. The fact that I have two artistic endeavors that I love well enough to make my life's work. That I published the novel, "Which Man," and that it is required reading at the University of Nebraska. That I am a senior at Georgia State University, majoring in film, and that I now have a screenplay to market. That I feel confident that I have a future in the T-shirt industry."

What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"Just be as innovative as you want, and never give up. Early on I wrote down a small list of milestones that I had already achieved, and then I wrote down milestones I wanted to achieve. So many of them have come to fruition. So move forward with your idea, no matter the doubts of naysayers."

What is something unique that you can contribute to the LinkedIn T-shirt Professionals group?

"Creative ideas. In fact, I have an idea that could be utilized by all makers of T-shirts, hoodies, jerseys, etc. It's important and has to do with child safety."

What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"I am seeking to partner with someone whose vision is like my own. I believe that there is someone who may have more business experience than I, who will happily handle that part of the business (though I will be aware of all that is going on), while I create. I want to connect with people who are innovative and not afraid to take risks. Anyone I connect with will also have a humanitarian trait, so that ultimately, we can do something that truly contributes to the wellbeing of all human beings."

Do you have an experience with the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group you’d like to share? Have you made some valuable connections?

"So far I haven't connect with anyone. Though, I truly would welcome the opportunity to do so."

Are there any favorite online resources you’d like to share?

"Not off hand, though something may come to mind later. Oh, I also have some of my work at www.hometowngallery.com -- search under artists for Ginny Albert. It's a nice place to display your work. There is another site called www.simplylicensed.com where designs can be displayed."

Is there anything else you want the world to know about you or your company?

"I want the world to know that I am the grandmother of a 18 month old grandson, Jason Wesley. He is the light of my life. My company has a bright future."

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and will each be featured here for one week. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

Meet Kevin Gudmundsen: LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

2009-02-02T06:00:00.000-06:00

I'm excited to introduce the members of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer useful advice.

• Kevin Gudmundsen
• Father/Son Team behind Proteus Apparel
• LinkedIn Profile
• http://www.proteusapparel.com

What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"Web retail - design and sales"

Tell us about your company and your role in it:

"Proteus apparel started 2 years ago as a way for my college son to try and make some money. I am the bank, he is the creative genius. We are oil and water but we somehow make it work. I throw out the ideas to my son and he messes with them to make them possible for his target age audience."

What makes you/your company remarkable?

"All the designs are done by Josh a 3rd year art student - the designs are mostly all over prints (front and back) that require a belt printer. We are building the company slowly through customer input."

Tell us about your T-shirt expertise and areas of interest.

"No expertise to be honest - just trying to figure it out as we go along. Interested in the skateboard and surf culture."

How did you get your start in the T-shirt industry?

"Started printing designs in the garage with a 4 screen press. Progressed to a professional printer."

From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"That crazy, trend setting son of mine - he just knows what people will like, he bases it on 'would I wear this' if he never grows up we are in good shape. ;)"

What are some challenges you currently face or have overcome in your career? Lessons learned?

"Biggest challenge - awareness, web traffic, barriers to retail distribution, and the big one - money and cash flow."

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"The designs are great - we found a very experienced and capable printing partner."

What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"Printing mass quantities of shirts before you have a buyer is not the way to go. Get better customer feedback on designs and print what sells. Estimate the amount of money you will need to get going and then double it! Prepare to be in it for the long hall, it takes a lot longer than you think it will. NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK."

What is something unique that you can contribute to the LinkedIn T-shirt Professionals group?

"What not to do, resources for printing and marketing."

What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"Those that have found secrets for increasing web traffic, getting into retail stores and getting publicity for their designs and website. Cross promotions and linking with other non competing web retailers."

Do you have an experience with the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group you’d like to share? Have you made some valuable connections?

"Have had good advice from this group and also the group I started called simply 'T-shirts'"

Are there any favorite online resources you’d like to share?

"T-shirt forum has great ideas, links and advice."

Is there anything else you want the world to know about you or your company?

"WE ARE HERE! We are putting the finishing touches on a viral video contest with people wearing our shirts that we hope to generate traffic and interest and ultimately sales. Check out the details on our website."

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and will each be featured here for one week. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

Meet Philip Hepler: LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

2009-01-26T06:00:00.001-06:00

I'm excited to introduce the members of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer useful advice.

•Philip Hepler
•Freelance Graphic Designer & owner of 316 Graphics
•Philip Hepler's LinkedIn Profile
• www.316graphics.com

What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"Graphic Design (freelance)"

Tell us about your company and your role in it. What makes you/your company remarkable?

"I started 316 Graphics in 2007. I am a solo freelance graphic designer, so I find myself wearing a lot of hats in my small business. I've worked for years for different apparel corporations and now I'm living my dream of working for myself. What is remarkable about 316 Graphics is how God has made it possible and continues to provide new opportunities to use my creative talents."

Tell us about your T-shirt expertise and areas of interest.

"Most of my experience is in the children's wear industry, where cool t-shirt graphics play a big role in making the sale. I've worked to make the graphics I design appeal to the end consumer and be a major selling point for, well... making sales. Age appropriate graphics that kids want to wear is key to being successful in the children's wear t-shirt market.

Now, I'm also expanding into young men's and men's graphics where I can do more sophisticated graphics that appeal directly to my own interests. Christian apparel is an area I'm looking expand in. It's the perfect place to combine my faith and my artistic talent. Why not have cool trendy t-shirt graphics that also speaks to your faith? Who says Christian t-shirt graphics have to be lame?"

How did you get your start in the T-shirt industry?

"I first started designing t-shirt graphics for Healthtex, a children's brand sold in Kohl's, Sears, etc. Since then I've designed graphics for Target, Kohl's, Saks, Ruff Hewn, adidas, Lee, Wrangler, etc."

From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"I do some trend shopping and do a ton of research online. I keep track of what the major brands are doing for their t-shirt graphics, but also keep my eye on indy brands and lesser known graphic designers. I keep a collection of inspiration images and organize them trends I see each season. I offer my collection of inspiration free of charge on my web site www.316graphics.com. Check out the "Inspiration" section to see what graphics are inspiring me this season -it's free! And if you sign up to my mailing list you are notified when new inspiration is available.

Specifically to my Christian t-shirt graphics, I keep a ongoing list of Biblical scriptures that inspire me and wait for a vision or idea to develop from the scripture. Sometimes I see an art style that I like and a scripture just seems to fit, other times the scripture comes first and then I find a art style and inspiration to springboard off of."

What are some challenges you currently face or have overcome in your career? Lessons learned?

"The slowing economy is a big one right now. I've noticed my corporate design work slow significantly. Early last year, I was turning down graphic projects, now I find myself networking a lot more to keep the business coming in. In my corporate past as a in house graphic designer I've seen layoffs, company sales, and closings. What I've learned that I am not in control, that prayer works, and God will provide. But that doesn't mean that you can sit on your hands! I've learned that you have to be proactive to keep yourself busy and in business. This means a lot of self promotion and networking that takes time and effort. As a one man show I have to be my own advertising, promotion and art director. When I focus on just doing t-shirt graphics I fall short on keeping my work schedule busy down the road, etc. My faith has helped me make tough decisions and is guiding my career."

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"Honestly, going freelance and working for myself. There are a lot of pros and cons to being self-employed, but I am very proud of the blessing that it has been for me and my family. It's not for everyone, but it fits me nicely."

What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"For fellow graphic designers out there...If you have the opportunity to work in house as a t-shirt designer do it. It's a great learning experience that gives you the opportunity to learn from other fellow graphic designers in the industry. I never could have gone freelance without the experience of working for other companies. If you are an artist, learn to draw! All the graphics I do are done in the computer, but without strong illustration and drawing skills my computer graphics would suffer. I've seen great computer artist who lacked the drawing fundamentals and it showed in their work. I spend a lot of time with traditional art media and look for ways to incorporate it into a digital media. My next suggestion is learn to be a good communicator. Listen to your client and ask lots of questions. Breakdowns in communication can make design projects a joy or can make them a disaster. "

What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"I would like to connect with other graphic artists and t-shirt companies that are looking for freelance artists. It would be awesome to have a network of other artists to compare notes, tips, tricks, stories, and experiences."

Do you have an experience with the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group you’d like to share? Have you made some valuable connections?

"I'm pretty new to Linkedin, but I hope to get more out of it."

Is there anything else you want the world to know about you or your company?

"Thanks for the interview! I hope it may be helpful to someone.
I'm available to design your next t-shirt graphic!"

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and will each be featured here for one week. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

Meet Marshall Atkinson: LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

2009-01-19T06:00:00.002-06:00

I'm excited to introduce the members of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer useful advice.

•Marshall Atkinson
•Vice President of Operations, T-Formation
• www.TFormation.com

What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"T-Formation is a full service production facility. We print for Fortune 500 clients, the ASI industry, contract printing for other printers, and as well as Mom & Pop companies throughout the United States. We’re the national apparel vendor for several major philanthropies, and we also print hot market work for Nike, Adidas & Vanity Fair. TF offers the complete line up of services….from sourcing the blanks, art creation, printing or embroidery, polybagging, hangtagging, bulk folding, relabeling, fulfillment & drop shipping. Our staff of experts can make it happen for you."

Tell us about your company and your role in it:

"I’m Vice President of Operations. My role is the “macro” view of the company and to make sure that all of our departments are working together in harmony and as efficiently as possible. My major initiatives include Lean and efficiency building, our new SGP project (Sustainable Green Partnership) and forward strategic planning."

What makes you/your company remarkable?

"T-Formation is unique because what we bring to the table. Emphasis on customer service. Outstanding creative talent. Value added performance for our clients."

Tell us about your T-shirt expertise and areas of interest.

"I was art director for TF for 14 years before moving into my role as VP. I feel that my organizational, team building and communication skills have made me a key member of the senior management team at TF. I like starting and building projects that add value to the company…or finding better and more efficient methods of doing the same task. There’s always a better way to do something…and it’s my mission to discover that aspect and bring it to the surface."

How did you get your start in the T-shirt industry?

"In 1992 I was working on a Masters degree in architecture at FAMU and started my own design firm catering to fraternities and sororities at Florida State University. This was before computers, so everything was drawn & designed by hand…and I used those Lettraset press-on type. (Talk about SLOW.) T-Formation was my printer. They wanted to make the switch from using a stat-camera to computers…and hired me as the new art director. I made the jump and never looked back."

From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"We research constantly….online, at trade shows. Talking to people, whether they are your vendors or your clients produces great results. Communication is the key to having the pulse of the industry. You can’t just sit back and let it come to you."

What are some challenges you currently face or have overcome in your career? Lessons learned?

"Follow up. Don’t assume that someone has done something if it’s the answer is still “missing”…as maybe the fax didn’t go through, they typed in the wrong e-mail address, etc. Nobody has ever been shot by calling up and verifying something."

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"Helping to build TF into the company it is now. There’s a lot of hard work, sweat and team effort that’s gone into it. When I started with TF it was in a strip mall garage…and we kept expanding slowly through the years with our capacity. We’re certainly not the biggest printer in the world…but we may just be one of the hardest working."

Impressions Magazine lists TFormation as #10 printer in the United States by volume, 2008

What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"Research your market niche. There are so many avenues that you can pursue that are related to t-shirts…from collegiate to surf, from corporate to retail. All of them buy differently, sell differently, use different art and print techniques, etc. Become an expert on what you are trying to do. Once you know the market, go out and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Those are the opportunities to learn. Start small, and build relationships as you grow. Don’t ever think that this industry is easy."

What is something unique that you can contribute to the LinkedIn T-shirt Professionals group?

"I have a wealth of industry knowledge that I’ve built up over the years. Unless it’s something that I can’t share due to company or trade-secret reasons, I’ll be happy to help most anyone."

What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"I see LI as an opportunity to “meet” people with like interests…sort of like if we were all in the same room at a party or chamber of commerce breakfast. I’ll help you, you’ll help me sort of thing. It’s all about improving your knowledge base. There is also an opportunity to make sales connections too…that has happened from LI already and I’d like to find more opportunities if I can."

Do you have an experience with the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group you’d like to share? Have you made some valuable connections?

"I don’t connect with everyone, just those that I think that I can find value with somehow. Whether it’s a sales opportunity, or a chance to learn something…that’s what I’m looking for."

Are there any favorite online resources you’d like to share?

"I Google everything."

Is there anything else you want the world to know about you or your company?

"We’d love to quote on your next project."

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and will each be featured here for one week. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

T-Shirt Trend: Object Photo Tees

2008-08-22T14:46:00.000-05:00

Just a little inspiration for the weekend T-shirt designers out there. I haven't seen a lot of tees like these, but love the basic design idea...black & white or two color photos of objects that let the T-shirt color come through. I could see this technique used for pets (dog breeds?), foods (foodie shirts), and other popular T-shirt categories.

With Cafepress' direct printing method, this technique would be easy to do with their light colored tees, and no need to make your image transparent.

Enjoy!

Sunglasses Tee by Public Domain

Track Bike Tee from Homeroom Store

I love this Men's Foil Sneaker Tee by Public Domain, available at FredFlair.
Notice the gold areas are actual foil!

Men's Instant Camera Tee by Public Domain, available at FredFlair

"Stain Imaging" and other new T-shirt printing techniques from Innovative Apparel

2008-08-16T10:24:00.000-05:00

The UK T-shirt reviews & news bloggers at Buy-Tees.net just posted about some fantastic new printing techniques at Innovative Apparel. I particularly like their stain imaging technique, an all-over staining technique that allows a pattern to be "stained" into an entire garment.

Their stock patterns are pretty cool (see picture above, from their website). The patterns themselves can be worn as-is, or over printed with the T-shirt printing technique of your choice.

I would love to see something like this down the road for print on demand sites to offer more variety in addition to solid colored tees.

Is your T-shirt environmentally friendly?

2008-08-14T22:14:00.001-05:00

When you think of "Reduce, Re-use, Recycle" you probably first think about you, the consumer. "What can I to reduce my (post-consumer) waste?"

So what are manufacturers doing to reduce their (pre-consumer) waste? You know, their scraps.

Like when you're making sugar cookies & roll out the dough & cut out a bunch of little circle cookies, only to be left with a lattice of sugary dough (I love food analogies). So keeping with that, what do you do with that leftover cookie dough? Throw it in a landfill? Of course not. You roll it back up into a ball, flatten it out again, and cut out more cookies! So why on earth would you throw away that waste, especially if you were in the business of selling cookies. That waste could be profit.

So back to T-shirts. What are T-shirt and textile manufacturers doing with their fiber waste?

One solution lies with a company called Sustainable Solutions. The company regenerates post-industrial waste (think, the fabric scraps in a T-shirt manufacturer's garbage bin) into sustainable products and new materials altogether. Yep, that's right. Spinning new fibers from what would normally be shipped off to a land fill, and turning them into new products. Who knows, you may be wearing one of these sustainable tees now. Or sneakers. Or other products.

According to an article in TulsaWorld today, Sustainable Solutions, Inc.'s line of SmartStreams products are being bought by some of the world's largest retailers, including Wal-mart.
Some features of the Sustainable Solutions textiles mentioned on their website include: reducing the cost of using virgin materials, can be over-dyed or treated to meet trends, fibers can be spun back into yarns, and reduction in textile waste that causes landfill emissions.

T-shirt manufacturers looking for ways to turn their waste in to streams of income, can utilize Sustainable Solutions' SmartStream Management services.

Is anyone out there aware of any T-shirt POD's using this type of recycled material? I can only imagine this will soon be the new standard.

Turning T-shirt waste into new tees and new profits. Imagine that! Sustainability never looked so good.

OK, time for a cookie.

Photos of some New Cafepress Products: Ceramic Travel Mug & Modern Clock

2008-08-12T21:53:00.000-05:00

I just received samples of Cafepress' new ceramic travel mug & modern wall clock and I gotta say, I'm impressed. It's always nice to see new products in person to inspect them up & try 'em out.

The clock is very nice. Light-weight, nice image printing...looks like it's on some sort of photo paper with a slight sheen to it. My first reaction was, "wow, it's big!" ...I don't know why, but it looked smaller online (no jokes, please!). It's 14 inches. I decided to have one of my modpillows patterns printed on it & it looks pretty sweet.

The mug is awesome. I had this one printed with my BusyBodies logo. It's very sturdy & the printing seems as though it's part of the material itself. In the preview when you're creating the product online, you'll see there's an oval space provided for the image, but there is no seam or edge whatsoever to the actual printed piece. It's beautiful. The construction of the mug is really nice, too. All metal on the inside & a slip-resistant bottom.

Promote your Political T-shirts: ShirtTheVote.com

2008-08-12T10:57:00.001-05:00

Check out this nifty new community on ning.com, ShirtTheVote. If you have political T-shirts you want to promote, sign up & promote your shirts for free!

Dirty Laundry: The art of stain in modern T-shirt design

2008-08-11T10:32:00.000-05:00

I ran across an article today about this upcoming art exhibition at the Nuuanu Gallery At Marks Center, Hawaii. It's sponsored by Cotton, Inc. and starts September 5th, 2008.

From the dirtylaundry.com site:
"The exhibition is more than a venue for artist designed T-shirts, but also a visual forum for discussion as to how things thought to be ruined can be given value again."

Artists in the exhibition were each given 6 shirts, to "stain" with the medium of their choice. Once stained, the artists' assignment was to create a custom design, using the shape & size of the stain as an integral part of the design.

I hope to find pictures of them once the show is open! I thought it might be a fun way to develop shirt designs for print on demand. Make a stain on fabric or an ink splash on paper, scan it in & use it as a starting point for a design.

The website invites others to host their own Dirty Laundry event in their town. To learn more or to host your own Dirty Laundry event, contact the curators (visit their contact section)

T-Shirt Spotlight: Topshop.com

2008-08-09T13:30:00.000-05:00

I love this Hootie Ruched Crew T-shirt from UK-based Topshop.

The One Man Corporation: A blog to bookmark

2008-08-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

You know it's good marketing when I hear about something because a friend told me about it.

I mean, isn't that the most trusted source? "I heard it from a friend."

Well, Mike from The One Man Corporation got it right when he sent out an email to his competitors (other Cafepress shopkeepers) teasing us with some valuable information and an invitation to forward it to more friends. And so, a friend forwarded it to me.

It worked. I got the email and actually didn't delete it! That's a feat in itself. I hate forwards. I always delete them. But, hey, if the first few lines grab my attention, I'll read on.

So check him out. I'm going to add his blog to the sidebar here for future reference. He's got some great tips on making money from home, valuable resources, and insight that can only be learned from experience. After all, he does work from home. And he's sharing his experiences for everyone to benefit from.

Free Vector Maps for T-Shirt & Design Projects

2008-08-06T09:04:00.000-05:00

Need a vector map for your next T-shirt design? With political season upon us, there's a market out there for state-based political designs.

Here's an example of one of my Republican map shirts:

If you're needing vector maps of the United States, or the world, visit Digital Vector Maps.

All the state outline maps are available free (and royalty-free!) and for immediate download in both Illustrator or PDF formats

If you want more detailed maps, including cities, counties, roads & more, they're available for purchase.

New T-Shirt Professionals Group on LinkedIn

2008-08-05T12:35:00.000-05:00

Are you a T-shirt designer who'd like to learn about new T-shirt printing companies? Do you want to meet people in the apparel merchandising industry? Are you a POD looking for T-shirt designers? Are you an affiliate marketer looking for great T-shirts to sell? Or do you just want to meet others in the T-shirt world like yourself? If so, read on...

I've been diving into LinkedIn over the past several months as I wanted to make connections with colleagues before I left my job. I never expected to find LinkedIn so wonderfully useful, well-designed, and easy to use.

If you don't know about LinkedIn, then go there, sign up & learn more about them. No, I don't make money by telling you that :-)

Once you get an account going, you'll soon learn the benefits. What drew me to them is I heard they were the largest professional (think: opposite of MySpace) networking website, and I happened to have a lot of friends and colleagues already on there.

I joined a few groups to see what it was all about. Basically a group on LinkedIn lets you view everyone else in the group, you get to display the group's logo in your profile, and it offers another way to be able to make connections with people within the group, without having to have worked with them previously (or know their email, etc.).

How did it help me? Well, for starters, I had a creative talent recruiter find me in a Minnesota Networking group. We linked up. We emailed. I met her for lunch and now she'll keep me in mind for future work.

Until now you couldn't just look for groups on LinkedIn. Now you can search their groups by type, key word, etc.

So I looked for something that would tailor to people in the T-shirt industry. Designers, sellers, printers.

I found nothing!

So I created a group called, "T-Shirt Professionals."

Here is the group's description:

Do you have experience designing, printing, or selling T-shirts? If so, please join us! The purpose of this group is to help connect T-shirt designers to affiliate marketers and apparel retailers, share T-shirt marketing trends & ideas, & recommend POD and manufacturing services.

If you're like me, you're always looking to meet people in your industry. I can't work in a bubble, nor should I.

My hopes for this group is to bring together people on all sides of the T-shirt biz. Personally, I hope to lure in some affiliate marketers who I can share my latest, greatest T-shirt designs with, maybe meet up-&-coming folks in the POD business, share ideas & trends with my competitors (yea, I'm a little crazy that way) & see where it goes from there!

The First Day of the Rest of my Life

2008-08-04T12:44:00.000-05:00

Did I say the rest of my life? Well, it's at least the first day of a new chapter in my life.

I never thought this day would come. I mean I knew it would, at some point, but today?

Yep. Today.

I'm quitting my job. Today is my last day.

Nearly 10 years since I graduated from college I have been working in the design industry, the most recent 7.5 years as Sr. Designer/Illustrator for an educational materials company. This has all brought me invaluable experience, but most importantly, it's paid the bills while I pursued my dream of the past few years: stay at home with my kids (now 2.5 years & 10 months) while working for myself. Thanks largely to Cafepress, my husband's support, and my hard work.

So now what?

I plan on running my Cafepress stores, doing occasional freelance design and illustration, and pursuing various back-burner projects.

I know when you blog you need to keep it fresh or it will die. I'm sure Creative Gumption is no exception. But I hope to dig it out of the sandbox, dust it off, and bring it back! Think of it as Creative Gumption taking a year-long vacation.

While this blog has sat idle, I have not.

I have learned a lot. I have a lot of projects in the works. And I plan to blog blog blog about them.

So a quick preview of what's to come:

-I'm working on a new linked-in professional group for T-shirt professionals and I'd love for you to join!
-I've been trying out new (well, new to me) methods of advertising
-Political season is here & I have a new political themed store...and ideas for promotion
-Cafepress updates (yes, I'm still on the Cafepress Voice Team!)
-I'll introduce you to some of my new online friends...and their helpful blogs and websites
-Design inspiration, as before
-And more...

Taking Maternity Leave

2007-08-13T13:34:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the crickets chirping lately around here. I'm starting my "online maternity leave" now and plan to return in December...hopefully by then I'll have figured out how to balance my time between my husband, a newborn, a toddler, part-time job and online businesses! Wish me luck. :-)

I may post from time to time as time and energy allows.

Friday Inspiration: Jen Stark

2007-05-25T14:00:00.000-05:00

I'm so drawn to these colorful paper sculptures by the talented Jen Stark. More can be found at her website.

T-Shirt Spotlight: Beautiful Decay

2007-05-16T13:36:00.000-05:00

Beautiful Decay's Indie Merch Store has a line of independent artist-designed tees and their collection continues to grow this month with more new designs.

Their Indie Merch Store is worth bookmarking if you're into watching design trends as they emerge, from underground, "undiscovered" artists.

And if you haven't checked out Beautiful Decay's magazine, it's a source of design inspiration like no other. The magazine is unique in that they bring together fine art, design, fashion, graffiti and other art forms into one place. The zine's design and content is irreverent and bold, sometimes disturbing, but always fresh and authentic. Read more about Beautiful Decay's story here.

A Bright Future for Online Clothing Retailers

2007-05-15T09:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Mary for posting this article on Great Gear last night. The headline really caught my attention:

"Internet clothing sales now more lucrative than computer sales"

According to the article, internet clothing sales outnumbered computer hardware sales by over a billion dollars last year and is only expected to increase.

This is sure good news for those of us selling our designs on T-shirts and clothing. But, if you've been selling T-shirts online for more than a few years, you probably already had a good feeling about the industry. I'm hopeful it's only going to get better.

Sell your creative work with Mintd

2007-05-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

Looking for an alternative to Etsy? Check out Mintd, an online space for creative people to sell their work and have access to an online community of buyers and sellers.

Create a "Look Book" with them to share your picks. You can even earn commission on photos of yourself wearing Mintd goods when your posted photo leads to a sale. Set up is free to sell and Mintd take a small commission (about 7.5%) on each sale made.

It's a well-organized site, has lot of products, and is just plain fun to browse. If you're into jewelry, you'll find plenty. There seems to be a lot of talent on there.

Shirt City Club T-Shirt Design Contest: Win $500

2007-05-11T15:57:00.000-05:00

ShirtCity.com is looking for great T-shirt designs. All you have to do is sign up, submit a design, and let the community vote on it (Threadless style). The deadline is June 1st, 2007 for submissions.

The grand prize winner receives a one-time royalty payment of $500, but all submitted designs have a chance to be selected and printed/sold through a licensing agreement. Designers who's designs are selected this way will earn royalty on any sales of that design.

Might be worth a shot.

Thank you for your votes!

2007-05-10T09:34:00.000-05:00

The votes have been tallied and Cafepress has officially announced it's Cafepress Voice council members and I'm excited to be among them.

Here are your representatives:

Shop Management Voice
Holly “Scarebaby”
Heidi Panelli
Shannon “Hazeleyes7” Steffen
Audrie “peonproductions” Quick
Kelly Murphy

Merchandise Voice
Kim “Kiwi” Smith
Mary Ogle
Goatlady
Kim Hall
Jean Roth

Quality Voice
Carl Bryant
Kristen “foxvox” Fox
Catherine
Nicole Kohair
Jennifer “Lekker” Fuderburk

Thanks again to everyone who voted, for supporters in the forums and in Great Gear. And congrats to all the winners!
If you have any issues regarding shop management you want to pass along to me, feel free to contact me anytime.
My contact form is here in the sidebar and on most of my websites.

T-Shirt Spotlight: Chop Shop Store

2007-05-08T09:04:00.000-05:00

Some fresh, quirky designs from the new ChopShopStore.com

According to their about page, ChopShop is "A one stop shop for all like minded individuals, looking for the latest in clothing that satisfies your nerdly cravings without you having to say it. We put it on a shirt, you put it on your chest and it does the speaking. From obscure sci fi references to clever type designs, we'll do what it takes to make you unsettlingly proud of your garb."

So there you go. Now go get your nerd on & make a stop at the Chop Shop!

Video: Start to finish, how T-shirts are printed by Spreadshirt.com

2007-05-07T10:46:00.000-05:00

Sure you have to keep some things secret, or your competitors may use it against you. But I was impressed to see Spreadshirt sharing a look at their facility and the process of creating T-shirts when ordered through Spreadshirt.com. Thanks to tcritic.com for posting this.

There's been a lot of talk in the Cafepress community lately about transparency. Shopkeepers want to "see" more of what's going on behind Cafepress' doors. With the formation of a community council, they hope to achieve that. But maybe this type of video campaign, if done by Cafepress, would also help the shopkeeper (and shopper!) community get to know them better.

Enjoy the video. It's well done, short, sweet, interesting and a great PR move by Spreadshirt.

Another great resource for Cafepress shopkeepers

2007-05-04T10:12:00.000-05:00

Jean from Rotem Gear sent over this great resource for anyone interested in setting up shop with Cafepress. Jean not only runs her own Cafepress business, but has taught courses on how to set up shop with Cafepress and is also running in the Cafepress Voice election.

I'll add the link to my links list, but be sure to check it out. It's packed with great resources.

Voting Begins: Cafepress Voice Community Council

2007-05-02T11:58:00.000-05:00

Elections have begun!

If you're a Cafepress shopkeeper, be sure to stop by this week and do three things:

1. Learn about what Cafepress Voice (community council) is all about.

You can get more information on that here: Meet the Nominees

2. Read up on all the candidates, check out their stores, and decide on who you want to represent you in each category.

Blurbs about each nominee with links to their shops: Nominee page on Cafepress

Full length interviews: Nominee interviews

My (somewhat cheesy) interview: Heidi Panelli's interview

3. Vote!

Once you've made your choices for each seat and category, be sure to cast your vote.

Vote here: CafePressVoice Election Polls
Click on the "vote" button to start.

Best of luck to all the candidates! And if you're a shopkeeper and have any questions, feel free to contact me or post on the official CP Voice forum.

---UPDATE 5/4/07---

The Cafepress Voice election will be restarted. Unfortunately, due to poor set-up of the polls, non-shopkeepers were allowed to cast votes. Since this is a shopkeeper-only election, the ballot form is being updated to ensure voters are, in fact, shopkeepers. We're all learning a lot from this election so far and hopefully next time around things will go a little smoother.

Webby Awards update: Cafepress is People's Voice Winner, Retail; Lonelygirl15 wins achievement award

2007-05-01T13:01:00.000-05:00

I first want to give a shout out a congrats to Cafepress for winning the Retail category's People's Voice Award, just announced today.

Secondly, I want to congratulate Lonelygirl15. I got the announcement email, and visited the Webby Awards site to see the winners and noticed a familiar name come up (besides Cafepress): it was Lonelygirl15, who I had blogged about back in Aug. 2006. She has won the Webby Film & Video Awards for Best Actress. And her name is Jessica Lee Rose.

If you're not familiar with Lonelygirl15, she was the actress in well-orchestrated video blog hoax...or teen drama series, depending on how you look at it, that took place over several weeks on YouTube and her MySpace page.

Lonelygirl15, known as "Bree" in her video diary, claimed to be a home-schooled teen who's parents were super strict and rarely let her out of the house. Her innocent (no really, they were entirely decent and innocent!), silly videos, usually of her and sometimes her friend Daniel talking in her room, drew in hundreds of thousands of viewers, fans and critics. It was quite a spectacle to watch at the time. People were analyzing the lighting, editing techniques and background props in her videos, trying to expose her as a hoax. Some people were even making their own knock-off satire videos.

I couldn't help but get wrapped up in it myself. Because I had heard of her through one of the Intelligence Group's Trend Central trend forecasting emails, I thought that maybe they were in on it. Others thought maybe a studio was doing this as an intro to an upcoming television series. But real or fake, she drew us all in, waiting for more.

So what does this have to do with your cafepress store?

Well, we can not only create some Lonelygirl15 T-shirt designs at Cafepress, but we can also all learn from how powerful a smart viral maketing campaign can be when done right. Hats off to the Lonelygirl15 team & congrats on your award.

Cafepress Templates for purchase

2007-04-27T11:56:00.000-05:00

So you can design a shirt but can't for the life of you make your Cafepress premium store look good. Or maybe you just don't have the time. Or maybe you're just not thrilled with the templates Cafepress has available.

You're in luck. I'm so happy to see more and more people coming out of the woodwork and building businesses out of the need for good-looking Cafepress templates that shopkeepers don't have to build themselves. There's definitely a need out there and as Cafepress grows, I can only imagine the more templates available, the better.

Audrie from Peonproductions.com has recently launched a great new site offering Cafepress templates for purchase, starting at only $39.99 each. Available now at CPLayouts.com

For ultra-simple to install templates and a few more designs to choose from, visit Kriten's site, Art of Fox Vox for $12 templates.

Here are a couple more Cafepress Premium Shop Template sites to check out:

Cafepress Shop Templates Nice, textured backgrounds, $10

Dark or Light Denim templates Nifty...looks like blue jeans, $12

Now you have no excuses. Go make your store look great!

My nomination for Cafepress Voice community council

2007-04-27T10:40:00.000-05:00

I got a letter from Angela and Britta of Cafepress last week asking if I would accept a nomination for a seat on the first-ever Cafepress community council. I was honored by the nomination and have accepted! Voting begins May 1st at Cafepress.com and will run for about a week. Winners will be announced on May 9th, and the kick-off meeting will be May 19th.

What's Cafepress Voice?

It will be a commnunity council made up of 15 shopkeepers that represent different customer segments (top shopkeepers and smaller shopkeepers alike) and categories (Merchandise, Shop management, etc.). The function of the council will be to represent the Cafepress shopkeeper community by being part of the process of weighing in and helping to prioritize features, services and programs proposed by Cafepress.

There are three categories with five seats each. Here are Cafepress' descriptions of each category (I was nominated for the Shop Management category)...

Shop Management:
This committee focuses on how to run a successful shop from both a business and a technical standpoint. This includes making the most of existing tools and identifying areas that can be improved. Is there a way to upload images easier and faster? How can we improve services for basic and premium shops? How can you grow your shop with available or new tools? These are the kind of questions the Shop Management committee will be exploring.

Merchandise:
The Merchandise committee will examine the merchandise line to see where there are opportunities for new products and ways to improve existing ones. What’s selling? What’s not? What are customers asking for? Do Shopkeepers have the tools they need? This committee will also discuss the marketing around merchandise launches to understand which strategies are most successful.

Quality:
Quality is a top priority at CafePress, whether it’s about merchandise, customer service or website performance. This committee will have the important task of studying levels of quality in all these areas to help us make sure that all customers have a positive experience when buying from a CafePress Shopkeeper. Committee members will provide valuable customer feedback and look for ways to maintain the highest quality standards across the board.

So if you're a Cafepress shopkeeper, be sure and stop by the polls at Cafepress on May 1st and cast your vote!

Cafepress nominated for 2007 Webby Award

2007-04-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

Cafepress has been nominated for another Webby Award! Thanks to Rasael from The Reader's Shop for spotting it today. Cafepress won the award in 2005 for best retail website. If you're a Cafepress fan, be sure to stop by and cast your vote. The winner will be announced Tuesday, May 1st, 2007.

To vote for Cafepress, you'll need to register for an account with the Webby Awards folks (takes a second) at the Webby Awards web site. Click on "vote for your favorites" to get to the registration page.

Then find the category, "Retail"

Then click on the vote button for Cafepress & you're done!

But before you leave, be sure to browse through the other nominations in other categories. There's some brilliant stuff out there and it's always inspiring to check out.

3 reasons to cross link your Cafepress stores

2007-04-25T18:54:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting to cross link my Cafepress shops to one another for a while now and finally have. Since they've been added, I have already seen an increase in traffic and sales in all of my stores.

What did I do? I made several little footer graphics with my shop logos in it (see above), brought the JPEG images into Dreamweaver, made an image map over it, and copied/pasted the HTML from Dreamweaver into my the footer section of the "custom HTML" section of the shop manager for each shop. I made each shop's graphic a little different so it would be consistent with the look of it's shop.

Why did I do it? Here are three reasons why I put cross links in my shops and why your own self-contained web ring might be a good idea for your Cafepress business:

1. To use a little corporate speak: you're leveraging your traffic

By far, my most successful shop has been BusyBodies. And I have yet to define exactly who my customers are in one, nice little definition. They are scrapbooking women, Dads buying Christmas gifts, cancer survivors, kids on a swim team, surgical technician students, dog lovers...and the list goes on.

Because of this diverse audience, it only makes sense to offer up links to my other shops, in case one of these visitors is interested in T-shirts with geocaching humor, signage for their mother's room at work, a shirt sporting their favorite food, or a stylish, modern pillow for their apartment. Without the cross links at the bottom, none of my BusyBodies customers would know I have other shops with more products to choose from.

2. Objects in the footer are larger than they appear

By putting your cross links in the footer of your store, you're not only ensuring they won't interfere with your store's layout or confuse shoppers, but this will also ensure easy navigation to your other stores, from EVERY PAGE in your store. The same holds true if you put your links in your side bar or any other element that will appear on every page in your shop.

This is important because most people will not enter your store from the home page, they will likely find your shop through the Cafepress marketplace or a search engine search that will dump them in the middle of your store. Hopefully Suzy Shopper will find just what she's looking for, but in the event that she doesn't, a quick glance to other pretty links at the bottom of the page, will gently lead her to browse your other stores before she leaves, all without her having to visit your shop's home page.

3. You're keeping visitors longer

It's a sad fact, but most visitors to your store will glance at it and leave. Web surfers are impatient (I'm one of them!), so every second counts. Think of when you're wandering the mall, walk into a store, browse around, and are on the way out and see some great product near the door that catches your eye. Make your cross links catch the eyes of your visitors and they may stop, click, and browse some more...and, if you're lucky, even buy something!

So why wouldn't you cross link?

There are some instances where you may not want to cross-link your Cafepress shops. For those of you who have an adult-themed shirt shop and a kid clothing shop, cross linking may only offend one group of shoppers, while turning off the other group.

Another reason may be aesthetics. My ModPillows store I try to keep a more "high-end" clean-design look and feel. I don't want the pages cluttered up with anything that looks like an ad, so I deliberately put my cross link section in the "about" section of that store.

If you want to cross link several web sites that are not Cafepress stores, there are theories out there that this could hurt your Google rankings. Say, for example, you had 20 different domains all linked to one another from the same hosting company, this may look bad to Google and have an adverse affect on your rankings. But in Google's eyes, and correct me if I'm wrong, your Cafepress store (or Shop ID) is merely an extension of the Cafepress.com domain, so I can't see cross linking Cafepress stores as having an adverse affect on your Google rankings, and it certainly won't do anything to your Cafepress marketplace rankings.

So use your judgement and don't be afraid to experiment a little. In most cases cross linking your Cafepress premium shops will help your traffic and increase your sales over time. Visits to my Statcounter account and Cafepress sales reports are proof of that.

And if you don't have more than one shop to link together, consider signing up for the Cafepress affiliate program with Commission Junction, link up to a few of your favorite shops and earn money on those sales, too!

ModPillows featured in Daily Candy today!

2007-04-16T12:10:00.000-05:00

I love candy. But what I love almost as much as the real thing is my daily dose of what's "the next big thing" in my in-box delivered fresh and free by DailyCandy.com. And today, I'd have to say, Daily Candy's got me more excited than a box of chocolates on my lap!

For the past couple of years I've enjoyed their cleverly written reviews & links to little known websites with fabulous products I often bookmark to buy later. I've often wondered, "would they ever consider featuring one of my products?"

Once again the phrase, "It never hurts to ask" has paid off...big time.

I happened to email the folks at Daily Candy at the beginning of the year to let them know about my new pillow shop, ModPillows.com and had since forgotten about it, continued to build my site and add designs.

Now you can't pay to be in Daily Candy, nor can you bribe them with gifts (it even says so on their web site!), so imagine my surprise when their Dallas editor emailed me a couple weeks ago, saying Daily Candy wanted to do a story on my ModPillows. I just about fainted on a nearby ModPillow!

So after a nice phone call from one of their fact checkers last Friday I was excited to know my creations would be featured in the Dallas edition of Daily Candy on Monday, April 16th, 2007. Today's the big day and I want to shout out a big thanks and virtual hug to the folks at Daily Candy. I'm honored ModPillows was chosen to join the ranks of your past picks.

Featured artist of the week at ImageKind.com

2007-04-12T09:56:00.000-05:00

I was excited to receive an email today, letting me know that ImageKind has decided to feature me as one of their artists of the week on their home page!

Many thanks to the kind folks at ImageKind for the free press.

And to other creative folks out there who are looking for ways to sell your art and design, check them out! They offer a great service, quality prints and a really nifty online framing tool to try out tons of different frames on artwork before you purchase.

Cafepress' migration to Commission Junction

2007-04-05T11:45:00.000-05:00

I mentioned earlier this week that Cafepress is going through some...well...crazy times.

I'm not even sure where to start.

Maheesh's recent post on the Cafepress message boards at least conveys what he's going through.

And numerous posts on Great Gear sum up a lot of us shopkeeper's opinions on the matter.

So what is the matter?

The recent announcement by Cafepress that they would be terminating their existing in-house affiliate program and replacing it with an outside network called Commission Junction.

It's been a messy few weeks since the announcement. I've had more time to digest this because I heard rumor of this in Jan (Apparently it wasn't a secret at Affiliate Summit). I, too was a little shocked to hear that Cafepress had made the decision to go with Commission Junction. Why? CJ doesn't have a great reputation in the affiliate world because of their practices, mainly loyalty programs and parasites. Here's just one thread on A Best Web Affiliate marketing forum discussing Cafepress' migration to Commission Junction. I admit I still have a lot to learn about affiliate marketing, but I have yet to learn why Cafepress thinks CJ is a better choice than, say Share-A-Sale, an affiliate network with a stellar reputation and loyal members who will tell you all about it. The only reason I see so far is the traffic CJ will pull in. But at what price? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Cafepress had a couple online chats recently to try and answer questions from shopkeepers, but discussions on Great Gear will reveal all the tough questions were avoided completely and most questions were answered vaguely, at most.

Complaints of poor communication between CP and it's shopkeepers and affiliates is prevalent and for good reason. Many of us felt there was no warning of this in time to even react. Cafepress pulled their forum discussion board from A Best Web with little explanation. And, true, Cafepress has the right to make whatever business decisions they feel benefit their business and I respect that, but this could've been handled much better. There are affiliates who built many sites around the old program as well as newbie shopkeepers who are now very confused.

The one good recent change they made last week is to allow shopkeepers to cross link to other stores, including their own and still participate in the affiliate prgram. As someone who is a shopkeeper AND affiliate through Cafepress, this is important to me.

So, I'm staying open about it for now. I can't make a final judgment until I've given the new program a try. I'm entering it with caution...I've been warned (thanks, Loxly!) and also encouraged (thanks to various CJ affiliates). I've been asked to be a beta tester for the new program and will let you know how it goes as events unfold. Stay tuned...

Drop shipping, PayPal and Belt Buckles, Oh my! ArtsCafe.com

2007-04-05T11:12:00.000-05:00

So you've been wanting to sell your illustration through Ebay printed on a single money clip or key chain that you didn't have to print, warehouse or ship? Well now, it seems, you can with a company I just learned about called ArtsCafe.com.

So far it's the only print on demand website I've seen that offers such a unique array of products to print your art, design or photography on.

It appears they specialize in print on demand and drop-shipping and have a huge selection of products ranging from letter openers to onesies. And with PayPal accepted, this opens up new doors to designers to sell via EBay.

Their site looks nice, but leaves me wondering who they are, and where they came from. Who's behind the site? I'm not sure. The About Us page is nothing more than marketing speak and doesn't give names of anyone who's running the company.
On their contact page, I see they are based in Hong Kong, with a mailing address in Texas. And Google searches won't turn up much of anything on the company.

English is clearly not their first language and is evident by the numerous grammar errors throughout the site. But I won't hold that against them...my grammars ain't perfect neither. And their marketplace must be in beta because I'm not finding products in there.

But criticisms aside, I'd still be inclined to try them out and see if they deliver. I mean, who else out there offers no minimum purchase quantities of things like Itallian charms and belt buckles with drop shipping and PayPal payment options? Seems almost too good to be true.

RedBubble.com: New Print on Demand Company for Aussies

2007-04-03T11:26:00.000-05:00

Another POD (Print On Demand) company, RedBubble has popped up and I just learned about them from Great Gear.

They have a great looking site, reminiscent of ImageKind and offer framed prints of high quality art and photography.

The only draw-back? It's just for Aussies! Hopefully they'll expand to the world someday...they are still in beta. I'll still add them to my resources list and will keep an eye on their growth.

Cafepress.com's announces plans for growth

2007-04-01T21:28:00.000-05:00

CafePress.com to add 119 jobs, gets $1.5 million in incentives

Yea, that headline caught my attention (thanks to Jen from Lekker Designs for spotting the article)...I had to pass it on, along with my thoughts.

Cafepress.com is a company made up of "the little guy"...over 2.5 million little guys setting up shop, selling and buying their wares through the Cafepress website. But when does Cafepress' good fortune end? Or at least slow down? So far the company has been increasing profits by roughly 75% each year since 2001. Even I, a "little guy" (gal), have experienced similar growth with my Cafepress ventures and I often wonder myself, "when will this growth slow down? Is Cafepress here to stay?" And occasionally, "when can I buy stock in them?"

So far Cafepress has managed to survive the dot-com boom when so many start-ups failed. They've inspired numerous competitors to start up their own versions of the service, and have created a whole new kind of online community where shopkeepers befriend their competitors, share tips, and bond online like no other group I've known. I've made friendships, met the owners and many staff members in person, learned a heck of a lot and continue to grow my Cafepress stores and profits. They've done a lot of things right.

I just hope they can survive this rapid growth period and manage to keep ahead of the competition with their online service. It's refreshing to hear they plan to expand and add so many jobs. That announcement at least seems more tangible than their plans for 2007 announced a couple weeks ago to shopkeepers. Many of us shopkeepers are frustrated with how slow change happens these days because Cafepress' resources seem to be spent either adding more server space to handle the rapid growth or adding new products to their line. In the meantime, us shopkeepers wait patiently for much needed site upgrades, tools, and functionality so we can continue to create our shops efficiently to meet a growing demand.

So far Cafepress' size has proven to be a great opportunity for competitors and third-party developers to fill in the gap. While Cafepress tells us to use other parties' tools (like those found on Cafepressdn.com), competitors are finding success where Cafepress is lagging. Printfection.com, for example offers a similar service, and because they are still relatively small, they have the luxury of resources and time to make changes happen quickly and respond to shopkeepers concerns with more than a form letter and a 'promise to look into the issue.' I have been very happy with their service so far. Goodstorm.com has also come out with a wonderful new Flash-based T-shirt creator, now in beta. Can Cafepress keep up with these innovators?

Though there's a lot I don't know, I still have faith in Cafepress. And in crazy times like this (more on that later this week), I like to wait until the dust clears before making a final judgement. For now, I'll continue to run shops through Cafepress and dabble with their competitors and let you know what I learn as I go.

Cafepress Plans for 2007: Executive Chat Notes

2007-01-28T12:39:00.000-06:00

So what's in store for Cafepress in 2007? Read on for a sneak peek of what's in the works. Maternity clothes, dark apparel for kids, new product photos, new tools and talk of a Cafepress Community Council are just a few topics that were touched on in the Cafepress Executive Chat on Thursday Jan. 25th.

There's a lot of info touched on here and a big thanks to Kristen from Great Gear for putting this together for those of us who couldn't make it to the chat!

Please keep in mind the following was compiled by a third party...not from Cafepress or it's employees, so nothing is "set in stone" and should not be mistaken as official announcements from Cafepress. Enjoy!

Here's who participated in the chat, along with over 100 shopkeepers...

Fred Durham
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Maheesh Jain
Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development

Jill Kulick
Vice President of Human Resources

Mehdi Maghsoodnia
Vice President of Products and Site Operations

Angela
Our Cafepress Community Advocate

Britta
(Sorry, Britta...I don't know your title!)

---------------------------
Thu Jan 25, 2007
Chat Notes - Executive Chat
---------------------------
CP Plans for 2007

Brief agenda for the chat:
- Fred will start with an intro and pass the baton to Jill and Mehdi.
Then we'll go into the Q&A portion that you all love so much.

Fred
- Happy 2007 Everyone!

- Thanks to SKs (Shopkeepers) for being a part of CP (Cafepress) and helping make 2006 a big success. Did a great job promoting and marketing your shops in 2006, esp. the holidays - sales far above projections.

- Recap 2006: Production expansion to Kentucky is complete (now have 5x the capacity we had before we moved). Improved Shipping system and average order sizes have increased. Launched beta 2.0 for black shirts and are fine tuning the process. Hosted inaugural CPConnect in October. Launched dynamic color swatches for new shirt colors, new colors too. Sig. increase in shirt sales in Nov-Dec.

- Just got back from 3 weeks in India and just catching up. :-)

Jill
- Calling 2007, informally, 'the year of new merchandise' around the office.

- At CPConnect, SKs added to 'the list' on the wall. Guess what? Most
were requests for new merchandise. Planning to launch a lot of it this
year and the rest is still being researched.

- In addition, this year one of our major focuses will be on community
involvement. "The List" is a perfect example of how great suggestions
can be a reality in the CP system.

- Based on these great results we are in the process of developing a
Community Council program - to be rolled out this year. Details are
being ironed out, but the council will be to help us develop and review
major programs, features, services that impact the community.

Mehdi
- We continue to invest in our site infrastructure, which will increase
its performance, but also allow us to handle our rapid growth. We are
working on our shop infrastructure to handle the demand and also
maintain high performance in the face of load. Working on image
services to handle the growth and maintain high level of performance.

Various
- Transparencies will be available only for apparel products with the
next release. No plans to offer trans. on other products.

- Printing on the back of dark garments is a favorite request. Looking
into requirements for this - stay tuned.

- Political categories - working on updating them for the 2008
presidential election - looking at later next week.

- Have plus size apparel on our launch schedule for new merchandise. Hoping to have plus-size apparel before Fall. Taking some time because most of the off the shelf blank plus size garments aren't very nice and we are designing our own products.

- Book Questions: Plan on serving SKs who are currently selling books to gain feedback on paper preference this year (Q about cream colored paper).

- Looking at San Francisco again for the 2007 conference.

- Looking into premium shop templates and will be using the Community Council to help us determine how to best satisfy the needs of our community.

- New merchandise announced recently will be available in early February.

- Will Click shirt become part of the SK's toolbox in 2007? May not be
offered on the main Cafepress site but it could possibly be made
available as a third party plug in. (click-shirt.com - third party
program using CP API.)

- Have product additions planned throughout most of 2007 - spaced out
during the year. Of course we will give you a break over Holidays
because you will be so busy with orders.

- New products in 2007? (previously posted - first wave of new shirts)
Apparel in more colors and more styles. Can't spill all secrets yet.

- Currently evaluating various ways to improve the buyer and seller
experience outside the US - includes how the site works, currency
management, customer support, etc. In planning mode - no time line yet.

- Still working out how Community Council will be chosen.

- Dark shirts will be a part of the kid's collection for this year!

- Bulk tiers and shipping options are being evaluated - will be asking
the Community Council to help us with this.

- Transparencies for all apparel in February.

- cafepressdn.com and contact team for API for bulk adding of products.

- Getting non-apparel stuff too.

- Working on improving edge detection (white outline) on dark technology.

- API (application programming interface) considered successful so far. Working on growing our developer community to build more unique tools around it.

- Probably not getting into domain hosting right now. Use godaddy.com
and other places for that and redirect to shop.

- Finalizing maternity clothes right now while we chat! Very specialized product that requires custom specs. This year sometime.

- CP does advertise online mostly. Increasing marketing spend by 50% in 2007 to drive more traffic to MP.

- Subdomains like shopid.cafepress.com instead of cafepress.com/shopid? Introduces security risk and complexity to DNS. Some people do it but at this sort of scale and traffic, it's an idea that scares us, and since reliability is important, we hate to do things that scare even us.

- Looking how to add a designer like at click-shirt.com to the overall flow of the site.

- White will still be clear on light shirts when using transparent images.

- Modding intentionally inappropriate image tagging? Want feedback and ideas about this! Most everyone said yes - help get rid of tagging spam, etc. Some won't use topicads because of bad tagging. People say it has become real problem. AVDC2007 is a good example. Tricky area overall.

- Pet products this year? Looking into it - stay tuned! Rapid growth category!

- Love to see more stuff like the Snakes on a Plane thing? Working on it! Maheesh's crystal ball says some fun stuff will happen in 2007.

- When is XML feed version coming out and how to best provide feedback for next version. Mehdi says 30-60 days?? dn@cafepress.com

- Fred leaves 15 minutes early - says bye and happy new year.

- Larger print area? Working on this solution right now to offer larger print area on apparel - no definite timeline at this time - stay tuned of course.

- Be able to export sales and order data into a format such as CSV or XLS for accounting purposes? Will put it on the list - send more suggestions like this to dn@cafepress.com

- Products featured in CP emails and on the CP homepage are selected by the Online Marketing Team, from the Marketplace, that are appropriate for the public, fit the theme and displays well (tiny images don't).

- Want to work with Community Council on issue that sections are getting really LONG because of the long list of available products - want to find good solution for this.

- Have a whole year of great chat workshops and are looking into switching chat software that supports visuals.

- Close to taking dark shirts out of beta. Continue to perfect it. Lesson we have learned is not to release beta on new products going forward. Our community and customers made it clear that quality is important. How do SKs feel about beta - let us know. (Most answered with 'quality' replies. Maybe beta to SKs only - not to public. Maybe lower priced for beta.)

- CP-produced garments is a way for us to control the quality, color, and size.

- Going to be taking new photos of the products - will be able to see this in the next release.

- Had over 100 Shopkeepers in chat - many questions missed - cpchat@cafepress.com

- People made suggestions for various charity shops.

--------------

So that about sums it up!

ModPillows as Art Prints: Expanding to ImageKind

2007-01-26T12:15:00.000-06:00

I wanted to offer my ModPillows designs as fine art prints with custom framing available, so I decided to open up a few galleries over at ImageKind.com and see how they do.

ImageKind's specialty is print-on-demand fine art prints. Their selection of frames, artwork, sizes, paper, and canvas materials is amazing and their web site has a nice "upscale" feel about it. And from what I've heard from other Cafepress shopkeepers, the quality of their printing is impressive.

It's quite easy to set up a gallery. The only draw back is you can only upload one image at a time. But there are other ways to get multiple images to them via FTP or by mailing ImageKind a CD of your artwork.

Rearranging art in your gallery is a cinch with a drag and drop feature. Like opening any online venture, you do need to market it so people can find you. ImageKind does pay for Google Ads and I've noticed when I Google myself now, I get ImageKind ads with my name, linking right to my galleries, so that's pretty cool.

If anything, it's another way for me to market my designs on two different sites by offering products that coordinate. They compliment each other nicely.

What has your experience been with ImageKind so far? Any input or tips you want to share?

99 tips for branding on the cheap: Excellent article on the Aviva Directory

2007-01-24T14:16:00.000-06:00

This gem of an article is quite lengthy, but worth the read. I've already added it to the learning resources section at the right for future reference.

The author covers a whole host of ideas for getting your website off the ground. Some conventional, some more creative & some just plain different ideas I hadn't heard of before, like branding free email accounts so others don't "steal" your company name and water down your brand or paying someone to walk around with your logo "tattooed" to their forehead.

But most of it's practical advice and can be applied especially well to Cafepress shopkeepers who are starting out and are not sure how to market their products on a small budget.

Categories covered in the article:

• Branding in the Blogosphere

• SEO and Reputation Management

• Social Media/ Bookmarking/ Wikis/ E-Profiles

• Additional Linkbuilding

• Usability, Accessibility and Design

• Personal Communication

• Going Viral to Develop Your Brand

• More Unconventional Ideas - Online

• Unconventional Ideas - Offline

• Resources + References

Thanks to Fricka from Tips and Tricks for T-shirt Entrepreneurs for posting about this!

Goodstorm's "Create a T-shirt" Tutorial on YouTube

2007-01-24T01:34:00.000-06:00

I just love this use of YouTube. Goodstorm, a print on demand company where you can create and sell your own shirts, has created a great overview of their service with a little video tutorial on YouTube and also imbedded it in their site. What a great way to kill two birds with one stone. Throw it out there to the YouTube community as marketing, and put it on the web site to walk potential customers through the steps of making a T-shirt with them. Brilliant, simple and cheap!

Have you ever created a video to promote your T-shirts?

Plea for help! Will someone offer a print-on-demand throw pillow with no black border?

2007-01-22T13:30:00.000-06:00

To continue on with my ModPillows story, I have to address the obvious...the big black borders!

So what about those black borders?

So far the only downside to my new pillow store, is, unfortunately, the pillows themselves! Don't get me wrong, they are great soft pillows, they're a good size, they feel nice, the printing is nice, and I have some at home right now. I just am not a fan of the big black border I'm stuck with designing within. I'm doing my best to come up with designs that will look good within the confines of bold black borders, and I see my store as a starting point. But eventually I need to be able to expand my designs beyond these borders.

From my experiences with pillows and Cafepress, I've come to these conclusions:

1. Cafepress is the only place I've found where I can print and sell my own pillows on-demand.

2. They currently offer ONE style of pillow with black borders.

3. I'm guessing they aren't a huge seller for Cafepress (due to CP's lack of interest in my request for new pillow styles), and I know T-shirts are their biggest selling product. It is what they specialize in.

4. They may not sell well because Cafepress doesn't appeal to textile designers, and CP's pillows are best suited for printing T-shirt phrases and photographs (which don't typically sell well on pillows).

From these conclusions all I can say is that there needs to be another way. Another pillow design. More shapes, more styles, no borders. There is a market for this stuff! So I'll throw this business idea out there to any young, ambitious entrepreneurs:

If someone out there would create a print-on-demand website and service that focused on textile design, curtains, throw pillows, pillow cases, reversable pillow coverings, and maybe even sheets, placemats and cloth or paper napkins, you'd have me signing up before you can say "beta!" And I bet you'd attract a different type of designer.

Does anyone know of another print on demand pillow available? Is anyone out there willing to add them to their current line?

Designing Backwards: Start with the market

2007-01-22T12:52:00.000-06:00

I'm working on a little business experiment and thought I'd share.

It may not seem backwards to marketing people start with the market, but in the Cafepress community of designers, there seems to be a common school of thought regarding design:

1. Think up a clever design.
2. Put it on a T-shirt.
3. Promote it and sell it.

This is not a bad formula and works well with cartoon characters, clever text phrases, and funny comic strip art which all work well on T-shirts, mugs, aprons, or caps. I even use the above formula for my T-shirts and do quite well. And most Cafepress shopkeepers, for that matter, design something clever, put it on a shirt, and then either wait to see if it sells, or maybe pay for a little advertising.

Cafepress' throw pillow

But what about pillows?

Cafepress sells them, you know. I'm not sure how big of a seller they are, as most of what I see in the marketplace on their pillows are cartoons, T-shirt phrases (which work best on T-shirts), some fine art and photography (which usually work best on framed prints or posters). And speaking from personal experience with BusyBodies I rarely sell pillows. I feature them "just in case" but I know my stick figures don't lend themselves well to home décor as well as they do to T-shirts. I did not design BusyBodies with pillows in mind.

Now to think backwards...

I thought I'd open up a new Cafepress Premium shop from a different angle, appeal to a different market, and design with a new perspective:

1. Determine my market and figure out places and ways I will promote my products.
2. Consider one product family to feature.
3. Design specifically for this one product and market segment.
THEN promote (see step one)

It's a fresh way to approach designing for Cafepress and so far so good. The market I've been wanting to tap into for a while is that of modern home interior & product design (step #1), and people who appreciate a bargain.

But to narrow it to a product (step #2), I was specifically interested in decorative throw pillows. I LOVE throw pillows but am usually disappointed at the price tag. Sure, it's often worth it as many of these great pillows are made of things like hand printed silk or embroidered wool (and I admit to having some throw pillows custom-made to match our livingroom a few years back), but sometimes I just like the pattern on a pillow and want it on my couch for under $110. Heck, under $20 would sure be nice, especially since trends are always changing, and my pillow addiction has already costed me a bundle.

That was the "ah-ha" moment. Why not come up with my own modern pillow designs? Then sell them for under $20 through Cafepress, and market them to the IKEA shoppers of the world who appreciate good design but don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it.

And ModPillows was born.

OK there really are more than three steps to all of this. Somewhere after "step 1" I bought a domain, reserved a Cafepress shop name (by opening a basic shop for free), decided on a color pallette for my first few collections, completed several designs (222 to be exact!), created a logo for my shop, created graphics for the web site, uploaded and tagged all of my images, upgraded my shop to a premium shop, customized my shop, ordered pillows to photograph, and put the shop together piece by piece and it continues to grow.

Now time to start spreading the word, which is where I'm at right now. Being that I thought this through at the very beginning, I have some ideas of how I'll go about it. I will keep you updated on my progress. It will take some trial and error and I'll continue to massage the look of my site and it's designs and marketing methods, but it's a good start and I'm excited to see what comes of it.

Do you have a unique method or approach to designing for Cafepress?

Friday Inspiration: Illustration Mundo

2007-01-19T13:09:00.000-06:00

Just a little visual stimulation for Friday afternoon. I stumbled across Illustration Mundo when visiting Prickie today.

Described as "a place where illustration gets all the love," Illustration Mundo is a site dedicated only to illustration.

If you're looking for some great random images to get the creative juices flowing, try out the "100" section of the site that features 100 random images from illustrators' submissions. Every time you refresh, you'll see 100 more random images. I think I like the patchwork look of them all together more than I like the images by themselves.

You can also submit your own art for free (as long as it's quality work) and discuss illustration related topics in their forum.

Can you feel the love?

DNA StyleLab now in Beta: Make shirts with other artists' art

2007-01-16T15:15:00.000-06:00

I found DNA Sylelab today & thought it was a pretty cool concept. Because it's still in beta, you can try it out and order shirts now for 15% off.

The basic idea is that they have artists with work uploaded on the site. You can choose the art you like, choose the shirt you want, size and rotate the art how you want it on your shirt, and then buy your shirt. For now, they have a select number of artists and later on it looks like visitors will get to vote on artists. When a visitor buys a shirt, the artist gets paid a commission.

It's a unique concept that's combining some familiar elements:

1. Giving artist an outlet for selling their work (like Cafepress, Printfection and other similar print on demand sites)

2. Giving choice to the customer to choose the shirt and art they want, without having to create the art (similar to Click-Shirt)

3. Creating a social network in a "club-like" atmosphere of selected artists as well as passionate customers who show off their shirts in a gallery (much like Threadless)

4. And using print-on-demand technology on dark colored shirts (again, like Cafepress and Printfection).

The site looks nice and so does the art. I think they have a lot of potential and I may submit some designs and see what happens. The interface is pretty cool and easy to use, too.

Who is behind DNA Stylelab? I found a little more at MySpace.

I look forward to watching DNA Stylelab work it's way out of beta, grow and change. Be sure to visit DNAStylelab and try it out for yourself!

Forms made easy...finally!

2007-01-13T01:06:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time I used to have my email address posted on my websites. For a while it worked just fine.

Then, of course, I started getting spam. Ack!

Then I started looking all over the internet and asking people how I could make a contact form for my Cafepress store and blog and anything else I do online.

Someone suggested a service that I tried to sign up for. I got lost in the part where I had to put info into a database.

Then I learned how hard it was to make forms. I never did get it and didn't have the patience to learn. I'd rather pay someone else at this point I was so frustrated.

Then one day when David Miles was working on my new store design we got talking about forms. I said I really wanted one & begged him to make me one.

To my delight, he suggested Wufoo. A site that makes making your own forms easy, fast, and (believe it or not) fun!

No really, it's fun! Even for me. So David told me about it and I made some forms. Just like that. They have a free service for a basic form and other paid packages if you want more forms or image uploading capability. You can design your form, then get a simple chunk of HTML to paste wherever you like, including your Cafepress store.

And as if they weren't cool enough, they sent me a holiday card thanking me for my business. Awww. They are by far one of the most useful, well-designed, easy, and affordable web services I've ever used.

And so, I lived happily ever after.

One, two, three cheers for Wufoo!

Oh, and if you want to see some of my shiny new forms in action, here ya go:

Contact BusyBodies
Contact ModPillows
Contact Creative Gumption
Join the iPose Club!

Japanese T-shirt Folding

2007-01-08T11:02:00.001-06:00


OK, I know this has been floating around the internet for a little while now, but it's just so crazy, I had to post it. I wonder if this is how they do it at Cafepress?

Lessons Learned from the Cafepress conference: say "no" to spalsh pages

2007-01-04T01:45:00.000-06:00

Now that I've made these changes to my Cafepress shop, I wanted to share with you a valuable tip I learned from shopkeepers at the Cafepress Conference.

I was fortunate to have my shop critiqued by a few pros during one of the "Pimp my shop" sessions where shopkeepers could volunteer their shop to be viewed in front of everyone on the big screen and be critiqued by the pros. The first bit of constructive criticism I got was: "Get rid of your splash page...it's a kiss of death with search engines."

Wow...that's exactly the kind of information I needed to hear! I was given some tips, then later chatted with another shopkeeper for details on how he integrated his Cafepress shop into his own URL without a splash page.

What is a splash page?
A splash page (or portal page, intro page, or landing page...it has a lot of names), is like a front door to your site. A door that people have to click onto enter your site. It's often a flash animation, a graphic, or in my case, it was my store logo with a button that said "enter site." It's a page with no other purpose than to make the visitor click something or watch something before they can enter your site.

In the old days (in internet land, that's about a year ago, I think), a splash page wasn't seen as a bad thing. As search engines have matured, however, they now recognize splash pages as void of content, and so, don't index them as high as they used to.

There are other pros and cons to splash pages, but there are more cons, in my opinion, to having one for a business site. There's no gurantee your visitor will click your "enter site" button. They may never see your products. Many people find them annoying and a waste of time. They can be good for portfolio sites when the webmaster is wanting to show off his or her skills with a flashy splash page, but other than that, I, too can no longer see a good use for them, especially for a retail site.

Why was I using a splash page?
Being that I have limited web design knowledge, a splash page was the easiest way for me to have a "real web address" instead of relying on www.cafepress.com/(my store name) for all my promotional material. I wanted a simple URL that people could remember. So I made a simple splash page on www.ibusybodies.com that lead into my Cafepress store.

How I fixed the problem:

Now, if you visit my store by typing in: http://www.cafepress.com/busybodies, you'll see it automatically redirects you to my URL, http://www.ibusybodies.com whenever you go to the store home page.

Here are the steps I took to make my shop store front redirect to my own URL:

1. Copied the source code from my Cafepress shop and pasted it elsewhere where I could edit it.

2. In that code I altered the Cafepress white header bar (OK to do since it's not on their domain anymore), fixed all my links so they linked properly to my store sections (very important!), removed nested sub-sections, and placed alt tags on my images so they have text attached to them (search engines only see text, as do applications for the bind to navigate the web). This step takes some fiddling around, but if you know basic HTML, you can probably figure it out.

3. Copied and pasted the new edited code into my HTML editor on my website (ibusybodies.com). You could also FTP the file to your index page.

4. Finally, I pasted a redirect snippet of code into my "shop description" section in the "customize my shop" (custom HTML) section of my Cafepress shop account. So now, whenever a visitor clicks on the "breadcrumbs" in my store, or my store home page, it redirects to my URL. It's important to put this code (check out W3schools or other sites for a redirect code or meta "refresh" code).

Here's what it looks like in the custom HTML section of my Cafepress account, where the code is placed:

Why doing all this should help my store's usability and findability:

• It eliminates the splash page! Customers will instantly see my products and home page.

• Google and other search engines will now recognize my URL (www.ibusybodies.com) as being a website with content and links, seeing it as more valuable.

• Every single page in my store (hundreds of pages) with the Cafepress URL, now link BACK to my URL, also giving it more value in the search engine's eyes.

So after making a few suggested changes, my shop is on it's way to more visibility in search engines.

Do you have any other methods you use for integrating your Cafepress shop into your own web site? Please share!

Technorati Tags: cafepress, t-shirt, design, redirect, HTML

New Year, New Store Design!

2006-12-31T10:40:00.000-06:00

BusyBodies gets a face lift for 2007

As another busy holiday season winds down, I'm excited to get blogging again & share what I've learned over the past several weeks. I'll be answering questions and responding to comments I've been getting on my "new" BusyBodies website in upcoming posts.

Before I get into details & resources I want to talk about why I did it. Why the new store design when the existing one was working. And why I paid for help.

Why a new shop design?

Back at the Cafepress conference this summer our keynote speaker, Michael Dearing mentioned in his talk about how "a little plastic surgery on your business every once in a while can be a good thing." He was (part) jokingly referring to Dolly Parton and how she keeps her image fresh and what a smart business move this is. I kept this in mind.

Also at the conference I was lucky to spend time with several top shopkeepers and gain some insight and get great advice on ways I could improve my site and increase sales. "lose the splash page"..."have coupons available"...."have prices on the home page"..."talk about the 30 day money-back guarantee on the home page"..."talk about fast shipping on the home page"..."make your home page less busy"..."raise your prices"...etc. etc. I kept all of that in mind.

So here I had a site that was doing well. Why change it? Why not, I say! There's always room for improvement, and as the internet becomes more and more competitive, every inch of your web site needs to be thought through. And advice from successful shopkeepers is worth listening to. Even if I had a nice looking site before, it pays to keep it fresh. I figured I could still keep my shop's branding and familiar colors, but give it a little face lift. Add a few features, make it a little more fun, a little easier to use.

Did my site's "plastic surgery" pay off? You bet it did.

Here's how I went about updating my Cafepress shop...

Returning home from the conference with my head full of ideas I worked on putting some of these ideas into action. After a little looking around online I found a mention of a guy named David on the Cafepress message boards.

Designs by David was exactly what I needed. David Miles specializes in custom Cafepress shop design and his service are priced reasonably, too. His courteous, professional manner made him a joy to work with and he graciously tackled all of my detailed requests. I couldn't be more happy with my new shop!

What did David do for BusyBodies?

I know nothing about Flash but I knew I wanted animations on my site. I knew nothing about java (except that I like it decaf with lots of sugar and cream) & how to put all sorts of custom image "stuff" into my Cafepress shop and have it work seamlessly with my shop and home page. David's a pro at all of this. I was more than happy to have him take my art and make it move.

He created great looking buttons, customized my search tool, showed me how to add forms to my site & tweaked all the code until it worked well on various browsers and computer systems. He made it so it loads quickly, he added super-fun mouse-overs that make my home page a virtual BusyBodies playground. He made it more shiny and fun than I ever could and it was up and running for the busy Christmas shopping month of December.

So if you're thinking about giving your Cafepress shop a little plastic surgery in 2007, check out David's site to see his portfolio and read more about his services. For my shop, BusyBodies, David was just the "surgeon" I needed :-)

David Miles' interactive home page.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, template, design, David, web

Live T-shirt Sales Widget, available soon?

2006-11-22T08:28:00.000-06:00

Back at the Cafepress Connect User Conference in San Francisco (August, 2006), I had posted about the cool Cafepress Live T-shirt Sales Widget Thingy (I think that's the technical term for it) they showed off at the Saturday night cocktail party.

In a nutshell, this thing was a live feed showing sales as they happened, on Cafepress. But to make it fun to watch, Justin, the developer from Cafepress, had made it so a photo of the product being purchased would pop up on the monitor, then fade away into the city/state/country it was purchased at. This was projected on a big screen as a backdrop to the party and was met with cheers every few seconds as we'd watch a purchase being made.

Which brings us to this week. Adam, from VoteForTees.com has been busy developing his own widget which I hope he'll share with us eager Cafepress shopkeepers when it's fully ready. He has posted a video preview of his creation at his blog, along with some insight into how he went about developing it. Check it out! It even goes "cha-ching" as a sale is being made. Very clever.

Now that's the kind of motivation us shopkeepers need while we're working away alone in our studios!

Once again, Adam, I'm impressed, but not surprised. I look forward to your next API creation.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, t-shirt, design, API, sales

Get ready for the Christmas Sales Boom: Heidi's Cafepress Shopekeeper Christmas tips

2006-11-17T08:59:00.000-06:00

Christmas is just around the corner.

The world of retail largely revolves around the Christmas shopping season and Cafepress is no different. Some of you may already be noticing a rise in your sales. For me, I typically will see a slow rise in sales in mid-October, then a sharper rise around mid November, then sales will usually triple (or more) in December leading up to Christmas. It's a fun and rewarding time of year for shopkeepers!

You've probably also noticed all kinds of advice and tips for getting your shop ready for the boom...it's hard to sort through it all and decide where to best spend your time. So here are a few things I do that have always been well worth my time and pay off. How can I claim this? I look at my stats on StatCounter.com. After sending out a newsletter I see a rise in traffic that comes from people's email accounts. I add ornaments, they sell. I share coupons, customers thank me.

Heidi's Cafepress Shopekeeper Christmas tips:

1. Add Ornaments to your stores!

Don't stop and question "Would someone really want this on an ornament?" Just add them. I have always sold a lot of ornaments around Christmas. The first year Cafepress introduced them, I only added a few designs that I thought would be popular. I got email after email asking me to put other designs on ornaments. Now I have every design available on an ornament.

2. Share Coupon Codes with your customers!

Who doesn't want to save money? If you haven't found them yet, there are a few websites where you can find current coupon codes for Cafepress merchandise. These codes are supplied by other shopkeepers and shared. CP Coupon is one site where you can participate, share your coupon codes, and have access to other codes for free. You can even subscribe to a feed to keep updated coupons on your web site.

Another one to check out is CPCoupons.com where you can post coupons you receive after making a purchase at Cafepress on their blog-style message board.

What can you do with these codes? I've made it a habit now to reply to my customer inquiries with a coupon code. These coupons are usually for $5 off a purchase of $20 or more, they are time sensitive (encourages your customers to use them now), and don't take a dime out of your commission. People are always happy when I send them coupons and I let them know they can email me anytime for more. Which brings me to newsletters...

3. Send out newsletters!

But don't just make them a big advertisement. People get enough advertisements in their in-box every day. Practically every site you visit on the net has a newsletter you can join, and most of them are not worth my time. I just got another shopkeeper's newsletter today and it was nothing but a bunch of links to "gift ideas." There was nothing compelling that made me want to click on those links.

Think about your customers and what they need this time of year. Most people want to save money and save time, some want to be creative and give something unique. Your audience may have even more specific needs. I just sent out a newsletter mentioning the ornament sale going on this week, included a coupon code, and then talked about creative ways to use ornaments from my store. I said how they're affordable, they can be tied onto gifts, personalized with a gold paint pen, and other creative ways to use them.

Always close your newsletters with well-wishes, but also a call to action. Remind them that shopping at your store means no driving to the mall, no waiting in lines, no fighting the crowds...no hassle! And remind them of Cafepress' 30-day money-back guarantee. Make your reader feel like they'd be missing out if they didn't shop at your store this season! After all, they would be, right?

These tips have helped my sales every Christmas season and I hope they can help you, too. If you have other tried and true tips for this time of year, please feel free to share.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, t-shirt, design, Christmas, tips

Search made simple in your Cafepress store: Search CP third party tool now available

2006-10-30T13:39:00.000-06:00

When it comes to the Cafepress community, us shopkeepers are an impatient bunch. We want it all and we want it now. Fortunately Cafepress is growing at an astounding rate, but that also means the addition of new features to their service happen slower than we'd like.

So what's the solution? Third party tools. If you're a web developer yourself, then you can probably create a lot of the bells and whistles for your shop on your own. For the rest of us, we need to rely on others to design these tools for us. Luckily Cafepress supports and encourages non-Cafepress programmers to develop tools for the Cafepress community to use.

I wanted a search box for my shop, I asked, and I got one.

Finally, I have an easy to use search tool for my premium Cafepress store. But it's not from Cafepress, it's from a bright young bloke from the UK, who's happy to sell it to you for a small annual fee (thanks, Adam!)

Adam's site, Search CP offers an account with your own subdomain, code to plug a search box into your shop, and a coupon feed (shows the latest Cafepress coupon codes) with search results. I like it because it was easy to set up and it doesn't dump shoppers back into the Cafepress marketplace. It keeps them in my store. You can try out my search box here on my store, BusyBodies.

His tool searches a common image tag that you have to place on all of the images you want searched in your stores.

If you want to buy it, he has it set up so you can pay for it with CafeCash, too.

Now, if you're a developer, there is money to be made creating third party tools for Cafepress! Visit CafepressDN.com to learn more about the Cafepress Developers Network.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, search, web, developer

More photos from the Cafepress Connect Conference

2006-10-28T19:35:00.000-05:00

maheeshFred2
Originally uploaded by HecticDMC.

Rodney (from T-shirt countdown), Hectic and others have posted their photos from the Cafepress Connect Conference on Flickr. Search Flickr for the tag "CPCONNECT" to view everybody's photos from the event.

McMarketing

2006-10-27T13:33:00.000-05:00

What makes designer minds tick? Well, you can read a bit about what makes me tick on Jen Goode's blog post (thank you for the interview, Jen!), and the other thing that makes me tick? McDonalds Asian salad with crispy chicken and a small fries!

My favorite fast food lunch for three reasons:
1. It's salad, so I feel like I'm eating healthy.
2. The fries are only a $1...and I can totally justify them because I just ate a healthy salad.
3. If I blog about it and post a photo, I can participate in a cool promotion and earn money (and you can too) adding to my online experiences to share with you :-)

So yes, I put those last crispy fries from my lunch right on the scanner (looking for the glass cleaner now).

My tasty lunch aside, whether or not you love the $1 menu, filet-o-fish (my second favorite fast food lunch) or Asian salad, consider this: McDonalds knows you. They found you here, didn't they? And if you're running an online business with Cafepress or otherwise, you need to know your customers too. The better you know them, the more effectively you'll reach them, and the more responsive they will be.

McDonalds isn't even an online company, and they're finding a way to reach out to us bloggers and blog readers online. Because a blogger has to eat eventually, right? It's brilliant. And can work in reverse. If you run an online business, reach out to your customers off-line. If you sell hobby specific T-shirts, like quilting, for example, try advertising in a quilting hobby magazine. Many magazines will offer cheap advertising in the back if you're willing to buy up the "leftover" space for your ads. Or even more specific, if you're into the hobby yourself, wear your shirt to an event with like-minded folks.

One way that I've reached out off-line to specific customer groups is by donating some of my products to conventions and fundraisers. Luckily I've had people contact me for this, but you can easily look up conferences and fundraisers for specific interests, look at their advertising info, and donate mini buttons, stickers, or magnets to conference-goers' "goodie bags." By donating they will often print your name and company web site in their program and if your web site is on your give-away item, it also doubles as a marketing tool. Know someone who sells stamping materials at parties? Give them your latest stamping T-shirt to give away at their next party. Know a local sewing shop that has regular events? Again, offer to donate a few products as give-aways.

By tapping in to people's passions...and getting your products right in front of them, you'd be surprised how off-line marketing can boost your online business. Big off-line corporations like McDonald's are getting it right...finding us online where our passions are. We can learn from them. And I'm lovin' it.

----

My McDonalds lunch came from the New Brighton McDonalds in Minnesota off of County Road D. The fastest, friendliest McDonalds I've ever been to.

Do you blog? You can participate in McDonalds blog promotion. Click the widget below for details...

Technorati Tags: cafepress, mcdonalds

Instant Cafe: third party Cafepress tool for affiliates

2006-10-19T23:34:00.000-05:00

(above) Adam teaches us about his new tool, Instant Cafe, now available through his site.

I attended this session at the Cafepress Connect user conference in San Francisco last weekend. In it we learned about third party (not created by Cafepress) tools that are available for affiliates to use to easily create niche shops and sell T-shirts and gifts for commission.

Check out Adam's Instant Cafe, now available through his site. It's a pretty neat tool. Basically you type in a few variables (shop ID, or image tag), wait a minute, and it generates code for a whole site, ready to sell Cafepress merchandise with your pid# (personal identification number).

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference, third party tools, instant-cafe

9th time’s a charm: Two inspiring stories from successful business people I met this weekend

2006-10-19T08:12:00.000-05:00

(above) Fred Durham, Co-funder and CEO of Cafepress.com
talks about what he learned from his previous failed business ventures.

On my long day of travel from Minnesota to California, I had the pleasure of sitting by a nice man and his 4 year old little girl on my connecting flight from Phoenix to San Francisco where I would attend the Cafepress Connect Conference. He was well dressed, down to earth, and seemed like a genuinely happy guy.

We got talking about what we each did for a living and I learned he was a sales manager at a Toyota dealership as well as a real estate agent and landlord of several properties he owned. After the car buying, “Let me talk to my manager about your offer” jokes and discussing real estate prices and how cheap it is to live in Phoenix, I wanted to know more.

I’m always interested in people’s stories...how they got there. How they became successful in their career and happy in their life. I wasn’t prepared for the story he told.

He was born in Mexico, his mother died when he was only one year old, and his family was very poor. The economy was poor all around and at the age when most young Americans are complaining about their first job flipping burgers or passing the driver’s ed class, this young man decided he needed to come to America to support his family.

Since the Mexican government did not allow people to leave and apply for a green card, he, like many others chose to sneak into America. He arranged to get a ride from a trucker and got caught at the border. He tried again. And again. And again. And five times after that. He learned the ins and outs of the system, figured out the best way in, and the 9th time, at the age of 16, he found himself at night, at the border, hiding under a freeway overpass.

He lied still in the dark all night long to avoid the patrol lights...rats biting him, bugs biting him. His eyes were swelling up just telling me the story. He waited till daylight and then hitch hiked the rest of the way with $0.50 to his name, not knowing a bit of English.

He learned English on his own, applied for his green card and later obtained United States citizenship. He first worked at a farm picking spinach and in years to come he helped other family members obtain their legal citizenships in the United States. Now a Toyota dealership sales manager, self employed real estate angent, and landlord, he beams with pride when talking about his wife and two daughters.

What a humble beginning this immigrant had. He gave me his business card (in case I ever want to buy a home or Toyota in Phoenix), but he gave me more than that. He gave me a reminder to never take for granted the opportunity there is in the United States...and in life in general (and the internet, for that matter!). Opportunity like there is no where else in the world, and how persistence can pay off.

“9 times it took me,” he said to me while holding up 9 fingers, “9 times.”

Which brings me back to the Cafepress conference.

Now in San Francisco at Fort Mason Center I sat awaiting the keynote address by Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain, co-founders of Cafepress.com. They began their talk by telling the history of the company and how they got started.

The two had been partners before in other ventures...other businesses, other online printing businesses that eventually failed. One after another. Until, you guessed it, the 9th business model was what Cafepress is today. Started in Fred’s garage it has grown to millions of users strong. More on their success story here.

After this weekend how could I not keep adding designs to my T-shirt lines, opening Cafepress shops, seizing every opportunity I have thrown at me? I’m sure there’s nothing significant about the number nine, other than it sure stuck in my head, and it's a lot of failures that didn’t keep certain motivated, optimistic people from giving up.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference, success

Adam's Photos from Cafepress Connect conference

2006-10-18T23:52:00.000-05:00

A few more pictures from the Cafepress conference in San Francisco.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference, photos

Rodney's photos from Cafepress Connect Conference

2006-10-18T23:43:00.000-05:00

(above) A rack of the current and soon to be released apparel at the Cafepress Conference.

Once again, some great picts of the conference posted by Rodney of T-shirt countdown.com.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference, photos

More great Cafepress Conference Photos from RotemGear

2006-10-18T23:20:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Jean of RotemGear for posting some great picts of the Cafepress Connect user conference last weekend in San Francisco.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference, photos, pictures

Merchandise 101: My notes from the session at the Cafepress Conference

2006-10-18T09:29:00.000-05:00

New products on the way at Cafepress

The first session at the Cafepress Connect Conference in San Francisco covered all things related to merchandise.

Here are my notes from that session:

New stuff on the way, hopefully before Christmas

- Products with more color

They had a rack of the actual garments for us to see and touch. My favorites were the brown T-shirt and black/dark colored long sleeve shirts. Very nice, thick material. Lots of great colors I saw and even more are on the way.

Coming soon to Cafepress merchandise:

- Plus sizes with a larger print area
- More high volume/high revenue products
- More rapid release cycles (more products added faster)
- Focus on quality
- Likely a Good/Better/Best strategy to categorize different grades and levels of quality in garments

Cafepress Branded line of garments

They are working on a Cafepress branded line (Cafepress will actually manufacture their own garments)

This new CP line will:

- Alleviate inconsistencies in sizing
- Ensure quality
- Include trend conscious colors not available through major manufacturers.
- Include styles not available through the wholesale market

Top 10 selling products on Cafepress (in no particular order)

T-shirt (men’s style)
Hooded sweatshirt
Baseball Jersey
Women’s Tee
Small mug
Baby Doll
Jr. Ringer Tee
Bumper Sticker
Large Mug
Ringer Tee

Helpful Hints:

- Create product specific images (make your image fit the product)
- Follow full bleed guidelines
- Learn about transparency (more dark colored shirts on the way)
- Create products that will address your audience

Q & A:

Someone in the audience brought up American Apparel and asked about sweat shop free garments. ALL of Cafepress garments are sweatshop free.

It was asked if we’d ever be able to put white ink on other colors of shirts (not just black). Answer was, “yes, eventually.”

There will be new great merchandise by the end of the year.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference, merchandise, t-shirt, print on demand

Lessons Learned from the Cafepress Conference: 5 observations of individuals who are making a living as Cafepress shopkeepers

2006-10-17T22:49:00.000-05:00

I just received an email from Tom of Tew Designs and Ski Goodies wondering what it took and if it's possible to earn a full-time living as a Cafepress shopkeeper.

The answer depends on a lot of factors, including your definition of "a living". But whatever your goals are with your Cafepress shop, there are lessons to be learned from those top few who are continuing to re-define what it means to be a top shopkeeper and are enjoying their success.

My head is still spinning with all I took in over the weekend at Cafepress’ first user conference in San Francisco. Now that I’m home, I’m slowly digesting it all, and posting what I’ve learned. So it made sense to start with that basic question that not only Tom, but everyone seems to be asking. How much can I make and is it possible to quit my day job?

In meeting and talking with several shopkeepers at the conference who do, in fact, earn a living with their shops, I found some commonalities when asking them how they made the transition. I’m sure there are more, but here are a few that stood out to me:

1. They seized an opportunity and grew out of necessity

Most, if not all of these individuals, had been laid off from their day jobs and were seeking ways to make a living when they started their Cafepress stores. Not that I’m saying to go quit your job, but I found it remarkable just how many people started out this way: forced to make it work out of necessity. And they never turned back.

2. They think outside of the Cafepress box

These individuals are sharp, creative thinkers and each in their own unique way, have found a way to not only create designs and brands that sell, but have figured out new and innovative ways to use the Cafepress.com site to further their business. For example, writing and selling, or simply using third party tools and scripts to harness Cafepress from their own desktop computer. They learn what they need to in order to grow and practice clever marketing through blogging and off-line advertising. They’re continually challenging the system and making it better for us all. They put a lot of effort into designs they know will sell. They fine tune their marketing efforts. They customize their shops beyond the basics. They create buzz or even an internet phenomenon. They simply stand out from the rest.

3. They take their business seriously and are willing to invest in it

By invest I mean money, but also time, energy and resources. I skim through the Cafepress message boards from time to time and a common question is, “how can I advertise for free?” In general, you get what you pay for.

Rather than tracking down every single free ad site, affiliate countdown site, or pixel site, treat your shop as a real business, budget for and find the best advertising methods for you, your audience, and your designs. This may mean buying up leftover ad space in the back of a hobby magazine, or buying your products in bulk and selling at fashion shows and craft fairs, or paying for ads on topic-specific blogs. Either way, it involves an investment, and the top folks aren’t afraid of it.

Investing money aside, if you do go for free advertising, do it smart. SEO for Google, recruit affiliate advertisers, and learn how to get attention from the press.

4. They work their butts off, but also know their limitations

I’ve run into a handful of shopkeepers over the years who aren’t designers, but stubbornly will refuse to hire a designer, or work with a student designer to improve their graphics or at least to create a logo. I never understood this notion of having to do all or nothing. I readily admit, my strengths lie in graphics, illustration, branding, and marketing, but I have a lot to learn when it comes to the technical end of things, web development, scripting, and coding beyond basic HTML. Let your ego get ahead of you, and you’re on your way to...nowhere! But, if you want to be like these top shopkeepers, don’t give up on learning, but also be willing to hear constructive criticism, hire people or use outside tools when needed.

5. They’re always growing

Growing, growing, growing. Rather than spending their time chasing down the next best free ad site, these individuals are focusing on growing what’s already working for them. They run multiple shops (and I mean MULTIPLE!), they continue to keep their design lines fresh and current, they continue to add new designs, new lines, new shops and so on. Their virtual eggs don’t lie in one basket.

I hope this list helps answer the question about earning a living as a shopkeeper. Other observations included ethical business practices (no spamming or trying to cheat the system), all use premium shops, most own domains, many blog, and many have similar creative ventures outside of Cafepress and the T-shirt/giftware industry to supplement their income.

Can you think of more? What’s working for you? Any other comments or thoughts you'd like to add?

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference, shopkeeper, success

More photos and commentary from the Cafepress Conference

2006-10-17T08:04:00.000-05:00

Adam has a great site, T-shirt chat where he's been posting photos and commentary from the conference.

He did a nice little write up about me there, too. Thanks, Adam.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference

But at least one of us is laughing :-)

2006-10-16T02:28:00.000-05:00

But at least one of us is laughing :-)
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

It was pretty amusing. I guess you had to be there.

Adam isn't too sure that's funny.

2006-10-16T02:26:00.001-05:00

Adam isn't too sure that's funny.
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Adam of Buy-tees, Kristen and John

2006-10-16T02:26:00.000-05:00

Adam of Buy-tees, Kristen and John
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Kristen reads random quotes out of context.

Lekker Design team, Kristen, and John

2006-10-16T02:25:00.001-05:00

Lekker Design team, Kristen, and John
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Mary, Leslie, Jean, Heidi

2006-10-16T02:25:00.000-05:00

Mary, Leslie, Jean, Heidi
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Out for dinner on Sunday evening, after the Cafepress conference came to a close.

Tagging seminar by Marc Cull of Cafepress.com

2006-10-16T02:06:00.000-05:00

Tagging seminar
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

I included this photo because I thought these graphs were fascinating.

Each "node" on them, if I remember correctly, represents a key word used in the Cafepress marketplace tagging system and the lines are to show how they associate with other key words in the system.

Marc Cull, the engineering manager (the brains behind the Cafepress marketplace) did a good job explaining this mind-boggling organizational model. A bit over our heads, but fascinating in it's complexity. Hats off to Marc and his team.

Pimp my shop

2006-10-16T01:59:00.000-05:00

Pimp my shop
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Sorry this is a little out of order, but this was earlier this afternoon. People were giving Marty their business cards so he would bring our site up on the big screen to get critiqued by the pros.

Here, Rodney of T-shirt countdown is helping me improve my site, BusyBodies.

I took away a lot of valuable feedback, tips, tricks, and help that I'll cover in later posts.

Happy Birthday Cafepress, 7 years old!

2006-10-16T01:57:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Cafepress, 7 years old!
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

After Fred and Maheesh made their closing remarks, we celebrated the 7th anniversary of Cafepress.com.

And what better to celebrate with than a Cafepress green cake!

(It was very good, by the way...layers of chocolate goodness).

Fred and Maheesh wrap up the conference

2006-10-16T01:55:00.000-05:00

Fred and Maheesh wrap up the conference
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Fred and Maheesh wrap up the conference on Sunday evening.

Heidi Panelli & Fred Durham of Cafepress.com

2006-10-16T01:47:00.000-05:00

Heidi Panelli & Fred Durham
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Just another "celebrity shot" with Fred Durham, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cafepress.com.

Thanks again, Fred, for a great conference!

Articles of Flair from the Cafepress Conference, San Francisco 2006

2006-10-15T21:14:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd share my "flair." Shopkeepers attending the Cafepress conference were asked to bring mini buttons representing their shops. All weekend we traded buttons and cards. I have even more than when this picture was taken yesterday.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference, mini, buttons, flair

Heidi Panelli & Maheesh Jain

2006-10-15T16:40:00.000-05:00

Heidi Panelli & Maheesh Jain
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Maheesh Jain, Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development at cafepress was kind enough to pose for a photo. Say cheese :-)

Cafepress Fortune Cookie

2006-10-15T16:38:00.000-05:00

Cafepress Fortune Cookie
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Fun fortune cookies with shopkeeper fortunes have been sitting out on the snack table. This one reads: "You are on the path to many sales."

Keynote speech by Michael Dearing

2006-10-15T16:35:00.000-05:00

Keynote speech by Michael Dearing
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Michael Dearing, formerly with ebay.com and now teaching at Stanford, gave us an inspiring speech this morning at the Cafepress Connect user conference.

Click-shirt.com is released

2006-10-15T16:33:00.000-05:00

Click-shirt.com is released
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Click-Shirt.com is on display for conference go-ers to check out. It was just released today (surprise to us!) at the Cafepress Connect Conference in San Francisco.

Testing Click-shirt.com

2006-10-15T16:29:00.000-05:00

Testing Click-shirt.com
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Justin from Cafepress is excited to share the new Click-Shirt.com with Leslie (from LesrubaDesigns.com)...and to talk about the new macbook.

Pimp My Shop session

2006-10-15T16:24:00.000-05:00

Pimp My Shop session
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Daniel Clark (Hectic Studios), Mary, and Rodney (of T-shirt countdown.com) wait to critique our shops and give us feedback.

Click-shirt.com: New tool shared at the conference

2006-10-15T14:52:00.000-05:00

This cool new tool, Click Shirt was just shared by Cafepress peopld at their Cafepress Connect user conferece where I'm at right now.

I'm sitting in one of our conference rooms right now over our lunch break and some of us are checking it out and playing around with it.

Basically it's a quick, easy, well designed tool for making create and buy products a snap, even if you're new to the Cafepress experience.

They're inviting us to check it out and in the community spirit of Cafepress, they welcome and want ours, and your feedback!

I'll post more when I've had a chance to really try it, but from what I see so far, it's awesome.

Technorati Tags: cafepress, conference, clickshirt, new, t-shirt

Cafepress Connect Conference, Day 1

2006-10-15T04:17:00.000-05:00

Barneys gourmet burgers
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

That about does it for day one of the conference. I'll go more in depth with things I learned and my impressions of the conference, etc, in future posts.

Cafepress Connect Conference, Day 1

2006-10-15T04:15:00.000-05:00

Rodney & Matt
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Rodney (T-shirt countdown) & Matt (I heart tees) at Barneys.

Jen Goode and Heidi Panelli

2006-10-15T04:14:00.000-05:00

Jen Goode and Heidi Panelli
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Cafepress Connect Conference, after the CP party

2006-10-15T04:13:00.000-05:00

Heidi, Eileen (Fricka) and Leslie
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Heidi, Eileen (Fricka) and Leslie

Cafepress Connect party

2006-10-15T04:11:00.000-05:00

Kristen, Maureen, and her friend
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Kristen (foxvox), Maureen (mogolounge.com) and her friend who's here to learn.

Cafepress now live sales

2006-10-15T04:09:00.000-05:00

Cafepress now live sales
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

OK, this was really cool. Cafepress put together this thing that showed products as they were being purchased. An image would pop up on the screen that was just purchased, then fade away to the state and city where it was purchased. It made a nice backdrop to the room of enthusiastic shopkeepers and Cafepress employees at the party.

-------

Update 11/21/06...Adam from VoteForTees.com has been developing his own similar API tool. Check it out!

Candles at the Cafepress party

2006-10-15T03:59:00.001-05:00

Candles at the Cafepress party
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Cafepress Party

2006-10-15T03:59:00.000-05:00

Cafepress Party
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Flowers in San Francisco

2006-10-15T03:58:00.001-05:00

Flowers in San Francisco
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Homes in San Francisco

2006-10-15T03:58:00.000-05:00

Homes in San Francisco
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

Cafepress Connect Conference, Day 1

2006-10-15T03:52:00.000-05:00

Heidi Panelli and her BusyBodies shirt on display
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

OK, I was a little excited to see that Cafepress chose one of my products to display :-) Thanks, guys.

Fort Mason Center

2006-10-15T03:51:00.001-05:00

Fort Mason Center
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

The conference is at Fort Mason Center. The line of people is for Oktoberfest in another building in Fort Mason.

"Put it on the list"

2006-10-15T03:51:00.000-05:00

"Put it on the list"
Originally uploaded by Heidi Panelli.

These lists are posted in the main conference room for us to add our comments and suggestions for improvement during the conference. Whenever someone mentions a new idea, we are kindly asked to add it to "The List."