Okay you have all heard of Twitter right? No? Well then you must be living on another planet! Twitter is a fabulous way of getting an enormous fan base fast, I use it for my graffiti site and will be promoting it in a big way very soon! The thing is most ideas for promoting Twitter are rather expensive and so I’ve joined Tweeter Getter and if you know what’s good for you you will too!

If you explode your following on Twitter you can almost guarantee it will increase the popularity of your t-shirt blog, site, store or in fact any kind of blog or site you can imagine!

Hope on board here and gather up to almost 20,000 Twitter followers for free!

If you own a website or blog and know your readers would appreciate a discount or two like this one:-

Then hop on over to the affiliate application form here, or if you’re a member of Commission Junction you can simply login and search for “UneeTEE” and sign up to their program from there, either way get yourself some link and banner codes and slip a few of them into your blog or site and keep your fingers crossed, who knows you may qualify for a free iTouch – which is essentially Apple’s latest and fanciest schmanciest iPod incase you weren’t aware.

Here’s what UneeTEE have to say about the promotion:-

“Double your February’s referred sales to UneeTEE and win a brand new iTOUCH! Double the volume of sales you referred to UneeTEE in February during the month of March and get a chance to win a brand new Apple iTOUCH to help you relax after a hard month’s work. All you have to do is to give it a push throughout the month of March and once the number is doubled you have a chance to win a brand new Apple iTOUCH – on top of all those well deserved commission bucks! This promotion applies to all joined affiliates on all commission offers. The winner will be announced on or before April 10, 2009. Consolation Prizes would also be awarded. You need to refer at least 10 sales transactions this March to UneeTEE in order to be eligible for the raffle draw”

Now if you’ve never promoted the site before you’ll (only) need to hit 10 sales, if you can manage that you’ll be in for a healthy profit and a chance at winning an iTouch. Not bad eh?

If you don’t have a blog or site and would rather just save a few dollars at the checkout just click the banner above. In case you’re wondering, no Commission Junction don’t offer a referral program for their site, you can make a little cash from sales of their advertisers’ products but nothing from other affiliates – which isn’t the greatest deal in the world – still as I said – we leave the marketing to the experts and stick to what we’re good at, writing t-shirt reviews ;)

Now I don’t normally put the terms “genius” and “marketing” together in the same sentence, but if you’re after something a little different, no matter what your business, t-shirt related or not, here’s something out of the ordinary for you. Essentially Jason Sadler of Iwearyourshirt.com is renting out the upper-half of his body for the next year. You will be disappointed to find out that just about every day for next January (2009) has been sold out, and in a moment you’ll understand exactly why.

The beauty of Jason’s idea is simplicity, unlike the awful multi-level marketing scheme EyeEarn.com (I won’t even link to it :/) which seems to have a master plan of forcing the world to wear it’s grotty logo, yes everyone, the same shirt, (isn’t that more communist than capitalist?), Jason is prepared to do the modelling and marketing for you.

There are two reasons why I’m bandying around the word genius here, the fact is that both of them will in all honesty benefit him more than anyone else. I slog away at reviews and news here at Buy Tees and half the time I’ll be lucky to receive a mere “thanks” let alone any freebies, not that I ask mind you. Jason on the other hand will be filling his wardrobe with 365 t-shirts over the next year, everyone of them free, and he’ll be paid for the privilege! His fees will increment day-by-day to a whopping $365 for wearing your t-shirt on the 31st of January 2009. At first I had my suspicions, who would want to pay so much or so little? Then I took a look at his site and saw that he’s practically sold out his first month, yes they’re the cheapest rates snapped up for starters, and he’ll be marketing the lucky advertisers all over the net just to make sure they get the coverage they deserve.

If you book a day with Jason and mail him your shirt (size: X-Large – he’s a big lad) your tee will get exposure at…

• Daily Video on YouTube & Ustream.tv
• Daily Photos on the blog & Flickr
• Daily Posts on the blog & Twitter
• Calendar (You/Your Company’s Logo & Website)
• All of these with Jason wearing your shirt and information about you, your company and/or your product.

It doesn’t even stop there, the more reebies you send him the more exposure you will get, such as “other items of clothing, your company branded stress ball or even your custom bedazzled iPhone case!” He’s even willing to visit you at your business (I presume if you pay his expenses), and he’ll even bring his video camera and document the entire trip.

Right now Jason isn’t famous, as he openly admits he’s no rock star or athlete, but as he states at IWYS – he does have a passion for marketing, and you will probably realise for yourself once this spreads around the net. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail Jason at iwearyourshirt@gmail.com. What you need to understand is that this is viral marketing gone haywire, within a year this man will probably have the attention of worldwide news networks, not that he’s promising anything of the sort, it’s just so newsworthy I’d be surprised if he doesn’t find himself doing at least a few interviews for the ‘wackier stories’ sections of Fox or MTV news in 2009.

Anyway get yourself down there if you want to take a punt on this, it could be big! Plus I’ve just heard that Jason’s friend Evan of www.EvanWhitePR.com is talking with The Today Show now, if that happens it makes the cost of advertising back that same day and way more!

JP was founded and now run by partners in business (and life) Amy Duckworth and her long-term boyfriend Dan, and have always been avid t-shirt wearers, buyers, fans, fanatics? (Aren’t we all?) The major difference is that Amy and Dan decided to take it one step further, having noticed how few of their favourite tees were created or sold in the UK, and so they took a leap into the unknown and started their own online t-shirt store in 2003. It was rather hectic at first seeing as they were both busy studying at university, and besides the fact that neither had any experience, their respective criminology and engineering degrees not exactly a solid preparation for the fashion business, the two had to learn everything from scratch.

Before long they were busy designing and printing their own tees alongside selling a range of Junk Food t-shirts to bolster the initial collection. Things have moved a long way since those heady college days, JP’s fine selection of t-shirts now includes many top brands including Harajuku Lovers, Mighty Fine, Loungefly, House of Mental, Local Celebrity and Affliction. They’ve even branched out into hoodies, pants, funky bags and purses. However t-shirts will always be their first love, and Amy and Dan always ensure they offer the very latest styles and brands to their discerning customer base.

Some of their best selling tees are those worn by a glittering array of celebrities including the likes of Paris Hilton; Rihanna, Hayden Panettiere and Megan Fox. One of the added benefits of stocking top LA labels is the fact that their t-shirts are often worn by celebrities.There’s also a range of movie and sports celebrity tees if none of those names take your fancy, and plenty of vintage and retro shirts for the old school addicts. I must add as a personal note, if you’re going to sell celebrity tees take a leaf from JukuPop’s books and sell decent graphic shirts (unlike a store I reviewed earlier this week and never even got a reply for my trouble – let it go Paul.)

Here’s a cutie called Tink Neverland by Mighty Fine at JukuPop, I particularly like the Wes Wilson style graphics on this one, available as a ladies t-shirt here.

Another t-shirt that stands out for me in the ladies section is this one.

This is a ladies Jimi Hendrix Kiss the Sky T Shirt by Junk Food available at JP. Very rough and ready!

The Affliction range for men, which JukuPop started selling last year is doing particularly well, selling like hot cakes as it were, they are a sure-fire hit with the guys and several male celebs have got in on the act including UFC and MMA fighters all wearing the label, Ricky Hatton has worn various Affliction t-shirts as well as Samuel L Jackson, Jamie Foxx and Michael Madsen.

This is the back detail from Bloodletter by Affliction, one of my personal favourites as it happens. I like the fact they’ve gone overboard on the back (design-wise), something that would seem a waste in Britain considering our awful weather, but to me it’s a far more subtle take on elaborate t-shirt design. Besides the front is rather cool too!

Here’s another

This is the Leopard T-Shirt by Deter, I love the grainy effect and splatters of multi-colour, there are few more cool tees by this label such as the Reaper Riches and Gold and Gold tooth Skull tees. Deter offer a bold range of large and simple yet striking designs guaranteed to make you stand out!

JukuPop only started their PR campaign last March and have already been featured in the press in quite a few UK weeklies like Heat, Now, New, Closer, Reveal and Star. The fact that fashion editors love celebrity style, and that they sell the latest t-shirts that the celebrities wear, has upped their profile in the mainstream media. Contacting the magazine editors for the first time was a little daunting at first but if you’re going to make it big it has to be done!

Even now Amy and Dan would openly admit that running your own online fashion store is a continuous learning experience, with all that that entails Amy handles the PR, buying, accounts, SEO and marketing, whilst Dan looks after the stock, orders and the photography and has even taught himself graphic design and is now more than adept photoshop and coreldraw. An inspiration to t-shirt buyers and designers alike, take a closer look at JukuPop.com yourself!

Of course the cheques bounce, and if you’re really unlucky they can even clear out your bank account. So like I say don’t ever answer emails like this one :

HELLO,MY NAME IS SIR ALEXANDRA COSTA, AM AN ITALIAN BUSINESS MAN. I DEALS WITH IMPORTING AND EXPORTINGS FOREIGN GOODS, SO I WILL LIKE YOU TO PLEASE GET BACK TO ME WITH PRODUCT YOU HAVE IN STOCK AS AT NOW. I WILL ALSO WANT YOU TO GET BACK TO ME WITH YOUR PRICE FOR EACH WITH THE DISCOUNT YOU CAN GIVE ME ON EACH PRODUCT, AND AS REGARDING THE PAYMENT METHODS WILL BE DISCUSS DURING THE TRANSACTION.

I HAVE MANY BRANCHES WORLD WIDE, SO JUST WANT TO ESTABLISH ANOTHER BRANCH IN AFRICA,SO I DECIDED TO USE NIGERIA AS THE HEAD QUATER SO I WANT YOU TO GET BACK TO ME WITH THE SHIPPING COST TO MY BRANCH ADDRESS IN NIGERIA GET BACK TO ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO THAT I CAN KNOW WHAT AM GOING TO DO WITH YOUR TRANSACTION,AND I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I NEED TO GET THIS ORDER AS SOON AS YOU GET THE PAYMENT,HOPE TO READ FROM YOU ASAP. REGARDS ALEXANDRA.

Email him (at his free email address) anonymously for a laugh if you want (and join me on the run from Nigeria’s equivalent of the Mafia) at: sales@avafx.com

He’d actually written his demands in bold for extra headache inducing impact, but at least it wasn’t typed in a bright red which some of these scammers like to do. Nice touch mentioning he’s Italian, perhaps Alexandra does hail from Italy, but apparently he neither has a surname, phone number or business address. What’s even funnier is that Alexandra is actually a woman’s name, but I won’t hold his vague sexuality against him.

Now i don’t run an independent t-shirt store (anymore) but even if I did I can’t understand why Alexandra the transsexual t-shirt mogul of Nigeria would think I’d take him seriously, or at least not without a very very hefty down payment (probably for more than I’d actually charge just as compensation for the frightening email).

The fact is there’s most likely no one in Nigeria selling independent underground label t-shirts, the import duties must be extortionate, let alone all those back handers to corrupt government officials. I’m more likely to send some t-shirts to Oxfam than Alexandra. Ah well there you go. This maybe a light hearted post but take it seriously, a lot of brand new independent t-shirt stores, printers and suppliers have been caught out by these scammers over the years. Let’s hope those venturing into the industry have been duly warned.

To give you an idea of the standard they’re expecting check out this fantastic video by Shirt City, featured at Buy Tees right now.

There are some great prizes including:

1st Prize – $1000 (they also say Euros so if you have a chance take the Euros – they’re worth more!)

2nd Prize Р€100 voucher and a Video Deluxe 15 Premium package.

3rd Prize Р€50 voucher and a Video Deluxe 15 Premium package.

Every runner up who’s put a modicum of effort in wins a free t-shirt

As with ScribTee.com (The Threadless style voting section of ShirtCity.com) the winners are chosen by popular vote, but you’ll need to be a member of DailyMotion.com to join in the fun, either as contributor or voter. To submit your vids visit Video.ShirtCity.com and make sure you read their terms and conditions, i.e no sexy stuff most likely

If you’re really really smart you’ll submit a t-shirt design at ScribTee, then create a video that features your design in someway, then even if you don’t win the video contest you will have a far greater chance of winning their design contest, or at least getting yourself a whole heap of extra exposure. Remember that ShirtCity/ScribTee, DailyMotion and SC’s affiliates will be plugging these videos as part of their latest savvy marketing campaign. Rather a smart idea all round. The contest runs till the end of the year which is kind of cheap of them, I’m sure they could afford to do this a few more times this year, ah well maximum exposure at minimum expense is probably the rule of thumb for most business gurus out there (I wouldn’t know).

I wish that SC would get a hang of their domain name management tools, Scribtee.com still comes up in the browser as a rather ugly dynamic url at ShirtCity.com… http://www.shirtcity.com/shop/index.php?sc4_start=us_idcom, but I suppose it’s down to their tracking software, i.e cookies for country of origin etc. Still, it confuses the hell out of most people I’ve sent there.

While I’m at it Robert Goldbach (one of the guys behind ShirtCity.com) wanted me to feature a couple of their latest submissions to make the grade at ScribTee, and normally I’d avoid such biased recommendations but I have to admit these two are rather gorgeous!

Luz / Licht (Light? I failed German at school). Buy it here.

Pencil T-Shirt at Shirt City/Scrib Tee

Whilst I’m at it you might want to see how ShirtCity make cakes out of t-shirts, a whole new way of folding t-shirts (if you’re mad).

It’s true we have similar services out there, there’s Rumplo.com for instance, a very popular t-shirt voting site, although I’d say it was a lot thinner in the ‘t-shirt community’ department, it’s still a mainstay with many t-shirt designers to get their works out there. Paul’s biggest gripe is the competitor site PleaseDress.me which turned up a few months later with a virtual ticker-tape parade as it arrived on the scene, compared to the rolling tumbleweed reception that ShirtSeek.com has received.

I don’t think the situation is quite as bad as Paul perceives, now I know no one trusts Alexa.com for accurate traffic statistics anymore, but even as a general guide I can tell you and Paul that this is how the visitors are ticking over so far :-

As You can see there’s very little difference right now, and in fact neither is generating an enormous amount of traffic. The truth is most t-shirt related sites (with the exception of the likes of Threadless, Spreadshirt, Cafepress), blogs and communities have few visitors, however much passion we all may feel for the medium, and yes it is a medium of art rather than an item of clothing, most of the world hasn’t woken up to the splendour of the iconic tee (quite yet).

What’s more I believe I’ve been put in the impossible position of comparing two very different beasts here, let me make a poor analogy here (on 4 hours sleep btw), it’s like comparing a critically acclaimed book with a flashy news stand magazine. One is in the game of making money, the other has higher ideals, of building a long lasting community.

ShirtSeek.com was released to the public when PDM was but an inkling in the collective subconscious of a hotshot team of net entrepreneurs. ShirtSeek is a one man band operation, an admirable but always treacherous past time in the online world, if there’s one thing this difficult, evasive, and generally intolerable reviewer has learned about making one’s way on the net it’s that the old adage ‘talk is cheap’ is actually a good thing, if you’re a loudmouth with a few thousand friends you can do almost anything (as long as at least one of your friends can code interactive application-based sites in their sleep). I’m not all that keen on social networking, I suppose it takes a certain kind of personality to persist with proffering small talk to hoards of strangers everyday. But unfortunately that is exactly how business is done online, and so much so within the field of t-shirts that I’d be hard pressed to find a success story in our industry that didn’t feature a social marketing guru behind the scenes.

The truth is Paul needs to make more friends, and don’t we all? I sometimes wonder if all of us social noobs out there could somehow get it together for once, we might just find we have our own enormous social networking army ready to storm the barricades of Digg, Facebook, Myspace and all the other usual suspects. The truth is we are all of the opinion that quality wins over quantity every time. The trouble is we are for the main part in the minority and probably always will be. The Internet is foremostly a money-making machine, if you have several thousand ‘friends’ you most likely have something to sell, and take every opportunity to do just that, if you don’t you gain the respect of those who’d rather ponder life and its complexities, but those same people rarely fork out on a whim.

The amount of inspiring and creative people I meet who’s ideas, creations and solutions either never make the light of day, or die before the first dusk merely reiterates my own sneaking suspicions of our society today. What’s more the more spontaneous surfer is used to clear cut simplicity of ideas, they jump on every bandwagon out there, and jump off at the first sign of trouble. They are used to the best, and they want everything handed on a plate. For instance most t-shirt review sites would have given ShirtSeek.com a couple of paragraphs and a photo or two and will be done. They as many people these days have little patience with the ideals of organic growth and natural evolution. If they don’t find all the bells and whistles they find on the vast and established networks we all know today, then they’ll hitch a ride to the next site before you have a chance to finish your ‘about page’.

So what can Paul do to improve his chances. This Paul is going to be a little painful, change always is, but here goes.

The domain name – Shirt Seek. No one seeks shirts, they search for them, and they search for t-shirts rather than shirts. With the right skills a name shouldn’t even matter, then again I’ve never been particularly imaginative with domain names, having seen the changes in Google’s SEO policies over the past few years, I’ve got myself stuck in a keyword rut. Americans call t-shirts ‘tees’, and most people online are American (bar the Chinese which is academic seeing as I cannot speak or write the language and that their average wage could hardly cover the cost of a designer t-shirt). So I lumped myself with a dull and hyphenated domain name. Still, my ranking isn’t too bad, I get a lot of positive feedback, I find the experience rewarding for the most part. You could call my blog a ‘slow burner’ in the world of t-shirt review blogs. What’s worse is that PleaseDress.Me is playing with TLDs, the way that say Del.icio.us has, and you know how much social networker types love that, the thing is that Google does too. If you can include a keyword in your TLD Google seems to go crazy for it, don’t ask me why.

Functionality. PleaseDressMe is geared towards the social networks, following the tradition of many successful t-shirt sites, they even offer a widget, if Paul could design a Facebook widget for ShirtSeek.com I think he’d put PDM to shame in a minute flat, it’s a tall order I know but Paul has managed to build ShirtSeek from scratch so I doubt it’s a total impossibility. Beyond the widgets there’s the functionality of the sites themselves, Paul, I have to admit that PDM have far more on offer on their homepage, it’s like a tarts’ boudoir over there, they make it all so easy and lay out their wares before you have a chance to blink. I’d consider ‘appropriating’ all of their search functions, seeing as they’ve near enough ‘appropriated’ your whole strategy!

Community. Where ShirtSeek excels is in its community-based model, rather than PDM who’s sole purpose is to generate cold hard cash, and then some. For instance every link I found at PDM led me to a product page via an affiliate link (Shareasale, Commission Junction, CafePress, TshirtHell). PDM want you to buy, they don’t want your opinions, or rather your views and comments are merely a by-product of their core strategy to rake it in as fast as possible. ShirtSeek’s links lead to a review page, offer details of other t-shirts by the same designer, and offer the visitor a chance to have their say. It’s more constructive, more altruistic, and a rather more inspiring business model, although ultimately less profitable.

I can see that ShirtSeek is in it for the long-term, I understand Paul’s motives, his ambitions to build a t-shirt community are highly admirable, but this does leave him open to attack from many other competitors. For instance there’s T-ShirtForums.com, an enormous t-shirt community that’s been around for quite a while, backed up by a network of other popular t-shirt related sites including a t-shirt rating site and a t-shirt designers directory. Then there’s a whole heap more t-shirt rating sites out there to choose from.

It gets worse, there are some absolutely enormous contenders to deal with, if you want to see a t-shirt community in action check out Threadless.com, which apart from selling a few t-shirts ($18 million profit was the last figure I’ve heard), they also encourage an enormous amount of interaction, what am I saying ‘encourage’, they positively demand it. Without audience participation Threadless would never have got off the ground, and seeing as they started as a thread in a t-shirt forum, it’s no surprise they’ve taken this route, and in some ways revolutionised it. I don’t personally enjoy Threadless, many competitors use fake or friends’ accounts to slate their rivals, firing out zeros and ones like there’s no tomorrow. There is no such thing as perfection when it comes to a business models, evolve or die is the best advice I can offer. My blog will most likely die on day, it doesn’t evolve, I don’t evolve, I firmly dug my heels in years ago, then again that could be old age or senility kicking in.

I will never be a success in business, perhaps I’ll find my place in the world one day, the Arts, visual, literature, who knows I might even manage to make a living, but that’s because I like to stick to my principles. If it’s worth saying at all, it’s worth saying well. I don’t skimp as you’ll obviously gathered by now, I know what it means to put quality ahead of perfunctory streamlined efficiency and productivity. I’d rather make a name for myself than make money, I’ll doubt I’ll get either, but if I do I will have both and that’s because I am in some way or other unique, I’m not truly unique, I can’t fly or move objects with my mind, but unique in the way that some old hobos sit in a gutter and drink away their lives, whilst others write about it.

Paul needs to take another look at ShirtSeek, I’m not keen on the design myself, yes PDM has a rather obvious format, a clone of everything from Stumbleupon to Threadless, but it’s a proven format. If you want to make your mark take it to the edge and then some, or not at all. I like the scribbled effect, but if you want to make it stand out scribble over everything, and leave the edges of the site tattered and frayed, or go the whole hog and create a site that looks like a t-shirt, with a tag and the top and hems around the edges. Sure it’s all just personal tastes but making yourself stand out these days is a near impossibility. Most successful sites rely on two things, a very strange name and an incredibly simple layout. The fine line between bland and brand is almost imperceptible, but it’s there.

I’d love to see ShirtSeek.com survive and prosper, excel and triumph, who knows Paul may even have a job for me there one day if he does make it big, but before any of that happens let’s recount what needs to change.

Friends. Make friends. Buy Friends. Pay someone with friends to trounce the networks and splurge your branding everywhere.

Functionality. Chuck far more function on the homepage. Tell them what you offer and why you’re the best. You have more listings than PDM, you offer more interactivity, tell the people as soon as they arrive. Create a Facebook widget and find someone to plug it to death, PDM have hardly made headway there yet.

Branding. Create a stronger branding, imprint that name in the subconscious of every passer-by, how can ShirtSeek become a household name? It’s difficult but only experimentation will find the answers you need.

Offers. Try some tie-ins with the major sites, you’re not clawing in the affiliate links like PDM so go to the top and offer them far more exposure, free ads for free contests for instance.

These are all merely opinions, ideas, if you have any yourself, or think you might be able to help propel ShirtSeek.com into the major league contact Paul Grzymkowski and tell him what you can do, who knows he might give you a job too (if things truly take off).

In the meantime show your support for all of Paul’s efforts, sign up (for free), submit your t-shirts for some free and unfettered promotion to the market, vote and comment on the current listings and generally shout about ShirtSeek.com from the rooftops, be it via the social networks, your favourite forums or blogs, or even an email to a friend or two. Competition is ultimately a good thing, it increases the quality of service and eventually sorts out the wheat from the chaff. Let’s hope that Paul has a bumper harvest of wheat this year.

Essentially sign up at Twitter.com (if you haven’t already), then use your login details at Twellow to search for like-minded ‘twits’ be it for networking with fellow businesses in the fashion industry, or simply to meet and discuss ideas with fellow designers. If you’re more a fashionista than a designer then this is still the perfect place to find new and undiscovered designers to make that little extra impact and originality for your wardrobe.

Right now there are only a few of us on Twitter specifically in the t-shirt industry, but I think this format and simple networking model could be the making of many designers out there. It’s fast and friendly, and the ability to pass instant updates could be potentially enormous with the right following. Plus you’ll find that Twellow will speed up the process of others finding you, i.e more prominence for your twitter page on the net (remember to update your categories at Twellow to get full exposure).

You can find myself at http://twitter.com/buytees

You can also find Springleap.com – A popular t-shirt voting site at http://twitter.com/Springleap

Also TeeCycle.org (a great recycled t-shirt blog) are at http://twitter.com/Teecycle_Tim

Choice Shirts are at http://twitter.com/choiceshirts ( aka ChoiceShirts.com Tshirt Store)

Plus Indigo Clothing (t-shirt printing – http://www.indigoclothing.com) at http://twitter.com/indigo

Akumu Ink Clothing who I have reviewed very recently are at http://twitter.com/akumuink

Some others include:

Dexflu (From http://www.dexflu.eu – t-shirt voting site) http://twitter.com/Dexflu
Soda Shirts http://www.twitter.com/SodaShirts
My Club Tees http://twitter.com/MyClubTees
Today’s Tee http://twitter.com/todaystee
Offline Shirts http://twitter.com/OffLineTshirts
Buffalo T-Shirts http://twitter.com/BuffaloTshirts
Twitter Shirt http://twitter.com/t_shirt (Free T-Shirt Prizes!)
Concept T-Shirts http://twitter.com/artistx
Tshirts and Suits http://twitter.com/TShirtsAndSuits
Timewarp T-Shirts http://twitter.com/Timewarp
Shirt Dude http://twitter.com/shirtdude
Murphy Sean (Custom Tees) http://twitter.com/murphysean
Zoltan Csaki http://twitter.com/zoltancsaki (T-Shirt Printing Supplies at http://www.whe.fr)
Larelareblog (Kids Tees) http://twitter.com/larelareblog
Rotem Gear http://www.twitter.com/rotemgear
Tweetshirts http://twitter.com/tweetshirts
Kerusso http://twitter.com/kerusso (Christian Tees)
Timmyblog (of Assaultshirts.com) http://twitter.com/timmyblog
BFIN http://twitter.com/bfin
Teeblr http://twitter.com/teeblr
BMDT http://twitter.com/bmdt (Graphic Tees)
SAK6018 http://twitter.com/sak6018
Izatrini http://twitter.com/izatrini
CWA (Catholic Tees) http://twitter.com/CWA
B City Threads http://twitter.com/B_CityThreads (Boston Fire T-Shirts)
Ronin 5 http://twitter.com/ronin5 (Martial Arts Tees)
ShirtCity (Spain) http://twitter.com/shirtcity_spain
Rumplo (T-Shirt Ratings) http://twitter.com/rumplo
MadeUpClothing http://twitter.com/madeupclothing
RudyLand http://twitter.com/RudyLand
AardvarkTees http://twitter.com/aardvarktees
Brandon Cornell (T-Shirt Marketer) http://twitter.com/brandoncornell
Detour http://twitter.com/detour (Funny Tees)
LAByDesign http://twitter.com/LAByDesign (Cajun and Mardi Gras Tees)
ThreadYourself http://twitter.com/threadyourself
Honey Tshirts http://twitter.com/HoneyTshirts
TheTinCan http://twitter.com/thetincan
SketchCustoms http://twitter.com/SketchCustoms
PixelFeet http://twitter.com/pixelfeet
ToastedTees http://twitter.com/ToastedTees
Limitlesspos http://twitter.com/limitlesspos
EcstaticSunrise http://twitter.com/EcstaticSunrise (German T-Shirt Label)
TshirtDart http://twitter.com/tshirtdart
PoptasticTees http://twitter.com/poptastictees
Snicers http://twitter.com/snicers (Berlin T-Shirt Designer)
Bill Pyle (Divine Clothing) http://twitter.com/billpyle
Caoazul http://twitter.com/caoazul
WearPittsburgh (Pittsburgh tees) http://twitter.com/wearpittsburgh
ThisTshirtRocks http://twitter.com/ThisShirtRocks
Pinknikdesigns (T-Shirt Printer) http://twitter.com/pinknikdesigns
DareToWish http://twitter.com/DareToWish
Ink Hound http://twitter.com/inkhound
JadeInk (Screenprinter) http://twitter.com/JadeInk
GhampGeneral http://twitter.com/ghampgeneral
ZhongArt (Chinese Tees) http://twitter.com/ZhongArt
Baby Fish Mouth http://twitter.com/bfmwear (Baby Tees)
Geekyteez http://twitter.com/geekyteez
Thropic http://twitter.com/thropic (Non-Profit T-Shirts)
SkullsnEyez http://twitter.com/skullzneyez (Gothic Tees)
Defrez (Urban Wear) http://twitter.com/DEFREZ
WringerTee http://twitter.com/wringertee
UniqTee http://twitter.com/uniqwear
TshirtGang (Great Tees at http://store.thet-shirtgang.com) http://twitter.com/tshirtgang
FreshGreenTees http://twitter.com/freshgreentees
OMGTees (Well Known T-Shirt Blog) http://twitter.com/omgtees
Teenormous http://twitter.com/teenormous
DesiWear http://twitter.com/desiwear
YuckyMonkey http://twitter.com/yuckymonkey (ArmholeTshirts.com)

If you’re a t-shirt designer or own a t-shirt related site and you’re on Twitter – why not follow us and we’ll follow you!

The truth is newsletters are old hat, not black or white hat, just old hat. Feedburner amongst many other RSS web feed management services have made sure no one has to hand their email address over to another mailing list, unless of course they’e getting some freebies and then they only hang around long enough to collect on the goodies. Those goodies were probably always free or very cheap on Ebay, the few successful mailing lists out there are really for product updates, not advice, people don’t want to read generic advice in their inbox, they want it personal.

So, how do you reap the benefits of high PR linkbacks? Don’t worry it’s free, and no it doesn’t involve writing reams and reams of fanatical rants on your favourite subjects, although that can attract some Google kudos. The truth is Google does practically all the work for you, and with just one simple piece of code.

“t-shirts” “powered by wordpress” site:.edu
“funny-shirt” “powered by wordpress” site:.edu
“cool t shirts” “powered by wordpress” site:.edu
“keyword” “powered by wordpress” site:.edu

You’ll notice two things immediately, firstly I’m focusing on WordPress blogs and secondly the TLD is .edu. Let me explain what’s going on here, WordPress is known for having more “dofollow” bloggers than any other platform, that could simply break down into sheer numbers, it is after all the most popular blogging platform for site owners. Also many don’t remove the “powered by wordpress” footer link out of respect to the programmers and all the time and effort they put in to keeping the script updated.

We want to tell Google to search for .edu domains, or rather educational domains, and the ones you’ll be looking for are colleges and universities. The larger the campus the higher the Google PR. It seems that educational domains are given immediate PR authority for the plain fact that they are places of learning and information, they do not serve information in order to profit or steer opinion (for the most part) but rather inform objectively. Google loves objectivity, hence their love for large educational sites. In any case most of these sites will be popular on campus, never mind the outside world, if a few thousand people spend all day researching information on the same domain it’s bound to climb in popularity. Besides many .edu sites that allow the public to comment also offer “dofollow” links. I’m only at PR1 right now, but I’ve managed to find a few relevant .edu sites that have accepted my comments so I’m awaiting the next PR update with interest.

Now be sure that you stick to relevant comments, don’t be a spammer, if the thread has nothing to do with your blog then move on, if it does, make sure you don’t add your website links in the comment itself, link your name to your own website and if you must use html in the comment, ensure any links are highly relevant and third-party. If you’re really smart you’ll collate comment threads from different universities and cite them on each other’s blogs. If you do that you can get a real conversation going, and if you’re lucky you could be talking PR6+ linkage, which isn’t bad at all, there are universities out there with far higher but you should only find them if your subject is relevant, not by recommendation.

Anyway, it’s worth a try isn’t it? Let me know how you fair after the next update comes by, if my PR drops I will sack my SEO guy lol.

[tags]t-shirt marketing, Google PR, marketing t-shirts, independent t-shirts, high PR t-shirt blogs[/tags]

I put in the search phrase “cool new t-shirts” in Google and I was surprised at just how archaic and “spammy” or “keyword loaded” the following results were. It’s all very well getting a thousand sites to link to you, employing an SEO expert to hit those essential top ten keyword results; buying advertising space, Ad-words, banner placements, newsletters and so on and so on.

Here’s the problem, the world is lazy, I am lazy, and so are you. If something appears to be doing a reasonable job overall, what is the use in knocking it? I’ll tell you, the rise of niche marketing, social bookmarking, the plethora of choice in all manner of product lines, and the fact that tastes change far more rapidly than Google’s search engine ranking algorithms.

Initially I wanted to research a few new t-shirts and designers for my latest review, and other than a hundred social bookmarking sites in my favourites list, and all the independent t-shirt designers, stores, labels and blogs I’ve added, I like to spread the search for new sources as soon as they arrive on the scene. In recent weeks I’ve found myself having to scour Google far beyond the first ten results to find anything I haven’t seen before. Perhaps popularity is a curse, or perhaps Google just isn’t doing its job right anymore?

#1 result at Google.co.uk for “cool new t-shirts” is -
http://www.streetshirts.co.uk “looks” like a very professional set up, yet beyond the nice web site template, their store holds a surprisingly light selection of t-shirts. They focus on slogan t-shirts, and in truth I’ve read most of them before. I was disappointed to say the least, is this unremarkable and rather bare t-shirt collection honestly the best that the UK can offer? I very much doubt it!

#1 result at Google.com for “cool new t-shirts” is no surprise -
Busted-Tees.com – I’ve mentioned them plenty of times before, not as impressive as they once were, bordering on offensive but never truly overstepping the line as say “TShirtHell.com” do with almost every t-shirt they churn out. Busted Tees are big, they have hundreds of domain names that link to their site, many of which they own themselves, they know how to market their goods professionally, their designs aren’t as original as they used to be, but their market dominance is understandable. Until you remember I had searched for “cool new t-shirts”, which they have very little to show in that department.

Many of the designs have been around for years, tons of their ideas are ripped from “The Simpsons”, many others feature as mainstay tees in a plethora of competing sites. Who created what first? Who cares! If these are new designs I must be stuck in a time loop here, I know when something is old, and most of their jokes are nearing decrepitude. Busted Tees have an enormous affiliate network, if enough of their affiliates use the term “cool new t-shirts”, the only first choice you’ll ever get from Google is this popular but not groundbreaking t-shirt store.

#2 result at Google.co.uk for “cool new t-shirts” is -
http://www.itiswhatitis.co.uk – this site is relatively new, or at least its appearance in the top ten over the past few months. With bleary eyes after a late night out I managed to scope Google UK for a whole heap of t-shirt related search terms and kept seeing IIWII at the #1 position. I’m rather stumped as to why this site is so popular. Firstly the site looks awful, and not deliberately awful as in T-shirt Hell’s rather gross conception of site design, but in a drab and boring “I’m too scared to tinker with my shopping cart script’s template” approach. For a lesson in how not to design a t-shirt store take a look!

Beyond the ugly home-page filled with some less-than-average looks models both wearing their hilarious trademark design, IIWII, I’m being sarcastic obviously, it does freak me out when a relatively nobody decides to push the branding before all else. If you don’t understand how to redesign your web site, don’t expect people to buy into your branding! Worse still these are boring designs, mainly old slogans, some wordplay, but essentially you’ve seen it all before and better! My overriding impression is that this company are essentially a print shop looking for a profitable sideline in t-shirts. I think the truth has been borne out by the gradual descent of their rankings as surfers readdress this Google approved popularity.

#2 result at Google.com for “cool new t-shirts” is -
http://www.80stees.com – I really can’t stand licensed t-shirt stores, I’ve mentioned that pet hate before, but this site and its sister sites contribute to some of the worst t-shirt related Google spam I’ve encountered to this day. Remember I searched for “cool NEW t-shirts”, licensed t-shirts are by their very nature OLD! I am sure that 80sTees.com is from the same people who run TruffleShuffle.com and its clone TruffleShuffle.co.uk. When I first defected from web design to t-shirt design I foolishly contacted these sites in various ways looking for advice and perhaps a back-link. I did indeed procure one 0 PR fact from them which points to my Cafe Press scraper site RetroGod.com. Although it’s only via one of their less well known keyword-domains, which seems to have slipped out of the search rankings, probably pulling down the PR of all competitors foolish enough to trade links with them.

What angers me, besides the unnatural advance in popularity of reprinted licensed bands’ and movies’ merchandise over new design and talent, is the extreme misrepresentation towards all t-shirt buyers. These are NOT new designs, how can an old A-Team or Knight Rider or Road Runner logo be new? They can’t, that’s just how Google works, if you have the money, a lot of domains, an unlimited advertising budget, a warehouse full of printing equipment and a large stock of blank tees, it seems you can tell the public anything you like.

#3 result at Google.co.uk for “cool new t-shirts” is -
http://www.retroclobber.co.uk Now I can’t confirm this, and if you have real evidence to prove otherwise I would be very interested to see it, but I have a very strong feeling that this site is in cahoots with the likes of Truffle Shuffle and 80s Tees. The Whois information for most of these sites is scant, but when I entered the search term “retroclobber owned by truffleshuffle” in Google, I found each site filled with quotes from happy and satisfied (if not a little unimaginative) customers referring to each others site in some twisted and rather incestuous marketing pact from the devil. Essentially someone behind these sites is a marketing genius, or rather the people they pay to do the marketing, because in the UK you can’t escape these sites. Even Google.com gives their 80sTees.com site high rankings, yet they are all the same old t-shirts you’ve seen a thousand times. Retro Clobber are selling the same tired t-shirts you’ll see at everyone of their other sites. At least Busted Tees produces original content (just about), and new titles (now and again). What on earth is Google doing ranking this site so highly, it is definitely not relevant to the search term “cool new t-shirts”.

#3 result at Google.com for “cool new t-shirts” is -
http://www.noisebot.com should be the first exception to the rule, they actually deliver on all counts. They provide “cool new t-shirts” for a start, or rather they try to. I still suspect there’s a big corporation hiding behind the funky exterior, Noisebot LLC even mentions its lawyers in the about page, so I’m guessing this is far more than a guy in his garage. Besides that minor niggle*, we seem to be on the right track so far!

*Yes corporations can create “new”, but they often spend far more on market research and marketing than R&D, I’m rather impressed with the selection though, I’m guessing they haven’t been taken over by greed quite yet.

They have gone for the Busted Tees format with gusto, I’m not sure about the site’s wallpaper, seems to have been chivied from an old blog template, but the cart layout is clean and friendly. (Take notes IIWII). I rather enjoyed their selection, although the experience was marred by a few incorrect links leading to a Yahoo Store’s 404 page, obviously their host, which seems to be popular with quite few new t-shirt stores out there. Perhaps it’s my Firefox browser, perhaps not, but whatever t-shirt thumbnails I do like the look of I seem to be lead to another Yahoo 404 error. Oh dear. I just clicked the on “When Milk Goes Bad” which looked a kinda fun tee, I get the same Yahoo warning message at the time of writing “Sorry, Unable to process request at this time — error 999″ with a message that my MacBook might have spyware or a virus, or that my ISP is experiencing unusual network activity, which are both b.s. If every other site I’m reviewing works, then this is most definitely a Yahoo problem. I had a brief problem with ShortBus Clothing when I first opened their site a while back, I believe they have their store hosted at Yahoo as well. Truth be told I think that Yahoo Stores have some serious bandwidth problems to contend with if they ever want to be taken seriously as an E-commerce provider!

It’s not going to well is it, how on earth can a site that can’t sell its wares rank so highly? How can sites that sell t-shirts over 30 years old be described as “new”?

Let’s move on and keep your fingers crossed!

#4 result at Google.co.uk for “cool new t-shirts” is -
http://www.djtees.com – what they have to do with DJ’s is anybody’s guess, what appears to be yet another vast collection of old licensed t-shirts, this time focusing on music merchandise and nothing else. They seem to have a wide collection, I love vintage gear to a degree, I’m always in the market for a rare Bape, or something trippy from the early 1970′s. But when I search for “cool new t-shirts” I don’t expect to find a 25 year old Frank Zappa tee staring me in the face. No new designs, no original content, just old bands and singers from the last 30 years or so. This is getting depressing. I’m hoping they have nothing to do with 80sTees.com and TruffleShuffle.com. If you buy a lot of licensed t-shirts, why not buy a license, print your own locally and sell a few to friends to make up the costs? If you’re desperate to license images, try this site http://www.licensemag.com – seems to be the authority.

#4 result at Google.com for “cool new t-shirts” is -
www.retroclobber.co.uk again…

#5 result at Google.co.uk for “cool new t-shirts” is -
http://www.8ball.co.uk – yes another licensed t-shirt site filled with old music, TV and film merchandising product images. Is this part of 80sTees.com? I’d love to know more but the site doesn’t even provide an about page! Okay you could argue that adding the text drum and bass to an old 1960′s image of the Beatles is a step in the right direction, it’s “partly” new, if we stretch the truth here. Licensed tees are starting to make me shudder.

#5 result at Google.com for “cool new t-shirts” is -
http://www.panic.com/goods/ – a badly designed subdirectory of a very popular Mac Software site. Shouldn’t bode well should it. Ironically it’s the best collection I’ve found in the top 5 results for “cool new t-shirts” in either Google UK or Google USA!

There aren’t many of them, they aren’t presented particularly well, neither is the cart, but damn do they have some nice designs!

Check these out:-

These really are great t-shirts, featuring Keita Takahashi and Ryo Kimura designs from the Katamari Damacy collection, as well as some of their own including Spinner which I really like. I’m not surprised seeing as the owner works with on a Mac all day, but essentially if it wasn’t for the massive popularity of the Panic.com domain, I’d never have found these t-shirts. This guy isn’t spamming Google, he isn’t dressing up old designs as new, he’s showcasing them, and I like them!

Google needs to get its act together, the public are lazy, but if this phenomenon is spread across every major keyword in the engine, their service won’t be half as popular in a few years from now. People power, be it groundbreaking t-shirt sites like Threadless.com, or the rise of social bookmarking and networking, no company can maintain their image as an authority site unless they know how to deliver both fairly and with relevance. With so many new designers struggling to rank in Google, how long will they take before yet another market is dominated by most wealthy and least talented of us all.