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Thursday, June 10, 2010

June - Tips Of The Day!

Tees In A Pod strives to provide you with many resources in helping you reach your goals with all of your online ventures. Another way we provide such support, besides our weekly podcast, is by sharing with you a "Tip Of The Day" on our Facebook Fan Page. Below, we have created a list of all the Fan Page tips we sent out as status updates for the month of JUNE! Stay tuned... for every month a new list will be posted...

Please leave a comment and share with us any tips you have! We'll use them as a "Tip Of The Day" to share with others on our Facebook Fan Page, as well as list it here, plus we will give you credit for your awesome tip! Enjoy!!

JUNE - Tips Of The Day!!

Take a look at your Facebook Insights, compare your pages (if you have more than one) and get insights for your Domain.... see more below... pretty cool stuff!! http://www.facebook.com/insights

If you're stuck on what to write for a blog, Interview other people within your community (Ex: T-shirt community) For this can also help build credibility by association!

Add your url to your Twitter Profile! Most people want to see who they are going to follow so that they can not only be added to the correct Twitter list, but more importantly get to know the person behind the tweet better!

Did you know that you can only @ mention 6 people at one time in your Facebook status updates? Now you do! :D

It is not necessarily what you know, but who you know... so go on and network with people! Network it up!! :D

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Podcast 6 Vans Gift Card Winner!!

Our Multilingual Madness Contest just ended on, Tuesday, June 8, 2010 and the public has spoken with Tim's Irish impression of Rob barely beating out Amanda's Australian impression of Manz. Thanks to everyone who commented! All your comments made us smile and made the experience so much fun. Everyone who left a comment was automatically entered for the VANS $50 gift card and the random number selector picked.... Bo. Congrats to you Bo! Please get in contact with us via DM - Direct Message on Twitter, @teesinapod, so we can send you the awesome prize!

- Tees In A Pod

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Why You Need Your Own Domain!

When setting up an online shop, many people wonder if they should use a print on demand site, like Cafepress or Zazzle or if they should get their own domain name. In this article, we will examine the pros and cons of staying on your store domain, versus transferring your store domain over to your very own website. In other words, we will look at whether to stay on a third party site like Zazzle versus transferring your site over to your very own domain such as billsfunnytshirts.com.

The number one drawback to getting your own domain, is the cost of registering the name and paying for the hosting. Although there is a cost to owning your own domain, doing it this way can be a very profitable investment. Research which registration and hosting service is the least expensive and do a comparison to find the one that bests suits what you are looking to spend. An example of such services is hostgator.com. When starting an online shop, it is best to map out your goals for your shop. If your goal is to make some extra cash from a hobby through your online store, then maybe you should keep your domain on a third party site. If you want to make a decent amount of money and are passionate about setting up an online shop, you need to get your own domain whether using a print on demand site or a screenprinter. Another choice, is to use one of the free blogging services such as Blogger or Wordpress to create a store to eliminate the cost but still having the benefit of good solid search engine optimization and the ability to build links.

The best reason for getting your own domain is that you can play by your own rules and are not limited by the regulations of third party sites. Having your own domain is also viewed by the search engines as much more favorable and will boost your search engine rankings within Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Over time, if your domain has been established for two years and your domain is not expiring any time soon, you will get a further boosting in the search engines for being a trusted site. The longer your site has been around and the longer it will be owned by you, the better it is in the search engines eyes.

Another reason you want your online shop to be on your own domain is to build links. If you build links to your Cafepress and Zazzle shops, you will get a boost in the rankings, but Cafepress and Zazzle will still have the final ownership of that site. By building links to your own domain you are in complete control. You can choose a strong keyword in the title of your domain for a keyword that you want to be found for when customers are using searching online. For example, if you want to rank for "graphic tshirts" you might want a domain like billsgraphictees.com or something to that affect. You also get to control how your site is built when you own your own domain. You can make your layout of the site look nicer for customers, as well as control all the titles and keywords on your pages. Building lots of pages, if you have a store with a lot of items, is a great idea to help build an online presence and get you more noticed by the search engines. You can add your own blog to your site to keep your customers informed of any news that you have, as well as offer great content for the search engines. Basically, when you own your own domain you make the rules for what you want to do with your store. When you are using a third party domain you can't add a blog, press release, or an article that mentions your wonderful site. If you want flexibility and to be noticed, owning your own domain is the way to go.

Timothy Fox, Soge shirts, funny t shirts

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Podcast Global Shout OUT: Help Us, Help YOU!

Tees In A Pod is always wanting to keep you up to date with what's new and relevant to the business world of online stores. Every week we will be including in our Podcasts a "Question and Answer" period where we answer your awesome questions you leave on our Facebook fan page, and we'll be giving those who do, a global shout out... We want to know what you want to know!!

Leave a "Question(s)" in our comment box and include a link to what you want promoted - online store, business or product. The Tees In A Pod Team will research, discuss, and find the answer(s) to your question(s), give you credit, and a glorious global shout out in the podcast!

HOW? Go to our "Discussions Tab" on our Facebook Fan Page and leave it in the comment box! Then tune into our podcast each week. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so that it gets sent automatically to your email and then all you have to do is listen! Subscribe at http://www.teesinapod.podbean.com OR enter in your email to the "subscribe" box located on the right-hand side of this blog. Thanks Everyone!

Your Friends,

Tees In A Pod Team

Monday, March 29, 2010

Cash in on the Holidays with Great Designs!

Designing for the holidays can be tough but also very rewarding. When you are first starting out and you want to make a buck off the holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, or Valentines day, it is important to have a clear idea of what your goals are. Three keys to designing for the holidays is timing, volume, and originality. If you follow these three things I feel you will be the Hallmark of tshirt designers.

The first very important thing to keep in mind when making holiday designs, is timing. By timing I mean you have to stay ahead of the holiday curve by getting your designs done a few months before the actual holiday hits. For example, if you are more of a Christmas person I would bypass designing for Halloween. For Christmas, start creating designs and merchandise as soon as August or September rolls around. Sounds too soon? Well think about this; when making quality Christmas designs, it serves you well to get those designs done by at least October. In doing so people will then have a whole two months to browse your online store, and the longer time you have to dangle your Christmas designs in front of potential buyers the better. If you decide to procrastinate and wait till late November to put up your designs you are losing out on sales! I guarantee your competition is going to have their Christmas designs from previous years out there for all to see, maybe even for the whole year so its important to prepare early.

Trick Couples Halloween Costume by CowPieCreek

The next important factor in becoming a Holiday bonus baby is volume. If you have an idea for a cute witch Halloween shirt, find as many variations of the design as possible. You could choose to design a witch on a broom looking wicked and ugly, or a witch on a broom that looks like the good witch. You could have the witch actually using the broom to clean and saying, "I may be a witch, but I'm a tidy witch" The more variations of the same design the better. People have many different tastes and styles and the more choices you have for the holidays the more you are going to sell. The same goes for the number of different designs. So once again, using the Halloween example, do some Jack-O-Lantern designs and some ghost designs etc. and make sure to create spin offs of those designs as well. Now do you see why in the first paragraph you want to give yourself some extra time to prepare for each holiday? You have a lot of designing to do, but it is going to pay off.

St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun by babyboutique

The third factor in having a very happy holiday online shop is originality. In the world of t-shirt and merchandise designs there are a lot of copycats out there who take others work and make it their own. Don't be one of these people. Yes you could do OK and sell a little bit, but to be a big time seller you want designs that represent your personality and have never been seen. People love hip, fresh, never before seen designs and that is what you are going to give them. For example instead of doing a St. Patrick's Day shirt that says, "Kiss me I'm Irish" mix it up and put a shamrock on there that says, "Kiss me, I'll shamrock your world." Just keep pumping out original designs and soon your shop will be the place to go to for new holiday gear.

I shared with you guys these three ideas because I really want your online shop to be as successful as it can be. By preparing early for the holidays your designs are going to be seen by more people for a longer period of time. Cranking out many different holiday designs and putting some variations on each design, is going to give your customers a great selection for them to buy as gifts for friends and family. Combine a multitude of designs with some never before seen original concepts and your store is going to be a merchandise printing t-shirt selling machine. As always, if you have any questions about holiday designing or any other t-shirt design related questions, feel free to ask us questions on the blog, our fan page, or twitter. We're here to help and make your online selling dreams come true.

Written By: Tim Fox, Soge Shirts - Funny T-shirts