| Selling T-shirts at print-on-demand sites on the web is | | | | searching for and how many pages are competing to |
| a business with a very low barrier to entry. It comes | | | | attract them with those keywords. You want the |
| very close to being "zero cost." Assuming you | | | | most people searching and the fewest pages |
| already have a home computer, an Internet | | | | competing. This information is available free through |
| connection, and time, you can set up a Web T-shirt | | | | Google's keyword tool and the Google search page. |
| shop at no extra expense. That counts as "zero | | | | At WordTracker, you can pay $60 per month to |
| cost." Let's see how that works. | | | | save time and effort, or $27.50 per month if you buy |
| You can set up an account at a print on demand | | | | their service by the year. |
| T-shirt website for free. You then set up "stores" or | | | | You'll want to advertise your site, but you had better |
| "galleries" at that site. Printfection and Zazzle let you | | | | be careful. The markup on any T-shirt, the amount |
| open stores for free. An equivalent, "premium" store | | | | you get when one is sold, is in the $1-$3 range, and |
| at CafePress costs about $60 a year, pretty much | | | | most customers buy only one. You cannot afford to |
| pocket change, a month's coffee money. | | | | pay very much for any customer you attract your |
| To create your designs, you need an image editor. | | | | site. Fortunately there are places to advertise for |
| The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is | | | | free on the Web. |
| available free and has as much power as you would | | | | What you most want though, is for your site to end |
| ever need. | | | | up on page one of the search engine results for the |
| Your image editor may have a steep learning curve. | | | | search terms your customers are using. For that you |
| A powerful enough image editor -- powerful enough | | | | need quality back links, that is links pointing to your |
| for you to grow with -- is complex enough so that | | | | website from other quality websites. The best way |
| you might get lost in its intricacies when you're just | | | | to get quality back links is to post useful information |
| starting out. At this point you may find it worthwhile | | | | online containing links back to your shop. There are |
| to pay for a book on how to use it, another couple | | | | several ways that you can give away information on |
| of weeks' coffee money. | | | | the net: through your blog or ezine, posting |
| You don't need to be artistic -- some text-only | | | | comments at blogs and forums, writing articles (such |
| designs sell well. You don't need to be clever with | | | | as this) for ezines, putting up pages at Squidoo and |
| words - some false, blunt, unwitty slogans sell. You | | | | HubPages... |
| need only express the feelings and attitudes of your | | | | Nothing that is required to set up a print-on-demand |
| customers. | | | | T-shirt shop costs much. You can do it all for free, if |
| You need to attract people to your Web T-shirt | | | | you know how to. Tee shirt shops require mostly |
| shop. You need to know what keywords they are | | | | time and knowing what to do. |