How Absolutely Anyone Can Profit from the T-Shirt Craze

Published: Sat, 05/16/15

No Need to Hire Designers or Buy Traffic
I know - I'm all t-shirts lately but don't worry - I'm working on Amazon stuff, too!  I've even picked up a few tips from the one that applies to the other.

That's one way to grow, right?  Take learnings from one industry and apply them to your own business.  That's how I experiment. 

While studying the past week I've picked up some new insights I want to share.

35% Affiliate Commissions on T-Shirt Sales

After I launched my Tee Targeting Goldmine product last week, I was contacted by Denise Hall, a longtime WarriorForum contributor and experienced internet marketer.

She had written a book about a unique online T-shirt company that has an incredible affiliate program paying 35% commissions and you don't have to buy traffic at all to make use of this program.  Anyone could start this strategy. 

Based on the average price of the t-shirts, the income per shirt is about the same the most experienced Teespring t-shirt sellers hope to make but without having to spend any money on advertising.

Denise's book - Bigger Better Tee Profits goes over the details about how this large, yet still relatively unkown, affiliate program works and how to make use of it without having to spend a dime, design your own shirts or pay for ads.

Combine her information with my PinFabulous Affiliate strategy or Donna's Spaghetti Marketing method for more free traffic.

Once you progress, you can also use that t-shirt site to sell your own designs, too, if you'd like.  Unlike Teespring, you don't have to sell any minimum number before you get paid or wait a certain number of days before the t-shirts are printed for the customer which means your free promotion methods have more shelf-life.
Hiring T-Shirt Designers

For those who DO want to get into the design side of t-shirts, I've had a number of questions lately about how and where to hire graphic artists.

I haven't hired one...yet...but I read a very interesting article recently about the stages of knowledge someone goes through when starting something new. 

The article applies to anything new you tackle even though it focused on how these stages applied to new t-shirt sellers.  One stage was realizing that your designs are bad.  I think that's where I am.  LOL! 

I decided to understand more about good design elements and went to UpWork.com (previously Odesk), a freelance marketplace where you can hire someone to do work for you - website work, graphics, programming, etc. 

I entered several search phrases such as "vector", "vector art", "t shirt art", "t shirt design", and "graphic artist". 

In almost every case, the freelancers who fit those searches had examples of their work at the bottom of their profile (you have to be logged into Upwork to see them).  Ah ha!! 

Not only did this give me ideas for better designs but it also let me quickly weed through which I would or would not hire.  I looked for art that appealed to me personally and would be the kind of thing I'd want in the t-shirts I have in mind.  

Seeing these examples really helped me understand that an artist's individual style has a strong impact on the final result.  If you don't like their particular style - no matter how good they are - they might not be the right artist for you.

If you do anything with t-shirt design, spend some time checking out the portfolio examples of people on sites like Upwork at least for inspiration if not also to find someone to hire.
Where There's a Will, There's a Way

When you have a REAL desire to get something done, you don't let anything stop you.  Lack of money, lack of knowledge, lack of experience - these are just hurdles to overcome. 

An art teacher who lacked the funds to spend money on ads for her own t-shirt designs has not let that stop her from seeing great success.  She just made do with free traffic methods instead - Pinterest, Twitter, and her Facebook friends. 

Then, she took it a step further.  She taught her 44 8th grade students how to create and sell t-shirts online.  None of them spent money on advertising, 12 of them had profitable campaigns, and several of them made more than $200.

Let that sink in for a second - 12 fourteen year old students saw success with their very first effort marketing something online without using any paid traffic and in less than one month's time.

Sure, they had someone experienced guiding them but they were the ones carrying out the steps to get it done - and they did it.

Sure, they may have had supportive family who bought their shirts. 

But they made do with the resources at their disposal.  Are you doing the same?

Remember being that age?  When nothing was impossible?  We hadn't yet developed the filters that tell us we're capable of doing something or not. 

You ARE capable.  You just have to keep trying.  If you want something bad enough you'll make it happen. 

Sincerely,

Erica Stone
erica@extremereviewer.com