Here you can find news, partner information, and things generally worth knowing, direct from Spreadshirt HQ. At Spreadshirt, you can individually design over 80 apparel articles, open your own shop for free, or feed the marketplace with your designs.
Woo Hoo! I may have mentioned this before but I love free t-shirt. Well I love t-shirts and my job as Spreadshirt’s t-shirt blogger has turned me into a t-shirt loving machine. I am even thinking about a t-shirt walker post, kind of like Fashionista’s Streetwalker but just about finding cool t-shirts on the streets. Let me know if you think that would be a good read.
I think this is a great opportunity to create some t-shirts that celebrate travel without cars and t-shirts that ask stupid questions. I am sure some of our bike loving shop partners will have some great ideas for car free t-shirts. And I can’t wait to see what kinds of shirts are suggested for Ask A Stupid Question Day.
While I know there are many places in the US that you really do need a car to get around, I think that there is a lot of interesting information about Car Free alternatives. I have moved to a more walkable and bus friendly neighborhood and I have to say that I really like the walking. Here are some websites for more info about car free transportation:
Car Free Days - Another family blogs about using their car less. They have some great links - check out this post on WalkScore to find a walkable neighborhood near you.
Zip Car’s Low Car Diet - My Friend Breen participated in Zip Car’s Low Car Diet - she gave up her car for a month, you can read her blog about the diet here. Breen liked the Low Car Diet so much she just sold her car.
Spread The Vote: Leading up to the election we will be blogging about all things t-shirt and election related. Find more great election t-shirts for you favorite candidates at our Spread the Vote page.
I was really excited to find this great interview with the artist Shepard Fairly in the latest edition of T-shirt Magazine. Shepard Fairly is best know for his Obey art work which can be seen everywhere.
He is the man behind the Andre The Giant sticker that have become one of the best known viral artwork project/campaigns. I think that his designs which are based on stencils, are great example of how you can use the stencil idea to create some great vector designs for your Spreadshirt shop.
Since my interview with Jeremy Kalgreen I have been thinking alot about how to promote your shop. I will say I was surprised to learn that Jeremy didn’t use a lot of social media to promote his shop. What I thought was a helpful tip from Jeremy was the idea of designing shirts around something you like and then finding people who like the same things.
There is a post this week on ProBlogger called How to Get Noticed [The Art of Positioning] which I think is a good way to think about positioning your Spreadshirt shop. Problogger links to this post on Web Strategy By Jeremiah which has some great steps for getting noticed. Here are a few that I think are helpful if you have a Spreadshirt shop:
Have a goal
Before you do anything, think about what your objectives are. In particular for brands or personal brands, identify the keywords that you’d most want to be associated with. Try to think of keywords that people would search for, are long-term, and aren’t some made up name that no one would seek. Your goal may be association with these keywords which you’ll be gunning for. Or, if your goal is to network with others and to grow your reach, focus on how many quality relationships (perhaps defined by people that would help you and you’d help back) that you can grow. Or if your goal is to learn about a new topic and eventually master the subject material, focus on how you’ll learn by reading, then eventually writing on that topic.
Develop a unique brand
I really don’t think URLs are as important as they used to be, often folks will Google your name to find you, and the fact that we disperse to so many websites (Facebook/Twitter/Friendfeed/What’s next) is an indicator of the distributed web ruling the destination website. There are millions of blogs/companies out there, and if you’re trying to get noticed, you’re going to have to compete to stand out. Having a default blog template to your website isn’t going to be enough, you’re automatically segmenting yourself with others. Develop a unique look and feel by designing it yourself or finding someone who can help. If that’s too difficult, at least create a custom masthead image that will brand your site.
Get personal
If you want to stand out, you should add your picture to your blog, and develop a visual icon that demonstrates who you are. While not everyone shows their picture (Louis Gray comes to mind) he did develop an icon “LG” that represents his personal brand. Use this icon on all your other social media properties in a consistent manner. Also, register the same handle on other social media sites, and cross link them from your blog. Take for example Jive Software, who in a crowded space (80-100 vendors) has encouraged Sam Lawrence to develop a unique voice that he inserts –and leads– in the conversation about enterprise social software.
What has helped you get your shop noticed?
Problogger also talks about Gary Vaynerchuk as a good example of someone who gets noticed. Gary is the guy behind Wine Library TV. I know NOTHING about wine so I am definitly going to go back and check out his podcasts. I also like his Wine Library TV t-shirts - they would look great in flex. Gary’s blog - garyvaynerchuk.com - looks good too he has some good information about branding.
The business section of the Boston Herald has a great article about our very own CEO Jana Eggers! If you want to read more from Jana check out her blog LifeOnAShirt.com.
A real-time exchange illustrates her ease at drawing people in. A hotel bellman compliments Eggers on her T-shirt, which says, “Laughter, the shortest distance between two people.” It’s fitted, organic cotton – nothing cheap or cheesy.
Eggers says, “Thanks, I made it myself.” The bellman says, “That’s too bad,” and she says, “No, no, you can make one yourself.”
Eggers describes how he can just go to spreadshirt.com. He asks, “How many do I have to order?” She says, “One.” “Well,” he says, skeptical, “how expensive is that?” She tells him her shirt was $20.
“People don’t expect that,” Eggers says. “They don’t think they can go in, type in something that means something to them, get the shirt and, here’s the bonus – get it within 48 hours.”
BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.
With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.
Here are my 5 blogs that I think are worth a read:
Militant Geek - lots of t-shirt info and a great Spreadshirt shop. Also has a post with even more info about the Hypercolor shirts.
Old Man Neill - I just like this blog and I got to meet John at last weeks Pittsburgh Blog fest. He even blogs about t-shirts - maybe I should send him one.
Beach Walks with Rox - I think I first learned of this blog from Chris Brogan, but I have been visiting more often. I think Rox is one of the folks behind PodCamp Hawaii too. She has lots of great video walks around Hawaii - check out this post on the skateboarding dog.
Null Space - Chris Briem is a Pittsburgh blogger and regional economist at the Center for Social and Urban Research at the University of Pittsburgh. He has great posts about different issues - I really like that he uses maps and graphs in his posts.
One of the easiest ways to make a really good looking shirt at Spreadshirt.com is to use text. There are lots of things you can do with text and no design skills are needed. One of the blogs I enjoy following on a daily basis is TeeCycle (see my other post on TeeCycle here). I have even ordered some TeeCycled shirts for my sisters (One sister loves the Strand and the other is a Ski Nut).
Today’s TeeCycle shirt does a great job of using color and text and I think it is worth sharing. This shirt definity makes me want to get off of the couch and move.
I know that the kids just went back to school (or are going back to school on Tuesday). I was reading the Instructables blog - their office was attacked by Zombies which reminded me remind that Halloween is just around the corner.
Yes, techincally Halloween is October 31st but in t-shirt world we get to start much earlier, we need to design them, add them to our shops, and order shirts in time to wear them to multiple Halloween parties.
What is Spreadshirt.com? Spreadshirt is an online shop for custom apparel. Design your own shirts (or other clothing items) and order online. You item is custom made and shipped to you in just a few days. Spreadshirt also allows anyone to create a free shop to see their designs online.
What is on this blog? product announcements, fine t-shirt design, great things geek, social media, shop partner tips and funny stuff.
There are 2 very important holidays coming up in the next few weeks that I think we need to come up with some great t-shirts to wear in celebration.
I was really excited to find this great interview with the artist Shepard Fairly in the 
noticed. Gary is the guy behind 
