Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Custom Tshirts

So, I'm considering opening a store with CafePress.com. This site offers anyone the ability to sell their own graphic designs on apparel and other items for an agreed upon percentage. I've considered the idea for quite some time now, and I've had an account with them for over a year. I simply never took the next step to start offering merchandise and advertising the store. I didn't sleep at all last night (if you follow this blog or get to know me, you'll notice I have manic swings where I might go a few days without sleep), instead, I sat up and wrote about 5 pages worth of ideas for funny or witty t-shirts and coffee mugs. I have to say, I'm impressed! Never in a million years would I think I could come up with that much material!

So now my action plan is as follows: I intend to type up all these ideas into a spreadsheet so that I can sort them by theme and product. Then I'll whittle the list to what I think is most likely to sell. Next I'll need to familiarize myself with the product templates and transfer my ideas onto the templates so that there is a "product". Once I have product, I'll make announcements on Twitter, Facebook, Lapisworks Store and here on the blog. I can tell I'm in a manic state because I normally would not allow myself this type of exposure. I would like to follow through with this because, obviously, this is another creative outlet (one I didn't know was there). The two biggest questions remain - Who is my target market? & Will I sell anything?

I have some ideas on who my target market is, the ideas I came up with do not single out any one so-called "group" of people. That is partly why I want to sort these items into themes, I'll be able to isolate my targets better that way. As for the second, and perhaps larger question, that remains to be seen. I figure as long as I'm not spending 24 hours a day on it and still having fun, it's a win-win. I'll go with it until it no longer "works". Any feedback would be much appreciated!

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