How do you make a Branded T-shirt?

Words and artwork that motivate, give good-will and encouragement are put on branded products like t-shirts,

mugs, etc. to form a niche with a targeted audience. The niche could be

• religious quotes,
• popular sayings of a group,
• attributes of professional groups like nurses,
• students,
• sports enthusiasts,
• humorous and motivational quotes,
• popular or trending slogans etc.

The writing on t-shirts and mugs also reaches out to people just like ebooks because people are gaining relevant information and adding value to their lives.

Making a design for t-shirts and other products has become a profitable side income or full-time work online. Some marketers also donate all or part of the income generated to charity.

Products that are branded with artwork and text

• T’shirts,
• mugs,
• key hooks,
• caps,
• tote bags,
• sports/travelling bags,
• cosmetic cases,
• jewellery bags,
• hoodies,
• coasters,
• umbrellas,
• slippers, and gifts

are some of the products that are branded with artwork and text.

It is necessary to target a specific group or audience for such a project. Niches are divided into trend-based (seasonal like Christmas, Easter, festivals, etc.) or evergreen – based on things that are constant e.g. moms, dads, professions, birthdays, etc. There are also several sub-niches of these broad niches, for example, teenagers who love football

To start, choose a niche as always, based on an interest shared by several other people. Make a search by checking on sites and social media pages for the same niche and see which designs have much engagement or likes. You can also check the websites that produce t-shirts for possible designs. A few of such companies and platforms are;

• cafe press.com
  zazzle.com
  teespring.com
  spreadshirt.com
  shopify.com
  printify.com
  style us brands.com

Suggested resources:

T-shirt Business Plan PDF

T-shirt Income Empire – Amazon

How to become a T’shirt Designer

– Search for a t-shirt producing websites see what is expected of you as a designer
– create a fan page with the appropriate name on Facebook or other social media
– write a draft description for your design and save it on your pc
– with your designs in mind, create an account and start creating your designs – which could be only text or a combination of text and artwork.
– put the designs on your Fanpage and link it to other t-shirt sites as well as some of your fans who are also interested in that niche
– engage and promote your tees and/or other products
– create campaigns or paid Facebook ads

How T’shirt Designing Platforms Operate

Most t-shirt platforms operate in a similar manner. i.e

– provide a tool for designing
– designers do not pay anything to create designs.  You are paid when a minimum (stated) number of the product is sold.
– set a goal (no of shirts to be ordered before printing starts)
– set the selling price
– print and market the product, based on orders received
– designers set up a shop on the platform
– other designers can sell your shirts i.e cross-promote and sell
– pay designers after successful sales

Designing T-shirts on Teespring

Teespring.com is one such site that is popular for tees.

Upon creating an account you are sent to the designing tool where you add text, change the font, colour, etc; or click ‘art’ to upload your own artwork.

On the right side of the screen, you can also add a few other t-shirt designs like the hood, children’s tees, design for women, etc. Over there you can change the colour or indicate other colours in which the tee can be printed.

A selling price is set as you add designs. You can also choose to add a caption at the back of the shirt or not.

After that move to step 2, set a goal by going through the steps and in step 3 add a description.

You will also select a category and fill in the blank for your url, which is the name you used to create the account. This will link customers to your page on Teespring.

After this, promote your tee on your Facebook page and also make some Facebook ads to attract a targeted audience.

Advantages

• there are no upfront costs to start
• only t-shirts that are ordered and paid for will be printed
• can be successful with a targeted niche and a few attempts to sell without using ads

Challenges

• testing and re-testing of Facebook ads requires learning  and practice to succeed

This is how to make branded products.  If you like this post, please comment and also share it.  Thank you,

Long Tail Keyword Search Tools

Using the 8 cool tools for finding long-tail keywords for your post or other content is still an important part of content creation. Long-tail keywords can boost the ranks of sites of individuals and companies, when done properly using appropriate tools. It also involves serious techniques and critical thinking. In 2011 google brought out a Panda update that affected content considered as spam and also keyword stuffing.  Another update, the Hummingbird in 2013, introduced Google’s way of considering user intent of content generated.  These updates brought misconceptions in peoples’ minds about keywords. However, keyword research is still relevant as it still provides ranking possibilities. With the advancement of search technology however, google updates when undertaken are now less noticeable.

Points to note in your search for a keyword tool

People use keyword tools based on their preferences. It is necessary to try as many
tools as possible and settle for a few to use for your keyword search.

Another thing is to consider your level of expertise in content creation and your needs. Beginners may not need all metrics given by a tool; but will be interested in the number of people visiting the site and where they are coming from like country, website or social media sites.

In searching for a long-tail keyword tool,

> find a tool that is often updated by the developers

> Bear in mind that costs are involved in pro versions of the tools

> Using a combination of free and paid tools is desirable

Essential points to note in the selection of keywords

Rather than being stuffed with keywords content must be created with the user in mind.  Search must be made for phrases that will flow naturally when written.
With the release of the google updates use of keywords is still necessary
Use of long-phrase keywords with low search volume is indispensable.
Keyword research has been described as boring, tiring etc. but the only way round it is constant practice.

With the above in mind, let’s look at some cool paid and free keyword tools and the metrics they show:

Tool and its Features

Ahrefs

Delivers massive data with several variations. It is fast and shows in-depth keyword difficulty (competition) and research.

SEM Rush

Shows top organic keywords used by a website and that of their competitors; [ii] in-depth backlink analysis [iii] rank tracking [iv] site audit [v] estimated results in SERPS [vi] trend results

Long Tail Pro

For profitable niches and keywords [ii] helps to optimise paid campaigns [iii] useful for assessing organic search terms and competition

Google Keyword Planner

Shows more keyword suggestions, [ii] traffic volumes, [iii] cpc estimations [iii] synonyms and variations of niche keyword [iv] organic search results

Jaaxy

Shows the average no of searches for a keyword in a month [ii] traffic volume [iii] QSR – quoted search results for a keyword [iv] KQI – keyword quality indicator [v] SEO

Find out more about Jaaxy here.

More Tools and Features

Answer The Public

Uses Google’s auto-suggest feature to come up with ideas using questions, prepositions, and comparison of keyword phrases; also provides an alphabetical list

Keywords Everywhere

A chrome browser extension that gives the volume of search terms at the bottom of the page together with CPC, and competition

Niche Reaper

Quickly discovers trending long-tail keyword phrases from social media sites, search engines, blogs, forums, amazon, etc saving time and reducing frustration to bring out profitable niche ideas in seconds

Most of the features are common to all the tools. Additional features to look out for, depending on your needs are:

Large volumes of keyword variation (Free, Google Keyword Planner)
Continued update of tool (Ahrefs)
Backlink analysis and trend results (SEM Rush)
Help in optimising paid campaigns (Long Tail Pro)
Domain name availability (Jaaxy)
Variations of questions, prepositions, used in keyword phrase (Answer the public)
Keywords Everywhere (Free tool)
Niche Reaper (Trending keywords in real-time)

Do you think your niche is weird or not well known? Consider the following points:

Unlike hobby bloggers, aspiring professional bloggers should search for these factors which is an indication of a profitable niche:

>  The presence of passions or problems on which people would spend money
>  Affiliate products on the niche
>  Competition – more sites and search volumes of the niche phrases

All niches can be said to be profitable even those that are considered to be very weird. Some of these niches have been known to be rather profitable like selling children’s books or creating downloadable templates for sale. Creativity with any fresh ideas that have some usefulness is what makes an unlikely niche to catch-on.

It has been suggested that using two of these tools is adequate.

Your content should be based on what you want the user to benefit from. If the user intent is well researched and written instead of just concentrating on rankings and loading text with long and short tail keywords you would not have to worry about being penalized by google.

Suggested Resource

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