This Buffalo blog journals the leaps and stutters of launching, designing, advertising, marketing, promoting and, praise baby jesus, profiting from a Buffalo T-shirts company called Buffalo T-shirts. If youre interested in the process we've gone through, its all right here. Start from the archive and work your way up.
Showing posts with label Buffalo T-shirts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buffalo T-shirts. Show all posts
Small "Off Main Street" write-up today in the Buffalo News about our Irish Shenanigans shirt. Check it out and Digg it maybe, huh? http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/607413.html
Thats right. After careful consideration, we've decided to lift the shipping charge and offer to send our shirts to the masses free of charge. From now on we're offering FREE SHIPPING FOR ALL ORDERS (until 01/2009). Thats an extra fin in your pocket, my friend. So go and buy yourself something nice, like The Rocketship 7 perhaps or the Retro Buffalo. We've also lowered our regular prices too, so go and check us out at Buffalo T-shirts
Image via WikipediaYep, its still on. Erie Canal. Albany to Buffalo. 50 miles a day for 8 days. 400 miles. I took my bike in to Rick's Cycle Shop at 55 Allen in Buffalo NY (ask for a free helmet with a new bike purchase) yesterday and picked it up today. It needed the 30 day tune-up for sure. The handlebars were loose, I couldn't downshift to the lowest gears (1-7), and half the other gears rubbed, skipped or derailed the chain. Plus I need to shore up my front fender. We had rigged it with a piece of leather and a twist tie but I was a bit uncomfortable that it would cause injury. They are uber fenders from Velo-Orange. So, it seems all good right now, but I need to replace my pedals (they hooked me up with a pair at Ricks) since the bearing in the platform originals had already been stripped. But Ive no grease so I have to get that tomorrow. Other than that, we need to rent a van to take us and our 3 bikes to Albany and thats about it. Anyone with a truck drivin to Albany August 17th? Hey, Ill give you a t-shirt or two, c'mon.
Image by bark via FlickrMaking a bit of a switch here and taking care of the shirt purchasing myself. Not a big deal really, it just gives me some more control over the first round of shirts. Im really excited about the printing. As a print designer, the ink on paper process is always a bit like Christmas. "Will I get what I want?" "WTF is this?" "Wrong." BTW, I remember when I first debated his jolly existence. 1980. 6th grade. St. Mary's on the Lake 1st floor. Debating the existence of Santa. I was convinced, damnit. No way did my mom cough up the bucks for toys and gifts for 5 kids. Im sorry but you dont know what youre talking about. But I Regress. I wish I could screen print these myself. That was the original plan back in April!
Image via WikipediaWhile I have this window while my shirts are ordered and then printed I thought it would be best to make a list of the steps I need to take from here, if for no other reason than to make a post. So, here't go: 2. Photography. Can't do until I have shirts. And models. Maybe I can pay in shirts. Meet me at the marina, we'll take some shots and you get to keep the shirt and bask in short-lived online buffalo celebrity. My plan here is to shoot in the environment. The marina shirt at the marina. The windmill shirt at Steel Winds or whatever its called, the Palmers Inn shirt at the canal. yader, yader, yader. 1b. Website. With fpo images (thats 'for position only' for you novice players out there). I've started this already, got the basic wireframe put together. But Ive lots of shopping cart, paypal, order form questions that I need figuring. This is probably the next major hurdle and the top of the list. 3. Small Flyer. To flip on car windows. Im thinking rubber stamp on craft paper. Nice look and cheap. 4. Chalk. To hit the streets with the name and website around town. "Buffalo T-shirts bflotees.com". 1a. Order the labels. I forgot about this step. Thats why I make a list. This will take about 2 weeks to come in. Must order immediately.
What I have: NYS Certificate of Authority dba Shipping bags (int and ext.) Hang Tags order/invoice form Freebies Paypal account
Image via WikipediaMy friend Matt over at People Like to Share turned me onto Squidoo, so this morning Ive been working on a lens page to further market Buffalo T-shirts. Its a work in progress and as I learn what it can do and tweak what I put on it, I hope it turns into a nice marketing/advertising vehicle. The more places I can put BuffaloT-shirts online, the higher Buffalo T-shirts will rise on Google. At least that's one of the goals. The other is to sell all my shirts.
As I headed down to the County Clerks office yesterday to register my dba, I took stock of exactly what I needed and came to this conclusion: Buffalo T-shirts is just better name than BfloTees. I registered both names just to cover my ass, but why make it more difficult for people to find me in the search engines, etc. All my social networking account (for the most part) have my username as BuffaloTshirts. SEO will be easier and definitely more focused. With that said, bflotees.com still works and I intend to still push that as the web address, since some fella on cafepress beat me to buffalotshirts.com. Rats ass. Good Move? Bad Move? Thoughts? Above is the new name in logo.
Sitting here waiting for quotes to come in from the screen printers for the Buffalo T-shirts. It's been a few days. Hope to hear something today before I get on the horn and bother them.
Swing over to Buffalo T-shirts home page and catch a sneek peek of the upcoming designs. Don't forget to sign up for the grand opening notification and earn a special discount to be one of the first to sport one of the fresh looks. 1. Erie Basin Marina Observation Tower 2. Rainbow Buffalo. A take on the vintage California rainbow t-shirt. Despite our city's bad wrap for snow, we have the sunniest and driest summers of any major city in the NE. 3. Palmer's Inn. One of the first bars in Buffalo that opened in the late 1700s on the Buffalo Canal. The city just opened the historic Canalside Harbor Project a couple weeks ago so this is a timely design. I created a fake identity/advertisement with the tagline "Drunk for a penny. Dead drunk for two." which was an actual quote from a historic article on the subject of the canal pubs of the early 1800s.
I did good today. Im down to two screen printers. Hopefully tomorrow Ill have pricing for the first round of Buffalo themed t-shirts and I can swing around to both places and see their work, meet the shakers and make the decision. Man, we are getting close.
The search is on. This week I will find and shake hands with a partner vendor: the screen printer. Initially I intended to produce these myself: buy the machine, learn myself to screen print (which sounds fun actually) but I havent the room for the printer, nor the funds to acquire a decent 4C printer. Besides that, my expertise is in the design, marketing and advertising of these here Buffalo t-shirts, so why bother getting caught up in the printing. Hopefully the vendor I select will let me assist here and there and learn a thing or two (but thats just for shits and giggles really). Maybe I could leverage my advertising experience and barter down the costs...who knows. Ive searched the yellow pages and online and have narrowed it down to 3 vendors. Time to make calls, get quotes and shake the hand.
Consider this a sneak peek. I was kicking around this idea for last St. Patrick's Day but didn't have enough time to get it done. This will be ready for next years parades for sure (with updated info) and will be available on my website in time for the festivities. With the recent passing of Jimmy Griffin–Buffalo, NY's iconic mayor–it seemed somewhat timely to show this idea and get reactions. Well, whadya think?
Just wanted to give you some stats from Google Analytics that may be linked to my higher google rankings. I say maybe because I'm also blogging, twitterin' and joining additional groups as I become more familiar with social marketing. This info is compared to weekly averages two weeks ago(May 12ish): My pageviews and visitors have gone up from barely a heartbeat to doubling in each of the past two weeks with the average visitor spending 4 minutes on my site. That's four minutes that my logo/business is visible, up front & center and essentially alone with a potential client. That makes me think about a couple things: 1.) Is my 'brand' coming across the way I'd like it to? Have I given enough thought to this? 2) Can I do something to utilize this time more effectively? Perhaps with Sprouts. By looking closer to the stats, I can see what the popular keywords used in finding my sites and where visitors came from (whether from a social networking site or twitter, my blog, mybloglog, etc) A big thanks to Matt and his blog, People Like to Share. Matt's an expert in share marketing, copy writing and I suspect by this time, linoleum floor installation.
Hit the waterfront yesterday to check out the newly opened canal harbor project. While I didnt take too many pictures of that area we did take a stroll down to Morriseys and I was able to get some interesting shots of some of the abandoned buildings down there. With the opening of canalside, its not unlikely that all these buildings will eventually see renewal and get back on the taxrolls. The pot belly stove shot is interesting. It was sitting inside the building in the shot previous to it. I believe this was the site of the last standing blacksmith in the city. Just closed within the last decade or so.
Time for a tasty beverage. Morriseys patio is open.
I just started reading about affiliate marketing to determine if this is an avenue that makes sense for BfloTees, Buffalo T-shirts and Design. My initial, and perhaps, ignorant questions are: Is there an affiliate marketing program that can group other Buffalo, NY stores together? If so, can I review/select who I want to affiliate with? I assume so, but gotta ask. Obviously I wouldnt want to affiliate with an auto tire retailer. Unless I come up with a shirt or something that targets that customer base. Which would open the network to a whole other set of affiliates. But I digress. Initial types of businesses to affiliate with: gifts/souvenirs retailers clothing stores Buffalo hotels tourism board Buffalo arts, entertainment and recreational entities, buffalo bloggers.
Im going to follow therandomeforest and his quest for affiliate marketing dominance. He's got a head start on me as far as research, but that's good-he's done all the legwork. Just sign up and follow him, ask questions and learn something new. Your mom would be proud.
Wow, Ive spent hours in the land of Twitter. Addictive. Here's a twitter t-shirt that I fell upon while reading tweets. From secureshirts.com And to follow up, another article on twitter, this time from Business Week. Thanks to mboogie
I received the samples of the front hem label yesterday. I ordered two samples with different sized web addresses and I prefer the smaller of the two. The front of the label shows the Buffalo T-shirts buffalo. When you flip the hem over, the web address,bflotees.com is displayed. They look absolutely fantastic so Im placing the order. It will take 12-18 days to ship here. That gives me 2 weeks to get shirts printed for the first run. Time to start laying out the website!
Hi everyone. I'm a designer in Buffalo and I'm launching a Buffalo T-shirt business. I plan on designing and selling sharp, limited-edition Buffalo Tshirts that celebrate our little city. Nothing about snow or rust though. Not that I have anything against 'em, I mean I enjoy playing hockey and going skiing. Its a great way to work the core. Thats what they say. And rust? Rusty and I have a mutual respect for each other and a working relationship. He does his thing, I do mine. I live, work and play in the city and have for more than half my life. Holy shi...thats a long time. The other half I grew up on Hamburg Beach, was into the Iron Sheik and Superfly Snucka, would do pretty much anything my older brother told me to do, often resulting in injury and was always taller than everyone I knew... until I met Andre the Giant. Talk of a small dose of humility at age 14. Oh, thats not a novelty miniature beer can in your hand. It just looks that way because you're so gy-norm
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Image via WikipediaYep, its still on. Erie Canal. Albany to Buffalo. 50 miles a day for 8 days. 400 miles.
Image by bark via FlickrMaking a bit of a switch here and taking care of the shirt purchasing myself. Not a big deal really, it just gives me some more control over the first round of shirts. Im really excited about the printing. As a print designer, the ink on paper process is always a bit like Christmas.
Image via WikipediaWhile I have this window while my shirts are ordered and then printed I thought it would be best to make a list of the steps I need to take from here, if for no other reason than to make a post. So, here't go:
Image via WikipediaMy friend Matt over at People Like to Share turned me onto Squidoo, so this morning Ive been working on a lens page to further market Buffalo T-shirts. Its a work in progress and as I learn what it can do and tweak what I put on it, I hope it turns into a nice marketing/advertising vehicle. The more places I can put Buffalo T-shirts online, the higher Buffalo T-shirts will rise on Google. At least that's one of the goals. The other is to sell all my shirts.
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