I’m willing to bet – cash money – that this post will be the most popular one I do all week.
Why?
It’s summer. People are hot. People don’t feel like doing anything except lie around in a T-shirt. Unless that something involves winning a free t-shirt to lie around in.
I’ve never understood it. I don’t care to try. But every single time I’ve ever run a campaign that had something to do with a t-shirt, people came out of the woodwork. I don’t get it. I never will. But as long as I can squeeze ten customers out of it, I’m happy to do it. 
Especially when I’m building a hobby site, the first thing I do is have some sort of contest in which the winner will get a free t-shirt. The free tee promotion works equally as well offline – you can sponsor community events, or just have a booth where you give away tees.
Or something else.
Give away pens, penciles, mousepads, a copy of your free ebook in book form, a copy of archived newsletters on CD – there’s got to be some popular item you can emboss your site name on that will get attention and clicks.
The problem? Where do you get cheap t-shirts in bulk? And how do I turn my giveaway into repeat traffic or sales?
I’ve tried many different solutions for free t-shirt suppliers since I started doing this in 2002. And because of the types of items they add, the longevity of their project, and how easy it is to have a whole store in an hour – CafePress.com wins hands down.
Yes, they are a little pricey. But I use them mostly for promotional items, where I buy myself items in bulk and give them away to interested clients, subscribers and sometimes, just at random. The key to seeing eventual returns is to put your domain name on the t-shirt with a slogan that will make people ask the wearer about the shirt.
My favorite T-Shirt in the whole world, is an oversized T-shirt that says “BITE ME!” in huge white letters on the front.
On the back it has a picture of a little happy red crab, and the name of my favorite seafood place in Vegas – Joe’s Crab Shack.
I bet I send them tons of business….
If you can make a graphic, you can have a Cafe Press store – I really did build that in less than an hour, grahpic, store and all. Just don’t expect a huge wave of orders from the site itself – that CAN happen, but remember, you primarily want to use the items in the store as an attention grabber, not necessarily the store itself.
I have one more item to bring to your attention, then I’ll be taking a nice nap. See ya!
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