How to Start a Real Internet T Shirt Business

Novelty and custom t-shirts are big business. Almost everyone owns several and they are popular sellers, regardless of the season. An Internet t-shirt business can be a great investment, but requires creativity, a drive to succeed and of course, great t-shirt designs.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Startup capital
• Computer
• Graphic design software
• Screens
• Screen printing ink
• Heat press
• Heat transfers
• Ink jet printer
• T-shirts
• A web store

1. Design the t-shirts on your computer, using a graphics design program. Funny sayings and pictures are great sellers. Quick thinking and dry wit is a great asset when designing the shirts you will sell.

2. Choose which designs will work best with each type of process. Heat transfer lends itself to large, blocky designs, while screen printing is excellent for designs that require a lot of layered colors and more complex imagery.

3. Make the t-shirts. Remember to allow the heat transfer designs to cool completely before removing the backing paper. Screen printed designs need time to dry inbetween layering of different colors.
   

4. Build a website. The website should be easy to navigate and should contain a shopping cart option to better facilitate purchases. Website design is extremely important and should reflect the character of your Internet t-shirt business.

5. Advertise the Internet t-shirt business. Link exchanges, search engine optimized web pages, search engine submission and traditional advertising methods like flyers, business cards and billboards are all good options.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are unfamiliar with website design, you can hire a web designer of use a webhost with preexisting site templates. There are also online stores, such as Etsy and CafePress, that allow you to set up your own shop on their website, through their user-friendly software.
• Be original. Don't copy other designer's ideas; come up with your own.

Resources

• Etsy.
• CafePress.

[heathsanchez]

on 5/27/2008 Very good article! I think it's also important to mention the value of having your own email subscription list. With a list of people that are interested in your work (which you can build up over time), you will be able to keep them updated with new designs, etc. Keeping your 'fans' in the loop will result in MANY more sales and will help you to build a relationship with them, which is EXTREMELY important with any Internet Business.

For more tips on how to start and run am Internet T-Shirt Business, check out my blog:

http://t-shirtbusiness.blogspot.com

Hope this helps!