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by Bob the Octopus on 03-23-2008 (0 comments)
A quick note: I expect this entry to morph over the next few months, as it is really a part of my thought process and just a developed working outline. I am going to turn it into a full article about creating a t-shirt line, with links to other articles that cover topics more in depth. I may even pull it completely out of the development blog and make a series of it in a new section called Resource Center. I will ask other writers to contribute to sections of it as well.
Many T-shirt artists who come over to Ziraxia are here because they want to create a T-shirt line, but don’t want to face a barrage of hassles associated. To start, creating a T-shirt line most likely involves the following if you really are hands on about it:
- Starting a T-shirt Company and all of the related characteristics of starting any company, including but not limited to licenses, location, a plan, the time to do it, and start-up costs for a few.
- Samples
- Market Research
- Inventory
- e-commerce
- Sales & Marketing
- order fulfillment
- Money, money, money
Other companies are poised to help.
There are plenty of companies who can be a tremendous help with one or a few of the above, but often they fall short in the other areas. For example, there are plenty of screen print companies that will create a batch of inventory for you, but will charge you through the nose for samples. Ziraxia doesn’t criticize them for that, as making samples is very time consuming, and someone has to pay for tying up valuable shop time. There are other companies that will make you samples comparatively cheaply, but they won’t use screen printing to do it. Instead they digitally print them. In many cases (not all) that leaves dark garments out, and fine detail with current technology is very tough to pull off. There are companies who will loan you money, but you’ll have to pay them back; companies that start your company for you; and companies that do market research.
But what if you don’t want to do all that?
When you want to take a simpler, less immersive approach to trying your hand at designing T-shirts, Ziraxia is a great option. We make it pretty easy for you. Here’s our process:
1) You create the design and upload it to us.
2) We put it up for voting in the Designs Waiting for Liftoff Section (see tou and policies) and see if others think it is good as well.
3) When your design gets a high enough rating and has enough votes, we put it up for sale. (Market Research)
4) We and you promote your T-shirt in order to sell it. Hopefully your efforts at promotion are intense, as you will most likely know the kinds of people likely to buy your designs.
5) We display it, print it, sell it, fulfill it, and record it.
6) We pay you royalties on the sale.
You Pay Nothing.
Notice how in the above process, there was no mention of startup costs. That’s because there are none. Ziraxia does not charge you, but, instead we pay you. The only way you pay for start up costs is if you want us to send you a bunch of your T-shirts to promote your line, sell for yourself, and give away to your friends. In that case, we sell you your T-shirts at a discount (provided we are selling your design on Ziraxia). We actually charge you less than a traditional screen printing shop charges for T-shirts because we have your design up for sale here.
Get Started on Ziraxia
Creating an account is FREE and easy, so go ahead and do it today. Before you know it, you’ll be selling your designs!
Further notes:
This article should act as an outline for a number of other articles for our Resource Center. The following are titles of articles I would like to include. If you are reading this and believe you can contribute, there are many people who would appreciate your efforts. We’ll even send you a FREE T-shirt if we use the article. Also, if you have any ideas, we’d love to hear them.
Making Samples (What, When, Why, How)
Marketing:
-How to submit your designs to T-shirt Blogs,
-How to create and promote YouTube videos,
-How to sell your T-shirts in Stores
-How to sell your T-shirts at Conventions
The ins and outs of order fulfillment,
Making T-shirt Art
-General how to create the artwork for your T-shirts,
-Art for screen printing specific
-The raw basics of vector art
How to go broke really fast starting an internet T-shirt Company
by Bob the Octopus on 03-17-2008 (2 comments)
Considering our love for Guerrilla Marketing and our desire to spend our advertising dollars giving away mailbags and flyers instead of paying for unprofitable vendor space, we went to MegaCon on the cheap. We ran around talking to all the artists who would listen to us. Even though I think Ziraxia is an absolutely brilliant idea, it was nice to get confirmation from the humongous reception we got. Here’s most of the text from the flyer we handed out:
Don’t be a sellout. That’s common advice from aspiring artists and fans, but what do they really mean? Do they mean, “Don’t sell your art?”; “Don’t let anyone influence your work?”; or “Don’t concern yourself with money?” Quite frankly, Ziraxia doesn’t give a flip what they mean. Here’s what we mean: Keep your soul; keep your copyright; and keep control. While you’re at it, keep $2 every time we sell a T-shirt you designed (see the TOU). Hell, use an affiliate link to advertise your designs, and keep another $1 every time you sell one that way. Now that’s the kind of selling you want to be doing.
Here’s what you do:
You do what you do best, draw something cool that other people like. Then you upload it to Ziraxia, and we do almost everything else. Almost. There’s one more thing you have to do, and although we will help you, you have to do it. Promote your work! Tell your fans about your T-shirt designs, and tell them where they can buy ‘em. Use a link. Use an affiliate link, dammit. Mention your T-shirts in your news letter. Blog about them. Go to T-shirt blogs around the internet and tell them to talk about your stuff. Make a crop circle in your carpet, kill a plastic cow, and dance around your computer yelling, “the aliens have landed,” while spraying SillyString all over your keyboard and pissing off the neighbors. Um, yeah… Promote your T-shirts.
Here’s what we do:
We sell your T-shirts for you. We screen print your designs on top quality T-shirts like Hanes Beefy Tees or American Apparel, and we don’t take short cuts. We sell them on Ziraxia. We ship them to your fans. We keep records of your sales and your affiliate activities, and you can access those records through your web browser. We pay you. You can get a check or request Paypal payouts. We keep it simple.
Here’s what else we do:
We keep a non-exclusive agreement with you. You can sell your own T-shirts at conventions, on your website, or any other way you like. We’ll even help you by screen printing them for you. That’s right, you can buy your own T-shirts in bulk from us at a discounted rate. And if you choose, we can even put your designs in our wholesale catalog, where the royalty is a little lower ($1 each), but other websites and T-shirt retailers can buy your designs in bulk and bump up your overall sales.
Get on board! In the future we will be offering select artists their own customizable stores where they can set their own commissions, be the first to offer new product types, and have other exclusive privileges. Create an account TODAY!
About us: Ziraxia is owned and operated by Red Alert Screen Printing. We were printing T-shirt before there even was an internet. We screen print them in house. We cut our teeth printing police and firefighter uniforms, as well as T-shirts for events ranging from band gigs, paintball tournaments, and progressive rights marches. We love T-shirts, and so do the aliens!
by Bob the Octopus on 02-20-2008 (0 comments)
Well folks, Larill’s been working on it for some time, but he finally got his newest toy,The Affiliator working! Now when you use affiliate links you can earn Zips spendable on T-shirts and custom screen printing for every unique visitor you send to Ziraxia. But what’s even more exciting is that if anyone you send over buys a T-shirt within 30 days of your referral, you get $1 in Affiliate Commission. That’s real US Earth Dollars too, boys and girls! If you go crazy blogging all over the place with affiliate links in your sig, that ought to add up fast. Just remember not to spam or break any laws or ethical standards in the process.
by Bob the Octopus on 11-07-2007 (0 comments)
I hear the winner has slain the competitors with overwhelming October zest! Yes, boys and girls, I hear we have an undisputed costumed champion. What amazing attire did s/he wear? How glorious was his/her incredible disguise? Was anyone hospitalized in the process? Heavens, I hope not! Stay tuned for details…
by Bob the Octopus on 11-06-2007 (0 comments)
Believe it! We are developing a web comic as you read this. We have plot outlines, character developments, stories within stories, and Kat even has the first strip inked. We’re going to get a few of them done, and then start posting them on a weekly basis. The first strip features Meebo, Jax, Larill, Aurora, and that cruel bitch, Zira.
by Bob the Octopus on 10-22-2007 (0 comments)
We are building a space station where you can have your own customizable store. It should be done just as soon as Chris stops scaring the pee out of little girls and football players. (He moonlights in a haunted house.)
by Bob the Octopus on 09-26-2007 (0 comments)
On Sept. 27th we’re starting an ad campaign to get some traffic around here. We’ll be doing everything from buying ads to trading merch for banners. If you have any ideas about how to get the word out about Ziraxia, we’d love to hear them. Ziraxia is a pretty cool place, but once we get it jumpin’, it will be unbelievably awesome!
by Grey on 09-07-2007 (0 comments)
Now that the pilot program is moving in full swing, and I’m back from Dragon*Con, we set this blog up so that I can keep you all updated with what’s been done, what’s being done, and what’s left to do. I’ll also try to call your attention to nifty new features and interesting design tips, etc.
So… What’s new?
The Express-T interfaces are pretty much done. Keep an eye out for oddness, and as always, let us know if you run into any problems, or just have a suggestion about how the site could work better.
I’m working on revamping the design submissions pages to be even easier, and I’m trying to get the shopping cart code moving so that you can buy more than one shirt at a time.
by Bob the Octopus on 09-06-2007 (1 comment)
Ziraxia is in the Pilot Program, which basically means we haven’t implemented all of the features yet, and we are working the bugs out. We only just went live on August 29th, 2007, and then immediately thereafter, our head of programming got hit with the abduct-o-tron ray. Normally, that’s not a problem, but he was wearing leather at the time, and well, the abduct-o-tron has a problem with cows...The doctors say he’ll be right as rain in a few days. You should see a lot of changes around here while we’re in the Pilot Program. In the mean time, we’ll be printing and shipping T-shirts like always.
