| > | | | | available, and does a reasonable amount of |
| Writers can create additional income streams by | | | | advertising. |
| opening their own print-on-demand T-shirt stores, but | | | | A big problem with a powerful image editor is that |
| there are five frustrations to deal with: paying too | | | | you can get lost in the features. It is worth buying a |
| much, fighting with an image editor, not knowing | | | | book to tell you how to get started with it. There is |
| what customers want, not knowing how to attract | | | | information available on the web for free, but you |
| customers, and not knowing what designs people like. | | | | may have trouble finding what you need presented |
| These can all be relieved. | | | | simply enough. |
| Opening a T-shirt shop online at a print-on-demand | | | | One way to find out what customers want is to ask |
| site seems an ideal way for writers to pick up an | | | | people, but that may give you too small and too |
| extra income stream. It costs next to nothing. All you | | | | biased a sample. Another approach is to find what |
| do is create a graphics file with your design, upload it | | | | keywords people type into search engines when |
| to the site, and collect a markup when someone has | | | | they're hunting for designs like yours. You can find |
| your design printed on a shirt. You can do text-only | | | | this out for free, though at the cost of a little time, |
| designs if you're not comfortable with images. Alas, | | | | by using Google's keyword tool and the Google |
| there are five big frustrations you may encounter in | | | | search page. The keyword tool will suggest |
| setting up your own T-shirt shop at a | | | | alternative keywords and will tell you how many |
| print-on-demand web site. | | | | times people search for particular phrases in an |
| The first frustration is paying more than you have to | | | | average month. The Google search page will give you |
| to set up your shop. It should cost you nearly | | | | an estimate of the number of web pages using the |
| nothing. | | | | keyword phrase. If you find this process is too much |
| A second frustration is fighting with your image | | | | effort, you can buy Micro Niche Finder or pay to use |
| editor. Too simple an image editor will be too painful | | | | Wordtracker. |
| to use. A full-featured image editor may be hard to | | | | A way to attract customers to your shop is to use |
| figure out. | | | | keywords effectively. You need to fill your shop |
| The third frustration is not knowing what your | | | | pages with keywords by using them in descriptions |
| customers want. These are self-expression products. | | | | of your designs. More importantly, you need to get |
| You need to find out what sentiments people wish | | | | quality back links to your shop using those keywords |
| to express. | | | | in the anchor text. (That's the colored text in a |
| The fourth frustration is not knowing how to attract | | | | hyperlink.) You can get free back links by giving |
| your customers to your shop. Having what people | | | | away information. You can post helpful advice at |
| want doesn't help if they can't find you. | | | | forums, you can post comments on blogs, you can |
| The fifth frustration is not knowing what designs | | | | put up pages at Hubpages or Squidoo, you can write |
| people like. For example, people do not particularly like | | | | e-zine articles, you can have your own blog. The |
| large, rectangular pictures dominating the design. | | | | most important thing in all of these is to give away |
| The way to get around the first frustration is | | | | useful information and not to try to sell. The links to |
| twofold: first, get the GNU Image Manipulation | | | | your web site in your signature lines and resource |
| Program, GIMP. It's as powerful as you will ever | | | | boxes will bring you some visitors themselves. More |
| need, and it's free. Second, carefully choose the sites | | | | importantly, they will spread links to your pages |
| at which you set up your shops. You might want | | | | around the Net, telling the search engines both what's |
| more than one store if you have incompatible | | | | at your store and that your store is important. |
| product lines, family vs. adult-oriented for instance. | | | | A good way to find out what designs people like is |
| For that you might prefer Printfection where you can | | | | to ask people. Join the forum at your host site. Post |
| create many shops free. Printfection has a reputation | | | | your designs and ask for comments. The |
| for high quality, but has rather few types of | | | | shopkeepers there happily offer suggestions and |
| merchandise. If you do not intend to set up many | | | | encouragement. You can also ask people you know |
| stores, you may decide it is worth the $60 per year | | | | on- or off-line. |
| CafePress charges for each "premium" (i.e. adequate) | | | | There are definitely things that can frustrate you |
| store: you get a wide variety of merchandise to put | | | | when you set up your own print-on-demand T-shirt |
| your designs on, and their advertising brings a large | | | | shop, but you can do things to relieve those |
| number of customers through their marketplace. | | | | frustrations. |
| Zazzle is free, has many types of merchandise | | | | |