Thinking of wearing your own design t-shirt? One of the simple way to put your own design onto your t-shirt is Iron-On. Here is the simple step-by-step how can do it yourself at home.

First things, you need to be prepared with all this things below.
* Design (Free inspiring t-shirt design 1, 2, 3)
* Iron-on printer paper
* Blank t-shirt
* Iron & Board
* Passion (of course)

1. We assume that you already prepared with your own design, otherwise you can create it by Photoshop or any others design applications out there. You can use GIMP as well, it’s open source program and you can download it for FREE.
2. Your design should be as simple as possible, so that later on you can easily cut it out without any problems. Also, make sure that the design fits within a 11 x 8 1/2 paper.
3. Print out the design on an iron-on printer paper (We suggest you to use inkjet and above for the better quality). Be sure to look at the iron-on papers carefully because there are two distinct kinds
   A) paper that is for white tshirt
   B) paper that is for colored t-shirts.

4. If needed, cut out the design carefully with either a scissor or an exacto knife.

5. Make sure that you have selected ‘Mirror’, ‘Flip’, ‘Reverse’ or a similar setting in your application, if it is required, so that the image will be iron backwards. If there is no text in your image, you may not have to reverse your image.

6. Preheat the heat press to 325° Fahrenheit. Following the instructions accompanied to your iron-on printer papers.

7. Place the hot iron onto the towel and work in a circular motion from the middle of the transfer to the edges. How long you do this for is dependent on the instructions included with the transfer paper.
8. Peel off backing paper slowly at a sharp angle.
9. Let it cool, and it’s ready to be worn!

TROUBLE SHOOTING TIPS

Iron on Transfer looks yellow -
Heat may be too high and is scorching the surface of the transfer. Confirm temperature setting is 325 degrees or cotton setting. The heat generated by irons may vary greatly by brand and model.

Iron on Transfer is not adhering to surface -
Make sure the backing has been removed before transferring. Check temperature setting is 325 degrees or cotton setting. If temperature is too low, the transfer will not react sufficiently to bond to shirt. Increase pressure. Increasing pressure on the iron allows the transfer to be pushed in the fabric pattern

Iron on Transfer has bonded with the bottom of the iron -
Make sure that the ironing sheet was used between the iron and the transfer

Iron on Transfer is cracking after being washed or dried -
Pre-wash shirt before applying transfer. This eliminates some possibility of shrinkage that may stress the transferred image. Increase pressure when transferring image. If insufficient pressure is used, the transfer will not bond properly with the shirt. The resulting slack may crack in the wash.
Heat was used when tumble dried.

The edges of the iron on transfer are not adhering -
When hand ironing it is vital that the edges are ironed extremely well; apply the most heat and pressure to the edges of the transfer.

Image is reversed on shirt -
Set the printer for T-shirt, Flip or Mirror Image. Consult your printer manual or check with your printer’s manufacture.

Tips and Warning

Be sure to look at the instructions on how to care for your iron-on printer papers.

It helps if the towel you use is thin, but if too thin (able to see through) you will want to fold it over. This acts as a heat absorber so you don’t burn pattern.

If you have a figure instead of a square/rectangular pattern, cut around the figure and leave about 1/4″ around the edges.

Dry your shirt on low heat to prevent it from cracking or shrinking.

Make sure you reverse the transfer on the computer before ironing it on.

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Have you heard about Twitter? And  have you heard about successful marketing on Twitter? Lots of dominant company already expanding their marketing strategy by using this new micro-blogging technique. Twitter is a next-generation instant messaging tool. But how does it works on your clothing business? Here is simple guidelines and tips how to market your business on Twitter.

Before that, we assumed that you already have a T-shirt business, and Online Shop running as well. Seems everything is up, you have to follow Must-Do step before proceed with Twitter Marketing as an addition.

So here is simple step how to market your business on Twitter.

1. Create Twitter account.If you don’t have an account yet, do sign up on Twitter. You should have your own branding name as your Twitter name. We assumed that you already have a business name and it’s should be still available for you to choose. If not, try to come up with something that comes close. If you are “MyFirstOnlineTee” around the web, but that’s already taken on Twitter, then try to use something like “MyFirstTee” or “MyOnlineTee.” You get the idea.
2. Let everyone know you are on Twitter.

   You should have a decent social network going when you come to Twitter. Spread the news for clients, friends, contacts and colleagues that you are now available on Twitter. It’s not impossible to start from Twitter and work your way out from there but it will be more time consuming. Trust me, I did it that way and I would have saved myself a few weeks networking time if I started somewhere else.

3. Recruit followers.

   Now you want to build up your list of followers. You have a few from your social networks (remember not all of your contacts from outside of Twitter will be using Twitter). Don’t despair. You can get followers from inside Twitter. Start by following as many people as you can who are in your industry or who work with your topic of interest. Do NOT follow everyone just because. That is not a strategy.

   Start by looking at the people in your industry or area of expertise who have a strong following. Go for trend research, lots of Twitter mash up contributing on Trend Searching. What do their followers want to hear about? What’s being re-tweeted? Are you following the leaders in your area? You should be? And you should be networking with these people around the Internet in places outside of Twitter!

4. Ok, so you’re on Twitter. You’ve a got a base of followers. You’re following all the popular Twitter accounts in your industry. Now, you start to tweet! BUT – tweet about your clothing business, products and marketing. Think of Twitter the same way you would email. If you tweet about answering “What are you doing?” daily,  chances are you won’t be too successful on Twitter.

   Quality Tweets include quotes from leaders in your industry, re-tweets from experts in your field, tweets about your online shop, and the like. You should also tweet with updates on your business activities if you are very active in your field!

“We’re at a point where even though we’re only two years old, acquisitions are definitely possible” -Bizjournal.com

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You already setting up your business and it’s running; have a great location, well-manage inventory, hardworking employees and some loyal customers, but you may be stymied when it comes to determining the next steps to growing your business. Use these helpful tips about how you can successfully get to the next level in your marketing strategy without breaking the bank.

Important: Things you’ll need for Growing your retail T-shirt business is an online store and business newsletter tools.

1. Ask your customer how they found your business. Most customers will be happy telling you where there heard about your business mostly advertisement, or from friends. If you find that advertising attracted more customers, keep doing what you are doing. Don’t cut back on advertising; do more of it, if possible, as it is clearly working for your business.

2. Identify your target market and aggressively advertise specifically to those people. Advertise in the magazines they are most likely to read, attend an event or trade show where they may be found, and leave brochures or fliers in places they are most likely to congregate.The best and fastest way is internet marketing. You can choose your keywords or phrases relevant to your target market. Many providers exist today; however, Yahoo Search Marketing, Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter are the most predominant providers of this service.

3. Build and maintain customer relationships. The key to successful marketing is maintaining your current customers so they continue to come back and tell others about you. Offer special discounts on occasion to frequent customers and, depending on what type of business you have, consider a frequent shopper’s card, where customers earn something special rewards for making a certain number of purchases. Also, consider offering some type of savings each time they refer a new customer to you.

4. Create a newsletter. Keep customers informed of sales and new products via a basic newsletter. A newsletter can be sent monthly or quarterly, and if you are looking for the most affordable way to reach customers, consider an email newsletter. Collect email addresses from customers upon checkout, telling them they will receive your newsletter.

   If you are searching for simple email marketing software that provides a platform for your online marketing campaigns, we encourage you to use our friends at iContact.

5. Don’t ignore the Internet–have a presence on the web. If you don’t have a website, you can use this refference on how to create an online store. Your retail business can reach an entirely new market from across the globe with e-commerce. A presence on the Internet is often the fastest way to grow a retail business. Another option to increasing your web presence is to sell your products on third party company such as spreadshirt, cafepress, eBay, Amazon.com, Yahoo store and ProStores

6. Host a special event that will draw in customers and media. This could include donating a portion of the day’s proceeds to a local charity, or having a “family day” with games, prizes and a local radio station broadcasting live from your store. If you are creative, there are a variety of events you can hold at your store. A few weeks prior to the event, send a press release to local television and radio stations as well as media.

Based on statistics from Internetretailer.com, all merchandising categories tracked in the Top 500 web-merchants registered double-digit growth in 2007, with the fastest growth rate coming from the specialty/non-apparel segment, which expanded online sales by 47%!  That is a significant growth and means you’re products have a place in the online selling arena. WebStore’s integrated marketing services can help you get selling online quickly.

*Source: Revenue Today (www.revenuetoday.com)

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Before you go any further, lets go back to technical part, silk screening. If you already decided to build an Online Clothing Line, the most important thing is the method of printing technique you want to use. There’s few type of printing techniques can be use, but the most economical technique is “silkscreen print“. It’s not practical for huge volume but it’s a good and most recommended method for beginner.

There’s a few step you must do before start printing the T shirt. Basically, things you’ll need to do before printing is measuring a T shirt size and preparing for a silkscreen frame. So here we are going to teach you how to make your first silk screen frame. It’s worth putting a bit of effort into this step, because a well-built frame will last a lifetime.

Recommended products you should have a look:

	The Complete Book of Silk Screen Printing Production
	Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens

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CafePress has 6.5 million members who each have their own online storefront – a webpage – where people can buy their stuff.

CafePress is popular because there are no upfront fees or manufacturing costs and basic membership is free.

Each member uploads their own customized design and then selects some, or all, of the stock merchandise for it to be made available on.

There is a very wide range of items that you put your design on, from hats, t-shirts and hoodies, tank tops, kids’ clothes, clothing for pets, cards, mugs and more. Browse the site’s catalogue for ideas and to preview a design on any product.

While their wholesale prices may be higher than other t-shirt printing companies, they do use American Apparel brand clothing. The key benefit is that there is no minimum product order – you can order fifty t-shirts on behalf of a group, or just one for yourself.

Because there is no minimum product order or membership fee, you can upload and offer for sale as many designs as you like without any financial risk. For a small monthly fee you can go beyond a basic shop and build a large virtual store fully stocked with your creations and branded with your colors and design.

The wholesale prices for each item are set and you determine the retail price, keeping the difference from every sale. All sales are transacted securely on CafePress’ servers, and customers pay reasonable shipping costs.

Making Money

As with launching any other business, you need to determine how you will generate sales. Bulk orders offer higher profit margins and can be lucrative, especially if the shirts have been pre-sold to a group or company. Many people have developed profitable businesses selling corporate promotional items made by print-on-demand companies.

While CafePress does have a searchable online catalogue of all products in its database, there is no guarantee that many people will discover your designs this way.

How will you drive traffic to your site? Publicity and word of mouth are the fastest options, providing people know where to find your designs. Viral marketing (which is basically word of mouth online) is great for online sales because if people like what they see, they can immediately place their order with just a few clicks.

If you anticipate the majority of your sales occurring online, you might want to buy a domain name (for about $10) and then redirect it to your store’s CafePress webpage. We recommend the redirect because then you can use a short, catchy www address that will be easier to publicize and remember.

If it’s appropriate, we recommend letting people know where the shirt came from by incorporating a website address into the graphic. This can help your business gain momentum as more and more people comment on the shirts, some of whom will then visit your online store. Choosing good descriptive keywords for your descriptions will help the major search engines find your webpage.

CafePress also offers help, tips, and even an online community to help you learn how to more effectively design and sell your products.

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Start Your Private Label. How to launch your own clothing line.

To create a clothing line is a question of imagination, it’s all about you: what fabrics, colours, cut and generally the style you like.
On the other hand, successfully launching a clothing line means it has been created, made available to the final consumer,,, and ideally they like your style.

When there’s a buzz, when a new brand of clothes is welcomed by a large public, purchased and spoken about, it can decently be said that the fashion line has been successfully launched.

For a fashion line to be successful when launched, you need to have thoroughly prepared the launch.

I like the term “launching a fashion line” because it sounds very similar to launching a rocket in the sky: You calculate a number of factors long in advance, create the rocket and then launch it. At the time of launching, one do not have any guarantees of anything.

You can only hope that all the hard work of organizing the distribution, the marketing will translate in sales.

Hope? No, Preparation!

Preparation is certainly a keyword.
The idea, in my mind, is to do as much as possible before the launch of the clothing line: market research, partners’ research, networking, and advertising.

We all tend to be optimistic about the figures, we think that the sales will come easy and we underestimate the costs related to the sales.

All successful clothing lines have been launched by business people who know:
- How to create an event
- How to convince potential distributors
- How to give life to the fashion line with a story
- How to keep the clothing line in the stores
- How to satisfy new and returning customers with new styles of clothes.

When you launch your own fashion line, your personality matters, some will start small, some big.

Some will have their risk based on research, some on their gut feelings.
It’s important to know yourself and your market so that harmony can establish.
Start a clothing line! It might be the best time of your life; it can also be very challenging and rewarding.

To all the ones planning to play a part in fashion and the clothing industry, I would like to wish good luck and remind them that the road to success can be a long one.

Your determination will matter.

I suggest that you start by creating your Ltd Company, register your Brand with the local authorities and purchase the matching domain name even if you don’t rely on on-line sales to distribute.

Research your market; find ways to reach your targeted audience. See how you can place your brand in shops.

Do you know someone famous? Associate this person to your business.

Get some samples made, make a list of the changes to be made when mass-producing.

Finally, get a small run delivered to you and communicate on it. Keep in touch with your clothing manufacturer so that you are aware of the right timing to re-new your stock.

About the author:
Lilian Lemaire is the managing director of http://www.ellen-clothing-manufacturer.com

Start your own ecommerce clothing line now.

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Many of us must have been thinking about starting a clothing line or having a t-shirt business at one time in our life. Starting your own clothing line or t-shirt business is easier than ever before with the advent of the internet. Here are some cardinal rules of starting your own clothing line.

Have a Specific Goal

You need to have a specific goal of owning your own clothing line or t-shirt business. Without a goal, you will not go far. Set a specific goal of what you want to achieve from your business. For most people it is going to be monetary goals. You want to set how much you want to achieve in say 1-year time. A few of your may not aim for profit but this t-shirt business is about sending a message, such as environmental or political message. If this is your aim, you could set your goal to be number of people you reached or number of t-shirt sold. For whatever reasons you want to start this business, you need to have the specific goal written down on paper. Have a clear end in mind.

Find Your Niche

You will do much better if you can cater to specific target audience. For example, you may want to target the funny t-shirt market. Those who likes to play video games would probably want to start a line about a character or a game theme. Start with your passion and do your research from there.

If you thought of a theme or subject that may have a good audience, feel free to research further. You do not need to be an expert now to start on a certain niche. You can become and expert by learning. The internet has made it possible for anyone to learn almost anything.

Get A Shop

There are 4 ways to get your clothing store up and running.

1. Get a hosted e-Commerce solution – This way you would get a store from an all-in-one ecommerce solution such eBay Prostores or Yahoo Merchant Solutions and then configure your store as you wish. The payment system, shopping cart, hosting account, security features and more would be provided for you from one provider. If you want to find the best e-commerce solution for you, you can try Inmotion Ecommerce Hosting

2. Get your designs hosted on third-party online store – This method will not allow you to have your own brand because you will be creating a store at other t-shirt company like Spreadshirt. Open your own free online T-shirt shop at Spreadshirt today!.

Else, you can check our recommended Online Store at Best Online Store page.
There is also a list of online t-shirt designers you can view at: bargainfinder2u.com

3. Configure a webstore from scratch – You probably have the ability (or know somebody) to design your own website or configure your own shopping cart. You will need a web hosting account and so you can start installing the shopping cart software, build your website or brand and go from there. To find an affordable web hosting, go to bestcheapwebhosting.org

4. Sell other people’s product. This method will probably be the easiest to set up but may not be the most profitable. You can join and affiliate program and resell the product of others. There are quite a few affiliate networks around that list many affiliate programs. Most of these have search functions to allow you to type in keywords and find promotions relevant to your niche. Check out few sample programs such as MarketLeverage, Clickbank, PepperJam Network, Linkshare, etc.

Marketing

Once all the previous steps have been done, you will spend most of your time at this step. Marketing, promoting, advertising are the keywords here. There are many ways to market your products or to advertise your shop. One of the fastest way is by using pay-per-click marketing. To find guidelines for marketing, check out Must-Do Marketing Strategy.

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