How To – Launch a Graphic T-Shirts Website in 24 Hours

1.) 8:00 AM: REGISTER A DOMAIN NAME. This takes up to 24 hours to go through so start out by getting yourself an on-target graphic t-shirts domain name. One that happens to be available right now: RadGraphicTees.com. It includes one of the most searched keywords in terms of graphic t-shirts: graphic tees and is fairly easy to remember.

2.) 8:30 AM: HOST YOUR DOMAIN. Find cheap hosting for around $9 per month with minimal bandwidth to begin with. You can later upgrade later once there is more demand for your graphic tshirts. Make sure you have MySql and php abilities and at least 5 Gb of space.

3.) 9:00 AM: BUILD YOUR GRAPHIC TEE WEBSITE. Hopefully you know some html and/or php – MySql. (If you don’t, you have many options, which I will go through later. ) Start simple with your graphic t-shirts site design. Be minimal and use large images. Follow the example of the leaders in good design such as Threadless or Indie Shirts. Avoid using unnecessary Flash and keep your code clean. Include strong calls to action: “buy”, “buy”, “buy”. Remember your goal: you want visitors to not only like your website, but to purchase your graphic tees. First mock-up the design in Photoshop, then code it. As for creating the e-commerce functionality, you may need to rely on a web developer if you have only basic skills. Otherwise, there are solutions through WordPress and Joomla extensions, Paypal, and countless online services to help you with this. Good luck. This will most likely be the most stressful part of your endeavor.For those who do not know how to code html or know anything about making a website, install WordPress to post each graphic t-shirt one by one, each with its own post. This is a different kind of website for graphic tees, but will still work. Just make sure to eventually customize your look and add your e-commerce functionality later down the road when you learn how. At first you can simply try and create buzz around your t-shirts and sell them later.

4.) 9:00 PM: DESIGN YOUR GRAPHIC T-SHIRTS. To have a line of t-shirts, you only need one t-shirt. To begin with, come-up with an idea. Refer to my guide on how to do so if you need help. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are a great place to start. Look for free vector images if you want to add anything besides text to your graphic t-shirts. Your tees should deliver a message and look cool at the same time. Also, try and make them original so that your website in particular stands out as a place to go for great graphic tees.

5.) 12:00 PM: PHOTOSHOP YOUR DESIGN ON TO BLANK T-SHIRTS. Until you have printed any graphic tees, simply take your designs and Photoshop them on to blank t-shirts. One color of each design will do, with other colors available. Place your cool graphic t shirts on a background that is plain, making them easy to see, or that says “urban”. You can start printing a limited number of t-shirts right after your website is launched, and based on demand. Crop these to the right size and upload them to your graphic tee website.

6.) 5:00 AM: ANNOUNCE YOUR NEW GRAPHIC TEE WEBSITE. Use an online press release agency, go to every single graphic t-shirt blog you know – or that you find through Technorati – and post information about why your new graphic tee website is the best. Once your site goes live, be sure to use StumbleUpon to drive traffic to this fresh content. Digg a blog entry about your website if you create a blog (it’s a good idea).

7.) 8:00 AM: (if you are still awake) GO TO BED. YOU JUST CREATED AN ONLINE GRAPHIC T-SHIRTS STORE.

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Blue Man Group Launches First Theatrical Tour of North America

Blue Man Group has been around since the late 1980′s. They have shows in New York, Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Las Vegas, Germany, Japan, and Sweden. They also have a production running on a Norwegian Cruise Line.

The trio of blue skinned, earless, speechless, alopecia suffers have appeared in dozens of commercials and television shows as well as numerous high profile live events.

However, they are most famous for and will always be famous for one thing: being on Arrested Development.

On the hilarious but ill-fated Fox sitcom, the character Tobias Fnke-the first licensed “analrapist” (a combination of analyst and therapist)-tried to join the Blue Man Group. He mistakenly believed it was a support group for depressed men.

As a result, Fnke spent most of the second season in a blue hue. The makeup, which stretched from his head to his toes, was constantly getting onto everything. And in a hilarious contradiction of the aforementioned description, Fnke wore glasses and failed to shave off his bushy moustache.

Arrested Development is a cult classic. Separating one’s self from such a thing is quite difficult, but if anyone can do it, it’s The Blue Man Group.

The creative organization launched their first ever theatrical tour on Sept. 14, 2010 in Dallas, Texas. Prior to that, the show played in Fayetteville, Arkansas for about a week.

The tour will visit nearly 40 cities culminating with a multi-week stand at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco, California.

Tickets are currently on sale for a majority of shows.

The tour features stuff from their current productions as well as brand new stuff created just for this outing.

Traditionally, Blue Man Group shows are a cross between a rock concert and a theater show. Their act utilizes music, comedy, and multimedia elements. The trio is accompanied on stage by a live band.

“We can’t wait to show the country what we’ve been working on. This show combines Vegas-sized production values and spectacle with the intimate Off-Broadway experience for which we are best known,” says Chris Wink, Blue Man Group co-founder.

Some of the new features fans can expect to see are a proscenium-sized LED curtain and a high-resolution screen. The traveling production also employs new sets and a new sound design.

Aspects of the show that haven’t changed are the good times and the audience participation.

“Our show is really more about the collective experience of the audience. It’s about all of us embracing a sense of wonder and discovery, and celebrating together rather than passively viewing a performance,” explains co-founder Phil Stanton.

The Blue Man Group was founded by Phil Stanton, Chris Wink, and Matt Goldman in 1987 in Manhattan. The trio’s first show, Tubes, was well-received by both critics and audiences and eventually earned them an Obie Award (bestowed by the Village Voice to off-Broadway theater groups and performers). That show is still running at the Astor Place Theatre. The group’s first show outside of New York opened in Boston at the Charles Playhouse in 1995.

In addition to their theatrical shows, the Blue Man Group has also released several albums and performance DVD’s. A full-length 3-D movie starring the Blue Man Group is scheduled for release at IMAX theaters in 2011.

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Eight Simple Ways To Use Promotional Products Online

With the increase competition on the Internet, it can be hard to find ways to make your company seem different from everyone else. One thing I believe Internet marketers are failing to utilize correctly is promotional products.Promotion products are every day items that are printed with your company logo, slogan, web site address, or any other message you want to promote. The first thing that comes to most people’s minds are printed t-shirts… but there are many other items you can use to make your company stand out from the crowd.The following are eight simple ways you can use promotional products on the Internet.Promote Your Company’s WebsiteThis is the first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think of how they should use promotional products. But some people over look this. Every item you choose to promote your business should include your web site address on it.Find Promotional Items That Fit Your NicheYou can always find certain items that will compliment your type of business – items that you know your customers will use often! For Example: If you sell bicycles, it would be a good idea to include a free water bottle that has your logo on it every time someone purchases a bicycle. If you have an online drug store, you could give away pill organizers with your sites name and web address printed on them.Free Contests and DrawingsA great way to get more people to sign up for your newsletter is to hold monthly, weekly, or daily contest drawings. The winner of the drawing would receive a promotional product with your URL on it. Since everyone loves to win stuff, more people would be willing to give you their email address. And if you make the product something that relates to your business, the people who sign up are more likely to be targeted.Motivate Customer to Buy MoreYou can use promotional products to entice your customers to buy more products than they normally would have. How? By bundling multiple products a long with a promotional item. For example, instead of your customer buying 1 ebook, you also offer them a package deal of two ebooks and a free promotional item.The promotional product can even be something related to the products you’re bundling it with. If you’re selling weight loss information, why not use a “step counter as a bonus? If you’re selling cookbooks, offer an apron. There are hundreds of products that you can put your logo on… find one that compliments your products!Reward Your Best AffiliatesConsider thanking your top affiliates by giving them a promotional product. This shows them that you truly appreciate the fact that they promote your products. You can send gifts to your affiliate partners when they reach a certain goal, or you can give gifts to your top affiliates during the holidays. By rewarding your affiliates, you build a stronger relationship with them. They will thank you by continuing to promote your business.Thank Your Loyal CustomersJust like thanking your top affiliates, you should also consider thanking loyal customers. You can express gratitude to customers that repeatedly by your products, customers who buy your high-ticket items, or both! Promotional items remind your clients that the relationship you share with them is important to you.Create a Competitive AdvantageBecause of increased competition, it’s getting tougher than ever to compete online. You can use promotional items as a way to show your customers that you are different than your competitors. Instead of appearing as “just another company”, you can demonstrate that you are unique. When someone receives a promotional item from you they are more likely to remember you over your competition.Promote a New ProductIf you are launching a new product, you can capture your audience attention and publicize it by using promotional items. At the very least, you should send a promotional item to your top customers when a new product comes out. You might also want to consider sending items to your top affiliates too if you have a new product they can promote for you.My goal is to get you to think of new ways to use promotional products. I hope you will implement some of the ideas I have laid out here and also brain storm different ways to use them. If used correctly, these little trinkets can help you say ahead of your competitors!

Brilliant Business Ideas: Turn Useless By-Products Into Cash

Anybody who is looking for brilliant business ideas needs to study the life of a man called Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Corporation.In case you don’t know who this man is, Henry Ford was the inventor of the Ford Model T – the first mass-produced automobile in the world. The man literally invented the assembly line which is used in industries all over the world today. The assembly line invention was significant because it enabled Ford to increase production and produce many more cars than before.But what I want to focus this post on was another business he was involved in which very few people took interest in. This business genius took the wood scraps that were left over from the production of his Model T’s and turned them into charcoal briquettes (used in cooking and heating).This “side venture” (built off of by-products) became so profitable that he built a separate charcoal plant and founded the Ford Charcoal Company, which was later renamed Kingsford.There are obvious by-products or waste that are generated by many enterprises. To give an example, there is saw dust which is generated by sawmills. This can be put to a lot of profitable use. For instance it can manufacture particleboard and even fireplace logs.It is said that every art of creation has a byproduct which means that whatever business you are doing or want to do is sure to generate “waste” which is actually a byproduct that you can turn into huge profits.A few of the brilliant business start-up ideas in my book involve making huge profits from byproducts and they don’t have to be your own byproducts. I hope that gets you thinking in the right direction.But let me tell you another true story from right here in Kenya about a company that made huge profits from the waste it was generating.Everybody knows about Nation newspapers. The company publishes the highest circulating daily newspaper in the region. A few years ago they had a serious problem. The price of oil, as always was on the rise and the cost of distributing their newspapers was growing alarmingly. The waste they generated was the extra space in the huge pick up vans that remained when the newspapers were packed to be delivered to various towns and destinations. There was even more “waste” when the van came back from delivering the newspapers virtually empty. What a waste.And so they devised a way to turn the “waste” or by-product into huge sums of money. They launched a courier service to deliver letters and packages all over the country. They called the company Nation couriers. Immediately they had a huge advantage because newspapers are delivered daily and they usually have a very tight delivery schedule because daily newspapers are perishable products that must be delivered on time. Today’s newspaper cannot be sold tomorrow. It has to be sold today and preferably early in the day. And so Nation courier could promise it’s customers that the package will reach it’s destination without fail the next morning.This brand new overnight courier service created from a “waste product” has made huge profits for the Nation media group and also makes their newspaper delivery very efficient.Take a closer look around you.What is being wasted?Can you turn it into profits?