At any rate, Sammi prods at the guys trying to get information on what happened the night before at the club with Ronni. They do not lie, but they just withhold the whole three way Ronni tongue twister.

Back at the condo, we rest and do some more reading. Dan is zooming through Angels and Demons. I’m really getting into Luthiel’s Song now. I was a little nervous about reading the book at first, since I know the author (Robert Fanney, who publishes on AC occasionally. Check him out!). I didn’t want to have to lie to him about liking the novel, but now I can honestly say, Good book, Robert!

Maybe she was from south Jersey and was a Phillies fan, I thought. I then read a piece of an interview with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie where he angrily denounced Snooki and her fellow Jersey Shore co-stars for giving the Garden State a bad name. Christie pointed out that Snooki and the others were not native New Jerseyans but were from New York. So there!

New Orleans businessman Josh Harvey agrees that Pitt will make a great mayor for the city. He took the original t-shirt design from Bayer and printed up a batch of “Brad Pitt for Mayor” t-shirts. The t-shirts can be purchased for $20 at the Storyville T-t-shirt shopping on Magazine Street. They have been flying out the door as local residents are scooping them up as fast as tourists coming in to browse. A portion of all sales will be donated to Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation.

Suppose we are thinking about putting NASA photos on T-shirts. (We can use them for free.) Here are some words people may be using: astronomy, universe, galaxy, cosmos, space, nebula, star (although this is more likely used for movie stars), stelar, solar system, planet, moon, sun, mercury, venus, earth, mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune, pluto, comet, asteroid,… and people may combine those with telescope, hubble, photo, photograph, image,…

Then I discovered, actually by accident, we had created “a brand”. People came to expect a certain element of surprise in our cartoons, a twist, a Far Side-like experience. I mention the Far Side for several reasons. Gary Larson was a major influence on my development, and several critics compared the cartoon to it. I considered that the ultimate compliment of course, and still greatly admire Larson’s work. At times, the influence was so strong, I had to walk a thin line, and remember, The Far Side was his brand. What could I do to make mine different, yet market to a similar niche of people?

You need to understand your recipients, most obviously what type of ring binder will they find most acceptable. Having them pick up and take away a custom ring binder is not enough. You must provide something that they will use on a daily basis. Your logo in a cupboard does not give a return on your investment.

While creating your products digitally (may sound difficult but it is not), and if you frequent the forums, other creators/shopkeepers are very helpful, continue article marketing, social bookmarking, opt-in emailing (if you wish, many don’t like it), or whatever your marketing style is. I try to use a little of each and even set a small budget on Google AdWords for several of the stores (and even specific products in some ads that lead to the destination product itself instead of main landing page. This can be done with article marketing as well with embedded links (these are the blue hyperlinks you see in this, and other articles.