GF: I think it’s evolving really quickly! During the last two years, I’ve been developing so many different aspects. Now I’m feeling more comfortable than ever with my work. It’s time for fun now.

So apparently, Palmer gets an idea from the heavens, and as The Force flows through him and onto the paper, his hand moves on its own accord (Colin swears he’s seen it happen!). Well… maybe not exactly.

Then one day something magical happened. My wife decided to make our son’s birthday cake herself. She was fed up with grocery store cakes and wanted to take a stab at doing it herself. Because she is an artist, it seemed to come natural to her. Then the unveiling, I saw that red stringy Elmo cake, and I knew we had found our destiny. She could make the cakes, and I could run the business side of things. This was going to be simple, or so I thought. “I will just buy her some cake pans and enroll her in some classes and we’ll be off”.

With the introduction of online ordering, the process has gotten quicker and less expensive. No longer are there weeks involved in the graphics design process and the layout set up. Instead of having to have the t-shirt company do all the graphics work and have it approved, now you can do all that work online with a few clicks of a mouse. Making the graphics for your customized t-shirt is as easy as uploading the image you want to use and putting whatever text you want where you want it. With a graphic from a company logo or family picture, you have access to everything you need and can upload in a matter of seconds. Setting up the text for the graphic will then only take minutes. In under 20 minutes, you can complete an entire order. A process that used to take weeks to finish.

If you have some cash, give a way some free products in a contest. Promote the contest as much as possible, to have people come to your site, sign up for a newsletter, or blog, or submit emails about your site to their friends, for a chance to win a free product. This is a great way to increase recognition of your brand, increase SEO, and increase your page rank in Google, all leading to more traffic, more looks at your products, and more sales.

The Material used: Usually each material/brand/size comes with a set of colors that they’re printed on. There isn’t one that provides you with every single color in existence. It would be a great idea to ask the client what material they can afford and then research it, or familiarize yourself with the more popular brands that are being printed on (Examples: American Apparel, Fruit Of the Loom and Hanes). I’ve had several problems with this when I began, so don’t just go creating something that only looks good on a red background that you can’t easily fix, Acttee or something that looks good on a T-Shirt color that’s almost impossible to find. This will save you so much time and trouble.

Its not a bad idea to give some of your biggest fans some free shirts. You’re going to need a shopping cart on your page. GoDaddy has a wonderful site hosting and shopping cart tools. You are also going to have to be able to take orders and ship to your customers in a reasonable amount of time. I might suggest UPS. or USPS. Whichever you think is cheapest and speediest.

Some online websites are saying they are music magazines and getting whatever you will give them in exchange for a review or concert tickets or posters etc. Beware, most are scams designed to get FREE Stuff for the owner.