I had a post on this site for a giant list of t-shirt blogs that was very popular but haven’t updated it in a while. I had their page rank in the list so you could see how important google views the sites but there is a lot more information to compare all these sites.

Andy over at hide your arms made the site http://t-shirtblo.gs/
A good idea but a voting system isn’t the best way I would compare all the site. What ends up happening is blogs tell their readers to go vote for them on the site so they can be number one.

I then ran across the holy grail of t-shirt blog lists. Check out http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/T-shirts
You can sort the sites by Google PR, Alexa ranking, Compete rank and many more. Find the most popular blogs and contact the owners to get your shirts seen by as many people as possible.

Also check out this article about how to talk to bloggers

Ohh yeah sorry wasn’t a top 20 list at all. I just liked the sound of it. Rank the blogs by a couple of different ways at http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/T-shirts

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Top 20 T-Shirt Blogs

I just put up a page for my book recommendations. You can check it out on the very top navigation of the site on the far right. Or you can just click here book recommendations

Also post some comments on the books I missed. I am going to go through and add some more in the next week and want to know of anything I missed.

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Book Recommendations for Clothing Company Owners

Threads not Dead is an e-book written by Jeff Finley of Go Media with the help of many big names in the clothing industry (including myself).

Here is the description

What if the most prolific and influential people in the modern t-shirt design scene got together and discussed everything they wish they knew when they started? That’s exactly what we have here. Inside these 10 chapters is 117 pages of essential strategy pulled from the success and failures of some of the best in the biz. Key topics include design, freelancing, band merchandise, personal branding, marketing, sales, printing & production, retail, e-commerce, and more.

Pre-order the book today for $49.95 and get it on April 19th.

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New e-book about starting a clothing company: releases on 4/19

By Liz at Pop Culture Tees

Have you ever read a mission statement that starts something like this?:

“Brand X is a brand that represents urban culture and is for creative edgy people everywhere. Every product of Brand X incorporates our unique vision, style, and attitude. We’re not just a t-shirt shop, we’re a culture…”

Horrible, right? Because there’s a half dozen problems with this:

1. Of course your products are unique… but what actually makes them different from anyone else’s?
2. T-Shirts are not culture, and they’re not a representation of the entirety of urban culture or anything else. They’re clothing. And unless you’re really lucky, they reflect pop culture, not create it.
3. Lots of words without saying much. Buzz words are cheap, and you can string them together to make something that sounds great. Problem is, they usually don’t mean anything.
4. Trying to defining and classify your customers is a great way to drive would be buyers away. If I don’t feel like I’m edgy and creative person, I’m not going to feel like your tees are for me.

This isn’t a real mission statement, but it is inspired by (and in some spots roughly borrowed from) dozens I’ve read from submissions to the site, and around the web. Your mission statement says who you are, and what you’re about, so why short change yourself by writing a bad one that doesn’t really say much at all?

If you want to write a great mission statement, follow these 3 simple rules:

1. Tell people where you came from: how your brand started, what was the inspiration, why are you doing what you are.
2. Tell people what’s really unique about your brand: Maybe all your tees and ink are organic or maybe your designs are all inspired by your favorite Star War characters, or maybe you donate 10% of each sale to the WWF. Whatever it is, make it plain and easy to understand.
3. Tell people what your designs are about: This is hard if you don’t have a theme that connects your clothing line (hint: your brand will be stronger if you have a central theme), but you should be able to talk about what connects all your designs and what they’re about.

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How to write a Mission Statement for your clothing company

I saw this on smallbiztrends.com

Combining social media marketing with traditional branding efforts may be the wave of the future. After all branding is one area social media can help social media the most, establishing brand identity in a way that once required much larger budgets. The following roundup looks at social media, branding, small business and more.

Branding & Sales

What does your branding say about you? Your brand is important especially in terms of how it communicates to your target market or audience. Does your brand really say what you intend or are you unintentionally communicating a message that does not portray you in the best possible light. Urbane Technology Solutions.

What are the reasons for a business owner to sell? There may be a couple of reasons why owners may wish to sell their business, but according to business broker Scott Messinger, one stands out above all others. If you think he’s being overly simplistic, just take a look at his guest post and judge for yourself. Noobpreneur.com

Social Tools

Are you using the new LinkedIn buttons? The Web’s top business networking site has added a further social marketing and Search Engine Optimization tool similar to share buttons already found on other social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Using networking tools like the new LinkedIn button can have many positive results for your networking and marketing efforts. Test the new application today. SEO Tips and Updates

Could branding threaten the location-based social media revolution? Mir Rooshanak argues that it might with brands like Coke and Pepsi lining up to sponsor SCVNGR and Foursquare respectively. This, he argues, is much different than the two big brands merely both having a presence on Facebook. What do you think? How much important is location-based social media to your small business and will major corporate branding effect how or if you use the service. UPrinting.com

10 tools to manage online presence. Ryan Hanley, an insurance broker from Albany, is quick to point out he’s not a social media expert, but we think his list of tools for building brand online are really worth a look. As Ryan points out, there are tons of tools available to create your online presence and the key is to select the right ones for you. RyanHanley.com

Community Building

Are you building community or just adding followers? Could “less followers” be the new “more followers?” If this doesn’t make sense to you, perhaps your goals in social media aren’t quite what they should be. This wake up call to social media marketers looks at the truth behind what constitutes success in the social media sphere, and how to create connections the old fashioned way…one relationship at a time. SocialMouth

Do you respond? If not, be aware there may be a price to pay. The fact is that social media is social and when you behave in a less than social manner you are making a definite statement about your brand. Imagine if you never answered phone calls, or didn’t talk to someone when they came to your office to see you. Jason Kienbaum has some further thoughts on the repercussions of being unresponsive in social media. Business Done Now

Your Message

Why context not content is king. If social media networking success isn’t just about the sheer number of followers you can amass, it may be time to look at some other myths out there about building a brand on the social Web. Take the argument that “content is king”, as an example. But as Ivan Walsh points out, content if unrelated to your readers and what they might be searching for, is useless. Bloggertone

A strategy for building content that works. If the key to great social media branding is creating content that suits your customer’s or viewer’s needs, than the system by which you develop that content is also important. Enter John Jantsch’s suggestions for creating a “content lead generation system” as an important step toward creating and sharing not just any content but the content that really matters. Duct Tape Marketing

Strategy

Do you have a strategy for your social media branding? If so, what is it and how does it apply to targeting the audience and customers you’re after? Ann Evanston suggests an approach that builds networks, adds value, and creates your brand in the social media space. Ignore strategy at your own peril. Take a conscious look at how to use social media to build the brand you want. Warrior Prenuer

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Social Brading Basics

Simple, free and only takes a few seconds.

Viral marketing on Facebook is one of the most effective ways to brand your company and get more sales. There are a few techniques that I have stumbled upon over the years that I would like to share with you. All these ideas are free and take up very little time. Consider them to be my secret pack of tricks and tips for Facebook. If you have done research on running ads on Facebook, I am sure what you read was either negative or people saying its just not worth it. When compared to some of the free techniques I have come up with, you can decide whats most effective for your brand.

One tip out of many is the usage of the Facebook photo tag feature.

By tagging your fans who are wearing your brands shirt, any one who sees the picture will be drawn towards that selection and be more inclined to go further onto the clothing lines page. In past experiences, people start commenting on the picture, announcing what size they want and even reposting it to their friends. The whole point of Facebook is that you can market from the inside out. This simple tagging feature allows you to enter in your own name if you want people to add you vs your brand, or you can type in your clothing lines website like the picture shown below. It is likely that your Facebook group gets viewed less then the members in it. By doing this simple tagging it gives everyone that looks at the picture a reminder of what brand they are wearing and where to get it. It will also give you an idea of other peoples reaction to your shirt. Encourage people who make purchases to put up a picture of them sporting it. The first thing that people do on Facebook is skim through all the photos, use that to your advantage.

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Viral Marketing On Facebook 101

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T-shirt Packaging

By Adam Hendle at I am the trend

After having several companies ask how to get blogs to post about them I decided to throw this video together to give a few tips.

1. Be Personal
2. Be Persistent
3. Send Products
4. Offer Affiliate Programs.

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How to get more blogs to post about you

I was reading Cashflow Quadrant and I thought a lot of clothing companies could benefit from this information. The cash flow Quadrant has 4 sections. The left side is an Employee and Self-employed and the right side is a Business owner and Investor. So many clothing companies with me included are actually just self employed and true businesses.

The following is an excerpt from the book

“Can you personally make a better hamburger then McDonald’s?”

So far 100% of the people I have talked with have talked with about their new idea have said “yes”. They can all prepare, cook, and serve a better quality hamburger then McDonald’s.

At this point , I ask them the next question: “Can you personally build a better business system than McDonald’s?

Some people see the difference immediately, and some do not. And I would say the difference is whether the person is fixated on the left side of the Quadrant, which is focused on the idea of the better burger, or on the right side of the quadrant, which is focused on the system of business.

I do my best to explain that there are a lot of entreprenuers out there offering far superior products or services than are offered by the mega-rich multinational corporations, just as there are billions of people who can make a better burger than McDonald’s But only McDonald’s has the system that has served billions of burgers.

-Robert Kiyosaki “Cashflow Quadrant”

This quote really opened my eyes that the product isn’t the only thing to worry about and I need to focus on creating a strong system for my clothing company to succeed. It’s not all about the product and the sooner you understand that and work on all the other areas of your business the sooner you will succeed.

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It’s not just about the product

Andy over at Hide Your Arms wrote this article about 410bc’s new packaging.

410BC sent me a tee a little while back (which will likely be posted soon), and I loved the packaging that it came in so much that I meticulously peeled away the customs label, 410BC return address sticker, my address, the postage sticker, and a lot of the tape the box was wrapped in to reveal a box that was far too nice to be thrown in the bin, and so will now house HYA related gubbins. click here to read the rest

- Andy

Really awesome job by 410 bc to create packaging that makes people talk about. Here am I am blogging about it because I saw it on another persons site. Stuff like this does get expensive and it’s hard to justify spending the extra money for boxes but I think it is well worth the money when you’ve established your clothing line. Check out the article above for more pics of the boxes, there is also an inside print to.

- Jon Kruse

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410 BC Packaging.