New Site. New Strategies. New Lessons for YOU!
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New Site. New Strategies. New Lessons for YOU!
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My T-shirt tutorial website is live, and I have never been more excited about a website launch! Why? Because for the first time I feel like I’m doing things in the RIGHT order.
Even though 2 Create a Website has had tremendous amounts of success, I always felt like I did a lot of things backwards. For example, I waited way too long to start a list, sell products, etc. That’s largely because I didn’t have to.
Having said that, it worked very well for me because I got an early start and was able to capitalize on search engine optimization, residual affiliate programs that I still earn from today, and other advantages you gain as an early adopter. But things have evolved since I launched this site, and my strategy has to evolve as well.
When I launched a website many years ago, I’d focus on building up a ton of content for search engine traffic and monetize that free info with affiliate links ads. That won’t work as well today. I also care more about building a list and selling my OWN products instead of someone else’s.
In this post, I will discuss what I am doing differently with my new site and how I’ve grown in a business sense. But first…
Say Hello to Passive Shirt Profits!
If you’ve been following me lately, you can’t be surprised about a new website.
Since getting into Merch by Amazon last fall, I have been completely obsessed with print on demand—the process of uploading an image, adding it to a product, and earning a royalty when it’s sold. By the end of this year, I will cross the six-figure mark in royalties, and most of those earnings have come recently.
I’ve also branched out and am selling designs in over 25 different niches/topics thanks to Merch. Not bad for a part-time gig!
I decided to create Passive Shirt Profits for two main reasons:
- Diversify my income: I want to diversify my income with courses and not just rely on the very unreliable POD income.
- Fill a gap in the market: There is a gap in the market when it comes to helping newbies learn software as it relates to creating T-shirt designs.
I keep hearing people in the POD world complain about Photoshop or Illustrator being difficult to learn, and I say to myself, "That’s ’cause you haven’t taken my courses!" 😀
I don’t want to just focus on individual print on demand sites like Merch By Amazon.
I want to teach practical skills such as coming up with creative shirt concepts for many niches (one of my secret weapons with Merch By Amazon) and software. It seems so many people are doing Merch sites and courses with a lot of the same info. I want mine to include more practical lessons.
That’s why it’s important to research what potential competitors are doing and pay attention to comments in private groups, forums, etc. I used this as inspiration for my upcoming courses.
With that being said, let’s get into what I’m doing differently…
I Started an Email List Early
I will never, ever, ever launch another site again without having an email list.
I didn’t launch one for this site until 2010. By that time, 2 Create a Website was eight years old! I also did not have any products to sell at the time, so I didn’t really utilize my email list to the fullest.
This time I started an email list immediately, and thanks to my private group and podcast, I already have 31 subscribers after just 2 weeks.
The Podcasting Hype is Real
I launched my PSP Podcast on May 29th without announcing it, and had 30+ downloads and two email subscribers within the first week. (I have a call to action for my list at the end of the episodes.)
That goes to show that people are searching and listening to podcasts about Merch and print on demand, so choosing that as one of my traffic methods seems to have been a good choice. Podcasting is always a great option for money/business topics anyway.
After two weeks, I’ve already had 150 downloads!