How to Set Up Your Own Apparel and Novelty Item Business for Free

Do you have an opinion on a hot topic like abortion, Harry Potter, gays in the military, President Bush, gay marriage, Hillary Clinton, or the Sopranos? Well, say it with a t-shirt! Even better, you can get your message out there and get paid for it. Before the digital revolution, printing your own t-shirt designs involved outrageous set up and printing costs.

Thanks to advances in print-on-demand equipment and internet companies like Zazzle.com, you can get your business set up for free in a matter of minutes!

The first stumbling block that people worry about most is: "I'm not an artist. How can I create graphics for my items?" Well, it's a lot simpler than you think. Some ideas can be expressed well enough with words, a good color design, and the right font. For example, one of my products is a tight-fitting baby doll t-shirt that's all black with the words: "If you can read this, you're invading my space." in tiny cursive lettering (see Example A). I just had the text in my head and Zazzle.com supplied the rest. In about ten minutes, I made a fun and sassy t-shirt for ladies who like go out to dance but don't wanted to be attacked by the wolfhounds.

But, what if you do need graphics to express your idea? What then? Well, let's look at a recent blog by Jacqueline Fitzgerald for inspiration. The title of her blog is, "Don't Ask, Who Cares? - Join the Military - Gay Or Straight- Be All You Can Be!!" I admit that's a bit wordy for a t-shirt, but what if she took the "Don't Ask, Who Cares?" part and combined it with a gay-friendly image? It would be a perfect shirt to market to the LGBT community. My first thought is of two good looking army men sitting in a jeep grinning and waving their hands. Sounds crazy to illustrate that, right? It can be done with a few cheap toys, a digital camera, and an inexpensive paint program like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements. First you buy the toys - dollar stores, flea markets, and thrift shops are great for this - and then you pose and photograph them with the right backdrop. I'd suggest a pile of dirt outside, stone walk way that looks like a gravel road, or maybe on a dead end street. If you zoom in correctly with the camera, these back drops can look amazingly convincing.

Once you have the picture uploaded to your computer, all you have to do is resize it according to the guidelines of the site you're using. For example, with Zazzle.com the image area you have to work with is 12" wide by 14" high or 14" high by 12" wide. It depends on whether or not you want your image oriented horizontally or vertically. The file resolution should be 150 ppi. If you want to add text in your own fonts, then you can do it in the paint program. If not, you have the option with Zazzle.com to shrink the image and add text in their fonts.

One side note about copyright though, you always want to publish images you create and not images that rightfully belong to someone else. In the case of this image I'd suggest applying a watercolor or sketch filter to make it look more like a drawing than a photo. That makes using the toy models acceptable under Fair Usage laws.

If that sounds a bit complex for you, there are simpler ways. Your own digital photo library is a good source of graphics. At least three of my shirts are just photos of my dog with funny captions. You can also buy inexpensive clip art packages for around $50 that aren't restricted by copyright laws. Another good source is to look for free "dingbat" fonts on the Internet. Dingbats are pictorial images embedded in the font instead of letters. If the font has a free commercial use license, then that apply to the images in the font as well. Also, don't forget, choice the right matching color and style of shirt can add a lot to your overall design.

If you've seen a lot of ads on the internet, I'm sure you've noticed by now that I've exclusively referred to Zazzle.com even though Café Press is more well known. There are several reasons for this. First of all, Zazzle.com offers a powerful design tool that is simple for novices to use. Secondly, you can set your products to be customizable so that your artwork can appear on different types of shirts, boxer shorts, baseball caps, coffee mugs or any other item they offer. With Café Press, you have to create every product individually. The advantage to this is that the more items your design can be applied to, the more chances you have to sell them. But, Zazzle.com's most powerful weapon is the marketing tool they supply you with. It's a Flash panel that shows your products and can be embedded on almost any webpage you own, even a MySpace page.

To see mine in action, go to http://www.myspace.com/tsmith1975

If you're a first timer and you want to experiment, Zazzle.com is your best choice because Café Press limits the number of products you can sell unless you pay for a Premium Shop every month. Signing up with Zazzle.com is very easy and their intuitive site will practically walk you through every step of the process from registration to publishing your designs. They even offer tutorials on marketing your products and increasing your sales earnings. Most importantly, the only thing it costs you to launch your new apparel business is time. Even that is a minimal cost, because Zazzle.com is so easy to use you can have your new business up and running in less than a half-hour.

But don't just take my word for it, go there and check it out for yourself.