Diesel Laws

WRITTEN AUG 08 -

Hi everyone,

I am by no means an expert, but I do have some great, simple tips and hints that can help get you noticed and on your way to selling your shirts. These may have been covered on the forums, but I wanted to streamline it a bit and put it all in one tight package.

First, I recommend that you get familiar with copying images and links on Redbubble.com by reading the information on the forums to get a basic idea of it all.

Take note of these ideas, and if you have any success since reading this article, drop the thumbnail of your of your sold shirt here with an embedded link to that shirt so we can congratulate you!

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So here we go, starting with the most obvious thing first -

1. ONLY POST THE BEST DESIGNS IN YOUR PROFILE
I can’t stress this enough, if your design is not as good as it could be, it will bring down your entire portfolio – so go through your portfolio and be harsh in culling anything that doesn’t receive much attention or look as good as the rest. It is much better to have 5 amazing pieces than 30 half decent ones!

2.SHOWING A HIGHER QUALITY PREVIEW IN THE SIDE BAR
You may be aware that you can show a larger preview of your work in the right hand side bar, but this can often be the low quality image that we copy directly off the website. I would recommend for those tech-savvy people, to use a high quality preview file, showing the whole image or using only a zoomed in section of your image.

This will give your customers a much better understanding of the quality they will get from the lines/detail of your work. You will notice on most of my works, like this
one, I have included a higher quality preview image in the right hand side bar, in this case it even has a custom watermark – ooh snazzy!

There is a simple way to do this – first, after you have uploaded your shirt, go back into the program you used to make the design. Open that design and make it smaller – Width 500px and save it as a jpg. You can make it much larger than this, but I find it to be the best size.

Then, upload the jpg to a website like Flickr, Facebook, Myspace or anywhere you can upload a picture. Then copy the link for where that picture is saved – _this can usually be done by right clicking on the image, going to Properties and copying the entire Address (URL).

Once you have that link copied, Edit your recently uploaded shirt, and in the description box, after your words, put in an exclamation mark , followed by the link, http://example.com/image.jpg and then follow that with another exclamation point. Redbubble.com uses the exclamation marks as brackets to display images, much like the inverted commas are used to display someone speaking.

3. USING LINKED THUMBNAILS AROUND REDBUBBLE
Example:

Linked Thumbnails are a visual tease, advertising your work. Displayed in the right place they can be very effective. I would recommend going that one step further and displaying your best designs on your home page, shirt previews and in the forums (when appropriate).

This is a great example of using linked thumbnails to display your other work – Here , and if you click through to his home page you will see rudeboyskunk has displayed his best work again, in linked thumbnail form.

It is actually quite simple to display linked thumbnails around your site. First, go to your home page (by clicking on your name at the top right of the page). In the Clothing section, click on the View All Clothing link. This will display all your clothing works in thumbnail format.

For this example (I’m using Internet Explorer), right click on the thumbnail you want to use. Go to Properties and copy the full Address (URL). It is best to open up Notepad, or Microsoft Word and paste the link into there.
Then, under the thumbnail you just clicked on, right click on the Name of the thumbnail, go to Properties and copy the full Address (URL). Paste this under the thumbnail link in Notepad or Microsoft Word. You should have something like this -

http://images-1.redbubble.net/img/clothing/bodycolor:black/cropped/
size:small/style:mens/view:main/151516 EXAMPLE SHIRT.jpg (IMAGE LINK)

http://www.redbubble.com/people/diesellaws/clothing/1572613 EXAMPLE SHIRT (PAGE LINK)

Now all you need is to put them together (the end result will look something like this):

!IMAGE LINK!:PAGE LINK

Then next thing to do is copy that whole lot of text and paste it into your profile section, description, emails and forums. Do the same thing for every thumbnail you want to display. It may be a bit time consuming, but it looks professional and if and you are willing to put in the effort, it will pay off.

4. REPLYING TO COMMENTS/LEAVING COMMENTS/THANKING PEOPLE
No matter how many things are taking up your time in this busy world, there is never an excuse for not replying to, commenting on and Watchlist-ing another artist. This simple (but often forgotten) gesture will start discussions, and more often than not, increase the views of your work. Every now and then, I head to the Clothing page and view the recent works – then I pick out a few I like and comment them, and in most cases, favourite them. If their portfolio is really good, I will even add the artist to my Watchlist.

When someone leaves a comment on your work, make a point to reply back to them straight away, thanking them for their comment. They have taken the time to go through the mass of submissions, to end up on your work and gone even further to leave you a comment! You should always thank them for that!

Also, if you like an artist, send them a Bubblemail. It takes two seconds to do and it is great for getting tips and building a friendship. When I first started on RB I was really impressed with thickblackoutline , so, I sent her a Bubblemail (and added her to my Watchlist. It wasn’t long before I received some very useful tips and inspiration, and we are now in the process of co-hosting a group.

If an artist inspires you, or you have a question, do not be afraid to ask! You never know what kind of tips they will pass on and, they may even like your work!

5. PROMOTING ON OTHER WEBSITES
I’m sure you are all aware of how advertising on other websites can increase sales. But most of you aren’t aware that the best advertising is right in front of you!

Most people have a Facebook, Myspace and or Bebo etc.

On Facebook, you can post pictures of your artwork in your Photos section – and put a link to the shirt in the description! This will get sent to all your friends on their homepage letting them know that you have just uploaded a new picture – think of how many friends may be interested to know you have just uploaded a Darth Vader Rocks” T-shirt!.

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I really hope these tips help you and I would love to know how you went since implementing some of these hints. If you like, you can send me a Bubblemail!

Good luck,

Diesel Laws

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LINK TO THIS PAGE – http://www.redbubble.com/people/diesellaws/journal/1574934-how-to-sell-shirts-hints-and-tips
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