Friday, May 25, 2007

Oldies but Goodies - Barking Biscuit Tshirts

I've been in business almost 9 years, and constantly wonder about the best way to market The Barking Biscuit. I don't believe in advertising (way too costly for a small business). Over the years, I've been contacted by various magazines, newspapers, and internet advertising sales people...some of the costs were truly amazing. I guess my website must give a good impression...some of the costs were in the thousands of dollars just for one advertisement. Yikes.

So, I've tried a few things. One of my early inspirations was to have tshirts printed with different designs, and with my logo and website printed on the back of the shirt between the shoulder blades. These weren't big money makers, but I sold enough shirts on line to pay for all the shirts I gave away. I figured this was a good way to market...it paid for itself and there are lots and lots of people walking around with my logo and web site on their backs.

However, the tshirts sold out and printing costs have gone up a fair bit. I decided to go the Cafe Press route. This is an online service through the U.S. where people can order just about anything they want with your image on it.

So far, I've added 4 of my designs on to Cafe Press. These designs would be printed without my logo and website on the back, but at least maybe I'll still get our images out there.

I'm also going to add a Cafe Press shop with our new cat image (from our catnip labels). So, all in all, there will be 4 of our original 7 designs and 2 new cat designs available on Cafe Press.

Here are the dog designs available:
You can buy "Fire Hydrant" shirts, mugs, bags, whatever by going to: www.cafepress.com/firehydrant

You can buy "Paws to smell the flowers" shirts, mugs, bags, whatever by going to www.cafepress.com/pawstosmell
You can buy "It's a Dog Eat Dog World" shirts, mugs, bags, whatever by going to www.cafepress.com/barkingbiscuit



You can buy "Joy Ride" shirts, mugs, bags, whatever by going to www.cafepress.com/barkingbiscuit2

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How CUTE these shirts are! The second one is my favorite. I'm going to have to get one soon...first we have to catch up...our moving expenses were ridiculous! The cafepress thing is pretty neat.
and....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :-)

Bumbershootska said...

Happy Birthday + a day :) Here's to great year ahead of you
BTW I have one of your shirts, which I adore (the "someone to lean on" design - just genius!)
Good idea to go with cafe Press - I love that site!

It's the Boy's birthday + a day, too isn't it? HB to him too :)

Barking Biscuit said...

Thanks for the Bday wishes! The big five-o is getting frighteningly close!
The Someone To Lean on shirts went really well...a great fund raiser for Canines with a Cause. I think they've sold out...hmmmm...maybe another Cafe Press store is going to be created.