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Money out of thin air - Starting with zero budget

by Rooso
8 replies
I am needing some cash to feed a project I am mulling over and, at our house, money is tight. Our seven kids eat up any extra money and with Christmas coming up...there is no play money for ol' Rooso. So I looked for a free, no-money-down solution to drum up a few bucks. Here's what I came up with.

Teespring, and the sites similar to it, let me put an item out to market with zero risk and a slight chance to make a dollar or two. I cobbled together a few t-shirt ideas and picked what I thought was the best one. A quick search revealed nothing similar had been sold on Teespring before so I launched my campaign.

I shared the link with my few Facebook friends and my wife did the same on her page. A couple of 'likes' but our friends aren't the target audience anyways.

I have been wanting to try out the Facebook ads for awhile now and the wife and I decided we would buy $5 worth of ad time spread out over four days. I targeted people who like the topic of the t-shirt and who also purchase clothing online.

That narrowed the pool down to around 120,000. For my five bucks Facebook said I could reach a few hundred of them each day. Cool.

I also posted a link to the t-shirt on reddit and imgur. I had never used either of those sites before so I got spanking new accounts for both.

That was today. The ad launched this morning and I posted the link to those two sites this evening. Three people have clicked the Facebook ad out of about 400 but no sales.

I am not expecting miracles. I am learning. This is my experiment to see if I can use a free platform such as Teespring to generate a couple hundred dollars. I will add another t-shirt tomorrow when I finish its design and target another niche.

I will watch reddit and imgur to see if the t-shirt I posted today gets any attention. If it doesn't I will try again with the second one.

What other platforms can I use to promote a t-shirt in hopes of getting a sale or two?
#air #budget #money #starting #thin
  • Profile picture of the author kMatthews
    BOOOM! You are allready way past most marketers online. Congrats on taking action. Hopefully those ads pay off big time. Keep testing your ads and when you find a winner scale. If you can find a authority in the tee shirt selling world and ask if he would mentor you! If you want to cut your learning curve in half learn from a mentor and coach if possible!
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    • Profile picture of the author Rooso
      Originally Posted by kMatthews View Post

      If you can find a authority in the tee shirt selling world and ask if he would mentor you! If you want to cut your learning curve in half learn from a mentor and coach if possible!
      Great advice! I will look around WF and see who is a t-shirt sales guru. Seems like I remember someone on here saying they are doing something very similar and being very successful with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Miguelito203
    Originally Posted by Rooso View Post

    I am needing some cash to feed a project I am mulling over and, at our house, money is tight. Our seven kids eat up any extra money and with Christmas coming up...there is no play money for ol' Rooso. So I looked for a free, no-money-down solution to drum up a few bucks. Here's what I came up with.

    Teespring, and the sites similar to it, let me put an item out to market with zero risk and a slight chance to make a dollar or two. I cobbled together a few t-shirt ideas and picked what I thought was the best one. A quick search revealed nothing similar had been sold on Teespring before so I launched my campaign.

    I shared the link with my few Facebook friends and my wife did the same on her page. A couple of 'likes' but our friends aren't the target audience anyways.

    I have been wanting to try out the Facebook ads for awhile now and the wife and I decided we would buy $5 worth of ad time spread out over four days. I targeted people who like the topic of the t-shirt and who also purchase clothing online.

    That narrowed the pool down to around 120,000. For my five bucks Facebook said I could reach a few hundred of them each day. Cool.

    I also posted a link to the t-shirt on reddit and imgur. I had never used either of those sites before so I got spanking new accounts for both.

    That was today. The ad launched this morning and I posted the link to those two sites this evening. Three people have clicked the Facebook ad out of about 400 but no sales.

    I am not expecting miracles. I am learning. This is my experiment to see if I can use a free platform such as Teespring to generate a couple hundred dollars. I will add another t-shirt tomorrow when I finish its design and target another niche.

    I will watch reddit and imgur to see if the t-shirt I posted today gets any attention. If it doesn't I will try again with the second one.

    What other platforms can I use to promote a t-shirt in hopes of getting a sale or two?
    The people that I know that have been successful with Tee Spring and sites like it have large social media followings on Youtube and such. I'm also almost positive that you have to sell a certain quantity before Tee Spring will start shipping stuff. Before you spend all of your money on ads, you should consider learning an actual long-term business model like niche blogging (the review-site model) or doing some writing, where you can either get paid by submitting your written content to sites or by doing some research and writing content for other marketers.

    Joey
    Signature
    Learn How to Snipe in 2015 and Generate $750+ per Month in Record Time (Product Launches) - Great For Back-to-School, Fall & Holiday Seasons!
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  • Profile picture of the author Rooso
    Thanks for the suggestion, Joey. I suck at writing. I have tried to start a couple of blogs but even I wouldn't read them. I agree that writing is a great way to make money without spending anything but I am just not good at it.

    As for spending all our money on ads, we won't. Just the $5. If it pays off great, if we get no sales that's ok, too. I don't have a huge social following, I rarely ever post on Facebook, never on Twitter.

    But I will keep trying with the t-shirts on Teespring. I will hit on a winner eventually.
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  • Profile picture of the author PinkStar
    Sounds like you're off to a good start.
    I would suggest that you join any of the various fb groups that allow or are dedicated to ads where you can post for free while you're at it.
    Signature
    Move it along folks, nothing to see here
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      I can tell you you're going to have a tough time profiting from Teespring with that kind of budget.

      Most people it takes 10 to 15 campaigns before tipping. It is just like anything, it takes time to learn and takes trial and error to hit a winning campaign.

      You might get lucky but the odds are not on your side

      If you do not have $500 to $1,000 to invest in T spring I honestly would not waste your time.

      If you think differently you are expecting Miracles



      - Robert Andrew
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      • Profile picture of the author Rooso
        Originally Posted by discrat View Post

        If you do not have $500 to $1,000 to invest in T spring I honestly would not waste your time.
        What is the $500 to $1000 spent on? Advertising?

        Seems like a gamble to me to spend $500 advertising a t-shirt with an expiration date. I would have to sell 150 or more just to get my money back and break even. I saw on the main page where some designs had sold several thousand but I was thinking it was from those who had been in the game a long time, had a large social media following, and knew how to time the perfect launch.

        I didn't think it was overly optimistic to expect less than ten sales. I think if I come up with a good design with broad enough appeal it will sell a few copies.

        I will try a few more designs. I want to learn about Facebook ads anyways and this gives me good learning experience. Even if it is only $5 at a time.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rooso
      Originally Posted by PinkStar View Post

      I would suggest that you join any of the various fb groups that allow or are dedicated to ads where you can post for free while you're at it.
      I didn't think about looking for Facebook groups. Awesome idea! Thank you!
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