www.cafepress.com/hometownt

So my shop is getting updated as a reasonable pace. I still have a ton of products to post, but I can only do so much every week with my other 9-5. One thing I've tried to do is set a daily goal of completing one small task on my website that may be more on the mundane/repetitive side, and then allow myself the rest of my free time to spend creating new graphics, searching for new ideas etc. Something helpful to do to spark creativity is to goto the cafepress homepage and do a search for words related to your t-shirt shop, see what other people are doing, don't copy, but llet their creativity spark your creativity. My Hometown State T-Shirt Shop has definitely benefited from this.

Helpful Links

I've found two forums that I think are the absolute hubs for all information/help related to SEO.

seorefuge.com
forums.seochat.com

Check them out, do a search for issues you have questions on, if you don't see an answer that helps post a question, there are tons of very very knowledgeable people on these forums, the amount of knowledge available is almost overwhelming, I could sit there for hours just reading, but I'm trying to focus on my main issues for the moment, and my main issue at the moment is:

getting a sitemap for my CP shop. As it stands you cannot upload an xml sitemap (xml is the format that sitemaps should be in to be recognized by the main search engines). And because xml sitemaps have to be hosted on the domain that the website that is included in the sitemap, CP shop users cannot, as far as I know at this moment, use an xml sitemap for cp hosted shops, because we don't have access to the CP root directory, where the sitemap needs to be. Now...Google, at the Google Webmaster Tools says that you can have a sitemap in RSS feed format, which is basically a .txt file with a list of links and some simple html tags surroudning them, and Google doesn't make it clear if that file has to be hosted on the same domain as the sitemap which is referenced in the sitemap, so I'm thinking I might be able to remotely host my RSS feed and add that URL to my Google Webmaster Tools url's, and then Google will visit the sitemap, which will redirect it to the URl's for my CP shop contained in the sitemap. Still gathering more info on this, I'll let you know if it works.

Pagerank / SEO Toolbar

Pagerank is the ranking google gives each page, based upon how many 'votes' other sites are giving you, by linking to you, I believe there are other factors involved but that is a big one. So to get your page higher on search engines it's important to raise your PageRank, which you can do by getting 'votes' (links) to your page from other sites that have a good Page Rank. The more sites with high Page Rank you can get linking to your site, the better off you are. The SEO toolbar is a cool little tool I just found that tells you what each sites toolbar is, along with a lot of other SEO information. I'm just downloading it tonight, I'll let you know how it works out for me.

Link Building

There's a lot of information out there regarding the concept of 'link building' in your SEO quest. There is a short list of effective ways to get direct links to your site that includes posting on various messageboards, especially those that have a good PageRank with Google and those that have topics related to your shop. Second is posting an article you write on sites such as ezinearticles.com. Sites like this provide articles to websites that want fresh content and don't have the time or means to create it themselves. Write about something you have a lot of knowledge on, at the end of your article you'll have an opportunity to include a link to your site, that link will get crawled by the search engines and in turn get your site crawled. Sites like these get crawled very often due to their new and unique content. Then there's the concept of reciprocal links, trading a link on your site to your link on another's. I've yet to get this one going, I'm still working on my direct links for my Hometown State T-Shirts Shop.

Blogging your Way to The Top

So I have to confess, I started this blog with one thing in mind....get my t-shirt shop indexed by search engines faster and get it crawled more often. So from what I've been reading there are several effective ways to get your shop indexed faster and crawled more often, which is very important for shops like my Hometown State T-Shirt Shop because the more your crawled the more opportunity you have for the SEO you've been doing to your site with the keywords you've been focusing on, to take effect, and change your rankings (hopefully move them up) on the search engines. So some tips I've learned along the way:

1. start a blog, link to your shop
2. write articles for sites like ezine and reference your shop at the end of the article, these sites are constantly crawled by webcrawlers due to their huge amount of new/original content
3. get links on messageboards to your site, and any other reciprocal links you can get
4. update your site daily, more content + more text = search engine happy.
5. use Google's Webmaster Tools to track when the your site gets crawled.

So there are a few tips, these are evolving as the search engines are evolving, so keep in touch, this list could change very shortly as I learn more.

Backup Files!

So my computer went down two days ago and for two days I've dealt with a "apfilter.sys" error coming up on the blue 'Page of Death' when I try to load Windows XP. Then I tried to run in Safe Mode and that didn't help, the computer locked up while loading the Mup.sys driver. So I did some reading online, at work (because my computer didn't work!), and found that this is a very common error that people get. It turns out the apfilter.sys error is somehow related to video drivers/things plugged into usb ports. So...I reinstalled windows, I unplugged anything plugged in via usb (mouse included), reloaded the computer, while it was loading I hit F8 so that a selection screen comes up asking how you want to load windows (safe mode, vga mode, etc.) there is one choice called Directory Services Restore Mode (domain controllers only) and this is the one I chose that finally worked. Immediateley after I got into windows I did a search for the file "apfilter.sys" and deleted all files that came up. I think this file has to do with the laptop mouse pad, but since I use an external mouse I didn't care about deleting those even if it affected the laptop mouse pad, and now Windows works fine. Little lesson out of all this, backup your files. There will be a ton of work you put into your CP shop, including work on shop logos, t-shirts graphics, your 'Favorites' in Internet Explorer that link to all these helpful sites you've found, you don't want it all wasted because of a computer error. I put too much work into www.cafepress.com/hometownt to have that happen to me.

Google

So one of the most exciting/challening parts of starting a website is getting your site indexed by Google and then ultimately getting it to a point where it is high on search rankings for your chosen focused keywords. Obviously before you can be high on a search ranking and actually have to be in their index. I had read that CafePress shops don't take that long to get 'crawled' and picked up by the Google index because CP is such a huge site, and it itself (cafepress.com) is crawled so often by Google, so by default any shops would be crawled often by Google. But I wanted to know exactly when my shop was getting crawled so I discovered the Google Webmaster Tools. Create an account here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/ and put in your site url and Google will tell you if your site has been indexed, when it was indexed, what sites are linking to your site, etc. etc. Check back every now and again to see if any information has been updated. I do this almost daily for my State T Shirt Shop". Enjoy!

Editing A Cafepress Template with Custom HTML

So if you've started your CP shop you've probably selected a template, unless you're one of those that knows HTML real well and wanted to create your site from scratch. I found that using the template and then tweeking it with my own html was the quickest and most efficient way to get my state t-shirt shop up and running. Everytime I thought of an element that the template didn't allow I did a quick search for the html code that would enable me to add it, and after finding the correct section in the Custom Html screen to add it, I got it done.

One tip, this is a must, always save each section of your Custom Html page to a .txt file before editing anything. I include the date in the filename of my backup files (ie. header8_17_07.txt), so that I can always go back to past versions of my 'header' html, 'footer' html, etc, in case I tweak something and it doesn't work out right.

For just about any tweak you want to make you'll find a willing shopowner in the CP forum who will give you a tip on how to do it. So don't be shy, ask away.

Focus!!!!!!!

Okay so for the first couple weeks I've been in graphics mode, designing tons of graphics for my t-shirts. I have a ton more to go, but have had to take breaks here and there and do other things for sanity's sake. I did some more search into search engine optimization and there is so much information it's almost overwhelming. At this point I know I need to optimize every single one of my web pages for 3-5 specific keyword phrases, get my products on froogle, get a myspace page, figure out what squido is , try to get into any directories/search engines I can, includng DMOZ.org, which from what I've read seems nearly impossible, create a sitemap for customers, create a sitemap for google/yahoo/msn, get reciprocal links with keywords in anchor text, etc., etc. etc. So here's my tip of the day, I'm going to try to run with this one also, focus! I'm finding that there is so much that goes into SEO that you need to first get your shop in order before you can give SEO the time and attention it needs and deserves. So I'm going to stop overwhelming myself and go back to finishing off my products, why don't you do the same. Now don't get me wrong I'll still be posting helpful links for SEO topics, but first get your shop in order before you start really sinking your teeth in to them. Focus!

Tip of the Day - Creating T-Shirt Graphics

So the very first step in the process of deciding/starting a CafePress t-shirt shop should be to create some t-shirt graphics and see if you think they are cool enough that people will buy them. I wanted to spend as little money as possible on starting up my shop, so I did a little searching and found an incredible program called Paint.net ( http://www.getpaint.net/ ), that is very very similar to Photoshop, and is completely free. The program runs a little slower than Photoshop for some functions, but the fact that it's free makes up for it. The Paint.net website has a very nice forum where people are more than willing to answer any questions that can't be answered by their FAQ, and the Plug-ins section is especially fun. Find free plug-ins for the software that will allow you to render very cool effects to your pictures/text. I was able to create all the graphics you see at my Hometown State T Shirt Shop with this program. Download it and let me know what you think.

Building a Website for your T-Shirt Company

Cafepress offers templates that can your shop up and running in minutes, but inevitably there are some features that you'd like to add to your site that aren't included in their template. The internet has countless sites that can help even the html illeterate create features and effects on their site that will make you look like a pro. A site I've used for years www.htmlgoodies.com has some of the most user friendly ( "dumbed down") instructions on html out there. Check it out and let me know if it helps.

In the Beginning...

It all started with an idea, custom hometown state t-shirts. After some research into heat presses, wholesale t-shirts prices, and website design, I ran into a site I had discovered a long time ago, but had forgotten about, CafePress.com. The opportunity to use this service to produce, sell, and collect payment on my t-shirts, along with free hosting of my website
peaked my interest. Within two weeks I had my state t-shirt shop up and running. They provide you with a website and virtually unlimited hosting for your t-shirt graphics, the option of using one of their website templates, or the ability to create your own site with your own html. There is a wonderful messageboard where other shopowners are more then willing to share their tips and tricks on getting your biz up and running. Periodically I will be sharing the progress of my shop, along with some tips and trick I learn along the way. So here's where I'm at now with my state tee shirt shop. And here's a wonderful place to get started with some very valuable information for your shop: http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupProfile&groupID=103156888&MyToken=05a88aea-1889-48e5-b913-830e259a02c0