Poker has sure seen a rise over the past decade or so – from online platforms to the classic round with friends. With all of that interest, you could imagine that there would be a shop partner or two out there looking to serve that niche with poker related shirts. Poker t-shirt club is one of those partners – touting a nice integration of their Speadshirt poker t-shirt shop into their website and their own set of models wearing their shirts. Learn how these guys got set up and what tips they have for other Shop Partners. Feel free to ask them even more questions in the comments!
What inspired or motivated you to open a shop and how long have you run the shop?
It started out as a hobby, both me and Hofit (the other half of poker t-shirt club) have been playing around with Photoshop ever since we can remember. After a few years of “designing for the drawer”, we decided to take it a step further and open our own shop. We’ve been running Poker t-shirt club since 2010.
How did you learn about Spreadshirt?
We made almost every possible mistake with choosing print on demand services.
However, the solution we were looking for was there all the time (eehm Spreadshirt).
How much time do you invest in your shop? Do you create designs yourself?
We have a few other online businesses, but our Spreadshop is our baby. I guess it takes more time than average to maintain a store that uses human models to display its products.
Though we truly enjoy designing tees, If you don’t find it exiting as a shop owner – you’re in the wrong business.
Where and how do you market your shop and make it well-known?
We are targeting a very specific niche, so basically we hang in poker forums & blogs that we like, regardless the fact that we sell poker t-shirts. Following the conversation in our niche has yielded the best results.
Who do you think your customers are?
The answer “we target poker fans” is inadequate (we learned it the hard way). We believe that being a part of your niche is important, but asking your customers for feedback, and trying to understand what they really want to buy/experience/feel is even more.
If you think back from the “opening” of your shop up to now, what would be the the most important insight that you would give a newcomer?
There are too many to count with a few sentences, really.
Even so, I guess the most important would be – have a plan. Any plan is better than no plan.
Who will be your target audience? How will they know you exist? Do you want your own website? What will be your profit margin? Are you willing to fail before you’ll see the fruits of your hard work?
Unfortunately, having great designs in your shop is far from being enough in this industry.
Be creative, persistent and take action.
What was your biggest achievement up to now (with or without Spreadshirt)?
There’s really nothing like the first sale, the feeling that someone else appreciates your work, and willing to take out his wallet and buy something you made from scratch.
I’ve experienced bigger achievements, but that moment will stay with me for a long time to come.
Have you ever seen someone you don’t know walking around with your t-shirt on?
Not yet. Maybe we should walk around more often (:
What do you do for a living, or better said: what do you do when you are not fiddling around with your shop?
This is an old cliche – “find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life”. We’re still working on it (:
When we’re not fiddling around with our shop, you can most likely find us hanging out together, backpacking, reading, avoiding “real-jobs”, experimenting and seeking inspiration.
If you were a t-shirt, what would you look like?
This interview is getting harder. Probably a trucker shirt with mustard stains on it.
Which question have you always wanted to be asked and what is the answer?
Q: Doesn’t expecting the unexpected make the unexpected expected?
A: Let me get back to you on that.
No problem, let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.
By the way, Getting interviewed by a reputable company such as Spreadshirt might boost thing up for you as well (:
Great help, thank you and keep up the good work.
Since we target a very specific niche, we do some SEO (search engine optimization) in order to rank high in Google for keywords that can bring massive traffic.
It’s a tedious work, more like a checklist than a creative thinking process. However, the good news is that it is relatively easy & cheap to outsource most of it.
We also run a blog, where we post relevant content, Interview authoritative people in our industry and of-course promote our products.
Another great place to attract high-quality traffic to your site is Facebook, and we plan to expand our activities there as well.
Hope this helps.
I too will never forget selling my first T-shirt, what a feeling.
I’m not much of a social networker, so have had little success spreading the word. My question is do you do all your marketing this way ? if not, what other ways do you have of getting your name out there ?.