WebmasterWorld T-Shirts?

do they exist?

[lorax]

Being a geek at heart there are 3 things I like which demonstrate my affiliation with other propellor heads (aside from a propensity for dark rooms with code filled screens), beer, pizza, and unusual t-shirts. Then I wondered if WebmasterWorld had ever produced any tees. If not, I think they'd sell fairly well. Advert doesn't need to be blatant - perhaps on the Paypal page? Just a thought.

[EliteWeb]

I'd have my boss buy one :P hehehe i have one webmaster shirt, its from an adult site - but the shirt and the name doesnt reflect anything adult. Its a bluish globe with sunray things wavey coming outta it. The site shut down a while ago but its a shirt i still wear. Black shirt, blue logo on chest on some words on the back.

[rcjordan]

We've really tried to get into this, particularly before PubConference, but it was a lot of work producing a physical product. (We're used to just plinking in a few keystrokes and calling it work.)

BTW, had we gotten around to it, two models were predicted to be total sell-outs:

SPAMMER!

and

WebmasterWorld TOS Violator

[mivox]

I told Brett all he needs to do is buy me a silkscreen kit, and I'd start making them myself... ;)

[roscoepico]

How about something like Cafe Press? Design and sell T-shirts, it looks as though they basically handle every aspect of printing, shipping, etc....

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/

[mivox]

Very little profit margin... ;) It's much cheaper to make your own.

[roscoepico]

point taken, someone buy this gal a silk screen kit;)

[nipear]

We have a tshirt shop here. I could print up some and sell them for $10 or so each and give $5.00 to webmasterworld? Or just sell them for $5.00? Let me know if this is something you guys want to do...

[seofan]

It's getting cold - how about a sweat shirt?

[lorax]

I had a few tag lines in mind myself (of course):

$2b ¦¦! $2b;

<!DOCTYPE WebmasterWorld PUBLIC "-//WWW//DTD Webmaster Educational//EN" "http://www.webmasterworld.com">

"I have root"

[dingman]

Lorax, I like your doctype declaration idea. The other two aren't bad, but they've already been done. Besides, I'm not certain people who have root are even the majority here, let alone the rule. We wouldn't want to leave the ones who don't admin Unix boxen out, would we? ;)

[jdMorgan]

"It's GoogleDance time... Do you know where your pages are?"

Recently saw a variant of lorax's propsal - "Got root?"

A club in which I'm a member started giving away club T-shirts with annual membership. Membership tripled. It's a good incentive.

I'd buy one - or raise my WebmasterWorld donation to get one.

Jim

[dingman]

Good point, Jim. I buy $80 coffee mugs from NPR. (Well, I don't think of it that way, but I do pledge more to get the mug or whatever now and then.) Not that I'd go as high for WW as I do for NPR, but the principle applies.

[Brett_Tabke]

Not fond of tshirts idea at all.

I looked a very long time for something for london - mods have been bugging me about something like this for a couple of years.

The best idea I've seen yet was a 14inch wide strip of lcd clocks. It had 8 clocks on it set to 8 different time zones with a boarder of wood. About an inch and a half tall and was designed to stick on the top of your monitor, with WebmasterWorld embossed on a chrome tag at center top.

[ikbenhet1]

still want the t-shirt.:) i would take it. (not that i'd ever war it in public)

[lorax]

>> Not fond of tshirts idea at all.

Not the answer I expected. :) Why?

[Brett_Tabke]

Not the branding we want. People feel they are contributing to the site by buying a tshirt, but there is zero in it for the site but the branding. Thus, it's self defeating.

[mivox]

zero in it for the site

Well, there's the money... hehehe. If you end up with zero after a t-shirt sale, you've done your math wrong. ;)

[Brett_Tabke]

T-shirts - I'd be surprised if we could sell 50 of them at $5 profit a piece. Not to mention the hours and hours of work to send them out and the management overhead that goes with it. Push a pencil, we'd be in the red on the deal.

The programs like cafe press are so poor they are not even in the realm of possibility. You'd have to charge $40 to make anything at all on them.

Where would people wear a tshirt that would benefit? They wear them when they are working on their car, not to some hotbed of net activity. They don't work like that. The promotion benefit to the site would be zero.

It's less than zero benefit actually - it would hurt the site. You only get so many chances for people to contribute to something. The glass of giving to one org or entity only starts a quarter full with many people. When thats gone, most are gone for good.

They buy a T-shirt, they feel they've contributed to the site. Most won't go back and contribute posts, construct careful quality posts, help out in other ways, or donate in any other way once that is done.

I don't want to use that quarter glass full on T-shirts. This isn't high school or a rock concert - it's a professional web site for professionals.

[digitalghost]

Mont Blanc pens? Mahogany humidors? A Rolex with WebmasterWorld's initials at 12 O'clock?

[jdMorgan]

We can't use the initials on the Rolex unless they automatically expand to WebmasterWorld when the minute hand hovers over them...

Brett, I was thinking more in terms of an add-on to the current Donation program - like, "Donate $(x) for a regular membership, or donate $(x*2) and get a cool shirt to wear to trade shows."

I understand that this kind of thing is not the focus of WebmasterWorld, though.

Jim

[Woz]

A friend of mine worked used to on a Scientific Magazine. One of their advertisers, a pathology testing lab, sold T-shirts with the saying

"E-coli Happens!"

Perhaps we could have something along the lines of

"Update Happens!" or "Position Loss Happens!" or even "Spam Happens!"

Just a thought.

Onya
Woz

[lorax]

Brett,
I understand your point of view. I wasn't thinking of the Tees as anything other than just for fun. We could always make our own (sans any references to WebmasterWorld) I suppose.

>> not to some hotbed of net activity

I wear the 2 geek Tees I own to conferences and workshops with my peers. If the activity is going to have potential clients, yeah, I dress up a bit more. My tees aren't relegated to oil changes until they become so worn that they tear everytime I take them off. Makes for a great "Hulk" impression. :)

[Brett_Tabke]

Sorry to be so harsh there, but the tshirt folks are the alluminum siding sales people of the web. Between the emails, stickies, and phone calls - the pitches are over the top for it.

[Hawkgirl]

Sorry to be so harsh there, but the tshirt folks are the alluminum siding sales people of the web.

'Scuse me, Brett, but I do believe this description is reserved for us telecom folks ...

;)