Monday Morning Quarterback 1.08

No, you don't have your days mixed up. I'm running the MonAMQB log on Tuesday again because I was off yesterday. We get a floating holiday at work this year that I really don't understand how it is different from any other Personal Time Off which we switched to from Vacation and Sick Days several years ago. There is not a list of days that you must choose from to take your floating holiday on like Columbus Day or your Birthday. I just happened to take those days (a coincidence that they were on the same day this year) because MLW was off and we had a doctor appointment scheduled.

I don't have many notes from the three-day weekend because my mind was trying to get wrapped around the ultrasound on Monday and I wrote about that yesterday. I did have a few things jotted down, though, and I will try to expound on them a little bit as I have the space and time:

• Thanks for all of the birthday greetings. It was nice the way that the baby stuff, sort of, overshadowed the annual reminder of my imminent demise, but also nice for the special wishes.

• Facebook is really slick. It's a nice way to keep up with people of different degrees of interest in a mutually acceptable way. Don't understand what I mean? Let me put it more bluntly: You can be friendly with people that you want to and people that you don't care to with a, seemingly, similar amount of effort. Now you get it? How 'bout this: You don't have to contact all of your friends individually-- you can just post a greeting and everyone is responsible to read it at their leisure.

• SkeetzTeez has had a terrible dry spell until this weekend, when things picked up a bunch. I did, however, make enough over the last month to order MLW some cool maternity shirts and had some money left in the account to get myself my favorite new, Man on First: Wiffleball t-shirt!

• My shirts are getting more attention when we wear them out in public so I made up cards with the websites listed to hand out when people ask about the designs. M3S is a great model and I even had several people comment on the See Spot Run design on Saturday.

• Thinking of a way I can get talent shots on the cafepress Site. Want to be on the Web? Send me a picture of yourself in something you bought on SkeetzTeez and I will give you something in return. What? I don't know what! But something... good.

• If the Rams can win a couple more, it may be hard for our fantasy team to have a better record at the end of the season. Right now, we're tied.

• It's chili season again! I am signed-up for a couple of cook-offs but I am torn between sticking with my award winning Screaming Mimi recipe which, technically, I should not be able to eat on my new diet or go the more healthy route, modify the good-but-not-good-for-you ingredients, risk that it sucks and be the laughing stock of the competition?

• Do bees die in the winter? M3S loves to go to the farm and watch the beehive that they have in a two-sided glass display case. We go maybe once a month or so but more often this time of year because they have the harvest festival with corn mazes, a petting zoo, pony rides, a pumpkin patch and other fun stuff for the kids but his favorite part is still watching the bees. He is such a smart boy and I just want to find out the answer so I can come up with an explanation before he asks.

• I have started a list of things that M3S says and asks that I will write on in the near future.

• In the simplest terms, I am thankful that I made it to my 43rd Birthday because there was a period of time in the last year when I wasn't sure if I was going to make it and, if I did what kind of shape I would be in.

• Iron Man: 3.75/5 stars. Don't Mess with the Zohan: less than 3.0 and it is not a family film.

• Visit my Squidoo Lenses if you have any interest in any of the subject matter and make your own if you don't. Each lens is updated at least weekly with fun new stuff. I currently have all of these available for your viewing pleasure:

• SkeetzTeez: Pop Culture T-shirts and Gifts

• Urban Cougar

• Urban Prankster Network

• Shermer High School

• Mix Tapes

• How to Make a Suck for a Buck T-shirt

• Jort Fashion

• Mullet Fashion

• That's What She Said

• Immaturity

• Giving it 110%

In closing, I have had a few people say to me recently (most of which I have known for 20 or more years), "I didn't know you could write!" My immediate reaction is to reply, "Well yes, they taught me that in Grade School and I have been doing it ever since," but I don't want to be rude.

Most people can tell a story or joke or about their summer vacation without much of a problem but have a brain freeze when it comes to putting it down on paper. I have found that it is so much easier to write then speak. Part of this may be because of the trouble I was having with my speech but, when you think about it, what is really the difference between speaking and writing? In my opinion it is much easier to write because you have time to think about what you are going to say and you can always erase and redo it you get in trouble.

Fact is, I am having a ball doing this. I sometimes get bored with new projects quickly but I still look forward to taking the 45-minutes to an hour to have my say. I hope anybody reading is enjoying it as half as much as I am. If you know anybody that may be interested in it too, please forward the link on to them and...

Buy T-shirts. Peace.

SkeetzTeez Quarterly Report

Since the main purpose of this blog was to promote my cafepress shop, I thought that, now that we have been up and running for 90-days, I would take this time to review how things have been going. I don't expect many to be that interested in this but I do know other shopkeepers that check in from time to time and it kind of helps me evaluate things if I put them in writing.

SkeetzTeez has had 73 orders for 92 items. Volume has increased steadily each month, which is definitely a good sign, and I hope that trend continues. We have sold over $1000 worth of merchandise and I have made about $150. All of these numbers are extremely good as I have heard that most shops don't turn this kind of sales for six-months to a year. Although it's nice to make a buck or two it is not why I am doing this, which I will get into further, later.

I now have 153 designs available in the shop and, although this does include multiple variations of some, I still have close to half of that many that are unique. The biggest selling design, Big Brother and Big Sister, however, is a fairly common design. The second most popular design, McMaverick and Sarahcuda, is also somewhat common, but is at least a little different from most of the thousands of political stuff out there.

I need to keep up with completing and adding new artwork to the sight. It may be coincidence, but it seems as if sales are better if you are always updating the Site and with the holidays coming up, I want to make sure that anyone that is looking for something that I have, can be sure to find it easily.

Statcounter also tells me that SkeetzTeez has had 2,450 page loads from 726 unique visitors and 102 remaining visitors. Reports also tell me that this blog has had 249 page loads from 162 unique visitors and 35 returning. Between the two Sites we have seen hits from many countries besides the US and Canada, including Chili, Columbia, Hungary, Australia, Ireland, Portugal, Argentina, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Iraq, Iran, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and some place called Macedonia, to name more than a few. Pretty cool, huh?

Besides learning a little bit about html code, (which could come in handy some day) I am learning my way around the social scene on the internet too. There are several networks of cafepress people out there that I am now an active member. It is weird to say that you meet people on the Internet but I have come in contact with many others that have many of the same interests as me.

I am into Twitter and Facebook as well as this blog. I have lenses that get a lot of exposure on Squidoo on a strange variety of subjects such as Jorts Fashion, Shermer High School, the Encyclopedia of Immaturity, How to Make a Suck for a Buck Shirt, Urban Cougars, That's What She Said, the Urban Prankster Network, 110% and my newest entry Mix-Tape and I moderate a group that cross-promotes members' shops. 

I have mentioned the crossover blog several times and I (well... Mav and I) have the number one design on Teeblr, a T-shirt ranking Website. I have also been participating in a few other Tee forums and cafepress groups and, with my unexpected success, been a major supporter of the POD service in Web communities like Yahoo Answers and in real life too.

Overall, the whole experience of the last three-months has exceeded my expectations. (Look at that-- a sentence with three words containing the letter X.) I set out on this journey to find a creative outlet to comment on pop-culture because I still had something to say and, besides successfully accomplishing that goal, I had a whole bunch of fun along the way. No matter what sales are like or if I change a little piece of the world in any way, I hope that goal part, and even more importantly, the fun part--continues. I also wish that anyone else following along on the journey is enjoying themselves, too.

If you are a fellow shopkeeper remember: Exposure is the key! Check out some of these links to see how I am using guerilla marketing to promote me and SkeetzTeez!

If you are not a cafepress shopkeeper remember: Exposure is the key! Check out some of these links because... well because I need the exposure! ... and Buy T-shirts. Peace.

Let's Roll! 1.02

Before we get into this week's links, let's take a moment to review a few trends recorded with last week's featured link, statcounter:

Top five keywords that resulted in visits to SkeetzTeez or SkeetzTeez Blog:

5. Maverick

4. Barracuda

3. Jonah's Brothers

2. That's what she said.

1. How to make a suck for a buck shirt.

Top five designs sold at SkeetzTeez: http://www.cafepress.com/skeetzteez

5. Cubs Fans Wear Jorts

4. Shermer High School Bulldogs

3. Big Sister '09

2. Big Brother '09

1. McCain/Palin

That McCain/Palin design– or should I say McMaverick/Sarahcuda design, only went up yesterday, and is already selling like crazy! Okay... back to the link roll:

http://www.blogger.com

I am, by no means, even close to a computer expert. As I have gotten into this internet T-shirt shop endevour, I have learned a lot but any success that I am having is the result of highly-advanced user-friendly web-based applications such as this.

Blogger.com is what allows me to publish this blog. It is a free service that makes it extremely simple to layout a page, control all of the settings and create and manage posts and comments. The set-up is as easy as registering and then selecting from a couple of dozen formats, adding fun gadgets, naming your blog and answering a series of simple questions to adjust your default settings. From there you just write– just like you would in an email or Word. There are similar tools to edit your type, spell check, and add pictures or movies. The program, then, converts everything to html (web code) so you don't have to (but allows you to if you want to mess with it).

I started blogging to promote the cafepress shop but it has, probably, been more fulfilling to just have a creative outlet to experiment with. I highly recommend that you give it a try! MLW started and, I think, is enjoying it also. If you decide to give it a shot, yourself, be sure to let me know so I can check it out!

https://www.twitter.com

I originally signed-up for Twitter as another way to promote the shop. I have seen a few hits from it but have, primarily, kept up with it because it is, kind of interesting.

I would describe Twitter as similar to Facebook or MySpace– a social networking site, that's based on the question, "What are you doing?" I pop onto the site a few times a day and enter something like, "Updating my SkeetzTeez cafepress shop with a new McCain/Palin design: http://www.cafepress.com/skeetzteez" in 140 characters or less. The entry is then posted with all of my other entries and anyone that is "following" me can see what I'm up to. I, in turn, can also "follow" others that may be into the same things as me or write about something I like.

I said it's like Facebook or MySpace, but it seems to be a little more mature. I don't think people spend hours a day surfing the profiles to find people to "follow" and the hammer them with emails and personal messages. Most users seem have an alternative motive– like selling something or trying to get the word out about their cause or candidate. I am following or have followers like the local news channels, people into fantasy football or selling on cafepress.

Did I mention that this one is free too? You can check it out at the link above or anywhere that you see "Follow Skeeeeeetz on Twitter" on my websites. If you join, make sure let me know so I can "follow" you.

Note: I don't know why, exactly, I put quotes around the word "follow"... I guess because it makes it sound a little bit like "stalking".

http://4q.cc/index.php?pid=fact&person=chuck

MLW recently purchased a couple of posters with random facts about Chuck Norris. I am not really a major fan of his, but I found the facts to be hilarious! There are tons– and I mean tons of sites out there with Chuck Norris fact generators but this one claims to be the original.

By the way, enter "find Chuck Norris" into Google and click "I feel lucky".

Have a good weekend. Peace.

That's what she said...

I've been on a roll developing a series of T-shirt designs based on the pop double entendre, "That's what she said". The phrase is being made even more popular by the hit NBC series, "The Office". I have seen the show a couple of times but I am unaware of the running joke and I know that it wasn't started there. In fact, I think the writers on the show are, cleverly, mocking the fact that every office has one of those guys that thinks he's funny by dropping the line in response to every other comment they here.

I would have to say though, when done correctly– with a little tact and wit and not overdone– it can be pretty darn hilarious. We have a guy at work, Matt Lamb, that is pretty good. Although it is not really my thing (I prefer the witty comebacker, "You're a ______!"– fill in the blank with whatever word you just ended your last sentence with) I find him very funny. Matt, in turn, likes my creativity and we have joined forces to amuse ourselves and maybe make a buck or two selling these shirts at: http://www.cafepress.com/skeetzteez.

It all started by accident. Matt was at my desk discussing a marketing piece I was working on. We were just finishing up when we overheard a model in the photo studio say, "You want to get me from behind, don't you?" It was the perfect set up and Matt couldn't resist saying, "That's what she said," as he was leaving the department. One our designers said, "Matt Lamb, you are bad!" 

Instantly, an idea for a T-shirt popped into my head. The combination of "bad" and "Lamb" made me think about sheep and a few minutes later, I had the "That's what sheep said..." design done. This was quickly followed by "That's what..." "Chi" said and "bee" said and a couple for "tree" said. All cute, in their own right, but they haven't gotten a lot of action in the shop.

A couple of hours after I showed the designs to Matt, though, he came back with a real winner: "Favre Goes Deep... That's what Cheese Head." Now that's just funny no matter who you are. (Unless you don't follow current events in the NFL.)

I think it is funny. Someone else does too, because we have sold a single shirt. I'm sure once the word gets out, everybody's gonna want a piece of it...

That's what she said.

*If you are interested in a whole bunch of stuff related to "That's what she said..." Check out my Squidoo lens on the subject: http://www.squidoo.com/twss