Posted on August 19, 2008 by Monetizing Your Blog

One of the side effects of blogging and my other freelance assignments is that I get a lot of free samples. I’ve gotten magnets, scented markers, promo keychains and a lot of free t-shirts. There often become smocks for my students/campers, because they’re usually far too big for me. I’ve gotten some nice ones but sometimes they are just hideous and the sooner the kids get paint all over them, the better! (Note to any marketing people: that doesn’t mean you should stop sending them to me! Just consider a size smaller than super XXXL! And lay off the grainy logos, ok?)

Anyway, The Rally Flag (a newish but welcome addition to my blogroll!) has a funny post on the really dreadful freebies. It’s good advice if you’re promoting your side project, and funny if you’ve been on the receiving end of these freebies.

Free t-shirts are still one of the most powerful and cheap incentives out there. People go nuts for these things.

Having said that, plenty of people seem to know how to make shirts that nobody will wear. If you’d like to join them, here are some rules you’ll need to know:

1. Make only one size of the shirt – preferably XXXL.
2. Use a ridiculous color, like blazing green. Bonus points for using pink font. Double bonus for making the shirt feel like a damn optical illusion when trying to read it.
3. Use sandpaper-like fabric. Make the shirt feel real cheap and uncomfortable.
4. Understand that great design is overrated. Don’t waste money on that crap.
5. Assume people will want to wear a shirt with your giant logo on it.
6. If you have copy on your shirt, play it safe.
7. Don’t bother with 1:1 marketing techniques or those WOW! shenanigans. Putting personal things like last names on shirts would be a lot of work.
8. Find a way to make the free t-shirt very expensive. Make sure it costs a lot of time or a lot of effort or a lot of personal information to get it. When you do finally give a shirt away, spam anybody who took one relentlessly

Via How to make a free t-shirt that nobody will wear « The Rally Flag