It’s hard to believe it’s been a week since Tshirtspotters.com was unveiled. Time sure does move fast. I wanted to do a quick re-cap today of what has gone on with the site and maybe some future plans. Here we go.
1. Site design. I started the site using a theme called Black & White. I liked it at first but after a few days I didn’t like how some of the graphics looked and wanted an option to easily add my own banner image. While browsing some of my favorite blogs I came across a theme called Simply Red on Andrew Pavelski dot Com and liked it. I had actually seen the theme before and forgotten about it. I liked the way the graphics were presented a little better and decided to make the switch. Switching is easy in Wordpress but I had to go in and make some code changes. All-in-all not bad. I like the new theme much better. Thanks Andrew! By the way, if you haven’t checked out Andrew Pavelski dot Com, you should. He has great, well thought out articles.
2. Widgets. Widgets are cool tools you can add to a blog to either help increase functionality, improve the blogs look, or make the visitors visit to the site more fun and interactive. Over the course of the week I’ve added several new widgets, many of which are behind the scenes to help me. Some of the ones you can see are over on the right side. They are Top Commenters, Sponsors, and Blog Rush. Lets talk about a couple of those:
a. Top Commenters. That’s exactly what it means. It lists the visitors that are commenting the most. Something has to happen before it works properly though. YOU HAVE TO LEAVE COMMENTS! I say that in jest but it’s true. If you aren’t compelled to leave a comment at least leave a comment telling me why so I can improve.
b. Sponsors. The sponsors section is actually a Text widget with some code stuck in it to display my sponsors images. As you can see, my sponsors are Busted Tees and Choice Shirts. Another sponsor you can visit is in the Friends section. They are A&E Designs. Be sure to visit them.
c. Blog Rush. The latest feature I’ve added is the Blog Rush widget. As I write this it’s a blank space until they verify my site. When they do it’ll fill with links to other blog posts within the Blogosphere. Hopefully it’ll be working by the time I post this.
3. Posts. I made a commitment to myself to make a post everyday. So far I’ve been able to keep that commitment. I will tell you that it’s not easy! I will say that I’m not meeting my goal for the site though. My goal is to get you, the reader, to send in pictures of tshirts you see while your out and about. I see cool tshirts everyday that have either cool designs, funny pictures, or awesome sayings on them and know you do too. Those are the kind of posts I want to make. How is that going to happen? You’re going to have to take some pics and send them to us at pics@tshirtspotters.com.
4. The Future. Where do I go from here? I’m going to keep making the posts everyday but here are some specifics I want to accomplish over the coming months:
a. Growth. I want the tshirtspotters to grow in readership. This is either through daily visitors or feed subscribers.
b. Promotion. This goes along with growth. I want tshirtspotters to spread throughout the Blogosphere by word-of-mouth and links. I’m working on some contest ideas to help with this.
c. Content. I want the content of tshirtspotters to get better. I want visitors to send in those pictures of the tshirts they see and spark some cool discussions. I want to add voting functionality to let readers vote on shirt designs.
d. Site Design. I need to continue to work on the site by adding new pages to include expanding the About Us page, adding a Contact Us page, and perhaps pages dealing with contests, advertisements, and reviews.
Well I guess that’s it for now. As I read back over this post I see that I’ve come a long way in a week but have a long way to go. Hopefully, with your support, we can turn tshirtspotters.com into the best t-shirt website on the Internet.
