The Diggers are GO! / Last post

Well that's it, the website went live on Friday over at www.thediggersltd.co.uk so this is my last post! You'll be able to keep track of how it's going on the blog at The Diggers site as I'll be posting the odd behind-the-scenes news and info.

Now the big marketing and sales push comes as I try to find stockists and promote the website. To keep costs down the main way I'll be promoting the brand and the site is online using social networking and trying to get press from the many blogs that are out there.

The social networking side of things revolves around Facebook and Twitter; Myspace is pretty dead but I'll probably set up a page at some point as the more points of contact the better. I use a programme called Tweetdeck which allows you to send status updates to all your accounts from one place.

I have two twitter accounts for The Diggers, one Facebook page plus my personal Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. Depending on what I'm informing people about determines which accounts I send the updates out to. It's important to keep it relevant and to not just sell, sell, sell.

One good way of doing this is to tell people about interesting things you've found online. This works well because all of these things I find go up on The Diggers blog so I link to the blog rather than where I found them. It's good to tweet/facebook regularly but in my opinion not too regularly. Something like 3-5 times a day max is a good amount to aim for.

Another thing you'll need to do is get followers; because there's no point in talking to no-one. This means you need to have your twitter and facebook page links everywhere you can; which reminds me I need to put them up on my facebook account. Always check your links; dead links look bad and aren't helpful for anyone.

One way to encourage people to follow you, or 'like' you on Facebook is to offer special deals to fans/followers. There are plenty of other ways so be creative!

In terms of blogs you need some kind of internet currency, whether this is news accompanied with pictures, a competition, or a free download it doesn't matter. Again it's important to keep it relevant as most blogs are quite specific in what they write about. So for a music blog you'd send them a free download, in this case The Diggers podcast, for a fashion blog a quick press release and some images etc etc

With regards to finding stockists the best way to find relevant shops is to look at the stockist page of brands similar to yours. Some brands don't list their stockists so if you're business is fashion based a good site to use is www.thelabelfinder.com. Look for brands similar to yours and it will list their stockists.

If possible ring the shops before sending anything to them in order to find out who their buyer is. Remember to sound professional and be polite. Once you've found out who their buyer is and have contact info for them either post or email your catalogue. Give them a week and then ring or email back. It's always best to ring; so if you have a contact number don't be shy!

I think that covers most of it but if you want to find out more just remember Google is your friend.

That's it from me, good bye.



First order ready to go.

The Desk

I meant to show you guys this earlier but somehow managed to forget. You might remember me mentioning the work bench that my friend was building for me back in October? Well he finished it 4 months late and in Peter Saville style delivered it the evening before I had to go and set up the tradeshow.

n.b. Peter Saville was the guy who designed all the Factory record sleeves and posters. He famously turned up with the poster for the first Factory night on the day of the gig. Apparently it was because he couldn't get the yellow right.

Podcast

I've been concentrating most of my time since the tradeshow on getting the website ready to go live. And you're the first to know that it will be launched with a nearly fully stocked shop on Friday 11th March.

I've had to re-shoot the t-shirts that turned up the Friday before the tradeshow, written content for the blog which will feature music, fashion, art and Diggers related news; plus the odd bit of novelty content.

I've also designed the artwork for the first Diggers podcast and uploaded the mp3 ready for you guys to download when the site goes live. The design is based on a sleeve from the 1970's for record label Amphonic.

Tradeshow

Well I've had a few days to recover from the madness and time to reflect on how it went. Overall it was quite disappointing mainly because the turnout was so poor. But there are positives to take from the experience, mainly: Having a deadline to aim for, meeting some really nice people and learning some insider knowledge. I did also make a few leads so there's still a chance I'll get close to making back the investment!

Clipboards & CDs

Didn't I say I'd keep you up to date!



Home-made clipboard in progress



Clothes hangers painted grey drying



Special edition of the first Diggers podcast





Business cards and staples ready to go



The finished hang tags and labels

Photoshoot

It's been a mental couple of weeks and this week will be no exception. The tradeshow starts on Sunday so the finishing touches and preparations are under way. Just to make things more complicated I've just had a load of freelance work which hasn't made things easy and some of the things I'd wanted to do before the show, but could have waited, are being pushed back.

Some of the t-shirt colours that I showed you last time have now changed because when the samples came back they just didn't work well together as a collection. This again causes problems as I had a photoshoot scheduled which went ahead but we'll need to re-shoot with the new samples, which are being printed tomorrow.

I've got a hefty list of things to get on with and late nights ahead but I will endeavour to show you progress along the way.

Colours

A bit late as usual but I had more problems when the t-shirts came back! Two had stains, two that are labelled as L were actually different sizes and the manufacturers need to work out which one is right. Also two of the styles I had picked don't have a very nice fit so they are being exchanged.

Sorry about the quality of the picture, for some reason they put a terrible camera in Blackberry's.

Sample Tees

The sample t-shirts have been ordered but as usual it wasn't without the odd hiccup! The catalogue was running late so the printers had to get the tee company to send through a PDF version. The new collection includes 1 men's and 3 or 4 women's styles that are very up-to-date, which is great, but the new styles aren't going to be in till the end of February, not so great as I won't have them in time for the tradeshow. Although this does bring up the opportunity to add a couple of extra styles later in the year. What I will be doing though is showing images of the new styles to buyers.

The labels and swing tags have been ordered and now I'm onto business cards and flyers which I've given myself a deadline of next Monday to send to print. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but it's a good idea to check how long your printers will take so you can set accurate deadlines. It's also usually a good idea to make that deadline 1 week before your actual final cut off because things invariable take longer than you expected.

I also received some stickers last week that I'd ordered. The trilliant shaped ones (trilliant is the name of the gemstone cut I used for the logo) are die cut to the shape of the gem. If you'd like a set email me with a postal address and I'll send you some. chris (@) airplaysemporium.co.uk

Swing tag etc

I've finished the design for the swing tag & label; a week later than I said. Little things seem to like getting in the way, plus the fact I like to step away for a day or so and return with fresh eyes. This always seems to point out things that weren't quite right. Below are the finished designs. I'm waiting for a quote from a printers and they will hopefully be going to print in the next couple of days.

The website should be nearly finished so I'm working on the content for it which includes interviews with the artists who created the tee designs. Just going to write them now.

The trade show I mentioned has been confirmed and I will be exhibiting at Margin on the 13th & 14th February. All systems go!

Just one more week

After all that time picking styles and colours I found out yesterday the company I'm sourcing the t-shirts from is bringing out a new catalogue next week and discontinuing some of the styles and colours I'd picked.

So that I don't end up in a pickle it makes sense to wait for the new catalogue. Luckily I've just about got the time to allow for this extra week. Here's hoping nothing else goes wrong!

Happy New Year

It's a new year and new challenges await me. The sample t-shirts are on order and the pantone book turned up so as soon as the t's arrive I'll be picking the print colours and sending the designs off to print. Below are the t-shirt colours; they're not particularly accurate representations of the actual colours but it gives you an idea.

I'm hopefully going to be doing a trade show next month so the pressure is now on to get things ready. Some of the bits I need to get finished are: press release, price list, order forms, labels and swing tags.

The labels to go inside the garment will just have the logo on but the swing tag will be slightly different and include the web address. I'll be working on this later today and should have both to show you tomorrow.

Something I haven't mentioned is the importance of setting deadlines. This helps you to keep focused and to do things in the right order. My deadlines went out the window while my back was bad but I'll be setting new ones today.