[justy540]

Started off slow, launching to friends and family. I've had about 1000 hits and 10 orders. I'm starting to advertise this week so we'll see how it goes!

Saunders,
I'm looking into advertising on the el now. Can I ask why you wouldn't wear one. Clearly everyone has their own style etc. I'm just wondering what your opinion of them is. Again, please be brutally honest, the reason I come to YE is because you guys don't have to be nice like my friends and family!!!


Thanks,
Justin

[jasaunders]

Just not my style. Plus I am anti-el since my train broke down last week for 30 minutes on the brown line and I was late for a presentation downtown. And I'm deathly afraid of my train derailing

I have a better/cheaper idea for marketing these...

The Red Eye people are at most of the stops handing out the paper every morning. Give one or a couple of the shirts to the guys handing out the Red Eye with their specific stop on it. I bet they would wear it and that would be fantastic promotion. I can see a lot of people stopping to talk to the guys asking them about the shirt.

[Mega B]

This may sound like a stupid question but what is 'Chicago el stop' i take it is some form of underground railway like our London Underground

Rick.........

[jasaunders]

The "El" or "L" as it is known is an elevated train system. This is the major transportation in the city of Chicago. It is a network of above ground, elevated, tracks. It is extremely old, first built in the late 1800's. It is in poor condition, which is why I am pretty sure I'm going to die soon from riding on it, we've had three derailments I think in the past year. At some parts of some of the lines the "El" goes underground to become a subway, but most of it is elevated tracks.

[Mega B]

Josh thanks mate

[justy540]

Oops, though my earlier post didn't go through.

[justy540]

Thanks for the Red Eye Idea, A buddy of mine was actually some sort of manager with the red eye, though he has now moved into Tribune Interactive. I'll see if he can't help me out with that.

[jasaunders]

I wouldn't even worry about going through the proper channels at first. I would just walk up to the guys handing out the papers and give them a shirt with their stop and talk to them about wearing it.

[justy540]

looked into the advertising on the el cars. Not nearly as expensive as you might think. $15 for 4 weeks of one of those "in-car" posters

[entrepresooner]

Justy, if you don't mind me asking, where do you get your T-shirts from? I had a very humorous txt conversation last night that gave me a simple idea for t-shirts. What kind of start-up costs did you encounter?

[justy540]

I have some friends with a screenprinting shop. they're basically letting me print smaller runs than usual for a cut of profits. Typically an order of 24 shirts is the minnimum. They're letting me get bulk rates on orders as small as 12 shirts to start with. Still, each stop requires its own batch of 12 @ $6 a shirt (plus their cut on profit when it sells). On top of that, the first batch of any stop requires a screen to be made (I'm payng @20 instead of $40). so each stop costs me about $90 for the first run. right now I have orders for 10 stops, so the first order (placed today) will be about $900, and I only have brough in ~$350.

I build websites for a living, so I didn't have to shell out for that, but it took me about 100 hours, if I were paying someone I would expect that to cost $5,500(freelance) - $20,000(agency). I also brought in some 3rd party designers to help me out which took about 40 hours, another $3,000.

If you decide to go through with it, private message me and I'll give you the info for my screeners.

HTH,
Justin