Make Your Own T-shirt Online

I love T-Shirts. It's pretty much all I ever wear. A T-shirt can become your comfort item. I know for me there are some T-shirt I feel more comfortable in. If i'm meeting someone new or going out, I always reach for the same tee. T-Shirts are great way to feel good about yourself, A new T-Shirt can do wonders on your self-esteem. Not to mention, an awesome T-Shirt can earn you praise from your friends your friends, or make you the life of the party.

I'm always looking for new T-shirts, I usually look for...

• A rare color, like a random shade of light green. You can't always rock a white tee, no matter how fresh it looks.
• An awesome design, Surf and Skate shirts usually have awesome designs
• A funny shirt with a joke or play on words
• A shirt has some meaning behind it. I had a friend at college whos nickname was Moose, and when he saw a T-Shirt with a Moose on it, he had to get it.

What if you were in charge? You could pick the color, logo, text, design and size of your shirt.

It's free and easy. Here's what you need to do.

1. Sign-up. Pick from one of these free sites on the right.

2. Create. Once you've signed up, you can use the sites T-Shirt builder to upload your own design, edit text, and choose your shirt color.
3. Sell. If you think you've got a pretty good shirt, sell it on the site. If someone buys your shirt the website will take care of billing, printing, and shipping the shirt, all you do is get paid!
4. Modify. If you shirt designs are doing well, try adding it to other products. Zazzle and Cafepress allow creators to not only print on shirts, but accessories, home goods and posters as well.

5. Start a store. Once you have a good amount of products and a pretty big fan base, start a store on the site so shoppers can find all ouf your products in one place. You also get your own url for your store.

Since you've created your own product, it's also your own to advertise. Spread the word about your new T-shirts and products. Here are some free advertising tips, for free!

• Send emails to your friends and family. Ask them to check out your new store. Don't forget to ask them to send it to their friends too!
• Post your designs on free art sites, like deviantART. This is a great way to spread the word about your products as well as get some feedback on your designs from fellow artists.
• Social Networking Sites. Use sites like Facebook, Myspace and Gather to get your products out there. Add your store link to your profile, or post pictures of your products for all to see.
• Social Bookmarking Sites. Sumbit your store to sites like Digg, Reddit, Twitter, Del.icio.us, and furl. It will get the word out there about your store as well as boost its rank on Google Search Engine.

Here are the basic things you will need....

1. Creativity. First you need some creativity. If you don't have muc or you are running a little low this month, get some from your friends and family. Ask around, see if they have any cool T-Shirt ideas.
2. A Digital Camera. Either your own or access to one. This will allow you to get your own image to put on your shirts. Taking your own pictures is easier and safer than using someone elses photos. Make sure to use your own designs and creations on your shirts. Stealing material can get you in pretty big trouble.
3. Photo Editing Program. Edit and modify pictures you take or designs you create. The best free option is to use whatever photo editing program comes on your computer, like MSPaint. Use this program to resize your photo as well as save it the appropiate format to be uploaded to the site.

Optional....

1. A scanner. Using a scanner will allow you to upload your paintings, drawings and sketches to your computer. You can then re-color and modify your artwork with your photo editing program.
2. Design Program. Two of the best programs to use are Photoshop and IllustratorWith them you can not only edit photos, but create designs as well. However, they are pretty expensive, up to $500 for the newest versions. A cheaper alternative is CorelDRAW and Paint Shop Pro which are both under $100. I will try and add more information when I find a cheaper (or free) alternative.

Creating brushes is one of the easiest ways to create unique designs and logo using Photoshop. If you have Adobe Photoshop or can get access to it, you can use the pictures you take and turn them into pieces of art within seconds. Watch the video below to see how...

Threadless is probably one of my favorite sites on the internet right now. They run an awesome site with a great concept. They host an online community of artist that submit their designs for votes and comments from the community. Threadless then selects the best designs for printing and the create are handsomely rewarded.

Here's how the process works...

1. Brainstorm and Create. Take some time to come up with the best original idea you can think of. And I mean best, there are some pretty amazing designs on this site. But if you think you have what it takes, it's worth a try and it can pay off in the long run.
2. Submit. Use their submission templates to send your design to Threadless. Follow the instructions and fill out the form to submit your design for presentation to the Threadless community.
3. Wait For Rating. Over a period of 7 days, the Threadless community will score and comment on your submission. These scores and comments will help us decide which designs should become the next Threadless tees!

If your idea gets selected for print, you'll receive.

• $2,000 in cash
• $500 Threadless Gift Certificate (can be redeemed for $200 cash)
• $500 in cash each time your design is reprinted
• Up to $10,000 more if you win a "Bestee" in the Threadless Awards * Alumni Club membership including a Medal of Honor and other goodies