not only is google the center of our universe for use and advertising, but now they are giving us some love on the organic side.  google just moved us up to #2 organically for "embroidered shirt" link and although we're still #5 for "embroidered shirts", I have a feeling we'll continue to move up there as well.  some of the sites above us are brokers that just "plug in" sanmar's or alpha's stock private label online catalog which anyone can use.  they then just keyword spam the page around it.  most of these companies don't even embroider themselves.  they just take an order and farm it out (basically like 90% of our the embroidery industry).

anyway, great news for us and our customers.  hopefully we can rely on organic a little more and lower prices even further.  no games, just the best pricing on embroidered apparel and printed t-shirts every day.

BusinessWeek SmallBiz has got it figured out! they just did a slide show on Smart Small Business Ideas (bottom of getting started) or here to view the pop-out.  one of the featured marketing techniques is TryVertising which is just what it sounds like.  businesses these days cannot rely on reviews (they've got to be filtered), they must find a way to let customer try thier products!  ah HA!  finally....someone has figured it out.  like VistaPrint for business cards, we offer a free custom t-shirt or a free custom embroidered hat so customers don't have to take someone's word/review for it.....they can just order one and try it.

problem is folks are sceptical and think there's a catch.  hopefully when enough customers have tried us, word-of-mouth will overcome all.