customink.com

[tonypep]

They are hiring printers and P Managers

[GraphicDisorder]

They are hiring printers and P Managers

They have a bunch of new presses too. 

[balloonguy]

  Man, I sat in on a meeting with a player that deals with online processing. Some crazy stuff coming down the pipe real soon that could change our industry real fast. Kinda scary seeing whats out there and think what it would potentially do to the mid size guys like me.

Can you elaborate? When I bought my first manual press DTG was going to put screen printers out of business in the next 5 years. I have not see that happen yet.

[3Deep]

There's always some big company thinking or trying to put the breaks on mom & pop shops or mid range shops.

[ebscreen]

Curious as to how long they uphold their eight color six piece re-orders now that they are on the other
side of the press so to speak.

[GraphicDisorder]

They aren't going to do all the printing themselves still.   Probably leave the low or no profit stuff outsourced if I had to guess.

[Nation03]

I'm sure most their high color/low quantity orders are decorated via DTG. Blue Cotton out in Kentucky had a bunch of videos of their production floor and they had 2 or 3 Kornits running daily, along with a bunch of autos for the bigger jobs. They have a more polished Customink business model it seemed.

I've contemplated giving Inksoft a try. Looks like they are making it better and better, but I'm still not so sure it's there yet. My other worry is that I don't plan well enough for the chance it is a huge success. As nice as it would be to wake up one morning to a ton of orders, I'd be pretty much a chicken without a head trying to keep up with it. Of course, that's assuming it takes off.

I think I'm just going to stick with my current website for now. I have a meeting with an SEO company next month. I've been using the paid Google ads to drive traffic to my site, but I really want to boost the organic SEO.

[T Shirt Farmer]

. I have a meeting with an SEO company next month. I've been using the paid Google ads to drive traffic to my site, but I really want to boost the organic SEO.

Ahhhh SEO. Internet version of crack..... Land of smoke and mirrors.... Endless commitment to spend lots of money with absolutely no commitment for ROI..... A constantly changing landscape that very few can navigate thru efficiently ...The   have already marked there territory and have the big guns to roll over any wanna be's....some times doing business the old fashion way still works best... The internet is a viscous play ground at best..... I have spent many thousands of dollars to learn this.

I took all the money I was spending on PPC and put it towards customer retention and feel I get a far better return.

JMO

[jsheridan]

Endless commitment to spend lots of money with absolutely no commitment for ROI.....

A good friend of mine has been an internet hosting/development company for the last 20+ yrs and he loves nothing more than to take a clients money for SEO work. He laughs all the way to the bank.

[Nation03]

. I have a meeting with an SEO company next month. I've been using the paid Google ads to drive traffic to my site, but I really want to boost the organic SEO.

Ahhhh SEO. Internet version of crack..... Land of smoke and mirrors.... Endless commitment to spend lots of money with absolutely no commitment for ROI..... A constantly changing landscape that very few can navigate thru efficiently ...The   have already marked there territory and have the big guns to roll over any wanna be's....some times doing business the old fashion way still works best... The internet is a viscous play ground at best..... I have spent many thousands of dollars to learn this.



I took all the money I was spending on PPC and put it towards customer retention and feel I get a far better return.

JMO

The majority of my business over the last few years has been strictly internet based. This year I'm seeing a lot more referrals while still getting pretty decent results on paid Google ads. I guess location comes into play. I live in North New Jersey, about 10 miles from NYC. Everyone around here seems to prefer doing things over the internet.

[GraphicDisorder]

There will always be some shops that are able to make it fine with no or very little internet presence. I strongly believe this to change though for many shops if they expect to make it in the future long term. We can all make fun of Customink or the like right now. Someday someone is going to hit the right formula for quality and service and they will be all internet based and they will be easier to do business with than the next guy and they will have you beat. Its coming, maybe not 5 years from now or maybe even longer but remember this much. The generation of kids (customers) born now are using the internet even more than my generation did and we are addicted to it most would say. This will only lead to higher internet use to find what they want and need. I check the internet for basically anything I need before I buy it. 

[dirkdiggler]

I check the internet first too, but as a business owner in my town I have learned what it means to buy local and I will pay more to do business in my town.  Everybody wont, but some will.