

CollegeHumor Guys' Secret Success: T-Shirts - parker
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/collegehumor_guys_secret_success_t_shirts

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menloparkbum
<http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tr/2008/tr080324.gif>

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joao
I'm no sure why this was a 'secret' to Alley insider or to anyone that bother
to look at the sites that Connected Ventures/IAC (Collegehumor, Busted Tees
and Vimeo parent company) has. Obviously Busted Tees is the one who makes them
more money besides the advertising of CollegeHumor and other minimal sources
of revenue.

\--- "Last week, Josh Abramson told us that he and Ricky "might start a few
new sites [and/or] we might be making a few small acquisitons," but wouldn't
elaborate."

They already have a new one -- <http://todaysbigthing.com> \-- and it's
actually good, one of those single purpose sites.

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jimbokun
"...and while they're happy to take the cash the business throws off, it's not
what they're focused on."

"So what is that? Making more media, we gather."

Interestingly, the T-shirts are actually a form of media for delivering jokes.

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tygergolf
they and how many other people have gotten rich off the phenomenon of t-shirts
gaining social acceptance in more and more settings? i mean, how many of us
wear tshirts to work at least once a week? or going out to the bar/club? and
how many of us would have been able to do that in either setting even 20 years
ago? tshirts: no longer the other underwear.

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aston
Despite their (and threadless') success, selling witty t-shirts is actually a
really rough business to be in. It's number two on the list of stupid frat-boy
business ideas here: [http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/8-stupid-frat-
boy-...](http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/8-stupid-frat-boy-business-
ideas)

The main issue being that it costs you a ton of money to produce inventory you
probably won't be able to move. The economics only make sense only when the
entire nation is buying your t-shirts. It's all loss-leading to get to that
point, though.

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menloparkbum
Actually the bonus with t-shirts is that it doesn't cost a ton of money. I
used to work with a company that made most of its money off of t-shirts.

Getting 144 t-shirts printed with one color costs about 500 dollars, including
the shirts. You can sell these for $20, which means you make about $2300. You
don't really need to make more than 144 (unless you are at the level of
CollegeHumor) because there are so many just-in-time style print shops. If you
sell out, you can have another run made in less than a week.

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anewaccountname
Their real (not so secret) secret to success is flagrant copyright violation
on almost everything they post (which is why they eventually went to a more
"user posted" model--to be protected by the safe-harbor clauses of the DMCA).
The same can be said of YouTube: there is tons of copyrighted stuff, a few
short "America's Funniest Home Videos" style stuff, and then there is some
excellent user-produced made-to-entertain content. But in regards to the
latter, 90% of the time it is backed up by copyrighted music.

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danielrhodes
Yes, I totally agree. All of those t-shirts are flagrant copyright violations.
;-)

But more to your point: even if the copyright problems were as widespread as
you claim, it simply demonstrates a gap in the market that exists. There is
obviously a demand for this copyrighted content online, and it's not because
people are suddenly getting it free (since it was essentially free before).
Luckily, there is a new demand for user-generated content as well. Now that
there is a more equal playing field between traditional and user-generated
media, it will be very interesting to see if the demand for traditional media
keeps up. My guess is that it will become too expensive to compete, since
people only place a certain premium on quality.

In terms of CollegeHumor, they have a lot of original content and have
maintained a very good grip on what college kids like and think is funny. It
is a mis-characterization to attribute all of their success to simply stealing
other people's work. Nobody gets a free ride like that.

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henning
Never underestimate the lucrative "t-shirts that say things" market.

