Moishe’s Moving Systems, New York’s largest moving company and one of the jewiest of companies in the NYC area, is giving away one t-shirt a day to the winner of a daily raffle.

In an effort to increase their Facebook presence, Moishe’s has created a contest that will very simply give fans incentive to share their content!

How to Participate:

1. Go to www.facebook.com/moishesmoving
2. Click “Share” on the very bottom left hand side
3. Add a comment to the official contest post saying *shared*
4. And that’s it! At 8pm EST, Moishe’s Moving will announce the winner of the Schwag for Shares contest!

The winners can then post pictures of themselves wearing the Moishe’s Moving t-shirts! Join the fun by clicking here!

Stoke Int. has hit me up for another piece, which I’m starting to work on. That reminded me that I had this pic from the last package they sent me with one of the shirts I did up for them. The next one’s gonna be nuthin like it!

That also reminded me that I wanted to post up this little Dunny that the homie Kevin C. dropped off days ago. Thanks again, Kevin!

Effin love cheeseburgers – but who doesn’t?

Review of the Colorado Women’s Expo

I went to the Colorado Women’s Expo yesterday for the 1st time and it was great! I came away with so much free stuff my back hurts from hauling it around. I am definitely going next year, if only for the free shwag. Almost every booth gave something away, be it candy or promo items. You got spoiled right away: “no I do not want to hear about your great spa specials until you give me my free pocket mirror.”

At first I jumped on the freebies, stuffing pens and chocolate kisses in my not-nearly-big-enough purse – though when I left I did have 3 more tote bags than I started with which are now going to my girls as purses. But with 200+ booths and many more hours to go, I had to become much more selective.

Here’s a list going from average and common to pretty darn awesome.

Shwag List:

Ehhh

Cheap pens - now, none fell apart in your hands so I don’t mean that cheap. They were the standard ballpoint pen or clickers with the company’s info on it, and a higher quality than at many conventions. I grabbed quite a few at 1st, but after I saw how much other shwag there was I walked on by unless I was interested in what they were promoting. I’d have to say that the Moms Like Me pens were the best – and I’m not just saying that because I am a member of the site. It’s a good, solid pen with an easy click on the top. Black barrel with white accents, and their logo is pretty and easy to read – and it has the website address which, ultimately, is the point of handing out the pen. I don’t see it rubbing off any time soon, and it does not look like a promo pen.

Magnets – really? Everyone already has too many of them. Most of the magnets were pretty boring and not something I would be looking for on the fridge.

Candy – yawn. Sure, you grab it, you eat it, and promptly forget who gave it to you. It’s a sweet treat but only one place had their info printed on it.

Water Bottles – pretty popular but they would have been much better if they had actually had water in them. I didn’t even grab one because, eventhough I am sure they cost a lot more than magnets and pens, they only clutter up the house and take up a lot of space in your purse. There was too many purchases and good shwag to shove in my bags.

Coupons – supper yawn. Unless it is for something I can use nooooow or I absolutely plan on going to, forget it. An exception goes to the Outlet Stores coupons, but more on that later.

Key chains – not a lot of these and with good reason. Everyone has too many key chains, even if they are made of metal.

Nice!

Chapstick. Niiiiiiiiice! I came away with 2 (Moms Like Me, and the Ovarian Cancer Awareness booth) but I decided not to be a piglet and stopped collecting. There were a couple of other booths with lip balms but I left them alone. People are going to keep these for a good long time and will see the companies info on it. Plus it makes you feel good when you put it on. Bravo!

Full sized candy bars. Yummmm, but they were being closely watched so you had to talk to the aestheticians about having your face redone or something. I only saw these at one place. I decided to stear clear because there was a lot of little candies you could just grab and go with at other booths and not wait around to talk to someone in a white coat.

Product samples – drinks – there was a natural, caffeine-free energy drink that was super tasty, and a green tea drink. Both had pluses and minuses. I loved the energy drink, but I don’t remember what it is called because I didn’t take anything with their name on it away with me and, most importantly, I couldn’t buy any of it. I would have bought a 4 pack right then and there but it wasn’t offered. The Green Tea mix that you add to water and drink twice a day for wellness and some accidental weight loss required some chit chat before they gave you some which was important. But you could only buy a month’s worth at a time, which costs a good deal of money which probably put some people off. I would have preferred to have just bought a little six pack but it was not an option. It was in for a penny, in for a pound.

Perfume samples – always a pleasure to try, but the only one I found was for Tommy Hilfager. I’d like to see more folks doing that.

Other product samples – Quick Recover Mask, Sanitas Lemon Cream Scrub, Lens Towelettes, always nice for a one off, but I don’t know how good a marketing tool it is. Sanitas has great beauty supplies, but several different samples in one nifty container prominently telling me where to buy them would be much more effective in turning me into a customer. After I unpacked everything from the big jumble  in my free bags, I don’t even know where I got the masque from, so that did not work out well for… whomever.

Bandaid holder from the Betty Ford Center. This will go great in my Mom’s Survival Pack in my car or purse for playground boo boos and to give out at the next intervention.

Nifty hand sanitizer in its own attachable sling. Just hang it off your belt when out in public with friends or, again, at the intervention. This was just a part of the shwag given out in the fab promo bags given out by the Outlet Stores.

Pocket mirror from Lifestyle Lift – baby, you had me at Lifestyle Lift! I’ve watched the ads on TV about the magical mini facelift so I already know all about them. This was just an added plus, and lured me in enough so they had time to hand me more promo info, including a DVD. And yeah, looking in that little mirror reminds me of how much I would like to have my neck sucked in someday.

Business card-sized mint and toothpick holder – this came from Westwood College and is pretty sweet, though you might need a college degree from them to figure out how to open it up. I say containers of mints is always a good promotional tool at a place like this, though I was too shy to hand them out to some vendors who really could have used them.

Oooo! Awww!!!

Mini Toilet Plunger from Benjamin Franklin Plumbers – way to turn a boring topic into a business no one will forget. Having an employee dressed up like the big BF was eye catching, but seeing little kids running around with pint sized plumbing equipment sent people straight to their booth. People won’t be throwing those away any time soon, and they will be passed from grandparents to grandkids, and off the the neighbor’s kids if you don’t have any of your own. Brilliant!

Onsite Massages – many spas and chiropractors had free, 10 – 15 minute chair massages. Now I assume they were totally fantastic, but I do not know first hand because there was always a line for them. I kept going by to check but they were always full until the very end of the day and by then I was done, done, DONE and just wanted to drag my bazillion bags of free stuff home.

Bottles of water - that may not sound too exciting, but when you are on hour four of shopping and schmoozing, that bottle is unforgettable. These were hard to find but a few booths had them, like the informative booth on being check for the HPV virus. They were smart by now having a bunch out at once or they would have run out. You had to talk to them a little to get a bottle which only seems fair.

Meat - samples of hot, steaming beef and hotdogs from the Snow Creek Ranch. So tasty, I would have bought a half side of cow if they’d had it

Italian shampoo, conditioner, and hot oil conditioner from Faipa. Fancy stuff. The 3 samples came in a cardboard CD-type case. Debbie Buell’s business card would have gotten lost in the piles of cards I brought back from the Expo, but since she attached it to the inside of these tres bon toiletries, now I am quite tempted to head on down to the Perfecta Styling Salon in Broomfield and have her cut my hair. Nice one Debbie!

REAL bags – this is the time when you need them. Mom Like Me had the best. Big and roomy, with a reinforced, foldable bottle, sort of a straw weave fabric and good handle long enough to go over your shoulder – this was a bag you really could use during the Expo. I only wish I had run by their booth earlier on. The Outlet Stores had a great little bag, filled with coupons and freebies for attending their fashion show. They are good quality, brightly colored, which a strong woven handle strap and inner velcro closure. They are small, maybe 12″ x 9 ” but one side had zero publicity on it, just photos, so you might actually take it out in public someday.

Boo and Hiss

GreenTee HP – Super cute water bottles on display, but you could only get on if you paid for 2 months worth of product. That’s about $150. Talk about stingy!

Free Vision Screening from Pearle Vision – this was not done by professionals. They told me I needed to go in RIGHT AWAY to get glasses which would have rattled me if I had not recently had laser surgery done on my eyes. I’ve been seeing the optomitrist every few weeks and have 20/20 vision. Sometimes 20/15. What a rip.

Fake food – “Look! tasty chocolate cookies!!” No. They are for display purposes only. Booooooooooooo!

Best Booths for Free Shwaggery

Colorado Outlets -

MomsLikeMe.com -

Expo Layout

About 200 booths spread out nicely with good flow, though a few of the popular ones like Beijo purses and clothing, did get cramped quickly. The style was much better set for approaching the booth rather than going in to it and shopping unless they had an open corner booth. A very good selection of vendors, with many women-owned small businesses. Lots of chiropractors though. I good place to shop and buy jewelry and hats, but not so good for larger items because there was not enough space in the booths to really move around and browse.

They kept food selections on the outside perimeter with space for lines to form. EXTRA BIG applause for American Furniture Warehouse for placing tons of summer furniture around the back of the area so ladies had comfy places to sit, eat, relax, and chat. They were not blatant about the advertising which was nice. Lots of space and not a lot of crowding when you were ready to lunch. They also had spots in the middle with leather chairs, couches and such. I would have actually liked to have some promotional information near these telling about the styles and costs, but there were none.

The biggest downside I found to this was the dozen or so electronic stations set up just before entering the expo. I guess this was to collect people’s info and sign them up for prizes. They were not well marked, there was no organization for queuing up, a few were out of service, and it took a loooong time for people to get through the survey. It was worse than the women’s rest room at the theater. At least you KNOW what you are standing in line for. PLUS, they had these smaller kiosks inside the Expo which one could do at one’s leisure. I wish I’d known that before standing for five minutes before walking away. That was five minutes of excited shopping time I missed out on so I started the day a little peeved. Granted, this feeling did not last long, but it was an unnecessary irritant.

Music would have been nice. Was there any?

Women I am so Glad I Met

The Queen Bee from Queen Bee Sauce – no it’s not edible honey. She’s The Queen Bee. She shared a booth with the Colore minerals face lady who knew her stuff AND the Queen Bees. I bought from both thanks to the Colore lady. Then I talked to Lynne, the QB. She was very open and outgoing AND she used to work in the gaming industry, and she said she’d hook me up with people who would be interested in Famazon Magazine. Like chicks who design games and such. So excellent networking. Plus I liked her story of dropping out of the computer industry to follow this hobby of making products with uncooked shea butter (so the good stuff stays in the cream). And ultimately, her products, like the Butta Hand Cream, were to die for!

The Mary Kay Lady – Remember when Mary Kay was in those ugly pink plastic things? No more. The stuff looks chic and I did not even recognize their products. Lots of glosses with a hint of fine glitter. Too bad they had no product to buy and she couldn’t really give any samples out cos I would have pulled out my credit card. She was really nice to talk to and, when I left one of my bags (by now I had 3), she was very concerned and called on my cell phone. I now have a new Mary Kay rep, thank you very much!

The Send Out Cards Lady – Julie, what a totally fantabulous idea – custom or standard greeting and postcards that you do not have to deal with personally. You choose the design. You add photos and text if you want. You can even use your own handwriting and signature. They keep your addresses, they keep track of dates, they print out your cards and they mail them for you when you want. You don’t even have to remember dates, they do. I felt like I had just washed my hands of the dreaded holiday letter dilemna! www.SendOutCards.com/Jsecor – she was so friendly and helpful, and it is such a great idea, I gave her a hug! Finding out about this was worth the cost of the expo.

The one thing that is nice about the approximately 4000 college football bowl games is that each player involved gets a gift basket, just like the Oscars! Due to NCAA rules, the packages cannot exceed $500 in value but that doesn’t mean there can’t be some really good stuff. Thanks to Sox and Dawgs via Awful Announcing, the complete list is available here. Some highlights include:

Las Vegas Bowl (BYU vs Arizona)
Gifts: Wii System bundle package, Oakley Holeshot Three-Hand watch, Oakley Hijinx sunglasses, hat

Alamo Bowl (Northwestern vs Missouri)
Gifts: Sony 80-gigabyte PS3 system with game, Fossil watch

Insight Bowl (Kansas vs. Minnesota)
Gifts: Vizio 26-inch LCD HDTV, Bulova watch, Hat

Sugar Bowl (Alabama vs Utah)
Gifts: Sony MP3 Walkman, Sony Blu-Ray player, Timely Watch Co. watch, New Era cap

Not too shabby. Sure for the big time players I’m sure they’re already getting nicer things via their future agents an boosters, but if you’re the 95 guy on the roster, who plays once every 6 games and otherwise just gets to stand in uniform on the sidelines, this is a pretty awesome deal for you. Dammit, why wasn’t I ever a major football conference player, I could totally use a new 26 inch HDTV. Readers, I expect you all to contribute and buy me one. Do it now.

I did some digging at the Urban Dictionary this morning, looking for the perfect word to describe these little graphic badges or buttons bloggers bestow upon one another. I thought maybe bling would work, but it has more to do with noisy jewelry and rappers.

Nope.

I figured swag might fit, but the term is best used when describing all the free marketing and promotional merchandise (read: crap) you get from radio stations and start-up bands.

Again, nope. (And it’s important not to confuse swag with schwag
or shwag, terms “used to describe low grade marijuana.”)

I debated going with flair. Thanks to the movie Office Space, flair is now almost universally defined as “buttons and other decorative accessories added to a work uniform, esp. at chain restaurants.” But flair is something people choose for themselves, and most people, especially chain restaurant workers, despise flair.

Thrice, nope.

All these cheapen, in one way or another, the intent of the giver. And we bloggers are nothing if not a sincere bunch. We don’t bestow these badges willy-nilly.

So I’m going to go with bloglove. I’ve seen it used here and here (with the same graphic, even), just to share a couple of examples, and each seems to get to the “heart” of the point – to express our appreciation for blogs that move us in some meaningful way.

I’ve received this particular badge three times:

RiverPoet at Poetic License, claims I am “a fabulous writer and an honest human being in every sense of the word.”

Tasses at Random Wonder, describes me as “a soul searcher, a writer, a guy reinventing himself each new day.”

And most recently, Erika at Be Gay About It passed it along, claiming, “Brian is the nicest guy I’ve never met. He handles really deep, difficult subjects like race and religion with ease and brings his readers into the dialogue in a nonthreatening way. He’s insightful and honest and I appreciate his ability to laugh at himself. I think if we all loved our families as much as he does, the world would be a more comfortable place.”

[blush]

I’ve received numerous awards over the years: I have been on the Dean’s List several times; my former university recognized me as an Outstanding English Major; I earned my Eagle Scout award when I was fifteen. I even got my name on a plaque for being McDonald’s Employee of the Month . . . October 1986.

Yes, I am special.

But to be recognized in Blogland is different. I haven’t done anything particularly awesome to warrant these badges. I just write from where I’m at, whenever I get the chance. Some people have read my ponderings and been moved.

And I am humbled.

Every day, I remind myself that you people could read any of the other 100 million bloggers out there, many of them far more popular than me. For example, you could visit the blog of one Xu Jinglei, a Chinese actress, whose site (as of this writing) has received “more than 50 million page views.” And I know you’re busy. If you’re an average blogger, you have a reader of some sort loaded with fresh content from 50 or more other bloggers, all with varying degrees of talent and productivity. (I’m hoping you folks are better than I am at actually reading all those blogs . . . my reader is currently telling me I have over 400 unread posts. I’m working on it! If you haven’t seen me in a while, please be patient . . . )

So I am grateful you choose to visit The Cheek and spend some time with me and peruse my meandering tales.

And so it comes to this . . . the part where I am now obligated to pass along the badge to some bloggers I love. To do this right, I should probably just post links to all the blogs in my reader, for I simply don’t have the time to read blogs I don’t love. But such a list, commonly called a blogroll, would be tiring to maintain and painfully monotonous. (I do periodically share posts that move me. They are listed under the heading “Tweakers Write Too!” on the right, so check them out if you have the time.) And I must confess that I really hate choosing blogs for things like this. I worry that I’ll leave someone out and they’ll be offended or think I don’t love them. I’ll say it here: I love each and every one of you!

Instead, I’m going to pass this along to some bloggers who don’t have a bunch of badges on display. These folks blog for the same reasons I do. Because sometimes you just need to get it out there and see what pots gets stirred. Because some things are better out in the open instead of bundled up inside and festering. Because the strangeness of life moves you in unique ways that need words to make them feel not so foreign or uncomfortable. Because you don’t worry whether people leave comments or send you badges. You do it for you . . .

Michael at Always going, going, going on beyond . . .

Debbeblue at bedrest banshee . . .

Mork at Pragmatic-Eclectic . . .

Bejewell at The Bean . . .

Chanda at Trapped Under Something Heavy . . .

I just spent ten minutes going through my reader, fretting that I’ve left someone out, only to remember that I wasn’t going to do that. You all deserve this award, so if you want it, take it. But these five stand out at this moment. They each touch a particular nerve of mine, so I pass them along to the rest of you. If you love them already, let them know. The rest of you, check them out.

And tell them (the blogger formerly known as) Unibrow sent you . . .

I’m new to the affiliate marketing scene but I was able to make it up to AdTech New York for my very first affiliate marketing conference (all the way from Orlando Florida). If you are into online-marketing and wish to learn more about making money online, I highly recommend going to one of these affiliate trade-shows. They are all over the country. The next big one I know of is called Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, in January ‘09. I’m relatively new in the industry, but attending Ad:Tech allowed me to become better acquainted with many different CPA networks available for publishers and advertisers world-wide. Although part of me wanted to learn about the exploding affiliate marketing industry, the other part of me… really just wanted free PENS!

HAHAHA! Oh yeah baby! PENS!

Seriously, check out the plethora of pens I brought home from just ONE show:

WOW!

Instead of making this a boring post about my new pens, I’ve decided to make this a usable post (for all aspiring affiliate marketers out there), and offer everyone who wants actual links to these CPA networks. Some of them are just starting out (and growing) and some of them have already made huge (multi-million-dollar) names for themselves. Feel free to use this blog to discuss the quality of all CPA networks, or simply click on my pen-pics below to check them out for yourself!

Do you attend affiliate marketing conventions? Care to share your experiences with different online companies with me? -or, perhaps show-off some of your cool pens? -_- This is an open-book! -_-

Either way, enjoy!

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CPX Interactive

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Rextopia

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Clickbooth

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XY7

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Neverblue

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ValueClick Media

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Blue Phoenix

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Direct Agents

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PrimaryAds

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Commission Soup

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Burst Media

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Other CPA Networks Available:

Amped Media

Remember when we were wee young things looking for something to do with long days of sun? A saving grace was the arrival of the county fair. For one long weekend you could get lost in pure amusement and visual stimuli – a real attention grabber was the Spin Art booth. By just squeezing color tubes onto a whirling canvas you became the next Jeff Koons. Bringing your proud new piece home for Mom to paste up on the fridge for all the world to see. London based Illustrator Miles Donovan has taken this to a level of good repute with pop-culture illustrations. Catch his work in The New York Times, The Observer, and Billboard. Keeping the youth alive, he is the man behind PEEPSHOW where you get a view of the showreel and an idea of where he spins his artistic wand.

A few memorable images from last week’s ESRI User Conference. I managed to capture several hundred images at the event (see also the flickr), however, here’s a few images of some of my favorite fun things from the week.

My vote for most innovative booth goes to the guys from Digital Data Solutions (DDS), Denver, CO. There’s no doubt the booth and all the give-aways were very cleverly thought out… kudos guys! FYI, the crew has just listed an interesting career opportunity for a Senior Account Exec.

It’s great to see the job boards being packed with opportunities.. heck, our GISuser Job Board has been rocking all week too with loads of new opportunities!

The plenary session is always one of the most memorable days of the event and this year’s was no exception. After listening to Dr Peter Raven it really hit home how rapidly we are altering the environment.

The guys at BlueMarble Geographics have to get the prize for the coolest Shwag at this year’s ESRI UC… the “Shift Happens” T was definitely a hit.

There just never seems to be enough time to spend in the map gallery!

Petco Park was one of my favorite places to throw one back!

The Strip Club is one of my favorite stops in the Gaslamp where you grill your own steak (or tuna like I did)
On the map gallery floor I really enjoyed this poster.

After a long night in the Gaslamp I always enjoy strolling past Dick’s on the way back to the hotel. you never know who you might meet there late in the evening!

It was nice to be able to pass out several hundred of the new business cards.. hopefully you got one!

Don’t you wish you’d held on to that Colt 45 bobblehead you bought for your man at a garage sale? Not only is Colt 45 hipster pop, honing in on Pabst Blue Ribbon at limited open bar events, the bobblehead doll is worth thousands as a collectible.

WorthPoint.com reports: The Houston Colt 45 doll is the most uncommonly found bobblehead, and its book value is upward of $10,000. One of the things that make this one unique is that, as the name of the team suggests, this doll carries a pistol.

Protesters in Philly found murals promoting Vice Magazine’s “Tales from Colt 45″ party series offensive. Apparently dolls packing heat aren’t offensive but graffiti art is dangerous business.

Last night I went to an event my friend Blagica put on called the Diva series. Had a great time meeting new people and listening to “The fireman and the Shrink” talk about sex and dating. I also finally met Kristen Nicole of Mashable and she rocks just like everyone said.

Free drinks, fun ladies AND they had the coolest shwag!

Check out this video I made of me exploring my beauty assistant by Sephora.

Pictures I took at the event here.

Recently I did a photo-shoot for an up and coming local t-shirt manufacturer, Gtee’s. It’s a local company that has a small store in dover, delaware right by wesley college. What I really enjoy about doing things such as this, is the free shwag! I got to keep a few shirts of my choice. 

Gtee’s specializes in character shirts, from cartoon shows, etc. But they also have an extended collection of tee’s that have funny sayings such as “I’ll google it”, etc. So if your in the area, make sure to head up to Dover and check out Gtee’s!

A chemical peel doesn’t sound like something that should happen to your face. And a vial of celeb skin cells doesn’t sound like it would make the coolest gift.

Celebs might want to exert even more vigilance than usual, when having work done. There are potential skin cell trollers out there. An unusually vile piece of Daily Candy made it into our inbox, describing FamousFlakes as a new enterprise that offers “beautifully packaged vials of your favorite celeb’s skin and hair.”

Nasty, no? Worse, the company seems proud of its double agent style acquisitions that include bribes to hotel housekeepers, aestheticians, surgeons, and a few desperate b-level celebs themselves. You can confirm genetic authenticity with a certificate of proof.

Sort through vials of Jake Gyllenhaal, Mike Bloomberg, Courtney Love. Bono voluntarily exfoliated himself and markets the slough under the Product (Red) line. Parker Posey and Chloë Sevigny are coming soon to a lab package near you.

Who wants their favorite star’s dandruff, or leftovers post rhinoplasty?

Luckily it was an April Fool’s post, but in today’s tabloid mad world – it was highly credible.

We all love free stuff. When geeks get together at conferences and the like, you’ll always see people rushing to get their paws on the latest cool startup’s tshirt or frisbee or flashing bouncy ball.

TechCrunch has a story on StartUpSchwag which will be doing a similar thing which ValleySchwag started doing last year, which was to bag up all the ’schwag’ (that’s free stuff, folks) they could from the plethora of startups in Silicon Valley and deliver to all the schwagheads every month for $15.

StartUpSchwag differs from ValleySchwag in that it will actually do the production of the merch for the companies too, making it easy to fulfill – which ValleySchwag sometimes found hard to do every month.

Nice idea! I heart schwag! And I happen to have the kewlest domain for said service : http://schw.ag !! Niiiice

I’ve had a website system planned for tshirt, mug, mousemat, etc designing for a while, over at http://blograffiti.com, for user generated merchandise for a few years. I still need to find a decent (global) printer/fulfiller to help me in this venture. I already have a redesigned doodler thing ready to go.

There’s also quite a few of these things cropping up all the time, some with some great tools for designing stuff. CafePress being the obvious one and PixelTees being an early starter in the self-made tee game.

There’s also more on this story over on ReadWriteWeb.