The t’osphere is becoming an increasingly crowded place. I’d say there are at least 20 very active tshirt blogs now. The problem with all this activity is there is bound to be a large amount of overlap in
a) featured items
b) readers
I read pretty much all the tshirt blogs, I’d read them for my job even if I wasnt just keeping up with ideas/new stores and special offers for HipHipUK. The problem I see now is that they are starting to become a little generic and repetitive. I think its important to find a niche and to work that niche. HYA for example has a niche within a niche, currently with no real competition. The problem with niche’s in niche’s however is that their readership should be by definition smaller than the niche’s. Not that its a big leap across a deep chasm from the tshirt to the hoodie 
Companies have also realised the potential power of these sites as a marketing tool. I’d estimate that I get 25 or so mails a week from stores looking to be featured. I bet tcritic and preshrunk get twice as many or more. The problem however is that if they get 50, that 50 will also include the 25 that I recieved. We’re all getting spammed contacted by the same companies, the first thing I do now when I get a mail from someone I’d like to feature is:
a) tell them I’ll probably feature them if someone else hasn’t already beaten me to it (in the hope of stopping them mailing another five sites who’ll post before me)
b) check who of the big T sites has already featured them (I’m not normally the first as other more regularly updated sites usually beat me to it).
Once you’ve made it onto one of the big 5 or 10 tshirt sites, I bet theres little benefit from being featured on any others for a period of time say two months. Once someones already posted about a site theres little point in also covering them again, unless your substantially adding to the conversation somehow with an indepth feature or something. As I cant really compete with the more regularly updated sites due to work and general offline life commitments I guess i see HipHipUKs niche is to continue with the industry angle. I can compete with that as I have no competition, well apart from indie clothing blog, which is something a little different.
I dont think thats the best way to increase traffic, tcritic is a perfect example of how to build traffic
a) post everyday
b) keep it simple, have a hook, such as one new shirt a day.
c) fill it full of tshirts
I think I have another little idea for a mini-site, I’ll be cloak and dagger about it until its finished. I know it will definetely help me, lets help its of use to some others aswell. So thats two new sites to find the time to setup, who said it was all glamour being a tshirt blogger? 
Funny that, I’ve thought about this a few times but didn’t write about it, since I do try and stay on niche, whereas with your industry angle this is a perfect kind of post for you.
The spam can get a bit frustrating, if they put a bit of personal info at the top then I don’t really mind getting some blurb, but just a press release can be fairly annoying.
I do think that since I do try and stick to a certain style of clothing that it makes brand owners think before contacting me, so I don’t get too many people e-mailing me their terrible ‘funny’ shirts.
Oh, and affiliate links are something that’s effecting the quality of the t’oshpere. I’m guilty of it too, but I think that there are a lot of posts that just happen to mention BustedTees and other tee companies on the Shareasale affiliate network.
I’ve only been up for a few weeks and I’m copping the emails already… my response is usually ‘I’ll have a look and If there’s something that I really like I’ll write about it, otherwise I’ll keep checking out your site and see if anything catches my fancy’
Hi adam, I can see your point here, in my opinion the right decision. Good luck also with your new project.
When I recently started our blog, I was quite worried about mixing up to much different topics. That’s because we have our own label and off course the blog should be a way to communicate with our customers. But hey, for a small t-shirt project like us there is just not enough stuff going on, to write essentially news on a daily base. So I decided that it might be a good Idea to additionally speak about the tee biz in general, personal experiences, strategies, other t-shirt companies and their way of doing business. Thats 2 different ways, each one with a different target group of readers. I am not sure this will work out well - would love to hear other opinions about this point.
could you name that 20 blogs? as i’m always looking for good sources of information. and i just know a few, maybe 5 fashion blogs plus your blogroll.
hi sven, good luck with your new blog. nice to see my link
already put you on my netvibes.
Great post Adam. As a retailer myself I understand the influence of blogs. The number of t-shirt blogs around is not only a good marketing tool (although I try to avoid emailing the sites all the time and only when I have relevant news) but more importantly they are great to find out what the current trends are and to find great new brands. I will be changing the brands at our site because of finding new brands at all the t-shirt and fashion blogs I read. In fact I would rather sit on the internet reading all the fashion blogs for a whole day then going to certain trade shows that are held in London. These are just my opinions and I am sure many retailers will disagree with me. Keep up the good work with the blog Adam
Thanks for the positive comments. I dont think affiliate links are bad, just that you need to decide if your the bbc or newscorp. You cant be both, but if your reputation is good enough theres no harm in throwing in an affiliate link for something you really like (the stuff at karmaloop) is a good example. I’ve never done it yet, but wouldnt rule it out for one of my new sites.
Hi Adam, good post. Although I just recently started blogging about shirts, I understand your problem. I created a kinda nice blog, I blog about one shirt a day, and cut all pictures so that only the print is visible, and give the possibility to view shirts on color, on price and on tag.
The problem with some blogs is that if a new shirt gets printed, everyone writes about it. So you see the same shirt appearing 5 times or so. I blog shirts because I like them, but sometimes I know they have appeared on other blogs months ago, I just hope my audience doesn’t read all those blogs
From a retailers’ and consumers’ perspective… I’d say that if more than one blog ends up featuring a design… then you’d be on a winner and I think it validates the repetition… as it encourages the retailer to produce more rocking designs… and it also encourages the consumer to make a purchase as more than one blogger would recommend the brand or design.
For a small list (I’ve probably missed quiet a few) of t-shirt bloggers… head on over to my post on ‘Who Is The Leading T-Shirt Blogger’ and feel free to add your own in the comments. Shaka-brah!
I recently started blogging and it’s a lot of work. This post is nice and usefull.
thanks
Andreas