Just to introduce myself a bit, my name is Tyler and I am a web designer, artist, businessman, entrepreneur, and manager from CT on a journey to create the perfect local cow tshirt brand. I have been in various businesses and jobs, on the hunt for recognition and financial freedom, for many, many years. I am 33 now and have finally commited to some long-term projects to better myself, my lifestyle, and my well-being.
Cowmoo just recently started as a small test of the new boom in AI (artificial intelligence) technology that is becoming popular around the world. I found a neat text-to-image generator for free trial use (the name escapes me), and wanted to create a design that went along with the graphic logo I came up with for Cowmoo, kind of by mistake. The logo was actually an alteration of an existing logo of mine, but with some reworking, I noticed that the design vaguely resembled a cow's face on it side. So, my goal was to design a teeshirt that went with this logo, in hopes of selling on a small scale via a webshop. In the app, I typed in "Cool Cow Wearing Teeshirt," and after a few moments, the AI generated the cow design that you see today. It is very photorealistic, fun to look at, sort of resembles an Andy Warhol print, and had neat subtle details so I figured I could work with it.
I had another tee and apparel brand I was working on before this, so I was originally going to tie it into that brand, SNDZ (www.sndz.us) but opted to make it it's own entity. The theme to Cowmoo is going to be simplicity, and it gets no simpler than a single white teeshirt for men and women, on a basic website made by hand on Wix. SNDZ is more of a brand to pump money and time into, but Cowmoo is just something simple, easy, and fun to manage. As far as creation goes, CM will be using Print-On-Demand technology, powered by the fine folks at Printful.com, to manufacture and ship the tees to consumers. It makes things easier for me in the long run, not having to haggle with local screen printers (there are a lot of them in my area) and also supports the growing economy of POD markets; a win-win.
In the back of my mind, with all of this going on, I still wanted to get involved in having a streaming service on YouTube, but wanted to do it all on a budget. I had an account but no media to upload, so with this new Cowmoo brand identity, I found Epidemic Sound, a royalty free music site that lets you download tunes and post them on the streaming site. I figured if I did a blend of showcasing Cowmoo AND used music to lighten the mood, I coulld kill 2 birds with 1 stone and get a small channel going, so that's exactly what I did to expand presence on the internet. You can find the Cowmoo Music Channel, @cowmoosic, on Youtube. The music sticks to a certain flavor of barnyard, farm funk, and jazzy guitar riffs, all in one place, with cool graphic backgrounds to gaze at as you listen. I also posted on TikTok and found a way to generate AI Cow Videos to promote the brand. As far as web and media presence goes, that's about as much as I will need for starters (and a Facebook Biz page aswell).
I reccomend my path for anyone with a knack for basic creativity and a drive to make a bit of money along the way. The process wasn't hard but did take a bit of time, but ultimately it was fulfilling and still an ongoing project. Print-on-Demand is great, and can be used with multiple platforms like eBay, Etsy, and others, allowing you to post your (or someone else's that you hire) drawings or designs to a wide audience. As far as marketing and advertising goes, that is up in the air. I loaned myself a bit of money to get these companies off the ground for as little as possible, so marketing is the next step. This process definately takes the most time, with algorythms, strategies, campaigns, and all things involved, but that's the way it goes.
At a pretty price point per shirt and basic site design, a simple and well-made Google Ad might do the trick, so keep your eye out while surfing for "Cows Eating Grass," because you might see me in the results (hopefully near the top someday). I plan on going easy on advertisements at first as far as financials go, because you can monitor traffic a little better when you are looking at it penny by penny as opposed to hundreds of dollars a week for vauge performance. Tweaks can be made and alterations might show a boom in performance, so keep an eye out for the little things if you choose to do this for yourself.
So, in short, keep an eye out for the rise (or fall) of the Cowmoo-Shop, as there are many factors starting to come into play right now. With the site being designed YESTERDAY, I am going to put as much effort into the technical end of it as possible in hopes that someday the system will be automated and everyone can get their own Cowmoo white teeshirt. Business cards perhaps? We shall see. Stay tuned on this journey through the barnyard and farmlands as I monitor the seeds that I planted and see what grows! Moo to you all and thank you for reading thus far; hopefully some of this has been helpful and inspiring as you plany your own seeds.
P.S. Cowmoo is also available as a new-fangled NFT art collection for those of you that are interested or saavy on investments in the modern era. Head over to OpenSea.io and search CowMoo; I am at the top of the results (I think).
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