1. What is tcritic.com?

Tcritic is an almost daily blog about t-shirts that attempts to cover unique, high quality and clever t-shirt design. If there is an artisan behind the shirt, if it’s special in some way, if it’s done in small batches I like to write about it, you will rarely find mass market t-shirts although of course there are obviously exceptions to that rule.

Continue reading, GearCraves, to learn about Tcritic.com from blogger Karl Long himself.

2. Why should people read tcritic.com?

Tcritic is above all about fun, personal expression, and connecting with people. The t-shirt for me is a social lubricant and often sparks conversations with like minded people. The t-shirt is in many ways your logo for the day, so are you going to wear what everyone else has or are you going to wear something bold. i love to go to work wearing an “are the assholes still in charge” t-shirt, or make a big presentation wearing a “Design will save the world” t-shirt.

3. How did tcritic.com begin?

Tcritic began because I figured it would be easier to write about T-Shirts than it was writing about marketing and business strategy (which I had been doing for several years beforehand), and as it turned out people liked. I started it off with the idea that I might be able to go out and take pictures of people on the street with their t-shirts like the Sartorialist but I haven’t quite managed that so much yet. I still feel weird about stopping people in the street, although I have done it a couple of times.

4. when did tcritic.com start?

May 7th, 2006 with a t-shirt that said “nobody reads my blog“

5. what do you enjoy most about your site?

The connections I make with people and the people I have met in person through this. It has added an amazing dimension to my life where I’m going to events all the time that I would have never gone to if I hadn’t been blogging about t-shirts. When I’m at parties more often that not people remember me as “the t-shirt guy”, it’s very funny, and cool at the same time. This has been especially good for me as I only recently moved to San Francisco and Tcritic has really helped me meet lots of amazing local people who are involved in the t-shirt business.

6. what advice would you have for “would be” bloggers?

I actually wrote a post about this on my marketing blog last year and I think it still holds true. I don’t nessasarily think this covers everything but I do see these being common traits that I see in successful blogs and that is Focus, Passion, and Originality. Focus is incredibly important, when someone hits your blog you have milliseconds to help that person make a decision, the decision is “am i interested in this blog”, and the clearer focus you have on the blog the easier it will be for that person to decide if they like it or not. Passion, well that’s self explanatory, you have to have an interest in what your writing about. To tell you the truth though I can’t say I was incredibly passionate about t-shirts when I started my blog, but that has grown over time, and I am a lot more passionate about it now. As for originality, I don’t think you need to be the only blog on a topic, but at least take your own approach, give it your own flavor.

• Three Traits for Successful Blogs

The only thing i’ll add is you should try and be consistent and set and expectation for your audience, don’t post 10 times in a day and then nothing for a week. If you can manage daily, do it, if you can manage weekly, do that, and let people know that’s what you do.

7. what are your favorite websites and why?

• ReadWriteWeb - good web 2.0 / social media coverage with less hype and more good thoughtful writing.
• Escapist Magazine - great video game coverage
• LaughingSquid - cool stuff in San Francisco and beyond
• Consumerist - great stories about consumers and of course them getting their own back against companies that suck
• TheDailySourceCode - Adam Curry is the podfather
• Kottke.org - always amazing and interesting stuff

8. what gadgets can you not live without?

• Twitter
• My phone, which is a Nokia N95 (full disclosure I do work for Nokia)
• My apple powerbook
• Nikon D80
• Nintendo DS Lite

Be sure to check out some of Karl’s favorite posts on Tcritic:

• Top Ten Video game t-shirts
• Top Ten Star Wars t-shirts
• Tcritic’s “best t-shirt ever” archive

Thanks Karl and tcritic for joining us. Be sure to check out Tcritic, GearCravers, for daily t-shirt fashion and design news!