...is the official FREECULTR Express Blog and a valuable resource for our vast community of creators offering wisdom, insight and updates to get the most out of this amazing platform.
You don’t always look for love, you look for a companion, a friend.
Truly Madly stands for simply being Unsingle
Truly Madly stands for friendship
Truly Madly stands for boy browsing
Truly Madly stands for girl browsing
Truly Madly stands for companionship
Truly Madly stands for bestie
Truly Madly stands for connection
You don’t just browse, you make friends.
The more you browse, more are the chances of you having someone to look forward to.
And keeping that very philosophy in mind, design t-shirts around the theme of Boy-browsing, bestie, companion, connection.
You are given full freedom to use your creativity related to things you do when you browse on a dating app.
You can use Truly Madly logo in your design.
FREECULTR & Truly Madly will mutually be selecting one winner with the best design and gifting him/her an iPad Mini2.
Not just this, the top 10 designers will get COUPLE MOVIE tickets.
It’s super simple to participate in this contest.
1. Simply, sign in to your tee store or create one if you’re aren’t already a designer on FREECULTR
2. Create your Unsingle Tee
3. Upload your Unsingle Design in your tee store
4. We do not accept designs with WHITE BACKGROUND, hence please upload designs with colored backgrounds.
5. Most important tag your design with the tag UNSINGLE
And you’re done!
We’ll announce the winners in November.
For all you lazy ones, if you already have some designs on the theme of Unsingle/Connection, you can always edit them in the My Design Section on your Seller Dashboard and use the tag UNSINGLE.
And for those of you to whom creativity knows no boundaries it’s time for you to Express Yourselves and be UNSINGLE.
Remember the more designs you upload, you increase your chances more to be one of the Top 10 winners and Win yourself an iPad Mini2
So hurry, don’t wait for Christmas!
The contest starts 9th of October and ends on the 20th of October
This month we have got your favorite theme, something we all Indians relate to: INDIANISM. Shuffle your mind, ponder over and think what is it that we Indians are famous for?
Culture: Indian culture has many things which can go with it. Be it the cultures, festivities, Indian women, the way men/women dress up, the way they talk and much more that defines this word.
Food: Of course, It is something that we Indians are famous for! So what’s your favorite picture of food? Upload and earn!
Lingo: India is one of the most multi-lingual country in the world. Think of the local lingo that each language has and convert it into a design.
IST: Now we can’t miss that. It’s our trademark! One thing we Indians are known for is “Getting Late”, how about making designs on the funny situations or rather excuses we have for getting late? Go upload!
National Heroes: What’s Indianism without our national heroes who are differently said our Super Heroes? Think about their sacrifices and all that they’ve done. If you had to pay a tribute to them, do it in the form of a design.
Bollywood: Every Indian is supposed to be Bollywoodholic. Think about your favorite Bollywood dialogue and DESIGN it on a tee. Just be aware of copyright designs/images.
Cricket: It’s almost like our national anthem! The one thing we give up everything to watch that one match of Cricket.
There’s a whole lot of Indian things out there, that would look Super on a tee!
Just look outta the window, keep your senses active and design an Indian thing on tee
We recently did a pricing test whereby we promoted a select few t-shirts of ours at different price-points.This was a month long activity and the results from this was awesome.
We found that the best price at which the Indian consumer is comfortable in buying a tee is at Rs.499
Also, the best benefit a designer can get from pricing his/her tee at Rs.499 is:
1. Lower price points bring more sales. Now that’s no rocket science. Doing this you increase chances for scaling up your sales three times more.
2. At this price point, you get to the comfort zone of customers, they are comfortable procuring at this price, and you’re store will always be considered more.
Hurry up , start re-pricing your t-shirts at Rs. 499 to earn more
We really want to be more connected with you. Who know’s the next time we might be at you city for our FREECULTR CONNECT, official Designer’s meet up.
But for that and a lot of other things that we are planning with you to happen we require certain details from you. For now we would request you to please update your Seller Dashboard with your mobile numbers and location.
Men’s Active t-shirt is now available in 100% Polyester
We have an important announcement to make.
We have revised the fabric of the Men’s Active t-shirts (Crew & V-Neck) and it is now available in 100% Polyester. As you do know the design comes only on the front side of the t-shirt. The back side of the t-shirt does not undergo printing hence remains white in color. As this undergoes a very special and unique printing process some t-shirts may have minor white creases in the under arm area and its edges.
Beer isn’t just one of the most popular beverages in the world.
Beer stands for a lot more.
Beer epitomizes a way of life.
Beer stands for fun.
Beer stands for awesomeness.
Beer stands for friendship.
Beer is the most potent four letter word.
When you ‘beer’, you’re not just drinking - you’re relaxing, you're joking around, you’re chatting, you’re going crazy, you're doing all kinds of kickass things.
So the more you drink beer, the more you’re living life and the more you’re having a great time. So, beer more.
And keeping that very philosophy in mind, design t-shirts around the theme of Beer and ideas around Beer.
No kidding, you’re actually allowed to give a Beery twist to your imagination, get tipsy on that idea and give your mind Expression with awesome designs of beer.
You are given full freedom to write the word BEERMORE in creative and interesting ways.
FREECULTR & The Beer Cafe will mutually be selecting one winner with the best design and gifting him/her an iPhone 6 (16 GB)
Not just this, the top 100 designers will get their own designed Beer T-shirt plus a Beer voucher from The Beer Café.
It’s super simple to participate in this contest.
1. Simply, sign in to your tee store or create one if you’re aren’t already a designer on FREECULTR
2. Create your Beer Tee
3. & Upload your Beer Design in your tee store
4. Most important tag your design with the tag beermore
And you’re done !
We’ll announce the winners in the third week of July.
For all you lazy ones, if you already have some designs on the theme of Beer, you can always edit them in the My Design Section on your Seller Dashboard and use the tag beermore.
And for those of you to whom creativity knows no boundaries it’s time for you to Express Yourselves and BEERMORE
With your Designs on the theme of Beer
Remember the more designs you upload, you increase your chances more to be one of the Top 101 winners and Win your self an iPhone 6
So hurry, don’t wait for Christmas
The contest starts today 26th of June and ends on the 16th of July
Women now have a new reason to Express themselves!
We’ve launched a Cotton variant for women t-shirts too.
Our Cotton t-shirts referred to as Women’s Casual T-shirt is a cotton rich fabric that has 60% Cotton and 40% Polyester and are available in two styles: Boat Neck & V-Neck
Now your t-shirt is available in 8 variants:
For Men- Casual Variant (Crew Neck and V-Neck)
For Men- Active T-shirt (Crew Neck and V-Neck)
For Women- Active T-shirt only (V-Neck and Boat Neck)
For Women- Casual T-shirt only (V-Neck and Boat Neck)
And your design has more variety and more customers and more potential earnings.
The ‘search’ feature at FREECULTR Express enables a user on the website to search for a particular design, tee store or even a designer. It helps the customers to search designs using different search queries. For Example: If a customer wants to buy a biking t-shirt he/she will probably go ahead and search for queries like biker tees, biker, bike t-shirts etc.
What will happen next is, the user will get a variety of t-shirts having the biker designs.
How will this feature help you?
As a designer the search feature will be of great help to you. Remember tagging every design while you upload it? This is where the tagging comes into the game, so the tags you put in a design will help them show in the search results whenever the particular tag or query is searched. Please refer to the screenshot below for a visual understanding.
Thus, now your designs and your tee store will be more easily discoverable. Just remember to put in the appropriate design name and the appropriate tag while uploading a design and you’ll automatically gain more traction on your t-shirt
We hope you have an amazing experience using the search feature on FREECULTR Express.
To give customers more options to choose from we’ve launched the Men’s Casual T-Shirt in both Crew and V-neck styles. It is a new variation to our existing active wear t-shirt that has been available since the beginning where the front of the t-shirt was polyester and the back, cotton. This new cotton rich fabric has been created using a unique blend of Cotton (60%) and Polyester (40%) with the print on the fabric giving it a more natural and matt look.
Now you can sell you t-shirt in 6 variants:
For Men- Casual Variant (Crew Neck and V-Neck)
For Men- Active T-shirt (Crew Neck and V-Neck)
For Women- Active T-shirt only (V-Neck and Boat Neck)
We have made a slight change in the manufacturing process to ensure customers get better quality and a better finished product. To make this possible we have revised our base cost on each t-shirt sold from the earlier Rs.350/- to Rs.450/-. And don’t worry as this does not affect your margins behind each t-shirt sold. For instance if you were selling a design at Rs.399/-, the sale price of your t-shirt will automatically be re-priced at Rs.499/-,. To give you a simpler explanation take a look at the table below.
With new variations in store you now have an additional market to tap and your customers have more options to choose from.
Many more exciting things coming up ahead. Stay in touch :)
FAQs on your Earnings from your Tee store on FREECULTR Express
1. What is FREECULTR Express?
It is a platform for artists, designers, photographers, painters, graphic designers to publish their designs on a t-shirt and earn from it too.
2. How do I make earnings?
Well, you make earnings through the t-shirts you sell through your tee store. On the top right corner of the website you have a sign up option where you can create your tee store, select a store name, upload your designs and set a selling price for them and start selling. Every time you make a sale from your store and it is successfully delivered to the customer, your tee store gets updated within the next 24 to 48 hours.
3. How are my earnings calculated?
The minimum selling price of your t-shirts is Rs. 350 which FREECULTR Express keeps for producing, delivering and managing the customer care and other assets involved in getting the t-shirt to the customer. Whatever you price above Rs. 350 is yours. You can price you t-shirt anything between Rs. 350 and Rs. 749. Say, you price your tee at Rs. 549, your earnings is Rs. 249. Your total earnings will be calculated as per earnings per t-shirt into the total quantity you sell. In a typical month your design wise report will reflect on your Seller’s Dashboard as this:
Thus at the end of the month’s payment cycle you will get paid Rs.745 + Rs.1192 + Rs.298= Rs. 2235
3. How much money do I actually get?
If you've made Rs. 2235 in a typical month, a 10% TDS is deducted from your total earnings against your Pan Card number. For those of you who not have a Pan card a 20% TDS is deducted. Thus for earnings of Rs.2235;
For those having pan card will get: Rs. 2235- 223.5 (10%TDS) = Rs. 2,011.5
For those not having a pan card will get: Rs. 2235- 447 (20%TDS) = Rs. 1,788
4. How do I get to know I've made earnings?
Very simple. When you sign in to your account on FREECULTR Express, at the top right corner you will find your Seller's Dashboard. Here you will get all the updates about the earnings you've made by selling your t-shirts on FREECULTR Express. As soon as a t-shirt that you've sold from your own tee store gets successfully delivered to the customer, your seller's dashboard reflects the earnings within 24 to 48 hours.
5. I just purchased something from my tee store but it's not reflecting on my dashboard.
Please note that your earnings will reflect within 24 to 48 hours from when the t-shirt sold from your tee store is successfully delivered to the end customer. From the time you place an order for a t-shirt, it typically takes 5-7 working days for it to get delivered. However we try our best to deliver it within 5 working days.
6. What is your payment cycle?
We pay our creators from the 10th of a typical month till the 9th of the next month. Thus the earnings cycle are:
10th of March till 9th of April
10th of April till 9th of May
10th of May till 9th of June and so on
7 .How do you give me my earning?
We pay your earnings through an NEFT Transfer into your bank account, the details of which you must fill in the payout info in you seller's dashboard. It is imperative that you must have a bank account in order to get paid for the earnings you make.
8. By when can I expect my earnings?
We shall deposit your earnings into your bank account by the 15th of the Month.
To know more how your Seller’s Dashboard works please refer to this.
We interviewed Abhishek Gambhir, a photographer and one of our oldest creators on FREECULTR Express. His tee store is inspired by Nature and Spiritualism which he thinks is an extension of himself. He see's a bit of himself in Nature and likes to click it whenever he gets the chance. He is our Artist of the Week. We invited him to our studio to share his Thoughts, his Expressions and his Experience on the platform.
Check it out !
It’s been 4 months since the platform’s running &kicking,
And it’s doing graciously well.
Well! Congratulations to you for that.
Our motive as community managers is, to make sure you’reDesigns Get Expression.
& of course for you to make more Cheddar & Cheese!
We would like more and more of your tees to sell.
Thus we present to you, the theme of the week:
Americana
Ya’ll Got it Right!
Think of whatever comes to your mind when you hear this word.
And Design that for a T-shirt
Now that’s no Big Deal for you right, so here are couple of things that you could design on:
1. Cities of the Continent- Every City has its own charm. If you could capture that about a city in the States, that would be Awesome!
2. States- There’s so much you can do with that. You could cover the sports teams, colleges, culture, historic places, food, etc.
3. Monuments- These are icons of the city/state that everyone’s familiar with and sure they would love to sport it.
4. A sport maybe? The country is known for the different sports played there; American Soccer baseball, rugby, etc. Connect these and present your designs, that would look awesome on a t-shirt! This could be a number tee or other icons related to the sport.
5. Food! Well we all associate with that now.
There are tons of things that you can design on related to the Americana theme.
The more you think, the more designs you’ll be able to come up with.
Just tread carefully and make sure you do not use any copyrighted images or use the names of patented brands/logos (now that would also include Comic Superheroes and Cartoons Patented- but yes you can use names of the characters and have quotes around them if you’d like.
So get going, Just click/design and upload and make sure you use the tag “fcxamericana”.
At FREECULTR Express, we believe in catching on to the latest trends and acting on it Express-absolutely Express!
We’ll give you a hint, you are just in time before the Biggest Event of the Season Starts…
Yes guys, the IPL 8 is starting on the 9th of April and you know what the frenzy around this event is like.
Whether you follow the sport or not, you sure have your favorite teams, your favorite cities, your favorite stadiums and other favorite things related to the IPL and the beautiful game of cricket.
Here’s an idea: Our platform has a target base covering the entire country. Why don’t you create a range oft-shirts on the theme of IPL8 and use the tag ‘fcxipl8′ for our database and yours.
Now this could be designs having the IPL team colors, quotes or messages around the team. Your designs could be having elements of the cities, states, and other thoughts that you may have about the team, celebrities or generic cricket inspired pictures that you would have taken at some point. You can design on thoughts on brotherhood, putting emphasis on the zest and spirit about the sport. You could even highlight the “6” & “4” signs with various colors.
These are just ideas to get you started. However, when you’re designing, just keep a couple of things in mind. Refrain from using the following:
Any official brand name/ team name / team or sponsor logo
Picture of a celebrity/cricketer (you can of course have quotes around them if you would like)
A replica of the official jersey for any of the countries participating in the tournament (Hint: but you can definitely create something with the colors of the team)
All you need to do is: Design. And don’t forget to upload the design with the right tag: ‘fcxipl8′
Check Out Your Own Sales Dashboard on FREECULTR Express
Our New Website is Now Live and it has some awesome features to enhance your experience as a creator on FREECULTR Express.
We believe in being transparent with our business and in empowering our creators and that is why we are constantly coming up with new features to give you more access to fully manage your own tee store. Thus we’ve developed the Seller’s Dashboard which is a tool for you to access your monthly earnings form your own designs.
Here’s a snapshot of your personal dashboard which you shall find, once you are signed in to your account at the top right corner of the website. Here you can view your earnings in detail.
Summary:
On clicking the summary you shall be able to view the earnings made from the orders delivered on the present day (under Today) and the orders delivered on the previous day (under Yesterday) and your total earnings since the last payout date which will reflect your earnings since the last payout date which is 10th of March, 2015 as of now. It also highlights yours Lifetime Earnings which is your total earnings since March 10th. This section will archive your total earnings for allthe months as you keep growing.
You will also get greater insight on your sales, as we furbish a design-wise report, where you will be able to see your total earnings for the quantities sold under each design id and their respective names.
My Earnings:
All the earnings from the t-shirts sold from your tee store for a particular month will be calculated and aggregated under this section.
The earnings are calculated on all orders placed and successfully delivered from your tee store between the 10th of the previous month till the 9th of the current month. It will not include those orders which were delivered and then returned or cancelled.
We shall update your earnings everyday in your dashboard. Your earnings will be deposited in to your bank account, the details of which you will need to fill under the Payout Info head. The payment of the earnings will be made on or before the 15th of the current month.
Payout Info:
We shall be paying our creators by directly depositing their earnings into their personal bank accounts. And for those who do not have one, we will be issuing a cheque under their name.
Please note: We deduct a 10% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) from your total gross earnings. Thus if you have earned Rs.10,300 at the end of a typical month, the payment made in your bank account would be Rs. 10,300 - Rs.1,030(10% TDS) = Rs.9,270.
In case you do not have a PAN Card, we deduct a TDS of 20% on your gross earnings. The TDS can be filed and retrieved at the end of the year when you file your income tax returns.
So now that you can track your sales according to the designs, days and month. We hope this’ll be a motivator for you to design more and sell more.
Just to let you know, we are currently working on tons of other features that shall be incorporated in you tee store in the coming months to make your experience more Kick ass!
After tons of planning, more sleepless nights and unimaginable cans of energy drinks, we are proud to announce the launch of the all new FREECULTR Express!
The new portal has truck loads of features that our previous pilot version could not address. This post will take you through the entire process of creation for all your existing stores, step by step. Ready?
Step1: Sign in / Sign up with your user name & password
There are two really simple ways you can create your tee-store with us.
1. If you’re a new member, sign up and create an account in less than 30 seconds or
2. Simply use your existing log in details (which have been emailed to your registered e-mail address) in case you have been an artist/creator with us and already have an active tee-store.
If you are an existing user and have a username / password simply click on the Sign in link on your top right corner of the screen and sign in to your tee-store.
See, right here:
And if you are a new user and want to start earning by creating your store on FREECULTR Express, go ahead and click on the Sign up Linkor Create your Tee Store Button on the top right corner of the page.
Btwyou can also use your existing Facebook Credentials to fasten your registrationprocess. Don’t worry, we wont post on your behalf!
Step 2: Your Profile- Play On
New Users, once you sign up on the website, this is where you’ll land.
So here you may name your teestore which is automatically incorporated in the URL Link to your micro-site.
Say, if you’re a traveler or a travel freak and would like to name your Tee store as Travel Diary, your micro-site to your tee store will be http://www.freecultr.com/store/traveldiary
Of course the store is your brand, it has to be unique! Thus subject to the availability of your tee store name we shall create it. We’ll also suggest you names for your store, so you can create it.
Please note, that your store name may be more than one word and would reflect with space, whilst the URL link of your tee store site will not support spaces between two words. It’s a good thing only right who wants empty spaces anyway!
Once you’re done with that, you are ready to create your own tees.
The existing Users :
Well! The existing users have hopefully figured all of the above and can view their dashboard and straight away head to creating their tees.
Step 3
Upload your design
This is the most exciting part of the tee store creation. Now this is your platform, your tee-store where you create your own t-shirts.
To start building your amazing t-shirt you need to upload an image file ( JPEG ) by clicking on the upload button.
We’ve created a very simple drag and drop functionality for users to be able to upload their amazing creations, in addition to a regular file upload button.
Yes it’s that easy!
Just a few things to keep in mind before you upload your files:
1. Ensure file size is less than 5MB
2. All images should ideally be above 2200 (px) x 2200 (px) @ 72dpi to ensure maximum retention of resolution and full coverage on the T-Shirts surface. A smaller pixel size will result in a placement print that shall leave blank white spaces on the sides of the t-shirt.
3. Also, note that we have a strong IP & Privacy Policy in place to make sure our platform remains healthy & safe for usage by all age groups. So please make sure these guidelines are followed to avoid getting flagged.
You should definitely keep in mind that the image should not:
Contain nudity
Promotes hate, violence or illegal / offensive activities
Contain private and confidential information
Lead to Copyright infringement
Hurt political sentiments
Hurt religious sentiments
Step 3:
Customize your Design
Once you’ve uploaded your design, you can customize it too.
Trust us, we thought this through to make this design tool very simple for you to convert your digital images into an awesome t-shirt. How? Read On….
Once you’ve uploaded your design, you can:
1. Play with the placement of your design by dragging it around and by using the bar below to zoom in and zoom out to make sure you place the print as per your liking. Make sure you don’t :
Leave white spaces at the edges of the t-shirt.It won’t translate into a great design and won’t sell like hot cakes.
Have the main content of the t-shirt ( message, subject of your photograph or artwork) cut on the neck lines.
Tip: Full Print look way better than Placement Print.
2. Add a description to your design, so the world knows what your t-shirt is all about. Here’s a suggestion make it concise and specific to your idea by using keywords / phrases, which will help buyers, find your design fast.
3. Add tags to your design to ensure greater discoverability. You must ensure that the tags you assign should be as specific to your design and product. You may separate your tags by using the space or pressing the enter button.
4. Now its time to set up the selling price and your earnings from this tee. The base price for each tee is Rs. 350, you can choose any selling price upto Rs. 799 with pre-defined slabs. You will be able to see your earnings at each of these slabs.
Tip: Please choose your pricing carefully; we see maximum sales for the price slab of Rs.399 & Rs.449.
Step 4:
Preview your Creation on multiple available variants.
Once you’re done with that, you may view the different variants of your design on the different t-shirts we have to offer.
Word of advice: Make sure the main message or content of the t-shirt doesn’t get cut at the neck for any of the variant as each variant has a different neck line. If you see any of the design not looking appropriate you can click the EDIT button it shall take you back to the T-Shirt Design Screen and you will be able to re-align the image.
Step 5: Publish your tee-store
Done!
Now you’re good to publish your design and set it out for the World to Wear.
As a final step, start sharing your instantly designed tee and store with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.
Start spreading the word and start earning from your creations.
Do note, all the designs that have been previously uploaded, you will not be able to edit their prices and names. Also in order to delete a particular design you will have to email it to us at [email protected]
So what are you waiting for? Go ahead, get started and create your very own tee store today! And hey if you get stuck somewhere simply write in to us at [email protected]
Big News, Big Change. We've done our math to make sure you earn more.
Over the past few months, our analytics team has been constantly monitoring performances of each and every awesome design that has been uploaded by you and other creators.
Tracking several key sales and user behaviour parameters, helped us understand each design's movement in our eco-system.
After thorough research and analysis we believe we can make things better...a lot better for you and your earnings. In short,
We will be revamping our pricing structure to make sure your creations sell more and as a result you earn more.
Starting 29th January, 2014, we will be reducing our prices by Rs.150/- across the board.
Please note this will not, in any way, affect your earnings but in fact help you increase them as we are reducing the base price of the T-Shirt from Rs. 500 to Rs. 350. Lower entry price points would attract higher volumes.
We are also introducing a new price point of Rs. 399.
While we have done this we have made sure there is no change in the fabric and printing quality. So, we shall stand by our high quality standard as always.
For Example:
The current base cost of each t-shirt being Rs.500/- has now been slashed down to Rs.350/- Assuming your tees were priced at Rs.599/-, they will now be available for sale at Rs. 449/-. Your effective earnings will remain intact at Rs.99 per t-shirt sold.
Introduction of the Rs. 399 price point would enable you to sell your tees at Rs. 399. If the designs are great, believe us this will be killer price point.
In case you have any queries, concerns or objections regarding this change simply send us an email at [email protected].
PS: "Change is the only constant. The future shall always be better than the present." - Some Wise Man
