Tag: Business/Website

From a business standpoint, customers now have additional payment options, including After Pay allowing instalment payments.

We’ll give it a try, but we may not be able to keep our prices low and also offer this payment option. The seller (us) pays more when this is used.

As you can see, the fees start at 5.99%.

That is higher than the credit card fees (provided it’s not an international credit card charge). Those fees are 2.9%.

We are willing to give it a try, but if it becomes popular, we may need to raise our prices across the board to cover the additional 3% charge. As mentioned in past posts on pricing, we’re giving the best price right now based on a very modest.

At Patriot Prayer Tees, every design has a story—but not every design hits the mark the first time. This past week, we did a careful review of our full shirt collection using ChatGPT as an art critic and made some important decisions to improve your experience.

We went through every graphic, looking for anything that looked rushed, cluttered, or simply didn’t meet the message or design standard we aim for. Some early designs, while heartfelt, looked like they were made in Microsoft Paint. [Ouch ChatGPT, that’s hurtful!] Others had layout issues, bland fonts, or color choices that made them hard to read. We want every shirt to feel intentional, clear, and boldly expressive—not amateur hour.

Overall, we removed 31 products out of 190, leaving us with 159 products.

What stayed? Strong, clean, and balanced designs with a clear message and visual appeal. What got removed or flagged for revision? The ones that lacked polish, clarity, or punch.

This cleanup isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about honoring the message behind every shirt. You’re wearing truth, and we want that truth to look great too.

Thanks for sticking with us as we grow. Better designs, stronger messages—more ways for you to wear what you believe.

Behind the Scenes: Why We Gave Our Homepage a Makeover (and How It’s Helping)

At Patriot Prayer Tees, we care deeply about the message behind our shirts. But just as important as the designs themselves is how people find and experience our website. So this June, we took a deep dive into our homepage and gave it a thoughtful refresh. Here’s what we changed, why we did it, and how it’s helping visitors get connected to our mission more easily. These changes were researched using our now paid version of ChatGPT.

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1. Removed the Featured Product

Why?
We noticed that showing a single featured product at the top of the homepage was distracting and didn’t give visitors a sense of what the whole site was about. It made the homepage feel like a product page instead of a welcoming intro.

The Fix: We removed the featured product and replaced it with a clean, bold headline and mission-based intro. This immediately tells visitors what we’re about.

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2. Added a Clear Hero Headline

“Faith-Fueled Shirts That Speak Bold Truth” now leads the page.

Why?
We wanted something that reflects our core identity and draws in like-minded believers. The subtext reinforces our mission: helping people share Gospel truth with conviction.

The Impact: Visitors now get clarity within seconds—no guessing what we sell or why.

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3. Improved Category Layout with Real Product Images

Why?
We used to only have some general navigation. Now, we’re showing actual shirt images grouped by message type—like “Gospel Message Shirts,” “Conversation Starters,” and “Patriotic + Scripture.”

The Fix: Big, clickable visual tiles make it easier (and more fun) to shop by theme.

The Result: Site visitors don’t get lost; they go directly to the content that fits their interest.

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4. Simplified the Banner Text and Changed the Background

Why?
Originally, we had a long purple banner with too much text and hard contrast. It looked intense and was hard to scan.

The Fix: We shortened the text, made the background a softer gray, and bolded one key line: “Wear the Gospel. Flip the Norm.”

The Outcome: Cleaner, clearer messaging that doesn’t overwhelm the visitor.

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5. Replaced a Repetitive Image with Our Logo

Why?
One of our category tiles used to have a cluttered collage of shirts that repeated other images on the page.

The Fix: We swapped in our logo, giving visual breathing room to the layout.

The Benefit: The page feels more organized and less visually chaotic.

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6. Added One Strong Testimonial

Why?
People trust real reviews. Even one honest review builds credibility.

The Fix: We highlighted a satisfied customer who liked both the shirt and the print quality.

What’s Next: As we gather more reviews, we’ll add them to build that trust further.

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7. Streamlined the Blog Links

Why?
We had long purple buttons stacked up with a lot of copy. It was overwhelming.

The Fix: We condensed the text, renamed the buttons, and cleaned up spacing.

The Result: Easier to browse. Visitors now see a clear path to learn about our materials, mission, and design process.

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8. Final Touches: Mission & Footer Clarity

We tightened up our footer to better explain what “Patriot,” “Prayer,” and “Tees” mean in our name—and we made sure the contact info, hours, and social links were all working and easy to find.

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The Big Picture

Every change we made was focused on a single goal: make it easier for people to connect with our mission and find the shirt that helps them share their faith boldly. If you’ve visited before and bounced, we invite you to take another look.

Thanks for growing with us—and for wearing your faith out loud.

Update from 6/28/2025:

We did even more!

In short: New logo, larger text/font, pictures of real people wearing the shirts on homepage, added starting prices to the category descriptions to show a price on homepage, added payment icons, added My Account menu across the top, centered all the text, replaced grey font color with default color. This change suggestions came from Grok AI review of the site.

Well friends, we’re still waiting for that first wave of sales. We’ll keep reviewing, adjusting, and trying out new things until we get there.

1. New categories, but also keeping the old ones. These new categories are based on the origin or purpose of the designs. The past categories were based on the shirt fabric. Both categories still work, but the customer first sees the ones based on purpose. These are Brother Ray’s Tees, Flip the Tables, Dandelion Faith, Patriotic Faith, Women of Valor, and Everyday Discipleship. This includes creating the new categories, creating the displayed graphic for the categories, changing every one of the 190 products to have a second category, and the most tricky was getting WordPress to only display the parent categories on the homepage.

2. Create a new category, which holds all the past categories. The new category is called, “All the Threads.” Once the customer clicks on “All the Threads,” they see the Classic T-Shirts, Modern Tees, Women’s Tees, Relaxed Fit Tees, Sweatshirts, and Hoodies. Both are still accessible.

3. Change the menu’s for mobile and desktop to match the purposeful categories.

4. Ensure the website is running well. Review any emails, reviews left, etc. and delete the spam.

5. Read my old posts to see what still needs done, didn’t see anything else I wanted to act on just yet. ¹

6. We discovered some people saw a message at the bottom of our site saying it was a demo site. This default message is now off (maybe activated by an update).

7. Updated all product descriptions with the number of shirt color choices.

8. Created more products on Galilee-Life to mirror products on my website.

1. Want to remove DigitSoft from all the descriptions. Want to move all shirt details (oz, care, etc to long description). Want to include sizing charts are graphics (maybe). ↩︎

Update on the footnote 1: it’s done. It took like 6 hours or so total, in 1-2 hour sessions to remove DigitSoft from all the descriptions and to move all shirt details from short description to the long description. I wasn’t going to do this for a while, but I noticed, most likely during the price updates from a couple weekends ago, there were like stray single quotes in odd places. Well, that wouldn’t do. So, I did all the updates, except adding the sizing charts as graphics. I didn’t like the way that looked. Ok, I sure hope I don’t have to update almost 190 descriptions again any time soon.

Spoiler: Focus more on FB and IG with reels.

I know I skipped Pinterest. Zoho Social doesn’t collect data in a way ChatGPT could review. Here’s what ChatGPT recommended in general; here’s how to optimize based on typical Pinterest best practices and what’s worked on your other platforms: 1. Include Keywords in Descriptions: Pinterest is part social, part search engine. Use SEO-friendly words like “Christian t-shirts for veterans” or “bold gospel clothing.” 2. Re-use Top Facebook & Instagram Images as Pins: Your highest-engaging FB/IG image posts are likely strong performers on Pinterest too. 3. Create Boards Around Product Collections: If you sell by theme (e.g., patriotic, bold, scripture-based), make Pinterest boards match those categories. 4. Use Long-Vertical Pins (2:3 or 1000×1500 px): Pinterest favors this format; repurpose square images using Canva or similar. All great recommendations, but as you’ll see it comes down to where to spend my time.

Here’s the final summary from ChatGPT:

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🧾 FULL SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT SUMMARY

Based on your files from Zoho Social + Platform Performance

🎯 Your Strategy (Posting Same Post Everywhere):

You’re using Zoho Social to post the same basic content across multiple platforms—this saves time and helps maintain consistency. That’s smart, especially if you’re a solo operator or small team.

🟢 Good for:

• Staying visible across platforms
• Maintaining brand voice and regular posting habits
• Saving tons of time

🔴 But long-term, here’s the tradeoff:

• Not all content types thrive equally on every platform
• You miss platform-native culture (hashtags, tone, format)
• Some platforms penalize “recycled” or auto-posted feel

📊 Platform-by-Platform Recommendations

✅ Facebook

📌 Recommendation: Keep posting images, test videos with captions, minimize plain links. Try storytelling posts occasionally.

✅ Instagram

📌 Recommendation: Use high-quality images, remix successful posts into Reels with subtitles/trends, and lean into carousels for education/testimony/product features.

⚠️ Threads

📌 Recommendation: Only continue if you enjoy being on the platform. If not, pause and return when Threads matures more.

✅ X (Twitter)

📌 Recommendation: Focus on short, bold, emotional messages or “hot take” quotes. Try repurposing IG captions here instead of duplicating image-driven posts.

⚠️ Pinterest

Data unreadable due to Zoho export limitations

📌 Recommendation: Repurpose your best-performing Facebook/Instagram image posts as vertical Pins with keyword-rich descriptions. Start pinning your product categories and blog themes as boards.

🧠 Should You Keep Crossposting with Zoho?

🚦Short Answer: Yes and No

Yes, keep using Zoho Social for posting. It still saves time from logging into every platform.

No, the exact same post isn’t going to work everywhere. It needs tweaked for each platform. Recommended adjustments on posts.

Platform	Minimal Tweak	Why It Helps
Instagram	Add 3–5 hashtags, rotate 2x/week	Increases reach significantly
Facebook	Add 1–2 short sentences to make the caption “human”	Boosts shares and engagement
X (Twitter)	Trim to 1–2 lines + 1 strong line + emoji	Fits better into the feed
Pinterest	Add 2–3 boards for product types, use Canva to resize	Helps discovery via search
Threads	Post manually, shorter, more personal tone	Makes it feel native

🧭 Final Recommendations

1. Choose 1–2 “core platforms” where you’ll engage more intentionally (comment, reply, etc.)
2. Create 2 formats of each post:
   • One square/clean for IG/FB
   • One tall and keyword-heavy for Pinterest
3. Use GPT (me!) monthly to:
   • Audit your posts again
   • Suggest new captions/hooks
   • Draft 5 versions of a top-performing post for different platforms

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Back to my decision with all this data. I have limited time. I still work a 40-45 hr a week job. I’m going to focus on the reels in FB and IG as my core platforms and formats. Threads, Pinterest, and X will take a back seat, already scheduled posts will still post, but not optimized for those communities. The 500% increase in engagement was from Facebook and Instagram reels! That’s where I have to focus.

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P.S. – Galilee-Life

While it’s not a social media platform but a marketplace (like a Christian Esty), Galilee-Life had impressive traffic during this time period as well. I will continue to work there while the platform grows and hope to grow with it and the community.

Spoiler: More reels on Facebook & Instagram coming

Overall, short reels out performed everything else. I’m going to spend my time there on those in the future. I still have Zoho Social posts future scheduled for a long time in the future, about 3 posts a week will be non-video posts. I’m not going to change that schedule.

I’ll post ChatGPT’s analysis on Facebook & Instagram later in this, but I wanted to cut to the big finding on videos. Another finding is that Meta Business center tracks the Facebook & Instagram track statistics on videos much better than Zoho Social.

On the Meta Business mobile app, here’s a comparison the 1st week I shared 5 reels. The previous week was only pictures and words. 5 reels were the only change for this increase.

These were unscripted, unedited, no tripod or special lighting reels. 5 of them did better than all of the other efforts before them combined!

The Facebook views are less, but the interaction is higher. I’m not sure what to make of that yet, but since Meta Business Center allows posting both at the same time, that’s what I’ll do.

As mentioned, here’s the deeper analysis by ChatGPT of the Zoho Social reports, which as I mentioned, didn’t seem to fully capture the impact of these reels. That’s why I needed to treat them separately.

Facebook activity (going back to May 1, 2025):

📈 Top Performing Post Types (by average total engagement)

Post Type	Avg. Engagement (Likes + Shares + Comments)
🟦 Video	1.55
🖼️ Image	1.34
📝 Text	0.94
🔗 Link	0.76

🔍 Insight:
Your image and video posts perform significantly better than links and plain text. Focus future FB content around visuals—especially images with short captions or emotional/eye-catching visuals.

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🏆 Top 5 Highest-Engagement Facebook Posts

Time Posted	Type	Total Engagement
26 May 2025 – 5:00 PM	IMAGE	7
17 May 2025 – 9:52 AM	IMAGE	5
14 Jun 2025 – 3:05 PM	IMAGE	5
05 Jun 2025 – 3:00 PM	IMAGE	4
09 Jun 2025 – 10:00 PM	IMAGE	4

🔍 Insight:
All top 5 posts were images—this clearly confirms visual content is your strongest asset on Facebook. We can look deeper into what those images were (tone, style, topic) if needed.

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⚙️ Engagement by Publishing Source

Source	Avg. Engagement/Post
📤 Zoho Social	1.41
📱 Facebook (native)	0.89
🔌 Jetpack	0.81

🔍 Insight:
You’re actually getting better engagement when posting via Zoho Social than natively through Facebook or automated WordPress/Jetpack shares. This may be due to better formatting or smarter post timing via Zoho.

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✅ Recommended Next Steps (Facebook)

1. Focus on images and videos for ongoing posts.
2. Limit link-only posts unless they include a compelling image and hook.
3. Use Zoho for publishing vs. native tools—it’s performing better.
4. Let’s review your top post content themes next if you want to know what kind of images are resonating.

Now Instagram activity:

A carousel, to Zoho Social, is when you post multiple pictures and people can swipe thru them.

📊 Avg. Engagement Rate by Post Type

Post Type	Avg. Engagement Rate
🎥 Video	0.30 (highest)
🖼️ Image	~0.22–0.29
📚 Carousel	~0.25

🔍 Insight:
Your videos and select images are generating the strongest engagement, similar to Facebook. Carousels also show promise, even with fewer posts—worth testing more of those.

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🏆 Top Performing Instagram Posts

• Video from June 20, 5:05 PM = Highest engagement
• Image from May 17, 9:52 AM = Strong organic performance
• Carousel from May 5, 7:42–7:53 PM = Good interaction even with low likes

Your audience responds to a variety of formats, as long as the visual content is strong.

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✅ Suggested Next Moves for Instagram:

1. Post more short-form videos—they consistently drive higher engagement.
2. Continue with image posts but focus on emotional or bold designs.
3. Test more carousels to educate, tell a story, or show product variety.

Spoiler: No major changes to using X, but minor fine-tuning

From the last blog post, you’ll notice there were only three (3) referrals from X to this website, so why decide to keep an effort on X and not on Threads? Let’s look at the data. These are data based decisions.

Here’s the Plus ChatGPT analysis based on Zoho Social reports. Here’s one example of the reports, this activity starting about May 1st, 2025:

🐦 X (Twitter) Engagement Insights

🏆 Top Performing Days:

• May 3, 2025 = Major spike with 18 engagements
• Strong activity also on May 7–9 and May 24

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📊 Overall Stats:

• Some solid spikes compared to Threads
• Average Engagement/Day is still modest, but better than Threads

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🔍 What’s Likely Working:

• Posts on those top days may have hit:
  • The right time of day
  • A trending or emotional topic
  • Better hashtags or mentions

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✅ Recommendations:

1. Look at what you posted on May 3, May 7–9—then reuse or remix that tone/topic.
2. Post consistently—X rewards regular daily posts, even simple ones.
3. Try quote-tweeting or commenting on others’ posts to increase visibility.
4. Add 2–3 relevant hashtags and pin top-performing posts.

Overall, these recommendations are building up to a major shift in thinking, but we’ll get to that in last post on this topic.

Spoiler: Stopping so much effort on Threads.

I engaged in many Threads conversations and feel I encouraged/helped people where possible, but the overall effort was draining. I got burned-out on Threads. What does the data have to say? All data used is Year To Date, since PPT started May 1st 2025.

How many people saw my posts and replies on Threads and explored the website? Hardly any. Five. There were 5 referrals from Threads. However, the issue is I spend roughly 7 to 10 times the amount of time on Threads than Facebook. Facebook had 98 referrals if you add up the three Facebook sources. Also, in contrast, I had four (4) referrals from Galilee-Life, a Christian marketplace. There’s more the Galilee-Life life story, because products can be purchased on their site, I don’t need referrals necessarily. However, it’s just an example of somewhere else I spent much less time than I’ve spent on Threads and the results are about the same.

Referrals to this website are only one aspect. Using the reports from Zoho Social and an upgraded ChatGPT account (plus level), here are the following summaries of the Threads data.

Here’s the activity report, one of many from Zoho Social, that ChatGPT used to analyze.

⚠️ Threads

• Very low engagement overall
• No signs of traction yet

📌 Recommendation: Only continue if you enjoy being on the platform. If not, pause and return when Threads matures more.

Detailed Analysis:

💬 Threads Engagement Insights

🏆 Top Performing Days:

Date	Engagement
May 31, 2025	6
May 30, 2025	6
May 16, 2025	4
May 18, 2025	3
May 20, 2025	3

Most other days: 0 engagement

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• Total engagement: Very low overall
• Average engagement/day: Less than 1
• Most posts did not generate likes, replies, or shares

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🔍 What This Tells Us:

You put in the work—posting regularly and interacting with others. But Threads didn’t reward the effort in terms of brand traction or clicks.

That’s not your fault—it’s more a reflection of:

• Threads’ still-developing ecosystem
• Lack of direct tools for shopping, links, or product discovery
• A user base more interested in conversations than commerce

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✅ Recommendation:

You don’t have to abandon Threads—but don’t treat it like a conversion platform right now.

Instead:

• Use it personally or lightly—short thoughts, scripture reflections, behind-the-scenes
• Occasionally link to your site, but don’t expect traffic spikes
• Repost high-performing content from IG or X there, just in case it gets reach

If it ever matures into a better business platform (or integrates commerce), you’ll already have a light footprint established.

Dear Church Leaders,

For a limited time, we’re offering an exclusive 20% discount on bulk orders of 20 or more t-shirts.

Spread the message of faith with our high-quality, Christian-inspired t-shirts, perfect for your congregation, youth groups, or special events! Pricing:

Classic Tee starts at $16.97 –> with 20% discount starts at $13.58
Modern Tee start at $17.89 –> with 20% discount starts at $14.13
Women’s V-neck starts at $19.28 –> with 20% discount starts at $15.42
Relaxed Tee starts at $22.66 –> with 20% discount starts at $18.13

Designs: Uplifting, faith-centered graphics to inspire your community.

Perfect For: Church events, mission trips, youth rallies, or group uniforms.

Shipping: Affordable, transparent shipping costs for bulk orders. Discount does not apply to shipping, but shipping rates are affordable.

Order now to outfit your group in style while saving big!

We will also work with your church on tax exempt status with the appropriate documentation, as well.

Contact us on our about us page or on Facebook to place your order and share the love of Christ through meaningful apparel.

Blessings,

Patriot Prayer Tees

Offer valid for orders of 20 or more t-shirts. Additional discounts (combing discounts) does not apply. Contact us for details!

More weekend work! I’ve changed the prices on everything.

(These are notes I scheduled to post on Monday.)

That’s about 6,000 unique combinations of design, shirt style, color, and size — each with its own individual price.

I used the export/import feature on my products page to update everything, but I had to do it in small batches. If I tried too many at once, the system would freeze. So I tackled all the classic tees first, then the modern tees, and so on. It was time-consuming, and after each batch I had to manually check the listings. Most prices updated correctly, but a few didn’t because the import process would stall or hang.

This was a deep dive into my current costs and expenses. These new, lower prices are tight — there’s no room for advertising, paid website upgrades, or future features. But I did leave space for bulk discounts for orders of 20+ shirts, which I’ll be working on next.

While every price changed, many were small adjustments (about 1–2%). But others were much more dramatic. For example, the classic tee dropped from $22.85 to $16.97 — a 25% price cut! That’s all based on the actual printed shirt cost from my print-on-demand supplier. Some styles and colors just cost a lot more than others and thus their prices didn’t change dramatically.

Time will tell if this was the right move — and if I can afford to keep prices this low.

PPT