You can tell just from their name and tag line that this online/offline retailer thinks outside the box.

"Dirt Bag Clothing - Wear it til it stinks"

Don't be quick to dismiss this company. They have some lessons to teach.

Even though you might not be in the market for "dirtbag clothing", there are some interesting things to learn about their marketing techniques.

Upon starting their site, they were able to quickly able to make a niche for themselves.

They owe much of their initial success to the information that their competition unknowingly supplied to them.

Here's how they managed to get their site pulling in $500,000 a year.

Don't be quick to dismiss their tactics. Most of them could applied in one form or another to other sites.

Off To A Fast Start

When Dirt Bag Clothing was getting started, the owners really wanted to get their site off to a fast launch.

They set out specifically to identify high level possible distributors for their clothing line.

One of the first stops was to visit their competitor's web sites. On those sites, they gathered all of the contact information from the "Retail store locator" section of the sites.

From the list that they created, they then went to those possible distribution partners and gathered the contact email addresses and names from those sites.

They also visited related trade shows to their niche. They collected the names and contact information from all of the relevant companies who could possible turn out to be distribution partners.

From the 1,800 contact names and addresses, 50% of them took them up on their offer to visit their site. Out of those, they made deals with 20 distributors.

How To Apply It:
How much intelligence gathering can you do from your competition? Odds are, quite a bit. An added benefit is that because they are online, the research capabilities are pretty powerful.

Understanding Their Target Market

As I have mentioned in the past, it is important to understand exactly who your target market is.

By having a clear picture of who you are trying to sell to, you can figure out how to position your product or service directly in front of them.

Dirtbagclothing understood the importance of this.

Since they cater typically to a "grunge" or "skateboarding" type of customer, they had some ideas.

The company approached many of the bands which would appeal to their target demographic. They offered a hefty discount for the band members if they wanted to wear their clothing.

The result?

They received an almost 50% response rate and some of the top bands for the demographics are now wearing their goods.

This gave name recognition and also credibility to their clothing line.

Kids see the clothing and want to buy it.

How To Apply It:
Are you positioning your site in places that your target audience frequents?

Perhaps by offering a "sweetened deal", your site can get more exposure to your audience. You not only get name recognition, but there is a level of implied endorsement that goes along with it.

Who Says Bribery Doesn't Work?

Knowing the search engines were important, they befriended a yahoo programmer and showered him with free clothing from their line.

He in turned helped them secure top placement for many of their keyword phrases they were looking for.

This has resulted in a large portion of the traffic to their site.

The Results

With some innovative thinking, this company has managed to secure a profitable niche for themselves.

The web site costs $120 a month to maintain but is responsible for half of the $1 million dollars in sales generated for the company each year.

There are some useful tactics here which you could possibly apply to your online business.