Help, Site Support and General Information

About the Industry Directory

The T-Biz Industry Directory is designed to be a one stop Global Buyer’s Guide for the garment decorating industry. It is also designed with the decorated apparel BUYER in mind who is looking for sources of embellished garments.  

If you are a  garment decorator this is the place to find products from equipment to blank goods.  If you are a buyer of decorated apparel this is a place to find decorators and learn more about their services.

Where do FREE listings come from?

In order to “seed” the Industry Directory, hundreds of hours were spent inputting data from industry sources, membership directories, industry trade magazines and of course the Yellow Pages and online directories. Over 100,000 initial company names were input from AROUND THE WORLD.  These companies were all given a FREE listing.

How can I “claim” a listing?

If your company received a Free listing, you can “claim” ownership of that listing by clicking on Claim Listing on your listing page. Once your claim has been approved, you will have access to the Free listing data about your company and be able to update it and add more details. You will also be able to upgrade your listing to a higher membership level which includes your company logo, banner ads, products, and more.

How can I upgrade to a listing with a logo?

If you have a Free or Silver listing you will need to upgrade to a Gold or Platinum listing in order to have your logo show on your listing page.

Where do I see what different Membership Levels offer?

Click on Compare Memberships in the upper right Menu on the Home page.

How can I track new listing additions and what the heck is an RSS Feed?

RSS Feeds are all the rage and it is no wonder. It is an easy way to track updates to sites, listings, forum posts, blogs and more. T-Biz Network uses RSS Feeds throughout all of the sites. You can get the latest forum post, read Scott Fresener's latest blog entry, see the newest Industry Directory listing, track industry events and more.

Depending on what you read, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. By subscribing to an RSS Feed (where every you see the little orange icon), you can bypass having to log onto a site or give our your email address.  You can have the RSS Feed go directly to your web browser (most of them) or even your email!

Here are a few very good articles about RSS Feeds.  Internet Explorer and RSS Feeds  ProBlogger RSS Feed Tutorial   WhatIsRSS.com  Google Reader

About Your Account and Listings

How do I signup and register for an account?

To signup for a new simply click on Create Account in the upper right menu.  You can also click on Sign Up Now in the Login menu. If you want to see the various Membership Levels  click on Compare Memberships in the upper right menu. This takes you to the Compare Memberships page where you can choose what level of listing you want.  You then click Submit at the bottom of this page and fill out the form.

Fill out the Account Registration form and click Submit.   You will be emailed an account verification with a link that you need to follow to activate the account.  When you click on the link in your email program, it will take you back to a Login page.  Enter your new User Name and Password and you are now logged in. 

Registering for an account does NOT automatically give you a listing. You must Submit a Listing with details about your company. You will then need to Login and Submit a Listing with all of your company details.

How do I add a FREE listing?

Simply register for a new account or login to your current account and click on Submit Listing.  You can also go to Compare Memberships in the right Menu and click Submit at the bottom of the Free listing column. Fill out the form with details about your organization. Each listing Membership level gets a certain number of words or characters for the Short Description (shown on home page listing), Long Description (shown in detailed account listing), Meta Tags and Keywords, etc. You also have limits on the number of Categories you can be listed in, how may images you can upload, if you can use a company logo, etc.

What is a User Friendly URL?

When submitting a listing there is a filed called Friendly URL. This field will automatically fill in based on your company or organization name.  Friendly URLs are used by the site in searches and to assign a friendly name to your listing.

How do I upgrade my account to a paid listing?

Login to your account.  Go to Listing in the upper left menu.  You will see your Listing and what feature you have (based on your Membership Level).  Under Product /Membership will be your level with a link that says Upgrade Listing. You will be taken to a screen marked Change Order and here you can select your new Membership Level.  From here you will be taken to a payment screen.

I registered for any account but never got an email.

Make sure to check your Spam or Junk folder.  If you don’t find an email activation notice there then it is possible you put in a wrong email address when filling out the form.  Go back and re-submit the Registration Form.

Can I change my User Name later?

It is impossible to change your User Name at a later date.  If you must change your user name you will have to ask the site administrator to delete your listing so you can re-submit it.

I can’t log in.

If you are trying to log in but keep getting an error message saying “Thanks for logging in” or other login errors you don’t have “Cookies” enabled in your browser.  The T-Biz Industry Directory uses cookies to keep you logged into the website. Make sure your browser is set to accept cookies from www.t-biznetwork.net.

I forgot my password.

Go to the Login box in the upper right part of the screen and click on Forgot Password.  You will need to enter EITHER your account email address or your account User Name.  Do not enter them both. If you either one correctly you will be told “A Password Reset Email has been sent.”

For security reasons, you will need to click on the link in the email to verify it is your email address and then again go back to your email to get the new password.

You will receive a new auto generated password. You can then login to your account using your User Name and this new Password.  You can then go to View/Edit Account and change to your old password.

What are Keywords?

These are words that describe the listing. These words are used by the Industry Directory search feature. They should be short, simple and descriptive of the company and products. It is common to place your company/organization name in the Keywords field. Separate Keywords or phrases with a comma.

What are Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions?
Meta words and descriptions are used by search engines. There is a lot of debate about how important Meta Keywords are to getting a higher ranking on search engines. 

The Meta Description is not used in rankings but is only used to display a summary of your website that displays in search results.  This description is important because if users are not attracted to what they read in these initial results, guess what? They won’t visit your site, and all your efforts will have been in vain.  Try to write the most concise, keyword-rich sentence you can (it should be 30 words or less) that describes your site and would attract visitors.

Meta Keywords

These are keywords that describe your site. This should be a list of 10 to 15 terms that most accurately describe the content of your listing and company.  Here are the basic Meta Keywords rules:

·         Keep your list of keywords or keyword phrases down to 10 - 15 unique words or phrases.

·         Separate the words or phrases using a comma. You DO NOT need to leave a space between words separated by commas.  There is a limit on the number of characters you can use depending on your Membership Level so saving spaces is important.

·         Do not repeat words or phrases.

·         Put your most important word or phrases at the beginning of your list.

To learn more about the correct use of Meta data, simply do a Meta Keywords search.

How do I change or update my Listing?

Login to your account.  Click on Listings.  You will see a window showing your Organization name, Membership Level, etc.  At the very end is a column titled Manage.  Hover the mouse over the various icons to see what each mean. The “eye” icon allows you to view your listing the way the site visitor sees it. The small “notepad” icon is titled Edit. Click on this icon to edit your listing.

My listings are not showing up in the correct Country or State.

Like all things computer, there are rules. In order to make our database easy to use for the world we have setup the data input to be very specific. This means that you MUST spell out your Country (United States rather than USA), and your State or Province (Arizona rather than AZ).  Be careful to not use abbreviations with your Country, State and even City.

What types of graphics and file format can I use?

Various part of the Industry Directory allow you to upload images for your Profile, your Company Logo, Images of your company or work, images for Offerings (products for sale), and Banner Ads (Gold and Platinum level Memberships.

The graphic file formats supported are JPG, GIF (static and animated), and PNG. All files must be 72dpi and optimized for web if possible.

Image size restrictions:

·         Profile Picture:    300 x 300 pixels maximum overall size.

·         Gold and Platinum Membership Offer product image:  75,000 bytes (75 kb) maximum file size.

·         Gold and Platinum Membership Offer image thumbnail:  160 pixels maximum height.

·         Gold and Platinum Image Listing image size:  200,000 bytes (200kb) maximum file size.

·         Gold and Platinum Logo Size:  500,000 bytes (500kb).  Maximum image size 300 x 300 pixels.

Advertising

Why should I advertise?

For many companies a simple free listing is all you need. But, if you want to maximize your exposure, upgrading to a Gold or Platinum Membership Level means you get to display banner ads that link to your site. Plus you get to offer specific product details, get more text for your company description, use a company logo, and include images or pictures of your company. You also get more end user features such as allowing users to add your company to their favorites and rank your site.

How many banner ads do I get?

Gold and Platinum level members receive different banner ad amounts.  From the Home Page click on Compare Memberships to review what you receive for your membership level.

How do I upload my banner ads?

Login to your account.  Click on Listings.  You will see a window showing your Organization name, Membership Level, etc.  At the very end is a column titled Manage.  Hover the mouse over the various icons to see what each mean.  The small horizontal rectangle is for “Banners.”  Click on it and then click on Add Banner. If you already have uploaded banners you will see them listed and you can change them here. 

Simply check your Membership level to see how many and what size banners you get and then select the appropriate banner from the drop down list. The program will only let you upload the proper number of banners based on your membership level.

What are Product Offers and how do I use them?

With a Gold or Platinum membership you can offer certain number of products for sale and include product images, links to the product and links to your own shopping cart for customer purchases.

What are Images and how to I use them?

Gold and Platinum level users can upload images about their companies. This could be pictures of the building, the production area or in the case of artists you can upload sample images of your work.

How do I use the T-Biz Tube video feature as a Platinum Member?

If you are a Platinum Member you are allowed to link to one video on T-Biz Tube (www.t-biztube.com) in your company Description.

As a Platinum Member how do I use the full-page Showcase?
As a Platinum Member you are allowed a complete full-page showcase of your products or service.  This can be an overview of your company, a special promotion, a special event or more. This page needs to be submitted to support@tbiznetwork.com in traditional HTML format. Our support staff will create the page for you and include a link to this page in your description. Certain design and HTML format rules and restrictions apply.