Original, Artsy, A Little Twisted and Always Fun~

Now that I have covered creating images for Cafe Press in the previous lens, we are on to ...

Roadblock #2 Basic vs. Premium shop

I started with a basic shop in hopes to make some sales and then upgrade!  I think that was a mistake.  The 2 main drawbacks to a basic shop that I see are the fact that you can only use each product once.  For example, if you create the most gorgeous tote bag using one of your designs, you can never create another tote bag.  Rots huh?

The other reason is the inability to add a nice links page or section.  You can add links to a basic shop in the description field in the text section.  But who wants other people's links to be at the top of their shop in the main description section.  Kind of takes away your thunder.   Link exchanges are a very important part of promotion and the subject of my next lens (see how I slipped that promo in there?).

Anyhoo,  I tell you all this because it is not a snap to convert to a premium shop, especially if you have already gotten up several products in your basic shop.  If you are really serious about being a shop owner you need a premium shop from the start.  I, of course, learned this the hard way.

It is a very simple process to actually recreate your basic shop in a premium template, but the point is that you want the premium shop advantages.    You end up with each of your products in the store front.   Premium shops give you the ability to add categories and sub categories so you won't have all your products on the front page.  This comes in handy since you can now put each of your designs on many products. 

At this point, I chose to make each of my designs a category and within the category place all the products I wanted the design on.  The jury is still out on this one.  Some people break down their categories by product type such as a category for tee shirts.  I already see that I will likely add compound design categories in the near future.  A common example of this is 'Holidays and Occasions'.  Under this category you can, for example, add sub categories for each holiday and then all your designs for that holiday in the sub category.  The possibilities are endless.  I recommend spending some time thinking about how you want to organize your premium shop right from the start.  It will save you time and effort in the long run.

More info to come and Links to helpful sites!  Stay tuned and check back soon!