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CafePress Product Setup Tips

KimberlyDawnWells by KimberlyDawnWells

Expert Article on Work.com

 

Work.com invited me to write an expert article on making money using CafePress, and it is currently featured as one of the most popular and most helpful articles!

Read the entire article and find out more about making money using one of the hottest business building tools of Web 2.0.

Three Product Preparation Steps

Any shopkeeper will tell you there are hundreds of things you need to do in order to design and maintain a successful shop.

Below I've broken the preparation stage into three major steps. Each shop will go through this process no matter how big or small, and completing each step thoroughly is essential to designing a profitable shop.
  1. Design your image according to the provided resolution and size specifications.
  2. Upload the image to your media basket using the browser based tool provided.
  3. Choose from over 70 products to have your design appear on.

STEP 1a. Determine the appropriate size and resolution

CafePress is an automated system that works off of what you give it. If you give it a poor image to work with, your finished product will be less than stellar. In order to create awesome items that will create a low return rate and make your customers happy, you need to start with quality images.
Beginners Imaging Workshop
Not sure what the difference is between JPG and PNG? Can't figure out the difference between size and resolution? Never fear - this page is a great resource for beginners who need to brush up on their imaging terminology.
Template Guide
Image resolution guide and design templates for products. These downloadable images help you create the "minimum" size/resolution/dimension specifications for each of the products available on CafePress.
Creating Images for Black Garments
Black is in! So is cranberry, navy, green, and brown. There are some differences in how you need to design and format images for your white and light background items compared to your dark colored clothing. This tutorial will show you how to create great images for dark clothing. PS - it's worth the time to do this. Dark clothing sells really well!

STEP 1b. What happens with low resolution images.

When you upload an image with a resolution that is too low for your selected item, the image shows up small. On some items this can be attractive or part of the design. On others it is just too small to be appropriate.

Below are two mugs. The image on the mug on the left is not large enough because the resolution is too low. The image on the right is a much better fit.

          

STEP 1c. Improperly formatted images on dark clothes

Below you'll see a yellow shirt and a black shirt. Each shirt was made with the same image, and the image was not properly formatted to be shown on the black shirt. This is what happens with your improperly formatted images on dark shirts.

     

STEP 2a. Tagging tips for your images

"Tagging" basically means "to add keywords to." When you tag your images, you're adding words to be associated with it. This is how it will appear in the CafePress marketplace search engine.

CafePress has the following recommended Do's and Don'ts for tagging:
  • Do: Enter Tags or keywords that are specific and descriptive.
  • Do: Enter synonyms. For example, use both "funny" and "humorous" for best results.
  • Do: Enter multiple words/or a phrase for a Tag to make sense. For example, enter "Garden State" for your New Jersey image.
  • Do: Enter variations of words with different cores. For example, use both "mice" and "mouse", "fairy" and "fairies".
  • Do: Be creative in your Tags. For example, to accompany a "Bush" image, use "Pro-Bush", "Dubya", "W".
  • Do: Enter Pro-Topic and Anti-Topic content. For example, enter "meat free" or "anti meat" for your vegetarian image.
  • Do: Use words and phrases in your design as separate Tags. For example: Free Katie, free, Katie
  • Do: Remember to use important words from your product names and descriptions as Tags.
  • Don't: Enter Tags or keywords that have nothing to do with your design. This could cause your designs and products to appear in inappropriate search results and make it harder for people to find your designs and products.
  • Don't: Enter multiple words with the same core. There's no need as our system is set up to do stemming - reducing words to their core. You do not need to include plurals (cat/cats) and all verb tenses (run/running) in your list of Tags.
  • Don't: Enter the same word multiple times. This will not get your image to come up higher in search. The system will only recognize each word once.

STEP 2b. More tagging tips from the pros

Best Practices for Tagging
CafePress has put together their own mini-workshop for tagging. If you were unclear or unsure about tagging practices that are allowed and/or encouraged, visit this page for helpful hints on boosting your ability to be found and using appropriate tags.
Tagging FAQ
Explains the basics of tags, including how they are used and why they are important.

STEP 2c. Organizing your image basket

Your image basket allows you to create folders which is helpful in keeping your images organized. There are several ways you may choose to organize them.
  • Organize them by category
    One simple way to keep track of your images is to categorize them in the same groups that you categorize them in your store. This is helpful for small to mid-sized shops, such as All Purpose Flower.
  • Differentiate between standard and custom images
    Breast Cancer 101 offers customization on several designs. By keeping the custom designs separate from the other designs, images are easy to find.
  • Use descriptive folder names
    "Love" might work for your folder name, or it might be too vague, depending on your selection of images. However, "proposal-themes-teddy-bears" will help you find just what you're looking for.

STEP 2d. BONUS tagging tip

When you use Squidoo to promote niche areas of your shops, using custom tags can be helpful ways to show off the images you want to show off without displaying unrelated items.

For example, if your shop sells items in the categories of baby, toddler, and maternity, tags for each category of items labeled, "shopnamebaby," "shopnametoddler," and "shopnamematernity" can help you display specific items in Squidoo modules without having to search or cut and paste links.

Likewise, if you sell custom items for Christmas, tagging those models with "shopnamechristmascustom" will allow you to show them off without looking for them.

You can also use these tags in the CafePress marketplace to find items in your categories quickly.

STEP 3a. Which products is your design appropriate for?

Many shopkeepers put their image on every product available. Many feel this gives their customers the ultimate selection. Customers, on the other hand, often feel overwhelmed by the decision and have to sort through a lot of things they don't want to get to what they are looking for.

By reducing the number of products you offer you will not only reduce the clutter on your shop, you will be able to offer a more appropriate selection of items.

There are many designs that people might rush out to buy on a coffee mug or mousepad - items that are private and used in the home. They might not be so excited about wearing such statements out in public. The same is true in reverse. An image might be appropriate for a t-shirt or license plate frame, but not a bbq apron.

Be choosy about what products you carry. Some of the best stores are very choosy.
  • What are the chances someone is really going to buy this?
    Is anyone going to buy a mousepad or ornament with a pickup line on it (other than perhaps as a joke)? What about a thong or men's shirt that reads "Baby's First Christmas?" These sound obvious, but I've seen them. Before you add a product, think about who is really going to buy it.
  • How does it look with the dark border?
    Some square and rectangular images, such as full color photos, look fine on mugs and some shirts, but awful on clocks. Before you add such an image, consider how it appears from the customer's point of view.
  • Does the image fit the shape of the product?
    Shop the marketplace for just a few minutes and you'll find dozens of examples of square and rectangular items forced onto clocks, ornaments, buttons, and magnets. Some of these images were just not meant for circular items. If you run into this, redesign the image or don't use it.

STEP 3b. Examples of images on incompatible products

The license plate below has too small of images to be purchase-worthy, and besides being small, they're the wrong dimensions.



The license plate below has appropriately sized and shaped images.



Below is an ornament with a square image on it.



The same type of square image on a round ornament can be very attractive.

Read the rest of the article for more tips



Read the entire article and find out more about making money using one of the hottest business building tools of Web 2.0.

Was this helpful?

  • Cumberland Apr 5, 2012 @ 12:15 pm | delete
    Thanks for taking the time to put together this informative Lens.
  • TWOnline2 Dec 21, 2010 @ 12:56 am | delete
    i did not know about work.com. worth looking into
  • RuntFarmSeries Jul 10, 2010 @ 11:50 am | delete
    Really helpful article. Thanks for taking the time to put this into such an instructive lens!
  • tandemonimom Feb 7, 2010 @ 11:21 pm | delete
    I've had a CP shop for a while now but still found some good tips here. Thanks!
  • LaylaStar Jan 20, 2009 @ 9:06 am | delete
    Lovely lens, and very helpful!! especially as I'm a newbie to all this! Thanks!
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KimberlyDawnWells

WHO IS Kimberly Dawn Wells? The thing I notice most often in shops that don't sell well is the poor designs and pooly designed products.  By following... more »

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