Success with Cafepress (Part 1)
A lot has been written about Cafepress and its money making potential and although my experiences on Cafepress have ultimately been positive, I think back to the frustrations of my early days and wish I had taken a little bit more time for research before jumping in headlong.
At the time of writing this, I am well on my way to receiving my 23rd straight check from Cafepress. My first month on Cafepress however I earned 24 dollars, subsequent months weren't much better as I struggled to make any real headway. It could have been a lot easier if I had taken some simple steps and avoided mistakes common to new shop-keepers.
I have documented some of these pit-falls in this article and have outlined how to avoid them so that you can hit the ground running with Cafepress.
This article is for anybody who is thinking of opening a Cafepress shop and current owners who are dissatisfied with the returns from their shops.
At the time of writing this, I am well on my way to receiving my 23rd straight check from Cafepress. My first month on Cafepress however I earned 24 dollars, subsequent months weren't much better as I struggled to make any real headway. It could have been a lot easier if I had taken some simple steps and avoided mistakes common to new shop-keepers.
I have documented some of these pit-falls in this article and have outlined how to avoid them so that you can hit the ground running with Cafepress.
This article is for anybody who is thinking of opening a Cafepress shop and current owners who are dissatisfied with the returns from their shops.
Make a living with Cafepress
How to make money with Cafepress
What is Cafepress?
Cafepress is a print on demand Company that makes it possible for anybody to
sell custom made goods online. If you have always wanted to sell your own designs on t-shirts for example but don't like the idea of dealing with the printing, shipping, handling Customers and all the antecedents of owning such a Company then you should seriously look into the unique possibilities that Cafepress offer.
All you require to start selling online with Cafepress is an Internet connection (ideally Broadband), a graphics program, some spare-time and a willingness to learn.
Wait a minute I hear you say; surely it can't be that simple! Well the truth is that it is! Anyone can have a shop ready to start selling online in a day but it takes a little more to have a shop that could start making you major bucks within the first few months.
FAQ'S
Its usually at this point that the aspiring shop-keeper starts firing a 1001 questions: Can I really make money? What do I need to start? How much does it cost? I live in Europe can I be a shop-keeper? These questions have been asked and answered multiple times on the Cafepress Forums. I would strongly advise that anybody who is thinking of opening a shop on Cafepress take a couple of hours to go through the forums, however I will try my best to touch on each question briefly.
Can you make money with cafepress?
The simple answer is yes! It took me a while but I started getting a monthly check three months into my experience and I haven't looked back since. As with everything, what you get from the Cafepress experience depends on how much you are willing to put into it.
Some people look at it as a hobby and are quite happy to make enough each month to cover the cost of their premium shops others treat it as a business; they work long ours, spend time developing their designs and shop and are duly rewarded with a substantial check each month. I know a number of Shop-keepers (myself included) for whom Cafepress is the primary and in some cases only means of livelihood!
How and when do you get paid?
Cafepress works on a very simple premise. You open a shop with a number of blank products that have prices fixed by Cafepress. You add your custom made designs and decide on a markup (which is to be your commission). Once a sale is made the commission is attributed to you! You get paid at the end of the month provided that earn above the minimum payment threshold.
What do I need to start
- An Internet connection (preferably broadband)
- A graphics program (photoshop, gimp, illustrator)
- A willingness to learn
- Some patience (Its not a get rich quick scheme)
I live in Europe; can I be a shop-keeper?
I live in the UK myself and I know several shop-owners that work from Europe, Asia and Africa!
The Internet is a wonderful thing isn't it? Seriously, being a shop-owner in the UK has not disadvantaged me in anyway apart from the fact that the dollar has recently plummeted to an all time low against the pound - that rips my heart out :(
How much does it cost?
Opening a basic shop with Cafepress is free while a Premium shop cost $6.95 a month. Now I won't patronize anyone by saying $6.95 is a small amount to pay; it is a considerably amount to be paying monthly if your shop is not making money. The good news however is that there is a good chance that that money never has to come out from your pocket if you do your-homework properly.
I have multiple Premium shops and I have never had to pay for anyone of them! Even in my bleak early days when I went days without a single sale my shops still did well enough to pay for themselves.
For all other questions please join the forums. Read through and ask questions(they are all extremely helpful) but please use the search option beforehand as a lot of these questions have already been answered on earlier threads.
Preparing your shop for success
Now to the meat and drink of the article, how can I build a sustainable shop that will start yielding results as soon as possible?
Well I've already hinted at the first thing you need to do. It is absolutely imperative to take your time to look through the Cafepress community forums before you do anything. There are all levels of shop-keepers there with varying degrees of experience and success and they are more than willing to help the newbies as much as possible. Go through each subsection but pay particular attention to the stickies on the promotion section! They are an absolute must; opening a shop without reading through is not a good idea!
Also take the time to familiarize yourself with the various terms that are commonly used on the Forums. It might sound like a bore but having a basic knowlege of these key terms goes a long way in giving you a holistic view of how cafepress works and diminishing your learning curve in the long term. For the longest time I thought Cafepress tagging
for the market-place was the same thing as adding Key-words for google and I know this happened to a lot of other shop-keepers.
If you are unfamiliar with Search engine Optimisation (SEO) then take some time to read up the subject matter. Any Internet Entrepreneur worth his salt must have a working knowlege of SEO. There is a lot of information on this vast subject matter on the web but I suggest you start off by reading the SEO thread on the Cafepress forums.
There is enough information there to give you a working knowlege of SEO, more than enough to start off your shop.
Its around this time you should start thinking of which kind of shop you will open and just how easy it will be to achieve your goals with this shop. If I had gone through the forums myself at the start instead of rushing headlong into the process I would have saved myself a lot of heart-ache. A lot of people open shops first and only join/visit the Forums when they find they aren't making sales, thats a definite NO NO!
Preparing your graphics
One of the first things you have to consider is creating designs for your store.
If you are a graphics design whizz then this doesn't represent much of a challenge but to someone that has never used a graphics program their prices and the learning curve can be quite daunting. My advice for you is don't be overwhelmed, quite a few shop-keepers had to learn how to design from scratch and there are several good inexpensive graphics programs out there. Roll up your sleeves; google up tutorials and get stuck in, you'll be producing decent designs in no time. After a while you will be able to get a feel for what works and what doesn't!
Before even thinking of designing for Cafepress it is imperative that you read the graphics design guide. Ignoring this can lead to wonky designs, sub-standard products, returns, and border-line depression (believe me i am talking from experience). Follow the guidelines to a tee and download the templates provided, they are very useful especially for the certain product e.g. the oval bumper stickers and buttons.
Deciding what kind of shop you want to open
After going through the Forums and getting a basic understanding of what it takes to succeed with Cafepress the next thing is to understand what kind of shop you want to open.
There are two strands to this:
- Do I open a basic or premium shop
- What kind of designs should I sell
Basic (Free-shop) or Premium??!!!
In my own opinion, a premium shop is by far superior to a basic shop. If you are serious about making money with your Cafepress shop then it is imperative that you have a premium shop. To give you a perspective on this; I make more in one week with my premium rate shop than I make in one year with 20 basic shops!
A basic shop is a free personal page on Cafepress with an extention of your own shop URL. You can only sell one type of design per product and you can only categorize your shop only once. With the premium rate shop you can customize your shop to look like an extension of your website, you can categorize the main shop as well as sections and
subsections differently. With a little knowlege of html you can organise your shops into sections and subsections, for instance you can have a "most popular shirts" sections as well as a "clearance section".
Starting to get the idea? There is a whole lot more flexibility with the Premium rate shop making it wortth every cent of its $6.95. Anybody who is indeed serious about making good money from Cafepress needs to open a premium shop. This is not to say that Basic shops are useless. If you have a domain name/website you can have several basic shops and link them to your website. Basic shops are also useful for a risk free stab at Cafepress and Internet entreprenurship in general.
Continued
Cafepress is a print on demand Company that makes it possible for anybody to
sell custom made goods online. If you have always wanted to sell your own designs on t-shirts for example but don't like the idea of dealing with the printing, shipping, handling Customers and all the antecedents of owning such a Company then you should seriously look into the unique possibilities that Cafepress offer.
All you require to start selling online with Cafepress is an Internet connection (ideally Broadband), a graphics program, some spare-time and a willingness to learn.
Wait a minute I hear you say; surely it can't be that simple! Well the truth is that it is! Anyone can have a shop ready to start selling online in a day but it takes a little more to have a shop that could start making you major bucks within the first few months.
FAQ'S
Its usually at this point that the aspiring shop-keeper starts firing a 1001 questions: Can I really make money? What do I need to start? How much does it cost? I live in Europe can I be a shop-keeper? These questions have been asked and answered multiple times on the Cafepress Forums. I would strongly advise that anybody who is thinking of opening a shop on Cafepress take a couple of hours to go through the forums, however I will try my best to touch on each question briefly.
Can you make money with cafepress?
The simple answer is yes! It took me a while but I started getting a monthly check three months into my experience and I haven't looked back since. As with everything, what you get from the Cafepress experience depends on how much you are willing to put into it.
Some people look at it as a hobby and are quite happy to make enough each month to cover the cost of their premium shops others treat it as a business; they work long ours, spend time developing their designs and shop and are duly rewarded with a substantial check each month. I know a number of Shop-keepers (myself included) for whom Cafepress is the primary and in some cases only means of livelihood!
How and when do you get paid?
Cafepress works on a very simple premise. You open a shop with a number of blank products that have prices fixed by Cafepress. You add your custom made designs and decide on a markup (which is to be your commission). Once a sale is made the commission is attributed to you! You get paid at the end of the month provided that earn above the minimum payment threshold.
What do I need to start
- An Internet connection (preferably broadband)
- A graphics program (photoshop, gimp, illustrator)
- A willingness to learn
- Some patience (Its not a get rich quick scheme)
I live in Europe; can I be a shop-keeper?
I live in the UK myself and I know several shop-owners that work from Europe, Asia and Africa!
The Internet is a wonderful thing isn't it? Seriously, being a shop-owner in the UK has not disadvantaged me in anyway apart from the fact that the dollar has recently plummeted to an all time low against the pound - that rips my heart out :(
How much does it cost?
Opening a basic shop with Cafepress is free while a Premium shop cost $6.95 a month. Now I won't patronize anyone by saying $6.95 is a small amount to pay; it is a considerably amount to be paying monthly if your shop is not making money. The good news however is that there is a good chance that that money never has to come out from your pocket if you do your-homework properly.
I have multiple Premium shops and I have never had to pay for anyone of them! Even in my bleak early days when I went days without a single sale my shops still did well enough to pay for themselves.
For all other questions please join the forums. Read through and ask questions(they are all extremely helpful) but please use the search option beforehand as a lot of these questions have already been answered on earlier threads.
Preparing your shop for success
Now to the meat and drink of the article, how can I build a sustainable shop that will start yielding results as soon as possible?
Well I've already hinted at the first thing you need to do. It is absolutely imperative to take your time to look through the Cafepress community forums before you do anything. There are all levels of shop-keepers there with varying degrees of experience and success and they are more than willing to help the newbies as much as possible. Go through each subsection but pay particular attention to the stickies on the promotion section! They are an absolute must; opening a shop without reading through is not a good idea!
Also take the time to familiarize yourself with the various terms that are commonly used on the Forums. It might sound like a bore but having a basic knowlege of these key terms goes a long way in giving you a holistic view of how cafepress works and diminishing your learning curve in the long term. For the longest time I thought Cafepress tagging
for the market-place was the same thing as adding Key-words for google and I know this happened to a lot of other shop-keepers.
If you are unfamiliar with Search engine Optimisation (SEO) then take some time to read up the subject matter. Any Internet Entrepreneur worth his salt must have a working knowlege of SEO. There is a lot of information on this vast subject matter on the web but I suggest you start off by reading the SEO thread on the Cafepress forums.
There is enough information there to give you a working knowlege of SEO, more than enough to start off your shop.
Its around this time you should start thinking of which kind of shop you will open and just how easy it will be to achieve your goals with this shop. If I had gone through the forums myself at the start instead of rushing headlong into the process I would have saved myself a lot of heart-ache. A lot of people open shops first and only join/visit the Forums when they find they aren't making sales, thats a definite NO NO!
Preparing your graphics
One of the first things you have to consider is creating designs for your store.
If you are a graphics design whizz then this doesn't represent much of a challenge but to someone that has never used a graphics program their prices and the learning curve can be quite daunting. My advice for you is don't be overwhelmed, quite a few shop-keepers had to learn how to design from scratch and there are several good inexpensive graphics programs out there. Roll up your sleeves; google up tutorials and get stuck in, you'll be producing decent designs in no time. After a while you will be able to get a feel for what works and what doesn't!
Before even thinking of designing for Cafepress it is imperative that you read the graphics design guide. Ignoring this can lead to wonky designs, sub-standard products, returns, and border-line depression (believe me i am talking from experience). Follow the guidelines to a tee and download the templates provided, they are very useful especially for the certain product e.g. the oval bumper stickers and buttons.
Deciding what kind of shop you want to open
After going through the Forums and getting a basic understanding of what it takes to succeed with Cafepress the next thing is to understand what kind of shop you want to open.
There are two strands to this:
- Do I open a basic or premium shop
- What kind of designs should I sell
Basic (Free-shop) or Premium??!!!
In my own opinion, a premium shop is by far superior to a basic shop. If you are serious about making money with your Cafepress shop then it is imperative that you have a premium shop. To give you a perspective on this; I make more in one week with my premium rate shop than I make in one year with 20 basic shops!
A basic shop is a free personal page on Cafepress with an extention of your own shop URL. You can only sell one type of design per product and you can only categorize your shop only once. With the premium rate shop you can customize your shop to look like an extension of your website, you can categorize the main shop as well as sections and
subsections differently. With a little knowlege of html you can organise your shops into sections and subsections, for instance you can have a "most popular shirts" sections as well as a "clearance section".
Starting to get the idea? There is a whole lot more flexibility with the Premium rate shop making it wortth every cent of its $6.95. Anybody who is indeed serious about making good money from Cafepress needs to open a premium shop. This is not to say that Basic shops are useless. If you have a domain name/website you can have several basic shops and link them to your website. Basic shops are also useful for a risk free stab at Cafepress and Internet entreprenurship in general.
Continued
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