The CafePress Module on Squidoo

CafePress maufactures T-shirts, other clothing, hats, mugs, gifts, and other merchandise using designs of their shopkeepers. Anyone can join CafePress (affectionately known by its shopkeepers as "CP"). Just upload your designs and get started. Or, join their affilaite program and sell other people's stuff.

Squidoo and CP have joined together to create a module, where lensmakers can sell CP shopkeeper's designs, thus increasing income for the individual lens.

OK, so you've decided to use the CafePress module. You've been looking at it for a while wondering what it was all about. Now you know.

So, how do you get started?

EASY! Just go to "ADD MODULES" at the top of your lens workshop page, and add the CafePress module. Just like the other modules.

But CafePress is a BIG place. Lots of designs to choose from, which are best for my lens?

That I cannot answer. But there are 3 choices: "Let CafePress pick", "Let me pick", "Promote a shop".

We will explore each of these in a separate module below.

When you choose this option, the CafePress computer will choose which items to place in your lens' module, based on the keyword you choose to use.

So, look at your lens very carefully and choose the ONE keyword or phrase that best describes it. Is it about Ireland? Than write "ireland".

Is your lens about a particular charity, say breast cancer research? Try writing "breat cancer".

CafePress and Squidoo do the rest.

This is GREAT for newbies, but you don't get much of a say in what shows in your lens, and you are dependant on whatever keywords the designer has chosen for his/her image. Sometimes they do not mesh.

But, it DOES work and WILL get you started.

OK, you have your lens and all you want to do is promote your own CafePress shop in your lens' CP module (or that of a friend).

If it is a basic shop, that is VERY simple. Just write the name of the shop in the space that says "Enter a shop ID". The shop ID is the part of the URL that comes after www.cafepress.com/.

For example, in the case of my shop at:
http://www.cafepress.com/hiawatha

one would write "hiawatha" in the shop ID space.

This works VERY well for basic shops, but not too well for premium ones.

A basic shop is free, and only allows one of each product. Most people use it if they only have one design.

A premium shop is very inexpensive, and you can add as many of each product as you like. So, if you have several designs, it is the easiest way to go. But, I have never been able to get the "Promote a shop" feature to work for my premium shops. I suspect it is because I have about a gazillion designs. And the computer just gets tired trying to decide!

Anyway, this is a good way to go if you have or found a basic shop you love and want to promote.

When you choose the "Let me pick" option, that's EXACTLY what you do. You choose up to 5 items you wish to sell in your lens. (Yes, you CAN sell more than 5, but you have to add more CafePress modules to do so.)

OK, so you have decided to be the master of your own CafePress module. YOU wish to choose EXACTLY what will and will not be added to the CP module in your lens.

Just add the URLS of the exact products you wish to feature.

OK, you ask, not being a CafePress shopkeeper, how do I find the lovely URL to add in the first place?

This is done in two parts. One, finding designs in the CafePress marketplace, and, two, choosing designs from a specific shop.

If you already know the shop(s) you want to use, or, you want to use URLS I already sent you, just skip to the next part.

Those of you who are left, do the following:

1) Go to www.cafepress.com

2) On the bar near the top, click on the words "Shop the Markerplace".

3) In the search box (below the bar) write a keyword that you feel will bring up designs that will compliment your lens.

4) Browse until you find a design you like.

5) Click on the design. When you get to the new page, you will see the design on several products. On the left, you will see an image of the design. Underneath that, you will see "Find it in 1 of this
Member's Shops:" with a link to the shop. Click on the shop link.

7) Now you are at the shop. WRITE DOWN or save the URL of the shop. You will need it in Part 2.

OK, now you know which shop(s) you want to feature in your CafePress module. All you have to do is find a specific product.

This is easy, and a bit fun.

1) Go to the shop URL you saved or wrote down.

2) Pretend you are going shopping. Find the design(s)in the shop you like best.

3) Find a product with the design you like and click on it.

4) Copy the URL from the browser window of the product.

5) Back at your Squidoo lens work place, add the URL you copied in the space "Enter a CafePress product URL or ID (1 per line)".

Product URLs or IDs have a "." between the shop name and the product number. In the case of my shop, they look like this:
http://www.cafepress.com/idonotlove.98001910

Other shops will look similar, but everything AFTER "cafepress.com/" will be different.

6) Repeat until you have the number of items you want . There is a limit of 5. After 5, you have to add another CafePress module.

You can have as many CafePress modules as you like in your lens. But you can only have 5 items in each module.

7) Click save.

You are done!