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Pay your rent with Cafepress

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 3 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #1175 in Business, #24697 overall

Rated G. (Control what you see)

Make more than pocket change with Cafepress

 

Yes, that's an image of a commission check for over $1,200 from CafePress. I have been paying my rent and more with my commission checks from Cafepress for months now. I will share how I do it, but be prepared, there are no easy answers here.

Haven't signed up yet? Start your own shop today!

Check out my store while you're at it, too!

Top Tips for Success with Cafepress 

1. Learn Photoshop. If you want to make money selling t-shirts, you have to know how to use photoshop (see the youtube links below). If you can't make good designs, you can't make your rent from cafepress. A good design could simply be text, but you have to know how to arrange it, center or offset it, sizing and how to make the background transparent for black/dark t-shirts.

Sign up for a good clipart or photo site, like Clipart.com or Photos.com. This will help your designs tremendously.

2. Go Premium. If you don't want to make serious money with cafepress, then don't invest the $60. I put the $60 in after having a crappy basic shop for 2 months and made the $60 back the same month. I'm not going to say more than that.

3. Find a niche, but don't limit yourself. My first successes were in my niche, those designs still sell today. It is one of the best ways to get beginning sales and get your designs to come up in searches. I had other ideas that didn't fit with the niche so I added other sections and developed those as well. You can make good money from niche designs, but I believe a combo of niche and universal designs is what has made me most successful.

4. Promote through free sites. I haven't paid for a lot of advertising. Sometimes it works, but word of mouth is just as (if not more) powerful and doesn't cost you money, but will cost time. I promote on sites like myspace, facebook, and of course, squidoo to name a few. I divide my time between designing and promotion. If I spend 5 hours designing, I will spend an equal amount of time promoting.

All you need to know to do this is basic html. How to link an image and a URL. HTML Goodies has good primers on both of these topics.

Another helpful tip, add your shop and a teaser to your email signature. Think about how many emails you send everyday! It's a great way to promote your shop.

5. Don't expect miracles overnight. I have had my shop for two years. I went from earning $60 the first month with my premium shop, to $300 that Christmas, to $700 that fall and finally $1,200 this Christmas. It takes time to build a successful shop, keep adding designs and promoting it everywhere. Pace yourself and you'll see results soon enough.

6. Remember it is a job. There's no boss to report to, and no structure. Make your own guidelines and stick to them. On average I spend 30 hours a week on my store. If you calculate my hourly wage it is around $10/hr. There are times I spend 40-50 hours on it, but I am happy to do it. I prefer this to any stuffy office job, but I don't consider it play time. I take my work seriously. Many people think that the money rolls in on it's own and that starting and running a successful shop is a piece of cake. It isn't. It takes hard work, dedication and devotion. Partner a strong work ethic with good designs and you can make serious cash.

7. Set a high mark up. This may seem scary at first, and maye you also sympathize with the customer and don't want to charge them $30 for a shirt. I understand, I was there myself. The truth is, cafepress isn't made for the Target or Kmart shopper. The $7 t-shirt shopper demographic isn't yours. Set your mark up between $7 and $10 per shirt. Think about it this way: I made four sales yesterday and got about $40 from it. If you have a $4 mark up, it will take you ten sales to get to where I got in one day. This is a business, and if you want big commission checks, you need a high mark up, period.

8. Don't give up! If you have good designs, put hours into your shop and promotion, don't give up. Results may vary, but I've seen that it simply takes time to get good traffic and big checks.

Those are my top tips and secrets. I have learned all of this by trial and error. I am now a full-time freelancer, with cafepress bringing in the lion's share of my income. I love it!

Please check the additional links and videos I have below for more tips and tools I use for success with cafepress.

Best of luck!

You Suck at Photoshop (and others) Tutorials 

The title makes you laugh and the tutorials are both entertaining and informative. Other helpful tutorials as well!

You Suck at Photoshop #1: Distort, Warp, & Layer Effects

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2082119 views
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You Suck at Photoshop #2: Covering Your Mistakes

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You Suck at Photoshop #3: Clone Stamp and Manual Cloning

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You Suck at Photoshop #6: Filter: Liquify

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Photoshop tutorial on using layers for effects.

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Photoshop 101 - Part 1

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Photoshop Tutorial - "Aqua" Sphere Effect

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Starburst Effect in Photoshop

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taunt.com » Photoshop Tutorial » Photoshop Pen Tool

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Get a shirt! 

It's the least you can do after I shared all my secrets with you... ;)

Resources to maintain your shop 

cafeToolbox
Use this to upload feeds to google, and estimate your volume bonus.
StatCounter Free invisible Web tracker, Hit counter and Web stats
A free yet reliable invisible web tracker, highly configurable hit counter and real-time detailed web stats.
Welcome to Facebook! | Facebook
Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you. Everyone can use Facebook. Use it to promote your shop!
Myspace
Promote your shop on myspace! Get some friends, tell em about your shirts.
Freelancer Tips
46 Must-Read Productivity Tips for Freelancers
35 Photoshop Tutorials for Designing Your Own Posters....try nyo toh!!!
35 Photoshop Tutorials for Designing Your Own Posters
Small Hands Designs
My store! Check it out, and of course, buy something! ;)
Adobe Illustrator Tutorials | Tutorials | Smashing Magazine
As a vector-based drawing program Adobe Illustrator has nowadays become the standard for illustration design. This tendency can be noticed in the Web as well as in Print Design. Few weeks ago we've selected some

Tell me what you think! 

BStrouse wrote...

Great Lens, I learned a lot from it.

ReplyPosted December 22, 2008

AngelCityArt wrote...

Great page, simple with lots of info. I want my store to grow up to be just like yours!

ReplyPosted June 13, 2008

tshirtfort wrote...

You have some good tips. Living off cafepress is my goal. Also your information is fresher than I see on the other cafepress lenses.

ReplyPosted March 24, 2008

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smallhandsdesigns

About smallhandsdesigns

Hi! I love t-shirts! And I feature many t-shirt lenses. I also want to share tried and true ideas and tips for living green, saving money and being happy! Unique content that serves to educate and enlighten (I hope!)

Thanks for reading :)

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