How to be a success on Cafepress

I opened a Cafepress store a few years ago. To be honest, I really have not done much updating to it in quite awhile. Just haven't had the time to put into it. I'm not claiming to be an expert but I do have a few tips and tricks to share here!

Even though I haven't updated my store in quite awhile I am still receiving quite a few orders just from basic searches! It's almost too easy, isn't it?

It can take a lot of time and creativity to come up with products for your store but if you can find your niche then stick with it, don't give up and eventually it will take off!

With time, I plan to grow this lens, share some tips and tricks that I have learned along the way.. and ofcourse show off some of my products!

It's really not that difficult. Cafepress has a lengthy list of products you can sell. It's not just about shirts! They also have calendars, bumper stickers, tote bags, greeting cards, magnets, books, posters, pet products and more! If you have a creative imagination this could be just the thing for you!

Once you decide on the niche you want to work in and what products you want to sell you design your graphics to the size specifications of each product. You then upload your artwork to the cafepress website, pick your products, colors and the price you want to sell your items for! Anything over the cafepress base price is profit to you!

You will also need to think of a catchy name for your store. You can have a basic store which is free but does not offer as many options as a premium shop. For $6.95 a month you can have a premium shop in which you can customize and add many more products and options. Most people design their own domain website and then link to their cafepress shop from the domain site. It's a good idea, but isn't always needed!

Don't expect to make money immediately. Like anything (including Squidoo) it takes time. You have to advertise, advertise, advertise! Get the word out about your store! You can also offer sales or discounts over time to boost some sales!

Keywords are .. key! As I mentioned above, I've not done much updating to my store in quite awhile but have had quite a few orders just from searches. Make sure to add keywords to all of your products!

The minimum payout is $25. You will receive a check in the mail from cafepress. I have received a few of these and cafepress IS legit!

I've earned more from affiliate programs which I will delve into at a later time! You can sign up for an affiliate account and promote other shops on your websites and/or blogs and let others promote your products as well!

I will be offering more tips for your cafepress shop soon.

Please look through some of my own cafepress products on this lense! I've not stuck to just ONE single subject or niche. I wanted to attract a variety of different people. I will show my best selling item here soon!

If you are thinking about starting a cafepress shop the first thing you want to consider is what target audience are you going to try and reach? Is there are certain niche you want to touch on? Do you want to target teens? Adults? Kids? Maybe you will be like me and have a little bit of everything?

Once you decide what area you are going to delve into, the next thing to think about is how to promote it. You might have some great looking products in your store but if no one knows about them, no one is going to buy them! You might get a few sales here and there through the cafepress searches and other search engines, but you want to go beyond "getting lucky" with search engines.

There are a lot of ways to promote your store and here are a few that you can try.

*The obvious: tell your friends and family about it!
*Join forums that focus on the same subject as your store and be sure to add your link into your signature. Jump into different conversations throughout the forum and have your link seen by many!
*Put your link in your email signature.
*Make a myspace page! (more on using myspace to network and advertise coming soon)
*If you have your own personal myspace page be sure to advertise on it there.
*Make business cards.
*Make shirts or bumper stickers through cafepress to help advertise!
*Search for free advertising/classified sites to advertise on.
*If you have the money, you can pay for advertisement, just do your research and decide what you think will work best for you.
*Do lots of reading in the cafepress shopkeeper forum for other tips and ideas
*Join traffic exchanges. Yes, a lot of people say that they don't work, but I honestly think they do. Even through just surfing for credits I have found a few websites that caught my attention! Just make sure that your website is eye catching and attention grabbing!
*Be creative! I'm sure there are many strategies that will work, just use your mind and think of new ways to get your business name out there!

If you start a cafepress store, don't expect it to take off immediately. It can take months and months to get your business name out there unless you happen to have a decent amount of money for advertising! If you have the patience to stick with it, you will be successful and eventually your efforts will pay off.

**This was taken from my work at home blog Crazed Mama's Work At Home Strategies

It was something so very simple that I put on a shirt for maternity wear. I never expected this to be my biggest seller! It comes in three different colors and various sizes/styles for the expecting mommy!

Swallowed A Watermelon Seed!

Myspace gets a lot of negative opinions from people regarding whether it is safe or not. Everyone has their own opinion. Personally, I happen to love myspace! I think it is a great place to find old friends that you have lost touch with years ago! It's also a great place to make new friends! I think myspace is also a great tool to use for networking and advertising your music or business. You can reach thousands of people this way and it really is not that difficult!

I have made a myspace page for my CafePress store and have found that it is a great way to spread the word about my store!

The first thing you want to do is sign up for your own page on myspace! Come up with a unique name for your page, it can usually be your business name to be found easily!

Once you have gone through the sign up process you can start adding content to your page! Find an eye catching layout to use and add information about your store. Include photos of your products and links to your store/products!

Groups and Forums. You can join groups and search through various forums. There are hundreds of cafepress groups or tshirt groups on myspace. You can post on forums and mention your store!

Add Friends! If you want to add friends fast you can search for various friend adder programs that will help you to add friends quickly without having to manually go to each page and send a friend's request. Just be careful of the spam rules on myspace. If a person denies your friends request don't send them another request!

Leave Comments. Once you start getting friends on your page you can make a little banner or advertisement to leave in comments. Or you can just send a "thank you for adding me" comment and include a link or photo of one of your products. That is a great way for other people to learn about your page! Be creative and find ways that will get people to click onto your page!

Blog. You can use your blog to talk about certain products within your store. You can advertise sales that you may have going on or new products that you are creating!

Bulletins. A bulletin goes out to all of your friends on your friends list. You can post bulletins throughout the day advertising your store, new products, sales that you have going on.. etc.. The possibilities are endless!

You can also use other social networking websites apart from myspace as in Facebook...etc. to do the same things! I think these social sites are a great way to get your products out to new people!

This is my myspace page: DAFT CREATIONS MYSPACE