Cafepress Success 101

Cafepress Shopkeeper "Must Do's"

Check them off your list today

• 1Register Your Domain Name-Very Professional
  Although your shop has it's own Cafepress URL (http://www.cafepress.com/yourshop) when you're trying to spread the word about your shop it's much simpler if you have a cool sounding web address to give out. You simply decide the name you want, check with Register.com to see if it's available and grab it before somebody else does. They are very inexpensive, usually around ten bucks a year. It adds a professional touch to your shop. Once you get your own domain name (www.yourshop.com) you point it to land on your actual Cafepress URL. It will look much better on your new business cards as well.
• 2Join Linkshare-Earn Extra Affiliate Money
  
  Let's face it, not everybody that visits your Cafepress shop is going to buy something. The fact is only about 2-3% of visitors will make a purchase. So why not give them other banners and/or products they can click on during their visit? If they buy something from that merchant, you get paid. Nice... Oh yeah, it's totally free. Never ever pay to promote someone else's products. They should be paying you and that's the way uh huh, uh huh, I like it.
• 3Grow Your Business with a High-Quality Video
  
  TurnHere helps brands, publishers and small businesses produce high quality content - local videos and photos - easily and affordably around the world. We employ a global network of professional filmmakers, photographers, artists and producers, certified and managed through TurnHere's online marketplace and collaboration platform, to deliver high-quality creative content. Our customers grow their business and online audience by delivering high quality creative to targeted customers and viewers. In 2010, we produced content in more than 2,000 cities across the U.S. for partners including Yahoo, Google, Yelp, ATT, YouTube, CitySearch and hundreds more.

Obvious Tips for Cafepress Success

I pity the fool who don't read these tips

1. Very simple. Fill in the blanks. Cafepress is about your visual designs and images but search engines want keywords. There's all kinds text boxes on Cafepress to enter keyword rich names and descriptions of your products. Name all your products give them descriptions. No excuses. How else will anyone find it's not described properly. Search engines are smart, so just fill in blanks with the correct information. Of course if you have a premium shop with multiple sections, be sure to name each section, section teaser and section description. All these are great places to load up with accurate words describing your products. How else are customers
2. Link, Link, Link How did you find this page? Some crazy combo nation of words to find what you're looking for. It's a beautiful thing. The more links you have out there, the more chances people (customers) will find your products. Blog about your shop, put some links on your MySpace, Facebook, with links. Another idea about linking is the old saying "if you can't beat them, join them". If I had made this very webpage on my own from the ground up, it would be a struggle to rank in searches for several months if even then, but thanks to Squidoo, it's right here in front of you. Ride the big boys coat tails! They are fighting the search battle for you everyday. Take advantage to promote your shop!
3. Stay Current Need a new idea on what to design? Watch TV for an hour! Whether it's news or regular shows. You'll see tons of ideas and trends right there on the screen. Like right now, Barack Obama Inauguaration Gear is number one. I'm not that political myself, but I am a businessman. I got in on the campaign gear craze last election. I made Obama and Nobama t-shirts, stickers, and buttons, etc. Whether your political views lean to the left or right, get in the middle of the huge selling opportunity in politcial gear at Cafepress. If you design it, they will buy. The media and word of mouth is the best free advertising out there. It gets ideas into people's (customers) heads and then you capitalize by having your unique product when they go looking for it online.
4. "Fun-Centrate" This word is a combination of "Fun and Concentrate". Sit back and do some thinking before you start designing. Break out the old fashioned paper and pencil. List your ideas and thoughts. And then, "Funcentrate" over them. Circle what you like and cross out ideas you don't like. It's usually not a good idea to go "guns-a-blazin" into the Cafepress world. A little brainstorming now can mean mores sales down the road. My philosophy, "Work smarter not harder". Experiment with your designs. When you decide on a design to make, try it in different colors and styles. See what works. Tweak, tweak, tweak until you are satisfied. The little extra time you took to design it will show. Your customers will be satisfied as well. Good Luck! And see you at Cafepress.