Cafepress, it’s all about marketing
Written: Nov 26 '06
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I’ve been using cafepress for years now - -and for the first few years – I didn’t make a penny of profits – but lately I’ve been making at least a sale a day. And I will share some of my experiences with you.
What Cafepress.com is:
Cafepress is a different thing for different people.
If you are a savvy shopper who is always looking for something totally unique – that is totally you, then it is the perfect place to shop for shirts, coffee mugs and even underwear.
If you are an artist of any kind – it is a place to put your stuff out there for the world to buy. You can sell prints, shirts, and buttons, whatever you want. If you are a writer, you can sell your book. If you are a musician you can sell your CD.
If you are not that creative but still want to make a few bucks, and have a website (even an epinions or myspace profile) you can be an affiliate. All you have to do is pick a shop you like and promote it – you make up to 20% on all sales that shop makes form your links. You can even just have a general link and if someone signs up through you – you always make a percentage of their shops profits.
So who are you?
Where do you fit in – and how will it work for you?
If you are a shopper - cafepress has endless possibilities for you – any interest you can think of you can find on cafepress – like frogs – there’s something there for you…World Of Warcraft – oh yeah – you can find it – Belly Dancers or fairies – well, then, you visit my shop.
Shipping is a flat rate of $5.00 on all purchases, which is nice if you are buying at least three things, if you are just buying a button though, it isn’t so great. Cafepress ships via USPS and standard ship time is 5-10 days.
Not only are you getting something extremely unique – you are helping out artist of all kinds out there instead of just “the man”. You are showing them that they do have a talent, something someone out there really does like and appreciate enough to buy.
If you are an artist - Cafepress is your wet dream. First of all – you can create a unique shop – basic or premium which I will get into later. Then you upload you images, or music, or pdf formatted book. Then you choose your products. You choose which products you would like your work on (or in). Cafepress has a base price on all products – this is what cafepress charges for the products, you mark it up – and your mark up is your profit per product. The average mark up is around $2.00. Then publish them – then they are open to the public.
If you are a profiteer - All you need to do is create an affiliate account. Cafepress will give you a unique affiliate ID and they show you how to include it in all cafepress links. From there you make 20% on the sales to whatever product or shop you linked to – that simple.
Basic shop VS Premium
The basic cafepress shop is free but you can only have one of each product they offer. This is good if you only have one thing you want to sell. But if you have many designs, you won’t be able to put them all on all products.
The premium shop is $6.95 a month. A premium shop has many more options and customization then the basic. You can enter your own HTML and you can have as many products as you want.
So what do do? – Unless you already have a customer base – I say no matter what try out the basic shop to start – you can always upgrade your shop later. I had a basic shop for the first few years I had a shop. I just upgraded 5 months ago because I was making good profits.
You can use your “cafecash” (the money you made from products) to pay for the premium shop – so if you make enough sales in a month the shop will pay for itself. That is what I waited for and now I never pay out of pocket, and I still make a lot of profits over the monthly fee.
But Wait – there’s more – a lot more -
You can’t expect to just put your products or links out there are instantly people will flock to your products. You won’t be quitting your day job. You have to learn about marketing and promoting. Cafepress is very helpful in this way because they have member forums, some that teach you all about marketing and search engine optimization. There are good things to read up on for shopkeepers and affiliates alike.
A few Quick tips
1. – Know your audience. If you are selling shirts that say – “Filipino by association” don’t market on your “all about goldfish” page. Find your people. The people who will buy your products, and market to them – don’t spam them. An easy way to do this is to create a myspace for your shop and start adding friends you think might be interested in your stuff. If they accept your invites, you have a start. You can post bulletins, and post blogs about your products and any sales you have going on.
2. – Be descriptive. When making your products – be descriptive not only in the image search tags, but the product as well. Good search terms are what google is looking for as well as the cafepress marketplace search.
3. – Be Patient. Don’t give up after a week of not making profits, cafepress as with almost any business is trial and error. Again look at the forums and get ideas from other shopkeepers as well as the cafepress employees – cafepress WANTS you to do well so they do well, so learn from them.
The more I use cafepress the more I learn. Belly Dancers and Fairy Enthusiast are my customers– which is great because I am one of them. I highly recommend cafepress to all shoppers, artists, and people just looking to make a few bucks. They are a very great and unique service.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
lacechenault
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Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
Reviews written: 65
Trusted by: 26 members
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Artist
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