Any DUers having good fortune with Cafepress?

[slor]

I was thinking about doing some stuff, and wanted to hear from those with experience. TIA.

[gmoney]

1. I've made a few bucks...

...with my little FW stickers (see below). About the only marketing I've done has been my sig line here and telling a few friends, but they send a check every quarter. Again, mine hasn't been big money, but it's paid the phone bill a couple times. I'd say they're pretty reputable.

Also, I did order some custom T-shirts for my stepmother's organization, and got a pretty good price on a quantity of them, and the quality was very good. I've ordered one or two other things, and I've been satisfied with them too.

[Atman]

2. Don't quit your day job

It is a lot of work. Don't think of it as anything but retailing, plain and simple. If you go into it as "a hobby" you won't have enough time to devote to the advertising and press releases and coding and content development, etc, etc, etc, you'll need to make a buck.

I know a couple people who make "a living" off CP, but that only means $35,000 a year or so, after years of development and promotion. I use CP to sell swag related to my comic strip, and lots of political bumper stickers and t-shirts. I have hundreds of products, and my store has been featured in articles in the LA Times, CBS Marketwatch, Detroit Free Press, and half a dozen other places, and stuff like that generates a lot of sales. But you need an angle, or else you're just going to get lost in a sea of mediocrity. CafePress products aren't cheap, so your designs alone will have to carry the weight. People can buy crappy t-shirts with Sponge Bob on 'em for $4 at Wal Mart, so what will be special about your designs to make people fork over $16-$18? It's not going to be the basic pocket-less white shirts CP offers. You need to have something clever and timely that they cannot purchase anywhere else.


I don't mean to discourage you, but a CP store is not going to bring you much money in the short term. You'll be spending so much time just coming up with the designs for your products and store, you won't have time to promote. Count on a year or so, realistically, before you can count on seeing any steady income from CP, IF you do all the rest of the promotion stuff.

My CP store is here if you wanna see a "Premium Store" in action...

Good luck! And be sure to check out the CafePress message boards. A great resource which will save you TONS of time and angst.

[slor]

3. Thank you both for the responses...

I knew not to think I would get rich, but to me, even a few extra thousand a year, would be doing great. I have some good design ideas, at least to me, but I have to find someone to make them. Do you guys copyright your images/designs? Thanks again, and last question, I promise.

[gmoney]

5. Mine is my own design...

...but I don't know that it's unique enough to try to copyright protect.

[grytpype]

4. Eh, business is not so good.

I have been trying to sell these at the Temple of George W. Bush gift shop:



On the back are the many names of Dear Leader... not about to retire yet!