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dancethoughts · May 27th, 2008

Update - Now up to a little over $800 profit for May - have I said how much I love Cafe Press?

MageGrayWolf · May 31st, 2008

This was the worst month for me at cafepress so far. I think this was in part do to all teh computer troubles I have had this month . I wasn't able to put in the work I haven't been doing on my site. Hopefully I will get things worked out soon and be back in full swing.

tim3560 · June 1st, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancethoughts


	Update - Now up to a little over $800 profit for May - have I said how much I love Cafe Press?

Just out of curiousity...Is that for dancethoughts or for both of your stores? Or do you have more?

dancethoughts · June 2nd, 2008

That is for all 5 stores combined, but Dancethoughts is about 80% of that. Here are links to my other stores - I can't remember which other one is in my signature here:

Anyway, I ended up at $960 in total profit for May! Now I know $1k is a realistic goal, and I will of course set my sights even higher. I have been making t shirts for a long time, and this is BY FAR the easiest way to make a profit. I spend a few hours a week adding designs and tweaking the look of the sections and storefronts, and just check my email for sales. Take the check to the bank once a month. That's it.

It is a TON of work, and a HUGE learing curve to get started. But if you stick it out and keep reading, learning, and trying new stuff, it gets a whole lot easier.

And I get to spend all of my energy designing, which is the fun part for me. With 5 diverse stores like I have, you can see how my thoughts are all over the map. I can usually find inspiration to think of something new for at least one of the stores whenever I have time.

Now I am expanding, and starting with affiliate sites and more complicated stuff. This is the most fun i have had online in a long time, and I can really see how you could make a living doing this.

tim3560 · June 2nd, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancethoughts


	That is for all 5 stores combined, but Dancethoughts is about 80% of that. Here are links to my other stores - I can't remember which other one is in my signature here: Anyway, I ended up at $960 in total profit for May! Now I know $1k is a realistic goal, and I will of course set my sights even higher. I have been making t shirts for a long time, and this is BY FAR the easiest way to make a profit. I spend a few hours a week adding designs and tweaking the look of the sections and storefronts, and just check my email for sales. Take the check to the bank once a month. That's it. It is a TON of work, and a HUGE learing curve to get started. But if you stick it out and keep reading, learning, and trying new stuff, it gets a whole lot easier. And I get to spend all of my energy designing, which is the fun part for me. With 5 diverse stores like I have, you can see how my thoughts are all over the map. I can usually find inspiration to think of something new for at least one of the stores whenever I have time. Now I am expanding, and starting with affiliate sites and more complicated stuff. This is the most fun i have had online in a long time, and I can really see how you could make a living doing this.

do you design everything yourself or do you ever use another designer to help?

dancethoughts · June 4th, 2008

I do all my designs myself.

tim3560 · June 4th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancethoughts


	I do all my designs myself.

Wow, you must stay really busy doing all of that and being a stay at home mom too!

BurnTees · June 4th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by wormil


	I have to admit, I don't take Cafepress very seriously. I put up a shirt about a year ago and sold one right away, haven't sold another since. I added a few more shirts lately and have started spreading the link around but no bites.

you get out of it what you put into it. just throwing up a design and waiting for money to roll in isn't going to work.

wormil · June 4th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by BurnTees


	you get out of it what you put into it. just throwing up a design and waiting for money to roll in isn't going to work.

After reading how much work CP requires it only reinforced my initial opinion. I could put the same amount of work into my own site, contract the printing and make considerably more profit. As several people have pointed out, the Cafepress marketplace is of no value in marketing so if I'm going to be doing the legwork anyway, I might as well get paid.

dancethoughts · June 4th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim3560


	Wow, you must stay really busy doing all of that and being a stay at home mom too!

I am not a stay at home mom. I have 4 step kids, who are all older (youngest is 16).

I run a professional performing arts (primarily ballet) center (one of the top training facilities in the country), a full time daycare center, and do this cafepress stuff at night - usually 10 pm til about 2 am.

So yeah, I am busy, but don't know if I could do this if I had little kids at home too! This is actually my "down" time - and a creative outlet that actually makes some extra money.

dancethoughts · June 4th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by wormil


	After reading how much work CP requires it only reinforced my initial opinion. I could put the same amount of work into my own site, contract the printing and make considerably more profit. As several people have pointed out, the Cafepress marketplace is of no value in marketing so if I'm going to be doing the legwork anyway, I might as well get paid.

I think you are mis-understanding somehow. CP requires work, yes, but it is NOTHING compared to the work of printing and shipping t shirts. Plus, you have NO inventory, and therefore no start-ups costs.

CP is a very different business than a t-shirt screen printing business. CP is more for designers, who do not want to handle the rest of the work. If you have a ton of designs floating around in your head, and know how to work a graphics program, then a fufillment site is the way to go, IMHO.

However, if you do not want to actually make the designs, or do not know how to create the designs yourself, and you still want to make shirts for other people, then you should have your own shop. You will actually get to get your hands dirty, and handle every aspect of the job, except the design process. Unless of course you have the means to design too - but again IMHO you will have so much to do with printing and shipping you will not have much time left for designing.

I am not sure what kind of profits you think you can make printing shirts yourself. I have seen quotes from people on here saying that 48 shirts, one color screen would cost about $8-10 each. There are some costs involved of course, so the profit on these shirts must be around $6-$8 a piece.

I sell all my shirts for a minimum of $10 mark-up each. I just had an order this morning for 22 shirts. 22 does not sound like a ton of shirts, when you are used to printing hundreds at a time.

But here's the difference - I made $10 a shirt, for 22 shirts, so that is $220 profit - and I did NOTHING. I just checked my email. The customer was able to choose between approx 50 different style/color combos, in kid and adult sizes.

If you are printing your own, you would have to keep the inventory in stock to have the correct sizes and colors available for 50 different color/style combos. That's a lot of shirts. Then you make 22 shirts, and the profit is $6-$8 each. You then have to pack, ship, and invoice your customer.

I am not saying that a fulfillment company is the only way to go. But don't make your decisions based on the thought that there is no profit to be made that way. I make between $10-$14 PER SHIRT profit at CP. I made almost $1k last month, and didn't have to print or ship a thing.

Oh - and over half of those sales came from the CP marketplace. There are people on CP who say they get 80-90% of their sales from the marketplace, and they are making $2-3k a month. I would say that is a pretty valuable part of the CP service.

It's a totally different business than owning a t-shirt printing shop. It is not an apples to apples comparison with a screen printing shop.

I have done both (not a big screen print shop, but the iron on transfer thing) and would never go back.

BurnTees · June 4th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by wormil


	After reading how much work CP requires it only reinforced my initial opinion. I could put the same amount of work into my own site, contract the printing and make considerably more profit. As several people have pointed out, the Cafepress marketplace is of no value in marketing so if I'm going to be doing the legwork anyway, I might as well get paid.

i unfortunately think you've been grossly misinformed. however, you're free to make your own decisions.

wormil · June 4th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancethoughts


	I think you are mis-understanding somehow.

No, I understand perfectly, I just disagree. I experimented with Cafepress and realized it was not the solution for me.

tim3560 · June 4th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancethoughts


	I am not a stay at home mom. I have 4 step kids, who are all older (youngest is 16). I run a professional performing arts (primarily ballet) center (one of the top training facilities in the country), a full time daycare center, and do this cafepress stuff at night - usually 10 pm til about 2 am. So yeah, I am busy, but don't know if I could do this if I had little kids at home too! This is actually my "down" time - and a creative outlet that actually makes some extra money.

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that I had read another post of yours that said you were a stay at home mom. I must have confused you with someone else and hope that I didn't offend you.

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