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dusk884 · November 30th, 2007

I love t-shirts. So several months ago I started my own CP store and went Premium ( $6 a month is a steal IMO ). I just started designing shirts that I wanted to wear but couldnt find and half of the designs were requests from local friends.

Then, about 3 weeks into it... I started getting sales from total absolute strangers. That's pretty exciting. Then they kept coming. Sometimes twice a day.. sometimes 12 a day! Almost every one of the sales was from the "marketplace". Some of the latest buys are from repeat customers and a few actually come to the "store" now. This is freaking exciting and fun, folks.

I wait about 2 weeks for a new design to be searchable leaving about a week for actual searchability. If there are no sales for that design, I take it off the site. ( LOTS )Probably a bad thing to do but I want my shop nice and clean for now anyway. Since almost all sales are from the "marketplace"... I really shouldn't care how clean the shop is I suppose. But I digress.

I recently read in the forums there that top sellers have THOUSANDS of designs. Wow... I had no idea CP would allow such space. For $6 a month?? I love these people. So... I decided to compromise with myself, I'm going to leave all designs online that I'm especially proud of, regardless of sales after 2 weeks.

Here's what I learned. So I saw that I had people buying.. so I started making shirts that have come and gone from the site. I noticed that every freakin shirt that I made for "others" didn't sell SQUAT. Apparently, I have no talent for predicting what others want. It ain't easy to come up with ideas when thinking about others either. Everything I have sold to date are all shirts that I wanted to wear on my own chest. Turns out those shirts are easy to design for, too. So maybe that's my formula to have more fun.

I took half my CafePress bucks that I earned through sales and bought everything I sell. My thoughts:

The Dark T-Shirt... Much better than I've read about and expected. They were generously cut and thicker than I thought. The print was better than I imagined. I would buy this tee and have much more faith in my dark designs. If you read too much you might end up like me wondering if your dark designs will not print well. 200dpi, CYMK colors with a transparent background... 10x10... good to go every time. The small tiny details could have been more clear for my taste but then I think I'm being too critical. My black designs will be more simple than they have been.

The mugs? Awesome. Better than any mugs I ever bought. Including official "NFL" mugs that I always buy. The quality of the print was exactly like what I put into Photoshop. Down to the pixel!

White shirts. Again, a really nice product, all of them. Graphics appeared cleaner and much more precise than on the Dark Tees. I wasn't AS impressed as I was with the Dark shirts but that might be because I was expecting sub par results with the Darks.

Anyway... having fun and I love these CafePress people. What a service. Spend 20 minutes every other day on t-shirt designs and they're sending them to me for free? Can't beat that. In a year, I expect to be forced to receive a "check"! Even more cool, I think.

choppercat · December 4th, 2007

I found this forum from keyword search at technorati for cafepress. Your post came up in the search and having just read your post, I want to say congratulations on your business. I wish that my business success was successful as my enthusiasm to make design. I would like to visit your shop so if you could point me in that direction, by pvt message or reply or email, it would be appreciated.

wesley
aka
choppercat

prometheus · December 4th, 2007

Thanks for the post. When it comes to the dark shirts, do you think you could post a pict as to the quality? I had a test shirt done a while back that came out pretty bad.

dusk884 · December 4th, 2007

I'll have to do that. My digital camera is out of order right now after my 3 year old dropped it on the concrete at my sister's wedding. Looking into getting a new one soon and when I do, I'll take a few shots of the Darks I have. I did get one back from CP that didn't impress me at all. It was a moderately detailed design but it appeared that someone half pressed it or moved it during the press.

The same design looked better on a different sized shirt for my son.

The white shirts appear much more crisp for sure... it's easy for me to see that the Darks look good but not as good as the white shirts. It will change how I design for darks but I still like them. I just need to keep the designs less intricate for the darks

Rodney · December 4th, 2007

Hey Scott, thanks for the in depth writeup about your experience with cafepress.

It's nice to hear how people are able to make profits by just focusing on what they excel at (like designing). When people get that the fulfillment frees up a lot of your time (even at a cost), there's a lot that can be done...especially with the "free" sales that can come through the cafepress marketplace due to their heavy advertising.

I even forget that sometimes. I have dumb designs that I made 2+ years ago that still get sales from the marketplace. I need to make some more

Dejacks · December 4th, 2007

I wouldn't mind browsing your shop either! Maybe point me in the right direction as well...I have contemplated doing CP but never got past just browsing. Thanks for info, maybe I'll look at it more in depth.

Dejacks

dancethoughts · December 9th, 2007

I have been at cafepress for about 3 weeks, and had about 30 sales.It is wonderful- highly recommended! It lets you be a DESIGNER not a PRINTER of t-shirts. For me, that is the most important thing - I love the creative process, but was so not into printing, shipping, returns, etc - and cafepress has been great.

Good luck!

ctcpool · February 10th, 2008

Wow, dance. 30 sales in 3 weeks is impressive. How many designs did you have on there? Did you do any special marketing to gain that much traffic? I've had a store there for a little over a month and no sales. I hope I have saleable designs.

BrendaR · February 13th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctcpool


	Wow, dance. 30 sales in 3 weeks is impressive. How many designs did you have on there? Did you do any special marketing to gain that much traffic? I've had a store there for a little over a month and no sales. I hope I have saleable designs.

The average wait for a sale is 4-6 months. I think it took me about 3 months. And then the sales came pouring in.
Make sure you have a lot of tags that match your design and use a lot of descriptions when telling about your designs. I found out Google will pick up the first few words in your description first- for example instead of "these t-shirts would make great gifts for little girls" you could use "Cute and adorable girl t-shirts and gifts". I always make sure the first few words are what I am selling- something someone would use as key words when searching for the product.

Good luck and have a lot of patience- the sales will come

Buechee · February 13th, 2008

I'm lost here. You are selling on CP so that you can get tees for free? You don't want the money?

BrendaR · February 13th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buechee


	I'm lost here. You are selling on CP so that you can get tees for free? You don't want the money?

Who is that question directed to?

Thao1mage · February 21st, 2008

been with cafepress for about a month now... no sales yet... I think my designs flat out just doesn't sell... need to tweak my designs a little more or change it completely.... *sad*... but still confident....

Ricky

Thao1mage · February 21st, 2008

second thought... maybe I need to put more effort into marketing my cafepress store.... or learning how to use affiliates.... cause I do not have a clue on how to work with affiliates...

wormil · February 21st, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thao1mage


	been with cafepress for about a month now... no sales yet... I think my designs flat out just doesn't sell... need to tweak my designs a little more or change it completely.... sad... but still confident.... Ricky

When I look at your store, I can't find any shirts. That might be having a detrimental effect on sales. Nice logo though.

prometheus · February 21st, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thao1mage


	been with cafepress for about a month now... no sales yet... I think my designs flat out just doesn't sell... need to tweak my designs a little more or change it completely.... sad... but still confident.... Ricky

From what I have read, it can take 3 to 4 months. Are you doing any kind of promoting?

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