[limey16]

Hi all, first question of no doubt many to come.

I am in the process of setting up a home (basement) based screen printing biz.

I was unfamiliar with CP until i started reading the forum and have just spent an hour browsing the site.

I was wondering about the potential of marketing designs there and hence my question.

I know there are many variables that will affect people experience but i would like to know the extremes of the site's potential. Would anybody be willing to share indications of sell rate for their best designs and anybody got a "personal best for # of total items sold .

Would also appreciate a must do for a new seller there.

My wife is a 25 year textile design veteran, so inspiration and design ideas could make this a lucrative outlet for her skills.

Thanks in advance

ian

 

[CRUM6178]

Hi limey

I have a cp premium shop and do okay with no advertising and a lackluster designed webpage layout. Most sales come from the marketplace and I dont generate enough sales to quit my day job by any means.

I think a successful shop all depends on how much work you put into it. I recommend you check out 100 Top Rated Cafepress Stores! - Rankings - All Sites to see the best ranked cp shops. See what they do to be sucessful and hopefully it will provide inspiration for you.

 

[limey16]

Thanks to all who responded, as it is my intention to be home based i would be looking for 3 particular revenue streams. Those being,

Events, my particular interest being motorcycles

Direct to businesses needing either promotional or branded apparel for staff use. I enjoy meeting new people, so a little pavement pounding appeals to me..... i know i might regret that statement.

Internet Store. Catering to Motorcycle and Classic Car enthusiasts.

My original question with regard to CP was to get a feel as to how effective it had been for people using the site. As this may be something my wife might be interested in using as an outlet for her particular talents.

Don't understand the attitude of the guy who would not take anybody at CP seriously, comes across as arrogant. Different strokes for different folks i say.

Anyway my llc is now a legitimate entity ... thanks Legalzoom.com !

Will spend this week making a final decision on the press and ancilliary eqipment i will order.

This forum is giving me much food for thought, thanks for the input.

ian

 

[deChez]

Good luck to you. It sounds as though you've put a good deal of thought into the direction you want to take.

I think you're smart to have a niche market (motorcycle & classic car enthusiasts) within your general market of business to business. Networking one will surely create contacts within the other.

 

[Rodney]

thread note: some posts have been moved out of this thread because they were way off the topic. To help keep this thread focused on the original poster's question, the other posts about the viability of CafePress in general have been moved here. Let's try to keep this thread helpful to the original's poster's question about best months ​

 

[Rodney]

I know there are many variables that will affect people experience
but i would like to know the extremes of the site's potential. Would
anybody be willing to share indications of sell rate for their best
designs and anybody got a "personal best for # of total items sold .

Generally, the best months are around the Christmas shopping time.

Extremes would be selling 0 or selling 1000's of items per month. All are possible. 

There's really no limit to the amount you can sell with the right mix of product/promotion/luck/advertising/etc.

With the political season upon us, I know there are sellers on CafePress easily selling 100's of t-shirts and other items per month with a $5+ markup on each item.

 

[BIGNUMPT]

Hi Limey

I've had CP Prem Stores since Jan 2007 and my best month was March this year with nearly $3,500 sales @ $1600 profit from just under 200 sales.This month to-date-$1200 sales approx.

As for tips.

1 OPEN PREMIUM SHOP
2 DON'T BE AFRAID TO MARKUP $5-$10 DOLLARS
3 ADD NEW DESIGNS,KEEP SITE FRESH
4 ASK QUESTIONS IN CPS FORUMS
5 PATIENCE
6 ADD DESIGN TO MUGS,STICKERS,BADGES ETC
7 PRAY EVERY DAY TO THE DONOT FAIRY


All the best
BIGNUMPT

 

[limey16]

Steve,

Thanks for the straight answer, i understand that people are reticent about talking about turnover/income and i appreciate you being candid.

I can see why you are doing so well, some great shirts, would go over well with the folks at liveleak.com ... need my daily fix of Apache gun camera vids there !!

Will bear your pointers in mind as i plod steadily towards my goal.

Just waiting for the debate to start.... love the American political process.

ian

 

[BIGNUMPT]

Cheers for the kind remarks Limey which gave me another idea for newbie tips,one which alas I've not implemeted to-date !(I'm still a newbie too really,less than 2 yrs trying to learn SEO,design etc from scratch)

Links,links and more links.I'm led to believe that relevant links between sites are important for good SEO.

I haven't done much towards establishing such links,but my goals for 2009 definitely include link building.I felt it was better to get designs in place before I started contacting relevant sites suggesting swapping links.

I looked at Liveleak,cool site ideal for maybe for link swapping/ advertising.

Cheers

 

[Adam]

Best months: Oct-Dec.
Worst months: Jan-Feb

Extremes: 70-100 sales a day in peak season.
Good days: 20-30 sales a day
Bad days: 5-10 sales a day
Crap days: 0 sales a day.

The world's your oyster. It's all riding on your own efforts and what and how you choose to market. There are no guarantees like Rodney eluded to. People make ZERO some people make six figures.

 

[BIGNUMPT]

Mighty impressive figures Adam.

According to your sales criteria I had a bad day then yesterday,not had a crap one for yonks though (Kiss of death)Here's to a few good days as we approach the season of goodwill to all credit cards.

One question though Adam,are the majority of your sales as an affiliate? Something I'm looking to do maybe mid next year after I've got my target 1500 designs into my 4 shops,so I may need to pick your brains!

Cheers for the response,just shows what hard work can produce.

 

[T3Design]

Crum's response in accurate, however, if you have the means to advertise properly both online and in your area, you could do very well.

 

[wormil]

Apparently I'm doing something wrong, my best month was around $1600 and I made about 10%, according to some posts here I should be closer to $800. All my shirts are marked up significantly so why the big difference in margins?

 

[pshawny]

A lot of the earnings that you are reading about are before Cafepress changed how they pay shopkeepers. I'd imagine a lot of shop's revenues got cut in half or more when the change happened.

Back in the day you set your own markup and no matter how a customer found your design you got paid that amount. Nowadays you usually get 10% of the sell price.

Basically, if Cafepress gets you the customer then they give you 10% commission. If you get your own customer by driving traffic to your shop, then you get the markup that you set.

 

[pshawny]

I started using Cafepress back in early 2008. I've slowly built my shop up to almost 500 designs. Here are some monthly averages over the last few years.

2008 - $37/month average
2009 - $61/month average
2010 - $129/month average
2011 - $275/month average thru 10/15

Last December was my best month with about $550 in commissions.

 

[avgsuperheroine]

I have under 300 designs. I do this really sporatically whenever I have time, so it's really just a hobby for me.

My best month was $650. I now average $200 a month over the course of a year. Almost all marketplace sales.

 

[JoesJunction]

I have just started in the last month and only have about 8 designs, still have yet to make any sales, but am looking to as I finish up some of my designs

 

[stuffnthingz]

Years ago I setup on CP, I had 3 premium shops there I loaded hundreds of designs. My biggest month EVER was a December I think in 2007, I made a copy of the check so when I get down I can go look at it and know that yes once in a blue moon I DO make a very good business decision That check was in the thousands. Since then, lots of things changed with CP and I started making my own apparel which I LOVE immensely. CP checks were never close to that big again. Fast forward to a couple of years ago, and the BIG CHANGE happened with the marketplace, not sure how long ago that was now exactly. I was mad. I pulled ALL of my over 300 designs from there. Except a few cases that I still have never figured out and I still make money from them, go figure. Now its a couple of years later and I make good money with the products I make myself, so I think I am going to put all my shops back in the marketplace. I have all new designs now and I use a medium that is far different than POD. It is inspiring to stumble up on these posts years later and see that a few of you net a couple hundred bucks a month from the marketplace, who doesn't need an extra buck or two that they didn't have to do anything for?

2006 and 2007 were crazy all because of CP and I've never experienced anything like it since. That income paved the way for me to buy my own equipment cash up front and I've never looked back. I am grateful to them even if I don't like how they have changed.

Note: I am a full time IT program manager and my apparel/Jewelry business is what I do for "fun".

 

[sumi12]

I have a cp premium shop and do okay with no advertising and a lackluster designed webpage layout. Most sales come from the marketplace and I dont generate enough sales to quit my day job by any means.

 

[QueerityShop]

I've just started up... I haven't made any sales yet. I hope too soon by getting new designs in and advertising. Im just going to keep going and give it my best shot