Shameless Plug Alert! Yes, Yes... I can see you rolling your eyes from here. I can't expect big sales from the 2 or 3 lonely people that have visited this blog so far. LOL. My kids would gladly throw on a black Tshirt or hoodie with a prominent logo just to have their own "label" ;p The littlest Kidlet loves this Qu!tcherB!tch!N shirt. Stuff like that would go over just fine in our small little hicktown where it might not work so well if we lived in a big city. Oh ya... Pssst - the url is www.cafepress.ca/RNH
Anyways, back to Cafepress: It seems things have changed considerably with percentages and royalties over recent months and many disgruntled shop owners are packing up and leaving in droves. It gets poor reviews and ratings on opinion sites these days. Apparently things have been turned upside down with commissions programs and now anything advertised and sold through the "marketplace" nets the artist/creator a paltry 10% as compared to setting their own markup. Call me crazy, but I'd rather sell a hundred T-shirts at 10% than a handful at slightly higher rates. Understandably upsetting for the people who consistently earned a few hundred dollars and saw their cheques cut in half, but for the newbie just coming in it seems reasonably fair and in line with comparable programs.
I'm perfectly happy with 10% here and there from multiple sources, even if it only adds up to pocket change. After the intial effort it's (hopefully) longterm, passive residual income and I'm ALL about creating more of that.
I'm perfectly happy with 10% here and there from multiple sources, even if it only adds up to pocket change. After the intial effort it's (hopefully) longterm, passive residual income and I'm ALL about creating more of that.
Another major downside to Cafepress is that it is extremely limited in what is offered to startup (read: FREE) store setups. Very little in the way of categorizing or customizing store layouts. Lame with a capital L is this: as a free store shopkeeper I can only offer ONE DESIGN in each type of product. One black hoodie for instance. Or one women's fitted t-shirt. Or one long sleeve shirt. It would sure be a whole lot more appealing to be able to offer black hoodies in 25 different designs - which of course I COULD do if I wanted to become a "premium" shopkeeper. ;p ... For $66/yr. Not a bad price, perhaps - but expensive when I could get similar perks FREE from the other big POD sites.
Anyways, most of these ex-cafepress folks headed over to Zazzle. A Schnazzy little site to be sure, especially with a name like Zazzle. I was excited reading through all the particulars and visualizing the potential until I realized the shipping fees to have anything sent WAY up here in Canada are outrageous. Since I assume the majority of any future customers (pity purchasers) would probably be family or from my local small town, Zazzle wasn't the best option. For me. Not until the Redneck Hillbillies are a worldwide phenomenon, anyhow. ;p
Yes, actually I AM delusional.
Printfection was another Print on Demand site I stumbled upon. They had the added bonus of a $2 shirt offer (plus shipping of course) so in 10-15 days or so I can see how the white T-shirt design looks before going gung-ho. I signed up and opened "stores" in both Printfection and Zazzle which for the time being are completely empty. . I hope to offer a few little goodies through each until I decide on a permanent POD home.
Or maybe I'll be distracted by something else before this even gets off the ground, which would not be a surprise given my history.
Oh look! SHINY!......
(bumbles away)
