I had my products all designed and ready made. I had packaging material and knew the best time to hit the post office. I was all set to go with my product making business. But there was something I didn’t have. Orders! I tried making flyers and placed them at nearby shopping centers. I bought brochure holders and asked the small corner businesses if I could leave brochures on their counters. The brochures did not bring in one order.
Feeling sort of hopeless, I decided that possibly the web would be my best bet for advertising. I designed a unique website that I felt was very professional. I had reasonable prices and offered several personalized products. I did receive orders but they were few and far between, mostly from family and friends. I hoped that word would spread but it didn’t. I hoped that once someone bought the product, others would see it and want one too. This didn’t happen. Soon my little website was forgotten and a thing of the past.
Then one day while searching for an unusual gift, I ran across a site called Cafepress. This unique site offers online users to build a store site for free, but it’s not just the free site offered, it’s also the products they offer. Along with the site are many products to choose from. These include t-shirts, clocks, playing cards, pillows, clothing items, hats, jewelry boxes, stuffed toys, baby items, and even books. You can upload your own designs, photos, or sayings to be printed on the items and sell them on your free Cafepress store site.
Right away I opened a free site, gave my store a name, and started designing t-shirts and hats. As you design an item, you will also see how much money Cafepress makes per item. If you chose a t-shirt and see that Cafepress makes $15 on it, you can add $5 to the price for yourself. When this t-shirt sells, Cafepress will deal with the customer. They will print it up and ship it out. Each month you will receive a check with your profits while you sit back and wait. Cafepress does it’s own advertising and marketing. Sure you can help by adding a signature link or linking your store to your website but I found by doing nothing but designing the products, I still sold items. My first month, just before Christmas, I received over $200.
Before opening your own Cafepress store, do some research. Look around Cafepress. If you can make some unique designs for your t-shirts or offer something that is not yet offered, you are likely to do better. If you choose a topic that has 50 stores offering that design, more than likely your store will be passed right over, as the customers will have too many designs to choose from.
My advice is not to pay for a store right away. Though these paid for Cafepress stores offer more items to design, it doesn’t mean you’ll get more business. I have both types of stores and have actually sold more in my free store. Also, don’t be afraid of adding a higher fee to the products. When I started out I added only a dollar to each item. When I sold 20 sweatshirts, I only made $20 while Cafepress earned $200. I went back and added $5 to each sweatshirt and I still sell sweatshirts at this higher price. I found that most customers that shop in my store are not customers that are looking for a great deal. They want something unique and have money to spend.
So if you’d like to try your hand at selling products online, I suggest you give Cafepress a whirl. Not only will you have fun owning your own online store, but once you’ve signed up, you’ll have access to private forums where you can find many people offering help with your designs, choice of products, and just about anything else that has to do with opening your store.