Cafepress worth the time?

[madelaide]

After having good results with Zazzle, I wonder if it is a good move to resume working on Cafepress as well.  I see it is still that complicate thing of having one type of merchandise in each store, so it's like each design would become a new store with several products.  I don't remember how complicate (or easy) it is to create products there.

Anyone there with some feedback?

[Fotonaut]

On thing worth noting is that Cafepress is the Istock of the T-shirt business. A year or two ago Cafepress slashed their marketplace pricing from a selectable model to a 10 percent take it or leave it for all model. Thus more than cutting some peoples income in half or more. Read more on that by a web search.

That said, I make the same at Cafepress with fewer designs than on Zazzle and Spreadshirt combined.

I am thinking of dropping them, though, out of principle. Just the same as with Istock.

[Clivia]

I just took a look. They give only 10% and also charge you for having a shop! I think I will give them a miss for now.

[Danicek]

I just took a look. They give only 10% and also charge you for having a shop! I think I will give them a miss for now.

I thought they are selling actual products as opposed to stream of data. Is the 10% from the price of the final product?

You can't just compare it with micros, right? Someone has to buy the t-shirt, store it, print on it, ship it. Who pays this all? Cafepress?

[Clivia]

Yes, cafepress pay for it, but other sites offering the same service give the artists 20% or more, and don't have a monthly charge for selling on the site. They are like istock, wanting to keep all the cash for themselves.

[Microbius]

I just took a look. They give only 10% and also charge you for having a shop! I think I will give them a miss for now.

I thought they are selling actual products as opposed to stream of data. Is the 10% from the price of the final product?

You can't just compare it with micros, right? Someone has to buy the t-shirt, store it, print on it, ship it. Who pays this all? Cafepress?

Zazzle's policy is much fairer. They basically get a fixed amount for their service and you can choose how much to mark up by for your cut. That way they can be sure to cover their (much higher then micros) costs and you can get a fairer price if your design is particularly outstanding (there's an unbelievable amount of rubbish on these sites)
You can't compare it to micros but just looking at Cafepress in the POD context, they suck for their contributors compared to the competition.

[madelaide]

Hmm, we can not set the price at Cafepress?  Too bad...  My experience with Zazzle is putting markup at 15-20%.

Clivia,
We can have free shops at Cafepress, it's only a complicate procedure that I never understood.  You can have several stories in your account, each can contain one type of product (for instance, one t-shirt, one mug, one mousepad).  So, in order not to pay for the shop, you basically open one shop for each design, and create several products with that design. Of course, this is very much more complicate than Zazzle. 

Other than Fotonaut's experiences with t-shirts, does anyone have any experiences in CP to share?

[gill]

There's a 19 page thread at Zazzle for people who've left CP - that probably says it all. I haven't even looked at them, but Zazzle and printbusinesscards are the best for me. I just quit GCU as well - low royalties and the organisation leaves a lot to be desired.
My mark-up at Zazzle is 20-30% or 30-40% for business cards, and I still generally earn more per sale for business cards at printbusinesscards (but sell more at zazzle).
I wish there were more to choose from, but on principal, I really don't feel like going with someone who chooses my royalties for me.
I tried a French one - mydesign.com. You can set your own royalties, but their communication is terrible, which doesn't inspire me with confidence.

[Microbius]

Yep, I set to 25% on Zazzle

[james1968]

I found 'Microstockgroup' via a link on 'Moneysavingexpert.com', I'm glad I did.
I have been investigating the possability of making a few quid from selling my photos printed on t-shirts, calenders, mugs etc., and nearly settled on cafepress. However, having read this thread, I intend to investigate zazzle instead.

I'm not out to make a huge income, but am aiming for £100 p/m min. within the first year, so may also put some of the images on to shutterstock etc. (assuming of course that it is ok to have the same portfolio on multiple sites).

[mtkang]

your goal £100 p/m min is not difficult to meet, and if you already have a quantity of portfolio, it is easy to reach in a few months.

I found 'Microstockgroup' via a link on 'Moneysavingexpert.com', I'm glad I did.
I have been investigating the possability of making a few quid from selling my photos printed on t-shirts, calenders, mugs etc., and nearly settled on cafepress. However, having read this thread, I intend to investigate zazzle instead.

I'm not out to make a huge income, but am aiming for £100 p/m min. within the first year, so may also put some of the images on to shutterstock etc. (assuming of course that it is ok to have the same portfolio on multiple sites).

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