Print-On-Demand Sites Worthwhile?

[Carl]

Is anyone selling anything on the print-on-demand sites?  Sites such as www.artflakes.com, www.redbubble.com, www.zazzle.com, www.deviantart.com, and others.

[ruxpriencdiam]

Quite a few people do and some do very well with what they have.

[click_click]

It's different from stock. You quite literally have to "design" stuff.

Sure you can slap your photos on posters, mousepads etc. but for the most part the really good sellers are designs like wedding invitations, business cards etc.

I still sell most of my stock stuff but I see better returns on designed products.

Your mileage may vary, depending on your subjects.

Quite a few pro sellers do sell on Cafepress, redbubble and the likes as well. If you already have a design you might as well offer it "everywhere". Pretty much the same concept as in microstock.

Zazzle does worlds better than Cafepress. Cafepress pay you 10% if items are sold through the marketplace. Only if you sell directly through your store you can make more (pricing is up to you). Zazzle doesn't do that - prices and royalties are always the same.

As with microstock, the POD business also requires huge amounts of time and dedication if you want to see a few hundred $$$ every month.

[stockastic]

If you upload photos and create 'products' (t-shirts, cards etc) you are just placing a few needles in a gigantic haystack . There seem to be 2 ways to make any money. One is to promote yourself, somehow, through other channels.  The other is to create literally thousands of 'products' with popular themes like sports teams, cute babies wearing funny hats,  or travel photos of favorite tourist destinations.

I've done neither so I've made little :-)

Zazzles prices are high and your cut is small.

[click_click]

....prices are high and your cut is small.

Huh, I think I've heard that before... 

[Microbius]

I find the design tools on Zazzle very slow and frustrating. I have quite a few things up there, I'm actually a Pro Seller, but gave up on doing anything new a while ago as too time consuming. For the time taken, for me it isn't worth it.

[click_click]

I find the design tools on Zazzle very slow and frustrating. I have quite a few things up there, I'm actually a Pro Seller, but gave up on doing anything new a while ago as too time consuming. For the time taken, for me it isn't worth it.

I'm curious to hear which other POD site has a better interface with similar customizing options.

At least Cafepress is light years behind Zazzle...

[Microbius]

I have never used any of the other sites, I started with Zazzle because it was the biggest. I just meant generally it is a pain moving text about, aligning things and so on. I guess I am comparing it to using off-line software. InDesign, Quark and the like where you can fiddle about with your designs in a much more fluid and faster way. For me it got to be a PITA.

[click_click]

I have never used any of the other sites, I started with Zazzle because it was the biggest. I just meant generally it is a pain moving text about, aligning things and so on. I guess I am comparing it to using off-line software. InDesign, Quark and the like where you can fiddle about with your designs in a much more fluid and faster way. For me it got to be a PITA.

I wish it would be faster as well but I compare it to Cafepress which doesn't even allow you to add text!!! 

Your design has to be ready to go for the specific product you want it printed on.

In some instances you can reduce the size of the design but you cannot even move off center.

[etienjones]

I find the design tools on Zazzle very slow and frustrating. I have quite a few things up there, I'm actually a Pro Seller, but gave up on doing anything new a while ago as too time consuming. For the time taken, for me it isn't worth it.

It is a PITA setting up your products but its like Micro . . . . .  spend some time and forget about it.  I have about 1500 products (NOT very commercial products, no cats, just the photos from Micro) and it drags in about $25/month with no promotion.  

PS . . .  it seems I sell mostly Ties and Phone cases

[stockastic]

... generally it is a pain moving text about, aligning things and so on. I guess I am comparing it to using off-line software.... For me it got to be a PITA.

Same with me, and one reason I quit doing anything with Zazzle.   The whole process of creating and listing products is too slow and tedious, and the only way you make money is with lots of products.  Their site needs major investment and redesign. 

[madelaide]

Zazzle is where I have invesdted more of my time, and I am happy with the results. Increasing sales, I've been having a very nice month so far.

The biggest issue is them taking 30% tax from all my sales, even those outside USA (which is perhaps 50% of my sales). I haven't convinced them they are wrong and I plan to have IRS reply positively to me, so I can hopefully make them see the light.

[gwhitton]

There is one way to get around the tedium of dealing with their design software. If you use their templates, and create everything to the size they request you should be able to do 90% of the design, including the text outside of their software. This leaves keywording and SEO stuff, which is a royal pain in the butt, when you really just want to assign the same set of information to a dozen or more things using the same image or design.

[stockastic]

I think Zazzle got going because CafePress was so bad, and was cutting commissions.  Now Zazzle needs competition.  Desperately.

I tried to figure out 'templates' but it was far from obvious.  I don't want to just  automatically slap photos on things without controlling the placement, sizing and cropping of the images.  That might be ok for the funny cat stuff, but not for my photos.  And mass keywording, without any batch tools - fuggedaboudit.

[suwanneeredhead]

I make a lot more on Zazzle than I do on all of my microstocks combined, except Shutterstock. Ranking: Zazzle, Shutterstock, All Other Microstocks and PODs. Forget CafePress, their interface is so clunky and the last time I was there, you had to resize artwork for each different product... Losers!

Zazzle and Shutterstock are my bread-n-butter. 

Stacey

[shiyali]

There is one way to get around the tedium of dealing with their design software. If you use their templates, and create everything to the size they request you should be able to do 90% of the design, including the text outside of their software. This leaves keywording and SEO stuff, which is a royal pain in the butt, when you really just want to assign the same set of information to a dozen or more things using the same image or design.

Using Zazzle design software to add text has the advantage that it makes the text customizable, which a lot of buyers probably prefer.

[mtilghma]

I make a lot more on FAA than I do on Zazzle... I think it's better suited to actually simply printing photos on demand, since Zazzle has so many other types of products.  Most of my photos are simply better suited to printing and putting on a wall than being featured on any other sort of product, and they seem to see more movement over on FAA

[RacePhoto]

Interesting. The couple of people I know who make money (and that's not me) have worked up collections and are pulling in around $50 a month on Zazzle. Myself I started using the templates that Zazzle provides, fill them in, delete the items I don't need or that the alignment is right. Makes it a little easier, but what everyone else says is true, It's somewhat torturous and time consuming.

Lack of interest: (and I agree)

I find the design tools on Zazzle very slow and frustrating.  For the time taken, for me it isn't worth it.

If you upload photos and create 'products' (t-shirts, cards etc) you are just placing a few needles in a gigantic haystack .

Zazzles prices are high and your cut is small.

Winners: lots of hours, paid off?

It is a PITA setting up your products but its like Micro . . . . .  spend some time and forget about it.  I have about 1500 products (NOT very commercial products, no cats, just the photos from Micro) and it drags in about $25/month with no promotion.  

suwanneeredhead you are one of the exceptions, whatever you are doing, nice going!

Here's Mine for last week.


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I only have cards and postcards, did a couple of Ts which are pretty stupid. Judging from the above I need only 1450 more items and I could be making $25 a month?  

I just thought that cards and postcards would work better for the images I was uploading. Maybe for Christmas, and the Fall holidays. I suppose 100 designs would be a fail trial if I'm going for greeting cards. That was the intention.

[click_click]

There are pro sellers that sell the same item several times a day.

An iPhone case can get you between $6 to $10 a pop - you do the math.

So technically you can make pretty good money with very few items.

The keys is to promote your stuff. Promotion is more important than the quality of your design.

I've seen plenty of "LCV" stuff in some pro sellers portfolio but their products are ranking extremely well which is a result of (amongst other factors) sales.

[mtilghma]

Well then... hey everyone, visit my site and buy something!!  http://www.zazzle.com/mattt513

but seriously though, I'm confident in the quality of my photos, but I just don't think that many people come to zazzle to buy photos.  They want THINGS.. mugs, plates, totes, phone cases... and for that, designs work better than photos.  In fact, even for posters, they want a design element to it, not JUST a photo.

Since I'm a photographer, not a designer, this is why I do better at FAA I think.  The only reason I have stuff on zazzle is for when I'm too brain-dead to take, edit, or keyword photos, and I just use files I've already keyworded and edited to make products there.

[RacePhoto]

Well then... hey everyone, visit my site and buy something!!  http://www.zazzle.com/mattt513

but seriously though, I'm confident in the quality of my photos, but I just don't think that many people come to zazzle to buy photos.  They want THINGS.. mugs, plates, totes, phone cases... and for that, designs work better than photos.  In fact, even for posters, they want a design element to it, not JUST a photo.

Since I'm a photographer, not a designer, this is why I do better at FAA I think.  The only reason I have stuff on zazzle is for when I'm too brain-dead to take, edit, or keyword photos, and I just use files I've already keyworded and edited to make products there.

I upload ideas and rejections. Hmm, wonder why they don't sell. 

Some good educational materials in this thread for products on Zazzle. I didn't even know you could sell posters and prints, I thought it was all "stuff and things". But now I see, I wasn't really missing anything with posters? Or are there some people who actually sell prints? $21 for a poster, quick look, I'd have to really want that for my wall, wouldn't I.

I have a free FAA account, uploaded scenic and waterfalls and basically what I think would be best there - Wall Art. Haven't reached the 25 limit yet and when I do, I'll start trading in newer shots and removing old ones. Same as other places. Panoramas and wide shots, don't display very attractively. I may have to grab some centers of those and see how they do, but I like making the wide shots and for the two that I printed for myself, they hang nice. (of course I'm terribly biased!)

Example: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/colored-cavern-panorama-pete-klinger.html


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Wouldn't be the same as landscape 8x10 would it? Underground cave panorama, with artistic lighting.

[RacePhoto]

Hey Look, did you know there's a whole forum section for this?

http://www.microstockgroup.com/product-resale-forum/

Well now there are two survey questions. Please join in the survey. Thanks.

[etienjones]

Right Racephoto, that image wouldn't look so great on a stamp.

For me the bottom line is that it is boring to create new products, and as always, the more the better. That's why I only add products a few times a year.

This is my solution for �templates�. When I have a series of images that have the same categories and keywords, I create all the products using one image.  With the next image I open an existing product, click on �Customize�,  change image, tweek text if needed,  change Category (or sub Category), and its done.  All keywords, price, etc, etc, are already done. This system saves time.

[leaf]

moved the thread to the print on demand forum

[stockastic]

I think it's interesting that among the microstockers here, the talk isn't about Zazzle's high prices and low commissions.  Instead there's a rough consensus that the real barrier is their lousy web site.  The obvious message to Zazzle is that if they invested in seriously improving the web site they'd get increased participation by better photographers.   Not holding my breath.