TSHIRT ENTREPRENEUR ONLINE

Author: Andrew Brown

Some business owners hire family and friends out of necessity while others do it for tax or other advantages. Regardless of the reason, employing a family member or friend has advantages and disadvantages. If you are thinking about hiring people close to you, it is important to understand the pros and cons so that you can establish the right management processes. (more…)

Athor: Maria Simone

This is a conundrum that many entrepreneurs are faced with as they are developing their ideas and putting the business together. I hear “How do I test my product or service so that I can attract investors and the resources I need if I don’t HAVE the money or the resources to test my product?” (more…)

By: Janice Jenkins

Creating postcards is not that difficult. In fact, you don’t need to dedicate a lot of time, money and effort to print and mail your own postcards. Nevertheless, when done right, any postcard printing project can be a successful marketing vehicle especially this holiday season when bringing good tidings and holiday cheer are part and parcel of celebrating this special time of the year.   (more…)

Cafepress is introducing gift certificates.  But not for shopkeepers to sell.  Seems like a flaw in the slaw there if you ask me.

Gift Certificate 1.0 Details:
  Buyers will be able to purchase Gift Certificates from these 4 places:
  1. A banner on the CafePress homepage (this is not a permanent banner, it will be used intermittently for promotion, holidays, etc.).
  2. A text link in the left-hand navigation bar of the Marketplace.
  3. A banner on the “failed search result” page.
  4. A text link in the footer of all CafePress “branded” pages (These are the pages that have a green bar that runs along the bottom of pages, such as CafePress Corporate pages and Basic Shops. Actually, there’s one at the bottom of this page).

Gift Certificates will not be available for sale in Premium Shops.

During the Gift Certificate purchase process the buyer can add a personalized message to the recipient.

They come in many denominations, starting at $10 and going all the way up to $1,000.

Purchased Gift Certificates are delivered to the recipient via email. See screen shot 3 and 4 below.

Our Unique Gift This Cart™ feature allows a shopper to pick products they think the recipient will like and send a gift certificate that features those products. The recipient can then choose to buy those items (and choose the right sizes) or pick different items. Note – this feature will NOT be present in Premium Shops. See screen shot 4 below.

Seems like an end run around their own shopkeepers. I personally cannot understand why they are not going to be allowing shopkeepers to sell gift certificates through their premium shops. It makes no sense. I certainly won’t be promoting them knowing this.

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J.J. Jackson is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. and Cafepress “Top Shopkeeper”. He has been selling t-shirts on-line since 2004 and is the owner of the T-Shirt Entrepreneur, a site dedicated to helping people get involved in the T-shirt Economy. He is also the owner of Funny When Wet T-shirts, American Infidel Tshirts, Uber Gamer T-shirts as well as many other online t-shirt and gift stores.

At least when it comes to letting people name their commissions.  The set commissions that Zazzle paid was a huge reason why many people who run t-shirt stores online, myself included, have only treated Zazzle lightly over the years either supplying them with only limited numbers of products or no products at all.  Now that finally seems to be changing.  No more pathetic payouts that make it hardly worth your time?

This comes as part of what they are terming a “relaunch” of their service.

The next generation in on-demand retail is finally here! We’ve just re-launched our site with a fresh new look, a major partnership with MySpace, and an amazing set of new technologies. To commemorate this huge milestone, we are giving away special, limited edition re-launch shirts. So, the first 2,000 people to order apparel today as of 10AM PST will receive this official, Zazzle re-launch t-shirt for free.Zazzle limited edition t-shirt
Be sure to check out Merch to the Masses partnership with MySpace, and see why the #1 Social Networking site in the world chose Zazzle to be its official merchandise platform:

* Exceptional Dark Apparel – Our new printing technology is the first ever on-demand manufacturing of top-quality dark apparel and is available in an endless number of colors.
  * Model Realviews – It’s the real 3D deal. Now you can design a t-shirt and see what it looks like in real life! Zazzle is the first ever to let you design directly on a real person’s curves, shadows and everything.
  * Name Your Royalty – For those of you who are or want to be contributors, you can now make lots more money by easily setting your own royalty rate on your products, from 10% to 99% of the base retail price.

I’ll be considering Zazzle a little more closely if, as they say their new printing technology is as good as it says. Despite claims made in the past, their quality has not been as good as other companies like Cafepress or Printfection or Spreadshirt when I have ordered samples.

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J.J. Jackson is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. and Cafepress “Top Shopkeeper”. He has been selling t-shirts on-line since 2004 and is the owner of the T-Shirt Entrepreneur, a site dedicated to helping people get involved in the T-shirt Economy. He is also the owner of Funny When Wet T-shirts, American Infidel Tshirts, Uber Gamer T-shirts as well as many other online t-shirt and gift stores.