TSHIRT ENTREPRENEUR ONLINE

I hate to criticize Cafepress because they have been very good to me over the years I have been associated with them. But as an honest man I have to let you know what I think and what I think is that Cafepress is loosing their edge. Maybe even officially “jumping the shark.”

This week, without any warning, Cafepress dropped a bomb that is going to affect nearly everyone that has helped them become what they are by creating designs and letting CP sell them online. This bomb is that CP is changing the way they pay their volume bonus to the detriment of shopkeepers. Not only are they changing this, but the changes are going into effect August 1st. Notification of this change came on July 23rd. Talk about giving shopkeepers no time to adjust! (more…)

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Cafepress has announced that it is raising the base price of several items for shopkeepers - their first increase in years.

We’re writing to let you know that beginning on July 28, 2008 we will be implementing Base Price increases to some of our products.

We understand that price increases are unpopular; please know that we made this decision after careful consideration of Shopkeepers impact. With the rising cost of goods and labor modest price increases became a necessary business decision. And, as you know, with the exception of a few products last year, we haven’t had a merchandise price increase in over 9 years.

Effective July 28th, Base Prices will increase as follows:

White T-Shirt - $14.99
Women’s T-Shirt - $14.99
Dog T-Shirt - $16.99
Rectangle Magnets:
• Single Rectangle Magnet - $3.49
• 10 pack - $19.99
• 100 pack - $139.99
2.25″ Magnet - $2.99
Buttons:
• Mini Button - $1.49
• 2.25″ Button - $2.99
• 3.5″ Button - $3.49
Black Cap - $14.99
Cap - $14.99
Stickers:
• Bumper Sticker - $3.49
• Oval Sticker - $2.99
• Rectangle Sticker - $2.99
Journal - $9.49
Single Greeting Card - $2.99

We will see how this will effect sales in the long run. On t-shirts I doubt very much since it is a small percent, but on bumper stickers it is a much larger increase and I’m not about to cut my margins and profits.

By Jinger Jarrett

Cafe Press, in my opinion, is one of the most overlooked sites on the internet for making money. Currently, with a catalog of over 20 million products, they pretty much offer something for everyone who wants unique gifts as well as books, CDs and more.

What Cafe Press allows you to do is to set up stores, for free, and create your own books, CDs, t-shirts and tons of other novelty items. In fact, you can create an entire business around Cafe Press. There are three different ways you can create a business with Cafe Press: (more…)

Cafepress announced this week that it is adding a new option for designers - embroidered apparel!

This new option will feature patent pending technology to allow a completely different type of design to be placed on select merchandise through shopkeeper stores.

There are however some limitations apparently such as the size being limited to those that you already find on their buttons and magnets (2 1/4 - 3″ round or rectangular stickers).  Based on the examples, backgrounds are required which means round or rectangular design results and no custom outlines.

 Read more about this new offering here.

Well, I am sure that most of the bigger shopkeepers, myself included, are not happy. Cafepress announced yesterday that premium shops would no longer be able to hold unlimited designs and were going to be instead limited to 500 sections.

The saving grace is that this applies to new premium shops and older shops are being grandfathered in with some additional room to grow.  But not enough room for some of the shops and plans I personally had. (more…)