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.

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.

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.

Source

:Direct Print improvements and transitionsWhen we opened our doors in 1999 print-on-demand printing options for T-Shirts were limited to Heat Transfer. Then, a little over two years ago we introduced a revolutionary new method for printing on T-Shirts and other garments: Direct Print. For the first time we were able to print ink directly on a shirt; it was as close to screen printing as you could get without actually screen printing!

We launched it in Beta while we worked to fine-tune the process, and we continued to offer Heat Transfer because our new process was great for some designs, but not others. We knew that improvements in Direct Printing quality would one day make Heat Transfer unnecessary.

Continued investments in refining the Direct Print process have led to amazing increases in quality, increased customer satisfaction scores and a decreased demand for Heat Transfer, telling us that we’ve reached that day!

As a result most garments (see FAQ below for exceptions) are now offered in Direct Print only. And, we’re so impressed with the levels of quality Direct Print is turning out that we’re removing all Dark T-Shirts from Beta!

The best news of all is that these changes require no work on the part of Shopkeepers, Heat Transfer has been removed as an option.

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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.

scheduled to launch on October 10th, but if you want to get started on designs the following specs may be helpful:* Image size: 21″ x 14″ (150 – 300 dpi, 200 recommended)
  * Double Sided: submit a single image it will be printed on both sides of the sign
  * Product size: 22″ x 15″
  * Frame: ships with collapsible U frame stand that measures 21″ x 33″
  * Base price: $14.99
  * Material: Printed on flexible 10 oz outdoor sign vinyl
  * Features:
  o Weather resistant for up to 2 years
  o Heat Sealed Edges
  o Double sided

Of course they can be used for a lot of other things too, but mostly they are going to be political in nature. The only drawback I see is that price tag. Base price $14.99? That’s a hefty price especially when political candidates and organizations give out signs for free. So if you want someone to plunk down $14.99 + commission for a yard sign that design better be the best design ever.

They also announced larger, 3.5″ buttons and that the paper in there perfect bound books will now be on white, instead of cream, paper.

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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.

Create a theme — think animals, architecture, humor — or showcase your body of creative work. Have fun with it! Calendar season is officially here, so make the most of it by targeting your gift-giving customers. Be on the ball and announce your new 2008 Calendar to generate pre-holiday buzz around your shop.

Full-bleed dynamic color printing

Durable 100-lb. cover weight high-gloss
  paper, wire bound

US holidays noted with plenty of room to jot
  down appointments

Vertical Calendar has 11″x11″ images
  for easy design

Oversized Calendar showcases 17″x11″ landscape images

Calendars are a top seller during the Holidays so be sure to add them to your shop!

and an upgrade to their keepsake boxes:

We’ve upgraded our Tile Box. Perfect for stylishly storing jewelry and mementos, this hardwood box showcases a ceramic tile. With the new Keepsake Box you’ll notice substantial improvements in overall quality, including these feature upgrades:

• High-shine piano lacquered wood finish
• Spring-loaded hinged lid
• Velvet-lined interior and felt-lined bottom
• Superior build quality

For more information, click here. If you already have Tile Boxes in your shop, this upgrade is automatic. If you don’t, add them now!

An assortment of assortment updatesNew products, new colors, new sizes, new price reductions! Here’s what’s new, just in time for back-to-school… NEW PRODUCTS!

-	Women’s Lightweight Tee by Anvil: This new product is equivalent to our men’s lightweight tee. Available to shop partners only, this shirt comes in sizes S – 2XL in white, black, red and navy.
-	Women’s V-Neck Tee by Anvil: Available in sizes S – XL in white, black and gray.
-	Women’s Long Sleeve Jersey Tee by Bella: Available in sizes S – XL in white, black, chocolate, navy, red, light pink, powder blue and gray.

We’re still waiting on some of the stock to arrive, but when these products are ready to go we’ll let you know! Make sure you check the Spreadshirt Forum and our blog frequently for updates.
 

NEW COLORS & SIZE!

-	Men’s Jersey Tee by American Apparel: Now available in lemon, grass green, kelly green, gold, navy, red, brown, and light blue. And we’ll now be carrying this shirt in size small.
-	Men’s Lightweight Tee: Now available in ash, red, brown and navy.
-	Children’s Tee by Gildan: Now available in yellow.

NEW PRICE REDUCTIONS!

We’re reducing the base price on the contrast stitch tee, messenger bag, cinch sack, tag bag, sneakers and all of our specialty flex prints! All price reductions will be live by Wednesday, August 15th.

In late August we will be introducing a new pricing structure for garments featuring more than one printing area, and launching a product update to the existing Tile Box. We see you sell merchandise featuring second side printing, so we thought we’d give you a heads up.With this launch we will begin charging a $3 second side printing surcharge for all garments* featuring more than one print area. To minimize work on your end and to ensure you don’t see a margin impact on these products, we will automatically add $3 to the current retail price for each second side garment in your shop(s). Of course you can always readjust the retail prices of your products as you see fit once this release goes live.

Please note that there is no action required on your part unless you wish to remove or change second side images in your shop(s).

Printing on more than one side obviously costs more, but one has to wonder how much more considering this fee has not been needed before.

Sounds to me like the bean counters are out and about and trying to justify their existence … much to the dismay of many shopkeepers. This will certainly have an effect on who I will be bulk ordering stock from in the future as other sites do not charge this extra amount (at least on white shirts).

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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.

However, the following are what they are replacing them with:

5″ x 7″ Greeting Cards
• Single pack: $2.49
• 10 pack: $14.99 (6 packs will update to the 10 packs, retaining mark-up)
• 20 pack: $23.99

New Size! 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ Note Card
• 10 pack: $9.99
• 20 pack: $17.99

Cards are now available on glossy or matte paper. Shoppers can choose their preference when ordering.

Not a huge change probably for most Cafepress shop keepers.  I know that I’ve never really focused on Greeting Cards nor have many that I have spoke to over the years.

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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.