Thoughts from The Stock Photo Guy blog

   I did more Goggling  on success on CafePress and found an interesting post on The stock Photo Guy's blog.
   This blog post says what I've noticed.  He says that he can't find anyone who's made a living off of CafePress, just a few bucks here and there.  He says he made about $800 in a year with only a few hundred hours put into it for designs and marketing.  He also says it takes him 2-3 hours to put up each image, which is what I've found true.  That isn't even talking about the marketing aspect (I think his main marketing at the time was his blog which as I understand is only half of the marketing recommended to get success on CafePress).  Here is his link:

http://blog.johnlund.com/2011/02/can-i-make-money-with-cafepresscom.html

I mention this because of a comment he got which I will copy and paste.  Most of the comments agreed with him, or called him an idiot for attempting to make money there to begin with.  Here is the interesting one:

Schecter214 said...

Cafepress is just like anything else: You get back what you put into it. I started a Cafepress account 2 years ago and received little return. Since that time, I have loaded several designs on several different products. I have also done a lot of homework, such as teaching myself basic HTML to redesign my website as well as SEO strategies for driving more traffic to my websites to increase sales. It is true that a $5.00 commission on a t-shirt is not much. However, it can be if you sell 100 or more each month.

This year, I have been receiving consistent commission payments of $650-700 per month. Now, I know I cannot quit my day job, but my 2 Cafepress stores account for $7500-8000 in additional annual income. I have a goal higher than this which I think I can accomplish in the next 1-2 years.

You cannot build a successful store overnight. But, with some time and dedication at a steady pace, almost like running a marathon, the results can be rewarding.

Like everything else "You get back what you put into it."  That sounds like a lot of work, which this commenter admits, but $650 dollars a month on one store in two years would remove my current debt.  But do I have a good concept to market or the time and dedication?  That would be awesome if by the end of college I had that income and don't need to market anymore as I go to grad school, but I'm not sure I have the dedication.
   Here's another success story from the comments of that same post:

Anonymous said...

Almost 7 years ago I started a CP store. The store grew from $4 per month to $1,100 per month in 2 years.

For what it's worth, we were awarded 'top shopkeeper of the month' 10 times over a 2 year period.

We also had a zazzle store and it paled in comparison to CP sales.

The year CP cut commissions nearly in half 4 years ago, my store went from $1,100 per month and $1,790 on xmas to about $275 per month and $600 on xmas. Since then I have built it back up to about $6000 per year.

To get it back to $1000 per month requires time, 20 hours per month, I'd rather spend doing something else.

Would love to turn my shop over to anyone who wants it - for a price of course.

Just had enough. 

   Again, in 2 years they made over $1000 a month.  That is very nice but 20 hours a month is less than I was thinking.  That is about 5 hours a week, or less than 50 minutes a day.  Hmm, that is actually doable, if I can find a marketable niche that I can make A LOT of designs for.  Using the numbers mentioned above, that is two designs a week or one designs and three hours of linking through forums, blogs, and discussion boards. Although I'm not counting the time to create the design so if I create a design (with current nonexistent graphics or art skills) I could wind up with only an hour of marketing time.  Hmm...That may be a good way to gauge my time though: plan on 5 hours between Sunday and Saturday on specifically CafePress projects.  Then there's also Zazzle.  It seems as though that site doesn't get as much traffic so it has less of a payout but is nicer to its artists.  hmm..
    Here's an interesting comment from the end of the comment section:

Anonymous said...

I have been selling on Cafe Press , I started about 6 months ago
I have done research
My Conclusion is to make $3000.00 a month on Cafe Press you need to upload/design 20 images per day at least 6 days a week for a whole year.

I will let you know how it turns out in 12 months :)

I'm definitely not that dedicated or creative to put up that many images. That is 6,240 designs in a year instead of my earlier count of 52-104 images a year plus marketing.  If that person is capable of that number, good for them, although they may not be marketing.  Since I am not very creative, I think I will stick to the plan that has more marketing.  With training, my mind will become more creative, but for now I'll try the less creative route.

Okay, I just spent about 3 hours on research today, now I need to focus on actually doing homework and maybe some web-work.  I hope this was helpful in finding your own path to success on CafePress.