I did tell you that consistency is not my strongest quality, didn't I? CafePress, along with all my internet businesses, has been ignored for over a year. As an excuse I must say it has been a busy year with lots of moving, travel, and school. The reality is that it is so much easier to be lazy and spend money rather than to sit down and focus on making money online. I have a string of motivation this week so I think I'll see what I can get done before the motivation ends.
I'm on a YouTube fix right now. It is easier to watch a video and take notes than it is to sit in front of my computer and read articles, at least right now. I'm disappointed in how few videos there are for CafePress tips that I've found but there are a lot of videos about Zazzle, which I think is a similar type of store. I'm assuming that the tips given for one store will work the same for the other store.
Today I'm going to talk about a video I found by Plus Your Business called "How to make a six figure income on Zazzle.com". It was an interview by a Google+ guru interviewing Elke Clark, a lady that left her science career for a creative life and has been selling on Zazzle for ten years, making thousands of dollars a year. She was (as of last year) one of the top 10 sellers on Zazzle and loved her job. The video didn't have a lot of actual tips but it did stress that the more images and products you put up, the more likely you will get a sale and the more passive income you can get. She also stressed that you should do keyword research before putting up your images. Using SEO in titles, tags, and descriptions is very important to getting found. She was also experimenting with the affiliate program the company had then and talked about how charitable Zazzle has been. Frankly, I didn't get a lot of tips from her interview except her passion for what she does. She also published and article on the site that interviewed her and you can read it here. In the article she gives some great tips. Here are some of them:
Consistency is the key so try to post daily. Treat it like a job, not a hobby you do when you have time.
Think about what people want she says that the painting that may not sell as a painting could make an awesome phone case.
Identify a niche that has buyers and you can easily create lots of images but also keep an eye on trends. It may not make a lot of money over years but a fad niche could make a lot of money over one month. Also, don't delete old products. You never know when the fad may come back or someone is feeling nostalgic. Simple images also sell forever. Her example is three early images she used put on a pin, a sticker, and a shirt. It was an image she took at a zoo and added words to through the site. In eight years she made nearly a hundred dollars from those three images but three images put on cards with words added made her nearly $9,000 over three years.
She also recommends that everyone learn to use editing software. There are a lot of cheap software available online but to get stellar images, you need to use the expensive stuff. You can start using the cheap stuff online, but once you start making money, it is highly recommended that you spend money to get the expensive stuff. People are more willing to spend a lot of money on great images than on amateur shots.
She recommends participating in the forums on site. You can stay informed on any changes and make friends with other designers. Artists are great because communities like this one have plenty of success to go around so no one needs to be competitive and secretive.
As she says in her final tip: "Do what you love and you will be successful."
At the bottom of her article is a downloadable PDF on how to start a Zazzle store. It's 28 pages and looks like a pretty simple book that would also translate easily to CafePress tips with chapters like Choose Your Niche and Choose Your Name Wisely and Keep Your Store Active. I recommend her article and her PDF for simple yet effective tips on creating and maintaining an effective virtual store.
