Building A Free Store Is Easy And Fun With Cafepress
Cafepress is an an online marketplace built by people who have learned how to make products by placing their images on things. If you have never heard of Cafepress and have been wondering if there is a perfectly valid way to earn online, then stop right now and pay attention because you are looking at it. By the end of this article, you will have your own Cafepress store.You are probably already aware of fundraisers where you sign up with a company to sell products like t-shirts or jackets. You might do this for school, church or your non-profit organization. What you may not know that there is an easy and lower cost way to do this without having to spend a lot of money or risk an investment in products that may or may not sell. There might be a limited range of products like only t-shirts or you must buy a minimum lot. Cafepress solves that problem and more.
Yes, at Cafepress there is a way to buy custom printed products in bulk if you choose to sell physical items where you are. But you don't need to. Once you have a Cafepress account, you can make products and sell them one at at time through a page set up to sell the product at a price you set. Cafepress takes care of everything, including secure payment, shipping and customer service.
My Store
Your job as a Cafepress store owner is to find or create images suitable for placement on blank products. It might be art that you create or photos you capture while indoors or outdoors. It must be your own original work. You can't take photos of Disney or most commercial toys or trademarked items and use without permission. Safe bets are animals, nature, flowers, objects you arrange in a display or crafts that you make.
You can paint or draw and capture a high quality image and use that. Or draw using an online paint program. Paint.net and GIMP are both free. While there is a learning curve to learn to draw and edit images, if you start with simple projects you can learn the steps to edit photographs to right size and appearance. Take photos that you have (make backup copies that you use to keep your originals safe) and practice cropping, cutting, resizing and changing image appearance with the tool set you are given. Learn about standard image sizes. Learn what colors and font sizes work best. Too small and it ends up fuzzy or hard to read. Sometimes you might want a dark or light frame around subject. Sometimes you will want to remove the background and make it "transparent" so you don't have a square image on your t-shirt with white in the background. Learn how to transform your photos into a work of art crafted by your mouse and patience with your computer paint program.
Let's Begin
To start your Cafepress store, you will need to visit site and locate the green Sign Up Now text. In my view I see a Facebook, Google and Amazon buttons. For quickest signup choose one account that you use most often. Or sign up the usual way with your email address and information as instructed. Be sure to use accurate and your real information. You will need this to get paid to PayPal or when you are sent a check in the mail. Your email address must be real to so that you verify your account. Most online accounts with security require double optin to be sure you are genuinely interested in membership and not a form bot.JOIN CAFEPRESS LINK
Once you are in, you will need to read everything for yourself. The site changed a lot since I joined in June 2014 using my website FindItCat.com email address to register. Some policies and procedures may have changed. If you are a company, you can use Cafepress to establish your brand with a number of printable products. Put your logo on a mug, laptop cover, phone cover, bag, clock, calendar or t-shirt. If you have a logo, then you have your first project. Else, if you are an individual seeking a first project, find your best photo that you think would look good on a mug. It might be a part of the photo with best colors and subject.
Photo Mousepad
This was one of a set of first projects completed in June 2014. I found a set of photos from a couple of years back and selected subjects with interesting themes or views to use. I used GIMP to edit the photo to the correct "canvas" size to fit a standard mousepad size. Here, I sized and cropped a large pond photo to show only two pink flowers sitting in a pond of green. I left room for text below the photo. It was hard work making sure nothing important was cut off and the text was large enough to read. I had to look up how to type a copyright symbol while typing text into the box. (Not in a mode that used regular keystrokes.) Putting your brand and name on your piece is important for you protection and to bring them back to your page for more if they like it. For the theme I imagined a computer user who wants to glide over a pond and contemplate life while surfing.
Puzzle
If a photo mousepad is not for you, here's the easiest puzzle in the world as a cool gift for a puzzle loving friend. Put your photo on it and send it as a gift. If you are tired of cards or sending flowers, send a puzzle made by you and your mouse. This one was harder to work the caption in as you can see. You want it large enough to read but not disturb the image too much. I captured a flower arrangement and cropped to show best view.
Visit My Shop
I have several shops and products in the back and not up in stores. You get best results if your shop has a name, you add descriptive tags and pay a lot of attention to details in your store and your designs. Cafepress helps you by being a professional site with high Google rank. You do the work of making cool products and filling in descriptions for each one. Use the Cafepress recommended pricing to start out and adjust as needed. You can have customers come and buy or order a bulk amount to sell at home. Write a blog to help share your products. Create a fanbase. Invite your friends on Facebook. You can use the social buttons provided with each product.Swagbucks
As a bonus, Cafepress is a Swagbucks partner. That means that customers who are Swagbucks members get cash back when they shop. That means that you should join Swagbucks to let your customers know how to save and get cash back. Get more customers that way. Everyone likes a bargain. Right?JOIN SWAGBUCKS
Let Me See Your Designs
You have some homework to do. I want to see your best. Go get your shop. Get your best image. Make it very simple for your first project like your own logo, computer artwork, cartoon or simple subject photo. Put it on a mug or bag. (Those seem to be easiest to get right.)You have to work at something if you want a chance to build something online. Here's your chance to do it in your time with no burden of buying a storefront. It might take some practice and you might have to do some research. Download Paint.net and GIMP. Decide which apps work best for you.
Make products to buy in bulk to sell at home or have visitors come to buy online at Cafepress. Your choice. Run your store your way.
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