T-shirt website
 

I'm pretty decent with Photoshop and was wondering what it takes to create a website where I can sell t-shirts with my designs printed on them. I don't want to have to physically deal with the t-shirts myself, but I've heard of sites like cafepress where you don't have to physically print the designs on the shirts yourself. I have no idea how these sites work though. What is the cost to set up a store on a website such as cafepress and sell shirts with your designs on them to people? I don't want this to be a serious income for myself, just a little hobby where I could possibly make some extra money. Sorry if this is all really basic stuff, but I have no experience with this and was hoping someone who knows more about it could help. Thanks in advance.

Re: T-shirt website
 

Just go through the process of signing up on cafepress. You don't have to pay anything at all. They automatically create your *store* for you.

Re: T-shirt website
 

So say if I upload a few designs to cafe press and charge $10 a shirt for example, I don't have to pay cafe press anything to make the shirt and send it to the customer?

Re: T-shirt website
 

Straight from the website:

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How much does it cost?

With our Basic Shop, you can start selling for free. And, there are no inventory costs associated with selling products through either a Basic or Premium Shop.

Each item you sell has a base price. You simply markup the base price by the amount you wish to earn for each product you sell. When you sell a product, we keep the base price and you earn the markup.

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Re: T-shirt website
 

Thanks a lot, I somehow missed the part about the base price when looking at their website. http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7.../smackhead.gif

Re: T-shirt website
 

No problem

Re: T-shirt website
 

Cafepress is great. I set up a "premium" shop for $60 a year. With just a few designes it pays for itself and then some.

Re: T-shirt website
 

Someone pm me a referl code for this site if you want the referel.

Re: T-shirt website
 

Yeah, CafePress is awesome. You pretty much just upload your designs and you're good to go. You'll probably need to get a premium shop for about $6 a month if you want more than one design. Now that I have sites going, it just comes out of the profits, so you might only pay actual money in the begining.

A lot of my designs even show up high in Google ratings thanks to CafePress submitting your designs to Froogle. Once you set it all up, its pretty maintenance free. I haven't done anything to upgrade my sites in a while and the money just keeps coming. Nothing to break the bank, but I can get about $100 a month for not doing a whole lot these days. It was slower going when I first started. You end up making about $2 for every item you sell. Not great, but you aren't paying upfront for inventory, dealing with shipping or processing credit cards.

I want to make some more designs and sites, but I just haven't had time. Especially since they have recently added black t-shirts. My sites are below, you don't need a seperate domain name, but I like it and it pays for itself. I like telling people to go to BabyPokerTour.com instead of CafePress.com/BabyPokerTour. You can get a domain name at GoDaddy.com and just set it up to forward to your CafePress site.

www.BabyPokerTour.com
www.YourUsaBaby.com
www.BadBeatKing.com

I've had a few shops that failed though, so its not always going to work. Just depends on what you are selling and how good the designs are.

Re: T-shirt website
 

Good stuff... One thing I'm doing differently than you is I have all of my different "stores" as sections under the same premium account, so I'm not paying the extra money. The upside is only having to pay once. The downside is I don't get to do custom menus and backgrounds (at least, I haven't figured out how).

I recently resolved to add more images to my stores in the near future. Maybe soon we'll have to have a cafepress forum challenge.

Re: T-shirt website
 

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Yeah, CafePress is awesome. You pretty much just upload your designs and you're good to go. You'll probably need to get a premium shop for about $6 a month if you want more than one design. Now that I have sites going, it just comes out of the profits, so you might only pay actual money in the begining.

A lot of my designs even show up high in Google ratings thanks to CafePress submitting your designs to Froogle. Once you set it all up, its pretty maintenance free. I haven't done anything to upgrade my sites in a while and the money just keeps coming. Nothing to break the bank, but I can get about $100 a month for not doing a whole lot these days. It was slower going when I first started. You end up making about $2 for every item you sell. Not great, but you aren't paying upfront for inventory, dealing with shipping or processing credit cards.

I want to make some more designs and sites, but I just haven't had time. Especially since they have recently added black t-shirts. My sites are below, you don't need a seperate domain name, but I like it and it pays for itself. I like telling people to go to BabyPokerTour.com instead of CafePress.com/BabyPokerTour. You can get a domain name at GoDaddy.com and just set it up to forward to your CafePress site.

www.BabyPokerTour.com
www.YourUsaBaby.com
www.BadBeatKing.com

I've had a few shops that failed though, so its not always going to work. Just depends on what you are selling and how good the designs are.

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Dude those shirts are pretty sweet! Thanks for sharing your sites too they look pretty niiiice.

Re: T-shirt website
 

ROFL at the "I have a royal flush (In my diaper)" shirt. That one should be marketed at baby and grandpa.

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Do you think it makes your business look less credible if you sell them over cafepress?

Re: T-shirt website
 

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ROFL at the "I have a royal flush (In my diaper)" shirt. That one should be marketed at baby and grandpa .

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I just now got this... I was thinking at first granpa buys for baby... but grandpas wear diapers too! I can't imagine the anger of losing a 100bb pot to an old man wearing that t-shirt. Permanent life tilt. AWESOME.

Come to think of it... I might just buy one lololol.

Re: T-shirt website
 

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Do you think it makes your business look less credible if you sell them over cafepress?

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I was in a different forum earlier....there was a post about the $8.99 cafepress shirts and what garbage they were.( kinda like the ones you buy on vacation in the bahamas, and after you wash em they go from a XL to a small.) So if you are looking to get repeat business...dont sell the cafepress "bargain Tee"

The higher quality tees are better...but cafepress charges 14.99 to 18.99 for those and there isnt room for decent markup. (most websites list at 15-20 retail for tees)

If anyone wants one color prints (screenprinted) on a good quality hanes or fruit o loom shirt, I can get them for you at $900 Per hundred shirts delivered to your door in lower 48 states. (pick your colors and sizes s thru XL)

....ie 25 red shirts (5 sm, 5 med 5 lar, 10 XL)

25 white (same size breakdown) 50 Black (2 times each quantity)...all colors would need the same print on them.

Obviously this way you need to generate your own sales...but making a 9 dollar profit on a nine dollar shirt beats making one dollar on 18 dollar shirt. Unless you hit it big with the next "sh#t happens" t-shirt (and copyright it before someone else does) I say explore going on your own....I'm in the shirt biz and it looks like cafepress is charging all the markup they want and leaving thier "designers" with little to no room for markup. Not a way I would choose to go. But thats just my opinion.

If anyone is looking at creating pokershirt type designs...PM me...I can get you on two pokershirt websites as soon as produced. One site is well established and the other is up and coming...probably a more profitable avenue than cafepress.

Re: T-shirt website
 

[ QUOTE ]
Good stuff... One thing I'm doing differently than you is I have all of my different "stores" as sections under the same premium account, so I'm not paying the extra money. The upside is only having to pay once. The downside is I don't get to do custom menus and backgrounds (at least, I haven't figured out how).

I recently resolved to add more images to my stores in the near future. Maybe soon we'll have to have a cafepress forum challenge.

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Thanks. Yeah, I plan on going that route when I get around to creating more designs. I'll have just one site with seperate sections. It'll be easier and cheaper.

Re: T-shirt website
 

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Obviously this way you need to generate your own sales...but making a 9 dollar profit on a nine dollar shirt beats making one dollar on 18 dollar shirt. Unless you hit it big with the next "sh#t happens" t-shirt (and copyright it before someone else does) I say explore going on your own....I'm in the shirt biz and it looks like cafepress is charging all the markup they want and leaving thier "designers" with little to no room for markup. Not a way I would choose to go. But thats just my opinion.

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Someone who has the traffic to get the sales ought to print their own shirts like you said. I don't do much to drive traffic to my store, and most of my sales come from people searching cafepress for my keywords. They featured one or two of my products on their front page for a while and that got me a bunch.

Personally I don't care to put up a bunch upfront, carry an inventory, and work my butt off trying to generate my own sales. I just like designing stuff and forgetting about it.

Cafepress actually does deals with some merchants to include outside products on their cafepress page (so if you wanted to sell a black babydoll tee or something that cafepress doesn't carry, you can make it yourself and they'll take the orders for you). I've seen a few shops do this, but I think you have to already be a hardcore seller to get cafepress to set it up.

Re: T-shirt website
 

Ok I gave it a shot and failed horribly... http://www.cafepress.com/mspaintwars but it was fun and I have plenty more ideas for some really awesome shirts! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: T-shirt website
 

[ QUOTE ]
Ok I gave it a shot and failed horribly... http://www.cafepress.com/mspaintwars but it was fun and I have plenty more ideas for some really awesome shirts! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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You gotta make more products than that... I mean, put each design on 409823042842384799 products. Someone might like your design but not like a ringer tee. Cafepress now has great bulk-design features to do this easily. (BTW, dark shirts sell better than light shirts).

Also, since it's MS-Paint wars, make sure "Fark" and "Photoshop" are both in all your image tags.

Re: T-shirt website
 

Anyone have any idea why my shirts don't show up in a search?

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You need to tag your images with keywords and you probably need to upgrade to a premium shop to get better rankings.

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My buddy runs a t shirt website in his spare time that's been fairly successful as far as I know. If you want to type up a list of questions I'd be happy to pass it along to him.

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So Im trying to do some designs however all the patterns come out real small on the tshirts, how do I enlarge the designs?

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I think some shirts have pretty small limits...other than that u can select the size when you design the shirt.

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Gotit. Lol I was only getting .7inches at one stage. Next question, I am starting a basic shop for a start. If I sell the Tshirts. They go for 8.99$, whats the profit margin on that?

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If you go into edit on your designs it allows you to set it up to what you want. 8.99 i dont think your making anything.

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[ QUOTE ]
Ok I gave it a shot and failed horribly... http://www.cafepress.com/mspaintwars but it was fun and I have plenty more ideas for some really awesome shirts! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Bleh. I love the idea.

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ideas I rule at... making them look pretty is def not my forte... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Not necessarily, it just says “our business is not primarily focused on merchandising; we don’t have time for that.” I don’t think it looks janky in anyway at all... Although, if the site itself is janky, doing cafepress could amplify your jankyness.