United3dArtists Archive

I'm thinking of signing up on Cafepress to make a few extra bucks. What experience/knowledge/advice do you have about them and others like them? Which are best for selling stuff with your designs or slogans on it?

when I looked at cafepress the deal was you load up your work and the customer chooses whether they want it on a tshirt, hat or coffeemug...

I didn't do it cuz of the complications of setting up the tax accounting... but I think for anyone in the us that wants to do it cafepress is a great option.

they had a lot of guidance on setting up successful art (image size, dpi etc) so do look that up.

Thanks V3rd3. That's what I want. I make a design and they put it on something for a buyer and I get a cut of the money.

I found Zazzle. It is like Cafepress but the system looks simpler.

Any more knowledge of these places? Advice and info. welcome.

The biggest thing to look for is the percentage you will take home for sales and the ownership of the copyright of whatever you put up there.

One place I looked at demanded exclusivity... so you could not put your models on another site without being sued.

You have tickled my interest in checking this out again... hopefully I can find a place in Canada that will do this....

I signed up at Zazzle. It was easy so far.

I made a store, http://www.zazzle.com/splododyne*" , but have no products there yet.

The earning money part is simple compared to Cafepress (from reading about it). You set the royalty percent you want to earn, 10% to 99%, and then get that on most all sales. You get less on referral sales since the referring person gets paid for the referral and that comes from your royalty. If your royalty percent is above 20% they charge you a fee (don't know why). You can be a referrer, affiliate, too.

They don't get ownership of your copyrights or other intellectual property but the license you grant them allows for almost any use of your material. The agreement is not exclusive. You can sell/publish your material elsewhere too.

Their website is customer friendly too. That's good for sellers since people can find what they want.

Zazzle and Cafepress are for T-Shirts etc. not for 3D stuff like models.

V3rd3: They have a Canadian version and the "Sell" link at the bottom of it leads to a page with a .ca URL. Maybe that will have the features you need.

kk checking it out ... thanks

I made products for my Zazzle store http://www.zazzle.com/splododyne*"

The methods for making products aren't as easy as signing up and making the store. It took a couple of hours to of trying and reading the abundant help and forums to do the first one but after learning it I could do another product in a reasonable amount of time. That doesn't include making the graphics of course.

So far my products aren't showing. Should be any time now but they say there is a delay of up to 24hrs or more. It has been more than 24 hours. My stuff has appeared in my store but incompletely and inconsistently and isn't in the search yet. Christmas work load is probably delaying processing. Patience.

You don't have to make a design for each of the many items it can go on. Just make one design for a mug and it can go on steins too. Similarly a T-Shirt design can go on many of the clothing items.

If I sell any of these then I'll make more designs and customizeable items.

Sometimes my stuff appears correctly. Others it only appears in some sections of the store. It seldom appears in searches when is the main way that people would see my stuff.

The forum there shows that many people are having trouble with their stores not functioning/appearing reliably. It seems this is a new problem so hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Many here are creative people and might be interested in these kind of sites or able to help me with your experience. That's why I post this stuff here.

v3rd3 wrote:when I looked at cafepress the deal was you load up your work and the customer chooses whether they want it on a tshirt, hat ...

That's it!

Zazzle's system is messed up. Items appear and disappear from the shops. The few replies anyone in their forum has from customer service say it is your browser, your ISP, etc. They caused the problem and then blame everyone else (sounds familiar, politicians perhaps?). I'm sure they will fix the system because it is in their own interest to do that but I don't appreciate the attitude toward the people (sellers/designers) who make their business possible. All it takes is a polite "Please accept our apologies for this difficulty. We are aware of this problem and working to correct it."

Update: Zazzle gave a "we know, we're working on it" type of reply so I upgraded their attitude to OK.

I looked at Cafe Press. Don't know if they have the same bad attitude. There your shop is less visible than at Z. However it is easy for shoppers to see your products with a "more from this designer" link.

I'll sign up at CP sometime. If I sell anything then I'll do more products. Both if they both work. If I get Alamo Pulse going then I'll give my store an ad there and AP will get a store for logo merchandise.

Attitude toward sellers.
Z: Ok.
CP: Unknown

User forum:
Z: Nice helpful people there.
CP: Don't know. Not publicly visible. Rumors of censorship and member accounts terminated for negative posts.

Shop visibility.
Z: Good. Easy to find link to shops in product pages. Link to your own store with your ID and you get referral bonus extra from sales.
CP: Not good. You can link to it and there is a link at the bottom of product pages where no one will ever see it.

Main site product visibility (find it other than in your shop)
Z: OK + the product thumb images zoom on mouseover.
CP: Good. Shoppers can easily see your products.

Seller promotion.
Z: Good. Product pages have shop link and seller name and avatar.
CP: Bad. Even seller name is absent from some product displays.

Seller interface or controls.
Z: OK. Some things are easy.
CP: Unknown.

Commisions/earning money.
Z: You set your royalty % and get that on most sales. Referals can make you more money. Penalty for high %'s.
CP: They set prices in the main site and you get 10%. You set your markup for sales through your store but they penalize you if it is more than $15. The markup should be a percent and not an amount. You can get bonuses for high volume sales.

Z's royalty %'s don't work intuitively but the tool shows you plenty of info to decide. You can pick 10% to 99% and they raise the retail price accordingly. A 10% royalty makes a $10 base price item cost about $11. I'd think a 99% royalty would almost double the sale price but that isn't the way it works. Setting 99% royalty makes the item very expensive ($15 t-shirt for over $1000). At least you can set a high price where appropriate like an art print.

Keep us posted on how you are doing with this Finis... I am starting to research this stuff again. My biggest difficulty is getting clear info on what I have to do tax wise..

If I get anything good I will post here.

Alexa traffic rankings:
Cafe Press: 1293
Zazzle: 883
Facebook: 2
United3DArtists: 3,149,168

At least we're not last....
"Bob's Bed Bugs and Beyond": 3,149,169

Z's attitude rating in earlier post upgraded due to a better reply from customer service.

Further research on user opinions shows that Cafe Press changed their ways and sellers became unhappy. Interestingly, Z used to be like CP is now and CP used to be like Z is now in their policies, royalties, etc.

I no longer intended to sign up at CP.

I haven't done any new products but I have several ideas.

The successful stores have a theme per store. I'll still use Splododyne with no theme and add Mechanical Sun (not visible yet) for things with the style my 3D sun wip here is working toward. Maybe a third one for political etc. items so as not to drive those with differing views away from my other items. That all depends on how prolific I am in thinking of things to go there and if any early products attract viewers and sales.

Customer (seller) service at Zazzle seems to be a Russian guy named Peggy. However, the help pages and documentation for sellers is extensive and answers can usually be found there or in their forum.

V3rd3, there are many Canadians using Zazzle. I looked at forum activities by Canadians regarding tax. There I learned three things. I learned that all problems and negative things in a Canadian's life are USA's fault, that Zazzle needs a form from non-US based sellers to let the IRS know that the transaction is not taxable by US enties, and that there are complexities regarding the shipping address and local taxes. Also, when signing up I noted my location an I think that tells their system how to handle various tax/money things.

Some seller's using the regional/national sister sites aren't happy. It seems to be best to use the .com site.

Thanks for looking into this Finis... the real pain for the Canadian users is that depending on their province of residence they may have additional tax collection responsibilities.

In my case, I have to collect the harmonized sales tax (HST) for canadian customers. The users that are operating on Zazzle seem to be small businesses that qualify for the tax collection exemption... the headache for them is that if their total income exceeds ( or laughingly if you plan or expect it to anytime from now until the end of the current tax year) the exemption amount you have to start collecting the tax immediately.

These taxes have to be collected at the time of sale and I have not seen anything on zazzle that shows they will collect these taxes on the qualifying sales.

I will visit the zazzle forums again cuz I have not done so in a while to see what progress there may be.

Thank you again.

Man, and I thought the taxes were messed up here!

I'll look in the help and documentation for Canada information.

If you don't find the answer in their forum then try posting questions for sellers in your province and situation (non-business etc.). They could give more exact info about what they do. Either sign up so you can post or give me your questions and I'll post them.

V3rd3, I found this about shipping and Canada taxes in the Zazzle help.

If you use the Canada site (zazzle.ca) then this applies: http://zazzle.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/569"
I think the national/regional sites get less traffic than the .com main one but there does seem to be an advantage on the tax stuff. Check the forum for complaints about the national/regional sites.

Also found this directed to buyers: http://zazzle.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/148"

Thanks for finding this Finis, this is definitely the info I need.

From what they are saying I would have to sell my stuff outside of zazzle and use zazzle as my manufacturer, order the stuff myself and then ship to my customer.

I will have to find some local manufacturers to do my stuff, this would be way too much effort for a very small margin.

Thanks again and good luck with your store.

Man, that is some business destroying tax system!

I don't know V3rd3, The red part there about resellers seems to mean that but I think the part that says, "When you order through the Zazzle.ca website, Zazzle is happy to pay all import duties and local taxes for you." Means that you, as a regular seller, wouldn't have to worry about that either IF the order is placed on the .ca site and going to Canada.

I would try posting in their forum to ask specific advice from any Canadian sellers in a situation very similar to yours before giving up.

Cafe Press maybe? I guess you have checked them but maybe there is something new there? There are a few other businesses like this but I didn't look at them since the two big ones get nearly all the visitors and sales.

The tax system is a value added tax like the one in the uk. The main issue is that zazzle and others like vistaprint are looking to avoid supporting the bookkeeping and collection of the taxes.

I don't blame them because this is quite complicated stuff once you dive in.

The problem for me is whether zazzle or vistaprint or cafepress the service they are offering is to be my fabrication supplier.

The financial risk of processing transactions is mine, I still have to maintain my own tax processing and transaction processing is still largely manual.

What I am going to do is look for local partnerships that can pay off.

I have some old contacts in the marketing apparel line and will see what I can get going with them.

Thanks again for your help on this ....

I sold a mug! I get $2.42! There is a minimum ($50?, $100?) to get paid without fees but it shows that people can find my products on Zazzle. It went to an APO in Afghanistan.

V3rd3, did you get anywhere with your project?

I sold two shirts at Zazzle! With the mug my fortune is now $9.15. The items are not likely to appear in searches so they have only been viewed a few times (34 black shirt, 6 white shirt, 24 mug). That's not great for number of sales but it is a pretty good sale to view ratio. I think when I put more, easier to find, products there then more people will see my store and see the less easy to find ones too.

Finis wrote:I sold two shirts at Zazzle! With the mug my fortune is now $9.15. The items are not likely to appear in searches so they have only been viewed a few times (34 black shirt, 6 white shirt, 24 mug). That's not great for number of sales but it is a pretty good sale to view ratio. I think when I put more, easier to find, products there then more people will see my store and see the less easy to find ones too.

which then gives you a fortune of 100 $ for a lot of work.....
you got to find 3d work for 30-50 $ per hour and with your talents that AT LEAST should be doable... !
Like I said quite a while ago that money is made with i.e., architectural visualisations.... and since you are connected with the whole world
there is quite a big market.....
In a few years time you get faster and there is much more money involved.....including top notch software..... which then speeds you up even more.....
Peter

Right Rayman. I was being funny ... like I'm making sooooo much money there. Not much trouble to do a shirt etc. and it is nice to get a little extra money now and then but only a few skilled designers sell enough to make it a job. That kind of thing does have the benefit of doing work once (designing an item) and getting paid many times for it though.

Working on the architectural 3D skills. Building from what I already know that should go faster when the lawn season is over (soon) and I have more time.

Problem. I may be computer-less, or internet-less, next April when the XP security updates stop. I think my computer can run Windows 8 but it needs 2GB of memory and that is all my computer can use. If W8 really needs 2GB then there would be no memory left for thirsty 3D programs. I think I can get a cheap new computer and W8 but my money situation isn't good this year.

Windows 7 can be had for about $100 at Tigerdirect or Compusa.....

v3rd3 wrote:Windows 7 can be had for about $100 at Tigerdirect or Compusa.....

yup thats one option but until April thats still a few months to go and if you get down seriosly to make REAL money you can get a new computer in a few months.......
All i wanted to tell you was dont waste your time... you can get going pretty easily quite soon !
You told us quite a few time that your money situation isnt good and thats why I´m telling you that there is a way out...
Cafepress is a nice pasttime but in order to make real money on goods you have to establish a cooperate identity first and that costs money ..much money... ...
Peter

I'm working on a new design related to "soylent" products. Soylent food could be called crackers, wafers, or biscuits. So Zazzle has a rating system of G, PG-13, and R like movies in the USA. PG-13 and R items are less visible on the site. I entered "cracker" as a key word for the search. The system claimed that "cracker" made the item a PG-13 item! The word isn't even visible! It is a search key word!

Cracker: http://www.keebler.com/product-keebler- ... y=crackers. At least in the US black people use "cracker" as a negative term for white people. So if someone somewhere uses a regular word as offensive or impolite slang then that word's meaning changes to the slang? Let's see: "package", obviously Santa Claus can't say "ho ho ho" ...

New soylent shirts are done. They are much easier to find with the search. Maybe they'll sell a few. http://www.zazzle.com/splododyne*

I'll put everything on more products too. Redoing the welcome tank shirts with a new logo sometime.

Dang it. Someone beat me to this. That would go viral on T-shirt.

That is sadly hilarious that they put a rating on....
Outrageous bud.

I guess I can't make a shirt that says, "Illegal Aliens - They're what's for dinner." The "Beef. It's what's for dinner." ad is too old now to make that popular anyway.