It’s always interesting to see what search terms readers used to find the POD Entrepreneur blog. I’ve noticed that a lot of the phrase showing up in my statcounter are in the form of questions, so I though it would be fun to answer some of them.

“How much money can I make on Cafepress”

The great thing about Cafepress is that theoretically one can make as little or as much money as they want. Of course it’s not quite that simple, but here is my reasoning. In real life most people have jobs that pay either an hourly wage or a yearly salary.

An hourly worker is only paid for the hours they work. If they want more money, they can pick up extra hours, but even if they were to work 24 hours a day, their pay is limited. Eventually they will have to beg ask for a raise or find a higher paying job. In which case they are still limited by the number of hours they can work.

A salaried worker is paid a certain amount no matter if they work 40, 60 or 80 hours a week. (Depending on the company, some may earn overtime, others not.) Want more money? Ask for a raise or find a new job.

Using Cafepress one has more potential for increasing their income. Assume that one has decent graphic skills, an understanding of marketing and seo, and an ample amount of time and attention span. Open a Cafepress premium shop in a well targeted niche, and once the shop is established, well fleshed out and using the allotted 500 sections, hopefully it will be earning a decent income. Then put it on the back burner and open a new shop and repeat the process. Revisit the shop briefly every week or so and update a design or revise some text to keep the content fresh. Rinse and repeat.

So, theoretically one could infinitely increase their income with infinite shops. Naturally this is all easier said then done, but the point I’m trying to make is that the potential is there.

“Do returns cost Cafepress shopkeepers?”

Yes. They do. That’s why any commission earned from your shop is in pending status for 30 days, because Cafepress has a 30 day return policy. If a customer returns an item you will see it on your check stub along with other deductions such as shop fees and Cafécash you may have used. You can also run a transaction report to see exactly what items have been returned.

Some people tend to get upset about returns, but from what I have heard Cafepress will contact you if the return is because of a problem with your design.

My return rate is only 1.4%, so I don’t worry about them too much.

“How do I get my Cafepress shop into Google?”

Build it, and Google will come. You can submit your url to Google but that will not guarantee that it will be indexed any faster. But usually it has not taken long for my shops to show up in Google.

“What do you need to open a [POD] t-shirt business?”

A computer with internet access (duh)
Photoshop, Gimp, Paintshop Pro or some form of image editing program

And that’s about it.

Other things that will be helpful: creativity, good grammar, a plethora of ideas, a digital camera, drawing and graphic design skills, business cards, royalty free clipart, etc.

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