Well, it’s been quite an eventful week out there in POD land. First Cafepress announced changes to the volume bonus program, and they will no longer be paying the bonus on sales that originate from the marketplace. Sales that originate from shops will receive higher bonuses at lower thresholds. They can spin it however they want, but I believe it’s just a money making/saving move. One can pretty much guarantee that if the majority of sales came from shops and not the marketplace, the change would have been the other way around. Originally scheduled to start August 1, the change has been pushed back to September 1.

Then we had some surprise product launches. First Cafepress announced two new sizes of clocks, and then the next day, ceramic travel mugs. The day after that they upgraded the journals and added new paper choices. I can’t help but wonder if these were strategically launched to help soften the blow of the volume bonus change.

THEN, Zazzle pretty much blew everyone out of the water with their new custom shoes. When I first heard the announcement, I thought it would just be a shoe with a small area that could be printed on, similar to Spreadshirt. I was amazed to see that the shoes are almost entirely customizeable! You can even pick the color of the stitching! They are a bit pricey, but still way cool, since they actually print on the fabric, and then sew the show together. I plan to order a pair, but first I need to find a store that sells Keds so I know what size to order.

I also ran across something that I think (hope) could be in the future for POD services. Inmod has customizeable bedding sets, duvet covers and shams. You have a choice of fabric and colors, and 17 different embroidery patterns. Once you choose a pattern you can customize it’s colors as well. Check it out. This gives me hope, because I’ve always wanted to design bedding, and this shows that it is indeed possible and maybe even probable.

On to the July Roundup:

Cafepress earning totaled $862.66 and affiliate earnings at $20.59 for a total of $883.25. New record for best non-Christmas month ever. Starting this month I’ve decided I’m going to keep track of how many hours I spend working (so I can figure out about how much I make an hour with POD) and also how many new sections I add each month. That way I can challenge myself the next month to work more hours and put up more sections. Keeping track of this data will allow me to see how my efforts pay off.

I’m hoping for a record breaking month again. But off to bed now, because I have jury duty tomorrow! Yay!

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