Now that the initial outrage regarding the changes at Cafepress have worn off, I just feel betrayed, and a little sad. Kinda like the feeling you get when you have a big fight with your best friend, and you know that one of you went too far and things will never be the same again. Cafepress was my POD home, and now I’m most likely going to be closing my original shop that I opened five years ago.
The good news is that Zazzle is welcoming CP Shopkeepers with open arms, and I’m excited for Zazzle to be my new POD home. I’ve started moving my designs over to Zazzle systematically by making a list of all the deigns in my Cafepress shop and crossing them off as they get added to my Zazzle gallery.
Instead of opting out of the marketplace I will first try and remove all my image tags so my images can’t be found, but my products will still be available for others who are affiliating me.
Some Fun Facts:
- My January - March sales from the market place brought in just over $500.00. With the new changes my earnings would be $100.00
- My November - December 2008 sales through the marketplace were about $2800.00. With the new 10% earnings they would be $560.00. That’s going to hurt.
Lot’s of work to do to get my Zazzle store to that level.
I’m moving to Zazzle as well. Though I was never a top shopkeeper, I made a steady 3 figures and month that I depended on. I too, feel betrayed.
What I’ve done is remove tags from designs as I move them to Zazzle, and removing the designs from t’s etc (don’t want to compete against myself!) but leaving the design on tiles, bibs, the things Zazzle doesn’t offer. I’ve also left a text message (nobody reads anymore unfortunately) in the description of every half empty section that says
‘didn’t find what you were looking for? Many designs have moved…email me for details’
I found out last night as well that if you mention to all your newsletter subscribers that there has been a change, and that you are moving, and don’t put an actual link to Zazzle but send them to your blog for more info, the newsletter actually gets sent!
It’s a lot of work moving…and sales in my cp shop have just about died the slow death. Zazzle has just received a small breath of life (Google pr1) which at least is something, but only a couple of sales so far. I’m used to several a day.
It’s hard. I’m witcha.
Patti
Boston Terriers and Boxers by design
I’m opting to stay in for a while, in spite of the fact that I only did half the business this month that I did in the last 3 months! Thanks to the new marketplace pricing scheme!!!
I’m staying in, if only for one reason… To sell shirts that say “SCREW 10%” !!! Grab one while you can, till Cafepress get wise to it!
http://shop.cafepress.com/design/34486536