bmattock
Veteran
I was looking at some ways to make a few sheckels with my photography & writing. Recent experiences have led me to believe that on-demand, web-based, product sales have a chance to succeed. I really like my RFF book from Lulu, for example. I also recently put together a party photo album online at http://www.kodakgallery.com (used to be Ofoto) and it was very very nicely done when I got it. The people I presented it to loved it!
So, I guess I've had my head in the sand or something, but I somehow missed out on this whole on-demand thing. I did some looking and found:
http://www.cafepress.com
http://www.99dogs.com
http://www.spreadshirt.com
http://www.zazzle.com
All will print your photos on various things - coffee mugs, posters, mouse pads (does anyone use mouse pads anymore?), t-shirts, greeting cards, and so on.
In the past, if you thought you could make a product and make money selling it, you created the artwork, made arrangements to get it printed, paid for it, and stockpiled merchandise and sold it yourself. Or you worked out some agreement for drop-shipping, etc. But you fronted a major amount of cash - if you guessed wrong or didn't market well, you were out the dosh.
With on-demand, you front nothing - you can create as many products as you like (in most cases - with cafepress, more than one requires payment - I think). You get a website from which to try to flog your kit, and if anyone buys any, you get a tiny royalty - but better than fronting a bunch of money if you don't have a sausage anyway.
So I'm playing around with these. I've looked online for reviews of the products and so on - the only complaints I've seen is that some of the shirts are 'cheap' or badly-made from cafepress.com. But I note that those are all from a year or more ago - some people have said that they're good shirts in recent reviews. I don't know - haven't seen any myself. I guess I'll have to check it out and buy one of my own photos on a shirt and see what it's like, eh?
But I'm interested in anyone else's experiences, opinions, etc.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
So, I guess I've had my head in the sand or something, but I somehow missed out on this whole on-demand thing. I did some looking and found:
http://www.cafepress.com
http://www.99dogs.com
http://www.spreadshirt.com
http://www.zazzle.com
All will print your photos on various things - coffee mugs, posters, mouse pads (does anyone use mouse pads anymore?), t-shirts, greeting cards, and so on.
In the past, if you thought you could make a product and make money selling it, you created the artwork, made arrangements to get it printed, paid for it, and stockpiled merchandise and sold it yourself. Or you worked out some agreement for drop-shipping, etc. But you fronted a major amount of cash - if you guessed wrong or didn't market well, you were out the dosh.
With on-demand, you front nothing - you can create as many products as you like (in most cases - with cafepress, more than one requires payment - I think). You get a website from which to try to flog your kit, and if anyone buys any, you get a tiny royalty - but better than fronting a bunch of money if you don't have a sausage anyway.
So I'm playing around with these. I've looked online for reviews of the products and so on - the only complaints I've seen is that some of the shirts are 'cheap' or badly-made from cafepress.com. But I note that those are all from a year or more ago - some people have said that they're good shirts in recent reviews. I don't know - haven't seen any myself. I guess I'll have to check it out and buy one of my own photos on a shirt and see what it's like, eh?
But I'm interested in anyone else's experiences, opinions, etc.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
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