A Guide to Cafepress Markup Commissions

Cafepress.com has custom markups that you can set on all your custom made Print on Demand products. This is a familiar territory with competing websites as well.

Unspoken Rules?

Let's get right to it without beating around the bush. This is merely advice speaking through the window of experience and, nothing more. Seasoned veterans at Cafepress who have been around for a while typically have the higher markups than new shops who have just opened their doors.

Rebuttal Alert! Hey, but that's not true! What if you are a great designer and it has nothing to do with how long you've been around!?!

HOT TIP! Ah, it's yet another trick on the mind with the analytical thinking of a person sitting at home or work on the computer shopping. If you have only 10 sections of a few products with $10-15 markups, a potential visitor is going to think to himself, "Who the hell are you?"

If you have been around for two or three years (maybe longer), you now have most likely 200-500 sections containing hundreds of variations, styles, and colors. The potential visitor now sees thousands of products at a higher price. Hmmm, that must mean quality. That must mean you can be trusted. Maybe now he's thinking, "Wow, you've been at this for a long time. Look at this large selection of products! I think I might buy from you." Don't you do this when you shop online? I know I do. What makes my customers any different? They are just like you and me because we are all consumers.

When you start out, you gotta learn the ropes anyway. Take it slow and I'd start with a $2-3 dollar markup. Build up that inventory and fill the store with coupons from this guy. Remember, your free coupons are paying for your Cafepress markups anyway. There is a free coupon feed you can integrate into your shop. Do a Google search for "cafepress coupons" at any day or time to post up new ones. (new window)

Go on, give yourself a raise! You've earned it, 'ol boy or gal...

If you've been around for three or four years, I'd start going higher on the markups. Make sure your Internet presence is strong, though. As long as you are constantly advertising and promoting yourself, I'd go with a high markup tier on your products. Go fer it!

A $15 button or sticker?

Of course, I wouldn't do a $10 markup across the board. A product that is already $2 or $3 at cost is just not reasonable with such an extreme markup. The lower the cost on the product, I'd recommend choosing your markups by percentage. A $2.50 item should be commissioned at no more than 50%. Remember, (usually) these items at Cafepress are for that little "extra" to meet or beat that coupon that's burning a hole into their computer screens.

Oh, while I'm reminded of this - I personally would never pay over $5-$7 for a bumper sticker. Markup your commissions and look at the final selling price to your customers. Would you pay that? If you wouldn't, neither would your potential customer.

Adjust Accordingly

SUPER DUPER HOT TIP ON FIRE!!! Open up your Google Analytics accounts if you got 'em folks....90% of all large successful Cafepress stores reach at least 85% new visitors versus 15% repeat visitors. At least 5% of the repeat visitors are your competitors. Trust me...

My point? If most of your traffic is new visitors, most won't know it if you've made a change to your site or Cafepress store! Change your markups and give them at least 2 weeks. Check your saved email sale reports (if you got 'em). If not, enable email notifications of sales at Cafepress and save every one of them from now on. Now you can start seeing waves of your 85% new visitor reach and whether or not they will pay your price you've set. Sales will go down if they think you're too high.

If your sales slow down, go back, lower the markups a little and wait another few weeks. If you want solid results, wait an entire 45 day period from the 3rd day of any given month of the year.

I have no sales! I only make $10 a month! What gives?

Another possibility of zero or low sales is you are selling a product that just won't sell, low promotion, no advertising, or you just plain suck. Sorry, I have to be honest here!

I've made hundreds of designs that haven't sold at all before. I've made some that have only sold one in an entire year. It happens. It's what makes the world unique and different. One might think your design is crappy, but another peroson will absolutely adore it. Just don't take it personal! It's just business.

What do you do? You make a TON of options for them. Make a blue version, a red version, a blue with orange version, a PINK version for the ladies....give people options and make more designs! You're fishing your castnet of creativity and design in Cafepress's ocean of a marketplace. Maybe somebody will see your vision or humor.

I myself make some rather bizarre or twisted types of what I consider "humor". Call it dry, call it dark, call it what you want - it's KaptainMyke.

The rumor mill is spinning

I heard numbers. I've heard $12-15 markups, even as high as $25 per product! These guys are making some money! Lordy! they also got thousands and thousands of sections, grandfathered in from the recent Cafepress section limits on shops.

If you are a great designer or author, people will pay your price if they want it bad enough. Again, if I want something bad enough, I'll pay that extra dollar myself. So will your potential site visitor.

Be creative

A great and creative example of an extreme markup is the $100 Shirt at Cafepress. Does he sell any? If so, how many? Comment here if you read this, Mr. $100 T-Shirt Guy. I'd really like to know.

The sky's the limit with your imagination.

The SLOW SEASON

The dreaded slow periods of any luxury retail website that sells products (that we all don't really need) suffers from this period twice a year. When? After Christmas and after school's out.

Period one: January to April. Period two: May to July. Things start getting good when grade school and college returns every fall. Then, Christmas comes again!

It really IS the season to be Merry at Cafepress!

At Christmas I'd hike up any markup you got currently by $5 or more (at least!). People will pay anything during Christmas time. Why? I do, why wouldn't anybody else? Consider it your bonus for the year. Everyone typically has received some extra money during this holiday
season at any job. Albeit tips, wages, bonus checks, or "Jelly of the Month" club memberships.

Inflation's a B!7@%!

This is 2008. Gas is high, groceries are high, shipping costs are OUTRAGEOUS, contract work, services, etc., etc., LIFE - everything is going up in price.

Why don't you?

The Potential of Cafepress and You

Know Your Competitors

McDonald's watches over Burger King, Jack in the Box, and Wendy's, right? The shops that I have my eyes on have been CultClassicTs, FlippinSweetGear, BurnTees, Detour Designables, Media Tees, Shirtees.Net, SpeakUp Designs , Barry's World, KA Designs, and ShirtVille. I'm sure these guys make a decent earning per month. I have no idea, but Juan can't help but assume.

Earning at Cafepress

During spring and middle of summer, i.e., slow season, I sell anywhere from 10-15 products per day at Cafepress. During Christmas season last year, there were periods where I sold over 65 t-shirts a day at Cafepress. Christmas makes 65% of my entire year's sales, it's funny... When I do payroll in March each year for myself from my corporation, it's amazing to see a year to date (YTD) earnings over $20-25k. Little do most know after that, the sales slow down - so your adjusted year to date (YTD) income is slanted.

The Flow of Cafepress products

A luxury item such as t-shirts aren't as important suddenly after college tuition fees, groceries and GA$... How about the maxed out credit card bills from Christmas? Sales pick up of course, during the tax refund season of May-June...For only those 2 months. School's out for summer, people are at the beach and tanning, not in front of a computer. Sales pick up again before school, usually good around August and start of September. This applies to most products that aren't a necessity in life. Sure, clothing is a necessity, but marked-up clothing with custom graphics aren't.

The rude/crude/violent themed t-shirts and products won't and don't sell as much, because their products are banned from little Johnny's elementary school. Capeshe?

$50k in net commission sales at Cafepress is a long reach, but I won't say it's impossible. Remember, what matters most of any business is the bottom line. It's not just Cafepress that gives me a check. You have to use everything together, as one happy family. Amazon , Adbrite , Paypal, Ebay , Ebay Partner Network , Cafepress, Commission Junction , ClickBank, PrintFection , Zazzle ..... bottom line figures can reach you to whatever limit you set as your projected goal. You, as a business man should make and set goals for you to follow. It's the best way to get to them....I'll have articles about all of those topics. Soon... I'm just a one man corporation, remember? ;-)

It costs money to make money.

If you spend $900 a month on Google Adwords, and it returns you an extra $2,000 in net sales, that's worth it, right? Google Adwords can make fortunes or destroy them. I personally lost $350 in one day for poor Google Adwords keywords and budget settings 'ala Commission Junction links. Be careful with your keywords. Very careful...

TIP! What also matters, especially for luxury items, you need to set ad scheduling Monday-Friday, 8am to 11pm so you don't waste money. Go looser on the weekends, or preferably, not at all, since people are out and about shopping or whatnot. When you're working from home, the world's quieter and different Monday through Friday. This is because everyone's at college or
work...most likely, on a computer.

TIP! Don't max out the Google Adwords during the slow seasons of luxury items for sale on the Internet. You can't polish a terd. If people aren't buying, damnit, they're not going to buy, okay? It's not your fault, it's George Bush and the economy's fault. Use your guns during Christmas. Consider it your bonus for the year from Santa Claus.

Never kiss and tell.

I've been asked numerous times how much I make each month. Have you ever asked a woman how much she weighs? You'll get the same reply from several businessmen.

A prude and polite businessman does not disclose figures if he doesn't have to. You typically don't want to disclose your sales figures to competitors. This is because it's already on public display how your competitor markets him or herself. By checking up on your competition, you have an idea of what they make by doing what they do. Corporations are private companies, and do not have to disclose gross sales or figures. If a company is public, and trading on the open market, they are required by law to release such accounting and paperwork to the general public record.

That and, the entire focus on this blog is to teach you to reach your arms out farther and dig deeper into the Internet's coinpurse. Using everything together gives you a bottom line figure that reaches closer to the projected sales goal you set.

I really feel confident these tips and tricks that I will be covering over the next few months (as we gear into Christmas soon) are going to help a lot of others out. The advice I give doesn't just apply to Cafepress. You can use these tactics for anything related to selling products online that aren't a necessity, like toilet paper or gasoline. You have to work harder to sell products people don't need.