Starting online businesses?

Question

I was thinking about starting a little online shop or store, I've looked at how to go about it, but some of it seems to be a bunch of scams to try to get you to do this or that. There was a site that did look interesting but I was wondering if it was even legit. It's called cafe press.com or something like that. You can sell, stickers, shirts, or even books you make. I was looking into that or how to just have a small site and work it's way up, see how things go. Has anyone heard of the site by chance.

Answer 1

My dear

I have tried so many of them, only they are the onlyone make the money.  It cost an arm and aleg.  They will said ti is so easy and when you joined it buy this and but that if you don't  you cannot make money.  It should be a law to protect the public from these people.  They will take your money and run.  Try SMC SPECIALITY MERCHANT CORPORATION (GIFT CEDRFICATE )  You can sell gift cards from this site and also products.  They are a little better than the others.

Good Luck

Answer 2

Although there are millions of scams out there, there is nothing "illegitimate" about selling products, yours or others, online.   The looks like they are selling legitimate products in a legitimate manner.  HOWEVER, this site promotes selling your own designs on their clothes.  This is suited for someone who is interested in designing.  Basically, you set up a store that sells their products with your design which you upload.  Here's the deal though:  If someone orders the product, they produce it with your design with their technology - which you will no doubt have to pay for.  So you have to examine the cost of that.

When selling anything online you want to pay attention to web traffic and search engine optimization. There are billions of websites and millions of searches every day. Competition is stiff.

If you are an artsy person and are interested in this cafe press thing, I would seriousy examine all costs and read every single link on their website.  Get exact numbers.  It says you get a percentage of sales. How much is that?

Personally, I think starting a website with an online business is a great idea..and someday I'll get around to finishing the one I started last year...ya right...

The most important thing about your website will be driving traffic to the website so people know it's there and buy your stuff.  You can have a great product, but if nobody sees it nobody will buy it.  Learn about search engine optimization and study how to build web traffic to your website.  

Find a few different websites and compare them first before diving into anything.  

Take a look at this comparing cafe press to others;

http://www.podentrepreneur.com/2008/02/1...

I don't know if this link will work for you but here's some websites that visitors (which by the way have gone slightly down over the last year) visit along with cafe press:

http://trends.google.com/websites?q=http...

Although it's always good to search for reviews on the company you're researching, remember that people saying good things might be involved with the company's affiliate program and therefore have financial interest in promoting the company.  Additionally, many company's pay people to write positive reviews about their website.  So be cautious.

http://www.epinions.com/Cafepress_com_On...

There's a list of reviews from people.  You will note all the "rave" reviews are from store owners or "popular authors" and I bet many are affiliates.  Make sure you click "view all" reviews and you'll find the ones from regular customers - who were generally displeased with service and quality - something YOU need to be concerned about if you want repeat sales.

I'm not thrilled with this website, but it does give a nice explanation of cafe press:

http://whereisthatmoney.blogspot.com/200...

Anyhow, do your research, look into other options.  Make sure you find out your base cost, production cost, product costs - apparently cafe press lets you put your own price on it..so if it costs 10 dollars for them to produce it you can choose to sell it for 15 or 20 dollars..whatever you think people will pay.  Then you get the difference between the base cost and what you charge.  

Anyhow, I can't say it's a rip-off site.  You won't make millions - but it might be a way to get a dabble in an online business without getting hurt and learn your lessons and use what you've learned on a website that will make you more money!

I'd be concerned about reviews about poor products though..so look around and see what's out there...

And don't forget you can always make your own website (from a template) and provide related content - then put affiliate ads on the website from different products - so you'll get a little commission from differnet websites - again you really need to look into the legitimate ones.  Spend time researching.

Good luck to you!

Answer 3

Yes, I have heard of cafepress.com

I have ordered gifts from there to my clients many times.  They offer fast delivery and good service.

I have gone to that site as a consumer---not as an affiliate.

Hope that helps.

Cynthia

http://www.CynthiaMaurice.com