CafePress offering Free Shipping for Limited Time

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Get free shipping* on orders of $50 or more until Friday, November 16th at noon PST. Just enter coupon code FREESHIP_50 at checkout. *standard or economy only

Now is the perfect time to stock up on those holiday keepsake ornaments, greeting cards, and holiday theme T-shirts for the entire family!

http://www.givitup.com

T-shirt Sale

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CafePress announces t-shirt sale!

Promotion Offer: Buy 3 T-Shirts and Get 1 T-Shirt FREE* No coupon needed.

Starts: July 21, 2007 at 12:01 am PT

Shop at http://www.givitup.com

* Limited to one free shirt per order, free shirt must be of equal or lesser value as purchased shirts and cannot exceed a retail price of USD $30.00. Promotion cannot be combined with any other offers or bulk order discounts. Shirt sales subject to this promotion are not eligible for refunds, exchange only. Eligible free shirts are limited to Jr. Raglan, Jr. Ringer T-Shirt, Jr. Spaghetti Tank, Jr. Jersey T-Shirt, Baseball Jersey, T-Shirt, Kids Baseball Jersey, Ringer T-Shirt, Men's Sleeveless Tee, Long Sleeve T-Shirt, Fitted T-Shirt, Organic Cotton Tee, Value T-Shirt, Women's Cap Sleeve T, Women's Long Sleeve T-Shirt, Women's Tank Top, Women’s T-Shirt, Women's V-Neck T-Shirt, Women's Plus Size Scoop Neck T-Shirt, Women's Plus Size V-Neck T-Shirt, and Maternity T-Shirt, subject to availability. This promotion is available for a limited time and may be cancelled or changed at any time for any reason, without notice. Void where prohibited.

CafePress announces New Merchandise Again!

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CafePress announced a bunch of new items today!
• Dark T-Shirts: Red, Royal, Brown, Charcoal
• Light T-Shirts: Natural, Light-Blue
• Women's Dark T-Shirts: Red, Caribbean Blue, Violet
• Women's Light T-Shirt: Light Yellow, Light Blue, Light Pink
• Women's V-Neck T-Shirt: White
• Women's Dark V-Neck T-Shirt: Black, Heather Grey

To let you know which items come in a choice of colors we’ve included “More Colors Available” text under apparel with more than one color option. Sometimes I have more then one color showing already on the page, but most of the time you need to click on the item and then mouse over your color choice. Try it! It’s fun to see the choices!

http://www.givitup.com

givitup’s latest press release

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Here’s the entire press release I sent out yesterday:

Hickory, NC January 9, 2007 Christian online clothing and gift store helps believers make a positive statement

Online store, givitup, is full of positive Christian apparel and gifts. The storeowner, Nancy Geiger, feels there are enough negative and crude t-shirts out there. Christians need to present a positive view. The store challenges Christians to be a light in the darkness by sharing their faith.

givitup opened a year ago focusing on giving up whatever it is that keeps you from being the best person you can possibly be, whether it's regrets, excuses, smoking, road rage or anything else. "Now that we've gotten people to get rid of the bad things it's only logical we offer them good things to replace them with." Geiger said. “Then the next step is to inspire others.”

The store has over 2400 items. Shoppers may choose from dozens of designs: including a line that states either Team Jesus or Team God on the front and “show the world whose side you’re on” on the back to simply “Believe” “I Believe” “Blessed” or something from the Fruits of the Spirit line. Each Fruit of the Spirit: Love, Peace, Joy, Kindness, Self-Control, Faithfulness, Goodness, Kindness and Gentleness comes in a choice of 6 jewel tone colors.

Geiger says, “We have dozens of products to choose from: t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, aprons, buttons, magnets, stickers, postage stamps, journals, greeting cards, postcards, teddy bears, mugs and more. One of our biggest sellers is Amazing Grace written in the shape of a cross. These are meaningful gifts for those you love and who love the Lord.”

givitup is part of CafePress.com. Since 1999, CafePress has empowered people to create, buy and sell customized merchandise through CafePress.com on-demand manufacturing and e-commerce services. Powering a network of more than one million independently-run CafeShops™ as well as syndicated and corporate stores, the company offers online retail services for storefront web development, order management, fulfillment, secure payment processing, and quality customer service.

Today, CafePress.com is a global and growing community of merchants who have unleashed their creativity to transform their artwork and ideas into new revenue streams and diverse products.

givitup is located at http://www.givitup.com

Back to normal

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CafePress was back to normal today so I got my new Spring Break 2007 line uploaded. It seems weird to be working on that instead of Christmas, but with only 3 days until Christmas the shopping for that is pretty much over. (Certainly the online shopping!) Next stop Valentine’s Day!

I have also been working on finishing up all the reading I started when the site was down. Tomorrow I need to catch up on my ads again…

CafePress still down

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I couldn’t get into might site at all today. I did manage to get on the forums for a little while and found out that some sites could get on intermittently, some were having no problems and some couldn’t get on at all. But, for the most part it is considered down.

We got an e-mail from management tonight stressing that this doesn’t compromise security and compared it to 500 people all rushing the entry door to a store at the same time and causing a traffic jam.

I’ve been using my time to catch up on reading. Mostly about e-mail marketing and writing web content. I’ve still got a stack of saved articles to get through.

Some days it just doesn’t pay

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Yesterday I started working on my Spring Break 2007 line and was really moving along adding products to my Back to School section. (Which I may have to rename to be more generic college now that I think about it. If anyone has an idea for a name for that section, feel free to leave a comment.)

Anyway, all of a sudden I couldn’t upload and then CaféPress’s site went down. I did other online things for the rest of the night, but although the site was up this morning, I still couldn’t upload. I was out most of today and evening, but it is no better tonight.

From the forums I learned CafePress suffered a DOS attack. According to Webopedia this is: Short for denial-of-service attack, a type of attack on a network that is designed to bring the network to its knees by flooding it with useless traffic.

It’s really messed things up and pretty much killed productivity for a couple million shopkeepers.

This is definitely not one of the joys of online store ownership!

Avoiding the Mall is a good thing!

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There’s a great seasonal ad by Dell computer where a man is ordering a computer from his recliner at home and while he’s on the phone the chair moves around a store full of tired and irate people, past signs that say items are sold out, etc.

That’s why online shopping is so great! They don’t have space problems for their inventory so they don’t run out! And they usually have a much larger variety then most stores. CafePress also has a 30-day unconditional guarantee.

And you can stay in your pajamas!

So now that you are in the mood, here’s another shop with a huge Christmas gift section:

Holiday Uniques

studioArmen

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I love art! I only wish I had more walls! Maybe that’s why I have so much fun with my t-shirt, calendar, mug, mouse pad, etc. etc. store.

I do want to share a beautiful Art store studioArmen

I told the artist and owner, Armen Kojoyian that these are my colors. I have a white living room with desert color accents and any of his paintings would look just perfect in my house!

You can order these in a variety of sizes and as posters too.

2007 Pet Calendars

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I will be out of town over the Thanksgiving holiday and not posting until next Monday. Here are some really fun pet calendars to keep you busy browsing through while I’m gone! Remember these are all on sale for 20% off through December 3rd!

Dog Calendars

Cat Calendars

Horse Calendars

Rabbit Calendars

Calendars on Sale

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All CafePress stores have their calendars on sale from November 20th until December 3rd. The discount is 20%

This past month I picked out my favorite calendars and blogged about them. Here are the posts to see the best calendars I found: have fun shopping!

http://onlinestoregivitup.blogspot.com/2006/10/art-for-everyday-living-calendars.html

http://onlinestoregivitup.blogspot.com/2006/10/peacocks-calendars.html

http://onlinestoregivitup.blogspot.com/2006/10/rainbow-design-calendars.html

http://onlinestoregivitup.blogspot.com/2006/10/keepsake-calendars.html

http://onlinestoregivitup.blogspot.com/2006/10/calendar-lands-in-usa-weekly.html

http://onlinestoregivitup.blogspot.com/2006/10/venice-wall-calendar.html

CafePress. A great group of people!

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I’m always fascinated by the bits of information I pick up about other CafePress storeowners through the forums, their stores and blogs.

Sometimes the forums get heated because it’s a pretty opinionated bunch! Most often the people are funny and fun, lending a bit of humor to others as a way to reach out and touch.

They are also incredibly willing to help each other. Mainly with sharing information, but sometimes more. Earlier this week Rachael Tallamy threw an offer out on a forum. She said she would design a graphic for anyone’s store free of charge as her way of saying Merry Christmas to the group! She had an example in the forum of a banner she had made for her store, and it was beautiful.

I asked her if she would make a smaller banner for me for the holidays. She created a perfect match to my shop and I immediately put it up instead of my logo to “decorate” my shop for Christmas.

I love the way it looks! View here

Then I went to Rachael’s shop and was blown away! She is an artist whose areas of expertise are: digital paintings, photo art and manipulations, photo restoration, graphic design, traditional art and graphite. I wanted to show you a couple of her posters and send out a link to her beautiful site: Rachael Tallamy

Gifts from the Heart

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Here are some wonderful ideas from a CafePress storeowner, SagArt, for those special people in your life. These gifts will be cherished by the receiver! Every one of them can be made using CafePress products, but personalized for a one of a kind gift.

For the parents or Grandparents of a child

You don’t have to be a Pulitzer Price writer to do this one. Take a fairy tale and rewrite it to include you and the child in the story and put it in one of CafePress’s books. Include some photos of you and the child to illustrate the book, and then design a special full colored cover. It will become the most cherished book the child owns and a bedtime story filled with love.

Send your love where it is most needed

SagArt got this idea from a savvy customer. Her customer has a son in Iraq and she was going to collect pictures and personal messages of love and support for her son from family and friends; combine them into a CafePress book and send it to him as not only as a Christmas gift, but as a way to remind her son how much he is loved and how proud of him they all were. What a wonderful and touching gift to get!

Good Taste Gift

Combine all those special secret family recipes that your family loves (that we all have written on scraps of paper in our recipe box) and combine them in a CafePress book for your older or married children. They will love it!

Note Cards

Even for the most difficult to buy for, personalize note cards to fit the lifestyle and personality of a friend or family member. (Note: our cards come in packs of 6 and you can send us photographs or your designs or choose one of ours.)

Framed Prints

Put together a vintage (sepia toned) collage of family pictures combined with some great vintage art for a gorgeous framed print for someone’s home. Grandparents love this so much!

Journals

Create and personalized a journal as a dairy for a young lady. Create and personalize a journal for a new baby to record the memories of the first year of life in for the new mother and father.

Keepsake Tile Boxes

Take the birth announcement of a child and replicate it on a Keepsake Tile box to hold all those tiny things we need for a baby. It’s a very special gift the parents will love and the baby will treasure, as he/she grows older.

Magnets

Take the square magnets or button magnets and design one for each month reflecting the holiday of that month in the design for a 12 piece set of beautiful magnets that will be used year after year to accessorize any room in a home or office. You can also personalize them for special family member’s birthdays or anniversaries for each month, and/or with the family name on them. You can even list all monthly family birthdays on a rectangular magnet and switch them out each month. Women love these!

Bachelor Party T-shirts

For someone getting married, you can design a t-shirt or sweatshirt that states: “I the undersigned do agree that what happens at the bachelor / bachelorette party, stays at the bachelor / bachelorette party!” Then wrap it up with a laundry pen or Sharpie to be used by all at the scene of the crime to sign the shirt, and give it as a special and unusual gift that will be remembered.

I’d like to thank SagArt for letting me share her ideas. Visit her Christmas Closet Here for more ideas and to shop for your loved ones.

Some days you get less done then others.

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My sister-in-law sent me an email with a photo of her 3 kids in their Halloween costumes around midnight last night. I started playing around with it on different products! There went an hour! But, it is fun to see what looks like what!

Today I planned on spending most of the day out in the yard because it’s suppose to rain tomorrow. I pulled up the CafePress forums and clicked on “new since last visit”… 548 posts! Of course I don’t read them all, but there were so many good ones today! It seemed like every time I finished a page there would be 50 new posts.I replied to about 7 myself!

Anyway - 3 hours later and a small list of ideas I want to try from other shop owner’s suggestions, I did manage to head outside.

Alternative uses for CafePress items

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I was looking at the following site, which has clever alternative, uses for some of the products CafePress offers:Alternative Uses

It got me thinking about our ceramic ornaments and how they could be made into a wind chime. Here are some from my Fruits of the Spirit section, but I will put anything you would like on one. They come in 2 shapes: round and oval. To design your own just click on my site and go to Custom.
http://www.givitup.com/

Information about CafePress

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Here’s an excerpt from an article about CafePress I read today:

By all definitions, the model didn't just take off: it soared. Cafepress.com now has over 1.2 million stores with 1,000 new stores opening up daily, according to Jain. Revenues went from $1 million in 2000 to an anticipated $50 million or more this year.

Customers of Cafepress can sell their designs on 90 different products from mugs to messenger bags to calendars to T-shirts. The company has over 50 major accounts including March of Dimes, Dilbert, Noggin and startrek.com as well as strategic agreement with licensors. Most recently, Cafepress launched a partnership with New Line Cinema, which will allow users of the site the opportunity to create merchandise based on New Line's movie "Snakes on a Plane."

Two things jumped out at me. The $50 million of course, but also they consider both the storeowners and our customer s to be customers. I always thought we were partners with CafePress….

Cute Toddler store

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I stumbled across a really really nice store today I thought I would share: http://www.cafepress.com/toddlersplace?pid=4370506

This is what the owner says about it: At Toddler's Place you'll find oodles of cute and colorful kids, toddler, and baby T-shirts, creepers, bibs, hoodies, sweatshirts, and other apparel items as well as tote bags for babies and kids! You'll also find a great selection of holiday items, birthday T-shirts and buttons, as well as some very cute room decor items! We have the best of the best from various Cafe Press stores, and items will be added to the same shopping cart which saves on shipping!

Ways to promote your business

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CafePress has some ideas for their shop owners, which would work for any online shop owner:

Email all your friends, family co-workers about your new shop; make sure to include your Shop URL.

Place a link to your Shop high above the fold on your website.

Have a newsletter to stay in touch with your customers.

Enter keywords and product descriptions so prospective customers can find your products via search engines.

Buy word ads on Google, MSN and Overture.

Buy some of your own products and put them on your bod; it's great advertising.

Wear your own unique items and people will ask where you got your cool gear.

To learn more visit: http://www.cafepress.com/?pid=4370506

pxl vision interview

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http://www.cafepress.com/pxlvision?PID=4370506 is one of Randy’s sites.

1. What drew you to opening an online store? Were you in a related field?

I was always drawn to having my own t-shirt line. I thought it would be great as a test to see if my designs were good enough for retail. With the ease of CafePress.com it made it all the easier to start up too. I have been in the graphic design field for 6-7 years, so that obviously helped to make my own designs rather than pay someone to do them for me.

2. When did you open your store?

I opened my store, Fluo, on November 2005

3. What is harder about doing this then you thought it would be?

The marketing. Oh boy is it harder than what I thought. Anyone can have a site, but it takes something more, something special to keep him or her there and or buying something.

4. What do you like best about being an online shopkeeper?

Not just having my designs on shirts and such, but also customizing the shop to my liking and showing that I am not just limited to simple little designs.

5. During the very first month, what do you wish you had known then that you do now?

How hard the marketing is.

6. Could you share some of the marketing you've tried so far (on or off line) and what has worked and what hasn't?

Well I am using myspace.com for advertising and it has gone great. I have met people that I wouldn't have if I saw them on the street. And from that I also am starting to collaborate with bands to push my designs as well. Featuring shirts on the artists and sponsoring events. It has all worked really well.

7. What other sites, blogs, etc. do you have if any?

I also have another CafePress shop, it is HDP Tees at http://www.cafepress.com/hdptees?PID=4370506 for adult humor and just funny tees that don't fit in with my Fluo line. There is also a Fluo blog as well http://thefluo.blogspot.com/. And I also do freelance graphic design at pxl-vision.com (site under construction).

Baby Bird Productions interview

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Today we are talking to Barbara about her online store.
Her site is called Children's Clothing, Stories and Family Gifts from Baby Bird Productions, and can be seen here: http://babybirdproductions.com?pid=4370506

1. What drew you to opening an online store? Were you in a related field?
Over the years I've been an art teacher, children's librarian, free-lance professional storyteller and puppeteer. I've always created artwork, stories and such and I was thrilled to finally see a way that I could share them with others anywhere in the world.

2. When did you open your store?

I opened our shop in January 2005.

3. What is harder about doing this then you thought it would be?

Optimizing the site to the point where it could be found in Google for my search terms. It's been a very slow, uphill battle, as I'm competing with some sites that have held top spots since Internet's infancy - everyone did and still does automatically link to them making them more and more entrenched. Waiting for income while persevering through Google sandboxes and other hurdles has been tough at times.

4. What do you like best about being an online shopkeeper?

The fun lies in creating things, whether it's inventing stories and artwork that are the products of my own imagination, or creating and developing the shop itself, or the satisfaction of building my own business from the ground up. I began by knowing NOTHING about home computers or Internet.
There's never enough time to do everything that I want to do, but there's also a great sense of satisfaction in doing it all - as my knowledge and self-confidence have grown.

5. During the very first month, what do you wish you had known then that you do now?

I wish that I had gotten in on Internet when it first began - when it was faster and easier to get a site noticed. Newer sites face swelling numbers of sites to compete with, sandboxes, well-entrenched older sites with thousands of incoming links and other difficulties. Also, if you are going it alone, you really need to do your homework about search engine optimization, how to use html code, how to get backlinks, how not to get penalized by Google for doing the wrong things, etc. A good product idea alone is not enough.

6. Could you share some of the marketing you¹ve tried so far (on or offline) and what has worked and what hasn¹t?

I've tried posting on: related forums - hits but no sales; writing articles - hits but no sales that I know of; Google Adwords - a complete waste of time; Craigslist - some sales; a couple of ads on other related sites - another waste of time; a few press releases - none have gotten picked up by the media; T-shirt countdown and other sites like it - hits but no sales, which is not a surprise as my shop is for children and babies and not for the usual T-shirt crowd.

7. What other sites, blogs, etc. do you have if any?

I have a blog at http://babybirdproductions.com/blog

Nancy’s comments – I feel the same as Barbara about what seems to work and what doesn’t in marketing, although I’m not quite ready to give a few of them up yet. I think the CafePress forums should be treated as sharing information or getting affiliate interest only, we shouldn’t expect a sale from posting there, I too get a lot of hits from Craiglist, but so far none have converted into sales. It is fun to watch the statcounter after putting an ad on Craigslist though! Only one person who’s tried Adwords thought it was good (for people who sell things with not much markup) I think you would have to have a high priced item to have that be beneficial. I write a fair amount of press releases and mine have gotten picked up and I plan on trying the article route. SEO seems to be the biggest thing you have to get right and then have your site set up to entice people to buy.