Getting Started on Cafe Press

Back in the 80s and early 90s, I sold a lot of my hand-painted t-shirts. Painting the t-shirts was laborious and time consuming because only one at a time could be done, and drying time had to be factored into production as well.

Today things are a lot easier because there are now print on demand companies who take care of all the production, order fulfillment, shipping, and billing. This frees up a lot of time for the designer, who can now concentrate on creating new designs, instead of having to spend a lot of time on the “business end” of things.

Though there are more and more print on demand companies from which to choose, one of the best known, if not THE best, is Caf�© Press.

Caf�© Press carries a full line of products, which can be creatively customized and personalized by creative designers, both amateur and professional. Their line includes a vast array of t-shirts and other apparel for the whole family. Sweatshirts, tracksuits, baby bibs, onesies, barbecue aprons, and baseball caps are just a few of the many clothing items offered by Caf�© Press.

If you prefer to offer your designs on paper, Caf�© Press offers a full line of postcards, greeting cards, framed prints, calendars, stickers, and bumper stickers.

There are also many other fun gift items on which to place your original designs: wall clocks, ornaments, coffee mugs, tote bags, buttons and magnets-even t-shirts for dogs.

If you are a creative person who’d like to sell your designs on t-shirts and other gift items, it’s easy to get started. CafÃ?© Press offers two options, a basic store, which is free to use, but limited. You may only offer one item of each type with one design. For example, you may offer your design on one white t-shirt, one mug, one sweatshirt, etc., even though you may have lots of design ideas in mind. The number of basic stores you may open is not limited, so you may have several if you wish.

The other option is the premium store, which costs under seven dollars per month, depending upon which billing plan you choose. Many people, once bitten by the CafÃ?© Press designing “bug”, find that the premium store is the best option for them. Other people, like me, start with a premium store right away because they recognize the potential, and they have no problem with continually creating new designs.

There is also a new CafÃ?© Press Affiliate Program available, for those who don’t consider themselves “creative”, or for designers who just like other designers’ items and wish to earn a bit of income by offering those products for sale along with their own.

If you enjoy art or photography, check out CafÃ?© Press. It’s fun, “addicting”, and there’s nothing quite like opening your e-mail and getting notified that someone else has liked your designs so much that they’ve actually paid to own them.