Marketing A CafePress.com Shop

By: SagArt | Posted: 06th November 2007

Oh me, oh my … do I open a Premium CafePress.com shop or stay with the Basic CafePress.com Shop? Bet I’ve heard that question in the CafePress.com forums no less than a thousand times. And, when that perpetual question pops onto the CP forum, I have this fanatical urge to answer it with a one word response of … Duh? It’s like asking if you should cross the ocean blue in a tiny paddle boat or board a luxurious ocean liner for the trip.

When I borrowed enough nerve to start my adventure at Cafepress.com, it took ole’ SagArt about 23 hours to switch from a basic shop to a premium shop. I may not be a techie, but I am smart enough not to sew my wild oats in a Basic Shop and then stand back waiting for a crop failure.

I’ve got a four-pocket backend and I fill those pockets up with cold hard cash each month because my CafePress.com Premium Shops give me the best tools to compete in the marketplace. So what do the Premium Shops offer that ya’ can’t get in a Basic Shop?

• I’m not limited on product offerings;
• I can SEO (Search Engine Optimization) till I’m blue in the face;
• I can manage my shop and make necessary updates in a matter of minutes to all my products;
• I can customize my shop to look “purty” for my customers and create a comfortable shopping environment with custom layouts to showcase my newest designs;
• I can launch advertising campaigns to address thousands of products in one shop;
• And, so much more!

Yes, the basic shops are free, but Sugar … you can slap all the perfume you want on that pig and she still ain’t a gonna’ take no ribbon at the fair. Whereas, my CafePress.com Premium shops cost me the measly sum of a “Bag It N’ Gag It” burger meal each month, they pay their own way because I have the right tools to turn hits into buying customers.

Yeah, I hear tell stories of some folks who create a ton of CafePress.com Basic shops in hopes saturating the marketplace to the level of making a few sales each month. I’d rather sandpaper a bobcat’s butt in a telephone booth than to try to manage and market a barn full of Basic Shops that limit your product offerings, SEO opportunities, and ultimately your sales and profit potential. Seems to me that your cracker has slipped off the cheese one too many times when you take the Basic Shop avenue of trying to compete in a highly competitive niche market. That’s about as easy as nailin’ Jell-O to the wall.

If a CafePress.com Premium Shop isn’t the best fork in the road to travel … then grits ain’t groceries, eggs ain’t poultry, and Mona Lisa was a man! When y'all get your CafePress.com Premium Shops up and fillin’ your four-pocket backend with some green, come on over and sit a spell. I’ll be out on the front porch, sippin sweet tea and shootin’ those pesky flies with my BB gun. Life is sweet!
About the Author
Occupation: Online Entrepreneur
Work-at-Home Mother and Online Entrepreneur
http://www.cafepress.com/sagart
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Tags: advertising campaigns, search engine optimization, product offerings, techie, blue in the face, best tools, cold hard cash, right tools, matter of minutes