Here’s an idea for the graphically-inclined out there. If you’re not a Photoshop whiz, fear not: the rest of us can get in on the action too.
A tshirt can say anything. It can be political, it can be funny, or it can tell total strangers which summer camp you volunteered at last year. Here’s an idea though that’s not very new, but still worth a second look. Doctor up a couple original designs with your favorite graphics program and put them online. With a good design and the right keyword choices, even an unpromoted shirt can make money.
In December 2005 I had discovered CafePress and gave it a spin. I was really into poker at the time, so I spent some time putting together a fairly simple design that I would wear myself. That’s a pretty important benchmark I think, to ensure quality. If you wouldn’t wear your shirt out in front of your friends without telling them you made it, don’t expect anyone else to do the same.I uploaded my design and customized my “store” a little bit with descriptions and graphics. I set my prices, and through no conscious decision, didn’t return for the better part of a year. I simply forgot about it entirely. It wasn’t until I received an email from CafePress telling me that I had hit their $25 payout minimum, and they didn’t know where to send the money. Needless to say, that got my attention.I logged in and found I had sold, on average, one to two shirts per month for the entire year. That’s not much, but that’s ZERO promotion. All I did was make a good, clean design and tag it with as many relevent (no, I did not spamdex CafePress) keywords as it would allow. The shirt showed up every time someone was looking for anything related to poker. There are people out there making their living from CafePress, and I can see how.
What if I had made dozens of designs on par with that one and spent more than an afternoon figuring out what made CafePress tick? I am certain that with good promotion and placement, any good design could generate some income. Constant promotion is active income though, so keep that in mind. An ongoing commitment would be required to milk any useful level of money out of this system, but a trickle CAN be generated passively.
The inspiration for this post stemmed purely from the almost-daily emails I’ve been receiving from CafePress notifying me of new sales for the last two weeks. Christmas shopping, no doubt.
December 13th, 2007 at 2:28 am
Hey. You should publish an about me page so I can learn who you are. I came to your blog from Jared’s link and anyone who reads Self Made Chick and WWD is a friend of mine
What sort of entrepreneural things are you doing now? Mostly passive income? Shoot me an email and we’ll chat. Its listed above.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:14 am
You may want to give a look at Spreadshirt. I’m planning something myself (eventually) and I’ve purchased shirts both from them and CafePress and was impressed with the quality of Spreadshirt.
December 16th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Justin,
Thanks for the suggestion, an about page was on my to-do list, but not high enough apparently! Those are some great blogs, very inspirational and informative. I don’t think your email address came through, but I’m brad at bradleykelly dot com.
Patrick,
Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll be sure to check them out.
Brad
December 16th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
[...] week I wrote about using CafePress for Passive Income. I wanted to share a few things I’ve learned that can help keep your sales on track. These [...]