Last 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 are written as they apply directly to CafePress, but you could interpret them for really anything you’re selling online.

Inside Jokes Don’t Sell
While it could be fun to make up a shirt using a catchphrase from work, nobody else will get the joke, and you’ll be the only one wearing it. One-off shirts are easy to do for yourself or as gifts, and I’ve given custom shirts as gifts before. We’re looking for some income though, and unless it’s universally funny or has some other broad appeal, anything you make for personal use probably won’t cut it.

Aim Low
Look at your competition on CafePress. Some categories are chock full of poorly-made shirts that looks like they were slapped together in MS Paint. Other categories may have fewer shirts, but you can tell they were put together by someone thinking about what they were doing. It’s better to set yourself up as the only option for a good shirt on a particular topic, than as one of a few good options for another topic.

If you drop a few killer shirts into a sea of mediocrity, you’re really going to stand out. We’re not here to make The Best Shirt of All Time™, just a few good shirts that can make some money. If you’re going to actively manage your tshirt sales day to day, then you have the time to take on some of the competition that you’ll see with better designs and categories. If you’re looking for minimal upkeep, you can maximize your chances of making a sale by minimizing your competition.

Do Your Research
What’s popular on CafePress right now? What’s popular in the media? Search through your prospective categories and see what kind of shirts other people are making, and more importantly, buying. Search for your prospective keywords and see what comes up. Those are the shirts you’ll be sitting next to. Would yours pop out? Check out other apparel sites and see what’s “in” right now. Vintage designs? Smartass slogans? When I made my shirt, poker was an extremely popular niche. Tournaments were featured on television on at least a handful of channels, and CafePress was full of crappy poker shirts that were easy to try to outshine.

Do What You Know
While your research may tell you what’s popular, it’s not always the best idea to jump on the hottest idea right now. There’s a lot of competition at the top, for one. More importantly though, you should choose a niche that you’re familiar and comfortable with. Nobody will buy a poker shirt from someone who makes it obvious they’re not a poker player. You’ll also come up with dozens more ideas for designs when it’s something you’re at least mildly interested in. You are your own audience, and you know what a poker player (for example) would be looking for in a shirt. It’s better to be the best person for the #3 or #4 niche than to be an also-ran for a popular topic.

Of course, that being said, don’t do anything so ‘out there’ that you’re limiting your audience. Underwater basket weaving, while it may be fascinating, and may be something you know a lot about, won’t have the draw that some other categories might have.

Be Careful with Time-Sensitive Designs
Halloween shirts are only going to sell in October. Christmas apparel is only going to sell after Thansksgiving. Presidential candidate shirts aren’t good for anything after Election Day. If you’re going to offer something seasonal or time-sensitive, stay on top of it. Get ready to take your designs down after the big day has gone by, and have your next design ready to go up ahead of time. It looks crappy and unkept to still have your Christmas shirts up in February. Keep in mind that time-sensitive designs require the maintenance mentioned above. Choosing something timeless lets you keep it up year-round, minimizing upkeep and broadening appeal.

Don’t Infringe Copyright
After Napoleon Dynamite came out, CafePress had to spend a bunch of time taking down Vote for Pedro shirts and slapping all the infringing shopkeepers on the wrist. Keep away from designs you’ve seen before on shirts, hats, bumper stickers, anywhere. If you didn’t think of it, think twice before trying to profit from it: you can get yourself shut down pretty quickly. Popular quotes from movies and TV shows that have entered the realm of pop culture (Pulp Fiction comes to mind) are a sort of grey area. It’s probably not right, but a lot of people get away with it.

Play the Margin Game
On CafePress, they set a base price for every item you want to put your design on, and you decide how much to mark the item up. When the item sells, you keep the markup and they keep the base. A regular white t-shirt is $13.99 at base price. If you price the white t-shirt at $16.99, you stand to make $3 on every sale.

A value t-shirt, which is similar, but thinner and lighter, is $8.99 at base price. Try putting the same design on the value t-shirt, and price it at $14.99. You stand to make $6 on every sale of a value t-shirt. There’s nothing deceptive about this, as the site labels each shirt for what it is, and clicking on either shirt will tell the shopper details about the shirt’s construction. Place a value t-shirt next to a regular t-shirt with the value t-shirt priced cheaper, and the shopper will choose the cheaper (but higher margin) item most of the time.