So how does this work?

The process is pretty simple. You create an account at CafePress.com, upload your images, create a free basic shop or a low cost premium shop (we’ll talk more about that in a minute), and start adding your image to the products of your choice. There is a product creation section where you can apply one image to multiple products at once. Each section has a popup preview of how your chosen image will look on that item and you can choose to include it in your shop or not.

Next you decide on your markup. Every product has a base price that covers all of the costs to produce the product. You can set a percentage markup, an across the board dollar amount markup, or individually price each item.

Decide how you want to present your products. You can sell your products via the CafePress.com site exclusively, linking from your existing sites to your shop or to the shopping cart. Or you can use one of the custom scripts that are available, priced from free to about $20, to pull your entire CafePress.com shop onto your own website. There are advantages to each method, and I choose to use them both. We'll discuss those in detail in a future article, so keep watching! For now here is an example to whet your appetite:

CafePress.com Basic Shop
CafePress.com Premium Shop
CafePress.com Custom Shop #1
Cafe Press.com Custom Shop #2
Same products, different presentation!

As an affiliate marketer, why should you bother with setting up a CafePress.com shop? Easy answer, you already are selling products on the internet, why not use your expertise and creativity to sell your own stuff? You have control over your product design and your prices. And you will actually LIKE the 800# for customers.

Click here to download a power point presentation about setting up a shop.

More examples of a variety of shops and sites check this link out.

Next edition: What Kind of Shop Should I Use?
Upcoming Editions:
Text Art vs Photographs
Optimizing Your Images
Marketing Using the CafePress.com Directory