CafePress affiliates and creating free stores

Figured it was time to have a CafePress thread to help those looking for FREE MONEY.
I have used CafePress for years and taught many friends how to put their art on products.
Or you can become an affiliate to promote other people's creations and earn commissions.
Both are FREE and EZ for anyone to do even if you are not artistically inclined.

You can advertise other people's products like the currently hot political slogans.
T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, water bottles, key chains, etc.
Any niche you can think of there are products ready to advertise and sell.

Anyone can open their own free store with their own images or slogans on items.
You can advertise them yourself and other affiliates may also sell them for you.
You can set the mark-up percentage or use "Market Pricing" on CafePress.
There are lots of other sites similar to CafePress but it is one of the biggest.
http://CafePress.com

Any helpful hints from other users would be appreciated, and I have a few tricks to share.

 

One good reason to open a FREE CafePress store is the BACKLINK from your store(s) to your own website(s).
When you upload a logo image and create the description for for your free store you can include a link to your website.
The description and link will be one of the first things Google sees when it indexes your CafePress store so choose wisely.
In my case it's a 2 way street since I also link to my (3) stores from images of products shown on my own websites.
One of my store names matches my website name and a name search turns up several pages of both sites on page 1.

And for those who say "I don't have anything to sell", 1 of my 3 (free) stores sat empty for 4 years until last week.

 

One trick I just learned is they have a "value t-shirt" that you can't share or link to easily.
When you use the shown URL link people are taken to a regular t-shirt at twice the price.
SO, after some experimenting I found a trick to outwit them, add "_value" into the link,
like this cafepress.com/mf/70293785/hike-bell-rock_value_tshirt?shop=BellRock2012
CafePress doesn't want to let you advertise that link directly, it will drop the _value in the url
showing: cafepress.com/mf/70293785/hike-bell-rock_tshirt?shop=BellRock2012
But it will show the value price t-shirt if you do add the _value in the link of your ad.
For me it's the difference between $10.99 and $20.99 as the price that shows up, a big difference.
Since I only have $1.00 mark up on ALL items regardless of price I make the same no matter what item.
(my choice, you can set any mark up you want, $s or percentage)

Also, BackPage does not seem to mind if you post FREE ads with pictures of the items and a link to your shop.
Just save the picture from your store to your hard drive then upload it to BackPage.

 

Great posts Just2EZ. I haven't used Cafe Press much myself, but I do know a few site owners who have used it to make some money and also to help promote their own products and services.

 

see I would love to do this with the Norfolk Southern Heritage Locomotives and other trains I take pictures of but not sure if I would need Norfolk Southern's COPYRIGHT to resell the shirts or not even though they are MY PICTURES http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/s720x720/72883_178858835573720_948717036_n.jpg Any Idea if I would need the copyrights for this?

 

Most likely you would need permission if it shows any company logo.
Also if it is a patented/copyrighted design or building/artwork.
The short answer is I don't know, I'm not a lawyer.

p.s. When I don't know I don't do it,until I find out for sure.
My lawyer friend, on the other hand, just does it and says let them sue him.

 

well it would be easy to get the artwork copyrighted info from the artist, I am actually really good friends with him, Corporate Norfolk Southern Though... thats a totally different story lol

 

Shutterbug has a page of known image restrictions that includes 2 cases against using images of the high speed trains in France and Japan. I didn't see any related to U.S. actions.
Searching CafePress for "train" brings up a lot of art but very few modern trains still in operation unless hand drawn.
There is one store who sells bumper stickers of train company logos but they all seem to be extinct companies.
Might behoove you ask one of the train image sellers on there if they had to get permission or not.

 

For affiliate marketing Zazzle may be a little easier to use (not as easy for creating products though).
Check out the Zazzle thread here:
http://www.work-at-home-forum.com/threads/zazzle-free-stores-and-affiliate-program.8370/
Alexa traffic shows Zazzle almost double CafePress and they don't have "upgrades".
Pro Seller on Zazzle is based on sales volume, not a paid upgrade like CafePress.