So I'm in online business now.
A while ago, I was reading a comedy website, and spotted a little advertisement down in the corner telling me that I could buy t-shirts from the site if I wanted to. I really liked the site, so I was interested, and went to take a look.
Life was never quite the same again!
It turned out that this website owner was something of a shrewd businessperson, and had set up an online shop to sell t-shirts, mugs, hats and a whole bunch of other stuff bearing their website's name and logo. I bought a t-shirt, and was pleased with the quality and so on, and it got me thinking.
At first, I assumed that this must be someone with either a lot of money to risk, or an awful lot of know-how and business contacts. I mailed the site owner to ask for some pointers, and discovered that it was possible for me to sell the same kind of things remarkably easily, and, more importantly, for little or no investment.
Having received more than my fair share of attempted scam emails in the past, I looked into this carefully, and was pleasantly surprised at what I found out.
Anyone can have an online shop selling t-shirts, hats, mugs, framed prints, posters, greetings cards.... The list goes on and it is extensive. Even more surprising was when I discovered that musicians and writers can also release professionally printed and bound CDs and books this way.
Still wary of the "too good to be true" element of this new knowledge, I started up a free shop with a site called Cafepress and set to work on the frighteningly simple process of setting up designs and products. A little improvised web marketing (heaven knows I'm no marketing expert) and a few emails later, and I received an email with this pleasing subject...
"You made a sale at Cafepress.com!"
Eagerly opening that mail, I discovered that someone I had never heard of, somewhere far away, liked one of my designs enough to spend their money on it. You can imagine how good that felt. Suddenly I was earning money as an online retailer!
Encouraged by this, I upgraded to a "premium shop", which enabled me to add more products and designs, and take more control over how my shop looked and so on. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had done this in the first place, but it doesn't hurt to test the water, so to speak.
Those "You made a sale!" emails continued to trickle in. Then the trickle became a stream, and I discovered that the small monthly payment for the premium shop was being taken care of by my own sales. The shop was effectively still free!
Further encouraged by this development, I set to work on more designs, and learned a little about making sure my shop appeared in the various search engines (tip: basically just make sure you have plenty of good text in there).
The stream of sales became a river.
I discovered that Cafepress.com has a forum, where "shopkeepers" discuss tactics and ideas, and soon I was really cooking with gas, with a great shop, great sales, and feeling pretty great myself. Sales continue to grow, and I'm about to find out what the Christmas sales boom is like as we approach the later part of the year. It's a good time to get into it, actually, because with millions of people out there scouring the web for unique and original gifts to give to people, the chances of making a positive start for your shop are very good.
Well, that's my story. There are people out there making a lot more than I am, and I guess that it's a case of finding the right niche, the right designs, and getting your shop just right.
If you feel like giving it a go, Cafepress is at...
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/storeref.aspx?refby=tshirtypoo
and if you fancy having a look at my shop, it's at http://www.cafepress.com/tshirtypoo
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