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Make Money by Selling Original Products On Your Weblog  Make Money Online with Blogs One of the most common merchandising services among bloggers is CafePress (http://www.cafepress.com/). CafePress allows individuals or organizations to sell goods and gear such as T-shirts, mugs, mousepads, sweatshirts, prints, calendars, posters, and more without any monetary capital. That is, unless you decide to start a premium online shop, where minimal subscription fees are involved (as low as US$5 a month). Otherwise, signing up and starting your own store will cost you nothing.
It's easy to start your own CafePress store. All you need to do is to come up with original designs (no copyright infringement) that can be printed on the products. The designs can be uploaded on the site and then you set up your storefront by choosing products and stating your retail price with the appropriate markup value. The markup value is how you earn money. Say, for example, the base price of a shirt is US$14.99. You can then sell this shirt for a retail price of US$17.99, so you can keep the US$3 markup per shirt that is sold. If you're an author, an information expert, an artist or a musician, you can also benefit from the CafePress's self-publishing product line, as they offer books, audio CDs and data CDs. You can upload your formatted manuscript, music files, ebooks, stock photos, etc. and make them available for sale.
Other than CafePress, products such as books and CDs may also be sold and distributed through other online venues like Amazon Advantage and Lulu.com . Other online music sale venues are Download.com , CDBaby.com , and GarageBand.com . Among the A-list bloggers, actor and author Wil Wheaton is one of those who uses merchandising as a way to make money off his weblog, WilWheaton.net. He uses CafePress to sell his original designs. You can see Wil's CafePress shop at http://www.cafepress.com/wilwheaton . Another example of a CafePress shop integrated with bloggers is the popular organization for law bloggers, Blawg . Blawg's CafePress shop is at http://www.cafepress.com/blawg . This site, About Web Logs, also has a CafePress store with several blogging gear and merchandise for bloggers (and those who love them). So, for gift ideas and more, check out the About Web Logs Online Shop at http://www.cafepress.com/aboutweblogs. ©Sheila Ann Manuel Coggins. Do not reprint or publish elsewhere without permission. |
