Cafepress vs Zazzle: Features & Benefits for Artists & Consumers

In this post, I'm comparing the features and benefits I've noted in Cafepress and Zazzle for both artists and consumers.

My Cafepress list is very short: Cafepress has better (more clear) organization in the artists' shops and Cafepress has a larger product selection.

Now here's where Zazzle excels as opposed to Cafepress:

Features & Benefits for Artists

• Better income - on Zazzle, you as an artist set your own markup versus Cafepress only pays you 10% of a retail price they set.

• Ease of getting your art on products: Zazzle is amazing at this, and I didn't realize it until I began moving all of my art over there. At Cafepress, to make your art "fit" a product, you often have to use their templates and design and upload several different images with the same art to fit the different products. At Zazzle, it's all done onscreen. You can upload one image which you can alter (right onscreen!) to fit most of their products. And at Zazzle, it's faster. I can place my image on all the products in less than 1/2 the time it takes me at Cafepress.

• Design choices: At Cafepress you must upload your image exactly as you want it to appear. For instance, if you have a painting and you decide you want to place a red border around the edge, you have to design it that way *before* you upload it. At Zazzle, you can do this on-the-fly - all onscreen! You upload ONE image, and can choose borders and background colors when making the product.

• Zazzle has a much better design editor than Cafepress. Here's an example - let's say you upload an image for a card to Cafepress and it's not quite reaching the edge of the card. Too bad - you have to re-do the image and re-upload. Of course, if you use their templates, you can get it right the first time. But at Zazzle, you don't have to worry about it! If your image doesn't reach the edge of the card, simply hit the + button in their editor to make it extend to the edge. Viola! You're done. No need to re-design and re-upload another image.

• Zazzle offers onscreen, on-the-fly CUSTOMIZATION. This is a biggie! Let's say you upload a photo and think of a good quote to put on the photo as you're looking at it on the product. At Cafepress...too bad! You have to re-design the image with the quote and re-upload. Not at Zazzle! Right then and there as you stare at your photo on the product, you can choose to ADD TEXT and put your quote in whatever font and whatever color you choose onto the product with your photo. No need to re-design and re-upload an image.

• Card printing options: Cards are important to me - I love them! At Cafepress, you can only print on the front and one inside panel of a card. At Zazzle, you can print on ALL FOUR AREAS of the card (front, 2 inside panels, and back). This is amazing!

• Search engine results: Very often, search results which show up for Cafepress take you to their *marketplace*. (where you make less money, and you're competing with hundreds of other designs) I've noticed many of my Zazzle items which show up in searches take the customer *direct to my item in my shop*, rather than to page with tons of competition. Here's an example: I ran a search for the words exhausted bulldog painting in Google. Click here to see the results. Notice the 3rd link takes you DIRECT to this item in my shop on Zazzle. A few results below that, you'll see this

#16 Exhausted (Bulldog) Framed Tile - CafePress

This link is pointing here: gifts.cafepress.com/item/16-exhausted-bulldog.../384776086

Which was a link NOT to my direct item - but to the item in the Cafepress marketplace. Of course, since I've closed my shop, it doesn't take you anywhere now. But it did take you to the CP marketplace (where my income was drastically reduced) and where it showed the work of other artists alongside mine. Zazzle is clearly trying to help artists get traffic to the artist's own works, rather than put you in competition with many other artists.

• Zazzle has much better marketing plans and other gems in the place which benefit the ARTIST. For instance, people may leave comments on your work at Zazzle. As an artist, it's always nice to get feedback and pats on the back! It's also a way to network with others on the site. Cafepress has nothing of the sort. Zazzle has "fan clubs". When people like your work and join your fan club, they are notified (if they choose to be) when you list new work! Great, fabulous, terrific marketing idea! Another cool gem on Zazzle is this - let's say a customer puts your product in their cart, but then they get called away or their computer crashes. After about a week of that item still being in their cart without a purchase being finalized, Zazzle will send the customer an email, which briefly says something like "You still have this item in your cart - would you like to purchase it now?" Another FABULOUS way of helping to make a sale!

• Zazzle offers other fun ways to recognize artists - for instance they have what's called a "Today's Best Award". Every day, they choose around 30 new designs listed that day to feature, and they put an award icon on your item page showing you have won. All of the Today's Best Award winners are featured for 24 hours on the front page of Zazzle - helping you to get exposure! Since June 10, I have been award 4 Today's Best Awards, and been on their front page on 4 different days. In 7 years on Cafepress, my work was NEVER showcased on their front page.

Features and Benefits for Customers

• Customization is at the top of my list here. Zazzle has it - Cafepress does not. In my next blog post, I'll show you an example of just how easy it is for a customer to make a product their own - to fit their needs - on Zazzle. As a customer, I like the ability to add a favorite quote or personal message in a greeting card, for instance. Also, if I'm ordering products for my business use, Zazzle's customization makes this a BREEZE! You can see exactly what your product looks like before it's produced. Zazzle offers business/calling cards - which are super for customization. Cafepress doesn't offer business cards.

• Product options: Here I'm specifically thinking of the prints. As an artist, I create and sell a lot of prints. Cafepress has few options here, and each has to be set up as separate products. On Zazzle, when the artist sets up a print, all the options, such as sizing and type of paper, appear right on the screen for the consumer to choose from. Zazzle has more selection in paper types (from basic poster paper to fine art prints to canvas) and they also offer matting and framing options - where YOU, the customer, choose exactly how you want this print to look. You can create a total, custom, finished product in a matter of minutes with your specific options to suit you and your budget. LOVE THIS!

• Ordering quantity: As a customer, sometimes I see a card I like, but I only want to order one. At Cafepress, you're out of luck on this. Cards come in sets of 10 or 20, so even if you only want one, you have to order at least ten. Not the case at Zazzle! If I see a card I like and only want ONE, that's all I have to order!

• Bulk discounts: At Cafepress there are some bulk discounts. At Zazzle, however, these bulk discount rates and even the fact you can GET a discount when ordering in bulk, is shown to you right on the item page. Consumers just ordering one of something might not care about this, but if you have a business, and you're thinking BULK, you see the discount is there and what it is right on the page, eliminating the need for having to email and ask, and enabling you to order right then and there.

• Speed of shipment: All of my Zazzle orders have always - always, always, always - been in my hands faster than my orders from Cafepress.

• Better art/design selections: While Cafepress has some very good artists and designers who have made products there, some designs are crap. I'm sorry, but they are. It's clear some who have made products on Cafepress put little to no forethought into their design. As a customer on Cafepress, you have to wade through the crap to find something decent. Zazzle seems to have higher quality art and designs available, and the amount of items you have to look through on Zazzle to find what you want is less. Of course there's some designs that stink (in my opinion) on Zazzle as well, but overall, I've found the quality of art and designs to be better on Zazzle. Just my personal opinion.

This is all I can think of right now relating to the features and benefits for artists and consumers in regards to these two companies. If I think of more later, I'll edit this post to reflect what else I've come up with. Stay tuned for my next post, where I show exactly how easy it is for a customer to make a customized product on Zazzle!

Cafepress vs Zazzle: Why I've Moved to Zazzle

Today, July 1, 2009, is the start of a new era for me. I have closed my Cafepress shop I've had for 7 years. I have moved all of my artwork, photography, and designs to Zazzle.Com. Why? Because the features and benefits of Zazzle seriously outweigh those of Cafepress - for both the artist and consumer.

Both companies are print-on-demand companies (POD). A POD company gives an artist the opportunity to put their art and designs on products and offer the products to the public. You know when you're shopping in a store, and you see cool art or cute sayings on a mug? And you realize your designs would look great on those kinds of products as well? These companies give you the ability to do that - without having to go through the excruciating process, long wait times, and sometimes huge expense of production, marketing, and distribution.

At a POD company, you art is not placed on the product until it's ordered by the customer. It's *shown* on the product, thanks to amazing advances in technology - but the product isn't made until it's ordered. And you can publish your art on a product instantly. No long wait times.

Up until June 1, I was a die-hard Cafepress artist. For 7 years I've been placing my art on products using their service and selling my art to the public. Cafepress and Zazzle have "base product prices", which are charged for each product. The artist marks up the price of each individual product to make their "royalty" when a product sells. This is how the artist makes a living.

In May, however, Cafepress made an announcement that they were only going to pay their artists 10% of the retail price (a price they set, rather than the artist). This new plan was going to only be in effect for their "marketplace" - a common area on the Cafepress website which shows millions of products by millions of artists. If a customer purchased direct from the artist's shop itself on Cafepress - and not through this "marketplace" - the artist will still receive the markup he/she set. But if the product was sold via this "marketplace", the artist's income was now dropped to only 10% - not to mention the product price is also set by Cafepress in this marketplace.

Let me show an example of how this affects the artist's income:

Let's say the base price of a framed print is $35. I decide I want to sell my framed prints for $50. This would mean that every time a print was sold, I'd make $15.

Under the new plan, let's say Cafepress sets the price of a "framed print" to $39 in their marketplace. They're going to pay me a generous (ahem) 10% of retail, meaning I would make $3.90 instead of $15.

That's a huge drop in income. Of course, if the customer comes into my store itself - directly - NOT from the Cafepress marketplace - I'd still make my $15. This means I'd have to get my store in the search engines DIRECTLY, which is virtually impossible, since almost every Cafepress link appearing in the search engines brings the consumer to their "marketplace" rather than direct to my shop.

In order to make sure the sale came to my shop, I'd basically have to duplicate my shop in its entirety and have it on my own website so the search engines could pick it up there. There are programs out there to help you do this - but they all cost money. Not a lot of money...but with the extreme drop income I've had since this all came about, it's a lot of money to ME. Not to mention the time involved in setting it all up, and doing all the search engine optimization. And time is money to me as well.

Still, even with doing all that, Cafepress's marketplace links which also appear in the search engines can get in the way. I've even done searches for my exact products, seen a Cafepress link and clicked on it, only to be led to a page with hundreds of other designs by other artists, and mine nowhere to be found. So basically they were using my search tags and descriptions to draw people into to pages which didn't even include my art.

For a period of time, I tried setting up my Cafepress items on my website myself without the help of other software. Needless to say, it was exhausting, and I really thought it was stupid to have to duplicate all the work I'd already done on my CP store originally.

Due to these changes, thousands of Cafepress artists are losing thousands of dollars. The company's response? NONE. And it was that specifically - the lack of response - which helped me make my decision to move to another POD.

This decision by Cafepress reminds me of the decisions Ebay has made over the past couple of years. I think Cafepress will go downhill as a result, just as Ebay has for so many. I no longer sell on Ebay due to their decisions which seem to not take into account at all the people who made them what they were. Cafepress's recent decisions are clearly detrimental to artists. Even though I didn't come close to feeding my children with the income from there, several artists did and are now having to face financial ruin just because of the decisions.

A print on demand provider should be attempting to help their artists succeed - not be competing against them. My income at Cafepress - which has steadily increased to several hundred dollars a month over the years - dropped to under $20 for the month of May after the announcement of these changes. In June, my income was ZERO for the entire month. Why is this? I think it's mainly because people shop where they sell. I have no doubt several of my sales were probably to other CP artists. Since many artists are leaving or already have left, those artists will shop where they sell NOW.

I've had a small Zazzle store for many years. I haven't worked on it much, but being Zazzle is a great POD, gaining huge strides in the market over the years, I decided this was my best bet. In fact, in the 3 weeks I've been moving my art, I've made what I made at Cafepress in the month of May. I expect that to steadily increase as I continue to upload my art, photography, and designs, and as I network within their community.

And in moving my art to Zazzle, I discovered a lot of benefits, both for artists *and* consumers - that Cafepress just doesn't offer. I'll cover these in my next post! In the meantime, I invite you to stop in and take a look at my Jai Johnson • Art | Photography | Graphic Design Zazzle store.

Cafepress...so where does one go from here?

I just had a sale at Cafepress. One of my greeting cards sold. But not through my shop - the sale came from the marketplace. Today - that's not a big deal. Today I earned $2.00. A little over a month from now, however, on the sale of that same card with my art, I will have only earned 29 cents. And I have no control over that.

So where does one go from here? $2.00 would buy a loaf of bread or maybe a 1/2 gallon of milk for my children. It might even buy a small bag of cat food should it be on sale. And it could almost buy a gallon of gas. Yeah, that $2.00 could actually sustain my family or animals for a day or so. But 29 cents? Welcome to Walmart. I could stop in at the entrance and buy a gumball. Or are gumballs 50 cents now? Nah...better just skip the gumball...it's bad for the teeth and after too many of them, I'd be in the dentist's office. I can see it now - "Can you fix my cavity for 29 cents?" as I dig in my pocket for a quarter and four pennies.

Obviously it's time to look for a new job. Or rather not a new "job", but new ways to market and sell my artwork in order that I can buy bread or milk instead of gumballs.

This is where the big D word comes in. No, not d-i-v-o-r-c-e. DIVERSIFY.

Diversify in placing my work in other locations, but also diversify in creating a line of artistic expression which I feel comfortable at licensing for 10%. Which means, this puts a dent in my original painting plans while I prepare more commercial work that is lower-end, to suit the lower-end price point Cafepress wants to pay. The commercial is good...it's cute...it's funny...and it doesn't take near as much time as my original art --> it's the kind of work I'll be happy to license for only 10% due to the "less time" factor.

So that's what I'm off to do. I've got a lot of work to do now to make up this difference, as I'm going to have to create a ton of designs in this new line in order to earn anything near the pittance I was making before.

Today's goal: begin work on a bulldog painting. I already have it titled. Exhausted. Because that's what I am after this week. I'm sure many of my artist friends on Cafepress can relate.

Tomorrow's goal: work on a commercial (digital) art line of humorous, quirky, quickie 10% designs I've been putting off while I worked on more unique and detailed paintings.

Monday's goal: spend at least 5 hours in the morning on the new line of commercial art, and spend however many hours it takes after that to finish my bulldog painting.

P.S. Thanks to those of you who inquired about my health - I am getting better and better everyday! Still nothing done on the house, though some folks *finally* gave an estimate. I'm telling ya - there are jobs in roofing and repairs out there...if you'll just SHOW UP and DO WHAT YOU SAY. If I were 10 years younger, I'd be considering it as a job for myself right about now!

Cafepress and other things I'm sick about

I know I've posted this before...but can I possibly just "opt out" for the rest of 2009? Seriously. To be frank, this year has sucked. I'm ready for a change. Since being a part of 2009 obviously doesn't help, I think it would just be much easier to opt out, as they say in internet-land. Or on websites like Cafepress...

Cafepress has caused the latest fiasco in my life. A big announcement yesterday basically stated they are taking 55-70% of my income and claiming it for themselves. But wait - it's MY ART on that product that is totally white-faced before *I* put it on there, right? Cafepress is a "print on demand" firm, the last time I checked. I mean after all - that is what I pay them for each month to have a shop and put my art on these blank products.

Or is Cafepress now a major licensing operation? As in they decide what art of mine they like, they select it, they put it on products themselves, describe it, tag it, market it, and I get paid a small licensing fee as a result. Yet in that scenario - I don't have to do all the work - nor pay them. I can spend my days simply creating art.

But lo and behold, with these changes, I'm expected to do all that work, pay for the privelege of a shop each month, plus spend time marketing....and for a measley 10%? HUH? They simply cannot be serious.

Let's do the math here. Before, I wanted to make $10 on the sale of a product, so I did the art, did the product design work, paid to have a store to put that product IN, and I made $10 on the product. Easy-peasy. No problem. Nice to have that little $10 in income last month.

With their changes - I will now receive only $4.40. Yet I've done everything else the same - still prepared and provided art for that blank whatchamacallit, uploaded it, tagged it, described it, edited it right for the product, and paid for the ability to put it ON the product. So my income on that product has just dropped by $5.40. And since I'm not doing the pricing anymore (oh yeah, that's part of their new business model - they decide what the price for my work is), I can't raise the price to cover this deficit.

It's like having a job that pays $10 an hour and you've just been told your hourly rate is going down to $4.40 per hour. Now if that were the case, I'd be evaluating whether my time and expense of going to and doing this job would see me a "profit" at $4.40 per hour. Being that I've already figured any job that pays less than $10 per hour costs me too much to even go DO, I know the answer to this: doing the work, plus paying Cafepress for the privelege, is not worth the $4.40.

The only thing that MIGHT make it worth it is if they guarantee my sales would at least TRIPLE by their efforts. And they cannot guarantee that. In fact, after this move and the feelings of millions of shopkeepers, I doubt they'll have NEAR the sales they did up to this point. Shopkeepers are jumping ship and removing their art from the site - affiliates will stop sending people there as well, because many of the affiliate sites are built around a quality niche. When a bulk of the good art is gone - there will be nothing but blank white do-dads to sell. Shopkeepers who sell there also shop there...if they leave, they'll stop shopping there as well.

It's Ebay-meets-Cafepress. Perhaps they put Donahoe in charge at CP and we just don't know about it yet. My sales tanked on Ebay after so many of the seasoned sellers took their business away, and it was only a matter of months before I had to close down at ebay for financial reasons. It was like being in a sink hole that just kept going into the nothingness.

At this point, I'm glad to be away from Ebay....I already had zippo for sales there - being there (especially after all the changes) de-valued my artwork and my self-worth, and my stress level was through the roof. Now - Cafepress hasn't been THAT stressful for me, but it does involve quite a bit of work. I've had this shop for 7 years now and have a variety of my work created over that 7 years in the shop. There's no clear best-seller - I sell a little of everything. So it's not like I can take just a piece of my store and move it to another POD provider. And moving it all seems so overwhelming, I don't even want to consider the work involved.

But I know if I allow them to only pay me a fraction of what my work is worth - that's like me telling the universe, hey, my work is worth pennies on the dollar, but I'm just fine with that! Guess what I'll get in the future if I do that? --> more of the same.

If someone is going to license my work and only pay me 10% in fees, then I'll let some major licensing agency take over the works - and they can do the work I've been doing for 7 years. Sure, I'll be happy to accept only 10% if all I did was prepare the art and don't have to do the rest of the leg-work and product preparation. But I'm not going to do all that work for only 10%.

All that being said - I have no clue what I'm going to do with my art now. I do have my recent art available via RedBubble's POD program in my shop here. I may just stick with that.

My Hoppy Humor line of digital works, however, is solely designed for Cafepress products. I haven't added to the line in a while, so maybe I'll just retire it. I have a little over one month (until May 31) to make decisions about this.

In the meantime, my left ear is still plugged up, though my fever from this awful infection I've had is finally gone. I'm very weak and out of breath, but I'm going to TRY to attempt to work on a painting a little today. In fact, I've been thinking of taking a month long sabbatical from life and do NOTHING except art. That means NOTHING. I'm so irritated and disallusioned with so many things right now, it would probably be good for me - as well as for everyone around me - right now if I did that. My input doesn't seem to matter on anything anyway...so it might be for the best.

Nothing has been done about our roof - I can't get an estimate though I've had 7 people now (or is it 8? I've lost count!) out here. Well I have to take that back - I do have one estimate. And the way it's looking, those guys might get the job. I'm not going to chase these guys around...if someone wants the job I'm offering, all they have to do is give me the estimate. But I'm not going to chase them for it. To be honest, at this point I'm ready to get Lowes to deliver the materials and fix it myself. I've never fixed a roof before, but there's a first time for everything. And hey, then I could pocket the insurance money for "labor" myself. Gee, I might have just found a new source of income...the day after Cafepress announced they were cutting mine. Hmmm....