Woo Hoo! CafePress and Zazzle… sit your arses up and take notes!!!!!

Shopkeepers have been lamenting over the fact that customer’s orders from print-on-demand companies come embalzoned with branding from that particular company on boxes, packing slips, etc.

Bad for shopkeepers because a customer may not remember the URL or name of the shop where they purchased such cool designs, but they’ll sure see all of the POD information front and center. Where will they head for their next purchase? To the POD company’s website, of course. This is even more frustrating when you watch your stats and realize that your site is bringing a lot of that traffic that may never return. It also makes the POD company your competitor in a sense.

Seems to me that one of the POD’s has FINALLY listened to shopkeeper complaints! Printfection has launched myBrand! What is it? Glad you asked!

According to Printfection‘s blog, myBrand gives you, the shopkeeper, control in the following areas:

In-Store Experience

 
• Ability to remove the Printfection header bar from your store, including the Printfection logo
• Easier for customers to contact the partner/ store owner directly with the new custom Contact/ Help URL for general inquiries
• Revised in-store Help Center
• Contact forms carrying your branding

 

Checkout Experience

 
• Customize the logo, background image, and color scheme
• Choose your own font
• Return customers to your own URL after checkout

 

Delivery Experience

 
• Send order confirmation emails with your own “From” name and your business/ store name displayed prominently in the email body
• Add your own footer to the emails
• Display your logo on packing slips and shipping labels

 

And how much is all this beautiful branding gonna cost you? Right now…. abso-freakin-lutely nuthin’…..

I certainly hope CafePress and Zazzle are perkin’ up their widdle ears and takin’ notes! I do believe I just got motivated to work on muh Printfection shops once more! I’m all for custom branding my own t-shirt and gift shops!

*runs off to upload designs*

Kayecee gives Printfection’s myBrand a five shoe review! (5/5 shoes)

Related Articles:

• Printfection Introduces AddMerch
• CafePress Introduces New Colors For Hoodies And Sweatshirts
• Zazzle Bulk Tools, ProSeller Program And Other Updates
• Greeting Card Universe Gets A Makeover
• No New Venture Capital For CafePress

Huh? Whuzzat?

Maybe TechCrunch, along with several other bloggers, got it wrong.

According to CafePress spokesman Marc Cowlin: “The story, as reported by TechCrunch, is incorrect. CafePress did not raise any venture capital, nor have we received funding from Sequoia Capital since our series B funding in 2005. We have been in contact with TechCrunch and they have since posted an update to the original story.”

Related Articles:

• CafePress Introduces New Colors For Hoodies And Sweatshirts
• CafePress Announces CafePressVoice Candidates
• Congratulations To The Winner Of The Free CafePress Shop Contest!
• Contest! Win Free CafePress Shop Subscription For A Year!
• Cafepress: Business Cards Temporarily Deactivated

I’m sure you’ve probably noticed by now…. we’ve had a makeover! With school starting back, I’ve neglected the main page at POD For You terribly. I’ve finally gotten my second wind and I’ve planned a lot of fun new things for the site! I have several articles coming out and have added some new categories:

Behind The Scenes- We’ve been talking to the POD companies and some of them have agreed to assign guest authors who will be posting some peeks behind the scenes. Stay tuned!

The Bookshelf- I’ll be featuring books that I think will be beneficial to your life in some way…. self-help books, helping you become a better business person, personal finances….. whatever I think is appropriate for the week.

Friday Frolics- Fridays are the beginning of the weekend and a time for fun. I’ll be posting a little humor and frolic on these days. If you have an old picture of yourself that you don’t mind sharing, I’d like to start something called Guess The POD’er! Send it to me with permission to post it….. I’ll feature one in the Friday Frolics and give everyone a week to guess who it is before posting the answer.

The Saturday Social- Are you one of my Twitter tweeps? I’m going to let everyone “Meet My Tweeps™.” We’ve had our first victim…. er…. uhm volunteer! You can meet Brenda Boo!

Weekly Round Up- On Sundays, I’ll give a round up of what happened on the site and in POD news for the week.

The main page is totally different as well! The latest feature articles can be seen in a cool slide show. The latest news from all the POD companies will be shown in the tabbed feature underneath. Keep an eye on it because we’ll be adding the Behind The Scenes tab soon! We’ve added a mini-font shop that you can browse through. Our latest Resources posts are underneath…. you can click the numbers to switch the article to find great tools to help build your shops and websites. And of course, I can’t forget to let you “Meet My Tweeps™.”

The sidebar is organized a bit better with a quick Subscribe button and handy search bar near the top. Tabs in the sidebar give you quick access to the latest posts, categories, comments, and archives. Scroll down to participate in the latest poll.

So what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Sound off and let me know.

Related Articles:

• POD For You Welcomes New Mods!

Now on to this week’s tweep:

http://www.twitter.brendaboo

1. Who are you?

The one, the only, Brenda Boo!

2. Do you have a website?

I do www.thebootique.com
It’s amazing, spectacular a true site to behold.

3. Why would my minions be interested in following you?

I am witty, take good care of my toenails, smell nice and am tidy. Also, I make graphics of all kinds and have severe mood swings so you are always in for a new adventure in chaos.

4. Out of all of the tweets you’ve made, which one makes you smile the most?

Yawn….. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…. Toot …. he h e….groan….Zzzzz

5. Which famous person, living or dead, would you like to be tweeps with?

John Waters. That is all.

6. Name the most embarrassing thing about your home office or desk right now.

It is laying on my belly as I lay on the couch typing this. Is that embarrassing?

7. Shhhhh! Be quiet and listen. What do you hear right now?

Some crappy techno (all of it is crappy IMHO) and animal planet.

8. How many cups of coffee did you have this morning?

I forgot after 3. The day is a blur.

9. If you were an animal, what kind would you be and why?

Panda bear. Why you ask. It´s a frickin panda bear , just look at it. Who hates a panda?

10. Anything else you have to say for yourself? We know you must be guilty of something or you wouldn’t be following Kayecee around.

I am guilty of boredom and in that guilt I stalk Kayecee. It is my burden to bear.

Related Articles:

• CafePress Introduces New Colors For Hoodies And Sweatshirts
• Zazzle Bulk Tools, ProSeller Program And Other Updates
• Greeting Card Universe Gets A Makeover
• Introducing Printfection myBrand!
• No New Venture Capital For CafePress

You’ve finally had enough of the daily grind. You’d love not having to hold down a “real” job and you’re envious of those who earn their living working from home. You may have found yourself dreaming more and more about giving up regular employment.

I hate to burst your bubble, but unless you’re one of those people actually making your living working from home, you probably aren’t aware of the many challenges involved. I’m not working at home full time yet, but I have already figured out the bitter truth: it ain’t all watching soap operas scarfing down bon bons! I still have to work hard for the money I make.

So is working from your home really for you?

First of all, you have to decide what you’re going to do to earn money as a home business owner. You need to think about your interests and talents as well as how much income you need. There are many opportunities for home based businesses and being computer literate opens up even more possibilities, such as owning an online t-shirt shop.

If you’re the type of person who is nervous when you’re in control and waffles in making decisions, working at home may not be for you. With a job, making decisions and scheduling your time is already decided and planned for you. As your own boss however, these responsibilities fall squarely on your shoulders and you need to be comfortable in these areas. The decisions you make directly affect your income.

Working at home successfully also depends upon your time management skills. There will be no time card to punch…. no boss looking over your shoulder and telling you what to do or how much time to spend on a specific task. You are the one in charge and will need to decide how to divide up your working hours so that the majority of your time is spent on completing money earning activities. Keeping your attention focused with the phone ringing or neighbors wanting to chat is one of the most challenging aspects of managing a home business. This task is even more difficult if you have small children at home that you must tend to. It may be an ambitious undertaking, but it is possible with lots of patience and a bit of planning.

Organization goes hand in hand with time management. There are many organizational tasks facing the home business owner… setting up your work space, using a planner to do both long range and daily planning, maintaining a supply of needed materials and having a bookkeeping system in place are just a few. For a work at home parent, you’ll have to be prepared to manage and organize your family as well as your business.

You’ve got to be flexible. Kids get sick… cats puke on the carpet…. gum gets tangled in children’s hair… those are just facts of life and you have to be able to deal with situations as they arise. You may wind up canceling a night out with the girls in order to meet that deadline you’re behind on because your daughter sprained her ankle while turning cartwheels. On the flip side of the coin, if the sun is shining and your fishing pole is calling your name, you have the ability to shuffle your schedule and spend some leisure time away from work.

The nice part about setting up a home business is that it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing situation. I started designing t-shirts 2 years ago, but I still hold my teaching job. Why not follow my example and try setting aside a few hours here and there to see if working at home is really for you? Doing this will allow you to try your hand at business ownership before making the major commitment of quitting your current job. Who knows? You may wonder why you didn’t start a long time ago.

Related Articles:

• Work At Home Methods
• CafePress Introduces New Colors For Hoodies And Sweatshirts
• Zazzle Bulk Tools, ProSeller Program And Other Updates
• Greeting Card Universe Gets A Makeover
• Introducing Printfection myBrand!