Cafe Press - Personal VFablab

Output: Custom Fabbed apparel, drinkware, paper goods, clocks and more
Target Audience: individuals, small to medium sized businesses
Opportunities: Turnkey web stores


To Quote Their site:

You can sell

* Merchandise you design including t-shirts, posters, mugs, bumper stickers and much more
* Books printed on-demand
* Audio and Data CDs



What CafePress.com does

1. Gives you a FREE online shop to promote your products
2. Produces each item when ordered using our unique print-on-demand technology
3. Handles all payment transactions including major credit cards
4. Ships your products worldwide
5. Manages all returns/exchanges
6. Offers customer service via toll-free phone and email
7. Sends you a monthly check for your earnings on sales!..."

Older than Zazzle, they've got a lot of merchandise you can add your art to and personalize. They're a "turnkey" operation - they supply the printing abilities, you supply the art, you sell, you keep the profit.

They've also got two levels of operation for you: a free shop that allows you: "...

	FREE personal shop on CafePress.com with your own URL.
	Design and sell over 50 products (one of each product type per shop)!
	Customize your shop with your logo and provide a shop description.
	Mailing list features help you keep in touch with your customers.
	Promote your products in the CafePress.com Shopping area.
	AND...Basic Shops can be upgraded to Premium Shops in just a few easy steps!"

Basic Shops come in a standard template that can be customized with your shop logo and description. ..."

and a "premium" shop that, for $4.99 per month, allows you: "...

	Advanced customization - Your shop is a true extension of your Web site.
	Increase product choices by offering unlimited designs and products.
	Offer exclusive products available only to Premium Shops members
	Organize your designs and products into categories/subcategories.
	Great marketing features including mailing lists and premium promotion in our Shopping area.
	Change the sell price of all products in a shop with just one click. ..."

I created one free shop at http://www.cafepress.com/fablablab to see what it was all about.

Licensing:
Here's where people may get cold feet:
"... 4.3 Licensing Your Content to CafePress.com. You will retain ownership of the Content that you upload to the Web Site. You hereby grant to CafePress.com a royalty-free, worldwide, transferable, nonexclusive, right and license to use such Content, in all media existing now or created in the future, as CafePress.com deems necessary to enable you to use the Create & Buy Service to create, produce and purchase Products for so long as your Content remains uploaded to the Web Site. CafePress.com may sublicense the rights that you grant it in this Section to a third party subcontractor only for purposes of producing your Products and providing the CafePress.com Service. ..."

I'm not a lawyer, don't even watch tv, so if you have any issues with what's said here or you don't understand it, don't use the site until you do. My opinion is: I like what I've made, I'll profit, they'll profit, and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Anything I create that I've done exclusively for someone else stays that way, and anything I wouldn't want to share with cafepress.com I don't give them.


As it's quitting time, I'll post this and add to it tomorrow.