“Design for the Thumbnail!”
Topic: Designing tshirts with the storefront presentation in mind.

A free-form video about designing not only for the product itself, in a print-on-demand environment, but also for the online customer first-impression.

I’ll admit, it’s not a polished video by any stretch – I didn’t want to delay recording my thoughts in favor of editing. I hope you find my ideas useful nonetheless.

Maybe it’s my age? My mom used to tease me, when I was a boy, that many of the styles I liked were throwbacks to things that were popular when she was a kid – that styles often repeated themselves in the next generation. It’s just that we believe it’s original each time.

Well, I’ll be honest – I think I see her point. I love vintage style gear. Faded colors, torn and tattered artwork that looks like it’s been to more than a few KISS concerts or maybe left soggy in the back of a 1976 ElDorado after a swim in the lake during a hot Summer.

I love this stuff. The more it looks like the wash machine mangled it – the better I like it.

Okay, “letter” is stretching it but since I haven’t finished my coffee yet a blog post is all I’m wishing to do.

I’m posting this because I know for a fact some folks at Zazzle read my blog (certainly one of many they read, I’m just a little blipfish in a big ocean). However, since I know they read I’m going to take advantage of it.

Originally, the topic of Zazzle came up this morning in a discussion about a possible new product they may offer (embroidery). I was first alerted of this potentiality from Adam O’Connor over at TShirtChat.com

We’re in agreement that Cafepress’ “InfiniStitch” Embroidery stretches the word “embroidery” a bit far for the English language to sufficiently bear the weight of. In other words… their I-S Embroidery is hard for me to call “embroidery” even if I squint. It’s a nice enough product but trying to call it that is a stretch. I’d be thrilled if Zazzle could come up with something better. However, could they do it well enough to overcome their own claims about what CP’s version left to be desired? (Yes, I read other blogs too…).

When I think of Zazzle here’s what comes to mind: Young and hip. Trendy. A little edgy. They’ve got some of the usual POD stuff (shirts and so on) but they’re not afraid to get adventurous with new gear and new corporate relationships brought into their fold. It’s admirable.

I also, unfortunately, think about some less-than-positive moments in their history. I won’t detail those because it’s not the important message here.

I will say, instead, that it’s rarely wise to undermine your own future progress by setting a tone of negativity to counter a competitor only to travel the same path later yourselves. In the POD world paths often are similar – it tends to be unavoidable. The POD community is still new and young enough where memories don’t need to be that long to recall the day bad karma was born.

We see in political arenas that negative campaigning only polarizes for a while… it eventually alienates and creates resentment.

There’s room for rock stars in both PODs… Cafepress and Zazzle. Fans (users) win most if there’s room to praise both of their favorites and don’t feel caught in-between.

My “open letter” is to encourage Zazzle to move forward and onward from a previous level of fistacuffs and, instead, do what they show they can do well: brainstorm new angles, put a cool and hip face on otherwise stuffy POD fare, attract a crowd of sellers and buyers that know how to rock and roll, appeal to a generation that represents the next generation with no built-in limitations, no idea that rules exist, who only know how to think outside the box and require a POD that suits that style.

There are many shopkeepers at Cafepress trying to figure out where to go from here now that the announcement of restructuring the volume bonus has come.

I’d like to direct those interested to two posts where myself and others have begun discussing ways to overcome the deficiency left for some VB earners. I’m directing to a collecting point of posts where several links to other, great information reside.

This information, I feel, is too important to ignore and is probably worth re-reading until it really sinks in. My gut tells me that once some mindsets begin to come full-circle a lot of the wisdom being passed around will begin to click and make sense. Then a sense of direction will follow for how to proceed if you’re left feeling a pinch from the changes to the volume bonus.

Cafepress Volume Bonus Becomes Shop Performance Bonus

I Lost My Cafepress Volume Bonus – What Do I Do Next?

As usual, Adam at TShirtChat.com is doing what myself, and others have a passion for: providing a resource for giving helpful advice and a collecting pot of information on the industry. TShirtChat does it well and that’s why I’m happy to direct you to the above posts and subsequent responses.

Cafepress.com announced it will restructure the Volume Bonus program as of August 1, 2008.

Highlights include:

Sales originated from shops will earn larger bonuses at lower thresholds

Sales originating from the Marketplace will no longer qualify for a Volume Bonus – you will continue to receive your mark-up as your commission

Shopkeepers will no longer pay the 20% fees on affiliate-driven sales – CafePress will pay this fee

The “Sales Source” is being redefined: Credit for a sale will now be based on where the item is added to the cart

The Volume Bonus program will be renamed Shop Performance Bonus

There’s good, bad, and indifferent for this – in my eyes. However, I’m surprised it didn’t happen earlier as it’s a perfectly normal practice to create an incentive-drive to gain customers (in this case – shopkeepers who fit into the equation for CP making money) and, when a strong customer-base is established make a shift from incentive-based drives to advertising-based drives. Without any inside-information: I’m taking an educated guess this is what has happened. Like I said, though, my educated guess was made some time ago this would occur and now it has. Combine this possibility with the ever-rising cost of advertising and it’s not hard to imagine that the cost and effectiveness that were advantageous even a year ago are now less-so. Money spent then may be better spent differently now. You think our costs with Google, for example, alone are expensive? Imagine the broad-sweep advertising expenses companies like Cafepress must incur and they don’t even get the advantage we can have in niche marketing efforts.

I know some people will take this as a personal slap but if you know anything about business… it’s a known process. One may or may not like it but it’s a known-routine… hardly a personal afront.

Here’s the bad:

There’s a strata of base-price sales that now make significantly less in VB than before.

The good:

There’s a strata of base-price sales that now make significantly more in VB than before.

As with any business model – those who adapt can overcome. Those who can’t – sink.

Here’s my suggestion: The most likely affected shopkeepers will do well to adjust from pimping the marketplace to following advice from those who’ve done this thing old-school: Market your own business – build your own business – get your own customer base.

The volume bonus was a bonus and it hasn’t always been around yet some of the most successful shopkeepers were (and continue to be) successful beyond the marketplace ups and downs… including an understandably welcomed bonus.

CP’s marketplace and VB are fine and dandy (well, the MP can be a nightmare some days but you know what I mean). I can’t bash on them for what they are or what they try to be. However, I have a hard time relying on that external system of sales. I’ve always felt it best to get a customer base of your own, outside of someone else’s enclosed system.

I wish everyone good luck in adapting and succeeding from this major change. I’m confident that the business models and manners in which many will now have to conduct business will be more solid, long-lasting ones that can endure changes such as this. Everything changes – nothing stays the same.

Well, to be fair, we’ll have to classify this as rumor-mongering because I haven’t had the chance to check numbers or sources, yet.

However, I woke up to an article in Venture Beat offering early glimpses into the possibility that Cafepress has paid between $15m-$20m for ImageKind – an art print-on-demand service.

Again, in keeping with purely the word on the street angle, is that Zazzle lost a possible desired bid in this as well – not surprising since they’ve been making many moves to increase their business lately (some positive, some less so).

If true and accurate it’s no surprise to me because of the focus of Cafepress as a leader in the POD industry and their growth… often to successfully expand beyond what made them successful years ago: the tshirt.

We’ll see what comes of these as the press releases, rumors, and day runs on.

If it’s the case I have to admit I’m anxious to hear the reactions from a few people I know who are highly invested in the IK service.

UPDATE: It’s confirmed.

[Cafepress time is currently 10:22pm Friday 6th, 2008]

As I sit here in my hotel room… fighting to keep the hotel wifi connection active, watching Bear Grylls eat something unnecessary on the Discovery Channel, I am trying to think of what might be interesting to recount?

For me, the highlights have been thus:

I barely slept last night. We had severe thunderstorm warnings as well as tornado watches well into the night in my neck of the woods and I was a bit too preoccupied with the sirens going off all across town to sleep. Besides, by the time the warnings were canceled there was little reason for me to go back to sleep as I had a plane to catch at an airport that was likely to see its main road flooded and closed-down (rivers overflowing, thank you very much).

I did manage to get on the plane out of Tornado Alley. My connecting flight in Denver was beginning to board while I was still in the air descending to 7,000 feet. I had four minutes to get from Gate 21 to Gate 50. Somehow I made it and arrived in San Francisco with high winds thumping our jet in all the way. It was great!

A quick visit with fellow mods and CPV’ers in the lobby and it was time to check in, call home, then grab a quick bite to eat at BJ’s. Their fish-n-chips are quite good, by the way.

It was then off to Cafepress’ new offices to do a little work and then happy hour!

Happy hour at El Toritos was great – the gang was all there and it was a real treat to see old friends again and make new frienships as well. I took pictures and as soon as I cease to be exhausted I’ll post them.

After a fantastic time at El Toritos most of us headed back to the hotel for dinner and drinks in the lobby – a wise move because this cowboy needed to ap out early – lack of sleep and change in time-zone means I need to catch some Z’s if I’m going to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for meetings all day tomorrow at CP.

I’m seriously looking forward to it – there’s a lot to discuss and being in the same room with my peers is always a dynamic and productive thing. I think tomorrow will be a proper, full day with a lot going on.

I see Bear is eating an alligator. Why can’t he just ask one of the cameramen to fork over a candy bar or something?

Anyway, it’s late even if it’s not late. I’m tired. Time to tap out now.

Here’s to a fruitful and productive day tomorrow!

…I hope Shannon doesn’t snore too loudly? She’s in the room next door and I really need my beauty sleep – more than usual.

…I also hope Adam turns in early. He’s like an unstoppable, late-night machine. We need him alert and awake tomorrow.

Well, it’s no surprise I finally got asked “So, what the heck is this Kickoff you keep talking about?” After all, I’ve only posted a handful of short, buzzy, videos counting down to the event, Twittered a little about looking forward to it, etc.

It’s not a public event but it’s not really a deeply held secret. The Cafepress Kickoff 2008 weekend is an event (this is the second year) where members of Cafepress’ Community teams (Community Forum Moderators and the new Cafepress Voice teams and related Cafepress staff themselves) meet to discuss all things “Community.” It’s a chance for groups that either are community-driven or part of the overall development of Cafepress’ community development and interaction to get together in the same building (Cafepress HQ in Foster City, CA), the same room, and review a years-worth of subjects related to the Community as well as plan ahead the next year.

Yes, there’s an NDA, so no, I’m not being evasive. I’m just saying that you can imagine that having teams associated with the vibrant, active, and ever-growing Community of shopkeepers at Cafepress takes a little planning and benefits from having people on the same page.

The two separate groups – the Cafepress Voice and the Moderators – also have their own goals and objectives to go over with appropriate Cafepress staff. One doesn’t grow a social circle this large without planning and teamwork. I think it says a lot about the company that they work hard to have a yearly meeting to get many diverse people together (rather than suffer through emails or conference calls exclusively) to get honest feedback, opinions, and ideas about how their Community of shopkeepers and customers are doing and how it relates to Cafepress, the company, itself. It’s admirable they take such an interest and welcome face-to-face relationships-building.

For me, I look forward to hearing about plans for the Community forums themselves, getting to know the new CP staff I’ll inevitably be working with over the next year, and form new friendships and working relationships with the CPVoice crew. I’m also looking forward to the social time I’ll be able to spend with all of them. Between the mods, CPV, and CP staff… they are really fantastic people and worth the effort of getting to know in the short time we have. They all have a deep passion for making the most of their time and service to Cafepress and the Community they volunteer to serve. So, it’s with a lot of gratitude that I attend these events Cafepress so graciously provides.

I’m trying to figure out a way (or more particularly the opportunities) to do some kind of “live” reporting from my time there. It’s probably a fairly grandiose idea and likely to fall short of whatever goals I might have in my mind but I’d like to do a bit more than just share photos and a few snapshots upon my return. So, we’ll see if some sort of blogging, video, or live-stream has any acceptable (and practical) place while I’m there. If so, you can be sure it’ll be piped to this blipfish.com blog – just for you.

…8 days and counting.

This is a subject I’ve been watching for a couple of months, now. I haven’t said much and probably won’t, but, unsurprisingly, there’s always a certain caliber of person that can’t honor an NDA and more info is beginning to come out.

TShirtChat.com has brought the topic up and made some very good points. It’s worth a visit to read and give your feedback. There’s surely varying degrees of “it’s business” involved in this topic. Of course, to me, that doesn’t always ring as a positive thing.

Give your thoughts on the matter:

“Zazzle Corporate Ninjas Get Dirty!”

Update: Cafepress has posted the following: “Poaching isn’t over easy…”

If anyone has any more links to the subject – let me know. I’ll be happy to post more points, counter points, or measured feedback.

A quote from the Cafepress S.M.A.R.T. blog:

On May 6 (if all goes as planned) we’ll be launching a few new tools aimed at helping Shopkeepers to efficiently manage and build out their shops. The tools we’re launching have been requested by the community countless times over the past year, so we’re thrilled to get them introduced and placed into action!

Along with these great new tools we’ll also be adding limits to the number of sections permitted in each Premium Shop. After all, the more tools we offer to help Shopkeepers quickly build and add products to shops, the more important it becomes for us to manage how large shops can become before we have trouble supporting them.

I’ll play the part of the heretic: I don’t think this is freak-worthy.

From Angela Low, CafePress Community Advocate:

Hi Shopkeepers,

We’re excited to announce the CafePressVoice Candidates! Like the CafePress Community itself, these candidates represent a diverse cross-section of the Community with different skill sets, earning levels and viewpoints. While there are many differences among the CafePressVoice reps, they all share a desire to contribute to the CafePress Community.

The election will begin April 21, 2008. We’ll make an announcement for you to get your vote.

Drum roll… meet the CafePressVoice Candidates.

This isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve done this before – helped, in some small way, the process of the CafePressVoice committee develop including the election process. It’s also been a part of my function to help the CafePress Community itself better understand what the CPV is about. As a moderator for the CP Community for several years I’ve also filled the role of what the current CPV group is doing – and I continue it to this day, but in a different capacity. So, I know a little of what’s going on with CP and the group.

Last year, Year One, was about finding out, through discovery, what CafePress itself wanted to do with the team, how the team members themselves could bring their talents to the party, and how the perception of the available public would play out regarding this. Year One was the year of the pioneers. They didn’t have it easy, they didn’t have a blueprint, but they did have a commitment. Pioneers often blaze trails and Year One’s team did (and continues to do) a good job finding their way.

Now, it’s time for Year Two and they face different, if not equal challenges. The first challenge, I suspect, is stepping into shoes that have been filled but dancing their own steps in those shoes. That can’t be an easy position to take – but I’ll have faith the candidates are up to the challenge.

Something that happened last year is beginning to repeat this year. Granted, last year had many more question marks associated with the CPV routine, but it’s understandable that not everything will be crystal clear just because it’s another year.

One item I think that could benefit from more clarity is in selecting, from the candidates, the eventual team that will comprise the different CPV departments. In particular, the need for their to be an effective way for candidates to become “known” to the community who, will in part, benefit from their service. There’s a misconception that “representing the community” (a stated role) means “doing what the people on the forum want done.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The role of the CPV members is, primarily, to work with CafePress itself, on issues and subjects that CafePress wishes to dig deeper into, as a springboard for real, human, responses. In other words – when CafePress wants to tackle a subject, or just generally wants to know what the pulse of the Community is, the CPV folks will be tapped to provide another source of view and information. They’re not the exclusive voice of the forums – they’re not even a major voice of the forums. They are there to answer calls put out by CafePress the company when CafePress the company wants to see and hear what real-world users (“advocates for the Community”) think.

The subject of getting to know the candidates has come up, again, and the idea that the best way to know a candidate (or even to qualify a candidate) is by their involvement in the forums. Again, the problem being is that the words “Community” and “forum” are being used interchangeably when they are not the same.

The CafePress Community consists of shopkeepers, customers, CafePress itself. Forum members can definitely be some/all of these things. However, they may not always be… and furthermore the forums themselves only represent a minority of even just shopkeepers. There are more shopkeepers who are not members of the forums than there are members – and by definition many, many more than active forum members (as we have plenty of inactive, but registered members, or just plain lurkers).

So, I think, fundamentally, it needs to be seen that the forums, as large and important as they may seem, are a minority portion of members overall. The forums are a part of the community. They (active forum members) are also not the only people who can vote on a candidate… people unknown on the forums can (and will) vote for candidates equally unknown on the forums. It’s just the way it is.

To that end, part of the frustration, and may I say… shortsightedness, of the voting and election process is that it’s difficult for people to “get to know” candidates except for the page I linked to above. Frankly, it’s my opinion that the ideal situation would be:

1. Longer, more involved questionnaire of each candidate – so we can really get to know them if they’re not active in the forum.

2. A more involved, multi-step process to weed-out anyone who may not be up to the challenge because, after all, one might draw the conclusion that if one is not active in the forums it might be hard to believe they’d be active in a focus group. It’s not guaranteed – but it’s an understandable concern.

I suppose I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out another obvious thing? That there are members of the forum who are very active, with a high post count, that just contribute good-natured chatter to the community. Camaraderie is valuable, fellowship and friendship are important – so these people are very valuable to a community. They may not make good focus-group candidates, though. So, visibility on the forums only goes so far. That’s why, however, I with the election process was a little longer and more robust so we could truly get a “feel” for candidates before election day. If they’re not active in the forums we need a way to assess their merits in another, more substantial way than just a quick paragraph bio.

I think a well-rounded CPV candidate is also a candidate that’s different than his or her well-rounded neighbor CPV candidate – because it’s about building a diverse team.

I’d be happy to see a wide combination of CPV members who are known, unknown, more successful than me, less successful than me, and any combination of these things and more… but who work well with others, aren’t afraid to give honest feedback, and are available to be utilized effectively for the entire year. A team like this would probably prove effective and, as any good team should be, be more than the sum of it’s individual parts (the members themselves).

So, I hope that CafePress can soon give us all more to go on than short bios and repeated paragraph answers to questions. I also hope that all those who vote (forum members as well as non-forum members) can see fit to investigate each candidate as they stand – factoring in forum membership but not letting it be the overwhelming denominator in even considering an applicant. There’s a lot of quality applicants out there and it’d be a shame to toss them out of the running until we get to know them.

Once they become a member of the CPV… believe me – they’ll be encouraged and expected to be more active in the forum as well as broader Community alike.

In closing, it’s my hope that CafePress can help us all out by giving us more to go on than our own detective work via forum-posts. We need to know the candidates better (and even the forum posts alone would only show one side of them).

So, CafePress, if you’re listening… please help us pick the best candidates by giving more comprehensive info, background, skills, qualities, qualifications, and more in one, easy-to-read location. There are a lot of Community and forum members that need more than just a post-count to go on.

…and candidates: step up to the plate and tell us what makes you so great – and spell it out. If you want my vote and I don’t already know you – walk me through getting to know you. Time is short, but I’m willing to pay attention.

Story broke by Adam O’Connor of TShirtChat.com.

My comment on the matter:

This is important for shopkeepers to be able to respond, in a timely fashion, to issues of CUP. This is a major step in the right direction.

Update:

…or does it?

My comment on the update:

Unfortunately, getting close then falling away from the mark is becoming a familiar routine.

I’m glad Adam of TShirtChat.com blogged about this as it brings up two, important points. The first, obvious one details the issues of copyright and what happens when a service has millions of users uploading potentially millions of illegal, infringing pieces of artwork. It’s something competitive services have in common. The industry, as a whole, is going to have to work together on solutions and standards, I suspect.

The second, related issue is the frustration of dealing with a content usage system that is fighting an uphill battle already but may also be needing some overhauling itself.

Please read Adam’s entire post here.