Blipfish - behind the coffee cup. The business of my business.

I’m going to be a bit vague because I’m writing an article and want to gather some real-world opinions. This would include your own definition to my vague call for your feedback. If you can spare a moment I’d appreciate it if you humored me and comment about:

“Do you work in a limited environment?”

“If so, what are those limitations and do you feel they are, indeed, restrictive or can they be overcome?”

That’s it. I know - not a lot to go on but that’s the point of discovery. I would appreciate your feedback.

Apple’s own recommendations for coping with the abysmal battery life of the new iPhone:

* Turn off 3G
* Minimize use of location services
* Fetch new data less frequently
* Turn off push mail
* Auto-check fewer email accounts
* Minimize use of third-party applications
* Turn off Wi-Fi
* Turn off Bluetooth
* Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas
* Adjust brightness
* Turn off EQ

In other words: Use it like a Motorola Razr from 2006. This cracks me up to no end.

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.

Newsletter #41 has gone out.

Details for adding new Athletic Shorts, Swim Trunks, and Flotation Key Holders are highlighted. Please review as catalog has changed.

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.

Have a safe, happy, and reflective Independence Day!

Special thanks to Micky for the photo usage.

I’ll try to give an explanation to a question I received regarding “What is a conversion?” in terms of online retail selling.

Okay, the quick run-up: A prospect/suspect is someone (or likely a “demographic” of someones) you believe would likely purchase from you… and they are the people you try to reach via marketing. Think of this as what some might call “potential customer.” In some circles just requesting more information can be considered a “conversion” into a customer and in direct response marketing (“Call now - operators are standing by!”) it’s common to define conversion this way. However, I have a tighter definition for online, retail sales:

A customer is someone who has bought from you.

I think it’s important to make a technical distinction that until they hand you money and take your product they are still a suspect/prospect… not actually a customer. I reserve the term “customer” for people who have purchased already.

Conversion is basically a term to describe the process or series of steps that lead to the moment a suspect/prospect hands you money and becomes a customer. It’s important to keep track of the numbers so you can define your “conversion rate” - the percentage of people who were turned into customers.

Conversion, ideally, is done in as few steps as possible, quickly, and cheaply. For example one might describe your advertising to be, preferably, cost effective in reaching prospects and you have a two-step offer that gets them to buy something from you that, in the end, made the cost of advertising worth the money to reach them. Coincidentally this moves into what’s called “CPM” or, Cost Per Thousand (”M” being the Roman numeral for “Thousand” - hence CPM). The generally accepted standard for breaking down how much money it costs to reach and convert a customer at an expected value of that customer.

This is also where you might have heard about a customers’ “lifetime value” - the amount of money you make from that customer (and repeat business) that can often mean more profit, over time, than the loss you may have suffered in reach them in the first place. An example of this would be in those music CD clubs where you choose 12 albums for a penny with only 3 to buy over the next year. The company knows exactly how many customers bail (creating a loss) every year and how many customers they lose after 3 albums and then how many customers remain for years to come - purchasing “x” amount of additional albums on average. All this is factored into it still being profitable to offer 12 albums for a penny in the first place.

So, that all-important “conversion” is the critical moment you turn someone who might buy from you and you spend money on to get the attention of… and someone who pays you for your product - a customer.

Oh, and I’m out of coffee. Damn.

Seems I’ve been videoing storms a lot lately so this one is no different. We had a lot of lightning tonight - even knocked the power out and physically shook the house. A few strikes even hit nearby and one of the first ones was during this video.

I actually lost my vision temporarily and couldn’t really see the camera for the remainder of the shot - I was looking right in the direction of the bolt.

in the interest of getting this important message out:

From Steve Root of Cafepress (Official Announcement Here)

As you may know, the State of New York recently enacted new legislation that addresses tax registration, collection and remittance, which challenges the CafePress affiliate business model.

Due to mounting uncertainly over these new laws we will no longer be able to support affiliates residing in the State of New York, effective July 1, 2008.

While CafePress has no tax nexus in any states other than California, Nevada and Kentucky we feel it wise to discontinue our affiliate business in New York State at this time.

Regrettably, our hand was forced into making this difficult business decision, and we openly acknowledge the loss of income this means for our New York affiliate partners. Should circumstances around this law change we will eagerly reconsider this decision.

Effective July 1, 2008 CafePress affiliate agreements with all New York residents will be terminated.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Steve Root
Affiliate Manager
CafePress
sroot@cafepress.com
650-655-3055

If you’ve been following this issue, in general, you’ll undoubtedly know that it not only affects Cafepress but other, similar business models.

I don’t normally remind/update about maintenance schedules but this one could be a note-worthy one.

From Cafepress’ General Announcements:

Posted 17 June 2008 08:30 AM
Hi Everyone,

On June 20th, the CafePress Community Forums will be undergoing maintenance by our forum vendor. Maintenance will begin at 9pm PT, and last approximately 24 hours. During this time the Community Forums will be unavailable. This maintenance will not effect other areas of the CafePress website, or your shops.

We apologize for the in inconvenience.

DATE: June 20th, 2008 (Friday)
TIME: 9pm - 9pm (06.21.08) PT.

Now, just an inside note: It’s possible it may not require the entire 24 hour period. So, the announcement is telling you what to expect, as it should, but perhaps we’ll be lucky and it won’t have to take the whole time.

Boys have a peanut and girls have Chinas.
Yes. I’m brewing a second pot of coffee because of this revelation.

Now that I’ve indulged my 90/10 rule for another day I return you to your regularly scheduled Blipfish.

Actually, here’s the real reason I’ve been a little busy lately.

Video courtesy of FollowingChris.tv and Viddler.com

cant type properly to poossssssssst to blog

have goood xcuse

HEP ME!

This is a sentence I heard last night. Actually, it was an all too common plea for help, disguised as a sentence.

I was helping someone develop some of the finer points of her business plan’s marketing and competitor analysis. Her husband and her are taking their great children’s book art and illustrations and bringing them to market via merchandising online. Previous attempts at using a POD (print on demand) service were met with disappointment and frustration. Thankfully, they couple decided they needed to take a proactive approach, as opposed to throwing in the towel. This is a good sign when failure is met with determination to overcome, rather than quit.

It was noticed during a few conversations that, although the couple have a successful book and illustration business (good, old fashioned, brick and mortar business) they may have had unrealistic expectations of what happens when you go online with a business. The most common misconception was that simply being online gains attention when, in reality, I think it is a greater black hole than anything. I truly believe it’s possible to be invisible online for years - and that it’s the norm. A person must work at being noticed… and that’s a little different than simply opening doors in a building on Main Street, USA.

There came a point, to make a long story short, where we had to analyze expectations of what an online business is and what it isn’t. In some cases it’s an extension of an existing business. In other cases, for all intents and purposes, it’s an entirely new, separate, and aspiring business. One’s experiences with an offline store can certainly be used to good steed but it’s unheard of that a new, online business, no matter how much you feel is a logical extension or expansion of your existing business… is a new entity with all the related challenges.

We discussed soliciting and directing current customers and creating awareness of the online presence to people who are already predisposed to have a favorable opinion of the existing business. We discussed the usual ramping-up via search engines, inventory, press releases, events, etc.

However, there was a certain moment of Zen when my friends realized something from a comment I made to their frustration that the online business wasn’t living up to expectation:

“You don’t have a business yet. You have an online store.”

It’s one thing for a person to sign up with an online POD service, create art, upload and apply it to products and technically have a “store” of some kind online. It’s another thing to realize that it’s everything after this point that will be the business.

The business, in my mind, isn’t the www URL. The business will be the weeks or months of decisions, tracking, adjusting, marketing, promoting, and growth that make that online store anything more than a bunch of pixels in a browser window. The business isn’t the site - it’s the operations behind it and honestly… it might take time and effort.

There was brief sideways nod of her head, a pause, and then a thoughtful look replaced the frustrated expression. It was at this point we began having an exciting and dynamic conversation about “the business” and all the possibilities, potential, goals, and planning. It was at that moment the business plan was born.

[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.

…2 days and counting.

With all its warts, I still use Twitter (see post below). However, some of those warts are pretty bad. Twitter’s scalability problems seem to at the heart of most of the blemishes.

At any rate, it was becoming problematic having my Tweets appear here, on the blog, because it was cutting in to my request-performance each hour (Twitter reduced requests from 70 per hour to 30). I was unable to even use Twitter, let alone feed this blog each entry.

The upshot is that Twitter is cutting down how often people can update their usage each hour. The less online locations (like a blog, Facebook, etc.) that bang against Twitter each hour… the better. It’s another sign of Twitter’s problems.

Anyway, just letting anyone interested know why I pulled Tweets off this blog. It’s no big deal - if you genuinely wish to follow me on Twitter just find me @blipfish.