Selling Merchandise On Your Website


If you take away poker, dating, and naked ladies, custom merchandising is the big success story of the Internet. The ultimate combination of e-commerce and affiliate marketing, millions of websites around the world turn to online merchandising companies - both to market their URL and to extract some cash from loyal visitors.

The key to the success of the industry is on-demand printing, meaning website owners don't usually incur setup costs and do not have to carry inventory.

The business model usually works like this. The webmaster signs up for free - or for a small monthly fee - at the merchandising company site. Having uploaded his/her own designs - often logos, catchphrases or drawings, the webmaster can then place these designs on the range of products offered by the merchandiser. Usually, the merchandise company places a base price on each product, to which the webmaster adds his/her own commission or markup. In some cases, the webmaster can then create a shop which can be integrated into their own site.

The merchandising company normally handles credit-card processing, printing, shipping, and customer service while the webmaster incurs the slightly less arduous task of collecting and banking the commissions.

Beginning to see why its so popular? Let's have a look at some of the industry's big players:

Cafepress

The daddy of the bunch. Founded in 1999 in California, Cafepress was one of the first companies to exploit the massive custom merchandise market. It now sells products on behalf of over 2 million website owners, mainly in the USA.

For all its longevity and wide reach, Cafepress has yet to solve many of the original problems that still bother its users. Despite the clamour from customers, the company has yet to find a way to offer black, or even dark, garments - still relying on the old white and grey staples and a rather odd collection of pastels. Nor has the company embraced internationalisation, and website owners outside of the USA still baulk at hefty shipping charges and US Dollar pricing.

The free Cafepress service offers limited functionality to users, with only one version of each product allowed. For a monthly fee, Cafepress allows unlimited selling. However, excessive branding makes it rather difficult to integrate the Cafeshop into the look and feel of an existing site.

Cafepress

Zazzle

Another California-based company that launched a similar service to Cafepress in 2003 and has a substantial share of the US market. Again pricing is only available in US Dollars. And while Zazzle's range of garment colours is stronger than Cafepress, printing on black or dark shirts is still not supported.

Zazzle does not charge a monthly fee but webmasters will find it rather more difficult to integrate their shop into the look and feel of their own site.

Zazzle

Spreadshirt

This one looks interesting. Spreadshirt was founded in Germany in 2002 and boasts over 60,000 partners across Europe, winning the Hewlett Packard Business Innovation Award in 2004. Unlike its American competitors, Spreadshirt caters for both European and US customers, using regional shipping companies and allowing webmasters to price products in Euros, Sterling, or US Dollars. Shops can also be automatically translated into eight languages.

Spreadshirt has also solved the thorny "black shirt" issue, offering over 50 products in a full range of colours. However, it's probably the different printing options that sets the service apart. In particular, Spreadshirt's "flock" printing - creating a raised felt finish - produces a result much more impressive than regular digital print.

Finally, hats off to Spreadshirt for managing to keep its branding on the product but still allow webmasters full control over the look and feel of their shops. Already a dominant force in the European market, Spreadshirt could be set to give Cafepress a run for their money in the US.

Spreadshirt US Spreadshirt UK

EShirt

EShirt is another European company - this time Italian-based - providing an almost-identical product range to Cafepress ie no dark shirts. Euro, US Dollar and Sterling pricing is available. However, the only print option available is digital hot press printing - not the longest lasting technique.

The most inconvenient aspect of EShirt's service is shop integration. You must register as a Tradedoubler affiliate before you can even apply for an EShirt shop. And even then, it is not possible to recreate the look and feel of your own site.

EShirt


More Resources

Affiliate Programs and Picking the Best One!
Okay, so you have been looking at affiliate programs for a while now. Your inbox is filling up with all these advertisements and you just don't know how to pick the right program.
Popup Killers - Not just killing that Popup but also your Revenue!
With the increased use of popups on sites - when you enter,when you leave, while you are there - Popup killers (orstoppers) are all the rage. Companies use Popup killers as a marketing tool forfrustrated webusers - they kill the Popup, the webuser usestheir service be it as an ISP or Toolbar.
Seven Ways to Set Yourself Apart From Other Affiliate Marketers
Okay so you've read (fill in the blank with internet guru's name here)'s book and decided that affiliate marketing is the way for you to earn some extra money online. I mean after all, all you have to do is plug in your name and run their ads and collect your commission check and ride off into the sunset, right? Not quite.
Why Arent You Making a Ton of Cash as an Affiliate?
5 keys to you becoming a successful affiliate:1) HAS THE OWNER OF THE PROGRAM DONE HIS OR HER RESEARCH?Before you become an affiliate for someone, you want to know one major thing. You want to be very sure they've taken the time to test their whole sales process!Have they invested some of their own time and money into fine-tuning and improving their sales letter until it really converts visitors into buyers? Is their ordering process simple for your prospects to navigate?The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of your time and money to generate traffic to a sales letter that can't sell its way out of a paper bag, right?One way to figure this out is to use a little common sense.
Free and Effective Affiliate Marketing Using Articles and Traffic Exchange Sites
Affiliate marketing is an extremely tricky subject and so is website advertising.The reason is simple.
Affiliate Marketing Opportunity
Every Affiliate Marketing Opportunity At Your FingertipsMaking the decision to start up a web-based business is one of the best ways to take your financial future into your own hands. The dream of starting your own business is finally coming true and when you learn to take full advantage of your website by making use of every affiliate marketing opportunity available, your dreams will come within reach.
How to Choose an Affiliate Winner
The idea of using affiliate programs is to produce extra income and in the process attain total financial freedom. More and more people from all over the world are looking for a real winner.
The Affiliate Interview - Do You Have What It Takes?
So you have decided to start up your own home business and after hours of searching you have decided on the program you are going to join.Now stop and take check before you rush in.
How To Create A Lifetime Income With Affiliate Programs By Changing Your Focus!
"How To Create A Lifetime Income With Affiliate Programs By Changing Your Focus!" An often overlooked strategy that could maximize your affiliate earnings by Mark Meyers. Most people join an affiliate program so that they will make some money by referring people to the products and services of the affiliate company. This is, in fact, a great way to earn a really nice income.
Affiliate Program Basics
Affiliate Program is a ground floor opportunity. All you have to do is send visitors to your affiliate web site by placing a textlink or banner on your website and receive a commission on each sale, without the complication and expense of selling anything yourself.
How To Increase Your Affiliate Commissions!
So you've joined an affiliate program, but really haven't figured out where you should start? Here are 12 great tips to get you started on your feet and enjoying the new year.Here are 12 Awesome Ways To increase Your Affiliate Commissions! Participate in web discussion boards and online forums.
11 Awesome Ways To increase Your Affiliate Commissions!
Let me ask you a simple question. "Now that you have your own online business and you joined some affiliate programs, do you have any idea how to earn more commissions then ever?"Here are 11 Awesome Ways To increase Your Affiliate Commissions!1.
Affiliates: 3 Things You Should Own Though You Dont Own A Product.
1. Your Own web site:Most affiliates put a redirect link directly to their affiliate product.
Are You Making These Costly Affiliate Mistakes?
There are many ways to generate sales, but there are also ways to ensure your affiliate marketing will fail. However, many marketers make these mistakes without realizing they are actually running away sales!To help you with your affiliate marketing programs, we have collected some of the most common mistakes made by web based internet affiliate program marketers so that you can avoid making these.
Affiliate Product Reviews - An Ultimate Selling Tactic
If you truly want to generate sales, one great way to do so is to create separate web pages for each of your affiliate products and include reviews of each product. Pictures, of course, speak a thousand words, and a picture of each product is very important to closing the sale.
Affiliate Marketing at a Glance: Helpful Hints
Regarded as one of the choice Internet marketing systems offered to small businesses, affiliate marketing has caught the attention of accomplished entrepreneurs across the globe. With virtually no risk involved in the affiliate marketing game, payment is made only after results are provided.
Affiliate is not a Dirty Word
It wasn't very long ago when the word "affiliate" left a bad taste in many a mouth. The reason was that the larger percent were Multi-Level-Marketing programs that had products or services of little value, but emphasized the way to the big bucks was in generating a downline.
Top 7 Affiliate Marketing Tips for Newbies
When a newbie begins an online business, the temptation can be high to join most any affiliate program they see in the hopes of making extra money. Given the amount of products and services that newbie get presented with, and since newbie have a burning desire to make money fast, it is easy to see how the online newbie can get lured into joining a lot of affiliate programs without knowing if they should join them or not.
5 Ways to Start And Promote Your Affiliate Program
"What's the Buzz About?""I made $5,000 in one week""I quit my job and spend more time with my kids"It sounds too good to be true, but if you're serious about working from home and you don't have a lot of money to start than keep reading?"What IS an Affiliate?"Basically, an Affiliate is an individual that is willing to market and promote another company in exchange for a commission.An affiliate is NOT an employee of the company.
Affiliate Programs: Why They Work and Why They Don't!
Here it is in Black and White:Don't make the same mistakes many new marketers do. Don't give up!I've heard tons of discouraging stories about affiliate programs.

More Affiliate Revenue Information:

Related Articles

Dont Make This Mistake...New Affiliate
Joining more than 2 programs at a time is something you don't want to do. I did this when I started as an Affiliate.
Adsense: How to Make Money With Ads by Google
The chances are that you've seen "Ads by Google" on a variety of websites and perhaps wondered what they were all about. The fact is that you can probably get "Ads by Google" on your own site and if you do, you can look forward to getting paid by Google.
Generate More Sales in ANY Affiliate Program - Part Six
ACTIVE AFFILIATES are those who sign up under you for free, then upgrade to being a paid affiliate. Those who sign up but don't upgrade within the first 72 hours are called inactive affiliates and who are unlikely to ever upgrade.
How To Really Make Money With Datafeed Merchants
I am not going to describe what a product feed (or a datafeed) is. There is a lot of information out there about how to use one to build sites.
How To Profit From 2 Tier Affiliate Programs And Build A Sub-Affiliate Army In The Next 24 Hours
Before I get into depth with this article I first want you to have a good understanding of what a '2 Tier' affiliate program is and there advantages. Then from there I'll go on to explain how you can start recruiting Sub-Affiliate's by simply locating the Super-Affiliate's within your Niche market.
How to Succeed With Any Affiliate Program
In the early days before the internet was born, starting a business was like taking a giant leap into the unknown. Aside from the involved time and money, it also causes lots of worry.
Affiliate Marketing - Make Big Bucks Through Your Internet Home Business
Affiliate marketing has become a booming industry thanks to the increasing popularity of the internet. Marketing is defined as the getting and keeping of customers.
Launching Your Affiliate Program Correctly
To any Internet Marketer these days an affiliate program is absolutely essential marketing method of achieving a decent e-growth. Allowing others to promote your products or services can be the most efficient way of selling your products as you only pay for successful results, whether these are leads, sales Or traffic.
5 Ways to Promote Affiliate Programs
After having chosen several programs to join, you probably realize that customers won't knock on your door - you have to come to them. By promoting your affiliate programs successfully, you build your own success!So what should you do to promote your affiliate programs? Here are five methods which have succeeded for millions and can succeed for you, if you choose to follow the same steps as those millions before you!#1 Create your own marketing affiliate program materials.
Capitalizing On The Autosurfing Craze
You've heard about it in recent months, and its popularity seem to grow in leaps and bounds with each passing day.Paid to surf programs have been on the rise and with the monetary promises that have become the stalwart of their systems, more and more people are joining the bandwagon.
All About Affiliate Networks
Over the course of my Internet marketing career, a significant portion of my revenue has come from affiliate networks. With most networks, you can sign-up for free, earn money from several different affiliate programs at once, and get a single consolidated paycheck from one company.
Why Join 2 Tier Affiliate Programs?
Like the more common single tier affiliate programs, 2 tier affiliate programs are a great basis for web-based partnerships between merchants and affiliates. Merchants can focus their efforts on what they should do best-creating high quality products and getting them to customers.
Understanding Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are commonly misunderstood, in order to understand affiliate programs lets start with terminology. For clarification purposes, an affiliate is defined as any "referrer" or website that promotes a product in an effort to earn revenue.
Revealed The Myth of Making Money Through Affiliate Marketing
Many people enter into the affiliate marketing arena with the hopes of making some quick money whilst doing the bare minimum amount work and preparation.They expect to be making the type of money super affiliates make within five minutes of joining an affiliate program without doing anything other than send out a few ezine ads.
How to Make Money with Affiliate Business Programs
There are thousands of affiliate business programs on the internet today that offer wonderfully lucrative opportunities. The majority of business opportunities require zero overhead and once set up, will generate income with little or no maintenance on your part.
Best Affiliate Products, Where to Find them and Choose the Best ones
The BIG QUESTION on everyone's mind is..
Affiliate Marketing Terminology
Affiliate Marketing is a large business piece on the Internet. The (online) retail customer often does not know that he/she made the recent online purchase through an affiliate link.
Want to Increase Your Affiliate Commissions?
Do you participate in chat rooms and message boards related to the product you're reselling? You should be! This is one way to Increase your affiliate income and make more money. When you participate in chat rooms and message boards, start a conversation with a person without trying to sell to them.
Are Affiliates Getting Fired?
An alarming trend seems to be catching on with popular merchants lately. The trend is the tendency for some of these companies to begin discriminating against new or inexperienced affiliates and actually FIRE them!Removing an unproductive affiliate is understandable; however, having a ridiculous screening process that only allows websites with thousands of visitors to squeeze through almost seems ridiculous.
Free and Effective Affiliate Marketing Using Articles and Traffic Exchange Sites
Affiliate marketing is an extremely tricky subject and so is website advertising.The reason is simple.