There are more PODs of course than the ones listed in the title. I see this discussion all the time. Which is better, which is not. The most common Print on Demand sites I see discussed are Zazzle, Cafepress and Printfection. Printfection isn’t mentioned as much, but it does enter the discussions at times. This little post is just my 2 cents. Someone else might think something completely different, which is fine, we can’t all agree. If you are interested in my opinion on this, please read on. If not, I thank you still for stopping by the blog.

Now. Zazzle is all free to set up and keep shop. I have seen some shopkeepers (not many) ask for a paid, premium version. I really hope that Zazzle never does that. One of the things that I feel makes Zazzle such a great POD is that besides having excellent quality items and an overall pleasant atmosphere, it is free to set up shop. They don’t have limitations on the sections, nor do they say, well if you want to get the good stuff, you need to pay oh let’s say ten dollars a month to do so.

Is Zazzle all great? No. Artsprojekt is great and I can see why they are as popular as they are. However, Zazzle does plug them more now than they used to, with their navigation bars at the top of the page having changed. You have to be invited by Artsprojekt to be part of that, and so it does make it harder for the regular shopkeeper. That is not good.

What about Cafepress? They have free stores and premium stores. What about their free stores? This whole thing with you can only have one design on one product (not two of the same) is nuts. You can set up (so far) as many free shops as you like but it does get to be quite a task managing them if you have many (I so far only have a couple of them). What I do like about Cafepress is that their image basket is linked together. At Zazzle if you have different stores you can’t pull an image design from one of your own shops to another one of your own shops. You have to upload and make it again. It’s not too big of a deal, but still.

Cafepress, the marketplace and google base feeds. Do they even submit feeds for “regular” stores (as opposed to their bestsellers)? I don’t know… supposedly they do. Ever since Google made it a requirement for Print on Demand sites to submit overall site feeds, I have seen like no traffic at all to my premium (or free stores). This ten percent mark up for the marketplace is a bit messed up. I believe in giving customers a good deal on their products, but the artists should get a decent commission too and if they mark their stuff up to high, they probably won’t sell anyways. Cafepress isn’t about to change their mind on that thing. It is like, hm, Cafepress decided on this, and figured they had better not change their mind, it might make them look less than good. Sigh…

The affiliate system on Cafepress has been messed up for a long time now. You have to sign up through Commission Junction (CJ). If you don’t make any money (it might be a set minimum amount) then they delete you account at CJ and if you write them, don’t expect a reply (they never replied to me anyways). You have to sign up for a new account. Plus, they make you sign up, and send papers in to them as well.

What about Printfection? Printfection has a bit of an awkward set up. I do sort of like how it works once you get the hang of it, and they got some products (can coolers e.g.) that I haven’t seen on the other ones.

If you would like to check out our store on Cafepress, either go to Kanweienea Kreations on Cafepress or our other little shop on Cafepress.

Until next blog post,
Kanweienea Kreations

Well, I still say Zazzle is more shopkeeper friendly than Cafepress. There is no such thing as a premium store, they are all premium stores. However, with the new header addition on Zazzle, they are plugging Artsprojekt (found out from reading the forums that one actually has to be invited there and it is a Zazzle thing. Artsprojekt does have a submit art link at the bottom, but apparently that one does nothing unless you are already invited to join that). This does make it more difficult for all the shopkeepers and I really don’t like the addition of that to the header. I think there should be a fair playing field, which with the new header being added, isn’t there anymore.

Now, to the topic of this post, really, tired today. Zazzle had a promotion strip towards the top of the page and it was causing problems with the quick create process and uploading images. So, after some people mentioned that on the forums, it got moved to the bottom of the page. At least for IE 8, the bottom promotion strip scrolls with the page and if you try to close it, instead to the right, a smaller image shows up with “5 dollars off!” That one doesn’t close, and it also scrolls with the page. I wrote support because it also affected my store (and I’m pretty sure many others as well) but I have heard nothing yet. You know that javascript error pop up that sometimes shows up on certain product pages? Well, it was doing it to all pages, including putting someone else’s store stuff on my store! Arghhhh. I hope they fix it, and soon. The store is functional, and it appears as if you use Firefox or a different browser than Internet Explorer, the problems are less (still there though).

What about Cafepress? Well, I go there to check on my stores and I see a promotion strip at the bottom and something about win a free t-shirt. Great, I’m thinking, not here too!!! So, I try to close it with the X button, and low and behold, it went away! No little image ad popped up instead, it was just gone. Kudos to Cafepress on the scripting there.

Until next blog post,
Kanweienea Kreations