by beauzeau » Wed Sep 23, 2009 4:02 pm
Honestly, I've mentioned sites like cafepress.com and zazzle.com to sonoma before. All they need are the graphics, and they can set up a storefront featuring everything from t-shirts to frisbees to totebags without ever investing a dime in inventory.
Sure, they won't make as much profit off each t-shirt as they would if they were paying a silkscreener to make 200 of them, but they're also not burdened with the expense of buying 200 shirts that they don't know for sure if they'll be able to sell! AND, they'll have the added luxury of changing the design (or adding a new one) if it doesn't sell.
Cafepress is a "print-on-demand' system. In other words, the shirts are made AS they are ordered. You simply create an account, upload your graphics, create a little site to sell your goods off of (this is very easy and intuitive with cafepress), set your prices, and let people know where to buy the stuff (aka, link from the sonoma/riffworld site). Then, you literally sit back, do nothing, and when sales are made, cafepress takes the order, makes the shirt, ships the shirt, and sends you a check for the amount over and above the 'base amount' that they charge for the shirt. And because you can take that same graphic and put it on a coffee mug, or a babys bib, or a thong, ALL WITH NO UP-FRONT COSTS OR NEED TO STOCK INVENTORY, it's a win-win situation.
I posted this as a possibility at least a couple of years ago, and Michelle said she'd look into it. Maybe Sonoma is confused about what cafepress.com is, or how it works? Because they could literally offer ten different t-shirt designs to all of us by THIS AFTERNOON using cafepress. What's more, you could order tonight, and probably have the shirts waiting at your house when you get back from your trip! Cafepress ships out of Louisville and California I think. And orders are typically shipped within 24 hours. So no matter where you are in the country, your order typically only takes a few days to arrive.
So, to recap. Cafepress means:
Free website to sell your items from
No inventory
No up-front costs
No "set up" costs
Fast shipping
Order processing handled by cafepress
All you need is to create an account, upload your graphics, set your price, and collect the profit checks in the mail.....
Don't know what more to say other than, "FAIR USE". It's a legal term that defines when it's ok to use or copy copyrighted material. It would likely be considered "fair use" to create your OWN Rifflink Junkie shirt on cafepress to order for yourself. Of course, if it used the sonoma logo or anything else they've copyrighted, you wouldn't be able to offer the item to anyone else. But to create one for yourself, that you will not sell, yeah, that's typically considered fair use. Myself? I'd prefer that Sonoma create the item on cafepress so that I could buy it (if I like the design of course). I'd rather the money go towards the advancement of the software and/or servers.
Hell, cafepress even offers CD publishing the same way! So sonoma could theoretically put together a cd of junkie tunes, with cover art and everything, and sell THEM from the store too! I'm not sure how the creative commons license works in this area though. So they'd need to ask a lawyer about that. But I doubt that any junkie appearing on any song would have any problems with sonoma selling cds like this (except maybe for that one guy who made all that stink about the potential for someone to steal his rifflinked song ideas a couple of years ago).
Last edited by
beauzeau on Wed Sep 23, 2009 4:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"I think the problem might have been, that there was a stonehenge monument on stage in danger of being crushed, by a dwarf". "I really think you're making a big thing out of this". "Making a big thing out of it would have been a good idea".
