ChewingGlass Tees

If you’re looking for a way to design your own t-shirts, without a lot of hassle or difficulty, then CafePress is a good place to start.

I’ve been using CafePress for about a year and a half now, and think the service is great. Of course, I also get a check from them each month for the t-shirts that I have sold through my CafePress shop.

Not only can you design 1 item to buy, you can put your design in your own CafePress shop which don’t cost a thing to start. By doing this you are offering your design to whoever wants to buy it. People can find your designs by visiting your shop, or by searching in the CafePress marketplace.

A basic shop is free, but is limited in the number of items that it can carry. Another option is to upgrade your shop to a premium shop – which costs $6.95 a month. I have 2 premium shops on CafePress. I haven’t paid the fee (out of my own pocket) since the first month. Since then I have always made enough in shirt sales to cover it.

You have the ability to control the pricing in your shop as well which is really nice. Each item has a base price. For example, if a white shirt base cost is $13.99, you can mark that price up to whatever you want in your shop. So if you sell the shirt for $19.99, you make $6.00 for each sale of that shirt.

My shops aren’t anything real special, but they do bring in a nice chunk of change each month and I don’t have to do anything to the shops – though I occasionally upload new designs.

If you would rather just design a single product, it’s super easy to do that as well. You can produce as many or as few of a product as you would like. For example – we had a special event that some friends and I put together. I designed a shirt and made one for each person. I wasn’t required to buy a certain amount or anything like that. You get what you want.

So, if for the holidays you want to send Grandma a shirt with a picture of her grandkids, you can do that or if you’ve always wanted a shirt with a picture of your dog on it – check out CafePress.